James is in his third year of a Fine Art and Professional Practice BA (Hons) degree at Blackpool Art College. The works on display are experimental pieces produced during the first and second year of the degree.
James states that;:-
"Mark making and gesture is my main area of interest and I have been investigating how gesture, mark making and surface communicate or define identity and how individual decisions form and influence wider social and political contexts or visa versa. My mark making is an attempt to trace the fluidity and transient nature of consciousness and an attempt to avoid the tendency of language and image articulation to form certain mindsets and fracture perception into a series of moments."
The work is on display at Village Walks ArtSpOt, Poulton le Fylde, from 24th September to 30th October, Monday to Saturday, entry free. The entrance to the exhibition space is from the Teanlowe Centre carpark, between the Post Office and Ethel Austins or from Queensway.
AMALGAM - An exhibition of contemporary art at Village Walks, Poulton le Fylde. A selection of work by the 2nd Year Fine Art degree students from Blackpool Art School, Palatine Road.
19th July to 28th August, Monday to Saturday 9.00 till 5.00 Free entry. Entrance next to Post Office.
The July ArtspOts exhibition will be Urban Decay, work from my 2nd Year Show. There is an exhibition at Blackpool Art College, Palatine Road FY1 4DW from 21st to 26th June from 9.00 to 8.00 Tuesday to Saturday
You can see the work on my Flicker site at the moment.
A new exhibition of photography by Alistair Parker, titled "Four Dark Corners" has opened at The Village Walks Art SpOt, Poulton le Fylde. The entrance to the exhibition space is from the Teanlowe Centre carpark, between the Post Office and Ethel Austins or from Queensway. The exhibition is open Monday to Saturday 9.00 to 5.00 until 29th May 2010.
"Four Dark Corners" is an eclectic collection of fine art images with a distinctly vintage feel. Alistair's grainy, soft focus treatment gives an "old camera" look to the photographs. Each image is contained in the same battered old frame that Alistair picked up in a charity shop, adding to the vintage look.
Alistair says the images remind him of the photographs taken by his mother on her trusty battered Ensign twin lens reflex camera. This is a nostalgic look at some familiar and not so familiar local view points.
A new exhibition "Work in Progress" has opened at The Village Walks Art SpOt, Poulton le Fylde, entrance is from the Teanlow Centre carpark between the Post Office and Ethel Austins.
The work on show is taken from my third semester assignment. This is an exploratory/experimental assignment designed to encourage the establishment of a"fine art identity". My work was based on a theme started in my foundation degree, fundamentally associated with perception. I am exploring how far the information in an image can be reduced in the face of increased noise. I took as my motif the portrait of an elderly gent who I call Jack. I photographed him, with his permission, some time ago in the Cafe at Blackpool Zoo. He was recovering from a bad turn on the "Chara" from Burnley, I think it was. However, he has a very characterful face.
Large Tiled Poster (1500 x 2100 mm)
This started as an A3 size piece of work. A photocopy of the image was varnished and subject to a "Crackelure" finish in black acrylic ink. This image was sliced and enlarged using a piece of freeware, PosteRazor printed as 25 x A3 slices mounted on 4mm MDF.
The idea was to subject the portrait to a range of experimental processes to create a dilapidated, weathered presentation in which the face would, to varying degrees merge with the background until unrecognisable. We had to approach the task initially using painting, drawing and a combination of both. Working in 3D and life size and finishing with a representative body of work incorporating all, some or none of the foregoing. Oh yes and we had to create an animation based on an aspect of this work.
On show at the Art SpOt exhibition are the 3 pieces from my body of work, shown here. The life size work, which was recently on show at the Grundy Art Gallery. A pencil drawn work in the style of Frank Auerbach A spray paint stencil over pieces of torn poster, harvested in Manchester. And a very experimental piece, a stencilled image carved out of painted plaster in the style of the young street artist VHILS (Alexander Farto) who I admire enormously.
Stencil on Plaster (600 x 840 mm)
The stencil was created from a posterized image, traced onto a ground of plaster painted black. The plaster and paint were scratched back to create the effect, finished by spraying with dilute acrylic paint. The old frame was found in a charity shop and once contained a mirror.
This a stop frame animation made of the process of creating the stencil on painted plaster.
Torn Poster Stencil (approx 700 x 900 mm)
Using a similar stencil to the previous work, the image was created with acrylic spray paint over a background of torn posters, harvested from a billboard in Manchester.
An abbreviated version of my recent Solaris Centre exhibition is now on display at The Village Walks Art SpOt, Poulton le Fylde. Entrance between the Post Office and Ethel Austins.
Inspiration for my work is derived from many sources. I am attracted by the images created by the passage of time and the layers of history that form as a result. Recording vestiges of memories fading into uncertainty.
Blackpool is a town trapped between its history and its future. I have been recording the changing face of Blackpool for many years. I find beauty and inspiration in the fading infrastructure and once glitzy façade. My current work endeavours to capture the feeling of deterioration, dilapidation and decay that lies just behind the flashy frontage. Images so familiar that often we fail to notice them any more.
This work could be seen as a metaphor for the way we view the older members of our community. Something decrepit and insignificant to be ignored, rather than a valuable resource to be respected and cherished.
A reminder of how easy it is to pass-by aspects of our everyday surroundings without even seeing them. This work is intended to provoke thought and ask questions. The work employs an intriguing mix of photography, digital interpretation and experimental fine art process which results in a unique work of art.
The exhibition has been curated by Sue Godsiff. Sue is a second year student on the Fine Art and Professional Practice BA (Hons) degree course at Blackpool Art School.
"I have been photographing the numerous wrecks and rotting hulks that littered the banks of the River Wyre Estuary for over 4 years, remnants of a once thriving fishing industry. During this time, many of these historic remnants have been vandalised or plundered for their scrap content and some have disappeared forever. By recording these remains of the past I hope to at least preserve a memory of them.
If you have any knowledge of the history of any of these remains please post a comment."
