Sunday 27 June 2010

Degradation of the new [impossible project] Polaroid

After many months of general enthusiasm and collateral damage of epic proportions, the PX600FF and the PX100FF range of new Polaroids (in the silver series) fail to live up to their expectations. Well, if it isn't the LPP incidents, the crystal damages and now some of my better outputs have faded into obscurity. Apparently the photographs NEED to be stored in airtight containers with silica sachets. The kind of sachets that come with clothing and shoes and other goods that are prone to a little drying out. I have new knowledge via email that they are now sending out the new stock with these silica sachets.

I do know that this isn't an exact science and the people have only been trading for the last year or so but...they are so darned expensive. I want to use the old official Polaroids but they are only available through eBay and the prices they charge are shocking, upto 34.99 for a box of ten from £27.99. This price hike happened in under 24 hours and there is only one company selling them. I received two boxes which I was charged £72.99 (and I'm only an under-grad) and these were dated 09/05...yes that's a whole five years out of date. They turned out really faded and quite unsuitable for what I had planned to do with them...hhmmmpppppf.

I quite like using the TZ Artistic films and they are quite cheap if buying straight from the Vienna factory. They are very manipulable, have a lovely greenish twinge about them and just generally pleasing and dependable. I have quite a few boxes which are being shelved for future reference.

Saturday 26 June 2010

pigeon ideas




After a visit to old deserted collection of church buildings in Blackburn...I foung a colony of pigeons and this one just kept on staring at me so I caught it with my own mechanical eye...

new starting point




This collection is a study of woodpiles that I have happened upon. I have made larger versions with found items such as lottery tickets and rubbish strewn across the roadsides.

Monday 21 June 2010

confusion about exhibitions

There is an exhibition dedicated to first year Interactive Artsters at Manchester School of Art that is pencilled in for very early (10th?) October 2010. This will be at the start of the educational year and there will be new first years and we (this year's first years) will be second years. So yeah...likesay a tad bit confusing and that's what they say about details...

After a chat with fellow Artster...[Monty], a committee is brewing up slighty horticulturally as we speak with that is incredibly like a triumvirate, pyramidical-esque:

Me
Monty-Jo
Bex-Adi-Lozz

WE need a venue, entertainment (PRS-PPS license...if music is involved), PR and enough interested bodies to submit work. Monty and Jo has a place in mind that is roughly like a white/glass cube and I think they are both more than enough is capable with what they are to do. The three girls are on with it what they have to do with the organising/admin aspect of the event. I have been assigned a role but still have to find my feet. What we need is a super serious meeting a'la Glastnost and get the ball rolling. This Is the HOLIDAYS and people are already starting to go home to their loved ones.

I think Monts live in Manchester so the passage of communication sholud be easy, we have to arrange talks with this years second years such as Adj and Lois but, this is really our event so we ask for contacts and guidance...

Work wise, I have started a small series of postcard sized collage based on photographs of piles of discared wood and glass panes. I have used different paper weights, mixed media, paint and material. They look pretty well for a project started on Saturday night when I had a poorly night. The hypo (a product of my Diabetes) came on during the day and boomf...nighty-night. But...these are things brought on to test us I suppose.

Lest I forget...SOLSTICE DAY...MIDSUMMER...KEEP THE FIRES BURNING.

Friday 18 June 2010

Laziness and new photos

I went to the No5 Balmoral Road gig last Friday and quite impressed with the general idea of giving a room to an artist in an empty house and having a whistle stop gallery/exhibition. The selectiveness/limited edition/for one night only is inspiring. Blink and you will miss it ethos.

I'm quite far away from the venue and it took two bus rides and a train journey to get there and I was pleased with the outcome of my efforts. The journey there was uneventful but phew...the way back was kind of a bonus for me and my new pet project. I recorded an Indian woman [doctor?] giving a speech on the 142 about the conspiracies of the medical-legal world (this is safed to my hardrive) and at the the train station, time being 11.10pm and the last train to dear old Blackburn, some vandals have smashed windows on the train and I've recorded a multitude of conversations. It's a little like Andy Warhol when he recorded whole conservations and had automons type them up for his book - A, a novel.

The vibe of the exhibition was in the party vein and quite social and a few of the second year students were in attendance. Once again, I couldn't find any of my year and Marcin volunteered to help out on the night.

I don't know any names but Adriano's or and Emily, a strikingly good looking girl. One room had fish as a theme with one motionless goldfish in the corner and another had a canopy of linen coloured knitted wool and looked very wonblike. Next door was a version of the ink-blot pyschology tester but these were very ethereal and dream-like. Adj's had a room with bluetacked nailed walls and floor. I couldn't enter the room because of the delicateness of the medium...it resembled the leather jackets of early eighties greasy Knebs. A pounced-wallflower-wallpaperesque of delicate means enveloped the walls and in the final room was my favourite bit, censored books that make poetry out of blanked out passages. Very well thought out and is very transposable.

The only criticism is that I thought the house and rooms would be of a more derelict nature and the house was very clean as not in the tidy sense but in Magnolia decor but yeah, this IS a house that is on the market for student living. When I put on my show, I'd like to xerox this idea of room per artist but...use a messier house.

Thursday 10 June 2010

no5 balmoral road


a map............

Last presentation and need for sleep

The last official day was today [methinks] and a good few of us gathered in the Sand Bar to show and tell the remains of the Nick [the nick] Nick' project, Scale. They were quite a selection on offer and some shone out. Monty's scaled down bus=stop was good so was Kay's pen drawn cityscape, a few just passed me by, though.

I had a really busy night last night with band practise and recording seven of our songs that ended at four in the morning. I was in Laneshawbridge so had to get up bright and early to be in Manchester for 11am. Just had about four hours kip and ended up falling asleep on the bus to Manchester and simply became a Zombie for the day. Got invited to a party but had to decline in case I fell asleep on a clothing-line.

There's an exhibition going on tomorrow night at the No5 Balmoral Drive, Manchester venue and I really want to go. I don't know where it is so an internet search is needed. It sounds like a good gig and I think a few of the first years are going.

Tuesday 8 June 2010

polaroids of up and coming paintings







These are the preliminary photographs of my new painting project based on the connectivity of inanimated objects. The paintings are quick sketches of ideas for compositions.