val-hal gallery

So after being asked by fellow Interactive Arts student, DW, I decided to get involved with an exhibition that was being put up within an old jewellery shop in Blackburn town centre. The shop used to be called Val-Hallah and was the place where I got both my piercings in my ears and in my nose many moons ago and thought it would be a nice but personal gesture to myself. I had also participation within the same location a few weeks back with the Bzzz gallery. The local councils of East Lancashire has got involved with a company called LET which rents out old and disused retail premises and hands them over for local creative and socially based companies..which isn't a bad idea, a sort of pop-up exhibition/gallery space. I am planning my own show be-it a solo airing or a small collective that I'll be hand-picking..a cross-discipline show based on the throwaway. That is really my focus at the moment and is something that I will talk at length at some other time.

And back to Val-Hal. This particular show is being run by a pal at Uni and somebody else who I had previously studied with on a Foundation course prior to Uni. They had already put on a show two years ago at Blackburn Pavillions and due to personal reasons, I decided not to put anything on for that. It was a good show and I went to the opening night and bought a CD by a local acoustica=electronica band, ther space was used to it's creative intentions.. And this spurned on my reasons why I wanted to get involved this time.

I had two of my Lucien Fellowes:Road-Markings photographs printed up to A3 and then got them bespoked framed at TILT in Blackburn. (I prefer to use Tilt as I have used them before and been shopping with them for most of my life. Something of a loyalty aspect I suppose, and just because I like the people who run it.) I had aluminium frames down and they look good with the juxtoposition of the subject matter. They look outstanding, if I may say so myself..it took me some time to eventually settle down to two that I wanted to show.

At the show, I found that somebody had knocked them out of place and had to re-align them. Being of an abstract/mininal and angular nature, they do have to be hung in a specific way..almost neurotically/OCD way. After doing the business, I got talking talking to a woman and basically described the concept of the photography and of the background of my all-encompassing project; Lucien. We had a good chat about the throwaway culture, the philosophy of [shit] and of the human aspect of rubbish as a organic subject.. It wasn't as weird as it reads but was a grounded conversation..I later found out she was the mother of one of the gallery owners.

In all, I have had a great response to the diptych, some really useful feedback. My old painting tutor mentioned Sean Scully as an influence and we had a chat about reductionism in art and of the critic that I am reading, Clement Greenberg. I have found out that they still use some of my assemblage within the classroom and studios as examples of work and quite pleased that some of my work is still relevent. It is an example of my work ethic.. [to do your work like it is the last thing you'll do].