Blackpool Pleasure Beach

A selection of photographs from a visit to Blackpool Pleasure Beach on 30th May 2014. These may contribute to a new painting.

Opening Night

Whith thanks to Sophie Skellern for the photographs

cells:edited prose | vintage/aged paper

This was done on aged/vintage paper with black tea, I also typed it up with my newish Olivetti Lettera 25 typewriter which I got bought for in a junk shop. It is a lovely machine.

I have worked on the concept for the edited prose since around Winter 2011 and is an ongoing and extremely hard piece of work. I was given the book The Cell by Stephen King for Christmas 2011 from my sister. It was well read, had no dust jacket and wrapped up in a blue plastic bag. I was a gift from a loved one who doesn't have too much money. I gave up reading pulp horror quite some time ago but don't punch a gift horse in the mouth or something. I love my sister so I wanted to make good use of the book.

With the book, I have svanned the pages and delete/edit the book in time with music, rhythm patterns of the bus/train and lately, whilst on codeine and wine. The coherency is a little jagged at some times but it is all part of the process.

From my initial deletions in the book I type up whatever is left into a word file. What is left is a piece of work without grammer. I then scan/read the chapter-sized chunks and type up on the Olivetti the work into a script-like prose.

I have read some of Finnegan's Wake by Joyce but this work is similar in style and that is it. Burroughs is an influence and since having my exhibition, I have been recommended to read Tom Philips's The Humument. Philips took an old medical book and screenprinted on every page leaving phrases and words, in a more design/art style than I'm doing now. What is interesting is that the lady who recommended the book actually took part in a performance at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery in around 1983 as part of an opera styled performance. Tom Philips was in the audience.

My original intention is to record two readers of my prose and as I have left the work with no grammer/punctuation, I'd like to create a loop effect where they fall out of sync because of personal style of grammer etc. Bruce Nauman did a work called Good Boy/Good Girl which he recorded a black man and a white woman (actors) read from a script with supplanting girl and boy on each script. It was interesting to see the response that the dialogue had on each actor. I saw the piece at the Hamburger Bahnhopf in Berlin at a retrospective an few years ago and enjoyed it. Nauman is a huge influence on my interplay work.

So, I wanted to record two talking heads. one old person and a younger person and play each actor on seperate screens. I know now what the dialogue is and what the general scan reads and will be interested in the outcome of the other two. I would like to produce a handmade book based on the script and that will be my hard copy artwork.


View of my desk - thanks to Sophie Skellern for the photograph

the local paper:the write up

Lancashire Telegraph 17May2014

Before I hung my work I emailed the local paper to create a little buzz and get some publicity for the show. I have had to fund, PR and promote the show. This is first solo exhibition and I am quite chuffed with it. The initial email indicated that I failed my GCSE Art at school and now have a degree. Between 1990 and 2012 I have managed to pass exams on Chemistry, Communications, Biology and other subjects, worked for six years within a textile mill where I had clients like Puma, Adidas, Marks and Spencer etc where I designed fabric and colours and worked within a PR and Marketing company illustrating for clients. but this was all surplus for requirement. They wanted to focus on not giving up and achievement. The right up is superb, it was a product of a telephone conversation and my personality shines through it.

The thing with the school angle is that I wasn't really allowed to do Art subjects as I 'wasn't talented enough' and was single out to do the Textiles subject. I learnt to work with batik, gutta, learnt to knot and to sew. I then studied Fashion Design at college level (which got me a job within the mill). I had slight ADHD because of a head injury as a young child so I was quite annoying and feel that I was sidelined quite a bit. But, hey-hum it all helped to develop character.

On:paper photographs @ ArtSPACE event 15May2014

Photographs by Derren Lee Poole

With having no exclusivity on the gallery floor for the tenure of my exhibition, I share the floor with various council meetings and community arts events. This particular event was an initiative to get artists together to talk about work, have an open mic, poetry readings and generally bump into like minded people.

As I am in the building for two weeks and have my art displayed there and also have my typewriter all set up for my edited prose work, I decided to go down and hang around. With loafing about for a bit I got bored and went to do some work and started typing up my prose. As I was typing, a photographer began to catch me at the point of me working. I quite like these snaps and glad that I did go back to the gallery at a later time in the evening.

ON:paper

It's been a week since the preview night for my first official solo exhibition in my home town of Blackburn. I have had similar shows in Manchester where I have shown my A0 digital photographs and the installation that I made based on my family on the time of my brothers death in the seventies. That show still runs through my psyche and will always be close to my heart.

The show that opened last week was based on my tenure at UCBC/Blackburn College where I was the AA2A artist in residence for the BA Fine Arts year two students. I have enjoyed my 8 months stay within the group and have held many interesting conversations based on my artwork, their art and the ongoing project, 12 Statements.

When I started the residency I was given a 4 foot by 2 foot space and was told to start a new project and seeing that I had a pencil and paper, the randomly folded paper excercise began, this followed onto the studies of 8-bit matrix paper and then finally the 12 Statements workshops/project.

The final exhibition was quite difficult to pin down at first with at least three different locations until the final placement of venue was agreed upon. It transpired that this was the ideal place to have the show though. The sunlight is amazing and with the newly white painted walls, the gallery has a minimalist aesthetic. With help from an old student friend, I began to put my work up as soon as I entered the building.

The work begins with the randomly folded paper and ends with my ongoing edited prose project. This edited prose project is an installation based performance where I am typing up my work as a first draft. The public can see me work through the window and I am often stopped in mid type as I am offered questions and now in possession of two word processors. I don't know what I'll do with them but they'll come in handt.

I have a steady stream of visitors though. A wide selection of public from OAPs, students and interested passers-by. I enjoy their own perceptions on my work and often open to their criticisms and often witicisms. This is just my first week and will have to make some more observations as and when I have the time and inclination.