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.