Tuesday 11 March 2014

teachingwithabangandlaughter

A most excellent two days teaching - Monday was all about presentation with year 1 textile students at NUA – some bold storytelling without notes but supported by dynamic PowerPoint’s.  Today was catalogue conversations with MA Book Art students at Camberwell. It is always a moment of reflection for me when all the previous year’s catalogues are presented and their stories told – the good the bad and the ugly! The group were very focused and had similar ideas around the role, purpose and audience for the proposed catalogue. The afternoon we looked at finish and the concept of finishedness (i love creating new words!) obviously with specific reference to the book. The session was alive with ideas and passion - fuelled and facilitated by translation – finding common ground across cultures and languages – a truly wonderful learning experience for all. Links to presentations - http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/finishedness-2014
I managed to get to Tate Britian to see the Richard Deacon – although I’m a fan there was a little too much bent wood.....even for me - the drawings in the first room talk of ideas, trial and error, process and thinking and are possibly the best things in the show http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/richard-deacon Ruin Lust was full-on-broad-brush- eclectic-inclusion-mass-of-stuff...glorious – like a lesson but one where you could navigate your own way through – although there was some weak pieces , mainly the more contemporary work – do we really need to see Tacita Deans film so soon after it cluttered the turbine hall?  and what does Rachel Whitreads photos of the demolition of tower blocks tell us that Blaster Bates didn’t cover in the late 70s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaster_Bates – now that would be a show!! The highlights have to be Joseph Gandy’s view of John Soane’s newly completed Bank of England presented as a future ruin. How must this of being received at the time of its painting? and what does it have to tell us about today? John Lathams  redesignation the appropriation of slag heaps as art and Sutherlands painterly documentation of burnt Paper in a Warehouse http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/ruin-lust