Piece selected for Black Swan Arts Open 2015

The collaborative piece I made with Sae Murai is currently part of the Black Swan Arts Open, until Nov 21. Frome, Somerset.

The Open was judged by Alice Workman (Hauser and Wirth), Anita Taylor (Jerwood Drawing Prize), Jennifer Scott (Director of Holburne Museum), Simon Barber (Evolver magazine) and Luke Piper (painter).

An Amazing Space: Creative Pathways project

At the beginning of summer I won a SAW Creative Pathways bursary. This enabled me to work with Bronwen Bradshaw and Pauline Watson of Dove Arts, Somerset. My role was to reconfigure their archives for public display, and to assist with picture editing a book that celebrates 45 years of the Dove. During my time at the Dove I got the opportunity to try out indigo dying, which was great fun. I generated a series of new works, and produced some work for the book.

 My main focus for the bursary was to find a way to tell the story of the Dove and present photographs and articles from their archive. I chose to develop my graphic style and created a large-scale display that tells the whole story. I included the first ever Crafts magazine, which supported and featured the early Dove, and made a book that visually shows the development of the Dove through the years.

This piece will be on display as part of Somerset Art Weeks until 18th October, at Dove Studios in Butleigh. 

 More info about the Dove:

The Dove began in 1970 when two art lecturers left their posts at Hornsey College of Art in London and set up a new home and studio in rural Somerset. The idea was born out of frustrations that Tony Horrocks and Pauline Watson faced during the student demonstrations at Hornsey in 1968. They wanted to provide arts education with the minimum of constraints, available to all. Dove Centre of Creativity was launched in October 1972 in a newly renovated farmhouse. The Centre comprised of 5 fully-equipped studios, a gallery and living space for 10-12 resident artists, and provided a comprehensive programme of arts and crafts classes to all. Outside pressures were taking its toll as the National recession hit, and the Centre struggled to make ends meet. When investors pulled their money out, there was no choice but to sell the buildings and land. Four resident Dove members bought the workshops and two of the three dwellings, allowing arts education and production to continue here. But the structure of the Centre changed to a looser and more experimental character. The Dove became known as Dove Workshops. A new community grew from the ashes of the old and the Dove buzzed with creativity, art, music, performance, cooking, and living off the land. In 1987 another change in structure saw the focus shift from land-based communal living to a quieter, studio-based art practice. Etching, printing and bookmaking classes continue to be popular and successful, retaining the Dove’s core principals of creativity, art and education in the community. The Dove is now known as Dove Studios, and continues to attract a wealth of artists and makers. This amazing place has inspired countless people; its adaptability and ability to evolve generates a special creative spirit that takes hold in all who visit. The Dove has been teaching, inspiring, growing, changing and creating for 45 years, and has the capacity to go on for many, many more. 

Look at the Dove blog for more information about the exhibition and celebrations: dovearts.wordpress.com/

I've been developing further work from the digital collages that I started at the Dove

Dove Arts: An Amazing Space

I'm delighted to have won SAW Creative Pathways Bursary for An Amazing Space: A Celebration of the Dove

I've visited Dove Arts near Glastonbury a few times and very exciting to be part of this project. We're working on a book and exhibition that celebrates the space and its history. Over the weekend the ABCD book group were making their outdoor book.

Flatland

My Flatland photo series is currently showing at the O3 Gallery in Oxford, as part of the Trigonometry exhibition. The show runs until 28th June, so do pop in and have a look if you're in Oxford.

My Flatland series is influenced by Edwin Abbott Abbott’s 1884 satirical novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. The book is narrated by “A Square” and uses the fictional 2-D world of Flatland to explore Victorian hierarchy, and spatial dimensions.  Other worlds within this fictional universe include Pointland and Spaceland – 1D and 3D worlds, as well as dimensions beyond this. The inhabitants of Flatland don’t believe in other dimensions and anyone who asserts the existence of other dimensions are punished. I’m interested in perception. The inhabitants of Flatland only believe in the space that they perceive, and refuse to believe in a space beyond their experience; this is what I wanted to explore in this photo-series.

Walking is central to my practice. When I walk I imagine worlds beyond our own – I’m particularly interested in the notion of parallel dimensions, worlds that overlap with our own and sometimes bleed into our own. Thresholds and portals fascinate me. I digitally manipulate photographs taken on walks, pushing elements of the image beyond what the eye perceives. Nothing is added or taken away, the altered colours are generated from the values within the digital image. 

Exhibition

Some of my Flatland series will form part of O3 Gallery's next exhibition: Trigonometry. June 6th-28th. Preview 5th June 6-8pm.
http://www.o3gallery.co.uk/exhibitions/o3_trigonometry.html

Flatland - Jennifer Newbury

flyer designed by me via Mount: http://www.mount-art.co.uk/graphic-design/

Porthleven exhibitions/ outcomes

O3 Gallery exhibition

My work (6 framed short stories with manipulated photographs)

Short story booklet by me

Collaborative project (psychogeographic walk project) Emily, Sae and I

Close up of Long Peter - collaboration between Emily and me

Bath Spa exhibition private view

Close up of Legend collaborative psychogeographic project - french knitting by Sae Murai, Legend (text) by me. A visual and textual representation of a walk near Porthleven.

Legend 23 points along a walk textually documented

My work

Long Peter was sold, the buyers wanted a legible transcript of the writing etched on the buoy (transcript from interview with local resident) I designed this for the buyers. 

Porthleven Day 9 and 10

Day 9 | Kestle Barton 

red maple | lichen

Kestle Barton Garden

Kestle Barton Gallery

Day 10 | Bye Kernow!

Porthleven Day 7 and 8

Day 7 | St Ives

Sae befriends a local

in arcadia/ utopia |   liminal pursuits

leach pottery museum | used car saleroom

window view, the leach pottery museum 

Morris Men | Cornish ice cream parlour | colour co-ordination

Day 8 | Producing work

Long Peter