Sarah Walker-Holt reflects - her show with Occupation:Artist in Wellington

 I was recently invited to present some work with Wellington’s Occupation: Artist where they presented a combination of my You’d and Prolong Button-Hole Brooches in their window space, along with some of my images, created with the help of Left-Field, that demonstrate wearers responses.

 Previously, I have been drawn to the creative atmosphere of Wellington, especially the fantastic community of jewelers that practice there, so I was thrilled by the invitation and although disappointed that I couldn't be there myself I was thankful for jeweler Nadine Smiths gracious install of my work. The Occupation: Artists have had a working studio and exhibition space through the Urban Dream Brokerage since about April and have been located in the Grand Arcade, Willis Street. While there, they have used its large window to their advantage, intriguing the regular passers-by, Nadine stating that they have had quite a different audience from usual gallery spaces due to its location. This is exciting as one of the challenging objects of presenting contemporary jewellery is exposing it to those that aren’t aware of it. Nadine was thrilled to tell me my work was well received and that a number of the people who have seen their shows were sad they were leaving because it enlivened the arcade.

 Letting Space’s Urban Dream Brokerage, who has made this all possible, is an agency that temporarily unites innovative art projects with vacant property spaces and is curated by Mark Amery and Sophie Jerram. UDB’s project 6 is Occupation: Artist and time is up for them in the Grand Arcade but they are currently excited about relocating. Nadine recently told me, “We have found another space but not with window frontage so we may have to work a little harder to lure people in. It has natural light and will be a great work space”. I am interested to see how the next space changes their emphasis and definitely looking forward to seeing what they do.

Occupation: Artists

Sarah Read, Vivien Atkinson, Nadine Smith and Kelly McDonald

Images courtesy of Nadine Smith 

lucys work with the transit collective ...........

Be sure to catch some of Lucy Pierpoint's work in Newmarket this coming weekend with the
Transit Collective.

It's only on for 3 days
Friday 15 Nov - Sunday 17 Nov
10am - 4pm

Opening is tonight for those who can make it from 6-8pm

at Guerrilla Galleries

Transit Collective transforms two unrented retail spaces in station square by creating guerrilla galleries for the Newmarket Festival. These temporary galleries are a way for artists to connect with communities and inject culture into underused urban spaces, while providing a platform to show their work.

Lucy Pierpoint, TV Screen Rings

Toni's off to Spain.............

Exiting news for Toni Mosley as she is about to fly away to Barcelona next April where she has been granted a support stipend by Can Serrat for a 30 day Art Residency in April 2014.

Can Serrat is an Art Residency facility set in Montserrat Natural Park and was founded in 1988 to accommodate a exciting communal environment where artists can live and work.

Print Studio at Can Serrat

We will look forward to seeing what Toni produces from this adventure and wish her all the best.

For some interesting past resident artists at Can Serrat check out there blog; http://www.canserratart.com/

elle anderson page

Please check out Elle's info page on our blog that she has done for us  - It is the first page to be completed and gives a concise overview of her practice..................just click on her name in the above panel..............

Erika's Move

 Since Left-Field start earlier this year Erika Wolters has made the most of the cabin, working in there from Tuesdays to Thursdays. Her provocative mixed media portraits openly accentuate today’s fascination with one’s physical appearance and the lengths women are encouraged to go to in the desire for so called beauty. Luckily, I caught up with Wolters before she moves out of Left-Fields cabin and into her new studio at home…………

 Wolters is a soft spoken woman, engagingly modest, who herself is naturally attractive, and looks after her health. She drinks herb tea and doesn’t buy any food that has more than 3 ingredients, so there are no demons knocking on her door about self-worth, Wolters just cares; she is attentive and works in a delicate, administrative, methodical manner.

Erika Wolters at her desk

 Currently she is excited about getting her website up and running and seeing her work online as well as just finishing a large Great Gatsby backdrop mural for a local ball that challenged her in terms of scale and space.

 Wolters portraits are an imperative discussion about beauty and in art beauty is a big subject that makes me think of Robert Mapplethorpe’s work and his quote,

“I am obsessed with beauty. I want everything to be perfect, and of course it isn’t. And that’s a tough place to be because you’re never satisfied.”[1]

 His photography was sophisticated and confrontationally ground breaking, showing images of people that an audience wasn’t used to seeing, his work is pivotal to the perception of beauty and what we think it is. Wolters though, is seeing through eyes that have possibly come full circle, she is looking to capture the ugliness and ridiculousness that the desire for beauty has now come to and in doing this her distorted images become caricature’s that prompt me to associate characters like Leela, of Futurama, set in portraitures of black humour. Wolters makes a mockery of the portrayed sophistication used in the advertising world that she sources her images from and manages to make appealing images out of something that theoretically she is suggesting is unappealing and sad. 

 One of Wolter’s latest paintings utilises the surface of a clock where she sees the fun in juxtaposing her imagery with the idea of time. I for one, generally, admire her provocation and would quite happily place one of her portraits next to my mirror, if only to bring me back to reality as I slowly notice the lines of age creep onto my face every time I look and wonder where the real me has gone. Of course, I am just mourning my youth. Maybe when people have children they should give them a best before date, so as young adults they have no misconceived notions of eternal youth like they seem to have when they talk and look at their parents as if they were never young. I know I looked at my parents this way! Now this starts to sound like I think there is only beauty in youth, which isn't so, really it just demonstrates the multiple complexities of beauty as subject.

1 https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/513824-i-am-obsessed-with-beauty-i-want-everything-to-be accessed 7/11/13

Text and Images S Walker-Holt 2013

Tuesdays with Lucy

Lucy has moved on in to the cabin and is hoping to be there most Tuesdays from about 10 - 3. I paid her a visit to see what she is up to.................

Lucy Pierpoint at her newly arranged Jewellery bench. 

Having a background in waste management has proven to be pivotal to Lucy’s contemporary jewellery practice. Since 2010 she has been fascinated with the use of not all waste or the understandable culprit plastic, but one genre in particular, analogue technology paraphernalia. I think we have all seen artists doing the obvious and utilising discarded out-dated circuitry boards, but Pierpoint has taken it one step back and is using materials that her generation grew up with; Floppy disc’s, type writer ribbon, cassette tape, video tape, film and TV screens are some of the materials she has utilised so far to great effect. 

And why not transfer these materials into a position of jewellery? I can’t think of anything more appropriate than giving them this elevation. Most of us are guilty of keeping up with technology and easily disregarding what has gone before, these materials are our identity, we need to show them some respect for what they have given us. Of course the material itself is not gold but by the time Pierpoint has transformed it there is definitely something a lot more precious going on and as for wearing it, I agree with Pierpoint’s insinuation that we should take ownership of it; it is our waste after all. 

Pierpoint is currently looking for new materials that she can experiment with while at the same time sourcing more film which she would still like to transform further. In previous experimentation she discovered the brilliant colours that can be brought out of it …………..

Concurrently Pierpoint has her TV screen rings on display at Debrasic, Lauren Haynes new contemporary jewellery workshop/store in Thames.

But getting back to the circuitry boards, I found some irony when I searched and found this for sale;

·         Scrap Computer Circuit Boards for Gold and Precious Metal Recovery Approx 33 #'s

·         33 pounds of scrap circuit boards for gold and other precious metal recovery. No brown low grade boards!! Pictures are actual boards you will receive.

·         Condition

·         Time left  6d 1h 20m

And…………………………….

Scrap Computer Boards for Gold/Precious Metal Recovery-5lbs 9 oz.

You are bidding on a box of misc. These boards are clean and still have the gold attached. Again, the gold fingers are still connected. There is no guarantee on ram or processors being attached.

GOLD!? WOW............

So go for gold Lucy there is definitely some there in unwanted technology…………..I will look forward to seeing what comes next.

Sarah Walker-Holt 7 Nov 2013

Cabin Date Reminder

Just reminding all members that we are nearing the end of the year.

4-24 Nov Matt (not using)

Matt has requested that his date be moved to when he is taking leave from work over Christmas so this leaves the cabin free until Toni is in on the 25th.

25-15 Dec Toni

16 Dec - Group (Matt - dates to be confirmed)