Friday 21st January

Today we had our first group meeting with Peter Appleton, there are seven of us in total (Myself, Keiran, Rachel, Rhia, Louise, Freya and Will) and we were all hoping to exhibit our work at the 'Wolstenholme Project'. Who have said to the university that they are willing to provide the venue for the exhibition, and so a phone call will be made to hopefully hold the space for us and make a set time to visit the venue as a group to decide on set places for our works and ideas and discuss our plans with them further. We will also present a proposal on the meeting, giving a better insight and understanding of what we would like to do in the space provided. A few of us have worked with this venue in the past and love the space and overall feel and messy approach to art; fitting well with our theme and individual works.

We have begun to identify our group theme as 'Self Awareness and Anxiety'. This links all of our works together as they are all based on a similar subject matter, although expressed in very different ways; providing a range of works and media but still showing us as individual artists. We began to discuss our individual works and what each of us wanted in the space for the exhibition, all ideas vary from works simply hanging on a wall, drawing on a wall, video projection, hanging from the ceilings and set on plinths in an area in the space. We have a strong basis of ideas and I think the contrast between the individual works will flow well together in the 'derelict looking' space and hopefully create a great show for the project. We have also decided on putting together a group blog or facebook page which will include all information and progress on the exhibition and our works as well as our individual thoughts and ideas throughout.

I personally am really excited to get started and involved with the group and venue, It's a great opportunity to get our names and work out there, giving us an insight of what to expect when we finish our degrees.

Exhibition Ideas

How my work develops and is presented for the exhibition depends on the space we are able to get involved with. Ideally I would like a small room for my work to be presented separately, as I feel it would create a stronger impression and overall outcome than it would in a large room amongst the other works of the group. I will be continuing with the strips of handwritten text hanging individually from the ceiling; expressing my recurring emotions suggestively rather than obvious. I am hoping to produce hundreds of these white strips including the list of words, taking over the whole space of the room with a pathway involving the viewer into the work and my life by leading them to walk through the piece, creating a feeling of anxiety, frustration and claustrophobia; giving them an insight as to how I feel daily about my subject matter. Whilst they make there own interpretation of the work as they move closer around the work, reading the text written on the strips.

I would also like to involve sound into this final piece for the exhibition; aiming more towards a recording of my own voice and trying to capture the process of my everyday thoughts, which is a little more complex than able to explain. At the minute I am thinking that the information contained will vary, including numbers and math, repeated words, and varied sounds; which I think will give more of an insight into what I am trying to express in my work. This would also be edited, maybe speeding up and slowing down sections of the recording, muffling parts or making sections louder and quieter. This would be played into the room with my hanging strips, although I would like it to be played quietly so that the viewer will have to listen carefully whilst walking around the piece, and hopefully taking in the information without it giving too much away, as I would like my audience to have their own opinion of what the work represents.

Thursday 13th January

I felt a little releaved after the meeting with Peter today as prior to this I felt like I didn't know what I had to be doing for each of the modules. But after the explanation of what was expected of us and the set dates of completion I'm a little more settled and happy to get stuck into my project and getting my work and ideas out there.


The selected possible venues for our exhibitions are of a great range for most of the students, with spaces held to present small works and drawings to social events and performances. I personally am working more towards an installation piece which links well with the works of the group I am working with in the 'LSAFA2003' module. And so we decided on a space like the 'Wolstenholme Project' or the 'LJMU Students Union' would be much more suitable as they are held for the types of works we are all wanting to exhibit. A meeting will take place next week to decide on which space we will be exhibiting our work, which hopfully will be a possibility.  


I found the selection of works Peter shown really interesting, which he put together a few years back; especially 'Between Wind and Water' which he presented in 1988. He labelled these as clumsy objects but said it wasn't particularly about how the works looked, it was the sound the objects made; which were created from elements of wind and water and the vibration of how these connected. It was interesting to hear that he worked in the oil industry, as it was the structure of the oil rig that inspired him to create the works.

Wednesday 12th January

I found the 'Freelancing and Self Employment in Creative Industries' event really interesting and definitely helpful, giving me a clearer outlook on life and art after graduating from university. I suppose it made me think more into what I myself want to do as a career in art, whilst hopefully enjoying it and how I would support myself along the way. It is quite worrying thinking about it now as it's not something I have really thought of previously, so having this talk has made me realise that my time at university will soon pass and I'll have to continue my works alone. I especially enjoyed listening to what previous students are doing as a career, after graduating from university and how they came about getting where they are now as professionals in the industry; either as artists and selling there works or in the business end, helping artists to sell and exhibit there works. Again it was worrying hearing how hard it will be to get in the art industry as not only is it becoming more and more competitive but there are also fewer jobs about for the future graduates.


After the discussion, I became a member on kin2kin.co.uk. I'm not particularly interested in starting up my own business or becoming self employed but I do want to become more involved and recognised in the arts and to basically give myself a better understanding on whats out there.
I also want to get involved with some form of volunteer work, hopefully relating to art in some way or working with children and students as I am very interested in teaching. I think this would help me become more prepared for leaving university, giving me an insight into how the teaching industry works and simply getting myself out there. It would also look better on my CV for when I am applying for teaching jobs in the near future.

Thinking Further

Thinking more so into the presentation of a future exhibition, I will continue with the works and Ideas I have presented so far although I would like to look into sound and maybe animation. I think this addition would add a different dimension to the ideas and definitely work well together as one piece.

Assessment Point Two

 For my second Assessment I presented a selection of my more recent pieces together in the corner of a room. I purposely presented these works in different ways and levels; giving the viewer the opportunity to walk around the works (piled in a corner with sections attached to the wall, hanging together from a fitting on the ceiling, placed on the floor, bunched together on a 'plinth', hung individually from the ceiling and simply attached to the wall). I like how they all work together, giving a better understanding to the subject matter, separately using colour and selected text and imagery.
I would have liked to have presented a large A0 colour print out of a singular photograph of myself on the wall with these, (which would of had sections stripped away; hiding the image almost) but due to printing difficulties I couldn’t. I like the contrast between the 2D and 3D aspects of these works and I think the addition of this image would have given a completely different outcome to the presentation; showing a more obvious approach to the suggestiveness of the others.

Hanging the strips

Continuing with my strips of text, In this piece I again hand wrote the words which came to mind on my subject matter at that point in my development. Inspired by Nicholas Hlobo who filled a room with colourful ribbons hanging from a false ceiling, for the Liverpool Biennial Touched exhibition.

I decided on hanging my strips of text individually in a row. I like the combination between the order of the strips at the top of the piece and the chaotic pile on the floor; linking well with my previous works and ideas.
If this idea is to be taken further, I would fill a room with these hanging strips of text, leading the viewer to walk trough the piece giving a feeling of frustration and claustrophobia, (Relating to how I feel about my subject matter in everyday life) whilst they take in what the work represents as they move closer and read the text written on the strips.