Auckland Art Gallery - I saw some marvellous things: (Most in the 'Whizz Bang Pop' exhibit)Unsure of the artist of these two images.Jessica Stockholder - Untitled (2003)Ed Ruscha - Love Chief (1986) writing something massive on a canvas, especially something like 'Love Chief', how self-affirming.Luc Piere - Environment III. Spent a while in this mirror-box. Reflections going on forever, stuck in a time-warp, can't find the door. Shame is smelt of feet!Rosalie Gasgoine - Web / Piece Work / Foreign Affairs (1994) 'choosing to work with materials that "have had sun on them"' grids of weathered woods. order and repetition.Tony Cragg - Clear Glass Stack (1999) assembelage, interlockedThank you Auckland Art Gallery, so much variation, and I never usually find much that I really am inspired by, so this was a nice hi-light of my trip.
Back in the third year of my Fine Art degree, my great tutor Amanda Couch organised a trip to galleries in London. One of the first galleries was the Victoria Miro in Mayfair and I was dazzled. Yayoi Kusama's drawings were ignored, all I could see where her installations and get absorbed in her 'Infinity Mirror Room'.When I saw Kusama's 'The Obliteration Room' (above) I didn't realise it was her work. I was reminded of 'I'm Here, But Nothing' which I saw back in my Uni days (see below images) but the work is slightly different. The viewer can interact with the artwork; children only being allowed to add stickers to the walls and domestic items in the room. How I remember 'The Obliteration Room' was that you opened the door, slid into the room, which was pitch black apart from a UV light and thousands of equally spaced glow-in-the-dark stickers. The room made me dizzy, people were stumbling and any sense of surroundings was lost.I'm Here, But NothingI'm Here, But NothingNarcissus GardenInfinity Mirror Room: Love Forever
'En masse Kusama's work is beautiful but overwhelming, the product of a self-described obsession.' Victoria Miro Gallery'The encounter with my work is extremely important at this stage. I am a factory worker and the monotomy of these tasks I make myself complete have an effect on me. The balance of control is off-kilter as I feel like I am being controlled by my objects.' 3rd year Project Plan from uni'Obliterate your personality with polka dots. Become one with eternity. Become part of your environment. Take off your clothes. Forget yourself. Make love. Self-destruction is the only way to peace.' Yayoi Kusama
This was yesterday's job, 4 hours of flyer design. Is that fast? I'm not sure, but i'm really pleased the the outcome. I nipped around cutting textures and shapes out of magazines, looking at other flyers for inspiration, scanned the best texture and the best shapes in, used a photograph of our painted pistachio shells, in a triangle formation (which links brilliantly to the content of the exhibition) 5,000 being printed right now, and will be looking at you from tables in various Bristol locations soon
I have kept the Apples from my degree show piece - 'Sense' which was exhibited in the following shows:
Barcode, University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham, May 2008
Free Range, Truman Brewery, London, June 2008
Lucy Barfoot, Room 212, Bristol, January 2009
New Contemporaries, Fairfields Arts Centre, Basingstoke, January 2009
They are like tiny little rocks, and they don't smell any more. They are turning powdery - I wonder if one day they will just disappear? The blue and baby pink apples are three years old now. Older, but bigger. Must be something to do with the lacquer? I just spray painted those two and the others were covered in car lacquer, two coats.
SO apparently my name is Lucy Barefoot, Thanks A-N magazine. How excited I was, featured in A-N! I can put this in my C.V, loads of people will come to my exhibition! But woe is me, I am Lucy Barefoot apparently. And It shouldn't have even been 'Lucy Barfoot', It should have been 'Barfoot and Duggan' But still, mustn't complain! There's More To Life Than Lists is getting free advertising!
Here are some pictures from Barfoot and Duggan's exhibition preparation. We're displaying the lists hung from thread from the tall ceilings of Centrespace Gallery, Bristol. And also inside a canopy. There are articles on the walls and displayed on plinths; letters from list donors (including letters of 'no donation' from the Queen, Prince Charles and Armando Iannucci.) We will be asking for list donations throughout the week of the exhibition, to add to the show.
*Exciting News*
'There's More to Life Than Lists' is going to be a featured exhibition in the 'Spotlight' section of the October issue of A-N Magazine. How exciting! I'm predicting lots of people through the doors of Centrespace!
Lucy BarfootLadle Moulds 2009Glues, Watercolor ink, water, wireMy colours are sickly and my matter is sweet. I want to satisfy. I want to fulfil the materiality of objects, allowing them to talk. What is it to sense the texture, shape, and the smell? The viewer forms a unique relationship, which I have no control over.The letting go and holding onto control has a powerful effect on my work. The process of gathering objects is something I 'have to do', similar to my compulsion to repeat actions. My practice is obsessive and process-led. I am physically absorbed into a daze of making.Images:1. View from the door - I wanted people to enter the space, get close to the sculpture. I worked on the lighting to create a semi-lit, eerie feel. The Crypt is such a haunting place, I thought I could dull-down my bright sculpture to fit the space better - but once people got close, the piece was more vivid.2. Detail of ladle moulds with light shining through. Reminded me of stained glass windows. The color was different from behind.3. Me in the sculpture. Hello!
I have about 40 ladles in my possession. anyone want some soup? I cleared both Tesco and Pearce's Hardware out. I'm speeding up the drying process today (hopefully) by letting the glue dry in the afternoon sun. The microwave drying failed - too bubbly and toxic. I'm off on holiday soon and have to set up a lot of ladles ready to meld together upon my arrival, before the 'Surface/Space/Time' exhibition at the Crypt in St Pancras. Come on glue!
My London show is fast approaching... It's at 'The Crypt Gallery', London, August 26th - September 9th.The Artists whom I'm exhibiting with:Sam CliftEve WheateRichard JackSue HotchkisMary Louise EvansSimone WallaceLucy FergusMark HoughtonJoohee HwangLuke StonesRona SmithI'm creating my glue molds, something I find very enjoyable and is of course all process-led. I used to do lots of this mould making whilst at uni. I have some old pictures, and once some of the current molds are dry, I'll take some pictures. but for now...Thinking about color here -all these colors together, one for each mold. some quite pastel-ly, very aesthetically pleasing, and fitting into The Crypt well. It reminds me of stained glass.More good color?This was as far as I got whilst at uni, but I want to make a large piece, about 4ft squared. Need to think about transportation, glue consistancy, how to speed up the process. Also need to buy about a hundred ladles. Watch this space.
I have been prolific today. I was in the studio till 8pm, inspired, I kept finding more things to do and I'm only home now because I'm hungry for fish and chips mmm. A Friday night treat from Bishopston Fish Bar!Today, I have: caught up on last night's Big Brother with my neighbour Mia, taken home all the crockery from my studio and put it all in my dishwasher, recycled, taken rubbish to the dump (I'm the 'head housekeeper' of the studio you see), done a layer of papier mache on the balloons ready for the Big Lebowski festival tonight at The Lanes, Bristol, put up a wall in the studio, painted that wall, watched 4 episodes of the L word whilst doing most of the above, made a friend a birthday present collage, bound my birthday blind-drawing papers, wrote this blog, started my glue molds,So these 'glue molds', they are for my my exhibition: 'Surface/Space/Time' at The Crypt Gallery, London (26th Aug - 9th Sept) which is curated by and also showing the work of Sam Clift who is a nice chap that I went to uni with.I have been meaning to get on with starting the glue molds for months. I created some whilst at uni, and made this small quilt with them:The idea I have for the exhibition is very similar, but with edited colors and on a much larger scale. The patchwork is made by filling big spoons with a mix of PVA, water and ink. They take AGES to dry, and the final stage sewing the patches together (but i'm thinking about spray-mount??)Today I started working out the quantities of glue to water I need to make the perfect mixture for the molds. I have five plastic cups, 1-5, 1 has 30 parts water to 70 parts glue, 2= 40:60, 3= 50:50, 4= 60:40, 5= 70:30 I need the mold to be the perfectly supple, and not brittle. I have poured the liquids into 5 different ladels, and I'll wait (about a week?) to see which mixture makes the perfect consistency of mold. Process! It's been a long time since I focussed on process. It's where my heart lies with my art, and it felt really good to get into this again today.
When: Friday 9th Oct to Thursday 15th of Oct From 10AM-5PM daily
We are building a two-man wind machine. Thousands of To-Do lists, collected from anonymous donors will be circulated in this machine, and participants will be trying to collect these flying lists. This is surrounded by an accumulation of grocery lists covering the walls from floor to ceiling.
The uncontrollable nature of wind is a metaphor for the chaotic and the unpredictable way that life is. The attempt to grab these lists parrots the way in which we struggle to maintain a sense of order – to discern a meaningful pattern in our lives.
The grocery lists raise questions about the disparate way in which we, in our society, live in such an atomised way. Disintegration of kinship and communities is reflected by how we eat; in small numbers or alone.
This Saturday I showed my apples in the window of Room 212, which is a tiny Art Gallery in Bishopston, on the Gloucester Road. Three in each window, close to the glass so that people could peer at them and wonder what they are. This great little place is usually brimming with paintings; i got a few funny looks. Here's my profile on the Room 212 website.Today i was at Fairfields Art Gallery in Basingstoke setting up 'Sense' to show as part of the 'Young Contemporaries 2008' show. The circle or apples look a bit ridiculous to be honest. It's tiny! There is no impact. The original circle of the 1,200 will be included in the catalogue, so there will be a history shown.
I went to the Supertoys exhibition at Arnolfini for the second time this Friday with my family. There is a workshop where you can take apart old toys and make them into hybrid new ones. Amazing. Crab-Girl is mine and Dino-Scull is my nephew Ben's.
