Open Doors

A week of hard toil and installing and Shed - Collect - Shed has now opened!

The Coventry Centre for Contemporary Art (CCCA) looks great it in it's new setting - under the covered court in the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum. It may be small but there's plenty to see inside - over 40 new works for your contemplation and enjoyment!

Thanks to everyone involved in the set up, including artists Martin Green and Joanna Rucklidge and the Herbert staff.

The first work has been installed for Shed - Collect - Shed at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum. Although not technically in the exhibition, it is part of the show. You can find my work Down at Heel (2014) in the What's in Store room on the ground floor of the Herbert. The room is not easily found which is perhaps fitting for this little precursor / trailer to the main attraction all about found objects and is opening in a just under a week.

You'll find this draw marked Found Coventry Shoe Heels in amongst other Museum drawers housing various interesting collections such as Medieval Leather Scabbards, Fans and Prehistoric Stone Tools.  My aim is to encourage people to visit the room as much as for it to point others in the direction of my show. To me it's one of the most interesting rooms in the Herbert with a real mixture of things to explore - from paintings to clocks,  stuffed animals to ... shoe heels. 

This is one of Joanna Rucklidge's pieces for the Shed-Collect-Shed exhibition - a screen print from found rubber bands. This forms part of a series of work called 'Going Round in Circles' made using everyday objects found on the streets of Coventry. She uses the symbol of the circle that she found recurring throughout her journey around Coventry - both in the objects she found and the details of the city. I love the way she draws inspiration from very mundane things and creates something beautiful. I'm looking forward to seeing these installed next week ready for the exhibition opening on Saturday 16th August.   

  

Mess and progress

The only near-appropriate things currently on my dining room table are some found forks. But you wouldn't want to eat using them, trust me. This table is currently the designated spot for all my objects to be amassed. (And the lounge floor. And the spare room). A flattened pen sits alongside an old outhouse window, a cardboard fish rubs gills with a broken miniature mirrorball. Needless to say it's a little busy here! 

There are under three weeks to go until the opening of the Shed - Collect - Shed exhibition. Thankfully progress is being made! There's a lot to do and a lot to come together before then but that's half the fun of it (I think!).


Martin Green and Joanna Rucklidge have nearly completed their commissioned works and I'm excited to be able to offer a sneak peek at one of Martin's twelve City Box sculptures.

#1. Rail and Coach Stations
• Box made from the cover of Play Better Soccer and 2 worn heels.
• 20 found suitcase wheel rims.
• Found spectacle frame.

I can't wait to see the full set of 12 installed.

Cork Walks

Back from adventures in Cork...
Martin Green and I had 2 and a half days in Ireland's second city to walk the streets and pick up as many interesting things as we could. The first day was a little concerning - there wasn't a lot to be found. The streets were very clear apart from a fair amount of dog poo, beer cans and cigarette butts - none of which we were particularly interested in taking home. The second day we explored outside of the city centre a bit more - along the river which provided a few more bits. We were feeling better about things. The final day was a walk into the more industrial area of the city. Again it was fruitful. I literally wore my shoes out doing so much walking. We'd been made to toil for our finds, but we brought back some goodies.

Now we just need to actually make the work... 

Paradise Lost and Found

Martin Green and I journeyed to find the area called Paradise in Coventry and as we did so collected found objects along the street. This was the first part of a two legged journey, the second being in Cork, Ireland (taking place this weekend). We will compare the objects we find in both cities and make a piece of work from them for the Shed - Collect - Shed exhibition. The work relates to the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum's remit to collect things that relate to Coventry, its people and twinned cities it's linked to (such as Cork). 

There's always a bit of pressure when you need to find objects so I'm hoping the good people of Cork have been doing their bit over recent days. Coventry certainly did theirs as we came away from our walk with some decent items including this, the (litter) pick of the day - a miniature metal skull.

Shed - Collect - Shed: Coventry's Lost and Found

In six weeks on 16th August 2014 my latest exhibition will be opening to the public at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum Coventry. I will be working with Martin Green and Joanna Rucklidge, showing our collections of found objects and new works, relating them to the Herbert's own Coventry-centric collections of artefacts.