Ersilia - A project about connections

I'm taking part in an event called Invisible City in Schiedam, NL in August, and coincidentally came across Italo Calvino's book Invisible Cities. Connections abound, as several of the chapters are titled 'Trading Cities', a similar title to the next project (Trading Station) to be undertaken by POST.

As connections have recently been appearing to me from all directions, the chapter in Calvino's book about the city of Ersilia struck a chord; also it's visual description of the connections between people felt like a description of a drawing.

Here is the text in full:

Trading Cities 4

In Ersilia, to establish the relationships that sustain the city's life, the inhabitants stretch strings from the corners of the houses, white or black or gray or black-and-white according to whether they mark a relationship of blood, of trade, authority, agency. When the strings become so numerous that you can no longer pass among them, the inhabitants leave: the houses are dismantled; only the strings and their supports remain.

From a mountainside, camping with their household goods, Ersilia's refugees look at the labyrinth of taut strings and poles that rise in the plain. That is the city of Ersilia still, and they are nothing.

They rebuild Ersilia elsewhere. They weave a similar pattern of strings which they would like to be more complex and at the same time more regular than the other. Then they abandon it and take themselves and their houses still farther away.

Thus, when travelling in the territory of Ersilia, you come upon the ruins of abandoned cities, without the walls which do not last, without the bones of the dead which the wind rolls away: spiderwebs of intricate relationships seeking a form.

In response to this I've decided to set up my own international postal exhibition project that highlights my links to places that I visit and the artists, curators and galleries that I have worked with in the past, or would like to work with in the future, creating my own Ersilia. I'm not going to write where and who I send them to, you'll have to wait until air mail comes through your letterbox, however, I do plan to create a map of where I send them to and from as a record of my travels and activity.

I've started this project off during my recent trip to Portugal, where I have continued to play with the concept of 'tearing space apart', but was also distracted by the fabulous patterned pavements using black and white cobbles. Here are the 5 works I produced, three of which are in transit right now (2 were too large for an envelope and I wasn't as fond of them)

Cracks 1: Watersoluble Graphite and pencil on paper

Portuguese Pavement I: Graphite and black tempera on paper

Portuguese Pavement II: Collage, black tempera on paper

White postcard on black: Collage, black tempera and paper


Portuguese Pavement III: Pencil on paper

Commendation: West Lancs Open

Tearing Space Apart 4:3 has been awarded a commendation in the 2011 West Lancs Open at Chapel Gallery.

16 July – 14 September 2011 at Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk. West Lancashire OPEN Exhibition 2011
The annual West Lancashire Open Exhibition brings together professional, semi-professional and accomplished amateur artists in this hugely engaging show at the Chapel Gallery.

We aim to produce a diverse exhibition that, like any true open, is open to all and brings together a compelling array of disciplines, ideas and approaches. Exploration of the space should result in fascinating discoveries and a rich, and often unexpected, encounter with art.

Winners
1st Prize: Sarah Redfern, Green/Ochre, Egg Tempera on Panel
2nd Prize: Nathan Pendlebury, Tree #2, Polaroid Photograph
3rd Prize: Carole Traynor, Allyway, Metal Plate Etching, Aquatint and Mixed Media.

Highly Commended
Gerry Halpin, Meandering River, Acrylic
Michael Lowey, Perception, Analogue Photograph

Commended
Michael John Ashcroft, Deep, Oil on Board
Shirley Blackhurst, Sea Mist, Collograph
Mary Campbell, Golden Road, Collograph
Robert Cousins, Lotus from the Mind, Acrylic
David Green, Lattice 14, Ink, Watercolour on Paper
Maggie Hargreaves, Slowly Creeping, Charcoal (fixed) on Paper
Barbara Jones, Cell Replication, Ink on Paper
Rachael Marsh, M20, Digital Print & Cornely
Jason Thompson, Hyperborean Woman (Daniel Paul Schreber), Enamel Paint & Varnish on Plywood
Heather Tomsett, Spume, Mixed Media
Cathy Turner, Autumn’s Fire, Handmade Nuno Felt (Pure Merino Wool)
Claire Weetman, Tearing Space Apart 4:3, Pencil, Paper, MDF and Acrylic
Penny Williams, Shunned, Mixed Media

Peoples’ Prize
All visitors to the Gallery are encouraged to vote for their favourite artwork.
Please complete a Voting Slip (one per person) and place it in the ballot box provided.
At the end of the exhibition, the artist with the most votes wins the opportunity to exhibit at the Chapel Gallery and receives an exhibiting fee of £150. All visitors who vote will also be included in a prize draw.

More new work: Chapel Gallery and Rarities

I've been continuing with my drawings based on randomly tearing pages into pieces and then re-drawings their outlines onto another page. This time, i've gone with a page format of 4:3, due to my response to the latest magnet exhibition on Hastings & St Leonards Pier organised by Alban Low.


I've participated in these exhibitions before in Nottingham and Brighton, and they are an excellent way to get reproductions of artwork out to a wider audience, so i'm looking forward to the next one, which takes place at the end of August.

I have mounted one of the original drawings onto wood, and have had that accepted into the West Lancashire Open exhibition, which opens Friday 1 July until 14 September 2011. It's a tiny piece (5cm x 6.6cm) so you might have to hunt for it at the Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk.


West Lancashire Open Exhibition 2011
Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk
16 July - 14 September
Tues-Sun 10-4.30
www.chapelgallery.org.uk

Rarities 2011
Coastal Currents Festival
27th August 2011
Hastings & St Leonards

Tabloid - Square Root(4)

Following on from my drawings in the Tearing Space Apart book, I have produced another drawing using a similar process.

• Take a sheet of tabloid newspaper, tear it into 4 pieces
• Tear each piece into 4 pieces
• Tear each piece into 4 pieces
• Lay the pieces out and number methodically
• Mix pieces randomly into a pile
• Take a fragment of paper and let it float onto a sheet of white tabloid-sized paper
• Draw lines around the fragment of paper. The number of times the line is drawn should equate to the sum of the numbers on the fragment of paper.
• Draw fragments of paper from the pile and repeat as above, the outlines should only be drawn onto blank space and not across existing lines.