I have a piece in a group show called Paper Work which opens at Pallas Contemporary Projects on Thursday 3rd December. Here is a quote from the press release:
Paper Work explores the primacy of paper as a fundamental medium, a celebration at the core of the transformative essence of artistic production, and of the possibilities inherent in the simplest medium, intrinsic as it is to the facilitation of expansive contemporary artistic concepts.
The artists in the show are:
John Beattie / Mark Beatty / Anna Boyle / Gemma Browne / Niall de Buitlear / Karl Burke / Clare Cashman / Aoife Cassidy / Fiona Chambers / Garry Coyle / Mark Cullen / Anita Delaney / Vanessa Donoso López / Brian Fay / Alicia Frankovich / Mark Garry / David Godbold / Helen Horgan / Wendy Judge / Atsushi Kaga / Vera Klute / Nevan Lahart / Áine Macken, / Alice Maher / Bea McMahon / Clive Murphy / Christophe Neumann / Isobel Nolan / Magnhild Opdol / Sarah O’Brien / Garrett Phelan / Ruth Proctor / Linda Quinlan / Gerard Shanahan / Sonia Shiel / Ivan Twohig / Lee Welch
“This past winter, the snow stayed so long we almost forgot what the ground looked like. In Detroit, there is little money for plowing; after a big storm, the streets and sidewalks disappear for days. Soon new pathways emerge, side streets get dug out one car-width wide. Bootprints through parks veer far from the buried sidewalks. Without the city to tell him where to walk, the pilgrim who first sets out in fresh snowfall creates his own path. Others will likely follow, or forge their own paths as needed.
In the heart of summer, too, it becomes clear that the grid laid down by the ancient planners is now irrelevant. In vacant lots between neighborhoods and the attractions of thoroughfares, bus stops and liquor stores, well-worn paths stretch across hundreds of vacant lots. Gaston Bachelard called these lescheminsdudésir: pathways of desire. Paths that weren’t designed but eroded casually away by individuals finding the shortest distance between where they are coming from and where they intend to go.”
Using google maps I was able to find the shortcut across a part that I used to take to school.
I’ve been looking at the work of Keith Arnatt recently. He began as a conceptual artist who used photography as tool – he’s famous for the piece where he wore a sign saying “I’m a real artist” and a series of images where he appears to be sinking into the ground.
Later he reinvented himself as a photographer working on various series including photos of notes his wife left for him around the house and a series of photos of objects found on the dump (one of which is pictured above).
The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has a great youtube channel with over 100 videos including some very long ones such as this talk by Mark Bradford.
