17.3.09

Brown Paper Bag Box confirmed for Portobello Film Festival 2009


Brown Paper Bag Box is confirmed for the Portobello Film Festival London, 3rd - 20th September 2009

The animation will also be screened at 3rd London Film Makers Convention, Inn On The Green, 3 Thorpe Close, London W10, 6pm - 11pm. Admission Free. Monday 23rd March, Thursday 26th March & Tuesday 31st March 2009

Temporary Art Show review in the Huddersfield Examiner

Huddersfield artists host free exhibition at Halifax Piece Hall
Mar 13 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner


HUDDERSFIELD artists are bringing art for art’s sake to the people – without funding or any interest in selling their work.

The Temporary Art Group’s second show is a riot of Sellotaped sticks and tiny wheelchairs.

Plenty of artists whine about not being offered lucrative exhibitions or lavish grants. Not Paddock couple Kevin and Georgia Boniface, though.

They decided they weren’t going to wait to be invited to show off – and didn’t expect to make any money from their art, either.

The pair and their pals – Alice Bradshaw, Bob Milner and Tom Senior – staged their first three-day Temporary Art Show at Bates’ Mill in Queen Street South, Huddersfield last May, covering costs between them.

And they were so staggered by its success that they’ve gleefully set about doing it all over again, only this time in a six-month slot in empty units at Halifax Piece Hall – now up and running.

Their credit crunch-ignoring, DIY ethic is an industrial-strength blast of fresh air for West Yorkshire’s art scene.

Georgia, 37, a full-time mum-of-two, who adores pinning button badges and images of butterflies, planes and pop stars to canvas, says: “You can spend loads of time filling in funding applications that might not even be successful.

“Instead, we spent our time and energy sourcing free stuff, and loved the process.

“We were given furniture and stuck a note up in the Piece Hall toilets appealing for the loan of a tea urn.

“We even got a trolley to go with it. People are volunteering their time to staff the exhibition for us. It’s good.”

The group – who all do ordinary jobs, including Kevin, a Huddersfield postman and Tom from Golcar who works in Marks and Spencer – will probably end up forking out a few hundred pounds in expenses between them to stage their show.

But they think the creative freedom their autonomy gives them will be worth the outlay.

“It really is art for art’s sake,” says Georgia, “We just want people to come and have a look. There are lots of galleries full of traditional art, but nothing locally that showcases contemporary work like ours.

“We’re not even calling our space a ‘gallery’, we think that sounds elitist.”

The Temporary Art Space at numbers 34 and 35 in the Piece Hall will host six separate exhibitions during the timescale up to the end of August.

The first show, which finishes on Friday, March 27, is a spirited selection from 15 artists.

Work includes a collection of freaky, “found” mannequins, a motorised drawing device that happily drags a pen around paper all day, Sellotaped sticks and tiny wheelchairs.

Meanings of these are relevant only if you particularly want to know the whys and wherefores. They should just be enjoyed at face value.

Georgia continues: “None of us were particularly interested in selling work, but we wanted the public to see it.

“When we put on our first show we were worried that people wouldn’t ‘get’ it.

“But because there were five of us, it gave us confidence and we just egged each other on and on.”

Bob – who works together with Tom under the name Milk, Two Sugars – echoes Georgia’s ethos that artists should just get on with it.

He says: “It’s too easy to blame other bodies and the state of the economy for what is essentially a lack of drive and ambition.

“We all have bills to pay. In a project like this, commitment and energy are more important than money.”

The group’s sheer, unbridled enthusiasm is infectious and they have been inundated with artists from all over the UK and further afield wanting to join the Temporary Art Space party.

Their reputation has been further enhanced by Kevin’s rise to prominence last year with the publication of his leftfield diary-of-a-postman, Lost In The Post.

Things, as they say, can only get better – in a home-made, lo-fi sort of way.

Now that the Temporary Art Group has an army of allied artists – together, of course, with their loaned tea urn – their challenge is to turn more of the people of Huddersfield and Halifax on to their work.

Georgia admits many can find cutting-edge art a bit intimidating, but says: “There’s nothing to be scared of.

“People worry that there’s some big secret with art that they’re not getting, but the truth is, there isn’t.

“Just come and see what you think.”

To find out more, go to http://www.temporaryartspace.co.uk/

http://www.examiner.co.uk/leisure-and-entertainment/arts-news/2009/03/13/huddersfield-artists-host-free-exhibition-at-halifax-piece-hall-86081-23133762/


Temporary Art Space continues until Friday 27th March 2009.

7.3.09

Brown Paper Bag Box in Temporary Art Show

Temporary Art Show is the inaugural exhibition at Temporary Art Space in Halifax, following on from the hugely successful exhibition of the same name in neighbouring Huddersfield. Fifteen artists will exhibit painting, drawing, print, video, sculpture and installation works, responding to the broad theme of "temporary."

Opening: Friday 6th March 2009, 5-8pm

Then: Thursday - Saturday 10am - 4pm and Sundays 11am - 4pm

Until: Friday 27th March 2009

http://www.temporaryartspace.co.uk/



Rachael Allen



"A bittersweet life.
A one-way journey.
Are you travelling comfortably?

Miniature model-making provides a stage for the exploration of mortal existence, where the fine-line separating birth and death highlights our vulnerable condition as human beings. The miniature vehicles emphasise the uncomfortable reality that is the brevity of life; before long, the vehicle that drives one from birth to youth is replaced by the vehicle that drives the unfortunately disabled to their inevitable death.

To be seduced by these unique miniatures is to enter a diminutive world where annihilation rubs all around; just like looking in the mirror."

Image: Untitled (pushchair)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcallen_artspace



Georgia Boniface



"Georgia Boniface's background in fashion and textiles is brought to bear on canvas. Traditional appliqué techniques combine with a powerful compositional and graphic sensibility to bring about a vivid, hand-made, ephemeral and precise explosion of military hardware, pin-badges, British flora and fauna and icons of punk rock and modern art."

Image: Untitled

http://web.mac.com/victorygarden.mac



Kevin Boniface



"Kevin Boniface is an artist/writer. He has exhibited irregularly at galleries around the UK. He writes a diary all about being a postman in Huddersfield which won some awards and was published by Old Street Publishing last year as Lost in the Post; The Independent said it would be "a cult classic" and a man on the Amazon website said it was "Utter Rubbish". Kevin has also made a zine called Compact News which Tom said he liked.

Chris at work once said he thought Kevin might not really be a very good artist and that he might just be out to shock people for the sake of it; Kevin told him to go f**k himself.

Kevin - or Jonathan as he sometimes prefers to be known - is exhibiting life-size portraits in white emulsion and black marker pen entitled: Three Graces (Saved for the nation), Bare-Knuckle Boys and Pencil and Crayon."

Image: Three Graces (Saved for the nation)

http://web.mac.com/victorygarden.mac



Alice Bradshaw



"I work with a wide range of media and processes involving the manipulation of everyday objects and materials. Mass-produced, anonymous objects are often rendered dysfunctional caricatures of themselves, addressing concepts of purpose and futility. I create or accentuate subtleties, blurring distinctions between the absurd and the mundane."

Image: Untitled (broken branches mended with sellotape)

http://www.alicebradshaw.co.uk



Edward Cotterill



"Edward Cotterill makes work that although uses basic materials and skills operates on a sub fantastic level; striving not to be "beautiful" (creating beauty out of the mundane) but less beautiful than the individual objects/materials used. An inverse notion of the term greater than the sum of its parts occupying a world where it is lesser than the sum of its parts, which paradoxically lends the work a skewed aura of beauty. Highlighting how the world is put together."

http://www.theparlour.org.uk/artistspages/edwardcotterill/edwardcotterill.html



Julia Douglas



"Julia Douglas is an award winning visual artist based in Scotland. She ponders the relationship people have with the objects they put in their home and aims to tell a story about the inhabitant's life by playfully transforming these items into mixed media sculptures and prints. In her work "Series" she has used a beautiful, hand painted, ceramic Willow Pattern plate as a model and has created a series of cheap, disposable copies. Though the pattern is the same, the serial plates physical attributes are distinctly inferior; they are flimsy paper rather than tactile ceramic; to be disposed of rather than treasured; and printed, rather than hand painted. They reflect a common corruption in commercial practice today."

Image: Series

http://www.julia-douglas.co.uk



Francis Elliott



"My work is primarily aimed at trying to pinpoint vectors relating to thought processes, emotions and imaginary spaces; filling in the gaps between experience and assumptions that we all use to make sense of the world around us.

I'm not interested in creating anything new; rather, stripping back the existing world until the mechanisms of each object's implications are revealed.

From my earliest works on canvas to recent blackboard drawings, paint has always been an essential part of my working process; most of my recent work has used paint as a physical surface, to conceal or disrupt common objects, thereby forcing the viewer to question the implications of the original. I have always been fascinated by space, time and movement; the different ways to perceive time, for instance; Garden uses rust to stretch time, leading to living paintings that change imperceptibly but continuously; whilst One Measure removes the hour and minute hands of a normal watch, leaving only an infinite sea of seconds behind."

Image: Dark Globe Download form

http://www.franciselliott.com



Karl Jeron



"Phenomena in contemporary life are the focal point of KH Jeron's artistic interest. He sees his work as an investigation of popular social issues. Often he collects material from public sources like Google, Wikipedia or TV. This material is enacted by small robotic vehicles or compiled into videos. Jeron is interested in shifting the recognition by subtle interventions."

1962 born in Memmingen, Germany
lives and works in Berlin.
1985-1986 Studies painting at the Art Academy Munich
1987-1988 Philosophy of Science and Logic, University Munich
1988-1989 Philosophy of Science and Logic, Freie Universität Berlin
1993-2005 working with Joachim Blank as Blank & Jeron
1999-2006 Lecturer for Multimedia Art at the University of Arts Berlin

Image: Sim Gishel

http://9-5.jeron.org


Imran Jogee



Imran Jogee draws a lot of his inspiration from music whether it be a lyric, an instrument or the mood of a song. He likes the idea of contrasting the serious things with silly things whether it be a picture of a gangster playing tiddlywinks or an animation of an O.A.P. breakdancing. In this case he has contrasted the natural form of a wooden log with the wonky lines of an old school boom box. Unfortunately the radio doesn't work.


Natalie Kay



"My fascination with the fleeting everyday, the dynamics of observation and the anonymity of the individual in society, drives my artistic practice. Within this I explore the relationship between myself as an artist and the observer and audience in relation to those being viewed."

http://www.nataliekay.co.uk


Milk, Two Sugars



"In a world of increasing mediocrity and as an antidote to the culture of manufactured individuality we offer the world the only viable alternative, "Milk, Two Sugars". Milk, Two Sugars is a visual notebook published every month in a limited run of one hundred copies. These are distributed to a varied group of artists, writers, galleries and potential groupies.

The visual partnership of Bob Milner and Tom Senior began in March 2006. Coming together through desperation and fear of obscurity, the notebook is the starting point for a wide selection of work in a range of media. A love of drawing and a desire to communicate the deficient wisdom and combined wit of two exceptionally unfunny people is the motivation to create an array of visually stunning and ultimately forgettable images.

We have fun. We enjoy what we do. It isn't important where we fit in to contemporary culture, in all honesty we really don't seek a place at the table. We'd be happier under the table tying shoelaces together or standing before the court of the "glitterarti-farti" with a microphone and some really horrible and pointless jokes. We'd prefer to be heckled by them than invited to dine. We don't like artists that much.

The visual notebook is the starting point for work in a range of media. We paint, we make films, we write. We have opened our own gallery. We could make all the work sound really interesting and profound or we can treat it as cheap and throwaway. We like it when someone makes their own conclusion. We aren't here to harangue or convince you that we feel pain. Art should be fun and funny and it can be both without being drained of all serious meaning."

http://www.milktwosugars.org



Ian Smith



"I have a studio at Westgate Studios in Wakefield where I am currently making sculptures and films.

The boots are a part of an installation work, which also features a chair and a tyre that have been similarly altered by the addition of matches.

As a result of using so many matches I have also acquired hundreds of matchboxes which I have used as building blocks in subsequent installation pieces."

Image: Chair and Tyre from Play With Fire

http://tim-naish.blogspot.com


Jared Szpakowski



"My work deals with themes of identity, purpose, humour & satire and currently involves working predominantly with installation, print and bookmaking. There are certain objects that obsessively persist and recur within my practice such as boxes, ladders, eggs and voyeur holes. My use of personification is both whimsical and quirky but also has the possibility to be read in serious and personal contexts and often involves an almost sinister suggestion of catastrophe.

The formulation of ideas, direction and composition is usually dictated purely by the space itself, be it outdoors, in a derelict area or gallery and work is frequently documented and then abandoned to its fate and to its discovery."

Image: Untitled

http://www.jaredszpakowski.co.uk


Josie Faure Walker



"Destroying the sculptures, paintings, drawings and collages I make has become a necessary ritual. Very little survives, and I find that positive. Much art is talked about without having ever been seen in the flesh, and the direct experience of object and viewer is replaced with whimsically worded press releases or curatorial statements and poor online reproductions. I enjoy these contradictions and questioning them has become a thread connecting my studio practice. Aside from this and the desire to recycle everything that I make into new work after being photographed, the subject matter and material of my work is all over the place."

Image: Untitled

http://www.stinkee.co.uk/josie.html