Circling the Stones: Beermat as Artwork.
I am interested in exploring everyday objects and merchandise as artworks. Here, a run of beermats that bring together a close up photo of a stone from a modern stone circle site in Manchester and site-writing on the sounds of this particular stone circle on the reverse are exhibited in the bar above a The Stones Project and Dark Arts Kollective event and exhibition in Manchester. Adopting the beermat as a space for art brings my research findings to a wider audience, with up-close interactions with the beermat as artwork encouraged through it’s familiar format.
Blackpool at night.
Postcards exploring the unique lightscape of Blackpool at night. These are from the 1970s and 1980s.
Photo postcard slide photo postcard.
Bank Holiday in Blackpool / 2. The North Bay, Scarborough / 3. The Windmill, Bidsten Hill, Birkenhead / 4. Sefton Park, Liverpool / 5. Cotton Exchange, Liverpool / 6. Rhuddlan Castle / 7. Brittania Tubular Bridge / 8. Pen Rhos College, Colwyn Bay / 9. Dyserth Waterfall near Rhyl / 10. Scott Series No. 565 Barmouth by Moonlight / 11. Waterfall, Jesmond Dene, Newcastle-on-Tyne / 12. Betwis-y-Coed Pandy Bridge. Work exhibited and published in The Imaginary Museum: Art Library as Archive Exhibition & Book, Leeds College of Art and Leeds Central Library. 2015.
The Blue Guide.
This photographic collage adopts the title of one of Roland Barthes Mythologies essays, first translated into English in 1957. Barthes dates the mythology of the Blue Guide (the travel guidebook) back to the 19th century, to a phase in history when the bourgeoisie was “enjoying a kind of new-born euphoria in buying effort, in keeping its image and essence without feeling any of its ill-effects.” He critiques the aesthetic existence of the Blue Guide with its presentation of landscapes lacking in spaciousness. Many of us have experienced ‘travel’ as a predetermined process, mapped out by a trusted ‘guide book’ that manipulates our collective memories.
By juxtaposing numerous fragmented blue skies from travel brochures and guidebooks, this work explores the ethereal pretense of the popular travel image and its place in the travel experience.
Work exhibited in Mapping Memory, Unfold Fringe for British Art Show, at 42 New Briggate, Leeds. 2015-2016.