Oomph! is a festival of creative exploration which will take place throughout the Black Country, Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire from 9th – 23rd November 2011. The NineScreen VideoWall project that I developed with Alumwell Business College and Brandhall Primary School is going to be featured as a large-scale installation in the Wolverhampton Art Gallery for the duration of the festival.

On Monday 14th November several participating pupils from Alumwell will be joining me to present and share our experiences of making this project. Following on from this presentation I will be leading a CPD session for teachers based upon this project.

You can see more information about the festival and how to book for the workshops on the Oompf! website.

Below is a sample of the VideoWall project. You can go the main page about the project here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Visit to work alongside artist Kim Abeles, Los Angeles, California.

In September 2011 I spent 12 days with Los Angeles-based artist Kim Abeles, working alongside her in the studio and meeting people from across the cultural sector. This mentoring opportunity came out of the Hybrid-led and managed project Inhabit and was set up to:

-  facilitate critical reflection and provide input into the development of my own practice; learn more about Kim’s practice (her working practice, approaches to the development of ideas, issues around practical project realisation)

- introduce me to new networks, organisations, artists, and possible opportunities

- gain insight into the cultural landscape of Los Angeles.

About Kim Abeles
Kim Abeles is an artist who crosses disciplines and utilises a wide-range of media to explore and map the urban environment and chronicle broad social issues. She has over 40 years of experience of working successfully across the cultural landscape, spanning what can often be a gulf between grass-roots community practice and successful connections with formal cultural institutions and national awarding bodies. Kim writes of her practice: “My work from the past two decades results from the urban experience, chronicling historical and contemporary issues housed in sculpture and installation. Data gathering, library research, and experimentation with unconventional materials are predominant methods of investigation in my artworks’ development. I typically approach social issues through “portraits” of individuals transformed into broader themes; or, I create sculptural contraptions to collect visual or auditory data over an extended period of time. In both cases, the collected “facts” become elements from which I create artworks, and the process itself is materialized. The urban environment, feminism, aging, HIV/AIDS, and labor are some of the specific issues I have engaged through my work. In all cases, materials and form are inspired connections to my intellectual pursuits. I am a concept- seeker and an object-maker. The work emerges from my hands as both feminine and masculine, seeking objective and subjective realities, and spoken in a visual language of the poetic spirit.”

her website is Kim Abeles

It was an enriching experience to spend some productive and reflective time with Kim, and her photographer husband ken Marchionno. I was also very inspired by the many diverse people that I met along the way who introduced me some of the many aspects of LA life. I am currently developing some initial ideas that I can take back to LA next year and translate into new project.

More information about Me, You and Everything Else.

The exhibition opens on Friday 18th November 2011 with the private view on Thursday 17 November 6-8pm. You can download an invite here.

I have been inspired by this remarkable series four short films commissioned and presented by Al Jazeera exploring contemporary aspects of hard manual work around the world. The production is unusual considering that it has been commissioned by a major media organisation: there is no interpretive commentary allowing the powerful images and the subtitled words of the workers to speak for themselves.

Reproduced from Al Jazeera:

In today’s technological age – is heavy manual labour disappearing or is it just becoming invisible? Physical work was once celebrated with hymns of praise. But workers today must be content with encouraging one another that their hard work is better than no work at all. This series looks at the state of physical work in today’s world. Work that is dreary, demanding and at time dangerous.

1) Lions

We take a glimpse inside the bloody and frenetic activity of the Port Harcourt meat market in Nigeria. Here cows and goats are brought to the slaughter – then cut, roasted and cleaned for sale.The slaughter yard offers a hellish vision of noise, blood and smoke – viewers may find some scenes distressing.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2) Heroes

Heroes looks at freelance miners in Ukraine who spend long days crawling through cramped shafts of exhausted coal mines to dig out a living for themselves.

Click here to view the embedded video.

3) Brothers

We visit the ship-breaking yard of Gadani in Pakistan where derelict vessels are beached and then dismantled for scrap metal – with a bare minimum of mechanical assistance.

Click here to view the embedded video.

4) Ghosts

We visit east Java in Indonesia – where men climb steep paths amid pungent vapours carrying a heavy load of sulphur rock from the mouth of a volcano.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The weekend comprised of many workshops that included bread-making, singing and sewing, as well as numerous presentations, discussions and screenings. The presentations themselves were quite varied and featured vibrant discussions that were  very thought provoking. It seemed to me that central theme was really around  migration, community, and the language of representation. A key presentation of the weekend was Shame, Pride and Migration by Babak Salari and Diana Ivanov which discussed their photographic essay Traumas and Miracles: Portraits from Northwest Bulgaria. Taking a classic photo-documentary approach this work seeks to comment upon the life of the ageing population of the area through a series of black and white portraits and personal quotes. In their contextualising Babek and Diana explained that the communities of this regions are mainly elderly because of the migration of the younger generations abroad in search of work. Many leave the area to work in Spain, Italy and Germany to look after elders for much needed euro currency in a country with relatively high unemployment opportunities.  Who then, this project asks, is left to look after the elders of this area? The project and the touring exhibition Traumas and Miracles is a compassionate document, sharing visual and verbal ‘moments of time’ from the participants in an accessible language.

Several films were presented over the weekend, the most notable for me being the powerful documentary The Town of the Badanta Woman by Stephan Komandarev. Following on the earlier theme of home and migration, the film captures the impact of many woman who leaving the town of Varshets to look after the old and the sick of of Italy. It takes a simple approach that slowly reveals many of the stories of the woman who have to leave and the families left behind, and how they are all deeply affected by this ‘temporary’ migration. Diana Ivanov, who helped script the film, took the place of the director to facilitate the discussion of this compelling and emtionally charged film.

Overall it was a very valuable and stimulating festival for me to attend. There are many highlights that include new people, places, and unexpected interactions.  I have added a gallery of random images taken during the weekend and the fews days we spent exploring the capital Sofia.

[View with PicLens]

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March 2010. Travels around the central African country of Uganda. It was my first visit to the continent and was not sure what to expect, but experienced a rich, beautiful and welcoming country, a place to return to. While we didn’t quite make it to the remote wildlife reserves, we left with a strong glimpse of community life in the fascinating rural towns and the vibrant city of Kampala.

I have uploaded a few panoramic images that we made during our travels using the iPhone and the wonderful app autostitch with some post-production in Lightroom and Photoshop.

[View with PicLens]

This early work-in-progress is made up of a grid of 9 video images that are programmed to play randomly. As more video clips are added to work, they form dynamic montages of perceptions and viewpoints of a rapidly changing city.
Made using MAX MSP and Jitter this was collaboratively developed with fellow UK artist Bobby Bird, with additional sound design from artist Martin Clarke.

Click here to view the embedded video.