By the final day of my residency all the elements of the installation came together. Though it was strange coming to completion as the main exhibition was closing. Throughout the week many people had been through the Galleries, seen my work (both in process, and the finished pieces ‘Nests‘ and ‘Nested‘), but by late afternoon on the final Sunday no one was around. Nevertheless I did enjoy the sense of completion and the final work itself. And I have documented it for my blog and records. I’m sure it will get another outing in some form at some point.
Broken Soul of a Bird (detail) Watercolour.
Broken Soul of a Bird (Installation). Mixed Media, Wood, Shredded, Paper, Lining Paper, Russian Vine, Watercolour, willow withies, wire
Broken Soul of a Bird (Installation). Mixed Media, Wood, Shredded, Paper, Lining Paper, Russian Vine, Watercolour, willow withies, wire
Feather (detail). Watercolour on lining paper.
Broken Soul of a Bird (Installation detail). Mixed Media, Wood, Shredded, Paper, Lining Paper, Russian Vine, Watercolour
Broken Soul of a Bird (Installation detail). Mixed Media, Wood, Shredded, Paper, Lining Paper, Russian Vine, Watercolour
Broken Soul of a Bird (Installation detail). Mixed Media, Wood, Shredded, Paper, Lining Paper, Russian Vine, willow withies, wire
This is the most complex installation I have created. I wanted to develop some sense of narrative and relationship between the components. The pallets and packing crate reference the importation of the exotic. And yet they also reference the curatorial process of the ongoing exhibition as ‘Fletcher Moss Art Gallery: Div/sion of Power’. I responded to curators’ Ryan Higgins and Adam Renshaw method of presenting the exhibition as a moment prior to a fully hung show. So the show had works in crates, on supports ready to hang and in a process of curatorial rearrangement. My installation echoed this state of transition, showing representations of birds, trees, nests and feathers in ‘importation mode’. And the original reference to the ‘Plumage League’, as the origin of the RSPB in Didsbury, remained pervasive.
Curators Office: publicly accessible archive and research space
Curators: Higgins Renshaw
Note: Higgins & Renshaw
Higgins & Renshaw are fascinated by the developing role of the artist/curator with regard to active research in contemporary art practices. Treating each project as a critique of ‘insititutional indoctrination’, Higgins & Renshaw aim to investigate the relationship of space, place and heritage through curatorial devises which often appeal for wider audience participation. Paralleling the professionalism of business structures which in turn reflect gallery space aesthetics. the curators seemingly treat each space as a source of ‘anthropological’ analysis to uncover or reveal architectural significances relative to the building or gallery space.
Note from John Lynch: organiser and initiator of project
We not only put on an exhibition we created an entire Art Gallery.
