Open Studios - 30th July to the 1st August

So its open studios time again! My studio will be open as part of the Hackney WickED Art Festival this weekend so feel free to come along if you are in London.

I will have a selection of current works and works in progress out on display plus there will be a special chance to see Micro-Pages (the book arts exhibition on microfilm that toured the UK earlier in the year) on my very own microfilm machine!

Opening Times:

from 6pm Friday 30th July

10am - 7pm Saturday 31st July

10am - 7pm Sunday 1st Aug

There is a map here; and you will find me in the Mother Studios block (no. 8 on the downloadable map):

Studio 9.5

Floor 3/D

Mother Studios

Queens Yard

White Post Lane

Hackney Wick

East London

Nearest station is Hackney Wick station on the London Overground line (orange line on the tube map).

I look forward to seeing you there!

Studio - microfilm machine and wall on wheels

exhibition commentary: 'Knock Turn' at BHVU gallery

"Knock Turn" A group exhibition

By Russell Terry, Nikolas Arvanitis, Laura Cherry, Tom Hemming, Trevor Simmons,Graham Treadwell and Simeon Ackroyd

BHVU Gallery

http://knockturnshow.blogspot.com

Walking into the space at BHVU gallery during a busy private view in the middle of London's hottest summer for years is like taking a breath of fresh air. The atmosphere is relaxed and people are actually looking at the work instead of grabbing the free beer! There are two artists who really stood out for me; Russell Terry and Laura Cherry. Russell's work has an air of simple elegance, paper skulls sit atop see-through timber plinths; they command a kind of deference despite their light and fragile nature. His pieces are loaded with heavily considered processes and painstaking delicate repetition. Networks of cut paper form the shape of skulls; geometric patterns producing partially opaque heads that evoke for me images of dark paintings where men hold their memento mori. The work exudes time; the passing of time spent in the concentrated study of humanity.

Laura's collages of found images seem somehow seamless despite their disparate juxtapositions. Classical objects are turned into mythical creatures and appear to want to scuttle off the page. The book pages from which these images are taken are still intact and act as the frame for the work as well as giving a sense of narrative to the separate pieces. The images themselves, as photographs of objects in books, should normally only act as reminders, memory joggers and reproductions for contextual study; but with the addition of intersecting cut outs the copy has become an object in itself; it appears as though Benjamin's loss of aura has been rekindled.