Nice

20x20 Access Space - new artwork!

Plate 7. Trapeze, Collaged drawing and painted plate design on board.
for the Access Space 20x20 exhibition Opening Friday 13 September 2013

(20x20 is an open exhibition, with the only prerequisite that every artwork is a 20 inch square)

Top 3 Artworks in Sheffield chosen for Our Favourite Places

" ‘I am to paint several portraits in the country and three ugly women at Sheffield, dingy hole’. 

 John Singer Sargent describing his 'The Misses Vickers', 1884

"Ironically, it turned out to be one of his best and one of Sheffield’s most popular paintings: a modern depiction of three modern, pretty Sheffield women – a cinematic, tense, and ‘chiaroscuro’ (both light and melancholic) masterpiece..."

I was eager to write this feature piece but in practice it proved very tricky. My final shortlist of 'Top 3 Artworks' in Sheffield for Our Favourite Places included two works not currently on public display, and one public sculpture under threat of relocation and worse potentially, of being sold. So it seemed right to stick with this semi-awkward shortlist since it says much about Sheffield's artistic climate.

1. ‘The Misses Vickers’ (1884), John Singer Sargent

2.‘Double Somersault’ (1976), William Pye

3. ‘Election Protest, Bolotnaya Square, Moscow, 2011′, hand embroidery on wool (2012) from the Interpersonal Spatial Arrangements series, Roanna Wells

William Pye, 'Double Somersault', 1976. Photo by Shaun Bloodworth

Sheffield is brimming with artists - it's pretty difficult to be ignorant of the fact. There's an impressive quantity and quality of work being made in studios scattered right across the city, from converted office blocks to suburbs to artist led spaces. Yet there are scarce opportunities to exhibit or participate in projects in the city since its visual arts sector is severely underfunded.

In terms of the city's extraordinary art collection, sadly there is little capacity for display. The public can encounter the collection on semi-rotated display at the Graves gallery (on the very top floor of the central library, sporting limited opening hours) and the Ruskin gallery close by, both are modest in size in contrast to the works which are waiting in the wings (tucked away in storage beneath the Graves gallery). This is said to be a preservation issue, limiting exposure to light, etc.

Ruskin donated a great deal of artworks to Sheffield for the pleasure of the city's workers. Once, Sheffield's art collections displayed for public enjoyment set a fine example to cities like Manchester. Now, Manchester offers an extensive collection on display all year round, in conjunction with contemporary art exhibitions and new commissions.

It isn't an easy problem to solve but it was a pleasure to mark out three fine examples of artworks to be cherished but not hoarded, shared and above all, discussed. Whether visible or not, it's important we're aware of them and the artists that created them here, or dedicated them to us, for our benefit.

Read the piece in full here on Our Favourite Places

Cushion making

I chose these two fabrics in John Lewis - both are reproductions of classic 1950's prints. After a few initial snags, I taught myself to successfully use my new (old) machine and feel extremely pleased.

The checkerboard fabric is United Colours of Benetton - it has the best colours and seemingly doesn't repeat - an absolute bargain from a fabric shop in Hillsborough. 

 

The Magic Know-How, Laura Buckley

Beautiful new show at Site Gallery in Sheffield by London based artist Laura Buckley.

Image courtesy of Site Gallery

Image courtesy of Laura Buckley

Image courtesy of Laura Buckley

Image courtesy of Laura Buckley

Image courtesy of Site Gallery

Image courtesy of Site Gallery

Archive Sheffield

Archive Sheffield is a new printed matter, produced in and about Sheffield. It targets and illustrates the people of the city as documented by some of the city's best photographers, and heralds a specially chosen set of projects by presenting them in small, alluring bites.

The core idea of Archive Sheffield that 'Sheffield is not place it is people'. It's first edition includes work by Theo Simpson, Gemma Thorpe, Andy Brown and Clive Egginton. Each photographer is gifted in picking out inconspicuous and lesser celebrated or rarely identified everyday details - details often guilty of provoking grander sensations of contentment, displacement or inspiration in ourselves and in strangers around us.  Ordinarily, we might fail to observe them.

Du.st have designed the neat layout and shape of Archive Sheffield's print - large format newspaper style with an additional smaller sheet of information added to the outside, held in place by a clip, also giving you the option to separate the pages and see the pictures in full.

Gemma Thorpe's photography is particularly engaging derived from her ongoing larger project work with Chinese students in Sheffield, 'Youzi Project'. 'Youzi's (translates to 'wanderers'). Her photographs depict the individual and collective lives of young Chinese people studying in their thousands in the city, adapting rapidly to  a vastly disparate culture and in turn changing the city's cultural fabric.

A hopeful start for Archive Sheffield, working to capture and stimulate thought across a broader spectrum of people,  showing us the city we think we know through alternative lenses.

Tweet @archivethat

Copies available across the city, including Site Gallery

The finest example of a pair of Stork scissors

 

"Chased Stork Scissors" 

I looked into the term 'chased' but it's unclear if 'chased' is a scissor type or more to do with the stork. He looks quite static to me.

 As seen at Sheffield Cutlers Hall

News! Website launch and blog

"Hello new website"

 www.JaneFaram.com will house the majority of my writing (and a little artwork). It's my new,  neat online archive.

Faramaufait.blogspot.com (you are here), will be more explorative of broader ideas and specific experiences, from encounters with art to things I trip over on and offline - only (mostly) the good things. My blog Faramaufait will tell the less polished back story.

To be 'Au fait' means to be kept abreast of the latest developments, so as I keep abreast - please keep an eye.

Also you can find me on Our Favourite Places and Dig Yorkshire. 

Un-stilling life (if there is such a thing, this is it)

A still life painting by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (1573--1621) is brought as close to real life as you could possibly imagine. Artists Rob and Nick Carter with visual effects studio MPC have dedicated 2 years to creating a 3 hour animation of a Dutch golden age masterpiece. 

Once frozen in time, Bosschaert's oil painted flowers now open and close, the sky transitions from dawn to dusk and the bees, snails and butterflies buzz, flutter and creep. 

It's a really beautiful and extraordinary thing to see.

Transforming Still Life VFX breakdown

 

 

Thanks to Creative Review for sharing this remarkable thing in their June issue, p.34.

Polish Cold War Neon

I've been thinking a lot about Neon recently, since Richard William Wheater has returned to Site Gallery for Platform: In the Making. His latest work, 'Neon is Neon, Sex is Sex' is a beacon to passers by, celebrating neon as a medium, from all angles - the craftmanship, artistry, literary references and design. Wheater alludes to neon's alternative purposes, at a time where this glowing material and it's history is re-peaking our interest. Probably because that glorious beacon of neon is quite simply a light, vibrant and optimistic sight.

The "Neonisation period" - an excellent term coined by photographer Ilona Karwińska. Watch this fabulous short video interview with her - via the BBC.

Wheater's imperfect handproduced neon is quite different to these graphic socialist post-Cold War Polish Neon signs, which Karwińska says were in English words to add glamour, how after Stalin's death the call was for "Western magic in the Polish cities".

- Neon in bespoke handwritten fonts

- Neon designed for particular buildings 

Check out Richard William Wheater's year-long public art project with artist Victoria Lucas; '12 Months of Neon Love'  (I designed the book and now I love neon even more...)