working with words

‘A shot and three stabs in the bar, the mouth bled and a believer begs’ Souzalopes

‘This is a gift, it comes with a price’ Florence&The Machine

painting the poetry

Interesting development for me this past week. I happened across a literary site that had used one of my paintings to visually compliment a piece of poetry. As far as i know this is the first time that this has happened. The site TUDA (meaning *everything*) is based in Brazil, the writing placed along side the painting Untitled (insult I) 2009 is in Portuguese. The Editor kindly provided me with a translation.

In a red-light district the slut who gave birth
that day took a shot and three stabs in the
bar the mouth bled and a believer begs
to the glory of Jesus she is dead oh,
officer Saint kill the one. And he
killed in the name of Christ
the evildoer. And glory to
the Lord who does
the work well
amen
+
moreover
r.i.p. here
Jessica Jasmin
the daughter of a bitch
antidead didnt die, was stillborn

Souzalopes

On my first look I had lots of questions. What is the poem about? How did the Editor find my work? What is the aim of the website? All before I could think about the writing itself and consider it in relation to my work-clearly some one else had, either at a cursory glance or more in depth by referring to the ideas behind the painting.

TUDA is a literary/arts online magazine accepting submissions from Artists working in any visual or written medium. Based in Brazil, most of the content is not in English, however the kind Editor sent me the rough translation above.

Happy with the aims of the site, I could start to think about the writing. I was immediately taken with it, the imagery sparked my imagination and I understand why a viewer would make the connection between Untitled (insult I) despite the numerous readings of birth and pregnancy that are not a central focus of my work.

This is a strange time for this to happen. Followers of this blog will know that I have been using literature to inform my practice, often in fits and starts, but always incredibly valuable to my process of idea generating, as well as the development of the female figure and extending her narrative. So to find that some one out there in the internet world had placed the painting next to the written word~this is fascinating to me. It lead to the drawing bellow as I started to pick the poem apart.

*a shot and three stabs in the
bar the mouth bled and a believer begs*

This discovery encouraged me hugely at a time when I was feeling a bit lost n my own practice. Thanks TUDA.

Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 8th june-16th August 2009

Now in its 241st year, the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition 2009 continues the tradition of displaying a wide range of new work by both established and unknown artists in all media including painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture and architecture

This year’s co-ordinators, Royal Academicians Ann Christopher, Eileen Cooper and Will Alsop have selected works for the exhibition around the theme of ‘Making Space’. Since the founding of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768, the annual Summer Exhibition has become the world’s largest open-submission contemporary art exhibition. Royal Academy of Arts

Extra exciting for me this year~Dean Melbourne, a featured Artist on this blog~has been accepted to this years Summer Exhibition (congratulations Dean). See Dean’s accepted piece and his experience of the summer show HERE

A couple of other works that caught my eye from the exhibition~

Julie Yip and Agata Zaleszczyk
Untitled 2
Digital print
76x100cm
This collaborative artwork brought together the artists’ contrasting practices. Zaleszczyk’s penchant for theatricality and pigs’ heads fused with Yip’s more understated photographic representations of the mundane aspects of contemporary life.(RA)

Joe Bampton
Corridor, Friedrich Strasse 112A, Berlin
Cardboard, boxes, plaster, PVA, drinking straws, string, spot lamps, oil
45x45x130cm
The piece is based on and was originally displayed in the Friederich Strasse, Berlin, a one-time centre for the Stasi. At the time of the artwork’s creation the centre had become an artists’ squat. It was exhibited inside a cupboard in the actual corridor the artwork represents. The interior of Corridor … can be observed through a peep-hole. (RA)

Any opportunity for emerging and unknown artists to access a wider audience is applauded by me.