AID & ABET

During this semester we were told to do a placement. It can either be working in a gallery, teaching in any art school or taking experience under any artists. I was mainly interested to work under some artist so that i can expose myself to a real workplace. I along with 3 other friends of mine decided to work together. We got in contact with an artist DAVID KEFFORD. He was with us during our first year holding an installation workshop. He is basically a Cambridge based artist and a co-founder AID & ABET along with Sarah Evans and CJ Mahony. AID & ABET is an artist run contemporary art space (warehouse) founded in 2009. It is just next to Cambridge station. 

We were shadowing David Kefford. He warmly welcomed us in his warehouse and gave us a tour around. Its a huge warehouse. Over many days to aid & abet, i realized that its just not a place where they hold only contemporary art exhibitions but also where they have their discussions, talks and meetings. So its kind of a multi-purpose place where you see a continuous collaboration between the artworks, the artists and the audience. 

First exhibition of 2013 was WE OBJECT! It was curated by Benedict Drew featuring the artworks of Nicholas Brooks, Rebecca Lennon, Beth Collar, Angus Braithwaite, Benedict Drew and Heather Phillipson. For this exhibition Benedict had gathered lively group of artists, focusing on body’s intersection with objects and how text and speech can open up the space where the world and the body disagree. This exhibition was all over the warehouse.

SOME OTHER PICTURES FROM THE EXHIBITION:

Eat The Art (Performance for Mirror)
Vinyl on Mirror, A0
REBECCA LENNON

The Concha Institute HD video
BENEDICT DREW 

Amongst the exhibition the work i like the most (below):

Offering for Tesco (Where wings Take Dream)

Cargo Cult reenactment in Tesco Car Park

REBECCA LENNON

This artwork of Rebecca Lennon impressed me a lot. It was a small cargo. The way it was developed in an artwork was truly eye catching. It was totally dark inside and there were 3 screens and 1 mirror which indirectly serves as a screen. So all together there were 4 screens. At a time 4 people can sit inside comfortably. The video being played in the cargo takes you from the warehouse to space around the galaxy and back to warehouse. It was really interesting and on top of everything it was so warm inside. I just wish to have one like this in my room during extreme winters.

A night of 'NOISE, IMPROV and SOUND'. This was another exhibition as a part of WE OBJECT!. It was a trio played by Paul Abbot, Daichi Yoshikawa and Seymour Wright. They were kind of bending the contemporary music to involve the gathering. This was something i heard for the first time. It was really weird but interesting and original. 

The reason i did not went back home for placement and decided to stay and work here was i can make new contacts, meet new people and the working environment defers a lot for sure. All together it was a great experience and would stay in contact with David Kefford for future work. 

STUDIO WORK: SHOOT 3

For this shoot i did some prior planning. All my housemates helped me out a lot. I issued the camera from photography department in the university and could not get tripods because they were out of stock. Two of mine friends were playing with lights and another friend was taking pictures. I took a black bed sheet and spread that over my couch. Also used a whole tangled wool of black thread. Took around 70 pictures from which i preferred only some which are below. The shoot went for like 3 hours. They actually turned out good and delivered the message which i wanted to (WOMEN AGONY).

STUDIO WORK: SHOOT 2

After my first shoot still i wasn't satisfied. Did my second shoot at a friend's place. She wrapped my face completely in threads continuing a bit onto the shoulders as well. One big whole wool of thread was around my face. Actually my initial idea was to wrap myself completely in threads (the whole body), but that was not working in practical and was also taking too long.

STUDIO WORK : SHOOT 1

Giving actual meaning to something becomes really important at a particular point of time. Because i was working with threads, now i wanted to discover a new scenario out of it. We had to prepare ourselves for our final studio practice. I definitely wanted to work with thread, but this time not just a big piece on wall. After a bit of research, i thought to do some shoots with thread. For this shoot, my housemate helped me out a lot. I did that in my room, hanging threads between two of mine cupboards. I did not had any concept behind it at that point of time. But after that shoot, i realized that i opened a new door for myself. WOMEN AGONY is something which i discovered from it. They grow through torture and seek for a fresh light which they might not get throughout their life. It was not really a big thing, but i think it provided me with new ideas and a way to carry my studio practice further.

EVA HESSE

• Jewish German-born American sculptor.
• Her pioneering work in materials such as Latex, fiberglass and plastics.
• A dynamic and Multi-faceted communication of two-dimensional and three-dimensional work can be experienced.
• Moving around her sculpture, one senses an optical and dynamic correspondence to chamber music, in which each melodious line is expressed by a single player.
• Associated with the mid-1960s post-minimalism anti-form trend in sculpture.
• Her art is often viewed in light.
• Led the move from minimalism to Post minimalism.

Eva Hesse. Right After, 1969.

• Comes to be floating in space.
• Piece tends to be caught in between of two adverse forces; the effect of gravity could be experienced through the delicate curve of the wires as they descent downwards, while invisible wires keep the sculpture suspended in the air.
• No loose ends, giving a sense of continuity and completion.
• Associating a light source into the structure of the artwork.
• Made entirely of bright lines hanging in loops from dark mental hooks, these blend into chaotic bunch.
• Using lines as an approach of constructing, disconnecting and assembling.
• These drooping lines of her mark shapes are apparent in wide range of her work.

SOME OF HER OTHER ARTWORKS-

BRIDGET RILEY

• English Painter
• Foremost exponent of Op Art.
• Currently lives and works in London, Cornwall and France.
• Seductive use of colors and shapes.
• very persistent work with firm definite qualities and themes of patterns, repetition and sequence. 
• Stare long enough and her work actually bulge and move and they seem to come growing.
• A sense of movement, pattern and organic feel.
• One tends to go hot and cold while analyzing her work.
• Her work tends to glimmer and move, catching viewer's visual tension.
• Looking at her work gives you a feeling that a painting is not always constant.

Fall, 1963, Bridget Riley

• In her painting "Fall", she was taking a single form and was analyzing its essence.
• This painting of her opens the door of perception, sucking you into another proportion where nothing is so sure and all is repeated.
• A great visual effort is required to browse the shape of the strips, as they get dense towards the bottom.
• For her a curve actually is a rise or fall of a straight line.
• Because of repeated abstract marks and optical sensations, your eye does not know where to rest.
• I often end up seeing color even though they are painted in black and white.
• Connection between 'stability and instability, security and insecurity'.
• hypnotize the eye.
• Using of repeated forms and lines depict her work.

SOME OF HER OTHER WORKS: