The Archive of Edwyn Butler.

He will be performing in the university Lift in Chatham building, from 12 on wednesday, and in the Link gallery is an archive to explain, why there is a strange man in a lift.

I'm showing a work in progress, a back story of things, that I have just started to explore, then I can get on with my essay on found footage, and the set design for "The Maids".

I'm going to do a very detailed plan, for what I envisage to do. Micheal Landys drawings really inspired me and so have Wallace and Gromit and lots of quirky inventions, and doodles.

Arty Programmes.

Some of these expire today  part of BBC's Modern Beauty series

Not available on the iPlayer but available here
Where Is Modern Art Now?A documentary from historian and art expert Gus Casely-Hayford, whotakes a
journey to discover the state of British art today on BBC Four.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nxm6s

Anish Kapoor- Alan Yentob meets Anish Kapoor, one of Britain's most accomplished and popular
sculptors.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00p00f2/Imagine_Winter_2009_The_Year_of_Anish_Kapoor/

Ugly Beauty.Art critic Waldemar Januszczak flys the flag for modern art in UglyBeauty, arguing that
art today is as interested in beauty as it alwayshas been on BBC Two.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00p4g60/Ugly_Beauty/

The Art on Your Wall.Sue Perkins will contextualise the debate by looking at the art we hangon our
walls, tracing back some of the most popular prints of our timeon BBC Two.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00p06c4/The_Art_on_Your_Wall_with_Sue_Perkins/

and while you are there check out Matt Frei's Berlin documentaries

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00p2986/Berlin_Dangerous_Ideas/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00p4fl4/Berlin_Ruined_Visions/

Radio. South Manchester All FM 96.9.

I did a session on radio and spoke about all sorts, getting interviewed getting names muddled up I strangely enjoyed the experience and met a drunk alabama 3.

www.myspace.com/edwynbutler

I'll leave this up, for ages I hate myspace, need some one to do all that promotional stuff for me, management would be nice.

Half year reviews.

I have a review next week and I have had a few idea's they basically combine all these aspects
Found poetry, like books I have edited, performance, collage and madness, trying to show reactions to scenarios.
They combine these ideas

Performing in Lifts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjxef8AfVQg

http://www.zefrank.com/v_draw_beta/index3.html

Automatic Drawing,

Combine somehow with automatic music


http://www.hobnox.com/index.1056.en.html

This is Sculpture or is it?

Wayne Hemmingway and co, curated a club enviroment with sculpture, a light show and a dance floor, enough said, amazing with the head phones, could be at a silent disco living sculptures all that, with out head phone's was like being in a creepy collectors house, so it shows music can change space, atmosphere and enviroment Rapidly.

I did like looking at the classics listening to Mo Town, was ace.


DLA Piper Series: This is Sculpture takes an ambitious and revolutionary look at the history of modern and contemporary sculpture. This new Tate collection display continues to examine and question the trajectory of artistic innovation in twentieth-century art and beyond.

Sculpture in the form of object, installation, assemblage and ready-made will sit alongside more surprising forms, such as painting, video, photography, language and performance.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUJ02LY7j9k&feature=player_embedded#


In addition, key figures from the cultural arena have been invited to co-curate selected sections of the display. Artist Michael Craig-Martin, designer Wayne Hemingway and his son Jack, and artist, director and writer Tim Etchells offer their own inspiring interpretations of the Tate Collection. Reflecting their own specialist practice, they present us with new ways of seeing and appreciating sculpture.
DLA Piper Series: This is Sculpture includes artists such as Sir Jacob Epstein, Henry Moore, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Arman, Yayoi Kusama, Gilbert & George, and Cornelia Parker.

Liverpool. and Kinetics.

This is my favourite piece of Kinetic Sculpture, Rebecca Horn "Concert for Anarchy" I think; but, seeing Joyous Machines exhibition at Tate Modern has made me vastly question my opinion: Michael Landy and Jean Tinguely, was simply Joyous, performative, mechanical almost chaotic, but a planned chaos, Michael Landy's homage and work about Jean Tinguely seminal Auto destructive sculpture "Homage to New York", is quirky it's like being in an inventors work shop.

"Homage to New York", was supposed to extinguish it self when the fire started from the self playing piano, which only played three notes, it ultimately didn't work as planned, but chance involved, changed it to be a whirling attraction dangerous in so many ways, fascinating, Kinetic art, that had an element of performance, a broken machine, that you weren't really sure what it would do next, chance often interviened, paper was supposed to save it self in the pond to keep some automatic drawing's, the writing cog went the wrong way, it would have exploded, if the authorities hadn't got involved, but Jean Tinguely insisted.

It has relevance to day with Kenetic Master's like Rebecca Horn and her falling Piano "Concert for Anarchy" a witty surprising cieling decoration., and Michael Landy's collage or complete attack on consumerism,

I liked the complete ingulfing, involvement and enthusiasm. Michael Landy has fanatically, produced, collected and studied some fascinating work, how it works in mysterious ways, when it shouldn't work at all.


Break Down Michael Landy's most famous piece is a reaction to consummerism. and has very close links to the machine of destruction in a way, its a way or organising and destroying almost starting a fresh, the machines Tinguely worked on were machines to make things automatic, like automatic writing drawing music, just producing with out using any traditional artistic talents, but a lot of mechanical genius and imagination, starting a fresh.

Wiki says.

Break Down, the work which put him in the public eye, was held in February 2001 at an old branch of the clothes store C&A on Oxford Street in London (C&A had recently ceased trading, and the shop had been emptied). Landy gathered together all his possessions, ranging from postage stamps to his car, and including all his clothes and works of art by himself and others, painstakingly catalogued all 7,227 of them in detail, and then destroyed all in public. The process of destruction was done on something resembling an assembly line in a mass productionfactory, with ten workers reducing each item to its basic materials and then shredding them.

Break Down, which was a joint commission from The Times newspaper and Artangel, attracted around 45,000 visitors. At the end of the process all that was left was bags of rubbish, none of which were sold or exhibited in any form. Landy made no money as a direct result of Break Down, and following it had no possessions at all.

So I will still research automatic thing's consumerism, and all sorts, but Liverpool today you enlightened me.

Spearfish Trombones.

I have a busy three weeks, an essay to do about found footage film making, a play to do some props for and exhibition in sheffield.


I shall be producing four canvases for this commision.
Simple and to the point, making them with the curators, so its all a team effort.

Behind the Myths Art Exhibition

a mini art-exhibition looking at the myths and misconceptions surrounding self harm.

Time:Thursday, 10 December 2009 11:00

Location:Council Chamber in the Octagon Centre (Sheffield University)

The play "The Maids" by Jean Genet, has a few themes to me there's definitely evidence for the ideas of time, and surviellance and the set having a character for it self. I am working with some collegues on this, we're using Niels Moustache couch, and a lot of Knick Knacks and ornaments, clocks, i'm somehow melting them, maybe old record's or rubber casts of old  clocks, eyes for surviellance, will have an artist meeting that play is on 7th December 2009, so I'll be busy, The lamp, table and phone are key items and I'm working together on them.

I had an Interview, a very casual interview, hopefully it went ok, its for a community arts and festival company called Spearfish, Ben the nice man I spoke to, was saying he would like to get students involved more, and said if I could get a group of Interactive Arts students involved and currated an exhibit had a theme they'd oversee it and give it a budget.

I like the space, of Sound Control, could do a theme of manchester's music heritage and open it up to the class, produce works of performance, collage etc, all on the theme of music heritage. 

Painting.

I havn't done any painting for ages, so I went in to our empty more like a call centre than a studio, studio and did a few canvases Just big expressionist textured pieces, was thinking about printing on top, collage etc, I like mixed messages.

The character of the work having a story behind the work, its made me more excited, and given it some purpose really an outlet of ideas etc.

They always turn in to Willem De Kooning or Frank Auerbach angry messes, but I do like the layers.

Frank Auerbach

Portrait Style.








Willem De Kooning.
I could possibly do a portrait of this picture, including the painting in the back ground.

Fuel and work.

I was researching In to the Wild and loved the heartbreak in the story, and started thinking about his calls for help, I have created some abstract collages which could be calls of help from a madman, I'm also making a film with empty tins and bottles etc doing a percussive film, then putting effects on it to sound like its being played in an open wilderness, so empty that you feel lost ,almost claustraphobic, because of the varse space, I guess the opposite, but a horrible sensation no people around to interact with

The collages I'm blowing up with photocopiers, screen printing, and doing digital work seeing which works best, the results will be shown as three collages and a film I am really excited about this and will be busy.

The artists I have been researching aren't particularly contemporary, but Its my favourite work really.

Robert Raushenberg Retroactive 1 1964, is almost a combination of abstract expressionism and pop art, but he looked at a more political angle he also did lots of performance, film all sorts, but I love the layers its amazingly vivid, basically like a time capsule of the era.

Martin Kippenberger I am too political,

Every aspect of Martin Kippenberger’s practice was a self-contained act of decadence, designed to add to the myth of the artist as a whole. In I Am Too Political, Martin Kippenberger paints an image stripped of direct content: six canvases joined together as one form a billboard-like design, bolstering a grotesque nude. Kippenberger’s painting operates as an anti-advert for itself, poking fun at the tradition of painting and the way it’s been historically and ideologically subverted.

I want to do the work of a different person a character almost.

My phone died or is dead, or is paralysed anyway, I was caught in the storm and I have lost a lot of ideas I saved in there, and poems I was working on whilst wandering hopefully it will work again just for an hour so I can regrasp those Ideas put them in my notebook, I mean I'm not sure If there masterpiece ideas but.

I will attach photographs of my half year review show soon.

I have hopefully got an interview with spearfish the company that do Eurocultured festival for an internship, They do festivals in manchester and Belfast and further afield I have connections with both of those cities either with family or a general fondness.

I performed at Fuel for the new up and coming poets like Lauren Bolger, at there night Paradox, I was one of three musical acts, I got a great reception and reaction to all the new songs, and covers of The Smiths, I seem to get a lot of attention from thirty something women when I perform, any reception is good but when I started out didn't really know what my target audience would be.

I am doing a live session on All FM, and hopefully going to be allowed to keep the recording then I shall send that off to other record companies and radio stations hopefully BBC introducing will like it.

Just think there might have been a break through, I know exactly what I want to do really, music but not in the straight sense I like troubadours and odd balls like Tom Waits so If I had that character when I performed ace.

We have our review next week, half year all the work we've done so far, I know what I'm doing now.

Blank Media nice review on free for arts and now another oppurtunity

http://www.blankmediacollective.org/index.php/news/opportunity_details/neck_of_the_woods

Networking.

I need to get a move on doing work so shall contact lots of festival organisers about possible placements, etc.
Like these guys.
http://www.versionfestival.co.uk/


Today I met a lass called Abbie who is a performance and music student at Manchester University, she wants art work her ideas for the play "The Maids" by Jean Genet, are very good, I'm currently researching and shall attach all that on here, Studying a script and doing set design, collaborating with other artists.

I will discuss what the play is about and how I can produce work, I have some guidelines which are helpful, not limiting, which is good, There are notions of people watching you, and some glam and cheating and all sorts, its dark surreal, has elements of comedy somewhere, I have been asked to make twisted furniture, and did some skip diving earlier so think I have found somethings.

Jon is a lovely fellow and he sends us lots of links and events.

I shall go to this sounds amazing.

Hi!

I'm Sally Olding, Programme Manager for mintsource, The Whitworth Art
Gallery programme of activities for young people.

I'm just emailing to tell you about an event we're hosting on Saturday 14th
November, 2pm-5pm. It's called LIGHT FANTASTIC and is all about drawing with
light. There'll be hula-hooping and poi with LED lights, light graffiti and
black-light drawing. We'll be hosting photos from the event on our Flickr
blog:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mintsource

The event is free and there's no need to book - just drop in on the day! I
hope that LIGHT FANTASTIC will be of interest to your students and that you
can forward them this message.

Best wishes,
Sally.



--

Sally Olding
mintsource programme manager

The Whitworth Art Gallery
The University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M15 6ER UK

Telephone: +44 (0)7768 317387
Internal calls: 77 59504
Fax: +44 (161) 275 7451

***mintsource online***
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Collage.

I generally collage, to get idea's formed I'm going to start making more mixed media work in the studio from now on, progress some of my strongest idea's and collages.

I have also been taking apart some books and making new stories, and collages a similar lark to this fellow,

Tom Philips, its a book in the special collections gallery at Manchester Metropolitan university, lots of layers, I want to try and unscramble the chaos of my work looking at this might help me .http://humument.com/ 

 I have a gig on saturday where I will unveil some new material I have been working on, from my beatknick way of writing collageing poems together to make new work, I will also get in contact and see if I can exhibit some work at the bar FUEL is the place, its a friendly vegetarian cafe in withington.

I went away to cornwall and took a fair few photos of the sea and lots of other things, I want to connect my writing with photo's, try and combine everything really, get more focused on one thing.

In To The Wild

Its a film about survival, it basically sum's up a lot of things, that we don't need material things really, but you do need relationships, and that is what killed him, (or was it don't want to spoil the film) the lack of human connection, he got stranded trapped because of the river breaking his crossing, he went to Alaska alone, its amazing a very sad story.

The ironic thing about making a film about it is, that it probably costed millions to make, and he believed on living with no money if you can.

It also does show, that we need certain things, he found a life with out music almost soul less it seemed, you do need knowledge to survive, you also need people.

Its a great though very sad story.

Survival Research.

Since I was younger I have always had an appreciation for the documentaries of Ray Mears, a survival expert, In this latest series he's in North Canada.

I love the idea of a desert island survival like Robinson Crusoe, or The Swiss family Robinson a version of that tale.

The film "Cast away" I love also, not sure I could live on a dersert island my self, was wondering about it, living away hidden from culture for a year what work as well as survival would I develope, what skills I would have to learn.

How Crazy would I get, Bring a tape recorder and thats it.

Here is Bear Gryll's

Ardal O Hanlon.

Commented on King's Lynn on the One show, its a quiet suburb, full of odd balls. Where I spent my adalecent years.