LAN trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Back in February, LAN artists Helen Dearnley and Sam Bartlett, embarked on an intrepid joint trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park to see Bill Viola and KAWS.

The chapel at YSP. Inside was Bill Viola's video installation Fire Woman and Tristan's Ascension, 2005, based on Richard Wagner's Tristan And Isolde.

These are best experienced yourself, to immerse yourself in the imagery and narratives in a sort of communion.

Lincoln artist Sam Bartlett with Ai Wei Wei's Iron Tree

Ai Wei Wei, Iron Tree, 2013

 A stimulating walk through the park up to the Long Gallery, which consisted of indoor sculptural works by KAWS, along with related cartoon-like paintings.
Drawing from childlike cartoon imagery and narratives, these express an anarchic yet vibrant aesthetic that evokes questions about these existing pop culture concepts, and a new interpretation of them.

Outside in the park itself, larger scale KAWS sculptures domineer the area, some black like huge monoliths to childhood icons, reminiscent of statues normally reserved to depict nobility/ leaders, or politicians. Here they are fictional characters, in poses not normally depicted in cartoons.

Variations in materials - some of the characters are constructed from wood.

A sense of perspective

Additional animation - Julian Opie's Galloping Horse

Other work by Antony Gormley and BobAndRobertaSmith was also on display.

Time out

Despite working away behind the scenes on things that seem to be taking a lot longer than we'd thought, I've personally had to take some time out from a lot of things, both as LAN director and from my own practice, to deal with some personal issues.

However, another unsuccessful funding application, and a raft of rather exploitative email requests lends more weight to the importance of #payingartists campaign.

We've been keeping in contact with the hospital with regards to the mural project, but are still awaiting any further news, and meanwhile, we support the junior doctor's strikes in protest against budget cuts, increased hours, and forced contracts.

As freelance artists, we cannot offer much in the way of support, as it would be great if we had a regular income, something also worth campaigning for.

We have absolutely no obligation to give away all our expertise for free, sorry.

The #payingartists hashtag is quite clearly visible on all our marketing - it means that if you require high quality artists' work, you will have a budget or sponsorship in place already, and will be happy to pay professional fees for your art. 

So, it's back to the drawing board, quite literally for us at this stage, after a much needed Easter break.

We're also aware that Peter K Rollings, who we invited to provide entertainment for Abandoned At The Exit, and was also involved in The Lincoln Simulacrum, has appeared on Britain's Got Talent.

The reaction so far: "Peter, what have you done??!!"

New Year 2016

2015 was a good year for the LAN, with the a series of fully funded digital arts workshops at The Collection c/o Onlincolnshire, although work for the hospital mural project started off promising, Lincoln County Hospital has been affected by Norovirus, so we are unsure when or whether this will go ahead for 2016, or whether we will move forward with new projects.

Our main focus at the moment is the constitution, which in all reality should've been sorted out this time last year, which will really get things going.

As thoughts turned to work again for the New Year, the concept of animating the LAN imp logo as a Nyancat style gif needs to be abandoned....

Contact us if you're interested in working with us or wish to commission artists - please note, it must be a project that requires more than one professional artist, so installations for spaces, events, exhibitions, workshops, or especially murals. 

This year is the year when there are plans to celebrate the Charter Of the Forest, and we really hope to be involved in that - we've been invited to get involved with the 1215today project, so we're hoping to have the opportunity to curate/create something exciting for this later in the year. 
It would be appropriate to dwell on the Human Rights Act at this stage. In particular, Article 27, section 2. 

"

Article 27.
 

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author."

We're looking forward to continuing with new projects, so keep up to date!