Cornerhouse exhibition Manchester

Subversion at Cornerhouse, Manchester, May 2012. 

Went to Cornerhouse in Manchester and saw this Palestinian version of 2001: A Space Odyssey. At first I found this exhibition somewhat jarring, I guess I still do, but getting the Jean Baudrillard references now. And the artist has ripped off A-ha's Minor Earth, Major Sky video: 

 "In A Space Exodus (2009), Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour adapts a segment of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, providing it with a new, Middle Eastern context by positing the idea of the first Palestinian in space. Originally developed as part of the A Space Exodus installation, Subversion will also feature Sansour’s Palestinauts (2010) and three preliminary sketches for the Nation Estate project, a sci-fi photo series conceived in the wake of the Palestinian bid for nationhood at the UN." 

Subversion at Cornerhouse, Manchester, May 2012.  Circle Of Confusion - Joana Hadjiithomas & Khalil Joreige - very Baudrillard - "If once we were able to view the Borges fable in which the cartographers of the Empire drew up a map so detailed that it ends up covering the territory exactly... - as the most beautiful allegory of simulation, this fable has now come full circle for us, and possesses nothing but the discrete charm of second-order simulacra." This must be third-order simulacra at least.

Outside Cornerhouse gallery

Space Invader in Manchester

LAN news!

Recently the LAN applied for St. Hugh's Arts Award funding for our proposal for Frequency 2013, but weren't successful. We're not put off by this, as we hope to have assistance from another source to secure the funding we need. 


In any case, there is a free trip to Norway in the pipeline, in which I hope to go and speak to an Apparatjik himself, Mr. Magne Furuholmen, to discuss ideas. Not sure yet when this will be.

We haven't posted lately, as I've been doing a lot of work for my own practice, having recently auctioned a copy of my my self published comic for charity, and currently have some work exhibited in Moss, Norway for the 2nd Twitter Art Exhibition, which is in support of the Women's Crisis Centre there.

We're looking for a venue to host a Mail Art exhibition sometime after June, and are still waiting to hear about the Empty Shop space in Sincil Street organised by Revival. As soon as that gets underway we can initiate some exciting new projects. This space is offered at no cost to us, with a cafe and workshops being run by other groups as a skill share space. 

Empty Shop space pending....

In the mean time, I'd like to share some updates on other things I've been doing on behalf of the LAN (as well as my own practice).


In February, myself and Sally Lemsford were awarded a bursary to attend Open Air:Effecting Change at Firstsite in Colchester.

These AIR Activist events are important for sharing how galleries such as Firstsite are supporting emerging artists, for artists to get together with other bodies, such as ACE, councils, socio-political organisations, funding bodies and a variety of different organisations and groups, in order to initiate and develop discussions around finding ways to ensure that artists continue to work professionally in a climate of funding cuts, and to ensure that despite this, together we can initiate ways for artists to be paid. AIR Activists continue to re-iterate that artists should not accept voluntary positions. 

http://hyperallergic.com/50226/new-data-reveals-artists-arent-gettin-paid/

We work towards providing exhibition opportunities and involvement for artists, and in return we ask for some contribution towards this as mutual exchange. Our aim is to support artists with funding where possible, or to pool resources where this is lacking, to make things happen. 


In the mean time, we're in discussion with Whisby Natural World Centre for an exhibition there in May 2013. More details for this to follow shortly.

Lincoln Christmas Market 2011

The LAN have a stall at the Indoor Market for the Christmas Market for Saturday 3rd December only. We're promoting Cash For The Community funding, but also selling a variety of fine art, crafts, limited edition comics, prints, Christmas Cards by Helen Dearnley, and Céline Siani Djiakoua.

Your support needed!

The LAN needs your support to collect coupons from the Lincolnshire Echo for the Cash For Your Community Fund. This is to raise funding for artists and the group, so not supporting us is a no-brainer!!


This will be used for matchfunding for an ACE grant application.
We've organised a coffee morning to spread the word this Friday at The Priory Centre in Lincoln  


In other news, we've been offered the use of vacant stalls in Lincoln Central Market. When I set up the LAN, I was working with John Newling at The Collection. Here's a project he was involved in relating to markets: http://www.john-newling.com/2009/05/the-preston-market-mystery-project-2006/#more-652


The stalls will be available one Saturday every month, so I would hope artists will be inspired to make use of this opportunity. At this stage I do not know what costs are involved, but aim to negotiate the use of the space at no cost to us. This would therefore be a free opportunity to create work in response to a market space or to sell work. More info to follow.

Lincoln Artist's Bonfire

We're pleased to support Manchester Artist's Bonfire for Lincoln's first Artist's Bonfire in January 2012.
While we await news of our own Empty Shops space coming soon, we may require a suitable safer venue to host this event in the city.




Artists are invited to submit work for this, and updates will follow with more info.

Frequency Digital Arts Festival, Lincoln

The LAN has received a Cash For The Community pack via Lincolnshire Echo, which is funding for Lincoln-based community groups. We hope to use this as match funding for a GFA application for upcoming projects. I'm really hoping LAN artists will support this!


From November we're hoping to be able to make use of an empty shop space in the city centre, opposite the train station for which we hope to initiate something for Lincoln Christmas Market, and then continue to use via a skillshare project for temporary exhibitions, artist's residencies and collaborative work etc.


I shall update when details are confirmed.


Barry showed me around the rest of the Digital Arts Festival, and I met some of the artists involved, and had some cake at Angel Coffee house, which is the LAN virtual office!


I was one of only a few people to see Ilana Rein's "We Are All Cyclons" http://www.ilanarein.net/we-are-all-cylons.html
which was a tiny privilege, along with Rosaline-de-thelin's fibre optical light pieces in St. Swithin's church were reminiscent of Bill Viola's Ocean Without A Shore at Venice Biennale 2007

http://frequency.org.uk/format/artists/rosaline-de...

Alex Posada's The Particle within Roman ruins was an encounter with some kind of Nikola Tesla creation that caused the stone ruins to appear to move around it. Having recently watched something about a boy whose father invented a secret military teleportation machine, I did want to get out before some kind of Philadelphia Experiment occurred.

Digitally altered image of B.J. Nilsen from Spire.

Frequency Digital Arts Festival, Lincoln

The LAN were hoping to organise a project for Frequency Digital Arts Festival, and the organiser, Barry Hale, said that it was the most exciting proposal they'd had for this. 
So why are we not doing anything you might ask?


There wasn't enough funding available for the scale of the project proposed, and as such, we're working towards this for 2013.


As group director, I felt I didn't want to compromise professional practice or the proposed work by being limited to a smaller scale version, as the Festival is still at an experimental stage.


Meanwhile, I begrudgingly went to see Metro-Boulot Dodo's The Four Seasons at The Collection, and The Drill Hall; I say begrudgingly, only because it's half term, and if I'm not being paid to produce or exhibit work, I shouldn't actually be doing anything art/work related at the moment; however, we were invited to attend "Spire" at Lincoln Cathedral, where there were some other Apparatjiks!


Considering the proposal it would've been mental to have missed this.


Here is some footage of some of the performances: 


B.J. Nilsen @ Lincoln Cathedral http://t.co/iAeZqDKe


Lincoln Cathedral was transformed musically by B.J. Nilsen into an Ice Cathedral hewn from a fjord, then metamorphing into Jonas And The Whale, the arched roof becoming the inside of a whale's ribcage, carrying us through Scandinavian frozen seas and swallowing a shoal of silvery fish. Like Apparatjik's Frozen Fingers with added ZIM :-) Made me shiver, but in a good way :-)


Philip Jeck / Spire @ Lincoln Cathedral for #Frequencyhttp://t.co/PMGhZeAk


Philip Jeck / Spire @ Lincoln Cathedral for #Frequencyhttp://t.co/cUEiUMhX