Mini-Residency Part 2 and Open Day!

Over 3 scorching hot days in April, the Figure Ground team returned to LV21 and the ship became a hive of artistic activity, with 26 artists making work, collaborating, and drinking vast amounts of tea (thanks Paivi and others for their dedicated washing up).

On April 20th we opened the ship to the public and had lots of excited visitors come along..

We will post more soon but in the meantime here are some links to some of the artists blogs and visitors photos...

http://grahamdunning.com/2011/04/25/photos-from-light-ship-performances/

http://www.fromherewhereyouare.co.uk/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theprojectroom/sets/72157626547327698/

Thanks especially to Paivi and Gary, and Rob for technical support, and Dave for the BBQ!

Count down to Lightship event on 20th April

Wednesday 20th April 12 – 5 pm


We would like to invite you to join us on LV21, a lightship moored on the Medway where over 20 artists have been making work in response to this exciting environment. Artists have come together across the South to collaborate and experiment with new ways of making work collaboratively in public. Much of the work is in progress and inhabits a place between studios and public spaces.


Figure Ground has arranged this event to continue debating what art in public places should, or rather can be. We are keen to open up this discussion and listen to viewpoints from local communities, artists, commissioners and all those interested and involved in art in the public realm.


If you would like to take part please get in touch.
If you’re organization is unable to fund travel we have some travel bursaries available.


We look forward to seeing you on board.


Warm wishes


Jon Adams, Lucy Andrews, Katy Beinart, Jack Brown, Laura Krikke and Jo Thomas


For further information contact Lucy on 07818493699 or e: figuregroundprojects@gmail.com


A map and further details about the venue are available here: http://www.lv21.co.uk/contact-us/

Event at Banner Repeater Hackney Downs

On Saturday Figure Ground met with Ami Clarke (Banner Repeater), Rachel Anderson (Artangel Interaction), James Steventon (Fermynwoods Contemporary Art), Rebecca Whyte (Stour Space). We would like to thank them all for their contribution to a passionate, intense and informative discussion about the challenges of making public art happen. More details to follow soon.

See:

www.bannerrepeater.org

www.artangel.org.uk/about_us/artangel_interaction

www.fermynwoods.co.uk

www.stourspace.co.uk

Banner Repeater is an artist led contemporary art space, curatorially run and initiated by Ami Clarke,  located on Hackney Downs Network Rail, platform 1. It has a reading room and project space with a programme of exhibitions, events, and performance. Thank you Ami for being a brilliant host.

Gary Weston's brilliant film documenting day 1 of the residency

Talk at Rochester Art Gallery this Thursday!

Could be of interest to FG artists and followers...


Marta Marcé -  Artist Talk 

Thursday 24 March 2011, 1-2:30pm

In association with the exhibition, Marta Marcé - Conditions of Abstraction - until 25 March 2011

Join Marta Marcé for a visual presentation about her creative practice and hear about her current projects and future developments. Marta will also be discussing, in the gallery, her paintings in the exhibition, and invitesquestions about her work. Artists and students are very welcome to attend as part of a professional development exchange.

Marta Marcé is a Spanish-born Berlin based artist, who is interested in the idea of play as a metaphor for how society operates, in an era when daily life is becoming ever more structured, planned and controlled. Marcé investigates concepts involving the human condition and the act of painting and explores the principles of games, rules and laws. .  

'Marta Marcé is inspired by the idea of play as a way to experiment with the possibilities of abstraction in painting. She begins each of her painting series by establishing a set of conditions and basic building blocks (shapes, background, colours) from which she generates increasingly complex permutations. As with any game, her own rules of painting evolve or collapse as the experimentation gains momentum.'  The above quote is from a commissioned essay by Jennifer Thatcher, Project Co-ordinator for the Folkestone Triennial which is available in the gallery.

Booking is essential as places are limited. 
 
To reserve your free place, contact the Arts Development Team on 01634 338319 or email arts@medway.gov.uk  

Rochester Art Gallery presents Marta Marcé - Conditions of Abstraction in association with Riflemaker Gallery and ARC.

Rochester Art Gallery and Craft Case
Medway Visitor Information Centre
Ground Floor, 95 High Street
Rochester 
Kent ME1 1LX

Happy artists on a Lightship

Photograph by Gary Weston

The wonderful Colin - Morse code genius

We all want to be radio engineers now! Thanks Colin, your contribution to the day was greatly appreciated by everyone.
Photographs by Ann Rapstoff

Threads of thoughts from Elise Liversedge

".... concept for public artwork the ships 'last station' and its relationship/navigational coordinates in regards its current anchorage which includes the  internal and external layered palimpsest collaboration with Mary.... this could be a simple mapping of 'her' current location and the borrowing of other elements within the landscape both with colour and light. and could also involve the placing of simple elements with in the locale. i wonder how far her light beam went..."

Sadie Hennessy's Plimsoll line picture

From wikipedia - "The waterline, national Load Line or Plimsoll Line was invented by Samuel Plimsoll, to be positioned amidships, indicating the legal limit to which a ship may be loaded for specific water types and temperatures. To an observer on the ship the water appears to rise or fall against the hull. Temperature affects the level because warm water provides less buoyancy, being less dense than cold water. The salinity of the water also affects the level, fresh water being less dense than salty seawater."

Mr Samuel Plimsoll 10 February 1824 – 3 June 1898

Matt Bray's photos from the first day of the mini-residency

Ann Rapstoff's thoughts on the first day of the mini-residency

First day at The Figure Ground mini residency, what a day. Amazing bright blue crisp sunshine, a lightship to play on all day, to breathe in the space, be challenged by new perspectives from artists with very different practices, but all managing to find a middle ground to share something of there ideas and thoughts. Space to let things unfold in their own time without pressure, what a luxury.
I was working with two artists during the day, we were initially wondering how we would connect, but I found there was more in common than I thought. Finding that a painter moves with their body and inhabits the work much like I do when I try to inhabit a space. Finding artists who like poetry and singing, who are not restricted by medium or the parameters of art practice, who want to go well beyond those boundaries. A glorious and inspiring start to a great project.

Ann 
www.annrapstoff.co.uk

Photos by Lucy 

Participants announced

We had 180 application requests and 100 returned application forms for our Mini-residency on a Lightship event. We are now excited to announce the participants as Andrew Cross, Ann Rapstoff, Bram Thomas Arnold, Caren Hartley, David Dixon, Elise Liversedge, Fiona Long, Graham Dunning, Hannah Hull, Ingrid Plum, Jane Ponsford, Jessica Mautner, Katarzyna Perlak, Mary Hooper, Matt Bray, Nicola Rae, Sadie Hennessy, Sarah Britten-Jones, Steve McPherson, Will Nash. Click on the tab at the top of the page to see links to their websites.
Saturday marks the start of an exciting collaborative adventure onboard the Lightship. We hope you will come and see the outcome at our public event on the 20th April. See tab above for invitation and directions. 

Figure Ground planning day on LV21

Hannah Newell's poetic experience of a Figure Ground event.

Artist Hannah Newell participated in the Figure Ground event in Brighton and recorded her experience on her blog (link below.)She writes 'the ideas and work created at the Figure Ground event show the artists creating connections spontaneously with others and the space they find themselves within. That connection is left open for others to take forward. The freedom to 'play' in public space and invite others to do so is a positive demonstration of our ability to act and to have a sense of connected ownership of public space.'

http://www.altertopian.com/Site_3/The_Practice_of_Yea-Saying.html

amazing LV21

Just been down to discuss the mini-residency plans with Paivi and Gary at the LV21 Lightship. What a totally amazing place. Inspirational in so many ways - materials, textures, smells, acoustics, light.... exciting, rich spaces.... and so full of stories. The ship's restoration is work in progress and in advance of the arrival of 20 artists some bulkheads (walls to the non-nautical) are being removed and portholes reinstated. 

continuing this train of thought....

Figure Ground artist Jon Adams was the artist in residence for Southern Rail in 2008 as part of an arts program called Alternative Platforms. This image is of his installation in London Bridge station. For more information see http://www.disabilityartsonline.org.uk/Jon_Adams_profile

Meeting PLaCE

Figure Ground are really excited to be meeting PLaCE on the 7th May in Bristol. 
PLaCE is part of the University of the West of England and is "a creative, practice led, research centre that addresses issues of place, location, context and environment at the intersection of a multiplicity of disciplines and practices." 
http://www.uwe.ac.uk/sca/research/place/

trains of thought

Thinking happens differently on trains. Artist Dylan McGarry is part of the COPART festival in South Africa (21-30 November 2011) "which takes the form of a dynamic, interactive traveling festival. The festival located at train stations across the country, will have be an open forum space for different practioners to meet and interact and share their creative practices in sustainability. Participants and contributors will travel by train to each site. From Cape Town to COP17 in Durban, via Joburg, contributors will participate in a 10 day train trip where artists, activists & scientists will come together in a unique and innovative response to Climate Change, and will interact with the different communities of practice, offer new social learning processes for different practitioners, as well as interact with the  COP process in a very new way." 
http://www.copartist.org/?page_id=29

Our mini-residency featured on Creatabot

Lots of interest about our forthcoming events being generated by a posting on Creatabot, which is a social media website and online magazine for the creative community in the South East.
see : http://creatabot.co.uk/2011/02/16/mini-residency-on-a-lightship-available/

Textile artist's response to LV21

http://www.casholmes.blogspot.com/

Check out textile artist Cas Holmes' blog about her recent visit to LV21.... 

Great response to mini-residency invitation

We only posted our invitation on Tuesday and already we have had lots of requests for an application form. Getting excited about the events now - it is going to be amazing!

Some concepts arising from the Figure Ground meeting in Hackney on the 12 Feb 2011

Figure Ground - a state of mind . . . in plain sight . . . hidden but there if you look for it . . . Dis-monumentalism . . . inhabiting spaces in between things . . . spaces for unplanned interactions . . . earthy and connected . . . perceptual game . . . artist lead / initiated . . . doing it / making it / not just talking about it . . . finding your own brief . . . generating your own ideas . . . self sufficiency / independence . . . challenging the commissioning process . . . expanding the field of public art to the maximum . . . regaining public spaces . . . resilience in a time of change.

The Sky's the limit...

Figure Ground's first Visioning Day 29 Jan 2011

Figure Ground trip from Westminster pier to Greenwich on the Thames cruiser. Accompanied by a melancholy commentary from the captain, pointing out all the buildings that weren't there any more. Surrounded by tourists, sharing tea and ideas as the city slipped by from a new perspective. Discovering clay pipes and horse’s teeth whilst mud larking on the tidal river beach. Discovering common aspirations and enthusiasms whilst warming up in an old tavern.

Embarking

Contrasting commentaries

Starting our blog

Figure Ground Projects begin their new blog.