Holly and I have new pieces in a show opening at a new space called — The (Con)Temporary Art Space –  in the Loop tomorrow (thursday the 18th) night. “An Evening with your Contemporaries” features art works from artists including Ed Marszewski, Rachel Marszewski, Emily Clayton, Theordore Darst, Henry James Glover, Serena Himmlefarb, Sara Louden, Chris Roberson, Andrew Rigsby, Douglas Burns and Holly Holmes. Opening is from 4.30 – 8.30pm. (C)TAS is located at 208 South Wabash, Chicago, IL. For a sneak peak of the show / space check out my flickr set.

(C)TAS is brought to you by the folks who produce Proximity, Lumpen, Version Vest and the Co-Prosperity Sphere, The (Con)Temporary Art Space is a an avenue for discussion, research and action. The former retail space will be used as a working studio by cultural workers, producers, artists and designers for projects they are working on collectively and individually. The Public will be able to absorb these presentations as well as share their ideas about contemporary art. The (Con)Temporary Art Space will function as a information center and a place to learn about Chicago’s diverse art ecology.

Holly has some work in UnCommon Territories, opening Friday night (the 19th) at Heaven Gallery too! So we’re pretty crazed this week, but if you’re out and about stop by and say hi.

Holly Holmes, Grow Club. Seeds, Vacuum Formed Plastic. Dims var. 2009

Post it Note sketch, 2000

Posting has been slow of late as i prepare for the start of the school semester, i’m teaching courses at SAIC and UIC in the fall and with the new term only days away at UIC i’m putting the finishing touches to the syllabus and what not. It’s great to be teaching again, i’m looking forward to meeting my students and immersing myself in academic life. I’m hoping to take some classes myself either in Motion Graphics or Maya both of which would be a big help to the studio effort. Holly is also about to start school at SAIC for her MFA in sculpture so we’re about to become a very academic household again.

Post It Notes, 2000

In a search for the sewing machine Holly dug out some sketchbooks from a “hidden” closet last night, and found some real treasures. I’ll be trying to get back in the daily posting groove and share these with everyone. Looking at this current post and the last one i;m struck as usual by the similarities and connections between the work i was making in the period of 1995 – 1997 and 2000 – 2001. The synchronicity of seeing all this work, from Loughborough, Carbondale and now Chicago together for the first time combined with my “new” studio practice is very exciting and I hope that i can get some of these “unfinished ideas” out in the real world soon. As you can see from the drawings these images mostly revolve around the idea of unfolding sculpture, of an installation that is either MANPORT (man portable) or VEH PORT MOD (vehicle portable modules) …. At the time i was making this work, i was back in the UK i think for the summer before my final year in C’dale. Regular air travel meant that i had to carry whatever i took back and forth across the Atlantic. After transporting an aluminum relief across the water in the summer 0f 1999 i realized that i should quit making art out of solid metals like aluminum or iron and focus instead on more MAN PORT objects / items. This idea for making in a general sense has held true for me throughout my practice, working with Holly or by myself. Apart from a brief stint between 2004 – 2005 (ish) i’ve never owned a car or other form of motorized transport and frankly do not plan to. Holly and I factor our living plans around public transport. When we do a big install we rent a cargo van or similar. And so it goes for my art practice, these sketches illustrate ideas for either unfolding installations that expand from a compact module to fill an exhibition hall, to paraphrase Marshall Mcluhan, “the medium is the message”…. the work is about networks, structures—- and it speaks this with form — it is what it is — OR the sketches illustrate pieces that are still modular, but are wheeled and can be moved from place to place and exhibited not necessarily in an exhibition hall but rather taken out into the public sphere.

Post It Notes

Studio wise i’ve been building and calibrating a camera stand to record all the frames of the Permutations animation i drew while in France this summer. It’s taken a lot of effort and fine tuning, and in the long run maybe it would have been quicker just to scan these images in at a low ppi… but i have another experiment / idea to follow up on now…. which if it’s half way interesting will post asap….

Anyhow plenty good material here to work from…. ok now i’m off downstairs to draw.