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This project began as a purely design based piece with a series of posters but quickly spiraled out of control.
I first became interested in the comments left by readers to articles and reviews of art, exhibitions and artists on the Guardian's Art and Design site.
Forming the majority of my studio work for my final year of uni, and my Degree Show this work consists of a screen print series, a couple of exhibitions, survey based research, a lot of reading, mixed media pieces, art gallery interventions and all this will be tied together into a series of booklets and zines.
I am interested by the tone and content of much of the commentary, there are many people who feel that if you are not a painter in the vein of Turner, Vermeer or peers of theirs, then you are not an artist. There is a prevailing anger among many readers that modern and conceptual art is all a load of crap and the artists charlatans and frauds that are somehow getting away with something.
My 3 year old could do better, the Emperor's new clothes, what a load of rubbish and so on are some of the more regular themes in the comments section.
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The language used in a lot of artist statements and gallery interpretations leaves some people confounded, and rightly so..in my research I have learned that a number of bigger galleries are themselves ready to change this in order to be more accessible to more people.
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It is this insiderism and elitism that I refer to when I talk about art and galleries not being accessible to a lot of people, particulary marginalised communities, they feel put off by this and of course this translates to a feeling of not belonging.
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I wanted to take a look at this in a participatory way and have begun a project for a free range gallery and exhibition where artists will leave work for people to freely find, tag and add it to a map and hopefully become part of a community of people participating in art for enjoyment and to share rather than for the highly sought after commodity it has become.
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The comments I have used in the printed works have been left as they are, no editing to grammar or spelling at all.
Click the gallery for larger images and more information on exhibitions and other work.
For my degree show I diaplayed a wall plastered with screen prints of the comments I collected along with a series of books and zines I made with research materials.
I made a series of books and zines featuring screenprints and some hand stitched and each one conveying a slightly different abstracted element of the project, sadly a few were taken during the exhibition.
I out the comments into a programme that abstracted them into a pixelated set of lines and dots, then edited this in illustrator and screen printed them onto book cloth and other fabrics and made a series of books with them.
Detail of one of the zines I made
I out the comments into a programme that abstracted them into a pixelated set of lines and dots, then edited this in illustrator and screen printed them onto book cloth and other fabrics and made a series of books with them.
Zine detail
One of the zines I exhibited alongside the screenprint wall that featured abstractions in text of the commentary.
made bookmarks from screen prints and letterpress
small book detail
I made a series of sculptural pieces that reflected the comments and made an exhibition for the purpose of photographing it for a "fake" exhibition guide.
Many of the comments have a protest sign feel to them so for "Faux Show" I made some
one of a series of screen prints on fabric
Some of the booklets and research zines I made for the degree show and final year uni work
