The Window Block - Last Week...

Exactly what it says on the tin... I especially love the introduction of 'bas-relief'!

Getting Into The Art Business

I can't remember what I saw the first time I walked into Birmingham's contemporary art gallery, the Ikon, in early September 1974. It wasn't the show that's shown above I'm pretty sure of that. Located then in the Shopping Centre built over the rail station it was quite an intimidating place - you entered through glass doors into a long narrow space that seemingly was uninhabited (it was only at the far end that there was an assistant/invigilator) and if there was any signage to indicate that it was free and accessible I don;t recall it.

Nonetheless that first time was truly intoxicating - I'd visited Museums and Art Galleries before (as a student plenty of times to the local museum and on trips to London oodles of commercial spaces as well as the Tate etc.) but other than the small Exe Gallery in Exeter (attached to the art school) I knew nothing of the (then) developing network of Arts Council funded contemporary venues across the UK of which Ikon was one of the most prominent.

But I was hooked...from then on I went regularly throughout my time as a post graduate student at the Art School, in the year I spent as a Cheltenham Fellow and the year after when I was ostensibly studying for my PGCE (but really spending most of my time in my studio painting). So much so that eventually (stints of casual jobs and dole intervening) as I was known to the staff by then I was encouraged to apply for one of three JCP (Job Creation Programme funded by Government) opportunities on offer. I jumped at the chance to get my foot in the door.

Places

During the 1980's I worked as an arts administrator for East Midlands Arts, the then independent Arts agency for that region, and now the sub-regional office of the Arts Council England. When I joined, the regional arts associations were in their ascendancy, by the time I left, ten years later, they were being emaciated preparatory to being turned back into regional offices. I guess I was lucky to be part of a network that was expanding and developing for much of the time I was involved in it. For most of the time we were able to determine our own priorities and policies and pretty much our own way of implementing them. One of the best bits of the job was the instruction to 'get out there and find out what's going on'. I took this up with alacrity and covered many many miles over the years seeking out art and artists and discovering many of the region's nooks and crannies over the decade. This picture was taken down in the cellars of Rufford Abbey.

The Window Block - In The Eighties

I featured the blocked window on the passageway to Sue's in Italy in an earlier post - here is (what I believe to be) my first ever photograph of it taken back in the late 80's. The endlessly inventive ways in which the opening is patched up is a treat. It puts me in mind of the artist Richard Wentworth and his 'Making Do And Getting By'.

The Beauty in Rubbish

From a very early age I have always found quite a bit of beauty in rubbish. I was around 12 when we were having our end terrace wall rebuilt (it was in imminent danger of collapsing!) and had just acquired usage rights to my father's SLR. After the builder's had finished one afternoon I was struck by the symmetry in this small anonymous pile of rubbish.

Diamond City

A recent conflagration overtook the waste bin outside Diamond City...luckily their downspout survived the raging flames...

More on the Downspout!

Of recent weeks I have been in Italy at our good friend's house. One day in an amazingly hard and protracted storm I noticed the downspout on the terrace - I'm pretty sure that - in over twenty years of visiting the place - I'd never photographed it before. But it makes a fine addition to my collection. Though I waited for the sun to return first...