OK, so even by our standards that's a very long run without a blog post. In our defence, Amy's job got very full-on, and I (Ben) started a new full-time day job. We have, however, kept up with the art and photography, so we thought we ought to get on with some updates. So, for this post, a look at some of the exhibitions we've entered work for over the Spring and Summer.
Cupola Gallery, Sheffield; Living with the Past (Summer 2022)
We've been showing with Cupola for over a decadenow, though most of our recent work has been more on the arts/crafts side. The open call "Living with the Past" provided an opportunity for me to dig out a very old (University-era) project, "Non-Space".
The brief called for documentary pics of abandoned or neglected areas, so I revisited places from my childhood, such as the canal under the motorway at Langley Green, near where I grew up...
...and Maes Artro, an abandoned museum in Wales which I visited as a child on camping holidays.
This is one of my favourite photographs from Wales, the mothballed Nuclear Power Station at Trawsfynned.
Of the photographs sent in, Cupola chose the above shot, from Dudley Zoo...
...and this one, from RAF Llanbedr, at Shell Island (we'd pass this base regularly when on trips to the beach whilst camping. I saw this go from active military airfield, to abandoned, and now it's open again as a civilian airport). Actually one of the interesting things with re-visiting an old project is to see what comes around and goes around. Dudley Zoo has been gradually refurbished (and was utterly heaving when we visited in the Easter), Maes Artro is now a luxury holiday site, Llanbedr is an airport, the Motorway has been rebuilt and the concrete cancer fixed, and even Trawsfynned power station is going to be re-activated, if you believe the local rumour mill.
Speaking of Cupola, Amy had some of her Ceramics on show there earlier in the year, which we don't think was mentioned on the blog; amongst the selection in this shot, the angular vase, and the flower/petal bowls to its right.
"Summer" at the Open Gallery, Halifax, June-July 2022
A new venue for us, and a chance spot on the excellent CuratorSpace listing/art site. Open Gallery in Halifax is a smashing, friendly gallery above a row of shops in the town centre. It seems to be relatively new, and they're very welcoming.
Their "Summer" themed open call seemed the perfect opportunity to dig out some shots from the "Inflate-Deflate" project. We had hoped to shoot some more for this long-runner of a series the last couple of years, but Wales has been incredibly busy, and it's hard in these Staycation-days to find a deserted bit of beach, even at 1am...
We even managed to attend the opening night, which was a bit of a novelty for us, as we've not been to an exhibition opening for about four years. We did have to have Elder and Younger Child with us, but they were well behaved and the gallery staff didn't seem to mind.
We were left with a very positive impression of the gallery, so naturally, when they announced their next open call for the show following this one, Amy entered it.
"Flora", Open Gallery, Halifax (July-August 2022)
Amy has been working, off-and-on, on her "Flowers Abstract" series since the first lockdown, taking pics in our garden, and digitally manipulating them. What started as a fun project to pass the time in Lockdown developed into a series, and then into a project at her work for some of her students to try.
With a suitably large body of work to chose from, she entered two pieces...
...and they chose this one, which is presently on display. Again, we're very happy to have been selected by the gallery (it's always nice to see our work on show), and we look forward to doing more with the Open Gallery perhaps in the future.
So, considering how up to our necks we've been with work, we're happy to have shown four times with two venues so far this year, with one old project, and two ongoing long-runners. It's prompted us to have a think about making time to produce some new work too, and left us with a desire to try and show some more work in a gallery setting...
Hopefully we'll start blogging properly again soon, we've quite the body of work from the last few months to share.
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