Jerwood go again

I took the plunge earlier in the year, and registered to enter the Jerwood Drawing Prize for 2012.  Skip forward to the ending ... and, "unfortunately", "on this occasion", "but thank you".  I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, but that isn't to say I have any regrets.  An exciting couple of weekends were spent driving to and from Wimbledon School of Art for the drop off and pick up ... on drop off day, the air was full of excited anticipation as queues of artists lined the walls unwrapping the work ... on pick up day it felt distinctly like the morning after a great party.  

Taking a sneak peak at the work being wrapped and unwrapped around me, I could see I was in good company - there were some really exciting drawings ... far more than the amount available for selection (around 70 selected from 3000 entries).  In order to be selected, drawings would need to be outstanding, not just very good, and if I'm honest, my three entries weren't outstanding ... this year.

So here they are ...

Discovered, found object, creases
© Vanda Campbell 2012

Uncovered, found object, paper, gouache, thread
© Vanda Campbell 2012

Recovered, paper, polyfilla, found object, household paint, graphite
© Vanda Campbell 2012

I have been pondering the mental process of applying for opportunities, and trying to find strategies for dealing with the disappointment of rejection.  The emotional investment leads to an inevitability of being temporarily thrown off course, but this is no different to the process actors or dancers go through when attending auditions.  Or a sports person entering a race.  The objective is always to 'win', but on the way we can achieve many personal bests.  I will try again next year, but from a starting point a bit further along. 

Less is more

Saturday was spent in good ol' London Town, with a list of exhibitions to see, places to visit, photographs to take.  And what contrasts I found.  

First stop was the Hayward Gallery to see "Invisible: Art about the Unseen 1957 - 2012".  I was on to a winner really, seeing as how nearly everything (if indeed there was a 'thing', which was not always the case ... the clue is in the title) was worked in variations of white.  A collection of works with profoundly different impacts - quiet; contemplative; awkward; repulsive; beautiful; engaging. The highlight for me was Lai Chih-Sheng's "Life Size Drawing, 2012". Easily missed, the brevity of his marks, drawn in pencil and chalk, carry more weight than if a six foot wide roller, inked up in black, had been scrawled across the gallery wall.

Lai Chih-Sheng installing his work Life-Size Drawing, 2012  “Invisible: Art about the Unseen 1957-2012” at the Hayward Gallery, LondonCourtesy the artist and Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre

Contrast this with the nightmare (is that too strong a reaction?) that was the Royal Academy Summer Show.  

Installation view of Gallery III, Summer Exhibition 2012 @ Royal Academy of Arts

Can you believe I'd never been before?!  I'd assumed it was only one step up from entering a Blue Peter competition, but I've been watching the Culture Show 'behind the scenes at the Summer Show' for the past few years, and had been fooled into thinking it couldn't be as bad as I had previously thought.  Wrong, wrong, wrong.  Vast rooms, painted garish colours, filled with paintings (and it was nearly all paintings) in a cacophony of styles, sizes and colours.  I know that fans and traditionalists will argue that that's the point, but I just didn't get it.  Half an hour later and I was desperate to get out.   

For me, less is definitely more.  

A pocket full of ...

I can't help but associate brooch pins as sharp, destructive weapons waging war on fine fabrics such as silk, organdie, or finely woven linen.  The hole left by the traditional brooch pin leaves a permanent scar on the cloth, needing to be covered on subsequent wearings by ... you've guessed it, another brooch, another pin.  If taken to extremes, the holes could consume the cloth, until all that remained was the vacuous scar.

A reluctance to use sharpened metal pins to fasten jewellery to clothing has led me to explore alternatives.  One alternative I have been looking at, is 'wearing' jewellery inside a pocket.  Each pocket has been constructed around the jewellery piece so the jewellery stays trapped in the pocket, unable to be worn.  The organdie fabric reveals a glimpse of what lies within, allowing the hidden to become visible.

Pocket Necklace, Organdie, Copper, Plastidip, Thread 
© Vanda Campbell 2012

Pocket Brooch, Organdie, Found Object, Aluminium, Crochet
© Vanda Campbell 2012

Pairing, Organdie, Found Object, Copper, Enamel
© Vanda Campbell 2012

Domestic Diss'

Studying for an MA should be demanding academically, and empowering professionally.  We are now at the end of our first semester, but still have no studio space to work freely in.  A new room has been provided, but this wasn't available until we had been studying for a few weeks, and then came with implicit instructions that nothing could be attached to the walls!  What utter nonsense.  It would appear the demands of the accountants, administrators and estate management team supersede the needs of the students.  A solution was eventually proposed, involving building mdf stud partition walls that could be 'pinned' to, but no labour has been allocated to build it.  Students are rallying round, but progress is slow, and is likely to slow down even more as the pressures of academic deadlines and assessments approach.  We need a space to work in.

The impact of this on my practice has been significant. There are many practical disadvantages to working from home (lack of space, interruptions, distractions), but more importantly, I believe, are the professional implications. Work produced in a domestic environment, tends to be conservative, and domestic, in scale and ambition.  Would we be expected to conduct our scientific research from home if we were studying for an MSc I wonder?

Come on University of Hertfordshire.  Show your students that you believe in them, and value their practice.  Build the studio, paint it white, rejoice in the creativity that will ensue.

Don't judge a brooch by it's backing

I've been researching the judges, Bob Ebendorf and Amy Tavern, for the "Hot Under The Collar" competition, and look what I've found.  Aren't they wonderful?  I have been pondering the use of existing pins and attachments for my jewellery for some time, and chose to use safety pins for my Chatelaine brooches, as a means of attaching the fabric brooch.  On reflection, although the concept was valid, the safety pins looked too clumsy and unresolved, so I didn't take the idea any further.  Amy's Tiny and Bent Brooch and Brooch No 2 are, I think, completely successful, and so I won't be giving up on this means of pin quite yet.  

Tiny and Bent Brooch
oxidized sterling silver, cotton cord, safety pin
1” x 1.125” x .125”
fabricated 2010 Amy Tavern

Brooch No. 2
From Installation “Collected Memories: 1974-Present”
Mixed-Media
2010 Amy Tavern

Hot Under The Collar

I've subscribed to metalsmith, a contemporary jewellery journal published by the Society of North American Goldsmiths.  I'm not North American, nor a goldsmith, but from what I can see on their website my practice might find a place to call home here.  

And there's a current competition to enter!

"Hot Under the Collar: A Survey of contemporary Necklaces"

Choker, collar, lariat, torque, pendant, the necklace is one of the most diverse formats available to metalsmiths today. Whether cascading down the front, or draped down the back, the possibilities are nearly endless. The human torso provides us with one of our largest canvases, while still keeping body as site.  From comments on the classic strand of pearls to contemporary takes on armor, this juried exhibition seeks to showcase how metalsmiths today interpret this incredibly versatile object.

The deadline is 15th January, but as submission is via email, being 'across the pond' shouldn't cause a problem.  I have decided to enter two pieces I made in response to the 7 days project set at the start of the MA.

Untitled, Found object, linen, thread 2011 © Vanda Campbell

Untitled, Found object, steel, thread 2011 © Vanda Campbell

I have a relatively high skill level in traditional textile techniques (crochet and stitch in particular), and feel comfortable when working with these media.  On the other hand, my traditional metalworking jewellery skills are woefully lacking.  Despite growing up in a family of goldsmiths, as the 'girl' I was sent into the book-keeping office in school holidays, whereas my younger brother was shown the secrets of the workshop with the apprentices. How I wish for some of that hidden knowledge now!  I wonder if this explains my preferred use of textiles and thread, rather than metal for the neckchains in the 7 days, 7 finds, 7 chains collection.   I have thought about this long and hard, and believe that soft crochet chains are far more visually appealing than hard metal ones, and have a more sympathetic relationship to the body, so in this instance, my use of thread is appropriate.  

I am Vanda Campbell, and I am a jeweller. But in order to be one, I need to make jewellery that can be worn on the body, rather than hung on a gallery wall. I am comfortable putting bits of stuff together, stitching and adding thread as necessary, but am frozen in panic at the thought of making a brooch back out of silver, or a ring mount to set my pieces of stuff in. I'm not sure at the moment if this is a problem. It will be fairly simple to acquire the metal skills to fill the gaps in my knowledge, but I wonder if this is necessary. I admire work that exhibits a high skill level, and has an element of "how did they do that?". Pushing my existing skills and shouting about them (in a whisper!) would perhaps be more fitting than starting back at square one to learn new ones to fit in with some other expectation.

Quartz-less

Well that didn't quite go as planned.  Full of enthusiasm, admirable optimism, and an unrealistic expectation of the amount of time I could find to work at home in the holidays, I had hoped to achieve something exciting and relevant, and enter it in the "inside Quartz" competition.  It hasn't happened, and I am temporarily deflated.

My drawings are a disaster (though to be fair, this is often true of the initial drawings for a new project); photographing clear crystals by the light of a Christmas tree is far from ideal; and I can't find time to work through enough ideas before refining the most exciting ones to move them forward.  While working on the quartz drawings, I realised that the sense of aesthetic in my work is vital.  My drawings and ideas were far too complicated, and the beauty of the found objects I was using, had become lost.  I want the audience to pause, and find the space to breathe in deeply as they look at, or wear my work.

At times like these I envy musicians.  When learning to play an instrument, a piece, or part of a piece, will be played many, many times.  Each mistake exists for a split second only, and is replaced by the correct note.  There is no evidence of failure, no reminders of what was wrong, and nothing to deter you from trying again.  Instead I am sat here, surrounded by shameful drawings, poorly exposed photographs, and half-cocked ideas that taunt me with potential, but alas no time to do anything with them.

I need to find opportunties as they are published, rather than a week before the deadline.  My practice falls in a relatively small genre (contemporary jewellery);  I live in the wrong part of Europe (Germany, Holland and Switzerland all have much stronger art jewellery traditions than the UK), and I am studying in a non-specialist university (rather than on a jewellery specific MA).  I must work hard to avoid isolation.  Thankfully the internet goes some way to bridging the gap, and researching and hopping between websites is something I can do quite successfully!

I have found another opportunity that has a more realistic timescale ...

Space2 Gallery, Watford ... thanks to a nudge from a colleague (thanks Davina x), I have submitted a proposal, along with Davina Thomas and Tanya St Leger for an exhibition entitled "Re:" (recycle, reuse, renew).  We are three makers who all work with or on discarded, recycled and unwanted objects.  The potential for collaborative work alongside our individual pieces is exciting, so fingers crossed.