Upcoming exhibition: Departure Lounge, Royal College of Art and London Festival of Architecture

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This exhibition is the result of an experimental project by students and staff from the Royal College of Art.

To a great extent, airports are increasingly dominating our lives - the endless repetition of tensor barriers, check-ins and notice boards, which easily represent our slick, modern age. Together with excessive information and excessive space, this protracted invasion of the world we encounter is described as 'supermodernity'.

Five teams from the programmes of Applied Art, Architecture, Design, Fine Art and Fashion were selected to participate in a cross-disciplinary project in which the themes of time, place and encounter were encompassed by architectural space, urban intervention and the physical transience of every day experience. The outcome focussed on problem solving, working with processes and narrating stories.

The exhibition is co-curated by Steve Bunn and Savina Torrisi, Tutors at the Royal College of Art with design by Davide Di Pietro, Partner of NOI architects.

Supported by the Innovation Design Engineering and Sculpture programmes.

Venue: Pump House Gallery - Battersea Park
Private Wiew: 04 Jul, 18:00
When: 05 Jul, 18:00 – 08 Jul, 18:00

Link to www.lfa2012.org
Link to pumphousegallery.org.uk

Body

 



Kaleidoscope

Working, working and working!

A few snap shots from a recent day in the studio

I was thinking of the word angel while working. And by being very conscious about transferring my energy to the clay in a direct and immediate way, trying to bring the material come alive for a moment - so it can reveal for us stories from other places.

By letting the clay change its form and shape continually, it tells stories about how life is always moving, but even on top of ruins something will grow. So the rule was: I couldn't stop until the clay took a shape that I wanted to keep. It was about the journey or like when you experience one of those special conversations with someone, where you just don't want it to end. But by building on top of something already there, I believe nothing is never lost, it will always return at some point if we allow it.

kingBIRD forever;-)

Sketch - With finitude life becomes present

My rotating studio desk

Some sketches of miniature duve and pillow and other stuff on my desk in the studio. 

Royal College of Art and the Royal Albert Hall by night

I saw this amazing and stunning photo of Royal Albert Hall on dailymails website the other day. But what I especially like is that the building in the right lower corner is the Royal College of Art. And the second rows of windows from the bottom is the ceramic department.

Motion Capture

Rose and I participating in an experiment with motion capture- hence the most flattering suits we are wearing.

kingBIRD: My heart feels soft

Love and sorrows come in equal parts

The images below show the an in-situ performance modelling at the exhibition: “LOOK LESS, FEEL MORE – creating the exhibition as we go, doing is the show”, Hockney Gallery, London, January 2012.

I always have a reference to the classical sculpture in the back of my head when working with body related themes. However, I'm mostly interested in making the content somehow present and tell the stories about loss of love and life. I try to capture in these sculptures - what are not there anymore – dealing with longiness after the sweet, safe and secure and a desire to be healed. But longing for restoration is an unsafe and unstable place to be, as it may not happen.

 

"I find it intriguing to play with the border between the private and personal – playing with what should be told and what shouldn’t".

Sublime: If the sublime is seen as the noble, the splendid and the terrifying. I find that art, love and life are exactly that – a suspense between triumph and tragedy.

Concept: I wish to merge the notion of longing for consolation and heeling with the process of making the object and the actual appearance of the object.

In the making, I try to transfer emotions into clay - not only using the hands, but my body to form stroke and caress the clay and build the sculptures in the very intimate sphere of my own body.  This gives the sculpture the heavy and soft feeling of flesh from something living and at the same time it holds the slightly clichéd reminiscence of a heart shape.

In this work, the clay is used as a substitute - filling up the void of which I rather would have reserved for human touch and contact. 

Photo by Yiru Wang