We've had the "box project" with our BA Jewellery and Object students. This consists of them having to make a box in one week and the results this year have been fantastic!
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| Box by Yan Zhang, "The Pain of Ice-Cream"! |
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| Box by Xilin Hu. |
There has also been another run-down of work by our Artists-in-Residence. Here Nikki Pugh reveals some of her wearable technology which alters perception about the environment, ably assisted by Rebecca Steiner and one of my HND students, Jack Deeley:
I went back to Wolverhampton for another exhibition, this time by another of our Artists-in-Residence, Zoe Fitzpatrick Rodgers. Organised around a theme of "Hauntology" at the Asylum Art Gallery in the town, it proved to be a very interesting evening and it was great to see jewellery presented in the context of a mixed-media exhibition of fine arts:
The exhibition itself was somewhat provocative:
No more to be said!
Whizzed off to London for a few days at the UCAS careers fair, representing the University and caught up with my friend, Julia and her family. We went to the most wonderful and crazy restaurant in Peckham, Persepolis, a Persian restaurant run by the author of some very fine vegetarian cookbooks:
Peckham is a very interesting place. Quite run-down but lively, with lots of fantastic old signs and buildings.
Spent a day at the symposium held here on Magnesium and the use of magnesium for innovative technology. Unfortunately, of limited use for jewellery - it is used to some extent in watch cases - the symposium was interesting and a good event for meeting people.
Best thing was getting out onto the 5th-floor balcony at the Curzon building to see a panorama of the city:
Went to hear contemporary baritone, Thomas Buckner perform a variety of contemporary pieces for (wordless) voice and electronics at the Conservatoire.
He was singing works by some of my absolute favourite composers, Phil Niblock, Alvin Lucier and Robert Ashely and introduced me to the work of Annea Lockwood. It was complete chance that I spotted this was on and I'm so glad to have been able to attend.
Back to the School of Jewellery and the opening of a new exhibition at our Vittoria Street Gallery of work by Marianne Forrest, who designs watches and time-related pieces, including time-related collaborative drawings. At the private view, we had the chance to take part in one of her collaborative drawings:
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| Jo Pond leading the way in collaborative drawing! |
Fiona Harris is one of the Artists-in-Residence here at the School but she is in the unusual position of being placed within the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, making work there and developing a collection of pieces from the archive for sale in the Birmingham Museums shops. We had the pleasure of being at her presentation of the work for production and sale:
I can't show any of the work at the moment, but it will be shown as soon as it is no longer under embargo. We did get a chance to look through some of the old Smith and Pepper design books, which was very exciting!
Time for a soujourn in Brighton. Not much going on and the weather wasn't very good but it was nice to have a break!
Back to the Conservatoire for an amazing concert of music by Tommy Fuller, one of the final-year students on the Jazz course, performing works by Philip Glass and Frank Zappa (and others) in conjunction with two students from the Orchestral Percussion course.
It's that Lustre time of year again, always a good start to the wintry month of November. I drove up for the opening with Anna Lorenz. Loads of our graduates were taking part, as was my friend and colleague, Jo Pond:
This last week saw the launch of the new Shelanu collection of jewellery at the Assay Office. It is so good to see that they are producing a quality product and I was pleased to be able to introduce them to potential outlets in the Jewellery Quarter.
I went up to Derby last weekend to meet with Rachael Colley. Neither of us had visited the city before and had wanted to go purely on the strength of the industrial areas which the train passes through on the way between Birmingham and Sheffield! We were not disappointed.
Strangely, the highlight for me was lunch at the Yaffle Cafe and bookshop.
A proper, old-school radical bookshop with a vegan cafe attached! This reminded me so much of my student days and I couldn't have been happier to discover "Barleycup" on the menu and that all the food was basically brown... It was like the 1980s all over again and the radio even played Joy Division to make the illusion complete. What a place!
There are some very odd things in Derby. I particularly liked the joke shop which specialises in wedding supplies:
"I do."
"Only Joking!"
Sunday saw a night out at the Ikon gallery for music by Jo Thomas playing music inspired by Daphne Oram, Delia Darbyshire and others. We also got to see the legendary visual synthesiser developed by Daphne Oram, the "mini-oramics":
Highlight of the evening for me was getting to see a live performance by Olivia Louvel. I've been wanting to see her since reading this interview with her in The Quietus and was not disappointed. What a compelling performance for live voice and electronics with visuals, all about the creative spirit of Mary, Queen of Scots. You can hear some of the music on her Vimeo page.
Delighted to have been selected for the 2018 Wiener Schmucktage in, of course, Vienna, Austria. I was representing the UK, which is very exciting, with this piece made from old clay pipes from the Thames:
I've been focusing a lot on litter and waste recently. It is depressing to walk about and see through the autumn branches, mixed up in the dropped leaves, low-grade litter: cans, bottle-tops, cups, crisp-packets, things just dropped or dumped because people couldn't care less.
But it is not just that. Cars, fridges, shopping trolleys, clothes... all this and more, just dumped in the street, an anthropogenic mess.
What has been making me think about this waste?
I'm working on a collaborative project with jeweller, Dan Russell, of whom I have previously written here, exploring the ubiquity of waste in the environment.
More on this project soon.