Author: Gary Clough

New Projects: 2018

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Working with Shenzhen National Art Museum and Sun Pier House, Chatham and supported by the Artist Agency  I am in the process of developing new work for an exhibition in April, May, August and September.

Port of Entry is a new body of work developed from sketchbook images, informing a series of large, site-specific wall drawings, inferring a connection between Shenzhen and Chatham. Port of Entry investigates the idea of a port, not only as physical gateway, but also a conceptual notion of entry point for cultural and social information exchange and discourse.

The second part of the project will be a another series of site-specific wall drawings developed from images produced in Shenzhen. These drawings will be developed through workshops with primary school students, investigating the nature of the imagined and remembered.

The project will culminate in a publication which will document the exhibitions and the ongoing dialogue between the artist and the two locations.

Trace Engines – four days in Folkestone

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The images below are from the recent showing of Trace Engines and new work at the Brewery Tap UCA Project Space http://www.brewerytapprojectspace.com held between 29/09/17 and 03/10/17, at part of the Folkestone Fringe.

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It was  a fantastic space to work in and a pleasure working with the curator Georgie Scott and Terry Perk from UCA and being part of the incredibly vibrant atmosphere of the Folkestone Triennial .

Folkestone trace engines 2017
Folkestone trace engines 2017
Folkestone trace engines 2017

Over the four days there were over 270 visitors, including a group of students and staff from UCA Rochester Foundation programme, also a well known local canine art connoisseur who made an apearance at the private view.

Folkestone trace engines 2017
Folkestone trace engines 2017
Folkestone trace engines 2017
Folkestone trace engines 2017

I had a really fantastic four days invidulating the exhibition, a great opportunity to meet, local, national and international visitors to the Folkestone Triennial and to develop new work in the sketchbook……….watch this space.

Trace Engines – The Brewery Tap – UCA Project Space: Folkestone Triennial 30/09/17 – 03/10/17. Private View 29/09/17 – 6pm – 8pm.

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I will be showing the Trace Engines project as part of the Folkestone Fringe, at the Brewery Tap – UCA Project Space, from the 30/09/19 – 03/10/17.

Trace Engines is a body of work produced through UCA research funding, in collaboration with AIP Gallery, Guangzhou, China. The work was previously exhibited at Rochester Art Gallery, November 2016 – February 2017.

I will also be exhibiting a series of new drawings entitled Shaped Narratives.  The Private View will be on the 29th September, from 6pm – 8pm, all are welcome.  53 Tontine Street, Folkestone, CT20 1JR.

I will be invigilating the exhibition and of course working in my sketchbook between the 30/09/17 – 03/10/17.

Shaped Narrative Lungs 2017 Gary Clough Ink on Paper
Shaped Narrative Disc* 2017 30×30 Gary Clough
Shaped Narrative House 2017 30×30 Gary Clough Ink on Paper.
Vitrine Assemblage, ink on paper
Vitrine Domestic, ink on paper
Vitrine Stack, ink on paper
Engine Planning, 2015

The Brewery Tap – UCA Project Space is a research hub, exhibition and project space run by the MA Fine Art and MA Curatorial Practice courses at the University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury.

I am delighted to have been asked to contribute to this project and the broader Folkestone creative quarter and community and the Folkestone Triennial.

Fun Drawing: Pre-School Art and Design, curriculum development and delivery

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In early August I was invited to Shenzhen, China as the external consultant for the Fun Drawing company.  Fun Drawing specialises in pre-school art, design and creative classes for students between the ages of 4-12 years. Fun Drawing have over 20 years experience in the field of creative education and have over 100 schools across the major cites in China.

Fun Drawing-International Education project 2017

I spent a week in Shenzhen working directly with Fun Drawing’s research and development team, reviewing current curriculum and teaching methodologies. It was my role to develop approaches to integrate and adapt UK art, design and creative teaching, learning, theories, strategies and approaches into the curriculum.

Fun Drawing research and DevelopmentTeam

Across the week, we worked together to develop a range of new projects, looking at the learning styles and interests of the different age groups.  The focus was on developing a more holistic approach to skills acquisition and competencies and also greater integration of creative thinking and action based learning, directly linked to UK creative education models and practices.

One area of key research was the identification and use of primary research sources, in the form of integrating gallery and site visits into the programme of study.  This led to taking 30 students to the the Team Lab Exhibition and Research Project, in Shenzhen.  The exhibition led by a group of artists from Japan focused on the application of digital, interactive light based installation  and technology.  The drawings produced were then used to instigate a class in the teaching studio, where students expanded on their experiences and drawings through collage, drawing and painting.

This was a extremely exciting, simulating and rewarding experience.  I was also able to meet with the children’s parents, over 60% of them had studied in the UK and/or the US and high valued their experience and hoped their children would also have such opportunities in the future.

Fun Drawing Project, class and course development

I’m looking forward to the next stage of the project and the implementation of the newly developed curriculum.  I will be returning to Shenzhen in October, to speak at Fun Drawing’s Annual Conference and present the current research and development.

Pre-China Drawings

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Off to Shenzhen China today, for a week visiting with colleagues in Fun Drawing, taking part in a series of development sessions and demonstration classes.

As ever, I will be drawing and developing ideas in sketchbooks, 12 hour flights are always productive. China Blue seems appropriate.

Below is a snap shot of current work developing further approaches to the ‘Penny Dreadful’ object/narrative idea, engaging with shaped narratives and applied structure.

 

 

Penny Dreadfuls

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Penny Dreadful:

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“Penny Dreadful is a pejorative term used to refer to cheap popular serial literature produced during the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom. The term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood”.

The current work draws together from the sketchbook new works on paper: a range of both known and familiar objects arranged in a comic strip like format. The images are brought together into a grid, the objects connecting with one another forming potential narratives. The medium of ink, coffee and highlighters gives a saccharine prefabricated kit, or formulaic quality, akin to the nature of mass produced literature like the Penny Dreadful.

This work will be exhibited as part of the South East Open Studios: 15th June – 18th June & 22nd June – 25th June 2017:  at the Hazelnut Press, 1 Ridley Road, Rochester, ME1 1UL.

Sketchbook Thinking

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Sketchbooks are an intrinsic and integral part of my practice, a place where I collate, record and synthesize viewed and remembered experiences.

I am currently obsessed with comic book like hieroglyphs, in search of or potentially reliant on a visual equivalent to the Rosetta Stone, combining the recognized, the invented and the possible. These draw from a range of real and imagined destinations and cultural references, many from regular visits to China.

South East Open Studios

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New work in progress, drawings and prints developed from recent journeys in China.
As part of the South East Open Studios over two weekends 15-18 and 22-25 June, I will be showing alongside Heather Haythornthwaite and Sarah King at the Hazelnut Press.

Trace Engines show at Rochester Art Gallery

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The first UK exhibition of the Trace Engines project, which included a solo exhibition of drawings and mono prints at the AIP Gallery, Redtory Art Zone, Guangzhou in  2015, opens on the 25th November 2016 at the Rochester Art Gallery, Kent.

The private view is on the 24th November from 6:30pm and there will also be a series of workshops and artist’s talks that accompany the exhibition. This current show, from 24.11.16 to 20.02.17, brings together new work and pieces produced during my residency in China.

GC (rag invite trace engine)

GC (rag invite trace engine) 2

‘Trace Engines is a series of amalgamated drawings that on the one hand suggest a design or plan for something to come, and on the other seem like the residue of something that has already been. In this, they constitute a process of mediation where the acts and media of their creation – the drawing, tracing and mono printing – become iterative expressions that model an as yet unknown object.’