Sketchbook

Trace Engines – four days in Folkestone

/ Gary Clough / Leave a comment

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.

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.

The Educationalist…

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As a precursor to my next lecture visit to China later this month here are a couple of promotional items and some photos from the previous tours of 2016.

the-educationalist

Photos from CAFA High School (Central Academy of Fine Art Beijing), AIP Arts International Programs Guangzhou, GAFA High School, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, British Council school tour Tianjin and Shenzhen National Art Museum.

Drawing from China

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Reflecting on the China sketchbook, looking at the drawings and key images of a pivotal three-week period leading up to the Trace Engines show. People watching in cafes, evening meals with friends and dramatic flying fish all contained within the scrawled memories of South China.

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Essaouiran constructs

/ Gary Clough

Drawings produced on a recent trip to Essaouira in Morocco.

Work in progress

/ Gary Clough

Initial series of drawings investigating the potential of established language in the tradition of the portrait bust, silhouette and momento mori. The drawings are a combination of images and graphic systems taken from a range of sources.