I keen finding different projects that kind of skirt around what it is that i want to do, work which integrates art into life, is socially engaging, outside of the gallery space.
Jeremy Dellers Procession is one such project, I love this clip from the culture show, check it out at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cultureshow/videos/2009/07/s6_e1_deller_webonly/index.shtml
only recently discovered that you can watch all back sections of the culture show about art, handy stuff!

The top image is of a piece called 'So I Will Build My Altar in the Fields' and was made in March 2008, and the bottom image is of the same place in my dad's farm in Somerset taken today, over two years later.
To put it very simply the piece originally dealt with the idea of worshipping and appreciating the land as you do with a religion, after having been set an environmental project on foundation. The piece was situated on the Coleridge way, a walk which crosses much of West Somerset, including the farm, and follows in the footsteps the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge walked often occasionally with good friend Woodworth. I liked the idea of creating an artwork which dealt with the environment, as part of the environment.
Looking back it became for an audience who are both interested in the beauty of the area and those interested in the poet, therefore both the art and non art audience I have previously spoken of.
Also after reading about and feeling inspired by the exhibition at the South London Gallery 'Nothing is Forever' I see links with the way my work has disappeared. Altho while those pieces will intentionally be painted over, I prefer the way my work has disappeared, gradually being claimed back by the land which I was celebrating. Well that and some being knocked over by sheep...
But still id rather create works which become part of that space, rather then being intrusive and are allowed to change over time. Pieces that are not self destructive intentionally but in their nature will not be long lasting, quite an honest way for an artwork to go I think. Nothing lasts forever...

Looking back with new eyes

The top image is of a piece called 'So I Will Build My Altar in the Fields' and was made in March 2008, and the bottom image is of the same place in my dad's farm in Somerset taken today, over two years later.

To put it very simply the piece originally dealt with the idea of worshipping and appreciating the land as you do with a religion, after having been set an environmental project on foundation. The piece was situated on the Coleridge way, a walk which crosses much of West Somerset, including the farm, and follows in the footsteps the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge walked often occasionally with good friend Woodworth. I liked the idea of creating an artwork which dealt with the environment, as part of the environment.

Looking back it became for an audience who are both interested in the beauty of the area and those interested in the poet, therefore both the art and non art audience I have previously spoken of.

Also after reading about and feeling inspired by the exhibition at the South London Gallery 'Nothing is Forever' I see links with the way my work has disappeared. Altho while those pieces will intentionally be painted over, I prefer the way my work has disappeared, gradually being claimed back by the land which I was celebrating. Well that and some being knocked over by sheep...

But still id rather create works which become part of that space, rather then being intrusive and are allowed to change over time. Pieces that are not self destructive intentionally but in their nature will not be long lasting, quite an honest way for an artwork to go I think. Nothing lasts forever...

At home on the farm

Five Sisters Mosaic by Emma Biggs at York St Marys.

Another peice in York St Mary's:
'In 2009, mosaicist Emma Biggs and her art critic and artist husband Matthew Collings created Five Sisters, inspired by the famous window of the same name in York Minster.

This huge 13th century window is made up of 100,000 pieces of glass and Biggs used 10,000 pieces of broken medieval pottery from York Museums Trust's collection to make the mosaic on the floor of St Mary's.'

http://www.yorkstmarys.org.uk/Page/ViewInstallation.aspx?CollectionId=8

Check out the culture show report on the piece:http://www.bbc.co.uk/cultureshow/videos/2009/08/s6_e5_mosaic_web/index.shtml

Love when they're talking about it being the mosaic for the regular people apposed to the traditional idea of mosaics being to worship god of for kings, this one is made from broken pottery used by the regular people in their day to day life. Find the idea which Biggs mentions being able to put her thumb in the thumb place of a medieval potter, doing exactly what someone did hundreds of years ago. Love this idea of old thumb prints, ghosts of previous things in the same way i like the way the paintings on the walls of the South London Gallery will become ghosts, and how our show Off The Latch was full of ghosts of the previous shops, evidence of previous paintwork, hooks and holes in walls which all tell an unknown story.

Am intrigued to find out what else has happened in York St Mary's, and also chuffed I found a bbc site where I cn watch purely the fine art sections of the culture show!

Nothing is forever

Picture from- http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2010/jun/18/exhibitionist-art-shows?picture=363890885

I really love the idea of creating something which is meant to be destroyed/ lost, not in a violent way but in a sad beautiful heartbreaking way, the way we forget memories or things erode. So I really have to get to london to see the show 'Nothing is Forever' at the South London Gallery.

The South London Gallery is a space which I have noticed houses some very interesting interventions and so potentially this could be somewhere I would love to get involved in.

'Nothing is Forever celebrates the completion of the SLG’s £2 million building project, bringing together wall paintings, drawings and text pieces by 20 British and international artists.

Seamlessly integrating art and architecture, each work is destined to be embedded in the fabric of the buildings when painted over at the end of the show.' http://www.southlondongallery.org/page/144/Nothing+is+Forever/84

Would love to work in spaces like this:

Really love the space in which Susan Stockwell has created a sculpture out of computer equiptment, would kill for a space like that!

St Mary's Church, York

http://www.yorkstmarys.org.uk/Page/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?ArticleId=9

Handel Street Projects- Super Farmers Market

Looking forward to going to see Super Farmer's Market, which is a show which deals with the idea of consumption and its links both with the realms of fine art and food:

http://www.handelstreetprojects.com/current.htm

Seizure by Roger Hiorns

Above is an image of a work called Seizure by Roger Hiorns which took place in a disused and condemned flat in London and which I believe encapsulates a lot of the things I have previosuly expressed to be most interesting about art, participatory, installation, out of the gallery context.

'Seizure has effected a peculiar and memorable transformation on the everyday.' Adrian Searle http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/sep/04/art

Image above from from www.tate.org.uk. Below, me in Seizure:


'Seizure has effected a peculiar and memorable transformation on the everyday.' Adrian Searle http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/sep/04/art

Leading on from Off The Latch

Post Off The Latch I have a much clearer idea of where it is that my work is heading. As I previously explained one of the most interesting things to have come out of the show are the conversations with the wide range of visitors we had. An important part of being an artist for me is the connection I have with the artwork, the fact that I have spent hours intricately making it and this is obvious. I believe this brings an honest quality to the work and being in the space, invigilating the exhibition myself and being able to talk first hand to people about my work also does this.
From here I am interested in learning into the power certain types of art have in bringing the idea of art as a whole closer to the viewer and closer to the general public. I believe I have located a number of ways this is done:
-Public Art
-Community Art
-Socially Engaged Art
-Art outside of the Gallery
-Installations
-Participatory Art
-Sound Art
And I intend to explore these to contribute to and improve this exciting area of my own work

Other things I've been involved in

Having only recently moved my blog off of my website and onto here there are a number exciting projects I've been involved in and interesting people I've met.

One such group of people are compARTment who are 'a collective of artists, crafts people and social entrepreneurs from the slack space movement in Brighton who are looking to revitalise large empty/disused sites in the city.' (http://compartment.org.uk/).
A number of their group came along to talk to us while we were setting up Off The Latch in the Open Market as they had been in talks with the council to secure another arts space in the market. Since we met them they've been successful and are now looking for submissions for the space! http://compartment.org.uk/2010/05/30/open-market-project-brighton/

We also met Ruth and Max who came into the space to talk to us and talk photographs as they are in the process of researching a book about pop up spaces, am looking forward to hearing more from them!

I was also lucky enough to have a drawing picked by writer Theodore Kouloris to for the cover of a book he's writing about Helenism and Loss in the work of Viriginia Woolf, below is the chosen image!

Photos of off the Latch!

Off The Latch was a huge success! the space in the Open Market in Brighton was such an interesting space to work in and the audience was a great mix of art and non art lovers, leading to some incredibly interesting conversations which really made the show for me.
The Open View was a fantastic day attracting this mix of audience I have mentioned, and being a sunny day with plenty of cakes and pimms, it really shed the pretentious art gallery feel and made the show into the exciting, interesting and unexpected installation we had hoped for!
I am now so inspired to explore similar projects. Pop up spaces and art which draws in a non art audience, bringing art and life closer together are such an interesting area for me. Can't wait to do more...
More photos will be coming for to my website www.hannahbishop.com

Photos taken by Flora Maclean- http://floramaclean.blogspot.com/

Off The Latch

Off The Latch was a recent exhibition that I co organised with two other artists Rebecca Stern and Eleanor Lane.

Off The Latch
25th May til 5th June
Tuesday til Saturday
9-4pm

Open View 22nd May 3 to 6pm

Off The Latch is a temporary art exhibition inhabiting a disused stall in Brighton's Open Market.

The installation created by Hannah Bishop, Eleanor Lane and Rebecca Stern, challenges where art can exist, developing a dialogue between the work, the space, the audience and the artists themselves. The artists share an interest in creating an alternative to the white cube nature of many contemporary art galleries and explore the extraordinary nature of the everyday, illuminating the beautiful and tragic occurrences that surround us in our lives.

Off The Latch is an open invitation to experience art in an unexpected place, to sit and stare, to think and ask questions.


Stall 41, Open Market, Off London Road, Brighton, BN1 4JS.

Here are a few examples of past works:

Expended, 2009.

David, 2009.

Carpet, 2009.

But Am I An Artist? 2009.

New Blog

After having embarked on updating my website I have decided to remove my blog from the site and set up an external one to communicate with more people.

Although currently under construction check out my website www.hannahbishopcom