MFP National Open 2013: selected artists
We are proud to profile each of the artists in this year's
selection:
Elliot Conway
In my practice, I aim to explore the limits of the
constructions I create. Through anthropomorphic and sensory elements, I wish to
challenge the space that they occupy and ultimately transcend their own entity.
Focusing primarily with sculpture, my creative process usually starts with the
observation of how we live with the actuality of our surroundings. This
involves filming, studying and observing people in their day-to-day lives and
beginning to understand the connection between ourselves, and the objects and
the constructions we confine ourselves to. How we move, live and breathe in
unity with the space and objects, around which we choose to surround ourselves
with. Often, this thematic takes the form of three-dimensional works, and by
using such supplementary reflections as sound, temperature, touch and light I
strive to apprehend the attention of the viewer and provoke thoughts around the
extension of the apparent artwork.
Chris Fordwah
At present, my practice involves building micro utopias in
the interstices and social margins of a disaggregated capitalism and then
furnishing them with aesthetic antagonisms.
Neill Fuller
These works are painted from arrangements of found objects
that are examined and re-translated in an interior space. Although
conservatively still life in conception and resolutely studio-based, they
allude to other painting genres such as rural and urban landscape, and spaces
where other illusory, fictional and escapist experiences occur – the fairground,
the playground, the world of the scaled down model.
Neill Fuller is a painter who lives and works in Somerset.
He was born in Essex and studied Fine Art in Bath.
Helen Grant
If my practice has a ‘concern’ it is with our very existence
and the ridiculous nature of trying to be.
These artworks share a cartoon-like, amateurish quality that
belies a sense of desperation. The figures that have landed on Trophy Island
are engaged in a Sisyphiun scrum for supremacy whilst Cuvvurdinanely tries to
improve its own surroundings by camouflaging itself out of sight. Blue skyes
seems cheerful enough until one realises that its colours are inverted, leaving
it hanging somewhere between Magritte and The Simpsons.
Dealing with struggle, repetition and failure, these works
suggest that humour may be the only way out…
Helen Grant currently lives and works in Bristol, where she
is completing a MA in Fine Art at UWE.
Polly Kelsall
In my work materials, objects, images and ideas undergo
processes of movement, displacement, translation and enrolment resulting in new
narratives, connections and relationships.
Polly Kelsall graduated from UWE, Bristol in 2011 with a
fine art degree. She lives and works in Bristol and is based at BV Studios.
Zervou and Kerruish
The images submitted show the classical and often unobserved
facets of decadence that mirror a world of privilege and an art world that is
more significant to times past. Like fallen features, these images are
flattened and juxtaposed against contrasting architectural details. Demanding a
double take we are obliged to refocus the act of looking and consider the space
the work is presenting. The edifice’s in which art is displayed has become the
artwork itself and challenges how and what is consumed within the confines of
the gallery space.
We are Natalie Zervou and Jack Kerruish, both artists living
and working in London. After graduating from Norwich School of Art and Design,
UK with different individual practices, our work started to amalgamate and have
been collaborating since 2012.
Lewis Khan
My interest is in socially engaged work – themes and
subjects, whilst a background in Architecture & Design is informative to my
visual aesthetic.
2013 Photography graduate from UWE,Bristol. Now based in
London, I am working as a Photographer’s assistant as well as on my own
practice.
Sarah McNulty
Focused on the possibilities of painting, materiality often
takes over. Drawn toward points of
rupture, both the images and their supports are braced by the tension of making
and ruining. They turn and deceive outside of decisions made, suddenly becoming
foreign. Writhing and jerking, spaces become indistinguishable and
unanticipated objects emerge. The
result becomes something not foreseen as an end-point where the linear route of
actions recedes.
Parallel to the action of painting is an interest in
dissolution and shifting thresholds. It is the interactions and possibility of
forming a very physical and expansive language amongst the paintings and their
environments that drives the work further.
Sarah McNulty (b.1979 USA, based in London) received her MFA
in Painting from the Slade School of Fine Art and BA at Georgetown University,
Washington DC.
Solveig Settemsdal
My recent work has focused on investigating the
possibilities of three-dimensional drawing by injecting ink into gelatine. This
material was chosen as I wished to find a medium in which to represent links
between the physical and imagined aspects of memory in a substance akin to its
origin.
Solveig Settemsdal is a Norwegian artist currently living in
Bristol, where she works from a space at BV studios.
Linda Taylor
Charlie Godet Thomas
"The expression that there is nothing to express, nothing
with which to express, no desire to express, along with the obligation to
express".
Samuel Beckett, from the Duthuit Dialogues
Charlie Godet Thomas explores images and objects
transforming them through the antithetical use of sculpture, installation,
collage and photography. More interested in the tone of a work than confining
it to a particular medium or genre, he works in a language of contradictions -
humour and melancholia, the two-dimensional and the sculptural, reduction and
assemblage, design and the incidental, the personal and the universal. His
works, just as life is, are a product of these oppositional forces.
"I translate the everyday through making, revealing that it
is at once sad and delightful, “our greatest blessing and most despicable
complacency.”
The artist quoting Ben Highmore, Ordinary Lives
Charlie Godet Thomas (b.1985, London, UK)
Clare Thornton
I describe my work as a spatial practice; an exploration of
body-site-text relations through sculptural installation, performance and
print. I put a variety of materials to work, testing their possibilities and
limits to support and encourage my conceptual enquiries. I am often invited to
make work in response to archival materials, public/private collections and
sites of social/historical significance. Drawing on a training in dance,
scenography and literature, a keen interest in materiality, time, memory, folds
and tact is evident in my work.
Birmingham born, Glasgow trained, Bristol based – I am a
Spike Associate and part of BV Studios. I have shown my work regionally,
nationally and internationally as a solo artist but also in on-going
cross-disciplinary collaborations with Emma Cocker, Jan Steinum (Norway) &
the Performance Re-enactment Society.
Lewk Wilmshurst
Sarah Wilson
A luminary status is offered to objects that are
acclimatized to shelf life and the catalogue existence. The momentum of visual
assumption is prolonged, as objects lie adrift from their usual sitting. A
selection from shelf to stand-alone allows each formation to excite it’s own
aesthetic generosity and become a worthy souvenir. This probes the overtones of
object significance in the domestic realm and what of this— trash or treasure?
Arrangements are created that are precisely considered,
gesturing dialogue between the compositions.
Forms liaise with one another in a bounty of colour, texture
and surface, relaxing in the un-assumed decadence of a visual buffet.
Sarah Wilson is an artist living and working in Bristol.
Sarah Wilton
MFP National Open 2013: selected artists
We are proud to profile each of the artists in this year's
selection:
Elliot Conway
In my practice, I aim to explore the limits of the
constructions I create. Through anthropomorphic and sensory elements, I wish to
challenge the space that they occupy and ultimately transcend their own entity.
Focusing primarily with sculpture, my creative process usually starts with the
observation of how we live with the actuality of our surroundings. This
involves filming, studying and observing people in their day-to-day lives and
beginning to understand the connection between ourselves, and the objects and
the constructions we confine ourselves to. How we move, live and breathe in
unity with the space and objects, around which we choose to surround ourselves
with. Often, this thematic takes the form of three-dimensional works, and by
using such supplementary reflections as sound, temperature, touch and light I
strive to apprehend the attention of the viewer and provoke thoughts around the
extension of the apparent artwork.
Chris Fordwah
At present, my practice involves building micro utopias in
the interstices and social margins of a disaggregated capitalism and then
furnishing them with aesthetic antagonisms.
Neill Fuller
These works are painted from arrangements of found objects
that are examined and re-translated in an interior space. Although
conservatively still life in conception and resolutely studio-based, they
allude to other painting genres such as rural and urban landscape, and spaces
where other illusory, fictional and escapist experiences occur – the fairground,
the playground, the world of the scaled down model.
I am attracted by an object’s ability, success and intention
to represent or ape something from the real world, leading me to seek out both
the mass-produced and the handmade, the ill conceived, the imperfect or
amateur.
Neill Fuller is a painter who lives and works in Somerset.
He was born in Essex and studied Fine Art in Bath.
Helen Grant
If my practice has a ‘concern’ it is with our very existence
and the ridiculous nature of trying to be.
These artworks share a cartoon-like, amateurish quality that
belies a sense of desperation. The figures that have landed on Trophy Island
are engaged in a Sisyphiun scrum for supremacy whilst Cuvvurdinanely tries to
improve its own surroundings by camouflaging itself out of sight. Blue skyes
seems cheerful enough until one realises that its colours are inverted, leaving
it hanging somewhere between Magritte and The Simpsons.
Dealing with struggle, repetition and failure, these works
suggest that humour may be the only way out…
Helen Grant currently lives and works in Bristol, where she
is completing a MA in Fine Art at UWE.
Polly Kelsall
In my work materials, objects, images and ideas undergo
processes of movement, displacement, translation and enrolment resulting in new
narratives, connections and relationships.
My practice explores the possible tensions and balances
between human activity and nature, the interior and exterior, purity and
impurity, chaos and order, permanence and the temporary, the built and natural
environment, stability and collapse, fluidity and solidity.
Polly Kelsall graduated from UWE, Bristol in 2011 with a
fine art degree. She lives and works in Bristol and is based at BV Studios.
Zervou and Kerruish
The images submitted show the classical and often unobserved
facets of decadence that mirror a world of privilege and an art world that is
more significant to times past. Like fallen features, these images are
flattened and juxtaposed against contrasting architectural details. Demanding a
double take we are obliged to refocus the act of looking and consider the space
the work is presenting. The edifice’s in which art is displayed has become the
artwork itself and challenges how and what is consumed within the confines of
the gallery space.
We are Natalie Zervou and Jack Kerruish, both artists living
and working in London. After graduating from Norwich School of Art and Design,
UK with different individual practices, our work started to amalgamate and have
been collaborating since 2012.
Lewis Khan
My interest is in socially engaged work – themes and
subjects, whilst a background in Architecture & Design is informative to my
visual aesthetic.
2013 Photography graduate from UWE,Bristol. Now based in
London, I am working as a Photographer’s assistant as well as on my own
practice.
Sarah McNulty
Focused on the possibilities of painting, materiality often
takes over. Drawn toward points of
rupture, both the images and their supports are braced by the tension of making
and ruining. They turn and deceive outside of decisions made, suddenly becoming
foreign. Writhing and jerking, spaces become indistinguishable and
unanticipated objects emerge. The
result becomes something not foreseen as an end-point where the linear route of
actions recedes.
Parallel to the action of painting is an interest in
dissolution and shifting thresholds. It is the interactions and possibility of
forming a very physical and expansive language amongst the paintings and their
environments that drives the work further.
Sarah McNulty (b.1979 USA, based in London) received her MFA
in Painting from the Slade School of Fine Art and BA at Georgetown University,
Washington DC.
Solveig Settemsdal
My recent work has focused on investigating the
possibilities of three-dimensional drawing by injecting ink into gelatine. This
material was chosen as I wished to find a medium in which to represent links
between the physical and imagined aspects of memory in a substance akin to its
origin.
In developing this technique I have been able to explore the
sculptural potential of the traditionally two-dimensional medium of ink.
As the objects themselves are fragile and ephemeral, medium
format and 35mm film photography is used to record them. This creates a
material mirror between the recording (film coated in gelatine) and the
recorded.
Solveig Settemsdal is a Norwegian artist currently living in
Bristol, where she works from a space at BV studios.
Linda Taylor
Charlie Godet Thomas
"The expression that there is nothing to express, nothing
with which to express, no desire to express, along with the obligation to
express".
Samuel Beckett, from the Duthuit Dialogues
Charlie Godet Thomas explores images and objects
transforming them through the antithetical use of sculpture, installation,
collage and photography. More interested in the tone of a work than confining
it to a particular medium or genre, he works in a language of contradictions -
humour and melancholia, the two-dimensional and the sculptural, reduction and
assemblage, design and the incidental, the personal and the universal. His
works, just as life is, are a product of these oppositional forces.
"I translate the everyday through making, revealing that it
is at once sad and delightful, “our greatest blessing and most despicable
complacency.”
The artist quoting Ben Highmore, Ordinary Lives
"Midwives and morticians, paupers and princes, go about
their everyday lives. Everything can become everyday, everything can become
ordinary: it is our greatest blessing, our most human accomplishment, our
greatest handicap, our most despicable complacency." Ben Highmore,
Ordinary Lives
Charlie Godet Thomas (b.1985, London, UK)
Clare Thornton
I describe my work as a spatial practice; an exploration of
body-site-text relations through sculptural installation, performance and
print. I put a variety of materials to work, testing their possibilities and
limits to support and encourage my conceptual enquiries. I am often invited to
make work in response to archival materials, public/private collections and
sites of social/historical significance. Drawing on a training in dance,
scenography and literature, a keen interest in materiality, time, memory, folds
and tact is evident in my work.
Birmingham born, Glasgow trained, Bristol based – I am a
Spike Associate and part of BV Studios. I have shown my work regionally,
nationally and internationally as a solo artist but also in on-going
cross-disciplinary collaborations with Emma Cocker, Jan Steinum (Norway) &
the Performance Re-enactment Society.
Lewk Wilmshurst
My practice mutates through the accumulation of past visions
of the future, perpetual current scientific discovery, pop iconography, fractal
behaviour, biological life, human nature, evolution, technology and travel in
documentaries, on the Internet, in papers, magazines and reference books. I
considers this amalgamation, ‘sampling’.
Sarah Wilson
A luminary status is offered to objects that are
acclimatized to shelf life and the catalogue existence. The momentum of visual
assumption is prolonged, as objects lie adrift from their usual sitting. A
selection from shelf to stand-alone allows each formation to excite it’s own
aesthetic generosity and become a worthy souvenir. This probes the overtones of
object significance in the domestic realm and what of this— trash or treasure?
Arrangements are created that are precisely considered,
gesturing dialogue between the compositions.
Forms liaise with one another in a bounty of colour, texture
and surface, relaxing in the un-assumed decadence of a visual buffet.
Sarah Wilson is an artist living and working in Bristol.
Nottingham born – her practice surmises sculptural
assemblage and arrangement.
Sarah Wilton
We are delighted to announce the names of the artists selected for Motorcade/FlashParade's National Open 2013. We'd also like to give a big, big thank you to this year's judges - Axel Wieder, Roy Voss and Hannah Knox, for making such an excellent selection... it's going to be a great show!
Chris Fordwoh
Linda Taylor
Sarah Wilson
Thanks so much to everyone who entered this year's Open and supported M/FP... viewing the range and strength of work submitted was a huge pleasure and a privilege.
We would love to see you at the Private View on Thursday 5th December, from 6pm. Come and enjoy the final selection with us - have a glass of bubbly and see who wins the overall prize.
MOTORCADE/FLASHPARADE NATIONAL OPEN COMPETITION 2013
We are delighted to be launching the third annual Motorcade/FlashParade National Open, to be selected by Axel Wieder, Hannah Knox and Roy Voss
Axel Wieder (Curator of Exhibitions, Arnolfini, Bristol)
Hannah Knox (Artist, London)
Roy Voss (Artist, London)
DEADLINE EXTENDED:
now Midnight, Sunday 10th November
We have allowed very little time to submit work. This is because we believe that many artists (like us) are procrastinators by nature and need to be highly motivated and focused. In past competitions we have announced the deadline way before time and yet the vast majority of submissions come in on the last day... about a minute before midnight! So we don't think you need months of time, rather, you need urgency.. adrenalin... stimulation!
So don't delay, submit today... count down ticking inexorably away!
Prize
1st Prize: £500
Why submit work to Motorcade/FlashParade National Open?
For artists there is the obvious... the chance to be selected for the Open exhibition. Then there's the prize, the winner will be picked out on the night. But there is also the great opportunity to have your work seen by both the panelists and M/FP. We look carefully at each and every piece of work and have often taken note of artists to contact with a view to collaborations or exhibitions in the future.
For Motorcade, we are always excited to see the incredible range of work being produced NOW by artists across the country... and we thrive on providing opportunities to show that work.
For Motorcade, we are always excited to see the incredible range of work being produced NOW by artists across the country... and we thrive on providing opportunities to show that work.
Plus, we are a voluntary organisation, with no funding. The Motorcade/FlashParade National Open is therefore an essential fundraiser, with every penny pumped straight back into the programme, helping us to realise artists' projects and support artist development.
To apply, then, is not simply to be in with a chance to be selected, it is to contribute to a healthy art ecology.
To apply, then, is not simply to be in with a chance to be selected, it is to contribute to a healthy art ecology.
How does it work?
1. You fill in the application form and enter up to 3 pieces of work in any format, for £15. Further works may be submitted, in additional applications at the same rate.
2. After the deadline at midnight on Sunday, 10th November, we organise an anonymous slideshow and showreel to include every application (no pre-selection takes place).
3. The panel of practising artists, writers, critics and lecturers will convene at the end of October to make their selection.
4. On Wednesday, 13th November, all applicants will be notified of the panels selection and in the following days the shortlist will be announced.
5. M/FP will begin promoting the show
6. The selected artists will arrange to deliver their work to the space between the 25th November and 2nd December.
7. M/FP will hang the show.
8. On Thursday 5th December the preview will take place with the prize winner announced on the night.
9. The exhibition continues until Sunday 15th December.
10. Works will be collected between Monday 30th December and Monday 13th January.
HOT TIPS
Fill in the application form correctly and adhere to the specifications
Make sure the images show the work at it's best.
Be strategic: whilst all types of work are considered, a piece that encompasses the entire space might not be workable.
About the selection panel:
Axel Wieder born 1971 in Stuttgart, is a curator and writer living in Berlin and Bristol. He is the Curator of Exhibitions at Arnolfini in Bristol. 2007-2010 he was the artistic director of Künstlerhaus Stuttgart and 2010 a visiting curator at Ludlow 38, Goethe-Institut New York. In 1999, he co-founded together with Katja Reichard and Jesko Fezer the bookshop Pro qm, which also serves as an experimental platform for events and presentations in art and urbanism. For the 3rd Berlin Biennale 2004, he organized a thematic section about the urban development in Berlin after the fall of the wall (together with Jesko Fezer). 2004-2005 he was project manager for the exhibition project "Now and ten years ago" for KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin and 2004 a research fellow at the Peabody-Essex-Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. He is lecturing and publishing widely.
Hannah Knox Hannah Knox graduated from The Royal College of Art in 2007, she makes paintings and installations that use fabric as a ground, reducing painting to its primary components of colour, cloth and support.
Axel Wieder born 1971 in Stuttgart, is a curator and writer living in Berlin and Bristol. He is the Curator of Exhibitions at Arnolfini in Bristol. 2007-2010 he was the artistic director of Künstlerhaus Stuttgart and 2010 a visiting curator at Ludlow 38, Goethe-Institut New York. In 1999, he co-founded together with Katja Reichard and Jesko Fezer the bookshop Pro qm, which also serves as an experimental platform for events and presentations in art and urbanism. For the 3rd Berlin Biennale 2004, he organized a thematic section about the urban development in Berlin after the fall of the wall (together with Jesko Fezer). 2004-2005 he was project manager for the exhibition project "Now and ten years ago" for KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin and 2004 a research fellow at the Peabody-Essex-Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. He is lecturing and publishing widely.
Hannah Knox Hannah Knox graduated from The Royal College of Art in 2007, she makes paintings and installations that use fabric as a ground, reducing painting to its primary components of colour, cloth and support.
Her work has been exhibited widely, with recent solo shows in London; 'BUFF' at Ceri Hand Gallery and 'Stoffbilder' at Take Courage. Previous exhibitions include 'Without an Edge there is no middle', Pluspace, Coventry; ‘Double Vision’, Lion & Lamb Gallery, London, ‘Fade Away, Painting between representation and abstraction’, Transition Gallery, London and Gallery North, Newcastle, and ‘The Marmite Prize for Painting’ The Nunnery, London.
Hannah Knox is represented by Ceri Hand Gallery, London. She was born in London in 1978 and lives and works in London.
Important Details:
Important dates
Application Deadline: Midnight, Sunday 10th November
Selection notification: Monday 18th November
Delivery of Works: Monday 25th November – Monday 2nd December
Delivery of Works: Monday 25th November – Monday 2nd December
Private View and award ceremony: Thursday 5th December
Exhibition: Friday 6th December – Sunday 15th December, Thurs - Sun, 12-5pm
Collection of Works: Monday 30th December – Monday 13th January
Eligibility
The M/FP National Open is open to all artists and all genres of work. It is also open to MA students and final year BA students. You must be over 18 and based in the UK to enter.
Application/Guidelines
Applications are by email to info@motorcadeflashparade.com. Please follow these guidelines, which can also be found at the back of the application form.
PLEASE
NOTE
|
A
combination of 2D and 3D works, audiovisual works and performance works may be
submitted up to a maximum of 3 total works. Applications are by email to
info@motorcadeflashparade.com
|
Application
form
|
Please
complete this application form and save it as an MS Word.doc or .docx file in
this format: SURNAME.Initial.OPEN.doc/docx
|
Payment
|
Each entry costs £16 to submit which includes up to 3 works.
Applicants may make multiple applications.
Payments should be made by bank transfer to:
BV ARTISTS
Sort code 20-13-42
Account number 73897192
Please leave your name as the reference.
OR, by cheque made out to BV Artists and sent to 37 Philip Street, Bedminster, Bristol, BS3 4EA
|
2D
and 3D works
Image
specifications
|
Up to
6 jpeg images, to describe a maximum of 3 works, NO LARGER than 1mb each and adequately sized for use in a Power
Point slideshow (roughly 600 pixels along the longest edge). Images should be
emailed as attachments, along with
the application, and saved in the following format:
SURNAME.Initial.Work
number.Title.jpg
|
Audio
Visual / Performance works
Specifications
|
Audiovisual
and performance works, or documentation of works, up to a maximum of 3 minutes
each, should be linked to in the Audio Visual / Performance Works List page.
Any works/documentation longer than 3 minutes will only be watched up to the
first 3 minutes.
Images
of the work installed can be attached, meeting the image specifications described
above.
In
‘installation details’ describe how the work is shown.
|
Terms and Conditions:
- You must be over 18, based in the UK and not in the first 2 years of a BA Art related course to enter.
- Receipt of applications will be acknowledged via email.
- No application will be accepted after Midnight on Sunday 10th November.
- Artists are responsible for delivering and collecting work from the space at agreed times to be arranged on an individual basis. Although M/FP cannot contribute to the costs of work delivery or collection, we will put artists living regionally to each other in contact, with the aim of reducing costs through combined deliveries.
- Access to some audiovisual equipment may be possible, with priority given to artists living further afield. However, all artists are expected to be able to supply all the equipment necessary for the exhibition of their work.
- Artworks need not be for sale, but any works offered for sale will be on the basis of a 30% commission on the sale price.
- Copyright will remain with the artist. Selected artists exhibiting in the Open agree that their work may be used for Motorcade/FlashParade marketing purposes.
- Artists must insure their own work. Although every care will be taken, we cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage to artworks.
- M/FP will produce publicity materials for the National Open show, inform the press and promote the exhibition through our networks, our website and social media sites.
- Professional photographic documentation of the show and each individual work will be supplied to the selected artists, free of charge.
- The decisions of the panel, regarding their selection is final. We will notify all applicants of the selection on Wednesday 13th November. We regret that due to the high volume of applications we will not have the capacity to give the personalised feedback we offer for our proposal based competitions.
Any queries please email info@motorcadeflashparade.com or telephone:
+44(0)7787 797 339 / +44(0)7530 527 733
Ellen Wilkinson
Since the competitions many of the artists have re-exhibited or been involved with Motorcade in other capacities. Most have also gone on to exhibit nationally and internationally; many have also received prizes and awards.
+44(0)7787 797 339 / +44(0)7530 527 733
The Motorcade/FlashParade National Open 2011 exhibited works by
Rhiannon Adam
Zanne Andrea
Milo Brennan
Lindsey Bull
Julie Coltman
Martyn Cross
Gordon Dalton
Davies, Monaghan & Klein
Anne Deeming
Elizabeth Dismorr
Lauren Foulkes
Thomas Goddard
Alex Hardy
Denise Hickey
Daniel Just
Will Kendrick
Zanne Andrea
Milo Brennan
Lindsey Bull
Julie Coltman
Martyn Cross
Gordon Dalton
Davies, Monaghan & Klein
Anne Deeming
Elizabeth Dismorr
Lauren Foulkes
Thomas Goddard
Alex Hardy
Denise Hickey
Daniel Just
Will Kendrick
The Motorcade/FlashParade National Open 2012 exhibited works by
Since the competitions many of the artists have re-exhibited or been involved with Motorcade in other capacities. Most have also gone on to exhibit nationally and internationally; many have also received prizes and awards.
