Under the watchful eye of Darren Williams, Ava Vaughan former student of Hereford Art College was lucky enough to be introduced to current BA Fine Art students Vivian Barraclough and Ash Roberts.

 

The collaboration sparked multiple artistic ideas centred around the ‘Out of Nature’ project at Newport House.  

 

After many twists and turns we were inspired by the challenges the materials had to offer. Resulting in categorising 12 months of waste collected by a family of 6 living at Newport House.

 

After one pit stop at the pub and 6 days of hard work the team have produced a response to the brief, site, material and working as part of a newly established collective. The installation created featured different percentages of sorted paper, plastic, metal and ‘other’ objects, which have then been placed into a stack of Industrial intermediate bulk containers.

 

We feel that this has been an exciting and direct response to the site and location. Our work is installed in the dipping pond within a walled organic garden, creating juxtaposition between natural forms and man made waste material.  

Wrapping the structure in clear and black plastic was not only a new material but emphasised how we as a society manage our waste. 

 

Awaiting to be transformed

To be Undone

 

Private view 3rd October 12:30 pm

To find out more: www.outofnature.org.uk/

Before I went away on holiday I took down an installation ( [31.12.2002] ) following a month long exhibition at the Applestore. My work was a response to a piece of contemporary music composed by John Frith which in  turn was his response to the northern lights.  I realised that this had been my most exciting and engaging exhibition experience to date. Why?

Well I think because I was using both created and found materials and placing them together in a surprising way.  The exploration for this work was made during a module on my Fine Art course; the thinking and processes that I undertook gave the confidence to create a site-specific installation.  I was grateful that the curator gave me the space I needed.

At the private view I received much interest in my work, much more than with other work I have previously exhibited.   I created the work in situ and although I knew the visual qualities I was after I did not really know how the work was going to look.  I think that this immediacy and the site-specificity of the work was apparent to some of the viewers.  I was able to create a lyrical movement and depth that extented well beyond the physical materials themselves.  There was also much positive interest registered during the exhibition, according to the gallery owners (unfortunately none of it written down).  However, another artist visiting the exhibition who found my work exciting has now offered me the opportunity to exhibit in an exhibition later in the year.   This confirms to me the necessity of taking opportunities whenever they offer themselves!

During my time away on holiday I went to see Phyllida Barlow's exhibition 'Set'. This had a huge impact on me not least because of her use of material, the scale and the site-specificity. I think that there is something about the temporal nature of the work I find exciting i.e  the work will never exist in the same space, time or form again.  I particularly note the use of natural light from the high windows and rooflights.  There was no ignoring this installation, it pushed and pulled you around the white gallery space so that you hardly noticed the white walls (other than squeezing yourself against them) .... I found this ironic as someone who finds white galleries forbidding places.