Blog

Exhibition 42 features two Biro drawings, on found book pages, from the set I no longer fear the invisible, I’m terrified by reality / Blind faith?
Kate says: I bought the torn-from-a-book-pages in a small shop in Venice. Using a black biro I scribbled over the religious characters represented to cover all but their tender hands. Hands that without their wider context become non-gendered and symbols of worry, protection and power that exist in all of us. I rather think of them as a trinity, where the white hands acts as metaphors for the current biases and issues surrounding Venice and the approaches of fear, faith, fortitude, being lived out there today by residents and supporters alike. Approaches that I could argue are all attempts at freedom.
Further information about these works can be found here

Alice Pool is an early career artist from Sheffield, currently living in Hackney. The Notice Board showed her work back in 2020 as she graduated from Glasgow School of Art. Then as now Alice’s work deals with feelings, freedom and play. Her use of drawing seems to help this exploration. The Notice Board has always liked how she foregrounds living beings in her work helping us reflect on all our actions. Actions that we now know have effects on all our and their freedoms.
Out of Misery Alice says: is a painting thats part of a series I am working on that considers how kids figure out their place and power in the world through the caring and killing of animals. I like to explore childhood in my work and the freedom and naivety of children’s minds. I am fascinated how their unknowing drives them to test things. When I was younger me and my brother used to chop the heads off worms to see if they would grow new ones. We would attempt to drown ants with a hose pipe and once we cared for a dying baby hedgehog by building it a home out of a shoe box. These experiences play a significant part in who I am today and where I place myself as a free willed being. They taught me how to love and nurture, what it means to inflict pain, how far my actions can affect other beings, and what it is to grieve and celebrate life.

alice-pool.com

Exhibition 40 is titled Borders and showcases new collaborative work by Danish artists Anders Gammelgaard-Nielson and Iben West. Of the work they said: We had a great collection of flags in our house. Living with these flags has made us aware of the strong sense of nationality that these flags represent. No matter what we do with the flags they are heavily loaded with connotations of nationality and territory.
Among the collection we have made a selection of just two flags. The Danish flag Dannebrog that dates back to 1219 and the English flag Saint George’s Cross dating back to the 1270s. Originating from almost the same time in the history, the Middle Ages and the time of the crusades, having the same colours, red and white and even sharing the Christian Cross they are very alike and yet so different. Distinguished by history, tradition, land, language, nationality they evoke different feelings, memory and a strong sense of cultural identity.
However, set in a contemporary context the two flags immediately instigate a sense of antagonism and the existence of borders. Would it be possible to erase the borders and leave a sense of unification by the simple act of folding the two flags together and let their colours and pattern intertwine or would it be an act of confrontation or even provocation? What is the symbolic power of flags? Can this be measured by the act of folding?
The Notice Board is interested in how many artists have steered away from using national flags, creating their own designs and disrupting notions of nationality that way. Anders and Iben have tackled the subject head on, leading to multiple interpretations that asking if its ever possible to escape the claiming power of a flag? Or rather, given the Notice Board’s Land of the Free? theme is this flag now more problematic and loaded?

Smith-Genever work predominantly in stitch, developing co-created artworks which respond to experiences of working with marginalised communities. By recognising stitch can help people make-sense and resist the chaos of life, they promote sewing as a way for people to explore tricky stuff and to ‘power up.’ This approach allows for connection with individuals at deeply emotional levels, which is mirrored in the resulting artworks which has included banners, quilts, t-shirts, patches and prints.
The Notice Board recognises how, at this time, many of us need to find strength to cope with issues that are beyond our control. This selection from Smith-Genever’s large archive aims to offer support though the sharing of wisdoms collected from people who have or are coping with life’s hard stuff.
The Notice Board stands by Smith-Genever in their belief that art is a serious business.  And that alongside the creative act, making art can provide routes and opportunities for personal growth and the building of resilience. The ultimate freedom.

All works shown in No one’s coming to save you! were made with different people, of different ages, from many different contexts. We all acknowledge all their inputs and efforts and with respect keep them anonymous.

www.smith-genever.com

This month’s exhibition: Finding a Happy Ending showcases a work by Jackie Berridge while also drawing attention back to the war in Ukraine. Jackie’s work highlights how making art can help us cope with things beyond our control and how in particular drawing lets us speak our deepest truths. This makes the Notice Board believe art really is the last place of freedom.

Jackie says: “My work is a mash of inspiration from childhood memories, dreams and fairy stories. I create fantastical landscapes populated with people and anthropomorphic creatures, telling tales of joy, sadness mixed with shades of darkness for the viewer to interpret. For example, the tiny tombs at the foot of the drawing might be the tragic result of combat, or alternatively these shadowy little forms might represent defiant little beans of bravery, standing proud in the face of the enemy. 

Making drawings provides a means of escape during times of crisis such as the pandemic. The work shown here focuses on my reaction to the war in Ukraine; I found it difficult to comprehend and sought ways to process and deal with the situation. I am reminded of waking up from a bad dream or a recurring nightmare when the challenge is to change the ending. Through drawing I explore ways of avoiding the horror by providing various shelters, bothies and dwellings as sanctuary and exploring the potential of transformation. 

Observational drawing is an important part of the process. But as ideas progress, I prefer to work from memory and imagination, even surprising myself as landscapes and beings emerge in unexpected ways. I love to contrast different gestural marks with graphic elements and occasionally I add objects drawn directly from life which have a personal significance.”

The Ukraine flag flies as an act of solidarity.

EXHIBITION 37 is by Mike Sprout from Hull. It is titled: This place in fourteen flags. The Notice Board was interested in how Mike would interprete its ongoing theme – The Land of the Free?. His response is 14 works that will be changed every 2 days. We see them as a manifesto that encourages us to trust ourselves and our abilities to cope, hope and create – to live free? Mike says: These images represent elements in my journey as I learn to love the land I call home, the people I call community and myself.
Loving reality, Understanding difficulty, discovering deeply,  finding true integrity…
The following list offers us titles and detailed description of each work.

1. Egg. Egg, cosmos, beginning, all. Take a broad view, a god’s eye view
2. Plant. Breath of the world, support of all life and converter of all sun energy. World-tree-trunk, our part of the cosmos, here amongst the foliage.
3. Animal. Within this pink human flesh body, an ancient ape, an animal, raging     emotions inherited from billions of years of being an animal. The evolutionary miracle of my feelings and impulses
4. Friends. Circle of people, humans, gift economy, talking and listening. Miracle of community, mutual support, empathy
5. Disaster. Change, mystery, trouble. Eventually all things explode, all things turn to ash!
6. Magpie. Black and white in conflict, conversation, meeting, joining, interlocking. Opposites depend on one another. Opposites meet loudly, beautifully. This is where new things are born, a new whole containing both poles
7. Growth. I grow beyond my borders, as I expand I see I contain multitudes! I am a container for so many emotions, memories, experiences. I am a world-self, a whole community. I have a golden being living and growing within me, I’m like a mother, like a planet. 
8. Manifesto. Revolution, conscience, stoic solidity standing on the pulsing earth. Strength within good decisions
9. Care. Hugging myself, self-care, The inner feeling of love, if I can’t love myself how can I love anybody else? Quiet moments to notice, heal and cherish. 
10. Rising. Emergence from below, a rising truth. Let the land and its secrets help shape the future. Our collective history, collective trauma is welcomed back from the shadows, into the air
11. Action. Action radiates out of me now in every direction! Cycles, patterns, recurrence, change. What movements and shiftings are we a part of? How are we connected to each other’s efforts and struggles? Communal action, commoning, how can we work together? 
12. Snake. Guts, cthonic, snake, abdominal-earth-power. I have the blessing of the nether-regions
13. Tiger. Confidence, King, Apollo, Lugh, Grace. I move like a tiger, ruling the world. So often we are sorry excuses for humans, let’s shed shame and roam our jungles like we own the place, walking in harmony with our environment, unafraid of our instincts…
14. Bird. Essence, passion, identity, calling, inspiration. There is a soul bird within me, that wants to soar. I glide, my whole being knows the way.

Mike Sprout is an artist specialising in murals, zines, wood-carving, painting, drawing, risograph printing and community arts. He’s also a founding member of Ground, a community arts centre on Beverley Road in Hull. @mikesprout on Instagram

The Birdbox Gallery, begun in 2020, is run by artists Roger and Sarah Healey-Dilkes. It’s simply a gallery in the form of a box, located in a garden hedge, open 24/7 and visible to any passerby. Like The Notice Board they exhibit the work of artists at all ages and stages of their careers from near at home and far away. They say: “There are no themes, preferences or types of work we favour, we just want to show as many peoples work to as wider public as possible. And offer a healthy outdoor experience, as an antidote to the orthodoxy of the conventional art gallery or museum experience.”

From July 17^th the annual Bird Box Gallery Arts Trail will take place featuring local and national artists work accompanied by an accessible a trail. Which means their single space multiples into 27 Bird Box galleries in 27 front gardens across the Birdwood Association Residential Area. Cambridge. The Notice Board is happy to be an outpost for this festival, showcasing Roger and Sarah’s work, the gallery’s manifesto and by flying of their flag. This collaboration extends the trail offering more audiences access to their fantastic work and exciting efforts.

Sardine Breakfast by Roger Healey-Dilkes is a collage created during lockdown as part of an ongoing series that used found materials from the recycling bin and reduced shelves. A series of these were later made into a book published by the Bird Box Gallery.

Hazard by Sarah Healey-Dilkes a Chain of figures stencil cut from plastic hazard tape. A material that was ever present in our consciousness, during the Covid19 lockdown, in public areas to indicate warning and restriction.

The Flag is designed by the Brighton based illustrator Sean O’ Brien who works with the gallery designing its logo, font, posters and art trail map.

What a joy to spend last week with a great group of Scarborough 6th form and foundation students at Crescent Arts working in response to the historic Woodend Gallery – a Victorian conservatory owned originally by the famous Sitwell family that once hosted exotic plants, reptiles and birds including allegedly Europes largest fern, then later the towns natural history collection and taxidermy.
Over 4 days influenced by all this, the light, space and the drafts created by the amazing windows, we played with process, materials and ideas. Including once exotic plants such as the potato (which is grown on mass locally to supply the McCain factory and of course all the chippies) and Sebum’s which now on their portable plinth act as drip catchers when the due to be repaired original roof leaks.
We made, using seemingly exotic, yet discarded plastics and foils from Hulls scrap store, a 46m inflatable vine like object that weaves itself through the space, tiny and oversized flowers, a hanging wall of silver featuring strange tendril’s, a beautiful bird like costume suspended from a modern day perch and what we believe to be the regions largest potato print.
By restricting ourselves to only 2 or 3 materials per object we challenged ourselves to work collaboratively and craft new and bold sculptural pieces in a very short time for this huge space.
Thanks to students: Millie, Emily, Mary, Nina, Monika, Rijanna, and Scarlett.
Plus Kyra and Martha for all their efforts and support
The show titled Hothouse runs until Sept 11 2022.

.

Stratco an artist based in Berlin has created Cross Stitched for this months exhibition. The Notice Board which is curated around the question The land of the free? enables us to ponder what ‘free’ means by way of artists responses. In this instance Stratco freely experiments with materials to undermine and free a tradition. While also challenging us to consider the states the people pictured find themselves in.

Stratco said: the reason for working with portraits is that there are so many details to be transformed. Plus they represent visible human expressions, while thoughts & feelings are trying to be hidden. They are the perfect symbol for the idea of “Radical constructivism”. A theory which has inspired me from my early beginnings. It states “Reality is not given or binding, but an individual construction made by the human brain(s)”. The collage technique is a perfect way to mirror the individual de- and reconstruction of sense and meaning.  I don’t like any labels and I never thought about making “collages”. I’m just using existing material to create different kinds of reality. Alternative acts …

I’m working 100% analogue which means: I’m exclusively using vintage magazines (their style and colours are superior to all modern stuff). And I’m solely using manual techniques and tools for transforming the pieces. The techniques are a means to the end – but in turn, the quality of your works depends heavily on your ability to almost perfectly master the process of cutting and pasting. The balancing of the technical and compositional dimension is the biggest challenge.

I get the inspiration from all kinds of visual formats. Be it art, movies, advertisements, record and magazine cover, etc. In most of the cases I already have a quite clear idea about the transformational direction before making the first cut. Nevertheless, the actually resulting “look and feel” is always work in progress, a certain deviation from the original plan is an indispensable part of the program.

I have chosen not to fly a flag. For many reasons given these times. The symbol of an empty flagpole is the best answer

Stratco is onInstagram @stratco