Notice Board

Poly-Technic
Title: Never-Land
Poly-Technic asks: What will Europe look like in 200 years? Can we imagine a place where national boundaries have evaporated, where everyone belongs, and nobody stands on the in or outside? The last 200 years has seen many wars, many struggles, many generations. Communism has risen and fallen; capitalism reaches its end stage; the impact of climate change becomes ever more urgent. At this point in time we want to think to a better time, challenge negative scripts and acknowledge the possibilities for a future that understands itself. A future not tied into the present state of things.
The flag is one outcome of a European project involving many authors of different ages and experiences. In each Never-Land site we have tried to think forward, imagining together taking collage literally and metaphorically in considering a different Europe. We acknowledge the students and staff of Liceo Artistico Guggenheim School in Venice, participants of a workshop at Leicester Printworks and audiences at Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield for their part in the process of creating a Never-Land.
www.poly-technic.co.uk

PESPE Poland.
Title: Land of the free
Pespe says: I am a graduate of Graphic Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk and work as a graphic designer. Silkscreen is my hobby, it meets my needs for manual action. I hang works in the city because I want to familiarize people with artistic graphics. I work mainly in the Tri-City (Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot) to show people that graffiti does not have to be the only form of street art. I hang work at night to leave a mark in the city where everyone is anonymous. This give meaning to my work, and is not just to put in mothballs. Besides, sometimes I like to feel the adrenaline 😉 The form and subjects of my posters are the results of my personal preferences – I do what I like. I am inspired by old-school animations, weird characters and abstract figures, but at the same time I have in my mind design artistry and the harmony of the composition. I try to combine a sensitivity with the graphic clarity of the form. I like that everyone can see something different in these works.
#pespe95  

I’m pleased to have been invitied to be part of this: Art + Psychogeography: Tuesday, 12 November 2019. Join us all from Fermynwoods for a free walk and talk event exploring how environments can effect emotions and how walking can be seen as way to creatively explore different places, with a focus on the rural. We’ll explore the village of Kings Cliffe in the company of artist Kate Genever and community walker Carole Wright, discussing how psychogeography inspires their practice, starting and ending up at The Cross Keys pub. 7 – 8:30pm. Starting and ending at The Cross Keys. 2 West Street. Kings Cliffe. PE8 6XA.

Katie Numi-Usher. Belize. Central America
Title: Borderlxne Lino Print. 30cm  x 40cm Edition of 7
The Notice Board in hosting the work of Katie invites you to consider the construction of personal and national identities and notional ‘Free Lands?’  Belize is composed of many cultures and languages. An ancient Mayan history is well documented with many cultural aspects still persisting today, despite 500 years of European domination – first by Spain and then Britain. The British colonised the country in the early 18C using black slaves from West and Central Africa to cut trees. Their eemancipation was not achieved until 1838 [even though abolition was penned in 1833], but this provided little change as many institutions restricted the ability of individuals to buy land. Fallout from this and earlier histories continues to resonate as citizens fight for land, equality, safety, prestige and struggle against rising crime, racism and poverty. But why is this relevant here 1000s of miles away in a small country village? The Notice Board proposes that Katie’s work and its wider context may enable us consider the repercussions of historical decisions on people, economies and countries. Whilst helping us reflect on our own identity and inevitable diverse heritage. The national flag of Belize is flown to highlight Katie’s country of origin.
Follow this LINK for further information about The Notice Board   
Katie says: This lino print represents a 40 foot hair braid bursting out of a canvas on a wall installed in an exhibition in Belize. The braid was made of extensions I had during 2018. Through these two artworks I aim to weave my ‘silenced-ness’ into a wider narrative. It’s about personal borders bridging political ones. Hair is a powerful part of black identity. On the continent it was how we connected with our ancient ancestors, braiding like the planted cornrows. When we were taken away our hair was shorn and we were scattered by language. We were told our hair needed to be relaxed. We were told and shown and done to a great deal.
Instagram: katienumi                  
Twitter: @kat_ush_kin         

As part of the  ‘A great community- John Ruskin’s Europe’ conference in Venice. I was invited to make new work – a previous post shows initial collages of ‘future skies’. During the conference speakers from diverse specialisms talked of ruins, roads and routes, paradises lost, economics, parables, morals, virtues and concepts of collectivism. I spoke of collage and is ability to warp realities and how there is a push and pull that allows you to play with space, perspective, reality. fantasy. I like how it Emphasises concept and process over end product, collage brings the incongruous into meaningful congress with the ordinary. In response to the speakers papers, multiple languages used and ambitions of the conference, I made a new collage and then drawing that referenced all their ideas. The work contains references to the spaces and artworks I saw during the visit alongside mythical places – utopias perhaps such as the Tower of Babel

Ai Weiwei: China
Title: Flag. 2019
Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei designed his flag to raise awareness of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The design was inspired by his time spent visiting Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, who were forced to flee attacks in the Southeast Asian region of Burma. He noticed that nearly everyone was barefooted. He sees the bare footprint as a symbol that relates to anyone who has ever been forced to flee. He took 100 muddy footprints of people young and old in various locations, and combined them in his design.
It’s about human identity. Human rights is not a given property, but rather something we can only gain from our own defence and fight. As humans, as long as we can stand up or can make a move, we have our footprint. 
Arts organisations and human rights charities are invited to Fly The Flag for human rights. Fly the Flag who commissioned Ai Weiwei hoped: from the Highlands of Scotland to the coast of Cornwall via cities, towns and villages across the UK, in galleries and theatres, shopping centres and offices, schools and libraries, both physically and online, people will come together to celebrate that human rights are for everyone, every day.
www.flytheflag.org.uk
www.aiweiwei.com

Kate Genever
Title: K / I am trying to Communicate with you
To launch The Notice Board I wanted to fly a flag that summed up the ambitions and themes of this new project. A setting of the scene if you like. The blue and yellow maritime signal flag: K/ I wish to communicate with you flag, seems perfect. How interesting and sensible that ships talk to one another in an international language of patterned code – like art, both hold important messages. The flag, like The Notice Board project, has an ambition to communicate with you – to invite you to think about people, practices and places beyond here. This K/ I wish to communicate with you flag is an original. Taken from a decommissioned boat that is being dismantled in India. I bought the flag on Ebay.

Please see this film, made at the launch : https://www.ruskinprize.co.uk/about#/press/

I’ve been working with Year 9 students in Leeds in response to Leonardo’s drawings hosted at Leeds Art Gallery. It’s part of my drawing commission in support of this show and together the students and I have been thinking about the interplay between reality and imagination. In his work he switches between both seamlessly and which has led us to consider how we can use observation, poetic licence and description to think things into being.