Beautiful Things Update

Do read the story of the project below but first new exciting news. Beautiful Things MMU collaboration will be exhibited at Manchester Metropolitan University on April 27th - 1st May 2015.

The plan for the exhibition is here:

The Story

Beautiful Things is a project I started some years ago which looks at the value of objects and how we add or take away value through our artistic interventions. Chosen forgotten but beautiful objects are each boxed into an collage box  Exhibition visitors can obtain one of my boxed works through a bidding process where the intentions for the bid are considered as much as the artwork. Recently VAC gallery in Northwich were kind enough to feature one of the works and five bids resulted. All those who bid have consented to there bid being included below.
The box people bidded on:

The bids
Hazel Jones
Price you wish to pay: a cup of coffee and a cake
What will you do with the piece?
Chance to exchange ideas. I really like your project and the thought that I will become part of deciding what will happen with the buttons and art in the end. Making connections with other artists who enjoy the process of rethinking what happens next is the best bit. We could decide that over tea/coffee and cake.



Jane Carter
Price you wish to pay:£1
What will you do with the piece?
Buttons, brown
Echo a life of busying around
Sleeping
Talking, Walking,
standing at a bar
Waiting....
hesitant.....
Will she?/Won't she?
turn up?
take her out for a burn up on my triumph!
the stories we could make up-
together

I would sit and play with the piece and make up stories about it


Jaswindre Elwick
Price you wish to pay:A swap for my two Naughty Putti
What will you do with the piece?
I love the sentiment behind the work. The box is beautiful and I love the drawn buttons.
it would be displayed in my home.

Lou O'Hara
Price you wish to pay: artswop=box framed total size 25x25cm.
What will you do with the piece?
This piece will be exhibited in my studio with my cuffs and collat work...I just adore it.

Emma Thackham
Price you wish to pay: £5 and collaboration
What will you do with the piece?
I'd use it for inspiration to finish work as I start a lot of pieces and finish few. It would be added to my little collection of artworks I started to buy to support my friends and collegues. It would remind me about slow art and counting my blessings, making time to make and be alone and with others. I'd exhibit it next time I embark on my own series ' Encounters and Documents" and i would eventually gift it to somebody else, an artist comrade who needed it more.

 The winner: 
The winner was Hazel Jones. I decided that the only way to judge it was in terms of the projects initial intention. This was that the boxes would not be the final resting places for the Beautiful Things but rather a resting spot. Hazel's offer was open enough to inspire an intrigue about where the item would end up and the debate about its onwards journey was an interesting offer.

What next?

I met with Hazel for the excange of the box for coffee cake and a debate. Hazel teaches an Interactive Art Course at MMU.

She came to our meeting with an intriguing orange index box. Inside were a collection of cards all hand written by her students. Each was an idea for the box.

P.S in my hairs defence I got very wet in the rain

 As we talked through each idea one seemed to fit as an overarching structure determining a way forward, the others as experiements within this. Basis for overarching structure from the card below.

Inspired by the students ideas we have decided that the following structure would be applied to the next step of the journey:

1 Each student will get a chance to carry out their idea
2 Each student will have the box on loan for one week during this time they will carry out their idea for the box.
3 In return for the loan of the box they will give artist Beth Barlow an item that they think is Beautiful but neglected. These can be handed to Hazel who will forward them on to Beth. Beth may make this into further boxes.
4 Once each person has completed their idea they will take a picture of their completed box. This will be made into a tag and attached to the box (this tag now becomes part of the work which can be played with too). A copy of the photo will also be kept for possible inclusion in an exhibition.
5 The box will then be passed on to the person next in line, as decided by Hazel/Rita. Decisions about who is next will be made depending on the state the box is returned in.  e.g if it is pulled apart an idea which brings it back together may be needed.
6 Participating artists can add comments to this blog as they wish.
7 A final exhibition of the project documentation and the resulting box will be exhibited somewhere.

It was very exciting.

All the students ideas are scanned below:

 

Hazel sent me regular updates and I've posted them below.  
The Journey of the button box has begun (update from Hazel)

Zoe Blanche had the box this week,,,she made it more personal .

Tyler Towner has it this week..fingers x'd .

Next in line:
Tyley Towner
E mail from Hazel: 
Tyler returned the box yesterday..I really like what he has done...he has taken nothing away..everything is still in the box..but not all visible at the moment..but that could change.
Rita and I have decided that Dani Butterworth will get it next.
I have the object Tyler gave me for you...should I post it through your door?

My reply:

Thanks Hazel,

I love the glue in the box and the marks on the back. . Nice atention to detail and a great opportunity now to reconstrust for the next person. Nice that our fear of pulling it apart has been got over. Very intrepid.

Thanks to Reid from MMU  the box has been on a day trip to liverpool, gained a passport, some postcards and experienced a fish supper.

Next student to take on the box was Elizabeth Walshaw. She took one of the buttons and sewed it onto her dress.  Returning it to its original function as a fastener.

Contribution by Teri Gosling:
I didn't want to add too much because I like the idea of the objects in side being contained and after danis extreme parcels I wanted to just add a piece of my project.

13/4/15
I've been enjoying revisiting this project which decended from the shelf thanks to a collaboration with MMU students and lecturers. Today has been box making and reworking the Beautiful things which the students gave me. Conversatins with artist Simon Kennedy about the value of a shell on the beach compaired to its value in a gallery of museum. moving on to talking about the artifacts we have in museums which were gathered from other countries. Should we give them all back?

More info on Beautiful Things and how it evolved  here

A gift in flowers

A few years back I began a Knit a Year project in Halton. One of the groups I met was the knitting group "Wednesday Woolies". The Knit a Year idea (knitting your moods each day for a year more info here www.knitayear.ning.com) largely fell of infertile ground within group. As we got to know each other a little better it became clear however that at the core of the group was the idea of giving. Be it knitting a jumper for a grandchild or knitting clothes for premature babies. Knitting and giving seem closely linked in general. A recent request I made for words knitters associate with knitting brought up words like contribution and friendship. It seems important for people in the group to knit for their own serenity but having a sense of its purpose also seems important.

With this in mind myself and one of the group members chatted about the idea of knitting flowers to get us through the winter months. But what would we do with them then? Who could we give them to? Hospices often can't host real flowers so a gift of our knitted flowers seemed like a sensible solution. The knitters knitted and sent me their beautiful flowers, as individual and delicate as the real things. The flowers now wait in bouquets ready for our visit to the local hospice.

More knitting  and life know how in our new book www.blurb.co.uk/b/5700567-creative-yarns