you be scheming and i be screaming

Friends,

it has been a long time. Far too long in fact. For the last 2 months I have carried the guilt of not posting. So much excitement has happened as well that i need to tell you about. There have been books published, lightboxes built and degrees completed.

The intensity has been such that I have had to neglect my posting and focus on the task at hand. As something of a holding post I had planned to tell you some amazing things. The first was that one of the images from my project can be found in the new photoworks it is in the back as part of the ad for the Westminster degree show. The excitement continued when i found out that the same ad could be found in the freerange festival catalogue. I have also made a website for my project. Then fever pitch was to be reached as I announced to you that my degree show is currently taking place at the Truman brewer in brick lane.

But all these things are foot notes (albeit ones that will be elaborated on in due course) because what i want to tell you about is a most heinous act on the part of some immoral, cowardly and deceitful soul.

This person visited the opening of my degree show on Thursday night along with hundreds of others. While everyone else was enjoying the work and a glass of well deserved wine this disgraceful example of humanity was prowling by the book stand. While there they picked up the book I had made, placed it about their person and left. To put it simply by book has been stolen.

Lets put this in perspective. Theft of such an object is a totally inexcusable act. First of all there is no monetary value to the book. Unless it is a long term investment predicated on my future success this book has little re sale value. You will not see it on an auction site for huge sums of money. The malice of the crime is accentuated by the fact this is not the book of a professional artist. This work, along with all on display, is not the product of a funding grant. rather it is the result of hard work, sacrifice and in many cases extended overdrafts and credit cards. More so than other types of work this is the product of heart, soul and love. To take it represents a callous, selfish act that displays no appreciation for the person who made the work.

I was suitably devastated by the theft and have been left to dwell on it for a few days. Fortunately i have other work in display so if you can get over to London you can still see the results of my hard work. But if you do go spare a moment for what your missing.

Bonhams was founded in 1793

Books continue to occupy a large part of my thoughts and with my mind occupied in such a way a trip to Hay-on-Wye seemed more than appropriate. As fortune would have it a good friend had organised such a trip and a fun day was spent perusing the numerous books shops on offer.

Amongst all these shops I found this catalogue for antique picture frames.

It is a relatively small publication consisting of about 20 pages and is approximately A4 in size. When you flick through the pages you are presented with a series of more or less ornate picture frames. Alongside these we are given some brief factual information and the expected sale price.

Obviously this was originally intended as a functional document intended to give buyers an idea of what they might want to bid on. But what interested me more was the repetition of the empty frame. As I went through this catalogue of empty frames I could not help but feel a sense of absence. The recurring white space seemed to hold the potential to contain something but this is never realised during the publication. Rather I was left to wonder what had been in the frame and what would be there in the future.

I'm aware that I am very much viewing this catalogue through the filter of my own work. As such this feeling of a space waiting to be activated will be more keenly felt by me than by the casual viewer. But nevertheless this is a valid way to respond to these images. Indeed if a similar image were placed in a context that dealt specifically with blank spaces then this sense of potential activation could be accentuated and made the focus of the work rather than a by product. So i will be working on an image that uses the idea of blank picture and see how this can be incorporated into my project. Results to follow soon.