I’m very happy to say I shall be in a group show ‘Topophobia’ at Danielle Arnaud Gallery (opening January 12th), which tours to the Bluecoat, Liverpool in March and to Spacex, Exeter in May.

I’m also making some work for a project at artist Jo Ball‘s house in London, which will open in late January.

Lastly, I will be making a new version of ‘Inhabitant’ (it was going to happen eventually) for an exhibition called ‘Camp Out’ at Laumeier Sculpture Park in St Louis, summer 2012.

The ‘Reading Space’ that I made was especially for Kobo Abe’s book ‘The Box Man’. The idea is that the reader can get into this space, wheel it around until they find just the right spot and settle down to read. There is a cup holder for coffee too of course and a plush red seat. A hole in the floor allows the user to out one foot through and scoot themselves about flintstones-style.

Rosalie kindly filmed some short snippets of me road-testing the reading pod. Here I use it to steal cake.

Reading Space on The Emely’s vimeo channel

Artist Corinna Spencer has also taken some great photos of the exhibition – see them on Flikr here

The space will be open to the public from 12 noon on 9th April.

http://www.themanchestercontemporary.co.uk/

Before that, Cardboard Folly will be on display at the Bluecoat from 21st October, so this week will be mainly getting work printed and collating copies. There is so much to do but I have some fantastic artists involved and the work that has already arrived is really great.

The artists involved are:

Jo Ball | Lucy Brown | Nick Cass | Damian Cruikshank | Birgit Deubner | Sarra Facey | Rebecca Foster | Emma Gregory | Kevin Hunt | Nathan Jones | Tabitha Moses | Gordon Shrigley | Emily Speed | Frances Stacey | Kirsty Tinkler | Andrew Warstat | Sinta Werner | Rich White.

image: Rebecca Foster’s contribution to Cardboard Folly.

On top of that workload, my twin sister is opening a new business, Recrafted, consisting of workshops and a shop selling handmade British craft. It’s already looking amazing, but I have more painting and hand-painted signs to create before the opening on the 15th October. She’s very talented and I’m very pleased she is taking such a big leap to do this. Cupcakes over the opening weekend, so if you’re in the area come and say hi!

Drawing Shed week 5: Emily Speed

There are also some images of the project and collaborative drawing evening at PSL on their Drawing Shed blog

here’s the blurb: Emily Speed will create a cyclic drawing on the exterior of the shed over 4 days. Starting with proposals/sketches for structures – reminiscent of bulidings – which are prevalent in her work, Speed will then explore the physical impossibilities of these structures and the drawing will change to show construction, collapse and repair before perhaps collapsing again.

More info on the PSL website

and the Drawing Shed blog

It was a lovely day and great to get some feedback on this thing that has been filling my house with piles of paper for weeks.

‘A House Like Me’  is intended for educators wanting to work with conceptual art and is based around the themes in my own practice and the projects I have been doing in schools since last September. The book is not for sale, but a pdf version will be online soon, I will post a link as soon as it’s available. Some images can be viewed in the bookworks section on this website.