Some images of my new work, Panoply, at the Bluecoat as part of Topophobia. I’ll be inside the work next on Saturday from 12 – 2pm and will post a schedule of future performances here very soon..

All images courtesy of Anne Eggebert.

Panoply, 2012
Space for a body: scaffold and painted wood.
20ft x 3ft x 8ft

[A panoply is a complete suit of armour or a complete set of diverse components."panoply" refers to the full armour of a hoplite or heavy-armed soldier, i.e. the shield, breastplate, helmet and greaves, together with the sword and lance.] Source

Panoply is a kind of hiding place made high above the normal passageways of the gallery, shielding me from the other inhabitants, like armour for my body. Fractured glimpses of my body are visible as I move around the space. This narrow corridor is like a wooden cloak or carapace, but the privacy it affords also turns into a trap; a claustrophobic space I can’t leave without being seen.

Camp Out: Finding Home in an Unstable World

June 2 – September 16, 2012

Camp Out: Finding Home in an Unstable World is the third in a series of summer projects that will use the natural and cultural resources of St. Louis as a site for artistic inquiry and production. The artists invited for Camp Out will conduct “action research” to comment on, add to or question the unique history of the St. Louis region and of the role artist’s play in addressing urgent social questions. The title Camp Out suggests the two extremes of living in the landscape. For some, camping is a deliberate “back-to-nature” experience precluded in our urbanized world. For other past and present global citizens, however, displacement from home and finding basic resources for living is a great struggle.

Laumeier will animate its public spaces by presenting artists whose practice addresses long-neglected issues of concern in our region, such as the disappearance of “public space”, the conversion of arable agricultural land for suburban sprawl or industrial use, the isolation that comes with suburban living and the persistent social and economic divisions between racial groups caused through the mechanisms of history. Artists for this project will work off of ancient and contemporary forms of human shelter, using new materials and processes to create unique sculptural forms. The resulting works will encompass shapes deeply rooted in nature to those that use new technologies to engage the aural and visual landscapes that say something about the way we live—or need to live—now. These projects will unpack a range of American myths, from the self-sufficiency of the rugged individual to the sense of land as empty and conquerable, where resource extraction is without consequence. This project signals a refreshed direction for Laumeier’s artistic goals, and will allow artists a unique opportunity to experiment with space. 

Artists for the project include: BGL: Jasmin Bilodeau, Sébastien Giguère, and Nicolas Laverdière (Canada), Oliver Bishop-Young (UK), Cyprien Gaillard (France), Isabelle Hayeur (Canada), Edgar Martins (UK), Mary Mattingly (USA), Michael Rakowitz (USA), Emily Speed (UK), Dré Wapenaar (the Netherlands), Yin Xiuzhen (China), Kim Yasuda (USA).

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

Exhibition details:

BUILT
1st to 8th April 2010. Opening the 1st of April from 6-8pm

Kristy Campbell, Lisa Gorton, Catherine Pudner, Emily Speed, Anna Sikorska

BUILT brings together 5 Female artists from across the UK whose practises deal with specific aspects of the built environment. Through the use of Sculpture, Installation, Animation and Performance the selected artists respond to the structures which surround our daily activity; be that personal shelters and social networks, or our more public man made surroundings that are compounded in the cities we live in. They search for a space in the parameters between art and these constructed locations, subtly commenting; “Women build stuff too”.

Built is curated by Elizabeth Murphy.
Rogue Artists’ Studios & Project Space
66-72 Chapeltown St, Manchester, M1 2WH

If you’re on facebook, the event is here

I have been having a great time in my studio – making shelters and life size versions of ‘Places for Hiding’ drawings (one of my artist’s books). The first group exhibition here at the Salzamt opened last week and the next will open in about three weeks.

Other interests: the Grottenbahn, Hitler’s unrealised plans for Linz and escapism mixed with ambition.

Lost at Sea is ready, just in time for the opening of ‘Climate for Change’ opening at FACT, Liverpool on Thursday 12th March. The book looks at those historic buildings that have been left behind with development, and as a result sit amidst incongruous new architecture or simply just alone.
The ‘dusty islands’ perch on precarious platforms above the sea.

Inkjet printed, stitched booklet housed in a tracing paper bottle envelope.
Edition of 20, priced at £7.50 from the FACT bookshop.