Next Saturday at Yorkshire Sculpture Park Deputy Curator Sarah Coulson and I will host an informal day of discussion looking at the spaces we inhabit and how they affect us. The study day will include a walking tour round parts of the estate that have influenced my work. A selection of short texts will used (and circulated before the day) and read at specific points around the park. The order will be this:

Bothy Gallery – to see MAKE SHIFT exhibition

Screening of Buka (13:30 mins), a short film by artist Boldi Csernak

Greek Temple

Octavia from Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Obelisk

Space (Continuation and End) from Species of Spaces and Other Pieces by Georges Perec

Boathouse

Extract on the miniature from The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard

Bird Hide

Extract from Box Man Kobo Abe

The Beach

Picnic by the lake

Shell Grotto

Extract from In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanazaki

West Bretton College Student Halls

Excerpt from Geography of Home by Akiko Busch

Ersilia from Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Book a space for £4 (includes parking) HERE

On Saturday and Sunday from 10.30 – 12.30 I’ll be taking people on a folly treasure hunt around the park (wear your waterproofs!). In the afternoons there will be a workshop where you can build your own folly using recycled materials.

The event has been recommended by the Guardian in this weeks art diary.

BOOK A PLACE  HERE

Aside from torrential rain, thunder and hail, it was a great day and I think we have some beautiful images of the work. Here’s a little taster – the image is Nobby (one of the technicians) releasing me into the wild. Right after this I got tangled in the branches and had to be shunted out onto open water.

The coracle – she sails, slowly but surely. A pleasure to drift on the upper lake at YSP this week, testing out the sea-worthiness of the coracle before I add building work to it. Happy to say it is watertight and not as difficult as I anticipated, although I wouldn’t like to be out in any kind of wind. Performance is the week after next so I have some construction to get on with!

I’ve also had a great time being shown around the working areas of the park and being introduced to the gorgeous boathouse where I will be able to work in the run up to my exhibition there next July. First residential dates are in November and I can hardly wait!

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.

A few projects are being plotted at the moment, but I am currently busy finishing my year as bursary holder at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I am making a limited edition book to mark the end of the year, so next week will be full of paper cuts and swear words.

The end of July and August are marked for the studio and some small projects, so looking forward to getting cracking on some new work.

http://www.liverpoolartprize.com/

Working hard in Yorkshire for the next few weeks. I am the Feiweles Trust Bursary Holder at Yorkshire Sculpture Park for 09/10 and so will be spending a lot of time on the M62 between now and next July. Some of the work is in schools so have been having a great time building all sorts of amazing architectural self-portraits with the children. I am also very tired, but preparing stuff to print for the Fourth Manchester Artists’ Book Fair on Saturday 7th November. Come and see me there if you can!