Faking a Correspondence (Holcombe to Paolozzi, 1968)
In response to Yelena Popova‘s request to create a bookmark for a designated book in the Study’s library at Nottingham Contemporary, I chose to fabricate a piece of archive material from the ongoing story of Robert Holcombe: a correspondence with Eduardo Paolozzi had already been referred to in passing in the construction of this fiction, … Read more
In Production: Esther Johnson, Blue Firth, Alexander Stevenson
Three artists previewed three film works in The Space on Wednesday night as part of an ongoing series of events under the In Production title, curated by Beth Bramich. Previous sessions have screened and offered a platform for discussions of works by Ian Nesbitt and Catherine Hunter and Alun Armstrong, while last night’s presentation featured new moving … Read more
Hollis Frampton: Zorns Lemma (1970)
On Thursday night, it was a pleasure to follow the final residency session in the Study and the last of our March Workshops with a chance to view Hollis Frampton‘s 1970 film Zorns Lemma, projected on 16mm on a big screen in The Space. Frampton is widely regarded as one of the key figures in American underground … Read more
Appropriations (IV): Five Sonnets in the Aftermath and Anticipation of a Financial Meltdown
Five Sonnets in the Aftermath and Anticipation of a Financial Meltdown “The world’s an ark wherein things pure and gross Present their lossful gain and gainful loss, Where ev’ry dram of gold contains a pound of dross” Francis Quarles: Emblems (Book II/vii, 1635) (i) Genesis What was brick is glass. What was solid glows with … Read more
Robert Holcombe in Burton on Trent
As something of an aside to the Write Here residency, I’d passed a group of framed Robert Holcombe collages to the artist and curator Julian Hughes for installation in a pub on Station Street as part of Burton on Trent’s contribution to the wider Format Festival taking place in Derby. On Wednesday evening I travelled … Read more
The Thread at Bilborough Library
On the morning of March 22 myself and Saima Kaur went out to Bilborough Library to present copies of a booklet featuring images from the workshops and the text written out of notes, artworks and conversations gathered during the four sessions in February to the staff and participants. A panel was installed in the library to display pictures … Read more
A Swim Against The Tide
On Thursday Jean Fisher gave a lecture on Jack Goldstein’s work in The Space under the title A Swim Against The Tide – a reference to his own 7″ record featuring the sound of a swimmer trying to push against the current of an ocean. It proved an apt heading, partly because during Morgan Fisher’s … Read more
Inventions For Radio (1964)/Vertigo Bird
Although she spent much of her active career in relative anonymity, the sounds created by Delia Derbyshire and her colleagues at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (David Cain, Daphne Oram, John Baker, Malcolm Clarke, Peter Howell, Paddy Kingsland and others) have seeped deep into the culture. She is best known for her 1963 arrangement of Ron Grainer’s theme for … Read more
The Thread
The Thread, as its title suggests, is a text woven together, produced as a response to the Write Here workshops held at Nottingham Contemporary and Bilborough Library & Community Centre during February 2011. Its form echoes that of the exhibitions by Jack Goldstein and Anne Collier from which we took our inspiration. Where those artists … Read more
Wendy Houstoun: 50 Acts
The last time I saw Wendy Houstoun was in The Space at Nottingham Contemporary about a year ago, when she performed the rather wonderful Keep Dancing, a piece in which her solo performance merged with narration, film and other media in a way that both extended our sense of scale (this one woman performing alone on a vast stage … Read more
