Micro residency for Sophie

Nothing like a tiny two day reisdency to make a girl happy!

After exhibiting and helping out with Test Space Leeds I started a little two day residency at the 42 New Briggate shop.

I was given just the single word of BURN as the theme.

It was a really busy environment, with people coming in and out of the shop and on the first day an exhibition was being hung around the gallery as I worked. So it was a bit of a test to get anything done, especcialy when my attention span is short darn short in the first place.


Check out my little work space nestled inside the gallery.

I first played around with burning some silk and paper, lining the edges with wax so the flame was concentrated into a space. (I'll add those pictures when I retrive my little silky bits from the shop itself

After a while of dilly dallying I thought of using our little interplanetory exhibition as a bit of an influence.


These are ten little zines filled with water colours of comets burnin' through space. They're called 'Solar Flare' and where on sale at the last Test Space craft fair at Crash Records in Leeds city centre.

It was an awesome itty bitty experience and digits crossed I get to do another one soon before I go back to college starting third year.

Over and out.

Houston, We Have An Exhibition!

Here's an update, and a whole lot of images (!), on how our exhibition went at the window of 42 New Briggate with Test Space Leeds from the 7th to the 9th of June - it's a planetarium on an itty bitty scale!

Me cleaning and preparing the window we displayed in - had to clear a previous artist's window mural.

Sophie hanging some of the planets - there's still a lot more to hang! (First two photos from the Test Space Leeds facebook photo album).

Some of the materials used... Some of the planets were surprisingly heavy even when they only made from polythene, so we had to use stronger and thicker wires to hold them.

Me with my big one! - check out http://i-sketch-things.blogspot.com/2010/06/houston-we-have-exhibition.html to see some of the planets I made, Sophie's are there too!

Here's our planetarium completed from the inside of 42 New Briggate, we've even hung the LED lights but they are not that visible as it's still daylight outside, it would be effective at night!

and outside...

Since the room is dark in the background it makes it easier to see the planets, we had to cut some from the wires and move them forward to more visible areas.

Here's another photo when it was a bit darker, around 8:45pm!


If you look closely you can see some of the LED lights -there's 5 of them altogether. They looked really good when they were spinning around as it made the lights flicker.... almost like an intergalactic disco! The lights should have lasted for a good couple of days until the exhibition needed to be taken down for the next batch of artists!

If we were to explain what our exhibition was about: it is our own playful concept of a solar system in a galaxy far, far away , inspired by heaps of sci-fi movies, books and games. It is a light-hearted and personal version, compared to the seriousness of the reality space. However, we have looked at many hubble telescope images which inspired us with the colours found in space, but took it a step further by experimenting with vivid colours, textures... creating imaginative gas giants to planets containing 'life'. It is kitsch, bold and out of this world... it is our planetarium on an itty bitty scale!

Check out the Sputnik!

It was a wonderful experience to exhibit at 42 New Briggate, thanks to the Test Space Leeds guys! We hope to get this itty bitty planetarium exhibited in various locations in the future!

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Our First External Exhibition!

Sophie and me (Bev) have been busy bees with the upcoming exhibition we have with Test Space Leeds, where we will be featuring galactic goodness at 42 New Briggate (near the Grand Theatre)! Here's the leaflet of the event:



And here's the space we will be working on - We'll be setting it up in the day time so people can have a peek at what we are doing!




And finally onto our productive painting and experimenting so far!

(Apologies for my grubby window!)

We created those textures with these acrylic mediums we bought - they're great for planet texture! Also used fake grass for model making - typically seen on model railways when creating the landscape. We've so far completed painting the small spheres!

Also look at these... Melted Planets!






Really different, huh? Also here's one of my concepts for the planets which reminds me of the melted spheres we made. The rest of my planetary concepts will be at: http://i-sketch-things.blogspot.com/

Hope you like what we've done so far! We're looking forward to our first exhibition outside uni!

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Our Proposed Idea For 42 New Briggate Window!

Here's our idea planned for the window space.... and this was the email/proposal we sent:

"Itty Bitty Art Committee to Neil, over!

Houston, we have an exhibition!

We're proposing to turn the window space into an itty bitty planetarium. Planets, comets and satellites suspended in front of a starry painted back drop. Each planet will have all its geography illustrated onto it, include hidden faces and the odd interplanetary outpost.

We'd like to suspend a constellation of approximately twenty galactic objects and have a little stand to place a bowl of business comets (three dimensional business cards).

Could we have the dimensions of the window space? When would you like this to be exhibited? Any other questions or comments please e-mail or call us.

Roger, over and out!"

The Itty Bitty Art Committee