Our Bodies

Sometimes it's good too take a different perspective. 

Toothbrush: The final Paintings

These are the final paintings we used for the film

Toothbrush. 

You can read more about the project here.

It's been a pleasure to work with the Toothbrush team 

and to work with a brief. 

I find the paintings quite disturbing in their angry and sadness. 

Serenity

Femininity is not black and white.

1095 (a woman's annual pill intake)

These are some of my most recent painting that were

inspired by a drawing diary I kept. 

I found that the immediate nature of the drawing book 

(that was small enough to carry around) gave me the ability 

to work in a simplistic but affective way. 

Potato Print 1

Potato Print 2

Cameo

Untitled 

My home is my castle

As part of the show we wanted to create some collaborative pieces that would really bound our work. The process has been very much a group effort and we wanted work to reflect this. We also thought it was crucial that the show was as interactive as possible whilst remaining a way to show case our work. I am impressed by galleries that strive for visitors across a wider range of society that just the “Art World” and this was an ambition of ours. Leeds Art Gallery has used simple but effective ways of engaging people by allowing space for discussion. I have always enjoyed using galleries and museums as creative spaces and so I created a drawing board as an extension of my cityscape.

We also invited our visitors to build their own space by providing a good old-fashioned box fort. There are few shared memories from people’s childhood fonder than building your own castle and that pleasure was still obvious in our visitors on our opening night. What started as a fairly light-hearted idea evolved into a catalyst for some significant discussions. Next door to our show, a local church was having an evening meal for homeless people of Leeds and a lot of our visitors came across from here. Suddenly a work that explored the idea of creating our own homes took on new poignancy when viewed with people whose main form of shelter was less than we had provided as a form of entertainment. It was a really amazing experience to talk to people whose experiences of Leeds were so different from my own and whose lives were so deeply entwined with the building we were occupying.

Home was also a feature of another group work, we created a space entitled “Do you see where I’m coming from?” where we asked our visitor to mark the place they felt had been or were still there homes. The rapidly filling maps of Leeds, the United Kingdom and the entire world created links between viewers and highlighted how small the world can be.

Our final work played upon the idea of regeneration of the Merrion centre, visitors could move around the show and find miniscule scenes of reconstruction and city life. Many of these light-hearted scenes used blemishes in the room that were scaled up to provide shelter for the tiny couples and meetings. We wanted to create a purely fun representation of life for the show and these mini scenes became a way of encouraging movement around the space. We were so pleased with this collaboration that we chose it to figure-head our exhibition posters.

The group works exploration of home has a lot in common with my work as I am interested in the idea of what makes a place a home. The maps ask people that questions and the answer is sometimes hard to place geographically. The formation of a home within the space followed the same thought and questioned how we make the space that becomes important enough to be painted, photographed or drawn onto a map.

Our Work.

Our work

I was eager to make a piece that was a positive representation of Leeds. The space that we were exhibiting in is going to be regenerated in the next year and I want to celebrate the cities changing landscape. I enjoy the old architecture of Leeds but I think the beauty of Leeds is the interaction between old buildings and new designs. I chose to work with the question “if Leeds was one road, what would be on your road?”

The buildings I chose were my home; the buildings on the Hyde Park corner; the Parkinson Building; my first home in Leeds; the Blackwell’s university bookshop; the Merrion centre (where our exhibition is being held) and the Corn Exchange.

Alongside my work I made a drawing board and invited people to draw either their home or their favourite building.

My hope is that people will enjoy my work and have fun thinking about their version of Leeds. I think that we each have a different city as our home even when we live in the same place. Our experiences shape that home and make our city personal to us.

When we first decided to collaborate, the five artists in the show all decided to work with the common theme of Regeneration and Leeds. Our work varies in mediums and we usually work with very different concepts so we decided that by working towards a common theme our exhibition would be more successful.

We were really keen to create a welcoming space and move away from the idea of a high art and somewhat unapproachable gallery spaces we have experienced. My work has a lot in common with Decca Mclaughlin who created tiny art works on chewing gum in the streets. We both were eager to make art from the everyday surroundings.  I hope that my work encourages the viewers to take in the beauty of the city and appreciate previously unseen features of the city. Decca’s work makes an ugly aspect of the streets into some appealing and worthy of being sought out.

Likewise, Katie Iveson’s work aims to celebrate Leeds although her more work is more specific to the venue we have shown in. Her works take the form of collage that is minimalist and geometric as well architectural style drawings. Although my work is more painterly I have also used photography to create collage and we have both played with the idea of manipulating photography to make our own, new images.

Ella Sergeant and Ali Noble have both explored the idea of space in a more abstract manner Ella has used series of automatic drawing machines that ‘tickle’ iron filings into intricate patterns. She has a described her desire to entice people to look into the small undiscovered places – a common them in our work.

 Ali has used the space to create textile pieces and paper cut outs that mirror popular culture posters from the home and, the case of the largest piece is reminiscent of a wall in a home complete with windows. The work divides the space and a domestic scene comes to mind through the use of found materials.

Our main desire was to raise the profile of undiscovered gems. Leeds is a beautiful and vibrant city and should be celebrated. 

The group!

We really wanted to stay clear of too serious a show.

We decided to take some very silly shots to introduce ourselves. 

Katie Iveson

Ella Sergeant

Laura Feltham

Ali Noble

Decca Mclaughlin

The final stages.

Advertising 

Geo caching – Elz is a sorting out a massive geochaching treasure hunt. 

It's a shame that the Geocaching didn't work out as there is large geocaching

 community that would have been interested. 

Breeze Festival – could be used to advertise the show. 

We decided to research several advertising prospects such as Breeze festival, LVAF and 

hoped to get a press release with Look North and Local Radio but we ran out of time and, 

in the end, our advertising consisted of leafleting

around Leeds and putting posters up in shops.

We used facebook and twitter to create a run up to the exhibition 

and hoped that an audience would get to know us and want to see the show! We started a website but didn't manage to get this running. I took on the task of making the facebook page as full as possible. 

Elz used our twitter account to form links with local art groups and this was really effective in contacting people that weren't connect to the University. 

Networking

Logistics – company that might help us out - we hoped to network with some

larger companies to achieve some professional advertising but in the end decided that as artists we should take on creative roles ourselves. 

 I regret not taking advantage of the resources around us. 

We got in contact with the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery in the Parkinson Building 

but didn't organise a meeting in time. This is a shame as it would have been helpful 

to have advice on installing the show. 

We had planned to take a visit to Abby House Museum in Kirkstall

to talk about their Leeds exhibition. 

It was a tough decision, but we decided that time was running out

and we had too many commitments. The exhibition was historical and would have informed 

our work but from a less relevant stance as we didn't want the show to be too factual. 

We had found out that Leeds Library has a large archive collection of old photographs and newspapers.

I used the online section of this called Leodis, I looked up photos of the parts of Leeds that I want to paint and used these as a basis for some of my drawings to merge the old and new Leeds. 

Finance and funding

Discussed getting a group bank account to make it easier to pay for communal resources but we decided this was over complicated.  

Elz researched University funding but found that this had to be applied for very far in advance. 

We decided that we would have to keep cost to a minimum and this was helped by our space being free. 

I hope that by publishing the process I can be open with the successes and failures of our exhibition. 

I want to do this to help others in the same situation! 

27th February

At the end of February I met with Robert Smith to discuss health and safety.
Here is the advice that he gave:
- Always ask to see a sites public liability documents
- Use the logos of you university and the site you are working at when advertising
- Share the information of your own insurance with the venue
- Know your space and the emergency procedures there of
- Complete a risk assessment as a group so that everyone is made aware of the procedure
- Research the security that is available
- As we were possibly having visits from schools this had to be included in the risk assessment
although unfortunately due to exam periods we could not see this plan through as the schools were too busy

Once we had designed a logo we used it on all our paper work. 

13th of February

At our third meeting we discussed the logistical side of the exhibition.
There are many creative aspects of an exhibition but there are also administrative side that
are equally important.
After this meeting we researched risk assessments and the insurance we would need.

3rd of February

Our second meeting 

At our second meeting we were lucky enough to meet with Shelly who gave us some wonderful advice
on advertising and finding resources.
We decided that if we wanted a public exhibition that attracted people from outside the university
the art world, we would need to be creative with our advertising.
We decided to write to local schools and offer to give talks about taking Fine Art at Leeds
We created a Leeds Visual Art Forum account where we could talk about our show and
ask for help from the local art scene.
We decided to try to advertise in a local newspaper; hopeful that our chosen theme of celebrating Leeds
would be popular.
We decided to use social media to advertise the show and our collaborative group.
We creates a facebook page, a twitter account and a website.

After the meeting Katie went to the centre and took some photos of spaces we would like to use.It
was really useful to have as much information of the space as possible when applying for a space.
Our budget was tiny so having the opportunity to gain some free advice from Shelly was fantastic and
something a fledgling group should never pass up.

From Shelley's advice we looked into several different ideas that we could use to advertise and make
our exhibition family friendly.
Some of these ideas came to fruition but some didn't....
A hope that didn't come to pass was to geocache our show. We wanted to create an interactive treasure trail but this became too complicated at the time of set up and we didn't manage to create it.
Shelly agreed with the idea of a common theme of Leeds and at this point we decided to create a collaborative piece using tiny figures.
As recommended by Shelley we created a logo to be used on emails and correspondence. We also used
this on our business cards.
These were created as a form of advertising as well as being displayed at the final show.



We also decided that soft drinks and sweet were more appropriate than wine at a family event for
our opening night.

To put names to faces on our twitter, facebook and websites 

we took some silly shots.

A virtual catalogue

Our exhibition had drawn to a close. We got to chat to some amazing visitors 
and had a lot fun. The next few post will be dedicated to a virtual catalogue of the exhibition. 
Enjoy. 

Finding the space

As eager as I am to share my feeling about the work, I am also very keen to publish my experience of the process we went through from the very first stages of the exhibition to the final show. In doing this I hope that our show is a transparent experience that does something to demystify art and the art world.

As part of this catalogue I am going to publish my minutes from each meeting alongside our correspondence with those who have been involved with the process. I have shared the build up to the exhibition in this blog but I would like to go into more detail about the logistics of putting on a show.

Tuesday 24^th January, Our First Meeting

Our first thoughts were that we should brand ourselves as a group. We felt that this would help in our marketing campaign and when dealing with contacts outside the university.

We decided to call ourselves the Young Leeds Artists as a pastiche of the YBA’s.

At this point we also thought it would be effective to work with a common theme as our styles are so different.

We were keen to find a public space away from our canvas.

At this meeting it was agreed:

-We would contact the Merrion Centre with a proposal for using a unit in the market

- Contact with the design school might be useful in designing a brand image (later on we decided that this should come from within the group)

- A group email would help the brand and avoid confusion.

Here is our proposal to David Woolman at the Merrion Centre.

Dear Mr Woolman,

I am writing to enquire about the use of the units in the Merrion Market. I am part of an artist’s collective, The Young Leeds Artists, and we would like to propose an exhibition we that believe will be beneficial for both our group and yourselves.

We are keen to advertise the show as widely as possible and will put a strong emphasis on celebrating the market and Leeds. As students at The University of Leeds we are keen to build stronger links between the city and the University. By advertising our show as extensively and professionally as possible we hope that this will help to raise more interest to the Merrion Centre, the coming refurbishment and the huge potential urban spaces have for changing uses.

Ideally we would like to use a unit for 7 days at the end of April or the beginning of May. We are able to be flexible about the dates. As students we are restricted in our budget but we hope that this is something we can reach a compromise on and further discuss. We will of course provide insurance.

We are aware that the Merion Market is going to be refurbished in 2013 and we feel that we can make use of the space in a way that can be a positive ending to its current use and a celebration of what is to come.

The Young Leeds Artists work it a variety of mediums and we wish to create a show that groups us together through our reaction to the space. We are also very community based and wish to create something entertaining for the families of Leeds to enjoy.

We hope to hear from you soon.

Many thanks for you time.

Yours sincerely

Laura Feltham

The Young Leeds Artists.

The prep continues...