Seeing us through to the end of the year we’ve reached out to a number of our favourite artists and cultural creatives to join us in celebrating good things. A bunch of five things that make their world go around, inspire them or just need celebrating for what they are. There’s no theme here. It’s no kind of "best of year" round-up. These are just five things of the many things identified as making the world a better place to be. We’re all about positivity. Almost all of the time. We promise…
Gemma Moore M.F.A. has just completed her studies in a Fine Art Masters at the Birmingham School of Art. Her work investigated our societal system that fails to support women when they face issues such as having their perception and experiences of various public spaces (i.e. streets in cities) impeded by either literal or psychological fear of violent behaviour. Gemma's work too has been displayed at Tate Britain and all in all it has been quite a year. A year that needs to have Five defined things to see it through, over to Gemma...
THE HERGEST HILLS, WALES
As part of a new art group and project, a small group of local artists in Herefordshire (where I am based) met up to have a site research visit the other week to look and gain inspiration from the space. Wow. Although the hill was so steep and I did rock up relatively unprepared, it was an incredible journey and what a view... It was absolutely fantastic! You could see for miles. I could suddenly see crevices in hills which I never thought I'd ever see. It was quite amazing to experience the sublime in such a real way, because I was so blown away by what I could see, but simultaneously, it was also quite scary and I couldn't help but feel a sense of fear as I moved through the space. I felt quite honoured to be welcomed and invited into the group because my previous work relating to landscapes had been recognised. Presently, I am researching the brief and the theory that is associated with the project and I'm currently working on how I could respond to this in a visually exciting way.
DEMENTIA RESEARCH PROJECT - PAINTING
What a project. It has been fantastic. I have been an Artist in Residence and Researcher at the Leominster Meeting Centre since April 2021, and to conclude the residency I am having an exhibition at the Grange Court in Leominster in December. It is going to be such a great exhibition because I have been able to invite many of the members of the Leominster Meeting Centre I have been working alongside so that they will be able to see their work on display! And also, as part of the project I am going to be releasing a short document that is going to be describing all of the different techniques that I have been using to engage people with art who have dementia, and so if you are interested and would like a copy of this, please do not hesitate to contact me!
CHENGDU, CHINA
Since studying my Masters in Fine Art at the Birmingham School of Art I made some fantastic and wonderful international friends who I have been keeping in touch with since finishing my course. My friend is currently based in Chengdu in China, and frequently she sends me photographs of what she has been getting up to. This is a view from her office window which I thought was really beautiful.
DAY DREAM BY ORLANDO
Orlando's video for his song Day Dream is really cool... I am sure this experience is quite frequent for creative people, but often I find that whilst listening to music videos, I can envisage my own version of what the photography, film and imagery could look like, conjured by some of the lyrics. I definitely experienced this whilst listening to Day Dream - but the fascinating part to this story is that actually the way in which the music video was pieced together actually did start to represent what I was thinking in my head which does not often happen. Usually there is quite a jump between what I envisage to what is actually made in response to a piece of music, and so whilst I watched this music video, I found it fascinating. I loved the aesthetics - the colours, tones, sets and props were all amazing.
TATE BRITAIN & ME
Getting my work into Tate Britain, London - September 2022 for me was such a really busy time because I was concluding my Masters Degree in Fine Art at the Birmingham School of Art and simultaneously, I had submitted a work into an open call at Tate Britain and I was really excited to learn that my work had been accepted. This meant that for a while I was bouncing back and forth from Birmingham to London. It was wonderful and I was so grateful. After the event, I got a taxi back to where I was staying and I distinctly recall the taxi's roof was transparent - I also associate with the evening being mesmerised by the views of London but from such an interesting angle. I think that evening will stay with me!
Essential Info
Gemma's website is here.
A BUNCH OF FIVE: Throughout December 2022 we asked a number of our favourite artists and cultural creatives to join us in celebrating good things. A Bunch of Five things that make their world go around, inspire them or just need celebrating for what they are. See what they came up with, below.
- jan5.
