Coda Paper Art - Part 2

As I said in my last post I would share some images of the other works in the exhibition.

Coda had brought together an international group of artists to be part of the exhibition.  Though there were only a few of there for the install.

Meeting the other artists is always one of the best things about installing my work.  It's always great to get together to share experiences and get to know some new people.

So without further ado here are some images of the other works in the exhibition.

First up - Peter Callesen.  I'm sure he doesn't need much introduction, his work is so well know.  It was very exciting to get to meet him.

He was showing his piece 'Transparent God', which is a large scale sculpture, as ever made from 1 (very large) sheet of paper.  It was interesting to see how the piece was installed.  It is very fragile, so had to very carefully unfurled.  You can see more images on his website.

Next is Li Hongbo, another artist who probably doesn't need much introduction, his work has been all over the internet, check out this video to see how they are made.  It was fantastic to meet him.  He didn't speak much English so all communication was through a translator.  His work is just amazing and it was great to get to see some in the flesh.  This piece is called Fairytale World.

Each piece when folded flat is in the shape of a country.  He made a piece for each country.  The countries are all mixed up and he couldn't remember which piece was which country, although we all asked him of course!

Next up is Alicia Martin, who makes large installations with books.  The books in the installation she made at Coda were all from the library at Coda. The installation was made in a day! You can see more images of her work here.

Next up is Clemens Behr, who made his piece on site as well.  He arrived at the same time as me and made the sculpture on site, it took him 2 and a half days.  His website is here.

Next are a few images of other works in the exhibition, though the artists weren't there.

I'm not sure who made this as there wasn't a name tag near it, but I rather liked it's chunky roughness.

Guggen 'Dizzy by Mia Wen-Hsuan Liu

Detail of Guggen 'Dizzy by Mia Wen-Hsuan Liu

Natasha Bowdoin 

I'd love to know if you have a favourite out of these, leave me a comment below to let me know.  If pushed I would  have to say Li Hongbo or Natasha Bowdoin, though I do like the others as well.

That's all for now cx

Hitomi Hosono - exhibition

I promise this will be the last time that I go on about how much champagne I've been drinking (well until September, but more of at then).

A couple of weeks ago was the opening of the Perrier-Jouet Arts Prize 2013.  As I posted before Hitomi Hosono won the prize and we had the honour of celebrating the opening of her first solo exhibition at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel.

As ever Perrier-Jouet were incredibly generous with the champagne, which certainly made the party a happy one!

Here are some images of Hitomi's Work, which is really magical and beautiful and it was so great to see so many of them.

The exhibition is in the Chambers Club, in the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, which is private members club, and rather nice.  Anyway I'll shut up now and share some images of Hitomi's beautiful work as that's what we're here for.

Wisteria Tower © Hitomi Hosono - a beautiful very large piece, I love they way the sprigs grow out of each other

Shirakawa Bowl © Hitomi Hosono - Hotomi wanted the sprigs to flow like a river, they certainly have that feeling to me

White Wisteria Box © Hitomi Hosono - this is not a great photo but I wanted to show the lovely gold inside of the box

White Wisteria Box © Hitomi Hosono - here is the box closed.

Black Wisteria Box © Hitomi Hosono - I love the black pieces, the mattness of them is very appealing

Black Wisteria Box © Hitomi Hosono - a close up, so you can see some of the detail

Large leaves Bowl © Hitomi Hosono - this features overy 500 sprigs!

It's a pretty amazing exhibition, worth a trip if you happen to be in London between now and 4 August. It is open by appointment only and I have struggled to find details of how you make that appointment the only details I have found is that you call Caroline on 07590262370 or I'm sure if you contact the St Pancras Renaissance directly they will be able to help.

I'd love to know what you think of Hitomi's work so do leave me a comment below with your thoughts. You can see more of her work on her website.

cx

Coda Paper Art - 2013

I'm back from a fun week in Apeldoorn in The Netherlands installing my work for the Coda Paper Art 2013 exhibition.

It's always a bit nerve wracking heading off to install a new piece of work in a place you've only seen in photos.  Will I have enough birds? Will the walls be ok to pin in? Will the installation work?  These are all the thoughts that go through my mind on the way there.  But that's also part of the fun of it, the risk element is important, having some unknown variables in the mix is what I enjoy about doing installations.

Here are some photos of the install.

ready to start, all I need is a ladder

The birds are set free for the first time

I start by arranging the birds on the wall, I use washi tape to stick them up

A few more up

Once I have them all arranged I start the pinning, I use normal household pins - All is not lost ©Claire Brewster 2013

Self portrait with birds - All is not lost ©Claire Brewster 2013

Apologies for the quality of the photos, the lighting was very difficult and I was using my phone, which is not the best.  I'm hoping the museum will get some professional images taken and I'll post those when I can.

I haven't talked about the other artists yet and will save that for my next post, next week.

cx

Coda Paper Art 2013

Hi

I am off to the Netherlands this week to install my work in this exhibition.

I'm very excited and a little bit nervous at the same time.   I decided to give myself a week off, so there will be no blog posts or newsletter this week (well apart from this one!).

Normal service will resume next week, but here's a sneak preview of the pieces from the installation.

It's all for you © Claire Brewster 2013

That's all for now, see you next week.

cx

Hunting and fishing part II

No more taxidermy I promise!  As I mentioned before the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature has a really good contemporary art programme.

I really like the fact that they make interventions in the collection, with contemporary pieces appearing along side the main collection.

Here are some of my favourite pieces.

This was a beautiful video of a horse with a spike attached to it's head, standing in the rain.  It was very small and very beautiful, the horse looked to sad.

A film about birds, in a cage, there were 3 types of birds, wild ones, one born in the wild then taken into captivity and ones that were born in captivity.  They were left in a cage with the door open.  It was very beautiful to site and watch and see how the birds reacted to the possible freedom.

These drawings were amazing, huge, they filled the stairwell, really lovely.

Owls!  you know how much I love an owl!

Not quite sure what this was meant to represent, but I like it's presence in the room.

I would love love love to have my work in the museum, that would really be one of my dreams come true.  So I'm putting it out there for the universe to hopefully take note.

What do you think about contemporary art interventions in museums like or love?  Leave me comment below with your thoughts.

Thanks for reading and if you like to hear more from me why not sign up to my newsletter, which you can do here

cx

Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature

One of my favourite museums in Paris is the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature.  It's a museum about nature and hunting, what's not to like!  Well if you don't like taxidermy then it's probably not for you, as it is basically a museum full of taxidermy, with some hunting paraphernalia thrown in for good measure.

I'm aware of the irony of a vegetarians favourite museum being one about hunting animals.  I'm not sure where my love of taxidermy comes from, but I find it so fascinating and would desperately like some.  I'd really, really, really like a white rabbit.

Here are some of the friends I met when I was there.

a cute little fella

Piglet...

sleeping peacefully

a majestic creature

Grrrrrr

a couple of ducks

Oh hello!

Uh Oh...

The trophy room

One of the best things about the museum is there contemporary art programme.  I'll write more about that in my next post.

What's your favourite museum?  I'd love to know so why don't you leave me a comment below.

That's all for now.

cx

Ahh Paris...

I have just spent the week in Paris and I am in love.  I never tire of wandering round the streets of Paris,  with no agenda, just seeing where my feet take me.  My favourite area is the Marais, where we always stay.  There is something about the little streets and all the shops and galleries there.  I can spend so many happy hours window shopping, with no real agenda.

Paris is such a beautiful city, a cliche I know, but none the less true.  It is so wonderful to be surrounded by so much beauty, almost overwhelming at times.

Here are a few photos of some of the things I saw on my travels around the city.

Sunset on The Seine

flax growing in the centre of Paris, I love the incongruity of it.

One of my favourite places, the cafe in Merci

Another shot of Merci

Geraniums are such a symbol of Paris to me

Padlocks on a bridge

Amazingly large tomatoes and white asparagus

I'll be writing more posts about some of the exhibitions and other things I saw.  But that's all for now.

I'd love to know what your favourite thing about Paris is, leave me a comment below.

Thanks for reading.

Cx