I’ve been selected for the AA2A (Artists Access to Art Colleges) residency at Salford University. The AA2A project provides placements for visual artists and designer makers in Higher and Further Education institutions across England. In 2011/2012, AA2A schemes will run in 32 institutions, providing 128 placements nationally. In the last 12 years, over 1,200 participants have had the opportunity to undertake a period of research or realise a project, using workshops and supporting facilities in participating fine art and design departments.

I’ve proposed to develop Motus:Immotus and Tearing Space apart – two works that have been initiated over the past 6 months, but now need public installation space to develop them further. Salford University has installation spaces at it’s studios but also exhibition and installation opportunities at the Lowry Outlet Mall and possibly also Media City.

More news about the residency will be posted here as things happen.

I’ve entered a drawing from 2008 into this competition by Saatchi Online. There are currently 2000 entries open for public vote in an art face-off. You pick your favourite from a choice of 2 drawings and they are all ranked according to how folks vote. The top 300 go through to a judges panel.

My entry is ‘One minute: Kyoto Station’ a drawing from 2008, but part of a series that i’m revisiting with plans for drawings from my recent travels in Portugal, Holland and Ireland. One minute of digital video is taken from a high balcony, or at the top of a flight of stairs. The video is then projected, and a drawing made that traces the movement of the people in the image.

The drawing is currently hovering between 140th and 220th place, so hopefully it will go through to round 2, but you can vote for the work here: http://www.saatchionline.com/showdown/match/showdown/8/artist/301963
You either need to register or connect with Facebook to vote – Thanks for taking the trouble.

The light at the zebra crossing in the Broersvest, Schiedam 
turns green. Six men and women walk across the street, but 
suddenly they begin to dance. They stand still, turn around and 
make a jump. The people in traffic look surprised.

This "Green Light" performance, by choreographer Mateja Bucar 
from Slovenia is one of the components during the festival 
Invisible City, which took place last weekend in Schiedam. This 
festival combines visual arts and dance. "We want to create a 
kind of city in motion," said Ans Kanen, who created this project 
together with Liat Magnezy and FionaWeir.

They invited 23 artists from around the world to Schiedam. Most 
of them displayed their work in the building Ruimte in Beweging, 
at Boterstraat. "This area is hidden. This is the idea of an 
invisible city", says Kanen. 'People who walk in and become 
part of it. They become part of that city'. This also happens 
at the Wennekerpand and on the street, as in Green Light. 
"Because we want art in the city, but not everyone from 
Schiedam will bother to come."

The six dancers create amazing scenes. A woman who is on her 
bike turns her head, a car stops in the middle of the Broersvest 
to watch. "We perform this dance in different cities in Europe. 
Usually we get nice comments, but sometimes aggressive reactions 
too", said Bucar. If someone comes at Ruimte in Beweging they 
will see more of these amazing performances. It starts with the 
entrance, where Daan Houter has filled ​​a whole floor with 1 cent 
coin. 

Inside you can find the work by Ozlem Uzun, from Istanbul. Last 
week she transformed a tram stop in Schiedam into a living room. 
She placed herself on the other side of the street to watch the 
reactions of the people and recorded it. She has now moved the 
living room to Ruimte in Beweging and her recordings can be seen 
on a television.

Uzun enjoys being in Schiedam. 'This city is much calmer than 
Istanbul'. Also Claire Weetman, an artist from Liverpool enjoys 
it too, though she knew no one. "It is inspiring to have contact 
with people from another discipline'.

Two drawings, Tearing Space Apart 4:3 and Tearing Space Apart 4:3, Black have been transformed into magnetic artworks which will be exhibited on the gates of Hastings Pier this Saturday 27 August as part of Alban Low‘s latest magnet exhibition, Rarities

From 4pm onwards, these miniature artworks will be placed on the gates of Hastings Pier, available for the visiting public to collect, take home, and create an art gallery on their fridge.

From the online gallery, the following works have caught my eye – if you are in the area, go and collect your favourites;

Scribble Drawing I, Xanthus Andrews

Joining Memories, Sharon Read

Derek Jarman’s House – Flo Snook

The Hastings Moth Project

Rays – Juliet Guiness

Claire Weetman has been selected to participate in Invisible City, an event currently in production in Schiedam, NL. Artists, builders, architects, actors, dancers, players and thinkers are invited to react to the notion of the moving, invisible city culminating in a public event at Ruimte in Beweging, Schiedam between 2-4 September 2011.

“Invisible City is the first project of Shadowing Cities, a cooperation of Liat Magenzy, Fiona Weir and Ans Kanen. Its goal is to put the spotlight on Schiedam by means of art and culture. For the first time the city will be flooded with artists from all over the world. Invisible City aims to free Schiedam from the shadow of Big Brother Rotterdam.

Ruimte in Beweging on Boterstraat is the central point of Invisible City. Several entrances give access to the building. It has a large, open main space and some separated smaller spaces. Each has its own atmosphere and peculiarities. For Invisible City, the building will be transformed to a city in itself, a shadow city.

The individual visions of the artists form a city installation, an integral work built up from personal views of the city. The way the city dweller moves around in a city, the way a city is discovered, is the way a visitor of Invisible City discovers the town that springs from the artist’s imagination. Nobody will take the same story home.”

During the next week, Claire will be producing new works that are a development from her Passing, Watching, Waiting, Following interventions, previously produced in Liverpool and Linz. Working with live projection, drawing and public spaces, Claire will produce a series of new works under the title Motus:Immotus.

Visit a-n’s Artists Talking site to read more about Claire’s preparation and activity as part of Invisible City.

Invisible City, New Work by Claire Weetman in Schiedam is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and by Shadowing Cities.

John Cage, Where R=Ryoanji: R3, 1983. Courtesy Henning Lohner. © The John Cage Trust. via www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk

Here is a selection of the recent drawings I have been working on:

Tabloid (Square Root 4), pencil on paper, 420x590mm

Tearing Space Apart 4:3, pencil on paper, 66x50mm

Tearing Space Apart 4:3 (black), correction fluid on tempera, 66x50mm

Cracks 1: Watersoluble Graphite and pencil on paper, 170x120mm

White postcard on black: Collage, black tempera and paper, 170x120mm

Contentores, pencil on paper

Net: 7 sided cobble, pencil on paper, 590x420mm

7 sided cobble, net x 7. Pencil on paper, 590x420mm

7 sided cobble, net squared. Pencil on paper, 590x420mm

I came across this project by P28 at the Belem Cultural Centre in Lisbon through an article in the guardian and decided to visit and respond to it on my trip to Portugal this month. A series of exhibitions are taking place in the containers, and the ones that I caught were by Inês Amado + Sonia Boyce, curated by Paul Goodwin (Tate Britain).

Boyce’s dance of Belem includes a section, which appealed to me, where she follows and mimics members of the public within the gardens opposite the cultural centre.

Contentores – a response
As this project is due to come to Liverpool as part of Biennial 2012, I decided to create my own response to the use of the shipping container. Taking the format, I’ve created a net of the container and created a drawing onto it’s surface.

I’ve taken this model to Lisbon and photographed it in situ with the containers there. If realised I’d like to have the drawn lines cut into the metal, with the box being lit from the inside creating a 3 dimensional drawing referencing the space and volume of the box.

I’m taking part in an event called Invisible City in Schiedam, NL in August, and coincidentally came across Italo Calvino’s book Invisible Cities. Connections abound, as several of the chapters are titled ‘Trading Cities’, a similar title to the next project (Trading Station) to be undertaken by POST.

As connections have recently been appearing to me from all directions, the chapter in Calvino’s book about the city of Ersilia struck a chord; also it’s visual description of the connections between people felt like a description of a drawing.

Here is the text in full:

In response to this I’ve decided to set up my own international postal exhibition project that highlights my links to places that I visit and the artists, curators and galleries that I have worked with in the past, or would like to work with in the future, creating my own Ersilia. I’m not going to write where and who I send them to, you’ll have to wait until air mail comes through your letterbox, however, I do plan to create a map of where I send them to and from as a record of my travels and activity.

I’ve started this project off during my recent trip to Portugal, where I have continued to play with the concept of ‘tearing space apart’, but was also distracted by the fabulous patterned pavements using black and white cobbles. Here are the 5 works I produced, three of which are in transit right now (2 were too large for an envelope and I wasn’t as fond of them)

Cracks 1: Watersoluble Graphite and pencil on paper

Portuguese Pavement I: Graphite and black tempera on paper

Portuguese Pavement II: Collage, black tempera on paper

White postcard on black: Collage, black tempera and paper

Portuguese Pavement III: Pencil on paper

Tearing Space Apart 4:3 has been awarded a commendation in the 2011 West Lancs Open at Chapel Gallery.

16 July – 14 September 2011 at Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk. West Lancashire OPEN Exhibition 2011
The annual West Lancashire Open Exhibition brings together professional, semi-professional and accomplished amateur artists in this hugely engaging show at the Chapel Gallery.

We aim to produce a diverse exhibition that, like any true open, is open to all and brings together a compelling array of disciplines, ideas and approaches. Exploration of the space should result in fascinating discoveries and a rich, and often unexpected, encounter with art.

Winners
1st Prize: Sarah Redfern, Green/Ochre, Egg Tempera on Panel
2nd Prize: Nathan Pendlebury, Tree #2, Polaroid Photograph
3rd Prize: Carole Traynor, Allyway, Metal Plate Etching, Aquatint and Mixed Media.

Highly Commended
Gerry Halpin, Meandering River, Acrylic
Michael Lowey, Perception, Analogue Photograph

Commended
Michael John Ashcroft, Deep, Oil on Board
Shirley Blackhurst, Sea Mist, Collograph
Mary Campbell, Golden Road, Collograph
Robert Cousins, Lotus from the Mind, Acrylic
David Green, Lattice 14, Ink, Watercolour on Paper
Maggie Hargreaves, Slowly Creeping, Charcoal (fixed) on Paper
Barbara Jones, Cell Replication, Ink on Paper
Rachael Marsh, M20, Digital Print & Cornely
Jason Thompson, Hyperborean Woman (Daniel Paul Schreber), Enamel Paint & Varnish on Plywood
Heather Tomsett, Spume, Mixed Media
Cathy Turner, Autumn’s Fire, Handmade Nuno Felt (Pure Merino Wool)
Claire Weetman, Tearing Space Apart 4:3, Pencil, Paper, MDF and Acrylic
Penny Williams, Shunned, Mixed Media

Peoples’ Prize
All visitors to the Gallery are encouraged to vote for their favourite artwork.
Please complete a Voting Slip (one per person) and place it in the ballot box provided.
At the end of the exhibition, the artist with the most votes wins the opportunity to exhibit at the Chapel Gallery and receives an exhibiting fee of £150. All visitors who vote will also be included in a prize draw.