Twenty-five artists are to gain professional development support through a-n’s artists’ Re:view bursaries. Awarded in March, the bursaries range in value from £310-£1000, from a total fund of £21,700. They are specifically designed to support artists’ self-determined critical and artistic development.

Claire Weetman has been awarded one of these bursaries to enable her to develop her skills to produce digital interactive works that she developed proposals for during her 2012 residency to Shanghai.  She will work with Salford University and internationally recognised artists to develop her work both technically and with critical support.

Writing last year about the Arts Council England cuts to small-scale, practice-centred organisations, Dany Louise said: ‘Disinvestment will impact considerably on the scope of opportunity for artists, impacting adversely on their career development and livelihoods and increasing competition for the professional development opportunities that remain.”

a-n’s research has revealed that artists’ practices and livelihoods have indeed been badly affected, including through reductions in levels of paid work on offer and increased charges and costs being passed onto artists.

Set within a professional development programme that also includes seminars, Go and see bursaries, AIRTIME networking events and online resources, the Re:view bursaries are exclusive to a-n’s Artist + AIR membership. It is hoped they will play their part in providing artists with much-needed finance for self-directed critique and advice, assisting more artists to move their practice forward.

All artists with a-n Artist+AIR membership were eligible to apply for a share of the £21,700 fund, and from 56 applications received, the following were successful: Judith Alder (Sussex), Sovay Berriman (London), Charlie Carter (Hampshire), Amelia Crouch (Leeds), Sophie Cullinan (East Midlands), Susan Diab (Brighton), Susan Francis (Salisbury), FrenchMottershead-(London), Penny Hallas (Powys), Anton Hecht (Newcastle), Matthew Krishanu (London), Sally Lemsford (East Midlands), Jean McEwan (Keighley), Steve Messam (Cumbria, Elizabeth Murton (London), Julia O’Connell (Coventry), Kate Paxman (Torbay), Chantal Powell (London) Phiona Richards (Northampton), Alexis Zelda Stevens (London), Joe Stevens (Bridport), Clare Thornton (Bristol), Alana Tyson (Wales) and Claire Weetman (St Helens).

The practices of the successful artists range from painting, print and photography to digital art, dance, design and sound, many with collaborative working integral.

The concept

The idea behind

Following her month-long residency as part of the Metal international residency in November 2012, a selection of drawings and collages are now visible in Claire’s portfolio on her website.

The works have until now only been visible at the online exhibition (dis)Orientation, produced at the end of November to showcase the work made in Shanghai.  This exhibition showed a selection of drawings and collages, plus proposed film and interactive digital works which are set to be developed throughout 2013.

Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? is a body of work that uses images of arrows observed in the city of Shanghai.  These arrows direct and instruct movement of people throughout the city, controlling and regulating flow.  The drawings and collages take the arrows out of context, removing any language and are arranged with arrows showing the same direction.  The drawings are simple pen outlines on paper, whilst the collages see the arrows carefully sliced out from a larger photograph, pinned to a board and lit, creating strong directional shadows.

“A remarkable architecture of stairs” are studies that have been completed back in the studio in St Helens, and form an experiment with composition and tone for the video work of the same name.  Inspired by the rhythm and movement of escalators between the floors of the many tall buildings, these slender works are made using graphite-coated strips of paper, some polished to a high shine, which are then collaged together.

These works are also available to purchase, ranging from £150 to £300 each.  Email the artist through her website.

Visual Artist Claire Weetman has been awarded a 4 week residency in Shanghai as one of the two prizes that were offered alongside the Liverpool Art Prize.  Through a partnership with Shanghai Art School and LJMU’s School of Art and Design, Metal offered a month-long international residency opportunity for visual artists living and working in the North West region to travel to Shanghai, China. Shanghai Art School will host the visit and provide accommodation and access to a studio for one month. The award is envisioned as a professional and ideas development opportunity for artists and is part of the city twinning activity between Liverpool and Shanghai.

Whilst in Shanghai, Claire proposes to develop ‘Watermark’; an intervention that she created on a public square in Istanbul as part of the POST artist exchange project TRADING STATION.  Alongside that Claire aims to further her research into movement through public squares and to develop mark making skills inspired by Chinese calligraphy.

The International Residency Award was announced at the Liverpool Art Prize 2012 where, fellow member of artist collective POST, Robyn Woolston was awarded the Judges Choice prize and Tomo received the People’s Choice prize.  A fourth award of the Metal Studio residency went to Anna Mulhearn, who will have use of a studio at Metal Liverpool for 12 months.

http://www.robynwoolston.com/
http://www.quangowangism.com/tomosecurities.html
http://annamulhearn.weebly.com/
http://www.postliverpool.com/
http://liverpoolartprize.com

Markmakers exploring narratives, 19 May – 23 June 2012
The Brindley, Runcorn.

Halton’s contemporary arts collective, Markmakers have spent the last two years exploring the theme of narratives.  With work including print, drawing, animation, painting, sculpture and ceramics this will be a diverse and intriguing exhibition.

Claire Weetman is exhibiting a piece called 71 steps, as an installation and artist’s book inspired by the drawings and prints of John Cage that feature collected stones.  During a markmakers excursion to Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Claire collected 71 stones from the ’71 steps’ of David Nash’s installation.  Taking them back to her studio, Claire drew around each stone, before creating a detailed drawing of each one using pencil on black acrylic paint – a technique inspired by paintings by Giuseppe Penone.  Claire plans to complete the story of these stones during the exhibition at the Brindley by returning the stones to the steps at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

www.markmakers-artists.co.uk

Watermark was a 90 minute intervention on Barbosa Park, Istanbul on 29 March 2012.  Claire painted water onto a course of adjacent paving stones, drawing a line that follows a prominent route taken across that space by pedestrians. The water dries and the line documenting the movement of the people fades and disappears, echoing the temporal nature of people’s presence in that place.

Spread is the third in a series of animated drawings onto mountcard.  They take inspiration from Richard Serra’s verb works, where he created sculptures in response to words such as ‘to roll’, ‘to crumple’ or ‘to cut’. 

I’m going to take some of the words from his list, but also include words that have an inherent feeling of movement in them too, then create a series of drawings using cut away mountcard.  So far I’ve made ‘descend’, ‘curve’ and ‘spread’.  More to follow over the process of time.  Longlist of future words includes:

scatter, pair, surround, lift, follow, fall, shuffle, jump, loop, grow, criss-cross, ramble,

****These artworks have now been taken to a good home by their new owner****

Claire Weetman is moving studios during April and has two large artworks that she can no longer store. These are available for free, collected from St Helens. If you are interested in owning either of the works below, please email claire@claireweetman.co.uk before the end of April to save them from the skip. These are also listed on Ebay where 50% of any selling price will be donated to Charity.

Untitled: Four Panels. 2008
Paint marker on perspex.
Four sheets of 12mm Perspex, H2.44m x W1.22m

Untitled, Four Panels was created in 2008 during the Liverpool International Artists exhibition at Novas CUC. It comprises four perspex panels, with drawings on one surface of each. The drawings, in black or white, mapped and followed the movement and silhouettes of visitors to this exhibition.

The original installation was four panels displayed in the centre of a room in parallel, however, for preservation of the drawings, they would be best displayed fixed to a wall, with the drawn surface behind the perspex.

These would be ideal for a public space, or as a feature wall in a large home. You can take all four panels or fewer if appropriate.

Stepped 2008
Two rows of perspex panels, standing vertical from a white formica-clad base box.
Base is 2.4m long, 0.75m deep, 0.20m high. Panels stand perpendicular to the base to a height of approx 0.75m
Stepped features drawings of legs and feet, captured from a street in Stuttgart in 2008. They are line drawings onto 14 pieces of perspex, which overlap each other in two rows, creating a 3-dimensional representation of the people passing along the street.

The drawn surface is protected in a sandwich of two pieces of perspex, which then slot into the base box and are bolted together using discreet chrome fixings at the top. The base box has a slight chip to it’s formica cladding where a cleaning machine damaged it on first installation. The perspex panels do not have rounded corners, so may prove a risk if displayed in an accessible public space. Stepped was created as a commission, but was unable to be installed following risk assessment that the corners of the perspex were an injury hazard for display in a public space.