House overtaken by nature

Well, I'm struggling with technology. I was going to upload a photograph but am unable to do so due to low memory.  Low memory is a very human condition, apparently shared by my tablet.
So I took some photographs of an unloved building, which is being overtaken by nature. I could see birds flying indoors, ivy invading the windows, spores of rot seeping through sash windows.  Plastic had been stretched inside the window panes to keep out the cold or stop people nosing, but even This was peeling and tearing.
This is a building scarcely fulfilling its function of shelter, but still holding it together. But I want something more extreme, a house that is like a nightmare, a house that is surreal in its extremity!
I will keep searching....and I will be drawing of nightmare places.
Jenny F

ROSE

Hi House X-odarap. I'm unfortunately not going to make the next meet on the Easter weekend but, as the subject matter covered is so closely linked to my own submission, I decided to include myself in spirit.

I was inspired by our first meeting for this exhibition and the realisation of how many phenomenal female surrealists there were, that I was previously completely unaware of. It highlighted to me just how much harder it is for women to win acclaim for their achievements, than it is for men in art, industry, science... life? I felt this was an area within my own work that needed to be explored further. And so, I have taken a leaf from the books of artists such as Meret Oppenheimer and Mimi Perant and introduced links to the flesh, blood and the living, in the making of my mixed media (sort of) triptych, to tell this story in my own way.

The topic of my work is based upon issues, so eloquently raised by Ugly Sister about 10 years ago in this article; https://locationofcontestation.wordpress.com/2008/08/25/virgin-mother/

What has any of this to do with our relationship with the home, and the paradox of home comfort? Aha...

The working title for my piece is ROSE.

/sɛksˈɒdːəˈrap/

Work on the film and investigation into the influence of dreams on the Surrealists' films continues. I have been experimenting with dream sequences, focusing on various aspects of subconscious dilemmas and preoccupations. Here are some stills of my WiP... (click on thumbnail for larger image)

Flat Pack House

I'm a scavenger, I love finding things and my artwork is instigated by what I find. Sometimes something inspires and dictates a piece right from the start, as well as the beach another of my regular haunts are charity shops, I delight in rifling through and being able to reuse other peoples cast offs. So imagine how thrilled I was today to find not just one, but two, flat pack cardboard dolls houses and a real bargain at £5 for the two, less than half the full price of one.

I think they have real potential as either research & development or the starting point of my piece, the idea for which centres around over surveillance, spying and monitoring, as a result of mobile phone apps, Life Lines, Door Entry systems, virtual assistants, smart home devices etc... are we spying or being spied on?
I also love the chequered floor, a reference to Duchamp and they will lend themselves to papier mache and/or collage, can't wait to get started, now I have a starting point.

Bird House

I decided to do a study of a house as part of my research for the exhibition work. I was interested in the dysfunctional house; the transition of home to something else, something more... Surreal... I am currently looking at Surrealist cinema of the 1920s and their juxtapositioning of shocking, or absurd imagery, coupled with Surrealist poetry, which is what I am hoping this will develop into...

House X-odarap

Paradox Artists’ Collective was launched at Herne Bay’s Beach Creative CIC in November 2018 to facilitate House X-odarap, a mixed media exhibition of visual art and the written word. Twenty artists were personally invited by curators Karen Simpson and VeronicaTonge to make works relating to ‘the house and its role as a theatrical setting for our lives’ by purposefully developing Dada and Surrealist concepts and working methods.

Dada was an angry art movement of the European avant garde, reacting to the horror of World War 1 and rejecting the logic, reasoning and aestheticism of modern capitalist society. Marcel Duchamp used the term “anti-art” around 1913 to challenge accepted definitions of art, whilst Dadaist practitioners played with nonsense and irrationality, expressing anti-middle class and materialistic values in collage, sound poetry, cut-up writing and found objects as sculpture.

Surrealism was a revolutionary cultural movement that began in the 1920s and developed out of Dada, first centered around Paris then spreading worldwide. It affected visual arts, literature, film and music as well as political practice, philosophy and social theory. Its influence has been with us ever since. Surrealist artists painted unnerving illogical scenes with photographic precision, often creating weird creatures by combining ordinary objects. Surrealist painting techniques also allowed the unconscious to express itself in an attempt to resolve the contradictory conditions of dream and reality into a sort of “super-reality”.

House X-odarap exhibition and related events will run concurrently with East Kent Artists’ Open Houses 2019 at Beach Creative galleries from Saturday 19th October to Thursday 7th November 2019.