Join the League of Super-duper Artists

OK, it might not be the new hi-tech secret headquarters for a team of crime-fighting super heroes but I am looking for 5 artists to join me in renting a massive live/work space that I’ve found in the heart of Shoreditch, London ('the place to be'). The space is available from the end of this month. It’s the whole of the second floor of an old office block situated halfway between Old Street Tube and Liverpool Street Station – just off Great Eastern Street. The place is massive so there will be loads of space to work and to chill out in. there are already enough rooms off the main open space to use as bed rooms - so we wouldn't have to build our own. Although we should free to make any improvements or alterations that we see fit. There is a good sized kitchen area, a few toilets but only one shower so we’ll either have to make do with that or put another one in ourselves. The rest of the floors are home to a few art collectives and there are roof-top gardens where fruit and veg have previously been grown. I imagine that come Summer, a few barbecues will be taking place up there too.

I'm still waiting for the landlords to get back to me with the actual price but hopefully it will be about £3000 per month (all inclusive) for the whole floor which would work out at £500 per person, per month. I think that they will probably be asking for a month's rent in advance and a months rent as deposit but as I said, I’m still waiting for them to get back to me with the final details.

Obviously I want this to be a positive and creative environment so I’m looking for motivated and productive artists. If you are interested then please get in contact (you can email me at waynechisnall@yahoo.co.uk), telling me a bit about yourself and either send me a couple of images of your work or include your website or blog address and a contact number.

Please feel free to pass this message onto anyone that you think might be suitable and interested.

waynechisnall@yahoo.co.uk

RCA Secret Postcard Prize

I've already said congratulations to Cade Newman who correctly guessed which were my postcard entries in this year's RCA Secret Show (ahead of the sale opening) but I'd forgotten to mention what his prise was. So here it is, Doll Torso, from my series of small Doll Parts paintings. Maybe I'll do another competition for next year's show.

Review of 'Botanists of the Asphalt' by Julia Kollewe

The City Arts & Music Project makes its debut on the London art scene | Julia Kollewe

Botanists of the Asphalt - This Thursday

Here are a few detail shots of my sculpture, The City, that I will be showing in this Thursday's 'Botanists of the Asphalt' show. If you would like to come to the show please RSVP to the curator, Stephanie Pochet, at stephanie@thecamplondon.com or by ringing 07966 244138.

Botanists of the Asphalt (Part 1)

Private View - Thursday 3rd December (6.30 – 9.30pm)

Exhibition Runs - 4th December to 5th January

The City Arts & Music Project, 70-74 City Road, London EC1Y 2BJ - 0207 253 2443

info@thecamplondon.com

Book Art Show This Tuesday

Book Tower II (Nostalgia For a Childhood That Wasn't Mine), originally uploaded by Wayne Chisnall.

It was a close call but I've just managed finish my latest sculpture, Book Tower II (Nostalgia For a Childhood That Wasn't Mine), and deliver it to KALEID Editions gallery before the hand-in deadline expired. Although there are some similarities to my original Book Tower sculpture, this one has a more open structure and I decided to make the top section entirely out of interlocking books. None of them are glued together. As with a lot of my work, this one relates to my interest in nostalgia. Only this time it is a constructed or fake nostalgia - a nostalgia for a childhood that wasn't mine. The books that I chose to use mostly originate from the 50's or 60's and suggest a comfortable middle-class (and naively racist, judging from the Gollywog book) white family life - with titles like Enid Blyton's Famous Five Have a Smashing Time Doing Whatever They Do (or something like that) and some dusty old text books.

Anyway, below is the info that I lifted from the press release. Hopefully I'll catch up with a few familiar faces at the opening this Tuesday.

Unique Artists' Books
2-24 December 2009
Private View: Tuesday 1st December, 6-9pm

KALEID is proud to announce an exhibition first: a group show dedicated to unique artists’ books.
The exhibition will bring to life ‘the aftermath of an accident between a trolley car and a newspaper kiosk', recalling Maud Lavin’s description of Johannes Baader’s original exhibition Das Grosse Plasto-Dio-Dada-Drama. Drawing inspiration from Baader’s original architectural feat, fifty pieces have been selected for their originality and conceptual response to the traditional book form.

KALEID curator Deeqa Ismail challenges the viewer to consider not what a book is but what a book can be. Reaching out to an international network of artists, exhibition highlights include:

Samantha Huang’s deformation of the found book is a rejection of the literal reading. Neglected by past owners, the book is conscientiously destroyed in order to disseminate its physical potential back into the public domain. Liz Jackson’s minimalist interventions draw attention to the physicality of the paper. Her demarcation of the edges transforms the book into a sculptural form, opening it to new ways of reading whilst hiding the true content of its pages. Finlay Taylor’s buried, decomposed and subsequently exhumed books that are transformed into unique pieces by worms and mollusks whose digestive journey offers a personal account of subterranean history. With his Dictionary Story, Sam Winston seeks to transcend the visual limit of language. His wild transformation of words into abstract form creates a style that pushes the boundaries of typography and the letterpress. Pete Williams’ 12ft Tower, made from rescued scrap wood and woodcuts, has been assembled in defiance of the material’s destruction. The installation as a focal point in the gallery, offers its ledges, nooks and crannies for the imminent arrival of fifty unique books.

For more information and images contact Deeqa Ismail at the gallery: deeqa(at)kaleideditions.com - KALEID editions (artists who do books). Unit 2, 23-25 Redchurch St, London E2 7DJ. 07852134825

RCA Not So Secret?

Here are three details from the three postcards that I have in this year's RCA Secret. Hopefully I've made it hard to guess which ones in the show are mine but if you think that you have worked it out then why not email me their correct exhibition numbers - and the first correct answer received before the sale starts on Saturday 21st November will win a prize. I'll probably send the winner a small drawing or something.

So if you think you know the answers send me an email marked 'RCA Not So Secret' (including your name, address and the 3 correct numbers) to waynechisnall@yahoo.co.uk - before Saturday 21st November 2009.

Good Luck.

To view the entries on-line go to - www.rca.ac.uk/secret

or check out the show in person at -

Royal college of Art
Kensington Gore
London SW7 2EU
020 7590 4186

RCA Secret Artists Party

Well, it's that time of year again and the Royal College of Art has just thrown its annual 'thank you' party for all the artists who have contributed to this year's RCA Secret - the once yearly exhibition of "original postcard-sized artwork, donated by internationally acclaimed artists plus up-and-coming graduates from the Royal College of Art". Aside from it being a chance to get a preview of the thousands of works on show, the party is always a good opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet new artists. And the free drinks and goodie bags don't go unappreciated either.

Every year I try to do my postcards in a different style from the previous year. This time I've gone for pencil drawings but have done them in slightly different styles to each other. Last year I posted images of my entries here on my blog, before the sale opened - a little bit naughty some would say. Although, for anyone who had already seen my blog and my prints, it was pretty obvious which ones were mine. So this year I'll make it a little harder. Just before the show opens I might post a small detail of one or all the cards and see if anyone can work out which ones are mine. Damn - I could even give a prize to the first person who gets them all right.

All the cards on show go on sale (priced £40 each) on Saturday 21th November 2009 - but get there early as some of the hard-core collects have been known to camp out days, if not weeks, in advance. You can purchase up to four cards but you have to register first - either at the exhibition, at their website or by emailing secret@rca.ac.uk.
However, if all goes to plan (fingers crossed, as I might have left things a little too late to have everything ready in time) I should a little surprise for those queueing outside on the opening day.

The show is open to the public from 13th - 20th November 2009, 11Am-6PM (19.11.09 until 8PM). For further info check out www.rca.ac.uk/secret.

Royal college of Art
Kensington Gore
London SW7 2EU
020 7590 4186

The Nest

Junk Metal Nest Sketch, originally uploaded by Wayne Chisnall.

Firstly I’d like to congratulate John McIlduff and Brian Irvine for winning one of the 12 Artists Take the Lead awards (commissions totalling £5.4 million) with their proposed Nest project - and secondly I’d like to thank them for using a blown-up image of my Junk Metal Nest sketch for the recent press conference here in London. After the conference John told me that he’d seen my sketch appear on Channel 4 News. It’s probably more like 15 seconds than 15 minutes of fame, but hey, I’m easily pleased.
John contacted me about using my drawing after he came across it on the internet. Although I’d already heard about the Arts Council England and London 2012 award (with money like that up for grabs, what artist hadn’t) it was the first that I’d heard of their Nest project. And once they told me about the similarities between their work and mine I immediately agreed to let them use my sketch.

Below are a few paragraphs about the project that I found on -
http://www.artiststakingthelead.org.uk/northern-ireland/brian-irvine-brian-irvinejohn-mcilduff-dumb-nest
But you can also find out more about the project at –
http://www.artscouncil-ni.org/news/2009/new221020092.html
and at -
http://press.artscouncil.org.uk/content/Detail.aspx?ReleaseID=880&NewsAreaID=2

THE NEST invites the people of Northern Ireland to create art on a massive scale through the simple act of donating an object. These will be collected and assembled into a gigantic creation to be built in Belfast by a team of artists and designers. THE NEST will become a focal point for a large-scale music and choral event, composed, written and directed by Brian Irvine and John McIlduff - inspired and performed by the people of Northern Ireland.

This huge multi-media project will have a presence throughout the towns and villages of the nation, as artists and volunteer teams travel to collection points to find out about and gather in the objects that people wish to donate. A multitude of items, small and large, will be collected from donors who will be asked to attach a baggage label illustrating how they are connected to their donated object. Donors will be filmed with their objects and the objects will be photographed, catalogued and under the direction of an artistic design team, take a single shape that will become THE NEST.

Words from these baggage labels together with film footage of people making their donations will be transformed into a large-scale musical work that will be performed by an orchestra and large community chorus made up of people from all over Northern Ireland: professional and unemployed people, young and not so young, farmers, doctors, bankers, shop-keepers, and people with disabilities amongst many others.

With thousands of objects and labels and hundreds of singing voices and musicians, THE NEST will be a far reaching, all embracing, sonic and sculptural landscape that examines and questions relationships between people and the things that we surround ourselves with - the things from which we make our own nests.