Exhibition Opening: Friday 10 May 6-8pm Glass Tank Gallery and Richard Hamilton Building, Oxford

http://www.brookes.ac.uk/about-brookes/visit-us/gipsy-lane-site/

The exhibition will be opened by renowned artist Tamarin Norwood

Exhibition Runs: Saturday 11 May – Friday 17 May 10-6 daily

Guided Tours 2pm daily

Image: Jaclyn McRae

London Fieldworks, Super Kingdom, 2009

Just returned from Association of Art Historians conference in Reading where I organised a session on Birds and Art called TWITCHERS, along with my colleagues Paul Kilsby and Clair Chinnery at Oxford Brookes University’s research cluster ARP (Art Research Practice).

The day covered birds in art from the middle ages until now. In my introduction I mentioned art projects involving birds by London Fieldworks, Marcus Coates, Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva and Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas. Paul Kilsby talked about his use of birds in his art works, which often refer to historical art and especially 17th century Dutch paintings. Jana Lucas from Basel talked about the depiction of falcons and herons in the late medieval deck of playing cards: the Ambras Court Hunting Deck. Caitlin Silberman from University of Wisconsin’s examined Victorian illustrated books on birds and discussed anthropomorphic parallels implied in representations of crows and stereotypes of a criminal Victorian underclass. Hanna Johansson from University of Helsinki raised the issue of shifts around animal ethics, looking at the 19th century art and taxidermy of Magnus von Wright and the work of contemporary artist Jussi Heikkila. Steve Pantazis examined the role of live and stuffed birds in the work of Jannis Kounnellis. Alexandra Kokoli from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen presented a paper on birds as signposts in the work of Sutapa Biswas. Clair Chinnery gave a presentation on her artwork, Cuculus Prospectus and the research she undertook for the work in the Ornithological Collection at the Natural History Museum in Tring. On behalf of artists London Fieldworks, I showed a film made in the Brazilian Rainforest focussed on a bird hunter turned eco-tourism guide and bird mimic.

Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas, Villa Lituania at 2007 Venice Biennale – start of the international pigeon race.

www.bacubed.co.uk

Public Art Online: http://www.publicartonline.org.uk/whatsnew/news/article.php/Plot+16%3A+The+Fermenting+Room+%28return+of+the+rhizome%29

Headington Hill Campus, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP

Exhibition Opening: Friday 8 March 5-7pm

Exhibition continues: Monday 11 March – Friday 15 March 10am-5pm

 brook & black  -  Martha Cadle  -  Liming Chen  -  Stephen Cornford

Jack Eden  -  Sarah Jex  -  Paul Kilsby  -  Elaine Le Corre  -  Ray Lee

Andrew MacConville  -  Stelios Manganis  -  Ruth Millar

Magali Moreau  -  Derek Morris  -  Adrian Pawley  -  Helen Slater

Lucy Turner  -  Tracey Warr

woodshedding = to hone creative skills in a removed location such as a shed

The Urbonas Studio residency at Modern Art Oxford finished last week with the maiden voyage of our biomimetic raft inspired by jellyfish and lilypads, made from recycled materials and neoprene, and using a yuloh paddle (thanks to Mike Bedwell). We had an exciting journey down river from Medley Sailing Club on Port Meadow to Osney Mill Marina. We plan to develop the raft to incorporate a water filtration system and a media lab enabling us to undertake a journey interviewing people along the river and recording and broadcasting underwater. During our MAO residency we made 15 film interviews.

Many thanks to all the people and organisations who helped make the project possible including Emily Korchmaros, Michael Stanley at Modern Art Oxford, Laura Degenhardt, Stephanie Turner, Scot Blyth, Lucia, Paul Teigh, Sarah Plumb, Julie Turley, Matt, Chris, Kay, Itzsy, Rectory Farm, Orinoco, Tony Munsey at Osney Mill Marina, Philip Colbourn at St Edward’s School Boatyard, Kate Rew at the Outdoor Swimming Society, Tim Eastop at the Canal & River Trust, Oxford Brookes University, Association of Art Historians, Jonathan & Jane at The Isis Farmhouse, Barry at The Goldfish Bowl, Ryan Pink, Mike Blow, Ieva Kausteklyte, Taz Majid, Haavard Helle, James Hudson, Rachel Cheer,

and to our film subjects in Oxford: Mike Bedwell, Mark Davies, Sarah Markham at Godstow Lock with Mick Lyons and Tony Cross, Russell Robson at the Environment Agency, Richard Bailey of City Barge Rowing Club, Liz Lake, Will McCallum, Vicky Sweetlove, Zena Kamash, Neil and Sem at Salter’s Steamers, Chris Perrins, Bill Heine, Peter Travis at Falcon Rowing Club, Oxford Academicals Rowing Club and wild swimmers at Radley, and in Cambridge, US: Kurt Hasselbach at MIT Museum, Joseph A. Paradiso at MIT, Karl Haglund, Fran Charles at MIT Sailing Club, Renata von Tscharner from the Charles River Conservancy Trust.

Our blog: www.vilma.cc/river

There is no Open Studio on Thurs 16 Aug as we are building.

The final Open Studio session is Fri 17 Aug 3-7pm at Modern Art Oxford.

Full details on our blog: www.vilma.cc/river

We’ve made a series of films with people who live, work and play on the river and are working on a prototype structure to float on the Thames. See details on our blog

www.vilma.cc/river