joana vasconcelos in loule

joanas show taking shape in loule the gallery was just like a studio for the first few days, it was facinating to have joana talk to me about her ideas and how she planned and developed ideas.she draws a very precise idea of the intention and then embarks on its construction using materials that she has collected from all over the world, traditional methods are employed from knitting to lace work and re-presented having a new identity, they are elevated to new heights. Wherever this sculpture is exhibited she adds fabrics and object that identify with the location, here in Loule she added Fishes and crabs as we are by the sea.Isabel and Palmeira helped her stitch some of these objects in place.It is reminiscent of when women used to meet and sew together, it is a collective effort that changes its identity over time the piece has an inbuilt history, people that are involved feel part of the work.This I think is important as we are living in an ever mass produced sanitised society. This piece really does invoke play and playtime. It was good to see everyone that came into the gallery smile immediately as they entered into the spirit of the work.The whole piece is subversive and all evasive, it is quirky and surreal and has I feel connections with Niki de Saint Phalle.Another aspect of the work is it is soft like a giant childs toy, I watched childrens faces in the gallery as they looked in wonder at this huge playful object which like all good work has its serious content albeit disguised The world we inhabit is wrapped in cotton wool dont do this dont do that, be careful you must not say this or that Contaminacao and Condutex are subversive interventions in our make believe world are they a dream or are they reality. This is the world of Pere Ubu.

friends

the general,bota filipe sets off with his paints for the latest adventure of the "salir project" painting the approach wall bright orange from the bridge to the gateway of the quinta.

here we see the general practicing his golf swing or is he just in one of his creative modes?

he is standing in front of the orange to be wall!!!!! and heres john lamonby the painter of the ria formosa....

stone raft.............salir

joana carda scratches the ground with her elm stick, joaquim sassa throws a stone,pedro orce feels the ground tremble jose anaico is followed by 1000s of starlings and the old lady finds a blue sock in the attic?????

my joana is based on the old lady that spits at the sky!!!!!!!

an assemblage of stuff

saskia and sebastian visit "imaginarium" in faro what a fantastic entrance for kids, there are lots of eccentric things to be found especially the pocket money stuff wacki mooing machines, stickers, and others

a sketchbook froman exhibition of sketchbooks held at the holden gallery in manchester 2009. even when you select the postion of the image and text in this blog they appear to take on a life of their own, its almost as if thereis a random element at work or maybe I the operator have not figured out what to do , I rather like the lack of control, it throws up new ideas in page layout and aesthetics?is the softwear really a surrealist manifetation?

a visual poema lurking in quarteira ,this part of a series based on the idea of sureal theater of dreams, you might interested in a book,"dreaming with open eyes" by tucker its a book that I delve into on a regular basis, it was also the title that the late george melly had for an exhibition that he curated many years ago, I had the privelidge of going to a talk that george gave in rochdale art gallery many years ago.