Newsflash! July 2008

Applications for the Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary are now open.

Each year, the bursary will be offered in conjunction with a residency in a visual arts venue. In 2009, this will be the Bluecoat in Liverpool with advice and consultancy from Tate Liverpool.

Deadline for applications is 1 September 2008. CLOSED

For full details and downloadable application form visit www.shapearts.org.uk/projects.

Calling for shoes!

Noëmi Lakmaier creates environments which unsettle the viewer. Her new work in sculpture and installation utilises her body and transfers power to surprising effect. One of the pieces requires over 1000 pairs of shoes – please bring in your old pairs of shoes for Noëmi – we’re collecting them in Reception at Camden Arts Centre.

Noëmi Lakmaier: Artist in Residence

10 March – 11 May 2008

Austrian born Noëmi Lakmaier is artist in residence at Camden Arts Centre and Adam Reynolds Memorial artist during Spring 2008. Interested in environments which unsettle the viewer, she transfers traditional roles to surprising effect in a new sculptural installation.

She utilises her own body in the artwork, intensifying the relationship between viewer and object and challenging her fears of relinquishing control. Exercise in Losing Control (2007), referred to as a “performance object”, was based on the weeble with her body wedged into a bright yellow ball. Power was passed to the viewer, who could push and kick the object.

“I have been aiming to deliberately influence viewers by controlling all aspects of their experience, including lighting, sound, smell and temperature. I have been using architectural features such as stairs, ramps, doors, windows and two-way-mirrors to guide viewers into different psychological roles as they move through space, from being in control to feeling watched and exposed.” Noëmi Lakmaier

During her residency Lakmaier opens up the Artists’ Studio, takes part in a discussion and introduces films highlighting her interest in human behaviour and absurdity.

Talk and open studio:
Wednesday 26 March, 7.00-8.30pm
Noëmi Lakmaier in conversation with writer and curator, Lisa Le Feuvre.

Screening: Das Experiment
(Director, Oliver Hirshbiegel, 2001)
Wednesday 09 April, 7.00-9.00pm
Selected and introduced by Noëmi Lakmaier, Das Experiment is inspired by the events of the Stanford prison experiment in the US.

Screening: Freaks
(Director Tod Browning, 1932)
Sunday 13 April, 2.00-3.00pm
Introduced by Noëmi Lakmaier and specially selected to accompany her residency, Freaks is a 1932 horror film about side show performers, touching on morality and inner beauty.

Open studio:
Sunday 11 May, 2.00-4.00pm
See work produced during the residency in the Artists’ Studio and meet the artist.

To book the events call 020 7472 5500 or contact Camden Arts Centre.

About Adam Reynolds

Adam Reynolds showed his work regularly from 1984 with many exhibitions throughout the 1980s and 1990s whilst developing the Adam Gallery. The Adam Gallery ran from 1984 to 1997 in an old cobblers shop in south London, providing a space for artists with serious intent to extend their personal creativity in a supportive environment.

Adam Reynolds worked with many different materials including lead, copper, steel and glass. His work moved from predominantly figurative pieces in the 1980s (eg. his gargoyle figures) towards more abstract, geometric and larger scale work in the 1990s and beyond, like the public commissions for Scope’s Midlands Office, Boscombe Day Centre near Bournemouth and Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey.

A common thread throughout his work was his desire to “express apparent contradictions and to help others enjoy the contradictory nature of the universe”. He did this most obviously, for example, in his lead series, which included a lead balloon and kite.

Adam Reynolds said “I am clear that my greatest strengths stem from the fact of being born with muscular dystrophy, apparently my greatest weakness”. He always favoured using scrap materials and found objects – picked up from the street or dug out of the ground – making his viewers reconsider the value and beauty of overlooked and rejected ’stuff’. He explained this tendency as being “founded on my lifelong experience of disability and [the desire to challenge] the commonplace assumption that this renders life all but useless and without value”.

For more information about Adam Reynolds and his work, please see:

• Adam’s CV
• Obituary by Nicholas Serota in the Guardian
• Obituary by Rob Kesseler in the Independent

Welcome

This blog is for the recipients of the Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary.

An annual bursary for deaf and disabled artists working in the visual arts, it has been established in memory of Adam Reynolds by Shape in collaboration with his friends and family.  Each year the bursary will be offered in conjunction with a residency in a visual arts venue.

We hope that the residents will track and document their residency through this blog.

To find out more about Adam Reynolds and the bursary visit its website.