Helen Sargeant, "Jelly Tots", Facebook Friends Pregnancy Cravings, Digital Print Series 2011
As part of the Yorkshire Art Loop exhibition at the Pop Up Art Space in Bradford, I will be exhibiting a series of Digital Prints based on Facebook Friends Pregnancy Fads. This collaborative project is the result of 33 artists visual responses to a poem by Ian Mcmillan.
Fabric: Pop Up Art Space
Centenary Square
Bradford
Opens: 11th November 2011
“This wonderful collaborative art project Yorkshire Art Loop is almost finished that is the loop has nearly come to an end. About 33 people have participated in this project that brings together the WYVAN groups of artists working across West Yorkshire. More about WYVAN later but for now let me explain how the Art Loop works. The Barnsley Bard Ian Mcmillan wrote a poem, just for us. I can reveal it’s name ‘Apple Dream’ but not yet the words.
So armed with Ian’s poem we presented the art loop idea to a large group of artists and makers back in April, and then encouraged them to sign up, which they did. We had about 33 people and formed 3 lists. The first person on each list had the poem secretly revealed to them, they went away and made the first piece of artwork in response to the poem, this was then sent to the next person on the list. The new piece of art work each time being forward onto the next person on the list and the one they had received returned to a collection point. A sort of art Chinese whispers. Only the first person on each list got to see the poem, that is until we were sure artists had made their work and passed it on, they were then invited to make a second piece of work directly in response to the poem, which was then revealed to them. This is why you can’t read the poem, not until everyone has finished!
We now have a large collection of art work spread around the Art House in Wakefield, West Yorkshire Print Workshop in Mirfield, Pop Up art space (Fabric) in Bradford, Loca in Kirklees, and East Street Arts in Leeds. These organisations are all part of WYVAN – West Yorkshire Visual Arts Network.
The idea behind WYVAN is that these organisations come together to create projects, training opportunities or to share information that will help artists in West Yorkshire with their professional development.
We will be exhibiting the work produced as part of the Yorkshire Art Loop firstly at Pop Up in Bradford and then the other venues. It is going to be a fascinating and exciting experience unwrapping the art works and then placing them in sequence. We open at Pop Up on the 11th November, and we warmly invite you to see the fascinating results of this project in the forthcoming exhibition.”
Fabric Blog
