Notes From Meeting on Monday 23rd January 2012

We met at Gwen Bajon's studio at Bow Arts Trust.

Members present: Gwen Bajon, Gabriel Birch, Louise Ashcroft, Eyal Edelman, Fritha Jenkins, Lucie Galand, Robbie Lockwood, Emma Gradin and Neela Basu.

We reviewed last week's meeting in which we each selected extracts from texts to read to the group. The possibility of having themed reading weeks was suggested and also the idea of using a similar format presenting chosen artworks instead of texts. We considered our progress on aims and objectives and talked about the group show we are planning later in the year. Eyal noted that group shows can often be lacking in collaborative spirit and dialogue. Louise agreed and referred to a curatorial experiment she had made exploring the dynamics of a group show. Robbie feels that it is important that the show is a celebration of our experience at AltMFA rather than taking precedence over it.

Gwen's Crit:
Gwen handed out extracts from Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, which is a source of inspiration for her work. Gwen showed us her installation/environment consisting of two large paintings and two sculptures. She talked about the importance of the themes in Moby-Dick in relation to her personal experience of capitalism and referred to the biblical myth of the Leviathan sea monster which has parallels with the whale in Moby-Dick. We discussed possible routes in which to take the work and we discussed the importance of the title. Emma said that she thinks titles are a very important point of entry to an artwork. Gwen explained that she wants to capture the feeling of Moby-Dick without illustrating it as such. We talked about her use of materials and colour.

We didn't have time for Eyal's crit, which will be postponed until a few weeks time.