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We’re trying out a new way for you to make enquiries about the Collections -we’ve set up a twitter account so you can tweet us with quick questions on anything such as Epstein and the Garman family, past exhibiting artists, the architecture,
I will attempt to answer in 140 characters or post up the answers here on our blog and send a link. You can also ask questions on here, or if there’s something you want to ask without the whole internet world knowing then email me jonescheryl@walsall.gov.uk.
Get tweeting!
ARCHIVE
Last chance to see ARCHIVE, a portable collection of artists’ books curated by Chris Taylor and John McDowall. It’s on display in the Art Library until 5 December.
Alongside is a display of collages by art and design students at Dudley College, made in response to the books on display in the ARCHIVE cabinet.
Artwork of the Month: Hélène Binet
The latest Artwork of the Month is Hélène Binet’s Untitled black & white photograph of the interior of The New Art Gallery. The photograph was taken in 1998 during the construction of the Gallery, showing the concrete which still shows around much of the building before any other elements were added. Pop into the Art Library to find out more…
Nose Casting Workshop – The Library of Secrets
Hello Library of Secrets fans, and we know there are quite a lot of you out there!
Here some photos from last Saturday’s nose casting workshop, the third and last of the events delivered by artist, Serena Korda, as part of the Library of Secrets residency at the gallery.
Epstein was an active campaigner against The British Museum’s restoration of their antique marble statues’ missing body parts using plaster. Our visitors had their nose cast and helped the gallery create a new archive of fragments which will be on display from tomorrow onwards.
What’s Under The Bed?
Bogeyman from The House Of Fairy Tales
Thank you to everyone who has joined in the Learning Revolution so far. For those who’ve put a monster under the bed but haven’t seen the Bogeyman print that inspired the idea, here it is. Of course, even better is to come and have a look at it in the Gallery.
Meanwhile, here’s a little piece from the Word Jar:
Sunshine & Moonlight / Happiness & Blackness / Running Around / Then All Of A Sudden /Scared Still in the Dark
Big Thank You
A big Thank You to everyone who took part in doing some writing for the Learning Revolution – all the groups who made me so welcome as well as the many people I saw in the gallery. I’m still working through all the great writing (and drawing) you did. In the meantime, please do leave a comment if you can.
Philip Monks
New Artists’ Books
Well, after a week of new publications being brought out in Birmingham for The Event, i’ve managed to bag a few for the Art library. We’ve got a selection by Lucy Harrison, a newspaper by our very own Gallery Assistant Ian England and Alex Lockett, as well as books by Adam Dant, political pamphlets by N55 and an envelope of artist editions by Grand Union.
The collection is growing at quite a speed!
The Great Book Club Debate
Last Thursday Serena Korda came back to The New Art Gallery to lead a Book Club Debate on Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H.Lawrence. She was joined by journalist and broadcaster Helen Brown, along with several members of the public and gallery staff.
It was a great discussion, which got pretty heated, particulaly when topics such as feminism were examined.
Gallery Assistant Julie Jones gave us some valuable insights into Lawrence’s personal life. Discussion quicky turned to censorship and controversy, particularly regarding views on sex in the early 20th Century, which effected several artists of that time. Lawrence came up against a similar attitude from the public/authorities about Lady C as Epstein did about various works, for example The Tomb of Oscar Wilde and the British Medical Building sculptures. These works were lambasted at the time due to their frank nudity which depicts fertility, but at the time was seen as hugely distasteful.
Our debate went on to consider the impact of class and snobbery on these opinions and whether people were actually outraged because of the relationships between classes. This was a time of huge social change and Lawrence describes quite clearly his take on the change in societal structures.
We spoke for 2 hours solid, so I can’t go into too much detail here, but thanks to all who came and contributed. If you want to continue on here then please do!
As a quick aside, I also found that Lawrence had self-published Lady Chaterley’s Lover because he realised it would not be possible to do so through the normal routes. I didn’t know this before reading it, but it now seems fitting that we keep a copy here considering the collection of indendent/artists’ publishing that we hold (even if we don’t have the original) .
If anyone is interested in setting up a regular book club with a visual art slant, please do get in touch, or drop into the Art Library.
Serena will be hosting her final event on 21st November – a nose casting workshop for families. The Library of Secrets is here until 29th November.
Book Sniffing Event – The Library of Secrets
Lat night, Thursday 22 October, we hosted the first of the three events which are part of The Library of Secrets residency at The New Art Gallery Walsall. For those of you who missed it, it was a lovely evening with an interesting talk by the artist Serena Korda and book sniffer and journalist Murrough O’Brien followed by a book sniffing session!
The next free event is the Great Book Club Debate on Thurs 5 Nov at 6pm and is inspired by the controversial career of Jacob Epstein. The book club will discuss banned books and ideas of literary censorship. Chaired by Serena and journalist and broadcaster Helen Brown, the book to read is Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H Lawrence.
The Nights Are Drawing In
These are Ron’s thoughts on the word ‘twilight’, offered him by another Walsall contributor to the Word Jar (come & pick a word if you’re near the gallery weekends in October & everyday during half-term):
Twilight – changing the clocks, autumn, apprehension, stews and hotpot, the stewjar of childhood, and when the evenings are dark, you make your own puddings.
What does twilight make you think of?
The Learning Revolution continues all through October.
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