Art exhibition in aid of Global Care North East…

Since finishing my foundation diploma, I was involved in a charity art exhibition. The idea was first thought of last December and between then and the 15th of June I and others have been organising the event.

Global Care North East is currently supporting projects in Cambodia, it is the last year of fund raising for the country as the projects are almost complete and have been greatly successful in helping this area of the world. I decided that I wanted to contribute to the projects by having a charity event, so I did it in the only way I knew how… an exhibition!

The curators of the event where myself and Jenni Hawkins. We ourselves exhibited work as well as Paul Ramsay, Peter Herbert, Iris Herbert and David Maguire.

The exhibition consisted of old and new pieces of work, which was enjoyed by all who came to the event but most of all we raised £265 for the charity (raised by ticket prices and art work sold). I thank everyone who came to support the day and all who helped make the day such a success.

Photos of installing the work and the event:

Exhibition venue, St John Church Gateshead Fell

Photos taken by Jenni Hawkins and myself.

Final Major Project, the end.

My final exhibition was May 31st and much of the night was spent feeling quite nervous…

With the work complete and installed the next stage for me was to take the stage! I was to complete my performance, which had been fully planned and practised but doing it in real life is quite different.

My performance involved engaging with my installation, I played the part of the sea witch while my friend (Alex) played the part of the Little Mermaids sisters. The performance began with both of us walking onto the stage. Alex sat on a stool; which was part of the installation, facing the audience. As the sea witch character I took the wigs from the cast hands on the wall and put the wig on the Little Mermaids sister character, I then used a large pair of rusty scissors to cut the hair from the wig. The cut hair was then put into the cast hand and the rest of the wig placed on the floor underneath the same cast hand. This was repeated with all the wigs. This represented the scene of the book in which the Little Mermaids sisters sacrifice their hair to save their sister. The Little Mermaid realises their sacrifice when they come to the surface of the ocean and their hair is jaggedly cut. I therefore used my performance to show how I imagined the sea witch to cut the hair, in quite a violent manner, but the Little Mermaids sisters expressing love in allowing the sea witch to take their hair for the life of their sister. The performance ended with both participants walking off stage away from the audience.

Although nerve racking, I’m really pleased that I did the performance, I think it contributed well to my installed work and finished my foundation diploma course off brilliantly.

My final installation and performance images:

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Thank you for those who took photos of my installation and during my performance Paul Ramsay, Tom Jordan and Gareth Houghton.