Last week of Indigo Violet Larkin's show 'Land Water Darkness' at Gas Gallery

It's the last week of my show at the Gas Gallery in Aberystwyth, and I am making many dramatic additions and changes each day! Am in the gallery every day this week from 12 noon to 5 pm (from 2pm on Friday) so if you haven't seen the exhibition, seen me in it, or even haven't seen it in a while, now's your chance!

After the show finishes on 4 October, blog postings will resume.

http://indigovioletlarkin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/indigo-violet-larkins-solo-show-poster.html

Indigo's photos shown with Mar Shro Gora at Cardiff's Scratch Platform

 

 

Above a rather shabby Irish-themed pub, a nice square of banquet chairs and leather sofas surround a professionally lit bit of floor, the platform for an evening of experimentation. On this floor treads a cream silk-suited creature in a hat suitable for meeting, or possibly impersonating, royalty. In one black-gloved hand she holds a camera. In the other hand she also holds... a camera, and a red ribbon, which she proffers to an unsuspecting soul in the front row. He takes it, and she moves slowly away, all the while taking photographs of herself.

Meanwhile, my photographs are being passed around the room.

This is my friend Mar Shro Gora performing the first version of a performance art piece she calls 'Taking the self for a walk', in a reworking of the famous line by Paul Klee. My photographs, a series also depicting a night time walk, are a last minute addition to this performance at Scratch Platform, held in Four Bars, Cardiff, on 31 August 2014.

The photographer Piri was also taking photos of Mar Shro, but for some reason I was not. Am entitled to the odd night off.

Photos and performance copyright Mar Shro Gora 2014.

With thanks to Fizzi Events for making Scratch Platform happen.

Indigo's videos screened at Stories by Gaslight evening

A darkened room, a standing lamp, a wooden floor, three rows of chairs, a gradually accreting audience, a sheet with wavy wrinkles serving as a screen onto which images of ceaseless waves melt into the electric colours of evening.

Or, to give the prosaic account:

Was very pleased to be asked to screen my videos at the 'Stories by Gaslight' evening at the Gas Gallery / Oriel Nwy on 3 September 2014. Organised and hosted by Peter Stevenson, 'Stories by Gaslight' has become a regular feature in the upstairs gallery, allowing the traditional art form of storytelling to exist surrounded by contemporary art. My work was the opener for the narrative ballads of folk singer Lynne Denman, whose songs from long-ago Virginia I found particularly enchanting.

Screening list (all Aberystwyth premieres):

'WATER: aberystwyth' (2014)

'treemorph' (2014)

'WATER: plymouth' (2014)

'Daisy Daisy' (2014)

That'll do, Pig.

Photo copyright Indigo Violet Larkin 2014.

Exhibition preparations: installing the furniture

The furniture in the gallery is to create the open studio workspace for me as I will be in Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons (and probably other times as well). Do drop in and say hello, feel free to ask questions. Videos will be playing when the artist is present, so that's an added incentive to visit.

All photos copyright Indigo Violet Larkin 2014.

Indigo Violet Larkin's exhibition 'land water darkness' continues at Gas Gallery / Oriel Nwy in Aberystwyth until 4 October. The gallery is open Monday to Saturday 11am to 5pm, and admission is free. Indigo Violet Larkin will be present in the exhibition from 2-5pm Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and quite probably at other times as well.

Feeding the eyes: Matisse all-nighter at Tate Modern

 

After a very successful opening of my own exhibition 'land water darkness' at Gas Gallery / Oriel Nwy last Friday, raced home for a few hours' sleep before treating myself to catching the last weekend of the 'Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs' exhibition at Tate Modern in London, with its special all-nighter. So it is possible to share these exclusive photos of what it was like around 10pm when a huge number of people were queueing for timed admission. The show was very crowded most of the day, but well worth seeing. A review of the exhibition itself will appear here after I've brought the Indigo Violet Larkin exhibition postings up to date.

All photos copyright Indigo Violet Larkin 2014.

 

Everything about the exhibition design was big and chunky.
 

 

Was so excited I forgot to attend the free screenings of 'Matisse in Tangiers'!

The man in the dark jacket was trying to organise the queue.

Tate employee remaining chipper dealing with processing a six-foot chain of tickets.
 

The queue to enter the exhibition at 10pm went on and on.
 

And when they finally got to the front of the queue...

 

 

...everybody packed up in the first room. It was very crowded, but not impossible.

 



Downstairs does not normally look like this on late openings!

The new downstairs bar in the Turbine Hall was doing a roaring trade. Did not look to see if there was any special Cut-Outs beer.

Exhibition preparations: painting the walls

Monday 1 September - day -3

The exhibition space is mine! Previous work has been taken down... and hundreds of tiny marks are now visible on the white walls, and must be painted over.

 

The use of a paintbrush in the hand is always pleasurable.

The more marks are painted over, the more marks become visible.

While working, I am put in mind of an artist called Hiwa K. Kurdish, he attended art school in Germany before coming to the UK. He began by painting all the marks off the white walls.

He did this every day. When he returned from a week's absence, someone else had taken over his space and there was blue paint everywhere. Patiently, he began returning every square centimetre to pure white.

Eventually they called him in and demanded to know when he was going to produce some work. His response was to continue painting the walls, even though they didn't realise this was the work. Oh, and he hung a pair of rubber gloves off the clock.

They threw him out.

Hail Hiwa K, for making us notice the minute, the medium, the surface, the Forth Bridge-ness of the life without mindfulness.

All photos copyright Indigo Violet Larkin 2014.

More on Hiwa K at http://hiwak.net/ 

For those not familiar with Scotland's Forth Bridge, the idea is that as soon as the worker finishes painting it, the work needs to start all over again in a never ending cycle.

Exhibition preparations: the empty space

 

Some photos of the empty upstairs gallery at Gas Gallery / Oriel Nwy, just before my exhibition 'land water darkness' was installed. All photos copyright Indigo Violet Larkin 2014.