Aidan Moesby :: Text Artist

Back to Basics

As part of the Hotbed Press 20 x 20 I created a very simple print. The thing with using the Adana hand press is that every print I produced was different. Lots of happy accidents.

Letterpress Print, 2011

Letterpress Workshops

I have just completed my first letterpress workshop in my new studio. I am mentoring some people who are taking part in the Book Apothecary Project. The people who came today are all running their own projects as part of the Book Apothecary. The first part of the day was looking at text as art and we all made some site specific text based art installations within the studios, an old church, as it was rainng outside.

The afternoon took this work to inform making letterpress pieces – a mixture of printing tecniques from blind printing to debossing and straight up letterpressing.

You can see some of the images here

DEVISING PSYCHOSIS

Devising Psychosis

Printing Again in the Studio

I should say a studio rather as mine is still unusable as a place of print – the papers absorb too much ambient moisture. However i went up to Julia Bartons‘ studio to use her press. When i move studio’s hopefully i will invest in a relief press – having just done a day I have discovered just how versatile the press is and how delicate the prints can be. Here are a couple of early efforts.

I’d never just picked up some vegetation and printed it – i was on a roll

and another

and then i went for something to contrast – some man made mylon rope – i was really surprised by how well this took considering how unabsorbant nylon can be.

And as an extra you get a bit of embossing thrown in for free. Result. Now I just need some more time to play and print.

Welcome to the Real World – Project Space Leeds

Back in the heady days at the end of Summer I was part of a 3 group show at PSL. It was an interesting experience for many reasons. It’s always interesting to see how groups come together and wether they have a common motivation or driver. I was shown as part of the Art House , and curated by Victoria Lucas. The other groups were Rogue Studios, Manchester and a group from Goldsmiths, London. I was really pleased with how WTTRW looked and worked.

I wanted to make something site specific. I took into account the canal which PSL fronts onto and the redevelopment of the nearby area. The past glories of the economic engine and the hopes for the future. The aspect of PSL is such that the sun tracks around it through the day. The two glass walls have an angular confluence which i wanted to make use of. The terms Viscious and Virtuous came to mind. The circularity of the economy, where we are now in its cycle. How inhumane and unjust the world can sometimes seem. So I devised the circular words so that they can be read from the outside but the shadows cast on the floor can be read the correct way round from the inside. The tracking of the sun changes the Viscious Circle into a Virtuous Circle.

I had never worked with vinyl before, and as can be seen I have adopted it for my last 3 projects. I really like its crispness and versatility. This is a cmplete departure for me because I would never have classified myself an artist concerned with an exquisite finish, always happy to have the process marks visible in the work if that occurs.

The photos below are courtesy of PSL.

Dundee Contemporary Arts – Engage Everyone

As the Summer rolled into Autumn I rolled in and out of Dundee. I was engaged, if you pardon the pun, in a residency as part of the Engage Everyone stream. Engage is all about encouraging people to engage, go visit, interact with Galleries and Museums – in this case specifically focussed around disability. I was interested in how the venue affected peoples interaction as a building as well as a cultural space. I took the approach of a psychological investigation. Yes it really does matter to me and how i interact with a space and how comfortable i feel in that space if that wall is actually a door and likely to move. For more on this see the ‘queue’ work below.

Not only was i interested in the space and the building but also the organisation.  How does the organisation deal with disability? As mental health is a particular interest of mine – then how does the organisation behave as an employer towards stress or anxiety or depression for instance – a few of the easier to get a handle on ones first! From my experience as a therapist and group worker in the past organisations can mirror familys – similarly if a cohort of workers feel comfortable around disability issues then this will be reflected in how the organisation deals with disabled visitors. The tricky thing is though – not all disabilities are visible or obvious. Also there is the fear of getting it wrong. I am frequently around various disabilities and yet sometimes when i meet a wheelchair user i have those moments of panic – do i shake hands, do i sit down – have i stood beyond the natural sitting down time – Jackie was great(Jackie Smith, the other artist) she was just directive and up front. Similarly in one of the photos below ia picture of the rear entrance to DCA – which doubles as the diasabled access lift. Please note the small and seedy nature of it. By contrast you could get a 3 piece suite and a standard lamp in the cargo lift. I know the reality but it does say something to me about where the value lies. However to balance that if DCA didn’t want to address issues they would have hired expensive consultants and got a report rather than getting a couple of artists in. So well done DCA on being progressive. The next stage is attending a conference on the findings of this and its sister residencies in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Perhaps the biggest learning for me on a practice level was using the laser cutter and wxperimenting with that. This piece below was inspired by a conversation at DCA

I was so amazed at the detail of the laser. This work will not be shown at DCA but it is a personal favourite. And thanks to Rob in the print room for his endless patience and help.

I was amazed at the detail and contrast possible

I had initially thought  i would print – and indeed i did – it was like learning from scratch again and was fantastic. However I had my head turned by the laser. These are a limited edition print run of icons turned into folded books.

In between in Dundee I had 2 other exhibitions and was working with the British Institute for Human Rights on a pilot project encouraging people to exercise their human rights through the arts. I made a QR code that directed to an Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the engageeveryone blog site

It wouldn’t be Text Art without a bit of text.

And finally those doors.

British Institute for Human Rights

In the lsr few months I have been involved in a project with Arcadea and BIHR on a pilot project trying to encourage people to use the arts to exercise their human rights. As a result of the work undertaken the project had an exhibition at the International Centre for Life. When I was living in Denmark Rosa Luxemburg was very popular amongst the left wing  greens – not that I could ever be as eloquent as Rosa so I went for keeping it simple.

When thinking about making these new works I wanted to emphasise that our human rights came about by people challenging the inequalities they witnessed, refusing to accept the status quo they found unacceptable no matter how difficult that was for them personally. I also wanted to aknowledge the personal responsibility we all have to uphold these rights, I was moved by Rosa Luxemburg, who said ‘Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.’ Essentially we need to be pro-active, empowered to maintain and assert these rights

Salisbury Arts Centre

In December I went to Salisbury Arts Centre to do a talk with Gini and Juan from The View From Here exhibition. It’s strange going to an exhibition where you have work never having seen it. Usually you are there to over see the installation and know how it looks, make a decision about being happy with it, having tweaked, designed, redesigned the show. This time due to budgetary and time constraints I hadn’t had the opportunity to go and install, I had come up with concepts and sent my instructions and intentions to the curator of the show. Then i had sent redesigns and these were passed on in best ‘chinese whispers’ style. Whilst the execution of the text is low-fi I was happy with the hats.

Initially i had sent text to be placed over the stained glass windows of the old church – a new trinity – Ruminate, Gestate, Initiate. Hoever the ambient light just made the text as it was in situ just not workable. The text was moved onto the columns in the cafe.

Salisbury Arts Centre

I have been asked to respond to the exhibition ‘The View from Here’ at Salisbury Arts Centre This is what they say about my work.

Aidan Moesby works mostly with text. Its physical manifestation is as important as the words themselves, made into objects or created fleetingly for site-specific installations; isolated words and short phrases draw you up short, engage you in a dialogue, interrogate their context and throw you back on your own resources. Here he will be making a new work as a commissioned response to the other artists’ work and the setting of Salisbury Arts Centre, scattered words moving the viewer through the space physically, visually and psychologically, and in some indirect way substituting (perhaps usurping) the absent aural and written content of delGado and Bruch’s conceptual postcards

The Book Apothecary

As part of Durham Book Festival I am taking part in the Book Apothecary the travelling museum of Artists’ Books. I have made an assortment of books for the theme of the ffirst exhibition -  ‘category’. The books are housed in an old suitcase four artists are exhibitiong Theresa Easton, Yvette Hawkins and Stevie Ronnie. The  suitcases have modified by Nick James.

The adapted suitcase housing the ‘Nostalgia’ Collection

Detail of  ‘Compulsions and Rituals – The Little Book Of The Kept