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

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.

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.

]]> http://aidanmoesby.co.uk/welcome-to-the-real-world-project-space-leeds/feed/ 0 http://aidanmoesby.co.uk/dundee-contemporary-arts-engage-everyone/ http://aidanmoesby.co.uk/dundee-contemporary-arts-engage-everyone/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:57:27 +0000 ajmoesby http://aidanmoesby.co.uk/?p=429 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.

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

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.

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 adapted suitcase housing the ‘Nostalgia’ Collection

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