Aidan Moesby :: Text Artist

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

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.

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

Compulsions and Rituals

As part of my DCA Engage Everyone Residency I am looking for compulsions and rituals to contribute towards an art work. I am seeking the C’s from OCD and rituals with obsession. Your contributions will be anonymised. I am attempting to normalise certain aspects of Mental Health. For example – Man locks door leaving house. -  It’s a pefectly ‘normal’ everyday behaviour. However for some it can be a compulsion and represent a significant impairment to daily life.  It goes without saying we are all somewhere on the continuum of good and bad mental health. We all have good and bad days. If you have a compulsion or ritual you would like to contribute please email textartist@yahoo.com thankyou. An example is given below – again this is ‘compulsion light’

The Art House Exhibition

So Wednesday the 28th was the opening of my exhibition. It is tentatively called Everytime I’m in a queue I always imagine what I’m going to say about a hundred times’. This exhibition is part retrospective part new work – site specific or made especialy for the show, The title is taken from a new work regarding my new fictional newspaper which I am working on for my Engage Everyone residency at Dundee Contemporary Arts. This time it is more of an intervention.

As part of the opening – and I must admit it was unlike any I had been too – not the traditional private view. The Art Walk was so people were moving from venue to venue. People also tended to cut through the foyer – which is where many of the works are – and go straight to the studios. At 7 i did the now de rigeur artist talk. This was fine – there were even a few faces in the audience i didn’t recognise. One of the questions asked was if i am moving to be producer cleaner- crisper work – referencing my recent foray into vinyl.  I am enjoying playing with text and vinyl, but i remain of the view that i will produce work which fits the location, space or word the best. I still like being able to see the marks of the process which contributed to the execution of the work. My two new vinyl pieces are in the lift and main corridor of the art house.

Continuing my theme of communication, dialogue and the view that the more connected we are the more disconnected we become – the whole digital/social media diaspora then I am showing ‘Solitary’ in a paired down version without any additional text on the nature of lonliness.

There is always that element of how the work is going to breathe on its’ own. I think there is a good mix or old and new, things in the gallery space and thos site specific and installational elements. I guess that’s my work done on it, I’ve done all I can. Now I am waiting to hear the feedback, see what people think.

Peering Sideways

Exhibition Openings – now there’s a mixed bag of ‘stuff’ if ever there was. One of the most ephemeral temporary works I have ever made -  fleetingly appeared at the Peering Sideways opening on Friday 9th of september. The piece – Draft – was one I had struggled with. I was happy with the idea, concept etc but not the execution. Then I reworked it – it ended up being made of sawdust from the install. So fine was the text and so minimal was the piece that within 10 minutes it had been obliterated. A young girl on a scooter rode through it – i liked that – subtlely adding to it – but the photographer documenting the exhibition maybe should have been more aware – he was the first of many. I can’t really attribute blame. Or Fault. I had been talking to Phil from PSL about maintaining it and how close to sweep to it. We laughed later about the futility of the conversation. I had made an ephemeral piece – just it wasn’t supposed to be ‘THAT’ ephemeral. So yes I was little  dissapointed, upset, angry it didn’t make it through the opening evening. I have to let it go. As i have to let a few other things go from the evening too. The word had been ‘Draft’ perhaps i should have made it ‘Respect’.

Do You Think We Can Talk About This?

I have just installed ‘Do you think we can talk about this?’ at the Centre For Life, Newcastle. It is a collection of pieces which reflect on  the personal and cultural agenda surrounding mental health. It runs for a couple of months. Can we talk about mental health? At once we are fascinated by those perceived as kooky, off beat, crazy and then we tire of them and vilify them and perpetuate the stereotypical images and viewpoints of those living with an enduring mental health condition. I hope we can talk about it, I hope we can get a right good open honest discussion going.

Letterpress. Paper, Acrylic,Text 2010

Brief Statement

A socially engaged text based artist Moesbys’ work is informed through the linguistic and visual imagery we use to create and make sense of the worlds we inhabit. Text based installations explore the conflict within the personal and cultural agendas of our Cultural and Psychological heritage. He utilises a variety of media, technologies and approaches in order to realise the artwork yet the text and its imbued meaning is always paramount

Framing of the Work

Aidan Moesby utilises metaphor to provoke a re-evaluation of what it means to experience psychological conflict. The work references the ‘Personal’ and ‘Cultural’ worlds. It explores the preoccupation with the ‘Pop’ psychology of the disposable ‘low brow’ visual media culture which offers the empty promise of 15 minutes of fame through simulated catharsis.

The work has everything and nothing to do with his own experience of Bipolar Disorder. We all experience the highs, lows and ennui of life. To some extent we have lost our sense of Self and our Integrity. Validation is sought from others rather than from within. We yearn for vicarious fulfilment, the projected phantasy, the glossy dream, the ‘quick fix’ down on ‘Easy Street’. We do not wish to look at or acknowledge our own psychological fragilities, and very often we do not wish to attend to those fragilities of others lest we catch them.

Aidan attempts to explore the frailty of the Human Condition in all its’ imperfect splendour. He mines a rich and complex vein of written and visual language in an effort to gain an understanding and awareness of how we can make sense our place in the worlds we create. Ultimately he acknowledges that we are in a state of constant flux and the work remains to inhabit the often subtle, fragile and dynamic boundary between the conflicted continuum of ‘ease’ and ‘dis-ease’.

Mirror. Text. 2004