Here is the recent Arena poster that I designed for the Anna Ketskemety exhibition Trip Through My Window.

The link below lead to an interesting article in The Times late last week arguing the case for iPod’s on the front line in Afghanistan. The iPod and the idiosyncratic nature of the uploaded content that dwells in the devices, Patrick Hennessey insists,  is vital to ensuring the mental stability of soldiers on the front line, provoking memories of particular times and songs identified with home, friends, lovers and horrendous pop songs.

Although at first glance it may appear to be verging on the ridiculous, the similarities between the points brought in this article and the role of music in making work are strong. I used my iPod (until the volume and restore option broke leaving me with one Bruce Springsteen album on excruciatingly loud after a salvage test went horribly, horribly askew)  when making work, listening to specially concocted playlists that transformed the hours carving wood into a therapeutic exercise.  The mindset that music can create is just as valid from being a bus driver, a jogger to a solider or even an artist.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6726747.ece

As well as being my birthday, it has been a busy start to this supposed summer month. July started with an Angie Hiesel live art performance Twins at the A Foundation, a major live art commission. I was very interested in the emotive responses that the performances tapped into ranging from the visceral qualities of each pair of twins to the undeniably erotic to the harrowing. Interesting.

Fast forward a few days and to the Whitworth in Manchester attending Marina Abramović Presents...a four hour durational performance consisting of numerous artists in situ across an empty Whitworth. If it was an exhausting commitment to the viewer to remain switched ‘on’ for four hours (with the aid of complimentary Rich Tea) I couldn’t help but admire the stamina of the physical nature of the majority of the works. I was captivated by Terance Koh’s piece in the main hall,  moving with slight grace,  stillborn but completed impervious to time and the nature of the human body. Set the tone immensely.

Last week we held the opening of our second exhibition at Arena Gallery, Trip Through My Window a solo exhibition by Anna Ketskemety. Anna’s work really has developed over the past few years and I nearly enjoyed seeing the work in the rebuilt space as much as I enjoy our thoughtful discussions on objects and sculpture.

I am a featured artist in this month’s Blankpages Issue 13. Blankpages is the online magazine from Blank Media Collective, which looks at current art, music and cultural works. Follow the link below;

http://www.blankmediacollective.org/blankpages

Blank Media are a forward thinking arts collective based in Manchester who produce numerous events, gigs, magazines and web based activites. Check them out on their website.