I attended the Leeds Art Walk which started at 5.30pm at the Audrey Burton Gallery, A Discipline of the Mind: The drawings of Wilheimina Barns- Graham.
The exhibition was curated by Mel Gooding for The Pier Art Centre in collaboration with The Barns- Graham Charitable Trust. The mood here was really quiet people were arriving late because of the snow so it wasn't a very settled atmosphere.
The show was a series of drawings from Wilheimina's early work. The drawings and paintings were hung in different ways depending on the size and weight of the images. Some of the images were in normal black frames and were hung with simple picture hooks. Others, the more larger ones were hung from two long wires running up the wall. And others in frames were hung using two screws and hooks on the frames then painted over in white. There were two plinths both had glass boxes on top that were not lit and was just normal glass but were slotted into a lip on the plinth so the plinth framed the glass. They plinths were just lit up by the electric lights that were already in there and there was no natural light in there. The paintings and drawings were a mix of drawings of Lanzarote's volcanic landscape and drawings of the British countryside. The drawings were very simple kind of childlike some of them. I can appreciate that she recorded what was around her but these images were not to my taste. The talk Leeds University gave us was very academic and formal which I didn't expect. Also you could hardly hear the lady speak as she was really quiet.
The Art Walk at 6.15pm then moved on to Leeds Art Gallery with the woman running the art walk leaving most of us behind when she set off without telling us meaning we missed the talk at Leeds Art Gallery. The woman taking us round was not very organised at all. Leeds Art Gallery had a very unexciting feel as there was only our group there, there was no real energy in the room. At Leeds Art Gallery we saw the Northern art Prize which was a vast range of different works ranging from video, drawings, paintings and sculpture. Foe some of the video pieces boards had been put up and TVs had been mounted on them with no wires to be seen. The larger piece which was of a gig filled a whole room to give the experience of being at a gig. This piece you could see no wires as far as i could tell. It was very dark in there from what i could see the wires were hidden behind the wall. I loved this piece was amazing. In another room there was a range of plinths which had been lit up by the lights above it having stronger bulbs put it to really light them up. I didn't particularly like the pieces in this room, the work was a bit pretentious for my liking with the pieces such as two pencils shaved right down another piece was of an ash tray with a diamond in it. These pieces just didn't feel like allot of effort had gone into them in my opinion. The drawings and paintings that were hung up were hung with screws and and painted over to match the walls.
We then went on to the Howard Assembly Rooms: Janet Cardiff: Voices: The forty part Motet.
Here it was really over crowded and the lady giving us the talk was really quiet and I couldn't here what she was saying. But because it was so busy and because it was a Private view then it was really buzzing everyone was very excited. We walked in the and the room was lovely, polished wood that shone in the soft lit room. There was a circle of 40 speakers at head height. It was quiet, then slowly different instruments and voices started coming through the speakers working it's way round the room. It was beautiful the room really fitted the piece. The piece was designed so you could listen to an individual speaker and listen to one person as if a conversations was happening. The atmosphere was amazing people sharing the same experience in the same space. The speakers were all connected by wires on the floors, and all round the room in certain sections the wires were covered in black rubber so no one would trip on them. And black tape was placed round the speakers feet to show people where they were. But i did see someone nearly knock over a speaker taking the rest with it.
I loved this piece it was really relaxing and had a very good atmosphere.
Overall the Art Walk was poorly run, the organisation was not good and I don't feel that they showed the best of what was going on in Leeds now. 3 locations didn't really cover it. But the final stop at the private view was amazing I really enjoyed it.
