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Study visit: Judy Chicago et al STOP PRESS also visiting the Brunei Gallery - The Open College of the Arts

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Study visit: Judy Chicago et al STOP PRESS also visiting the Brunei Gallery thumb

Study visit: Judy Chicago et al STOP PRESS also visiting the Brunei Gallery

This is a post from the weareoca.com archive. Information contained within it may now be out of date.
 
On the 7 March we will be taking a group of OCA students (very relevant to all visual arts students, textiles, painting, drawing and visual communications students especially welcome) to a lively exhibition in London: at the Ben Uri Gallery in St Johns Wood.

Study 1 Caterotica Judy Chicago

It promises a rich voluptuous experience: tracing the lines to her work from three other artists working is overlapping forms. Drawn from the Judy Chicago’s personal archive and from public collections in the USA the work is contextualised for the first time with work by Louise Bourgeois, Helen Chadwick and Tracey Emin, three distinguished European artists, each of whom has addressed similar issues in her own distinctive fashion during the latter part of the 20th century/early 21st century.  Here is a link to a great video of Judy Chicago talking about her exhibits in the show. Thanks to John Umney for providing the link.
Since we have discovered that the Ben Uri exhibition is small we have added another gallery visit into the mix.  The Brunei Gallery exhibition is at SOAS, part of London University. It is close to Russell Square. Its called World Eco Fibre and Textiles Art (WEFT).It is described on the website as exploring the three dimensionality of Textile Art through installation and sculptural structures and shows how Textile Art can be considered as a another genre of Fine Art . It shows  contemporary work  from International artists from 35 countries (but  mainly from the Middle and Far East.) It seems that the emphasis  is on exploring inherent textiles techniques  and materials  in new ways as a materials based approach to express ideas. This is in sharp contrast to Chicago and Emin  etc, who as fine artists use fairly conventional textiles as media to express conceptual ideas, so could provide the opportunity for some good comparative discussion.
The study visit will start at 11 am and finish at around 3pm. Please contact enquiries@oca-uk.com for a place.


Posted by author: Jane Parry

24 thoughts on “Study visit: Judy Chicago et al STOP PRESS also visiting the Brunei Gallery

  • Easy there, OCA… I get these weareoca updates as RSS e-mails – thank god my six-year-old wasn’t standing behind me when this came in…

    • Hi Stuart
      I have made the images smaller. Anyone who wants to see the detail can click on the image to see it full size.

  • I’m not in favour of censorship, but that doesn’t mean I have to go any see the work anyone trying to make a name for themselves by any means whatsoever. I’m not about to validate such prurient, bizarre and weird obsessions by attending, and not convinced that OCA should be lending credibility to it. Are there no better exhibitions you could encourage?

    • We don’t get many chances, especially in this country, to see this type of work exhibited by these quite important artists, certainly not in a collective sense. I’m looking forward to seeing the work and being challenged as an – other – as I fully expect to be. Whilst Judy Chicago is still alive, she is well into her eight decade, her name well made I think. Chadwick and Bourgois have no need anymore to try and make their names given they have passed away which leaves dear Trace’ as an emblem bearer scratching to make her mark.

  • I remember when I was a student that Judy Chicago’s ‘Dinner Party’ came to Edinburgh. There was a chance for students to apply for some invidulation work. I went to the interview but was not offered a stint. Not sure what I did wrong… Anyway, I thought the installation was fabulous. This has spurred me on to looking it up.

  • I also saw the Dinner Party when it first toured the UK – the concept was very of it’s era, but despite that / because of that (delete applicable), it was an amazing piece of work > I’ve still got the book somewhere. I think this could be a very interesting exhibition!

    • Like Pam (31 Jan) I have the book somewhere and am encouraged that Judy is still pushing our boundaries. Is not OCA’s role to encourage students to do this? Whilst not able to see the exhibition, am fascinated at the response it has generated. Seems to be some generational trip wire here.

  • ‘I’m not about to validate such prurient, bizarre and weird obsessions by attending, and not convinced that OCA should be lending credibility to it. Are there no better exhibitions you could encourage?’
    As the person who organised this visit and most of the Fine Art study visits (Jane Horton) I must say that I think there is just as much reason to arrange a visit to this show as others. OCA attempts to get as wide a range of exhibitions to offer as student visits across a wide geographic area, its a challenge!

  • My opinion is that Tracys work provokes a reaction and makes us all think about things we skip over usually and don’t contemplate,therefore instead we repress ourselfs,when it would be healthier to talk about such things. I thought she re-itterated John Lennon when she did the neon sighn, “All we need is Love”, and the staying in a bed, well yes we all need to escape reality for a while when we can not face things.I feel, and it only my opinion,that she is a lonely sole that does the type of art she does mainly because adverse attention is better than none.

  • I simply love this ‘type’ of work, it stimulates my brain and then in turn my creative juices… I would love to go to the exhibition but am scared of a new place and getting lost.

  • I have been to the Brunei Gallery show, if only very briefly, and think that is definitely worth a visit, so since the other show is small (I have not seen it nor do I particularly want to) don’t be put off the visit altogether.

  • Yes I’ve seen the Brunei gallery exhibition too and thought it was excellent, especially for anyone doing Textiles 2 and interested in dyeing, batik, ikat, stitch, using natural materials . . . etc. Perhaps, though, its a different interest group from the other exhibition. Maybe not the best pairing.

  • I really do think that artists and particularly art students should go and see every exhibition they possibly can, particularly exhibitions of more or less contemporary work. It is vital to know what is going on in order to properly appreciate your own practice and the possible reaction of others to it. Making a priori judgements about the work on show just not on the spirit of being a student; it is immaterial whether you like the work you see, much more important that you see it, study it and try to work out what it is all about.

  • what a shame it is on a Thursday and I have to work. I would have loved to go.Some time back I did a study on Judy Chicago and all the research was fascinating. I think you cannot study any form of art and not study her and other artists like her.

  • It is a shame they did not bring in the work of the other great pioneer of female identity and American contemporary of Judy Chicago- Mary Kelly, whose groundbreaking art of the seventies onwards explored the fusion of the ‘feminine’ role of motherhood and the ‘masculine’ one of making art. She confronted the role of prejudice head on by making her role as a mother the subject of her work.

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