Talk at NN Contemporary Art

NN Presents: Talk by Sarah Sparkes, at The University of Northampton, Avenue Campus

NN presents a talk by researcher, artist and curator Sarah Sparkes, to coincide with their current exhibition Guests and Hosts. Sparkes will be presenting her research project, GHostings, which aims to address the various roles ghosts play in contemporary culture.

Researcher, artist and curator Sarah Sparkes has been presenting GHostings since 2008. GHost aims to address the various roles ghosts play in contemporary culture by bringing artists, writers, curators, researchers and others together. TheGHostings have taken place in ‘haunted’ locations including Senate House, St John on Bethnal Green and more. Sarah will be talking about her research project and answering questions from the audience.

Date: 30 January 2013
Start time: 2pm
Admission: FREE (No booking required)
Venue: The University of Northampton, Avenue Campus, Saint George's Avenue, Northampton, NN2 6JD.

T: 01604 638944 (NN)
E: catherine@nncontemporaryart.org
W: www.nncontemporaryart.org
http://www.nncontemporaryart.org/exhibitions/guests-hosts/

'Theatrical Dynamics' Opens 19. Jan

left: Remember.  THE END.  2012 Hand stitched banner in satin, silk and blackout felt 58inches x 55inchesRight: The Host Ghost. 2013 Mixed media installation - sizes variable

I'm showing two new works created for the group show Theatrical Dynamics, curated by David Leapman at:

Torrance Art Museum

Torrance Art Museum 
3320 Civic Center Drive 

LA

California

USA

Opening reception Saturday, January 19th, 2013, 6 to 9 pm
On view Tuesday, January 22nd - Saturday, March 9th, 2013

Open Tuesday - Saturday

From 11 am - 5 pm

FREE ADMISSION

Closed Sunday, Monday, and all major holidays

Torrance, CA 90503 

Bringing together a group of artists concerned with the way our brains copewith the desire to create emotional and psychological forms.


Participating artists:

Neil Gall                           
James Rielly
David Leapman
Vincent Hawkins
Stuart Elliot
David McDonald
Mark Dutcher
Lee Maelzer
Sarah Sparkes
Hannah Schwadron
Mike Pratt
Daniel Sturgis
Heather Gwen Martin
Marsia Alexander Clarke

Naida Osline

Douglas McCulloh 

CHAR Lecture Series

CHAR Lecture Series presents:  

A Panel: Theatrical Dynamics

with Stuart Elliot,  David Leapman, Hannah Schwadron, and Sarah Sparkes

Moderator: Harmony Wolfe

Thursday, January 17, 2013 @ 7 pm 

doors open at 6:45 pm

4196 Chestnut Street

Riverside, CA 92501

the event is free.

light refreshments, byob

CHAR Lecture Series presents a panel in conjunction with the

forthcoming exhibit Theatrical Dynamics. Artists featured in the show

engage in a lively conversation winding through an investigation of a

mobile understanding of the term Theatrical Dynamics, making

exhibitions, and the formation of the artist-curator, amongst other

anchoring points.

Stuart Elliot is a London-based artist who has shown work at The

Curator's Egg Altera Pars, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, and Object

Lesson, SPACE, in London. He has also had a solo exhibit at HOTEL.

David Leapman is an artist based in Riverside, CA. Has exhibited his work nationally and internationally since the early 1980's, including the Venice Biennial, Serpentine Gallery, ICA and the Royal Academy. Leapman is associated with the Young British Artist, (YBA) his work is in the Saatchi Collection and is featured in the publication Shark Infested Waters, The Saatchi Collection of British Art in the 90's. He is also the first prizewinner of Britain's most prestigious paint award The John Moores. His work is included in many public and private collections worldwide.

Hannah Schwadron is a PhD candidate in the Critical Dance Studies

Department at UC Riverside. In combination with doctoral research,

Hannah has presented original dance theater on related themes.

Sarah Sparkes is an artist and curator living and working in London. She runs the visual arts and creative research project GHost and has curated GHost exhibitions for the London Art Fair and Folkestone Triennial.  Between 2009 - 2012 she was an Affiliated Research Fellow at the School of Advanced Study, University of London where her research centered on the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature. Material from this research will be published later in 2013 in The Ashgate Research Companion to Sociocultural Studies of the Paranormal.

Harmony Wolfe makes objects and performances working from memories of

landscapes real and conceptual. She is the curator of the CHAR Lecture

Series.

About CHAR:

CHAR is an ongoing series of experiments in which artists, theorists,

and other cultural producers share ways of making and knowing. These

experiments are presented in the domestic sphere as a re-staging of

contexts for cultural inquiries.

The CHAR Lecture Series is a branch of CHAR, functioning as a platform

for the display and expression of ideas, politics, practices, art, and

other fascinations. It seeks to build conceptual and material

affiliations between conversations, imaginations, and individuals. The

speakers present their work and their diverse perspectives, and invite

the audience to participate in critical discussions. The model of

sharing and reflection through dialogue reconfigures parameters of an

artistic community. CLS manifests through performances, screenings,

lectures, and makings, thus transforming the ways we consider art

making in relation to experience.

GHost IV: Presence and Absence

GHost IV: Presence and Absence

curates by Sarah Sparkes

Read more on the GHost Blog

VENUE

St. John on Bethnal Green

200 Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9PA (next to Bethnal Green tube)

December 6^th 7^th & 8th

An exhibition and series of art events exploring the desire to materialise what is absent via the medium of haunted landscapes or through the manifestation of a ghost. Works have been selected in response to research seminars, held earlier this year, at UOL. The exhibition will feature audio visual installation plus a programme of performances and artists film screenings all sited throughout this atmospheric John Soane Church of St John Bethnal Green.

The winter nights are long and dark and the church's stone floors breathe out cold vapours. Wrap up warm, or bring a blanket . Wander around the vestibule, belfry and gallery, haunted by manifestations of moving images, interventions and performances and entwined with the smell of incense. Then settle down in a pew and cast yourself adrift in the films and sounds of haunted landscapes, haunted seas.

Warming winter drinks will be served.

Programme

December 6th 6.00pm – 9.00pm

First Thursdays Opening Night: Exhibition of audio-visual installation and performances throughout the venue and continual screening of Haunted Landscapes, a selection of artists short films, in the nave .

December 7th 6.00pm – 10.00pm

Adrift::

The nave of st. Johns will play host to a programme of live soundscape performances and film screenings including an edited show reel of international films, “Haunted Sea” first shown at Folkestone Triennial 2011. Exhibition and performances throughout the venue.

December 8th 2.30pm – 7.30pm

Exhibition of audio-visual installation throughout the venue and continual screening of Haunted Landscapes, a selection of artists short films, in the nave

7.30 – late: GHost selects John Carpenter’s The Fog for Phantasmagloria Film Night (note: there is an entry fee for the Fog screening – more details here)

A Travel Guide to Camberwell - launch

I am proud to have two of my paintings included as illustrations for the  publication, 'A Travel Guide to Camberwell'.
The launch is at The House Gallery in Camberwell, November 28th, 7.30pm - 9.00pm.

"the lion tamer meets his end" Sarah Sparkes, 2012

My painting, 'Chutney Preserves 4: the animal fair' –  inspired  by  Sidney Shepherd's. 'The Camberwell Fair' circ. 1850' will be featured.  

Detail of "Chutney Preserves 4:The Animal Fair" Sarah Sparkes, 2010
you can see the whole painting here

Also included is a new work, made specially for this publication, ' "the lion tamer meets his end".   This painting will illustrate my mate Scott Wood's text, 'Fortean Camberwell', a wonderful collection of weird tales which make me proud to live in Camberwell.  
Scott will be leading a ghost walk around SE5 on the launch night.  You can also take part in an unwrong quiz and take away your very own copy of the Guide.

Details of the launch:

"Deserter's Camp 2012" Nunhead Open 9

Details of "Deserter's Camp 2012", wall paper pyramids and sand. Installed in the cloakroom of the old community centre, Nunhead.

I was invited to make a site-specific work for the abandoned community centre in Nunhead as part of the Nunhead Arts Festival.  I first became acquainted with this amazing space in 2009 when I was artist in residence there for Nunhead 6, and created the work "Deserters".  A film showing part of this work can be seen here: 
 
"Deserter's Camp 2012" continues the narrative  theme of abandonment and a missing community and combines these with a response to intriguing architectural elements – a series of imposing pyramid ceilings – that crown most of the spaces in the community centre.

 "Deserter's Camp 2012" was one os several artist's projects performance interventions, film and video taking place alongside the main Nunhead Open 9 open exhibition at the Old Community Centre 7-9 September.

Artists:
Sarah Christian, Daniel Lehan, Sarah Doyle-Khan, Tisna Westerhof, Rachael Haines, Hatty Lee, Beris Blake, Peter Asgaba, Calum F Kerr, Miyuki Kasahara, Sarah Sparkes, Brian Mckenzie, Theresa Bottomley, Ludwig Ramsey, Harriet Hill, Linda Barck and more.

Live Art Hide and Seek - Artist Frog Morris will be performing hidden inside a cupboard during the opening night of the exhibition. Can you find him?

Mikey Georgeson - "Museum of Unfiltered Reality".

The Communist Gallery T.V - Work that questions the current political, economic and social circumstances

Artists films and video curated by Louise Colbourne and Jim Hobbs "Cut Up" with Jeff Keen, David Blandy, Ian Helliwell, Katy Dove, Louise Colbourne and Shelly Parker, Mordant Music, Zoe Brown, James Richards, Jim Hobbs and Dennis Mcnanny (Conudndrum)
Programme approx. 60mins

Open: Friday-Sunday 12-5pm
Opening Party: Friday 7 September 6-8pm

The Old Community Centre
56 Nunhead Lane
Nunhead
SE15 3TU
map
http://thesurgery.turnpiece.net/

Camberwell Arts Festival 2012

"Camberwell Tourist Information" 

My painting "Chutney Preserves 4 - The Animal Fair"  was printed as an edition of postcards and banners for Camberwell Arts Festival 2012.  This was part of an on-going project, "Camberwell  Tourist Information" celebrating Camberwell's weird and wonderful history and current attractions through the eyes of 9 invited artists. The postcards were available, for free, at venues around Camberwell and the banners were displayed along the railings of Camberwell Green - they were still there when I passed by recently.

My painting, "Chutney Preserves 4 - The Animal Fair" is a copy of a painting by Sidney Shepherd, made in 1850, depicting revellers at the great Camberwell Fair.  I repainted the people as animals of the kind performing at the fair and to create a flyer themed for the annual performance event I curate for Camberwell Arts Festival - The Chutney Preserves.  Chutney Preserves 4 took place in 2009. 

This year, 2012, saw The Chutney Preserves return for the sixth time with "Chutney Preserves 6 - the Puppet Games".  You can read more about it here.  

Here is my painting in banner form, hanging on the railings of Camberwell Green.  Where you can also see the work of Farah Bajull, Sarah Brigland, Godfrey Donkor, Sarah Doyle, Mary Evans, Garudio Studiage, Daniel Lehan and Derek Mawudoku.

The Camberwell Tourist Information Project will manifest at a later date, in the form of a publication - I'll be contributing a section on the Camberwell Fair.