Neoartists are opening a second gallery at Unit V, The Market Place, Bolton, BL1 2AL. The first exhibition, ‘They never saw it coming…’ opens on 30th May. See main website for details.Â
At last there is some good news - we have moved into temporary studio accommodation. The studio address is 28 Corporation Street, Bolton, BL1 2AN. There are ten studios spread over four floors and, although we don’t officially open until 1st June, all the studio spaces are already taken.
We are still in negotiations for permanent premises which will have more space, so if anyone is interested in going on our waiting list - contact us via the main website.
You may have noticed there has been a distinct lack of studio progress recorded on the blog lately. The main reason for that is the economic recession. We have had to rethink our original studio plans to take account of the fact that our members may not be able to afford what we would have to charge to cover the outgoings on our planned studios in Howe Bridge Mill, Atherton.
Algonside that, Bolton Council Development & Regeneration Department have been encouraging us to open studios in Bolton. So we have put the Howe Bridge Mill premises on hold for the time being while we explore opportunities in Bolton which, due to the economic downturn, may now be within our financial reach.Â
Another reason for not updating our progress on the blog is that some of our negotiations can be business sensitive.  So from now on we will continue to keep our members informed via the website, but we will only post progress on the blog when we have something definite to report. Hopefully, that will be sooner rather than later.
The Rationale
I wanted to avoid doing landscapes at all cost. However, the more I thought about it, I realised there is something to be attributed to the humble landscape; as a representation of a destination.
What about the journey?
I wanted to find a way of capturing a journey in a visual context that would ultimately be a purer form of landscape drawing that a highly stylized image of a destination. Some of the principles of pinhole photography apply to the work.
I believe the pinhole technique is a ‘pure’ form of image capture simply because the light hasn’t been interfered with nearly as much.
A 35mm camera relies on sophisticated lenses, reflex mirrors, shutter release and film. That’s before one considers the human eye side of the bargain. The light that eventually reaches the film is distorted and massively interfered. A digital camera more so, what the lens captures becomes code, just a bunch of zero’s and one’s; it takes a computer to make any sense of the image.
THE RESULTING IMAGE, AN IN-ACURATE REPRESENTATION!
The pinhole camera is a light sealed box with a piece of photographic paper stuck in the back, and a microscopic pinhole in the front. The very environment embeds itself into the picture as light and air enter the box and work directly on the photo paper.
My challenge as the artists was to create an image, without working the image directly.
HOW DO YOU MAKE A MARK WITHOUT LIFTING A PENCIL?
This is quite obviously impossible! However, if I could build a tool that would move and draw independently of direct human contact, the idea for the work would ring true.
I started thinking about Newton’s idea that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. I figured that if I could somehow harness the momentum generated by a moving vehicle, I would have a useful way of creating marks. However, the problem remained of how to transfer the momentum onto a drawing medium.
A number of experiments involving bits of string and pencils were conducted, all disastrous.
The eureka moment came whilst doing research at my computer and using the mouse. For a prototype I butchered a broken mouse and glued a length of tube to it, put it in the boot of my car and went for a spin. The resulting marks while not spectacular did show potential. The natural progression was to make a remote vehicle, capable of multiple variations of direction.
The Mk 1 drawing frame with Bogey became the solution to my problem.
THE WORK
Over a period of seven days the apparatus went everywhere I did, spinning around in the back of the car. During that time I catalogued the time spent in motion and distance travelled. At the end of each day the drawing field was reduced, the result being that with each subsequent journey the image would compound; automatically producing a boundary or margin. In this respect the final image is fairly sculptural; with each reduction more is revealed.
DRIFTING THOUGHT’S
As with a pinhole photograph elements of the environment have embedded themselves in the drawing. On closer inspection evidence of water splatter from an open window can be seen. Furthermore, during the seven days the image was in production thousands of people lost their jobs, through no fault of their own.
Hundreds lost their lives.
Then again many hundreds were born and thousands would have found love.
I like to think that the despair of loss could have found its way into the image. And in contrast the joy of hope.
Stuart Rose 2009
Bolton Art Studios are holding their Christmas Open Event on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th December 2008 between 11am and 4pm at Hampson Street, Horwich. From Noon each day, we are running free children’s art workshops, so bring along your kids for a Textile-based fun on Saturday with Jane Flanagan and Claire Barnett.Â
On Sunday, Julia Entwistle and Helen Plester will run a Painting/Drawing workshop. Refreshments are available and you can browse among the forty studios for reasonably-priced Christmas gifts.  Hampson Street is between the B6226 (Lee Lane) and A675 (Chorley New Road). Everyone Welcome. www.bacm.co.uk
