Print a Secured PDF File

Ran into a problem today that I have never experienced before, I tried to print a PDF file that I had downloaded from the Internet but it would not print. I use Foxit Reader, a plug-in for Firefox to download and open PDF files and hitherto it has always worked perfectly but this time it came up with an error message telling me that the PDF document was secured and could not be printed.

After fiddling about for ages and getting nowhere I resorted to good old Google. After trying a couple of abortive suggestions from various sources I discovered PDF Escape . This is an online PDF editor. When you open the link there are a number of options, I chose the "Start Using (unregistered)" option. Just follow the on-sceen instructions, I browse to the file I needed to upload, it opens in an editor window. I chose the option to Print. My printer dialog duly opened and I printed off the 22 page document. Just for info I always use the fast option and print double sided to save both ink and paper. The document printed off perfectly.

Fine Art Degree Show

The July ArtspOts exhibition will be Urban Decay, work from my 2nd Year Show. There is an exhibition at Blackpool Art College, Palatine Road FY1 4DW from 21st to 26th June from 9.00 to 8.00 Tuesday to Saturday

You can see the work on my Flicker site at the moment.

www.flickr.com digiphotology's Urban Decay Sem 4 Project photoset

The Aesthetic of Ageing and Urban Decay

Well that is almost the end of the 2nd year of my BA (Hons) Fine Art and Professional Practice degree. Work is exhibited for final assessment and just one more tutorial to go.

My work continues to explore process and media with particular emphasis on photography and digital imaging. Drawing on the contextual reference which have informed my work so far, street art, urban decay, layers of history I have researched further into Décollage, Entrécissement and the work of the Letterists. Jonathan Millers book A Scavengers Hoard was particularly influential. His idea of viewing the world as a series of fragments mimicking the optical function of the eye was revealing.

I have continued with the theme of portrait and the concept of “noeme” (what has been). Drawing on the phenomena of Pareidolia – a type of apophenia involving the finding of images in random stimuli. Also the surrealist concept of the Paranoiac-critical method a technique developed by Salvador Dalí in the early 1930s. He employed it in the production of paintings and other artworks, especially those that involved optical illusions and other multiple images.


My work developed two themes, Décollage and Collage. The former took the form of Torn and Incised Poster in a shallow 3D assemblage using simulated posters created digitally and processed to simulate the Benday dot structure of large posters. This I feel was particularly successful. I shall be exploring this theme further. The contextual sources for this work included artists such as Leo Malet and Raymond Hindes.


An additional aspect to my work is a video installation piece. The work explores the duality of still and moving image. A ghostly moving image with a stilted amateurish home movie style provokes memory and nostalgia of a family event against the still ambiguity of an image of decay and the vestige of a ghostly portrait. The changing juxtaposition of the images provokes questions of perception and uncertainty bringing together fragments of memory and recollection. This concept was initially explored in an experimental mixed media collage where a subliminal stencil portrait of a child on translucent tulle material was displayed above a more complex torn poster background.



My work continues to be informed by the philosophy of Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin, Jaques Derrida

Degree Shows

Blackpool, Fine Art, 21st - 26th June Palatine Road, FY1 4DW

UCLAN Fine Art, Drawing and Image Making, 12th - 19th June Hanover Building, Preston, PR1 2HE

Lancaster, Fine Art, 16th - 23rd June, Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster Campus, LA1 4YW

Salford, Fine Art, 4th - 8th June Allerton Studios, Fredrick Rd Campus, M6 6PU

John Moores School of Art & Design Degree Show 28th May - 4th June, 10am - 4pm inc Bank Hol, Art and Design Academy, 2 Duckinfield Street, Liverpool L3 5RD

Hope University Liverpool Summer Arts Degree Show - Fine Art Applied Art and Design 22 - 28th May 10.00-17.00 The Cornerstone, Haigh Street, Liverpool L3 8QB

Manchester Metropolitan Degree Show 19th, 20th & 23rd June: 10am–4pm, 21st & 22nd June: 10am–6pm The Grosvenor Building, Cavendish Street, Manchester M15 6BR

Further info:
www.computerarts.co.uk
http://www.axisweb.org
www.a-n.co.uk/degrees_unedited

Check out my web locations:-
www.alistairparkerart.com
www.artspots.co.uk
arterials.blogspot.com
www.digiphotology.com
www.flickr.com

Exhibition - Four Dark Corners

A new exhibition of photography by Alistair Parker, titled "Four Dark Corners" has opened at The Village Walks Art SpOt, Poulton le Fylde. The entrance to the exhibition space is from the Teanlowe Centre carpark, between the Post Office and Ethel Austins or from Queensway. The exhibition is open Monday to Saturday 9.00 to 5.00 until 29th May 2010.

"Four Dark Corners" is an eclectic collection of fine art images with a distinctly vintage feel. Alistair's grainy, soft focus treatment gives an "old camera" look to the photographs. Each image is contained in the same battered old frame that Alistair picked up in a charity shop, adding to the vintage look.

Alistair says the images remind him of the photographs taken by his mother on her trusty battered Ensign twin lens reflex camera. This is a nostalgic look at some familiar and not so familiar local view points.

Photographs are available for sale. Details on www.digiphotology.com

Create a Blog with Blogger

Further to my talk today here are a few links to help you get started with creating a Blog in Google Blogger. There is also a link to a new on-line website creation outfit called Weebly. I have a had a go and it works really well, just needs a bit of planning before you take the plunge. If you want to register a domain name I use easily.co.uk, they are safe and good value.

http://www.blogger.com
Blogger Tutorial pdf
http://www.weebly.com
www.easily.co.uk

How to Write a Dissertation in less than a minute

In the next few weeks I have to write a 1500 word proposal of next semesters 6000 - 10,000 word dissertation (they can't make up their minds how long).

Below is something I knocked up just for practice, contains 850 words. If you want to know how, nip to the end of the article!

Deconstructing Sontag: The postdialectic paradigm of context in the works of Spelling J. Jacques Reicher

1. Lacanist obscurity and Sartreist existentialism

“Society is impossible,” says Baudrillard; however, according to Sargeant[1] , it is not so much society that is impossible, but rather the genre of society. Thus, a number of discourses concerning neodialectic narrative may be found. The subject is contextualised into a postdialectic paradigm of context that includes truth as a whole.

Therefore, the main theme of the works of Rushdie is the difference between sexual identity and class. Many deconstructions concerning the role of the artist as poet exist.

However, Sontag promotes the use of the textual paradigm of narrative to deconstruct sexuality. Any number of discourses concerning the postdialectic paradigm of context may be discovered.

2. Rushdie and Lacanist obscurity

“Sexual identity is part of the meaninglessness of truth,” says Lyotard. Therefore, Bataille uses the term ‘post semantic de-sublimation’ to denote the collapse, and eventually the absurdity, of capitalist class. Several constructions concerning the common ground between language and sexual identity exist.

If one examines the post dialectic paradigm of context, one is faced with a choice: either reject Lacanist obscurity or conclude that the purpose of the reader is deconstruction, but only if consciousness is distinct from narrativity. But presemiotic narrative holds that reality is intrinsically dead. The characteristic theme of de Selby’s[2] model of Sartreist existentialism is the genre, and some would say the meaninglessness, of subcapitalist language.

“Society is part of the dialectic of reality,” says Sartre. It could be said that the opening/closing distinction depicted in Rushdie’s Satanic Verses is also evident in The Moor’s Last Sigh. The subject is interpolated into a dialectic Marxism that includes culture as a reality.

However, in The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Rushdie reiterates Lacanist obscurity; in Midnight’s Children he denies pre-cultural theory. An abundance of narratives concerning Sartreist existentialism may be revealed.

It could be said that if the post-dialectic paradigm of context holds, we have to choose between conceptualist socialism and the neodialectic paradigm of reality. A number of desublimations concerning the difference between consciousness and class exist.

In a sense, Abian[3] suggests that we have to choose between Sartreist existentialism and capitalist narrative. The main theme of the works of Eco is a mythopoetical totality.

But if Lacanist obscurity holds, we have to choose between Sartreist existentialism and the post cultural paradigm of context. Pickett[4] holds that the works of Eco are modernistic.

3. Realities of stasis

In the works of Eco, a predominant concept is the concept of neomaterialist culture. Therefore, if Lacanist obscurity holds, we have to choose between the postdialectic paradigm of context and dialectic pretextual theory. Sontag suggests the use of Lacanist obscurity to attack class divisions.

The primary theme of Parry’s[5] essay on Derridaist reading is the role of the participant as writer. It could be said that the subject is contextualised into a Lacanist obscurity that includes sexuality as a whole. The premise of capitalist discourse implies that sexual identity has significance, given that the post-dialectic paradigm of context is invalid.

If one examines Sartreist existentialism, one is faced with a choice: either accept the post-dialectic paradigm of narrative or conclude that the establishment is capable of significant form. But Pickett[6] suggests that we have to choose between Sartreist existentialism and cultural libertarianism. Debord promotes the use of Lacanist obscurity to read and analyse narrativity.

Therefore, in Heaven and Earth, Stone examines the post-dialectic paradigm of context; in Platoon, although, he deconstructs Sartreist existentialism. Sontag suggests the use of the post-dialectic paradigm of context to deconstruct elitist perceptions of sexual identity.

However, the example of Sartreist existentialism prevalent in Stone’s JFK emerges again in Platoon, although in a more self-sufficient sense. Sartre promotes the use of the postdialectic paradigm of context to modify society.

In a sense, the main theme of the works of Stone is a mythopoetical totality. If the sub-semanticist paradigm of expression holds, we have to choose between Lacanist obscurity and Marxist capitalism.

Therefore, the premise of the post-dialectic paradigm of context implies that language may be used to marginalize the underprivileged, but only if sexuality is equal to language; otherwise, Sartre’s model of Sartreist existentialism is one of “textual narrative”, and thus fundamentally unattainable. Bataille uses the term ‘precultural sublimation’ to denote the common ground between art and class.

1. Sargeant, H. ed. (1972) The post-dialectic paradigm of context, the modern paradigm of consensus and socialism. University of Michigan Press

2. de Selby, E. M. (1986) The Expression of Dialectic: Lacanist obscurity and the postdialectic paradigm of context. Loompanics

3. Abian, O. A. U. ed. (1998) The post-dialectic paradigm of context in the works of Eco. Yale University Press

4. Pickett, Y. (1987) Textual Discourses: The postdialectic paradigm of context and Lacanist obscurity. Loompanics

5. Parry, Z. D. G. ed. (1973) Lacanist obscurity and the postdialectic paradigm of context. Oxford University Press

6. Pickett, W. (1992) Reading Lacan: The post-dialectic paradigm of context in the works of Stone. Schlangekraft

The essay you have just seen is completely meaningless and was randomly generated by the Postmodernism Generator.

To generate another essay, follow this link.

The Postmodernism Generator was written by Andrew C. Bulhak using the Dada Engine, a system for generating random text from recursive grammars, and modified very slightly by Josh Larios

You can find further text generators here:-

• Adolescent Poetry
• Band Names
• Postmodernism
• Subgenius Brag
• Time Cube

Wasn't that a brilliant find, will save you hours of work and no one will ever know!

Ravages of Time

An exhibition of some of the work from my semester 3 assignment are on show at Village Walks Art SpOts, Poulton le Fylde until 27th February. Further information on the Art SpOts website.

Work In Progress

A new exhibition "Work in Progress" has opened at The Village Walks Art SpOt, Poulton le Fylde, entrance is from the Teanlow Centre carpark between the Post Office and Ethel Austins.

The work on show is taken from my third semester assignment. This is an exploratory/experimental assignment designed to encourage the establishment of a"fine art identity". My work was based on a theme started in my foundation degree, fundamentally associated with perception. I am exploring how far the information in an image can be reduced in the face of increased noise. I took as my motif the portrait of an elderly gent who I call Jack. I photographed him, with his permission, some time ago in the Cafe at Blackpool Zoo. He was recovering from a bad turn on the "Chara" from Burnley, I think it was. However, he has a very characterful face.


Large Tiled Poster (1500 x 2100 mm)

• This started as an A3 size piece of work. A photocopy of the image was varnished and subject to a "Crackelure" finish in black acrylic ink. This image was sliced and enlarged using a piece of freeware, PosteRazor printed as 25 x A3 slices mounted on 4mm MDF.

The idea was to subject the portrait to a range of experimental processes to create a dilapidated, weathered presentation in which the face would, to varying degrees merge with the background until unrecognisable. We had to approach the task initially using painting, drawing and a combination of both. Working in 3D and life size and finishing with a representative body of work incorporating all, some or none of the foregoing. Oh yes and we had to create an animation based on an aspect of this work.

On show at the Art SpOt exhibition are the 3 pieces from my body of work, shown here. The life size work, which was recently on show at the Grundy Art Gallery. A pencil drawn work in the style of Frank Auerbach A spray paint stencil over pieces of torn poster, harvested in Manchester. And a very experimental piece, a stencilled image carved out of painted plaster in the style of the young street artist VHILS (Alexander Farto) who I admire enormously.


Stencil on Plaster (600 x 840 mm)

• The stencil was created from a posterized image, traced onto a ground of plaster painted black. The plaster and paint were scratched back to create the effect, finished by spraying with dilute acrylic paint. The old frame was found in a charity shop and once contained a mirror.
  

This a stop frame animation made of the process of creating the stencil on painted plaster.




Torn Poster Stencil (approx 700 x 900 mm)

• Using a similar stencil to the previous work, the image was created with acrylic spray paint over a background of torn posters, harvested from a billboard in Manchester.

Ravages of Time at the Grundy Art Gallery

A brief Exhibition ‘Work in Progress’ by 1st & 2nd Fine Art Students is currently showing at the Grundy Art Gallery Blackpool until 30th January. This show has been squeezed in between main exhibitions. An opportunity for students to create a gallery based installation.

My contribution is an adaptation of a piece of work I created for my last semester assignment. Based on a large poster approx 8 ft x 4 ft I have created a floor tile piece. Ravages of Time explores the metaphorical connection between urban decay as portrayed by fading and peeling signs, crumbling plaster, torn posters etc. Something so commonplace we fail to notice day today. And the way our elderly citizens become increasingly invisible to those around them.

The work is an enlargement of an A3 size piece which experimented with the combining of a photocopy of a photograph with a crackelure stressed effect created with PVA and acrylic ink. The images was enlarged x 25 from A3 using PosterRazor, freeware which enlarges the image and creates slices in this case each A3 in size in a PDF format. These are printed off and in this case fixed with adhesive to A3 size pieces of 4mm MDF and reassembled as a tiled image displayed on the floor.


Ravages of Time - Alistair Parker

The Ghost Village Project

Check out this short film, a gaggle of graff and street artists who travelled to a Scottish village allegedly built for oil platform construction workers that has been abandoned by all humanity and turned it into an art gallery.


Relatively unknown until recently, when it featured in the media with news of its forthcoming demolition and residential redevelopment, the village of Polphail was created during the 1970s to serve as accommodation for workers employed ont a concrete oil platform construction project to be based at Portavadie.

Despite millions of pounds of government money being poured into the development, both its concept and product were deeply flawed, having been rushed in order to cash in on the oil boom of the the time. The construction yard was never completed and never came close to production. The accommodation was never occupied and never saw a single resident. It did leave behind a hole, which we have seen referred to as the “biggest man-made hole in Europe” (but we haven’t been able to verify this one). The site was abandoned and has lain derelict ever since, and became the subject of a public enquiry.

Portavadie currently serves as the terminal for a CalMac ferry connecting with Tarbert, across Loch Fyne, and has seen a fish farm developed in the multi-million pound hole that was created where the concrete platform legs were supposed to be constructed. A marina opened in the mid-2000s, and a brand new facilities building opened there in May 2009, containing toilets, showers, bar and restaurant. Although there have been a number of proposals to develop time-shares on the Polphail site, none of these ever materialised, but a few holiday cottages have been built nearby.

However, progress was made in 2009, when a plan to create up to 270 home on the site was announced by the owner, and demolition of the original Polphail accommodation was scheduled to begin in following December.

Thanks to media coverage of the development, the site came to the attention of a group of artist known as The Agents of Change. Although they are graffiti artists, this in not a group kids running around with cans of spray paint vandalising the streets and tagging any clean surface, but are well-established artist, and in their forties. Having seen the derelict village in the news, they got in touch with the owner requesting permission to carry out a project in the village, and were pleased to receive a positive response to their enquiry, provided they were prepared to pay homage at hallowed altars such as Elfin Safety.

The arrival of the six artists involved was generally well met an appreciated by most of those who live near the village, who said the artwork made a welcome change from their usual view of the drab grey concrete of the decaying ruins which they have had to look at for some forty years.

Blackool & Beyond - Village Walks Art SpOt

An abbreviated version of my recent Solaris Centre exhibition is now on display at The Village Walks Art SpOt, Poulton le Fylde. Entrance between the Post Office and Ethel Austins.

Inspiration for my work is derived from many sources. I am attracted by the images created by the passage of time and the layers of history that form as a result. Recording vestiges of memories fading into uncertainty.

Blackpool is a town trapped between its history and its future. I have been recording the changing face of Blackpool for many years. I find beauty and inspiration in the fading infrastructure and once glitzy façade. My current work endeavours to capture the feeling of deterioration, dilapidation and decay that lies just behind the flashy frontage. Images so familiar that often we fail to notice them any more.

This work could be seen as a metaphor for the way we view the older members of our community. Something decrepit and insignificant to be ignored, rather than a valuable resource to be respected and cherished.

A reminder of how easy it is to pass-by aspects of our everyday surroundings without even seeing them. This work is intended to provoke thought and ask questions.
The work employs an intriguing mix of photography, digital interpretation and experimental fine art process which results in a unique work of art.

More art at www.alistairparkerart.com

Art History Archive

Came a cross this resource and thought you may be interested, Art History Archive. Lots of links to other archives.

Saatchi School of Art - What the Critic Thought

You may not always agree with the Times TV critic A A Gill, after all he does think he is Jeremy Clarkson with brains! But on this occasion his I found his view of the Saatchi X factor wanabee programme quite amusing. His comments about Duchamps Urinal was particularly apposite. I make no apology for reproducing it in full.

A.A. Gill, Sunday Times 29th November 2009:-

Right, that’s it. I am unilaterally and with prejudice proclaiming an anathema on
R Mutt’s bloody urinal. It’s wheeled out for every feeble-brained, finger-snapping, zeitgeisty art programme as a sort of shibboleth, a totem. I’ve been shown it three times in two weeks, and it was predictably used to explain contemporary art in last week’s School of Saatchi show.

Let’s get something straight about Marcel Duchamp and his pissoir fountain, the Rosetta Stone of all modern art. It was a joke; it wasn’t even shown in a gallery. Duchamp liked puns, funny names and bawdy humour. He is famous for his ready-made found objects, which he placed incongruously — a bicycle wheel on a stool, or a commercial pot-holder. The simple point of the joke is that a urinal in a lavatory is there to be peed in, but a urinal in an art gallery is there to be talked about and genuflected over for a century.

Duchamp was a bit half-hearted about art; it was a hobby, really. He got fed up after a bit and devoted most of his life to playing chess. He even carved his own set, except for the knight, which he had to get a craftsman to do. He did take 20 years to create one last secret piece. It has to be viewed through a peephole. It’s a headless woman with the full Hollywood pudenda, holding an oil lamp in a landscape. You can see it in Philadelphia. Now, no art smarties ever hold this up as an explanation for all of contemporary art, although it is far more disturbing and difficult than the unplumbed bog. Duchamp was rediscovered in the 1960s, when his found objects offered some post-hoc heritage for a lot of artists who were bored with the mechanics of making stuff.

I’ve given you this patronising pocket lecture because I’ve just been patronised for an hour by the judges on Saatchi’s art series. Yes, the young wannabe artists are made to perform like contestants in The X Factor. (They are all Jedward.) This format has already been inflicted, disastrously, on design, with that old singing teapot, Philippe Starck. The obvious difference between performing and making is that one belongs on television as its natural habitat, and the other doesn’t. Art is mostly solitary and a rather mad occupation. There is also a sadder, uncomfortable truth about artists in this programme: they are mostly very, very dim. In fact, being dim may well be a prerequisite for the calling. I say this as someone who has practised as one for most of his life; and I’ve worked in a gallery as an art critic and catalogue scribe. There is something in purely visual creation that works best when disengaged from intellect. The less you think, the more you look, the better. For every polymath Leonardo, there are dozens of thuggish Caravaggios.

The judges in this heightened reality show constantly asked the proto-artists what they thought they were making, and to explain why what they did was art. None of them could form a rational or even coherent sentence. This doesn’t make it a bad programme. Indeed, it’s rather a fascinating one, but for reasons the producers probably didn’t envisage. It is actually a vivid evocation of the reality of contemporary art. It has become all about the polemic: an artist needs to be explained by someone else who speaks the fluent, florid art-speak that is the technical jargon of galleries. This is because the market trusts explanations when it doesn’t trust a brick. Words, you can understand; art could be a lavatory. The answer to “What is art?” has always been: “That which is made by an artist.” To further beg the question, the definition of an artist is: “Someone who makes art.” Those definitions no longer pertain. An artist is someone who is validated by one of the three Cs — a critic, a curator or a collector. Any one of these contestants could be a successful artist, but they would have to be defined by successful judges. So the interesting bit of this programme is the competition between the panel of experts for authority and memorably pithy jargon.

In fact, none of the contestants will become famous artists, because they are the found object. The art is the format; they are urinals. Charles Saatchi is a Duchamp of collectors, a creator who doesn’t create, a performer who never appears. He’s probably at home playing chess. Actually, he’s much more likely to be at home watching back-to-back reruns of CSI: Miami.

Interesting Illusion - "The Afgan Girl"

Came across this on the website Mighty Optical Illusions, took my fancy.

Creating an Artists Statement

As every artist knows or should know, you will not get any where in the art world without an Artist Statement. The problem for most artists is that the flowery, pretentious, obfuscated, prose demanded by the opinion makers in the world of art does not come naturally. Although clearly if my previous post is anything to go by some artists are truly gifted in this department.

Not to be out done I have sweated blood and shed many a tear to produce my own Artist Statement, read on:-

http://www.alistairparkerart.com

Work of Post-Art in the Age of Generative Reproduction

The mind creates, the body reproduces. In the material space, art objects are reproductions of the creations of the mind -- a mind that uses the body as a Zeitgeist to de-construct ideas, patterns, and emotions. With the evolution of the electronic environment, the mind is conceiving a point where it will be free from the body to share immersions into the parameters of the Delphic space. Work of Post-Art in the Age of Generative Reproduction contains 10 minimal quick-time engines (also refered to as "memes") that enable the user to make innovation audio/visual compositions.

measuring chains, constructing realities
putting into place forms
a matrix of illusion and disillusion
a strange attracting force
so that a seduced reality will be able to spontaneously feed on it

---

Alistair Parker's work investigates the nuances of modulations through the use of slow motion and close-ups which emphasize the Generative nature of digital media. The artist explores abstract and deteriorate scenery as motifs to describe the idea of imaginary space. Using layered loops, non-linear narratives, and allegorical images as patterns, Parker creates meditative environments which suggest the expansion of space...

You too can churn out such eloquent bilge courtesy of the The Market-O-Matic Crapometer to be found here.

Seriously if you need help in this department you may find some here, and here.

Where is Modern Art Now? - Blackpool Art Fair!

This week has seen a veritable cornucopia of art programmes on TV. Art on Your Wall, BBC2 Mon; Where is Modern Art Now?, BBC4 Wed; Ugly Beauty, BBC2 Sat and on our own doorstep, The Blackpool Art Fair at the Grundy Art Gallery till January. It was after my visit to the Grundy that the question posed by the BBC2 programme, "Where is Modern Art Now", struck me. If I had thought the BBC programme clouded by obfuscation and pseudo-ism, it had not prepared me for the Blackpool Art Fair. We expect obfuscation and pseudo-ism from art experts such as Dr Augustus Casey-Hayford and Waldemar Januszcack but not from Stuart Tullock.

I arrived at the Grundy on Saturday morning as a privileged preview ticket holder, I had a piece in the exhibition. I was looking forward to an exhibition of the work of Blackpool's artistic best. My reaction, confused and rather disappointed. What did we have here. I walked in the first gallery space to find Blackpool Art Society exhibition sparsely spread over the relatively large wall area. But where was the open exhibition? In the large gallery maybe. No, this space was filled with a strange mishmash of installations based on Blackpool Model Train Society, Blackpool Model Boat Club, Cake Decorating, Knitting, Dog Decorating and a cutting edge avant-garde conceptual art installation by Supercollider (I will come back to that in a moment). Where the hell was the open exhibition? Ah, here they are stuffed into the two small side galleries!

Why? I had trouble finding my A1 size piece of work amongst the mishmash that confronted me. The hanging was 2 to 3 works high, titled with small postal labels typed in 12 point text. Just not good enough for a Gallery of the Grundy's stature. Half an hour later with a crick in my neck and rapidly deteriorating eye sight I still had not found two pieces of work I knew should be in there. As a contributing artist I feel affronted that my hard work should be crammed into a shoe box. Particularly when the rest of the gallery is given over to work which can hardly be considered suitable for an "Art Fair"! What was the rational behind extravagantly hanging the work of Blackpool Art Soc in a huge space at the expense of the Open exhibition?

Back to the beginning, had I missed the point? Was the "Blackpool Art Fair" really one big Post-Post-Modern conceptual nay, avant-garde "Modern" art installation? Was the analist art of the hobbyist (leisure) artist, the hobby sculptors (modellers) the conceptual "true" art (Supercollider Embassy) where modern art is now! Oh, and the work of those pretentious professional and unattached arty types will make up the numbers and help fill the rest of the space!

You have to question what sort of relationship the Grundy Art Gallery is trying to foster with the local art community and the public at large. Why have they chosen to place the polarised art of Blackpool Art Soc and Supercollider at the centre of miss titled "Art Fair". Is this an effort to be even handed? I don't think so, there has to be another agenda. Questions need to be answered! Maybe a clue to the answer lies in one of the handouts I picked up at the "Art Fair" (As I have no wish to embarrass the author)

------------------------------ ---------------------- committed to the dissemination of contemporary arts practice in the town by presenting a diverse and dynamic programme of temporary contemporary art projects. ----------------------------------------------------- is well positioned to provide the community with a forum for intellectual engagement, debate, participation and appreciation. ------------------------------------dedicated to delivering a programme of exhibitions and events which reflects the diverse and dynamic nature of contemporary arts practice, embracing artists at all stages of their careers working with a wide range of contemporary issues and concerns, ----------------------------------will also act as a point of exchange between the audience and contemporary arts practice, providing a dedicated forum for engagement. ---------------------------------- aims to develop reciprocal relationships with other institutions, groups and initiatives. --------------------------------------non-profit, artist led organisation, run by unpaid volunteers motivated by an intense passion for the arts and the cultural development and regeneration of Blackpool. Through the programme of exhibitions, projects and events ------------------------ aims to make an effective and meaningful contribution to the re-development and regeneration of culture of Blackpool.

Obfuscation or what? I clearly need to update my personal statement! Why was there was no reference to Post-Post-Modernism in the BBC2 programme "Where is Modern Art Now" is Blackpool ahead of the game?

Bombin 1987

This documentary was created sometime around 1987 and aired on channel 4. It is a follow up of sorts to the 1984 BBC documentary 'Beat This' which served as an outsiders view of Hip Hop as a new New York sub-cultural phenomenon. Here Director Dick Fontaine returns to focus on the UK adoption of this Hip Hop culture and some of the conflicts created therein. To achieve this, the production chose to focus on Graffiti Art, no doubt because this element had the biggest conflict and issues to explore with its high presence, intrusion and illegality.

In those days Break dancing took centre stage in the UK but wouldn't have provided nearly as interesting debates to explore. After providing such a strong argumentative presence in 'Beat This', Brim Fuentes (TAT) is brought over to the UK as a sort of cultural ambassador of New York graffiti in a string of workshops and informal seminars. He is also put squarely in front of international main stream media's scrutiny. To which they responded in a manner of ways that at best was condescending and at worst was a down right personal attack for being a catalyst to the vandalising of Britain's culture and heritage. From here the documentary alludes to the social implications of ethnicity and poverty, and their relationship with the Hip Hop subculture.

This is where Goldie (of later Drum n Bass fame) as one of the UK premier graffiti artists makes a strong presence in his most notable early television appearance. It's his relationship and 'parallels' with Brim that really play out the rest of the documentary as the two exchange visits to each others home environments in Wolverhampton and the Bronx respectively. The film incidentally captures some of the earliest footage of significant UK protagonists such as Goldie and a pre Massive Attack 3D (not his finest hour here), as well as a noticeably limited Mode 2 and the Chrome Angels appearance at the Birmingham wall commission. However it is debatable that the producers pushed their own inclinations towards ethnicity and Graffiti here, with their focus on Goldie and Brim. It makes for interesting viewing but considering the well documented fact that the culture transcended ethnic barriers in New York and beyond, it can be held up as a particular flaw.

You decide.

Exhibition - Kiln House Gallery

Wreck #15

I have an exhibition of photography "Rot and Rust" at the Kiln House Gallery, Thornton Cleveleys, FY5 4JZ, from 7th November to 1st January.

The Kiln House Gallery is a unique gallery space, connected to Thornton's Marsh Mill Windmill.

Open Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays.

Opening times:
Winter 11am-3pm
Summer 10.30am-4.30pm

The exhibition has been curated by Sue Godsiff. Sue is a second year student on the Fine Art and Professional Practice BA (Hons) degree course at Blackpool Art School.

"I have been photographing the numerous wrecks and rotting hulks that littered the banks of the River Wyre Estuary for over 4 years, remnants of a once thriving fishing industry. During this time, many of these historic remnants have been vandalised or plundered for their scrap content and some have disappeared forever. By recording these remains of the past I hope to at least preserve a memory of them.

If you have any knowledge of the history of any of these remains please post a comment."

You can see this and other work at www.alistairparkerart.com

Exhibition - Blackpool and Beyond

Solaris Centre, New South Promenade, Blackpool, FY4 1BB
8.30 - 5.00 weekdays, 10.00 - 5.00 weekends
2nd to 27th November, Entrance Free

Blackpool is a town trapped between its history and its future, decay and regeneration. Familiar memories, fading signs, torn posters, peeling paint, cracked walls and crumbling façades. Happy memories fading into uncertainty.

The work is intended to provoke thought and ask questions about our history. A reminder of how easy it is to pass-by aspects of our everyday surroundings without even seeing them. The work could be seen as a metaphor for the way we view the older members of our community. Something decrepit and insignificant to be ignored and taken for granted. Rather than something valuable, to be respected, cherished and enjoyed.

I have been recording the changing face of Blackpool for many years. I find beauty and inspiration in the fading infrastructure and glitzy façade. My current work endeavours to capture the feeling of deterioration, dilapidation and decay that lays just behind the flashy frontage.

The work employs an intriguing mix of photography, digital interpretation and experimental fine art process.

You can view my work here www.alistairparkerart.com

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