Good News Exhibition - OVER: Protest Banner

I am taking part in ‘Good News’, an exhibition of site specific and performance art, which will take place in Alexandra Palace Park, London (in the vicinity of the Lakeside Café). The exhibition opens on Saturday 23rd May and is open daily until Sunday 31st May, 10am til 5.30pm. The private view is on Saturday 23rd May from 5pm til 8pm.

I have created a new piece of work for the exhibition - ‘OVER: Protest Banner’ – with which I will be performing a solo March, circuiting the lake. The banner will also be on display in the park throughout the show (and the weather).

I will be marching on the following dates:

Saturday 23rd May (during the private view) at 5.30pm
Wednesday 27th May at 11am
Sunday 31st May at 5pm

Please note – my banner will not be in the exhibition on the first day of the exhibition until 5.30pm, when I will perform my first March with it.

The banner is inspired by Suffragette textile banners and, in the context of the recent G20 protests and the death of Ian Tomlinson, is intended as a reflection on the role and meaning of protest. The banner is a development of my more ephemeral text pieces, and features an ambiguous statement – ‘OVER’ – which is intended to be open to various interpretations, to allow the possibility of political and also more personal inferences, and so to reflect on our relationship to protest. I envision the solo march with the banner as a contemplative act for myself, and hopefully a spectacle that will animate the banner and its message. The banner will inevitably endure much weather during the time of the exhibition, and will therefore betray something of its use and history by the time of the final march.

Transport to Alexandra Palace Park:
Overground Train to Alexandra Palace (e.g. from Kings Cross or Old Street station).
Or the tube to Wood Green.
Then take the W3 bus towards Finsbury Park and get off at Alexandra Palace Ice Rink.
The lake and Lakeside Cafe is 5 minute’s walk from there.

Handkerchief Show at Cecil Sharp House

Here are some installation shots of 'Flash Company: A Handkerchief Show at Cecil Sharp House' (see my previous posts for more details). There is a catalogue of the show on the Flash Company blog, where you can see full details of all the work.




Clockwise from top left, handkerchiefs by: Gwen Brunton, Adam Rompel, Matthew Cowan, Gail Burton, Bishi & Giles Pearson, Sam Lee, Mami Fujita, John Lawrence.


OVER: Protestation Handkerchief, by Gail Burton



Flash company....been the ruin of me, by Bishi & Giles Pearson



Handkerchief from the series 'love spray', by Matthew Cowan.

Killimangina by Serena Korda






Untitled handkerchief by Clare Qualmann




'One thing. Anything. Two things. Many things.' (A playground chant recorded in Bethnal Green in 1972 by Mike Talbot.) by Mike Berners-Winters.











Brown Spotted Mouse by Billy Childish.

Over: Protestation Handkerchief

I made this Protestation Handkerchief for a group exhibition called 'Flash Company': a handkerchief show at Cecil Sharp House, curated by Matthew Cowan. The exhibition is open from 30th April 2009 until 28th June 2009. There is more information about the exhibition on the Flash Company blog. The English Folk Dance and Song Society news page also has information about the exhibition, and EFDSS generally.

Unfolding 'Over: Protestation Handkerchief'

Balaclava Women and Other Portraits

A selection of my drawings and paintings - 'Balaclava Women and Other Portraits' - is currently being exhibited at Bishopsgate Dental Care, 36 Spital Square, London, E1 6DY (phone 020 7377 6762)

My recent series of drawings – the Balaclava Women – are portraits of women wearing balaclavas and other head coverings (see blog entries below). I’m interested in how women conceal and reveal themselves, and the cultural ambiguities of wearing a headscarf, hat or balaclava. These portraits are drawn with pencil on ‘Rips’ cigarette papers – I use this ephemeral and fragile material, at a tiny scale, for many of my drawings as it underlines the intimacy and vulnerability of the subject matter. Also represented at Bishopsgate are two drawings from my series of Suffragette Portraits, a subject that, for me, resonates strongly today, particularly in the violence conducted with and to women’s own bodies. Two miniature oil paintings of women with bird-feather-like hair and downcast eyes simultaneously attract our attention, but also exclude us. My work explores an ongoing interest in portraiture used to convey the conflict between our public and our hidden, inaccessible interior life.

Portrait eyes down (blue), oil paint on board.




Portrait eyes down (red), oil paint on wood.




Anonymous Suffragette, pencil on paper, framed.




Anonymous Suffragette (blue), coloured pencil on paper, framed.

For pictures of the 'Balaclava Women' exhibited at Bishopsgate Dental Care see my earlier posts of 'Balaclava Women', or click on the label 'balaclava' in the label list.

Recriminations/Menacing Napkins

I made a set of ten Recriminations/Menacing Napkins for Hovel, Michael Curran's new project. In the aftermath of Hovel's inaugural event, The Birthday Party, (during which my first set of ten Menacing Napkins were distributed/destroyed/grubbied with cake) artists returned to the space to deposit and install new work for the forthcoming Hovel Exhibition.
You can see my first set of Menacing Napkins on earlier blog posts, and more images of Hovel events on my flickr site

Nothing Left Napkin

You've Had It Napkin

Take It Away Napkin

Over Napkin

That's The Last Slice Napkin 2