Institutional Traits (Series 1)

Sarah Bennett installation at Exeter Collage of Art and Design, March/April 2012

Click on images for my thoughts and reactions to this exhibition.

Low quality images from employee photo identity cards have been scanned at a high resolution, enlarged and printed, creating a series of portraits revealing scratches that have been created by interaction with security systems at the workplace and damaged caused by carrying them in, a pocket, a purse, a wallet etc.

The visual representations of the employees have become a map or account of time (or time served) – the electronic data saved on their id cards remains intact. The recognizable features of the workforce have become faceless, leaving our natural verifier of a person’s identity (sight and recognition) irrelevant, the system is only interested in the number or the code identity of the individual.

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Images of Exeter College of Art – March 31st 2012

These are photos of the deserted building in Earl Richards Road North in Exeter the site of the former Exeter College of Art and Design.

The building belongs to The University of Plymouth (which was originally a Polytechnic) with its constituent bodies being Plymouth Polytechnic, Rolle College, the Exeter College of Art and Design (which were, before April 1989, run by Devon County Council) and Seale-Hayne College (which before April 1989 was an independent charity). It was renamed Polytechnic South West in 1989 and remained as this until gaining university status in 1992 along with the other polytechnics. The new university absorbed the Plymouth School of Maritime Studies and Tavistock College.

Exeter College of Art and Design

It was with a sense of great sadness that I walked around my old college’s studios and lecture hall as the final exhibition/installation took place. Meeting old contemporaries there was a pleasant shock after thirty years.

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QUALIFICATIONS:
Postgraduate Certificate from Wolverhampton University in Painting
BA(hons) degree from Exeter College of Art and Design in Printmaking

EDUCATION:
2004-2006 Bristol University
2002-2003 Wolverhampton University
1976–1979 Exeter College of Art & Design
1974-1976 Stourbridge College of Art & Design

Here is another #painting sold

A total of twelve men have landed on the Moon. This was accomplished with two US pilot-astronauts flying a Lunar Module on each of six NASA missions across a 41-month time span starting on 21 July 1969 UTC, with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on Apollo 11, and ending on 14 December 1972 UTC with Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt on Apollo 17 (with Cernan being the last to step off the lunar surface). All Apollo lunar missions had a third crew member who remained onboard the Command Module. The last three missions had a rover for increased mobility.

above image is similar to the one sold

Whatever Happened to the Space Age

Original painting by Peter Bright (aka This Window).

Media: Painting and Screen Print on canvas, signed and dated 2011.

Size: 400mm x 400mm £403.56

ARTIST + S T A T E M E N T …

Buzz Aldrin walks on the moon, July 20, 1969

Buzz Aldrin walks on the moon, July 20, 1969 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As an 11 year old I watched the first moon landing in 1969. I was mad about everything to do with space travel, I would read anything that was about rockets, cosmonauts and astronauts. Later in my life I shook the hand of a man who shook the hand of my all time hero Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, that was for me like touching history, if only secondhand (excuse the pun).

I was rummaging through old boxes of stuff and found the newspaper cutting of an astronaut on the moon – yellowed and faded – it still makes my heart flutter. I wish I’d been to the moon.

‘BOLD and arresting artwork will catch the eye at West Buckland School this month. The striking exhibition of prints, drawings and paintings is by Woolacombe artist, Peter Bright.

In it, Peter revisits images and ideas from his past and re-execute them in print and paint.’

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The ‘audio artist’ had to rethink the whole creative process

How do you make something that has two physical sides have no sides at all?

Compact Cassettes, were the way that home recording artists distributed their ART. Cassettes consisted of two miniature spools, between which magnetically coated plastic tape was passed and wound between them. These spools and other mechanical (physical) parts were contained and supported inside a protective plastic shell. Two stereo pairs of tracks (four in total) or two monaural analog audio tracks could be recorded onto this fragile tape; one stereo pair or one monophonic track is played or recorded when the tape is moving in one direction and the second pair when moving in the other direction – thus creating two sides. Cassettes produced a lot of ‘hiss’ and were a very poor method of  archiving and storing audio. The trick was to get as much recorded volume onto the magnetic surface with out making the ‘music’ distort.

With the conception of downloading audio, the ‘audio artist’ had to rethink the whole creative process.

This is probably my most favorite This Window cassette release. http://www.thiswindow.org/ex1.html

Released in 1989 on a Belgian label it was remixed and is available at most retail download stores. It was always meant to be a composition of two halves – side A and side B but neither CDs or mp3s have sides. The remixes have been split into four sections and when played randomly on a player manage to work. The original concept of two halves has now become one of many plausible combinations – how weird is that? – When it was conceived (by four naked people in a bath) this was not an option.

Music Releases

See This Window the pseudonym of Peter Bright.

All my love Marni

My Grandparents

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