Sun, Sea and Socks! - Paul Gent
Artist Paul Gent imagines Loughbohemia, currently landlocked, as it might be if global warming and the melting of the ice caps continues.
Paul Conneally
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Loughborough by the Sea - Paul Gent
Sun, Sea and Socks! - Paul Gent
Artist Paul Gent imagines Loughbohemia, currently landlocked, as it might be if global warming and the melting of the ice caps continues.
Paul Conneally
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Artist Anne-Marie Culhane - Fruit Routes Harvest 2014
Artist Anne-Marie Culhane during her Fruit Routes Harvest Back to Back walk with fellow Simone Kenyon at Loughborough University.
Paul Conneally
Loughborough
October 2014
Monday, October 13, 2014
Lean Times - Consumption and Production: Art and the Politics of Food
Lean Times
Consumption and Production: Art and the Politics of Food
November 1 & 2
2014
Independent School of Art
West Street
Penryn
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Barefoot Blindfold - Choreographed by Birdsong
The blind man's guide,
Meek and neglected thing, of no renown!
Soon will peep forth the primrose, ere it fades
Friends shall I have at dawn, blackbird and thrush
To rouse me, and a hundred warblers more!
from 'The Recluse' by William Wordsworth
Artist Paul Conneally during his and Anne-Marie Culhane's Barefoot Blindfold piece at 5am on Loughborough University Fruit Route.
Eleven were slow walked by Anne-Marie Culhane into an orchard section of her ongoing Fruit Route work at Loughborough University to take part in Culhane and Conneally's 'Barefoot Blindfold.
Participants chose a fruit tree sat against it and were blindfolded in order to foucus their senses away from the visual for the the first half hour and then still in slience to spend the next half hour without the bliindfold recording their emotions / reactions to the fruit route at dawn.
Conneally invited them during the blindfold session to allow the sounds to choreograph the movements of their upper body and arms. This is a short section filmed by Miriam Keye of Conneally being choreographed by nature in fact by birdsong.
This is only a small part of the whole of Barefoot Blinfold but offers perhaps opportunities to explore the idea of being choreographed by nature further in other works to come. Perhaps we already are.
Sunday, September 28, 2014
The Right Change
I pull up to the bumper of an old Ford Fiesta and reverse a little. Open the car door a smidgen, lean out and check that I'm parked inside the bay line. The offside rear tyre is just touching but it'll be fine.
It's warm for the end of September.
Students back for the new term stroll in sweatshirts and tees towards and from the University.
Toadstools growing at the base of a sycamore tree.
The first pay-station machine is 'not in use' so I walk a hundred yards up the road to the next one. I read the regs and rummage through my pockets for the right change.
Indian summer
the sun and six coins
in my palm
Paul Conneally
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Café Nero - A Fly Stirred In
Café Nero - Humberstone Gate - Leicester
Paul Conneally 2014
Millions of people enjoy a cup of coffee in one of the hundreds of Café Nero outlets across the UK. The company styles itself as a European style coffee shop which is quite appropriate given that it has set up a holding company in Luxembourg, and you can't get more European than that!
The upshot of setting up such a holding company means that Café Nero can by a complex web of borrowing from its own Luxembourg holding company write off any liability for corporation tax in the UK.
This has caused consternation from many people who feel that although perfectly legal it's somehow immoral to not pay what they feel is a fair whack in tax to the state. Starbucks, the American coffee shop giant, has come in for similar scrutiny.
The truth is, like it or not, these companies pay the tax that is legally due from them. They also employ thousands of people and contribute huge amounts in VAT returns, National Insurance contributions from workers and local business tax. While ever the tax system allows this then no right headed business is going to pay more tax than it has to. And why should it?
Well the argument could be that they go out of their way to find any loophole in the tax system that they can that brings them benefit at the expense of the public purse and so compromises the National Health Service, Education, and the wider social fabric of the UK.
You have to decide for yourself where you sit on this argument. Do you yourself pay more tax than you have to? Do you want to? Maybe it's the government that needs to act to change tax laws, close so called loopholes? Perhaps if we looked more closely at how our tax is actually spent, including huge amounts on defence, we might find even more to actively campaign on around tax collection and it's uses.
Personally I have no great love for corporate chains of any kind. I'd much rather buy a cup of coffee and homemade cake from a local independent café or tea shop while I still can.
afternoon tea
a fly stirred in
with the sugar
Paul Conneally
Leicester 2014
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Brutal Beauty - Lee Circle Car Park - Leicester
The brutalist rotunda double helix concrete Lee Circle car park in Leicester, is a beast of a building.
Today, in the late September sun, it purrs more than roars and takes on a kind of beauty that I haven't clocked before.
Only one of its spiral roadways, the Blue route, is now in operation and it is rarely full.
Drivers choose to park the other side of the city centre, nearer or even in, the modern Highcross shopping complex.
lengthening shadows
the pigeon's coo melds
with a car alarm
Paul Conneally
Leicester
2014
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Monday, September 22, 2014
the past shows us that difficulty is no excuse for dejection
'the past shows us that difficulty is no excuse for dejection'
Involuntary Painting
Paul Conneally
Leicester 2014
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Concrete Mining Helmets
Concrete Mining Helmets - Snibston Discovery Museum
Photo: Paul Conneally 2014Friday, September 19, 2014
The Astral Body Of The Earthly Form Finally Separates From It
'the astral body of the earthly form finally separates from it'
Involuntary Painting
Paul Connneally
Whitwick 2014Thursday, September 18, 2014
Voluntary Victim Of An Illusionary God
Voluntary Victim Of An Illusionary God
Involuntary Painting
Paul Conneally
Whitwick 2014
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Macramé For Beginners
World matters make me feel that Macramé for Beginners is ripe for reiteration and so it's begun.
Last night in the relative quiet of a small town superstore the screens lit up with Mother Goose as she told her tale of weaponry, words, class struggle and religion.
knots in string
the sound of artillery
and prayer
This session lasted 13 minutes before the electrical department sussed what was on their bank of flat screens and closed down the show.
Tomorrow's another day.
Paul Conneally
September 2014
Macramé For Beginners sees Mother Goose meet Marx and Engels.
Macrame For Beginners caused controversy when Conneally managed to install the video without permission on to the master DVD player of a large national electrical retail store.
The piece was seen and heard on a bank of 26 in store for sale TVs for 48 minutes in the busy retail park store before staff realised that it was not the Cartoon Network and turned it off.
Macrame for Beginners is available for installation and public viewing both in outside, gallery and other locations.
--------
Macramé or macramé is a form of textile-making using knotting rather than weaving or knitting. Its primary knots are the square knot and forms of hitching (full hitch and double half hitches). It has been used by sailors, especially in elaborate or ornamental knotting forms to decorate anything from knife handles to bottles to parts of ships.
Macrame For Beginners caused controversy when Conneally managed to install the video without permission on to the master DVD player of a large national electrical retail store.
The piece was seen and heard on a bank of 26 in store for sale TVs for 48 minutes in the busy retail park store before staff realised that it was not the Cartoon Network and turned it off.
Macrame for Beginners is available for installation and public viewing both in outside, gallery and other locations.
--------
Macramé or macramé is a form of textile-making using knotting rather than weaving or knitting. Its primary knots are the square knot and forms of hitching (full hitch and double half hitches). It has been used by sailors, especially in elaborate or ornamental knotting forms to decorate anything from knife handles to bottles to parts of ships.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Morning Dew
I've never been very clubbable.
This extends to political parties which in a sense are just as much clubs as any other.
Nightclubs, for the most part, aren't clubs because you don't actually have to be a member to gain entrance.
Wear the right shoes, pay your dues and you're in.
morning dew
a cloakroom ticket
stuck to my face
Paul Conneally
Loughborough
2014
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Just Like That
Some call it the 'Vintage' market others the 'Antique' but much of it is more akin to bric-à-brac, a slightly elevated white elephant stall state of affairs.
I say this with affection not spite, for the Friday Loughborough town market, we'll call it vintage, has its own charm and is well worth a visit, a mooch around.
In quiet times, when custom is scarce, it's good to listen in on the stall holders' banter as they joke and do trade deals with each other.
just like that
a toby jug pirate
changes hands
Paul Conneally
Loughborough
2014
Friday, September 12, 2014
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Escape from the coils of the great serpent of illusion
'Escape from the coils of the great serpent of illusion'
Involuntary Painting
Paul Conneally
2014
Monday, September 08, 2014
Sheltered - RIP ROBBO
Sheltered
We pass the old tram shelter
every time we go to the match
Just like us this tram shelter
has never seen a tram in Leicester
Donated to the city in 1934
by hosiery magnate Robert Rowley
It never served its purpose
the tramline never built
Over the years it's been a place
for couples to canoodle
Teenagers to huddle
spray paint messages
Windows smashed it offers
no respite from the wind
Plans have been submitted
to turn it into a coffee bar
Council officers think it's maybe
a good way to make money
More than a disused building
this is a landmark
Leave it be
Sunday, September 07, 2014
Rite Of Passage
his rite of passage
a freezer full
of mother's fruit pies
Verse 3 from the Acorn Bank leg of our Full Bloom Renga.
The a Full Bloom Renga followed the blossom moving through England's orchards from The Mother Orchard at Cothele House in Cornwall to Acorn Bank in Cumbria over a period of three to four weeks.
Full Bloom renga was conceived by artist Anne-Marie Culhane with Paul Conneally, Alec Finlay and Jo Salter for The National Trust, 2010.
Friday, September 05, 2014
The Quick Way - Anne-Marie Culhane and Paul Conneally 2007
The Quick Way
A twelve verse Junicho renga in the season of Summer, 16 June 2007
Barracks Lane Community Garden, Oxford - from the renga archive.
A black bucket
filled with redcurrants
making jelly the quick way
there are many reasons
to celebrate
the magistrate offers
a road safety course
instead of a fine
rail track closed
due to snow
my phone is full
of your messages
which one shall I erase?
Barracks Lane Community Garden, Oxford - from the renga archive.
A black bucket
filled with redcurrants
making jelly the quick way
there are many reasons
to celebrate
the magistrate offers
a road safety course
instead of a fine
rail track closed
due to snow
my phone is full
of your messages
which one shall I erase?
on the horns of a dilemma
finding it difficult to rest
bent double
a pair of students seek mushrooms
lit by sunset
we bring my geraniums indoors
together
in the east end
a line of bulldozers
moves through an allotment
this is my home
I lie flat beneath a vast sky
by the light of the moon
a frog sings
in a puddle
rain drenches
buds and blossoms
Anne-Marie Culhane (master poet)
Paul Conneally (host poet)
Catherine Naysmith
Oonagh Desire
Jo Salter
Dave Jones
Jenny Stanton
Anita Joice
Joseph Conneally
Colin May
Becky Didlick
Gaby Hock
Wednesday, September 03, 2014
Stride
'Stride'
Paul Conneally
Leicester 2014
A fan on the way to Leicester City versus Arsenal in the Premier League August 2014
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Moving Away From The Pulse Beat
'Moving Away From The Pulse Beat'
Paul Conneally
Loughborough
August 2014Saturday, August 30, 2014
Afternoon Lull
afternoon lull
the taxi driver finishes
his summer book
Paul Conneally
Loughborough
August 2014Friday, August 29, 2014
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Mother Orchard - Wordsearch Landscape - Cothele House
In addition to wordsearch portraits of people in particular spaces, places and time my splacist practice also includes a number of wordsearch landscapes.
These started off as colour coded works similar to the wordsearch portraits but soon came to include works such as the wordsearch landscape of the Mother Orchard, at Cothele House in Cornwall. Essentially it's a standard wordsearch, here made up of the names of all the different apple tree varieties in the Mother Orchard. The work is then printed up in large format, A0 or A1, and placed in a public area, near or in the space itself, with coloured pens hanging around it for visitors to use and circle words they find, so completing the landscape. Some people choose to add their own texts or doodles too. These are all welcome.
The wordsearch landscape can be taken down and replaced as they get 'finished'. For instance we might choose to replace it every day (complete or not) or some other time unit might be used, each day the same printed wordsearch landscape but completed in different colours, by different people, each one now a finished interacted wordsearch landscape.
Smaller versions can be provided for people to take home and complete by visitors.
Mother Orchard was part of the work I did as part of the Full Bloom Renga for the National Trust with artists Anne-Marie Culhane, Jo Salter and Alec Finlay.
Here's 'OLYMPIC' which is a wordsearch landscape of the London Olympic Development Site made up of words written by participants in the Renewability Haiku Hike that I led through and across the Olympic Development Site as the first digging started. It was installed on the floor of the Mile End Arts Pavillion.
Paul Conneally
August 2014
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Overboard
The ferry from Calais to Dover is a functional vessel.
Don't expect frills or luxury save the slightly cut price booze and perfume in the onboard gift shop.
Don't expect frills or luxury save the slightly cut price booze and perfume in the onboard gift shop.
Most of the travellers midday on a summer weekend are tired and frazzled after a long drive through France on their way back from their annual holiday.
The bar is full and usually only one till will be working.
The toilets smell faintly of vomit.
mid-channel
a little girl's Barbie
goes overboard
Paul Conneally
Monday, August 25, 2014
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Friday, August 22, 2014
Shrouded in Steam
a street seller
shrouded in steam
takoyaki
Paul Conneally
Painting: Two Octopi by John Singer Sargent
This Summer Grass
in the moment
between palette and canvas
this summer grass
Paul Conneally
Photo: John Singer Sargent working en plein air
Thursday, August 21, 2014
A Permanent Wave
The Coiffure, ca. 1770, German, Ludwigsburg Porcelain Factory
just a few highlights
and a permanent wave
for the weekend
Paul Conneally
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Tunnel Talk with Maurice Maguire
'Maurice' - New Century Works, Maguire and Conneally (2012 - 2015)
In 2011 as Transform Snibston took shape I spoke with artist and cultural geographer, Maurice Maguire about the tunnels spreading out and to Snibston Colliery, now the site of Snibston Discovery Museum.
Tunnel Talk was the resulting podcast: Tunnel Talk
Take a listen and then take a trip to Snibston.
Paul Conneally
August 2014
And She Walks
'And She Walks' Paul Conneally 2014
A devotional work appropriated for Notre Damme Cathedral, Reims, France.
'And She Walks' is part of the ongoing series of appropriated involuntary art works 'I Con'.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
On Leaving Calais
'On Leaving Calais'
After a month in France we drive on to the P&O Ferry at Calais for the crossing to Dover.
A worker in a luminous jacket, hard hat and ear protectors, guides us to park just inches from the car in front and those on either side of us. Getting out is a contortionist's trick.
Up the stairs from car deck five and find somewhere to sit. It's about a ninety minute journey and the captain, via the muddy sound system, tells us that conditions in the English Channel are calm. My stomach smiles.
Yes it's calm but grey. This said the port of Calais, even in bright sunshine always feels a little grey, a little faded as does Dover where, with one blast on the ship's horn, we now set off for.
channel ferry
we capture four seats
and head for the bar
Paul Conneally
The English Channel
2014
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Not Quite Cocktail Time
not quite cocktail time
a few more minutes of heat
on the promenade
Paul Conneally
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Le Kiosque Offenbach
Kiosque Offenbach, Les Arcs sur Argens, France
The term Kiosque or in English, Kiosk, is an interesting one and throws up images and memories of ticket booths and ice-cream huts. Small semi-permanent looking sheds which are open on one side for the purpose of selling goods or giving information, that's what kiosks are for the most part to me.
This kiosk, the Kiosque Offenbach in Les Arcs sur Argens in France, is more like the kiosks that the word's Turkish origin, köşk, describes, a building in a garden or park with a roof but with open sides, a little more like what we might call a large gazebo perhaps. Kiosque Offenbach reminds me more of a park bandstand than anything else and of course that's what it is. The clue is in its name, Le Kiosque Offenbach, named after the composer of the Can Can, Jaques Offenbach.
Jaques Offenbach
Some time ago Gavin Wade introduced me to the modernist kiosks of Berthold Lubetkin in particular the kiosks he designed for Dudley Zoo. They are very different to the Kiosque Offenbach. Gavin along with fellow artists Simon Bloor and Tom Bloor has recreated versions of Lubetkin's Dudley Zoo Kiosk and installed them at various sites. Tom and Simon in a statement say:
"Kiosks are a wonderful invention. You can live your life the geometric way framed within a diametric ellipsoid composition designed to make things better”
In 2008 Gavin, Simon and Tom worked with Nils Norman to make and exhibit 'Kiosk No.5: Kite Kiosk' at the Folkestone Triennial. Here it is:
So let's salute the kiosk in all it's forms from garden pavillion to bandstand to retail outlet!
Long live the kiosk!
Paul Conneally
Les Arcs sur Argens
2014
Monday, August 11, 2014
Friday, August 08, 2014
A Stranger's Hand
Salle Jacky Mathevet, Lorgues, France
cinema
a stranger's hand
on my thigh
Paul Conneally
Tuesday, August 05, 2014
Sunday, August 03, 2014
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