Bluecoat Gallery
The first exhibit we looked at on our guided tour around the Bluecoat Gallery was 'Studio Me' by Blue Room an inclusive arts programme where artists meet weekly at the gallery to create work. 'Studio Me' showed work from two artists Joshua Henderson and Veronica Watson.
Joshua is a Liverpool based artist and this comes into his practise often as he finds interest in architecture and the sights he has seen around the city. His exhibit featured paintings on cardboard of Liverpool land marks. Whereas Veronica's work featured a series of pencil drawn portraits. Watson is a self-advocate, speaking out about the rights for those with learning disabities which has a huge impact on her work, including this exhibit as she drew portraits of the people she seen over a certain period of time.
The gallery also had an installation piece by Jade Montserrat, who we had a lecture with a couple of weeks before. It was actually really interesting seeing Jades work in person rather then the documentation of it and listening to her describe it, as I found the work had a completely different impact in person. The installation consisted of large charcoal drawings covering the walls of the gallery with a hand made hut like structure in the centre of the room. A lot of Jades inspiration stems from black culture and her experience of being a black women which can be seen hugely in her charcoal drawings as the words drawn are a combination of quotations and her own writings that she has created due to conversations and everyday exchanges, whether that being via social media or reading. The use of charcoal itself is an importance due it being a sustainable object which is important in Jades practice as well as the use of the strong black against the white walls and even when the charcoal is cleaned of it leaves a trace, which Jade mentioned she found interesting. Throughout Jades work she mentions the use of knowledge as power, this exhibition placed specific emphasis on the novelist Jamaica Kincaid and Ntozake Shange, using there quotations in the drawings and having their books inside the hut like space. The structure in the centre of the room was made to be a safe space for people to come in and use. The space has pillows and blankets placed around to make a comfortable atmosphere whilst it is also full of many books that Montserrat hand selected with the hope that the audience will come to this space, educate themselves and have intimate conversations with others in.
I absolutely loved this piece, the whole entire room had a powerful atmosphere, the charcoal drawings just drew you in, but my favourite aspect was probably the hut structure thingy. The structure created a perfect space for the audience to naturally interact with the piece, To relax in the space or reflect on what they had read either in the charcoal drawings or in the books that where placed in the space. This is something I am extremely interested in and have been practising with in my own work.
Joshua is a Liverpool based artist and this comes into his practise often as he finds interest in architecture and the sights he has seen around the city. His exhibit featured paintings on cardboard of Liverpool land marks. Whereas Veronica's work featured a series of pencil drawn portraits. Watson is a self-advocate, speaking out about the rights for those with learning disabities which has a huge impact on her work, including this exhibit as she drew portraits of the people she seen over a certain period of time. 
The gallery also had an installation piece by Jade Montserrat, who we had a lecture with a couple of weeks before. It was actually really interesting seeing Jades work in person rather then the documentation of it and listening to her describe it, as I found the work had a completely different impact in person. The installation consisted of large charcoal drawings covering the walls of the gallery with a hand made hut like structure in the centre of the room. A lot of Jades inspiration stems from black culture and her experience of being a black women which can be seen hugely in her charcoal drawings as the words drawn are a combination of quotations and her own writings that she has created due to conversations and everyday exchanges, whether that being via social media or reading. The use of charcoal itself is an importance due it being a sustainable object which is important in Jades practice as well as the use of the strong black against the white walls and even when the charcoal is cleaned of it leaves a trace, which Jade mentioned she found interesting. Throughout Jades work she mentions the use of knowledge as power, this exhibition placed specific emphasis on the novelist Jamaica Kincaid and Ntozake Shange, using there quotations in the drawings and having their books inside the hut like space. The structure in the centre of the room was made to be a safe space for people to come in and use. The space has pillows and blankets placed around to make a comfortable atmosphere whilst it is also full of many books that Montserrat hand selected with the hope that the audience will come to this space, educate themselves and have intimate conversations with others in. 
I absolutely loved this piece, the whole entire room had a powerful atmosphere, the charcoal drawings just drew you in, but my favourite aspect was probably the hut structure thingy. The structure created a perfect space for the audience to naturally interact with the piece, To relax in the space or reflect on what they had read either in the charcoal drawings or in the books that where placed in the space. This is something I am extremely interested in and have been practising with in my own work.
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