No-one to Bestow by Emma Scutt

A week after the trail has ended, thinking about Emma Scutt's installation at St. Barnabas still makes my stomach tighten up. It was such a powerful piece on a subject and theme that is never tackled but is a weight on so many shoulders. There are portraits that match up to the incredibly intimate stories Emma collected of responses to the want of children, an ideal that we assume as natural to the human life-cycle, but these stories share a horizon of views, tragic to empowering and contentment to conditioning, it really was powerful!

This incredible intimacy takes on a new perception too as she invited anyone to anonymously contribute their stories and hang it up creating this washing line of released secrets and emotions and as you walk and read there is a perception stopping tic from the static clock. I hope you got to catch it and all the other delights at St. Barnabas!

Abstraction and Ceramics at the Water's Edge (no.31)

Right down on marshes I stumbled on this real gem of a exhibition. I hope everyone got a chance to see it. In the front garden is big, ticking, constantly in motion installation by artist Paul Cates, documenting age and how and where satisfaction is in relation. It was a very interesting project, although I didn't catch any of the 2 hour change overs. Round the back were these gorgeous and striking cracked and reconstructed mosaics by Steph Baxter, a fire place of tiles is a rather hooking sight! Her work fitted ideally with the wonderful backdrop of the lake and a serine and calm vibe.   

Inside the house however was my favourite part of the exhibition, and one of the surprise highlights of the trail. You never quite know what to expect when wondering into an open house, but here Paul takes up two rooms exhibiting these really expressive and unstructured canvases. He has been painting for years as a relief, enjoyment and to tell stories and this is the first time exhibited, and it was a real treat. It has the wonderful sincere naivety you get in the best of outside art, and talking to Paul about each painting was as interesting as the work! He was honest and direct about the meaning behind each one, whether it was the atmosphere of a pub or the elderly couple he sees everyday at work. Great work and I hope he exhibits again!

             

Photographs from Japan & Dance from the Middle East and

Photographs from Japan (no.175)

It was a pleasure to meet Paula Smith, because I am sure everyone has met new neighbours on this years trail! Her work she had up were photographs that really blurred the lines between documentation and expression of a recent trip to Japan.

On one level her photographs present a wonderful collage of the Japanese urban and country landscapes, but she holds her camera further and captures in each photo an expression and a feeling, so it is not just a collage of landscape, but a collage of atmosphere.

Egyptian Dance Costumes - Past and Present (no.87)

The variety of this years trail has been so great, I have seen more mediums walking the trail than walking through the South Bank during the olympics and this exhibition is a wonderful example. It was a combination of not just performance, but also an eye-opening display on the development of Middle-Eastern dance. I mean, it is very popular form 'belly-dancing' but who actually knows about the different styles, and how those styles developed through the different cultures and how they collaged with each other. 

The open house was filled with all sorts of costumes from Bedwin to Coptic Christian, and Zara, who organized it all, made clear all the reasons for each costume and how they are used. It was really interesting to hear how the degrees of modesty and explicitness in each culture effected and sculpted each type of dance and how the dance evolved by borrowing from other cultures and bringing it into various ways of life. It was nice to hear it from someone was so passionate about it too.

At 4 o'clock in the garden music would start, the sun comes out and an audience appears for performances of all the varied styles. There was a wicked vibe with everyone all ages enjoying and smiling and it ends in everyone shakin' their hips and joining in!

And the Trail has Ended...Almost

It has been such a buzzing two weeks and a bit full of bright visual vibes, dynamic sounds, crafted textures and even edible smells. It really has been a trail so diverse that it not only filled every one of your senses but I must have seen every medium that art can come in, from really traditional to the experimental and even brand new technological forms. Walthamstow really was bestowed with the fruits of all its creative residents turned inside out.

All the months and months of planning, grafting and organazizing from Laura, Chris, Morag and everyone else who helped putting all the pieces together can reap the rewards and everyone who has taken part can be so proud to be involved in such a unique and diverse huge community art project. However it has been so big this year that seeing it all was pretty much impossible, even if you were totally free, seeing 50% of it would be fantastic, because each exhibition is so welcoming you end up spending a lot longer in each venue! And if you were working or had exhibitions yourselves, you would be lucky if you got to see 30% of the trail, so hopefully this blog can act as a zeitgeist for the trail, a snippet of many exhibitions and events so you can catch up with all you missed.

Kate, Valerie and I have been uploading our little (and big!) reviews, pictures and images through the trail to keep you updated, and even though the trail is now over, the blog still has some life left in it. So keep following it this week for more snippets and exhibition reviews, to see things you missed out on and find things you wish you had seen.

ALSO  Send in your own reviews, images and trail experiences. Share exhibitions that made you smile, really moved you, inspired you or even something you didn't particularly like. 

Send any Guest Blog Entry's too E17ArtTrail@gmail.com

Exquisite Art, Experimental Sculpture & Delicious Crafts

Landscapes and Much More - Group Show (no.170)
A really great show featuring a bunch of really different artists and work, I really enjoyed visiting this venue and I wish I could have spent longer chatting to the artists and soaking in their lovely garden sunshine but the life of a blogger on the last weekend is like Damselfly. Firstly artist Alison Chaplin opens her studio to her more recent ventures into work inspired by our local Epping Forest.

Her paintings are so rich and vivid and have an incredible depth of field. She has really captured that sense of being covered by Epping Forest from all the concrete and smoke of East London. Because it is her open studio, you can also see plenty of her other work such as her portraits and even more commercial and sharp commissions.

Round the back of the garden is a collection of work from artists Beryl Caiger, Paula Caiger and ceramic sculptor Gill Roberts. The work is really cosy and oozes a real warm, crafted glow.

The final artist on show is Rob Lovell, his paintings which he still calls as still developing and expanding are sharp, abstract structures that you can unravel and connect with. They are greatly inspired by the early works of Peter Lanyon as well as to an extent the reproducing of landscape through psychogeography. I really like his style of painting and if he is continuing to develop it I really forward to following!

BGB Presents Sculptures at Cupboardy Mansion (no.134)
Really expressive and physical sculptures that are full presence and process. It is a real mix too and just from having a quick look, I could over hear others each picking out there own personal favourite.

Chapel End Arts & Crafts Association (no.96) 
Photography to weave to the best damn brownies I have ever tasted. The artists and crafters who have their stalls up here are the real place to get some essential Walthamstow gifts, for others and for yourself. My eyes were instantly glued to 'Fish Knits' intricate and skilled ceramic mosaics.

This last Sunday in fact there is a touch of end trail festivities happening here too, from 5pm til 10pm there will be activities for children and a little get together over a drink, some crafts and again I will say, the best brownies I have ever tasted!

Broken Bees, Bugs & Birds. Drawings by Sarah Hardy (no.38)
If you have been to Arts & Crusts you would have seen Sarah's sweet cake of decay in her sugar sculpture of insects and fruit and her wonderful hand drawn wallpaper.

Here she opens her studio space, her individual drawings of death and decay. It is interesting because she was saying how she didn't realize the scale difference between her individual drawings and the scale of those on the wallpaper which is smaller. Somehow smaller, because the intricate detail in her individual pencil drawings are so fine that the wallpaper must have been an incredible task to take out. You can also see alongside her drawings, her collection of dead and withered insects and amphibians that she will be capturing through her pencils. 

Experimental Ceramic Works by Amanda Doidge (no.117)
In these very recent sculptures that are displayed in Amanda's studio space, they walk on a fine line between organic and mechanical. She has been exploring themes of change, metamorphosis, transformation and how these occur whether through force or natural order.  

There are parts where that change is forced and there is a quite aggressive aesthetic, but there are others were tensions are created by natural physics and it looks like it is sprouting organically.

These ceramic sculptures are ones to be looked at for a while and the more you think about it, the more meaning you can conjure up, and this constant transformation of meaning is possibly the sculptures most important success in exploring change.

Henrietta Lynch - your one a day....

Henrietta's project is ongoing daily throughout the trail.  We will update this post as the trail progresses so that the whole project is represented: 

Final installation on September 16th - in front of the hoardings surrounding the EMD cinema.

William Morris - 'so long as the system of competition in the production and exchange of life goes on, the degradation of the arts will go on...' (I added the question mark)

September 15th - Outside the William Morris Gallery

William Morris - 'The past is not dead it is living in us, and will be alive in the future which we are now helping to make'

After keeping us in suspense for a few days, Installation 10 is in now in place.

September 14th - Outside the EMD Cinema. 

Hitchcock - 'The more successful the villain the more successful the picture'

September 9th - Today's piece is in place outside the Bell pub on Forest Road

William Morris - 'The secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in the details of daily life'

 September 7th - On  Forest Road near the William Morris gallery

After Morris - 'useful and beautiful'

September 6th - Corner of Hatherley Mews/BetFred Hoe Street

William Morris - 'Give me love and work, these two only'

September 6th - Outside the Rose and Crown on Hoe Street

Hitchcock - 'Drama is life with the dull bits cut out'

September 5th - Hoe Street

Gil Scott Heron - 'The revolution will not be televised'

September 4th - outside the EMD cinema

Hitchcock - 'Always make the audience suffer as much as possible...'

September 3rd - Outside Walthamstow Bus Station

September 2nd - Outside the William Morris galllery 

Morris - 'I do not want art for a few any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few'

September 1st - outside the EMD cinema 

Hitchcock - 'For me Cinema is not a slice of life but a piece of cake'

Waltham Forest Cycling Tours

The last day of the Art Trail is actually here. There will be lots of people burning their sneakers to try cram in as much art as they can before it all gets turned back outside in. There is a dilemma however, what do you see on your last day!? Well if you can, plan by using the guide and the blog but wouldn't it be great to have a route all planned out for you? Well this last Sunday there is one of the guided bike tours by Waltham Forest Cyclists to take you round and about to venues all over the trail.

They are great for anyone who isn't too sure on what to visit or you can hop on and weave it into your own plans to see even more than you thought! Check out their blog to see what the last couple of tours were like and the trail through cyclists' eyes.

The guided tour will be departing from Walthamstow Library at 1pm.
http://walthamforestcyclingcampaign.blogspot.co.uk