Sunday 17 March 2013

17 / 3 /13.

Brilliant day yesterday..

Day & Gluckman doing a Q & A with me in Lutopia..

Tours of Luton. Tour De Force.

In conversation with Mark Titchner in the studio at Departure Lounge. All 2 hours of it...great turn-out..

UK Decay are coming..

Research & Development over & over..

Thankyou Arts Council England.

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Despair.

I despair. This is the only place to pen this. An art work out of what I'm about to write would be a body blow, a low punch to my beloved hometown. I know we've been married and divorced twice over but now I simply despair.

I despair at the fact that in this, Britain's 2nd biggest town (that means something, surely?), I sit yet again beside a gallery whose sole purpose is to house meetings. Yes MEETINGS. That endemic culture of 'the meeting'. Let's have a meeting? A beautiful, post-industrial, large, welcoming gallery space that is sited at Luton's Hat Factory. The grand old white elephant managed so disgracefully by Luton Culture. In the need for extra revenue, the gallery charges upto £500 a week for shows. So how is that you may wonder? I have no idea. I don't want to know. Successful mis-management I'd say. Directors of creative HQ's - in this case here, too fucking lazy to think outside of the custard cream or 2 point 4 or being a cosy pigs-in blanket-I'm a civil-servant-who-needs-art? style attitude to it's customer: the general public.

In fact I'm fuming.

Other towns do it. Southend  - Focal Point. A shared, intellectual ouput between gallery staff and the Council there.

Libraries get it right. Luton's library is great.

Add this. I printed up leaflets (as one does) advertising two talks at my current creative HQ: Departure Lounge. The talks are this Saturday, writer Sarfraz Manzoor and Saturday 16th, artist Mark Titchner. I sought permission to display these leaflets out on reception yesterday at Lutons creative 'HQ', the Hat Factory. By lunchtime they'd been covered over, moved. Asking why and explaining that with Arts Council help I'm trying to raise a visual arts profile in the town, a receptionist retorted, 'so are we'.

So there you have it. Irony rules. Arts Council England support me to research and develop my practice around all things Luton; raise the profile, just be here, promote local, regional and national art practices through invitation to this project, stage talks, discourse, discussion, outcomes. Yet the actual arts centre here remove any trace of rigorous artistic endeavour.

You couldn't make this up.


Tuesday 26 February 2013

Being Dominic from Luton..presents..
Saturday 16 March 2013, 4.30pm
Artist Mark Titchner will be talking about Bedfordshire, his diverse practice and all things Luton at Departure Lounge, 61 George Street Luton LU1 2AL. 

Free but booking advised:
studio@dominicfromluton.com
http://www.marktitchnerstudio.com
www.dominicfromluton.com
http://departure-lounge.org.uk/news/

Monday 11 February 2013

Being Dominic from Luton..

Saturday 9 March 2013, 1pm.
Sarfraz Manzoor, writer, broadcaster and Lutonian, will be showing and discussing his BBC Commissioned Film, 'Luton Actually' at Departure Lounge, 61 George Street Luton LU1 2AL. 


Free but booking advised:
studio@dominicfromluton.com
http://sarfrazmanzoor.co.uk/index.php/tv_video/luton_actually/
http://departure-lounge.org.uk/news/
www.dominicfromluton.com


Tuesday 5 February 2013

My Dad's Pants at Saatchi HQ

The Saatchi Collection yesterday purchased C-type Print, 'My Dad's Pants' 2013. Thankyou Dad, Charles and BHS.

Being Dominic from Luton

Being Dominic from Luton
Arts Council England supported Research & Development 
21 January - 13 April 2013
Departure Lounge
King Street
Luton

1. Commission four artists to undertake research & development (resulting in artwork; text, audio, live art) about Luton in Luton, resulting in a living archive and presentation at Departure Lounge in April 2013.

2. Commissioned artists:
S Mark Gubb
David Kefford
Nicola Naismith
Damien Good.

3. Invite Sarfraz Manzoor (writer, broadcaster, fellow Lutonian) to discuss, dissect and present BBC commissioned documentary, 'Luton, Actually' at Departure Lounge, March 2013.

4. Work with SNAP (social needs awareness project) to re-produce murals about Luton in Luton. Collaboration.

5. Work with BCA, Bedford. Cafe Alamanac, 23rd February. Artists talks about locality, artists local to Bedfordshire. Place / home. Aaron Head, Andy Holden, me. Me as Paul Young from Luton in rare live appearance. Venue - Studio One Social Club, Alexandra Road. Big hair, big balloons. 

6. Andrew Hunt of Focal Point Gallery to chair panel discussion at Departure Lounge, Saturday 6 April at 1pm around the ACE research & development undertaken in my studio here. Artist talks. Research findings, Luton; Luton post-Vauxhall, London-Luton, Kenilworth Road (a town reflecting it's football club-reflecting it's town). Being Britain's 2nd biggest town. The problem being Luton. Poundland galore. Why did Hamley's leave?

7. University of Bedfordshire. Engagement. Undergraduate & Post-graduate. What's the future for the visual arts here? Where are the opportunitie's? How can we create them? And legacies. Start now.

8. Caroline Wallace / Luton Culture. Ongoing disicussions. Artist Network Bedfordshire at Departure Lounge. My studio.





S Mark Gubb's 'Hold the Front Page'

Hold the Front Page
featuring Paul Young from Luton
www.smarkgubb.com


Monday 21 January 2013

My time.

January '13.

1. Arts Council Award for Research and Development into 'Being Dominic from Luton' from 22 January to 12 April at Departure Lounge, King Street, Luton. Big studio. Big idea's. An old bank.

2. 'Modern Cadaver' at Fort, London. Alana Lake presents / curates. A bonkers show awaits. Thoughts from the 'in your face turn' to the silent scream. The latter prevail. *more than one weaponary in one's arsenal. Dumb dumb it down. Cough, spit. Then more tattoo's. 

3. Tattooing (dead) rats at Into You. Duncan X & Dominic from Luton collaborate. Killed ethically via a taxidermist. So don't come looking.

4. Flags, more of, hand embroidered. In oak. Big statements in black on black. Needle, thread, tube, thread, slight of beautiful hand.

5. Norwich (away) this coming Saturday. Scarf.

6. Maggie in burberry. Fitted for yours truly. On-its-way.

7. Transatlantic dreams come true. I'm curating a project involving the very fabulous Laura White, Peter Lamb and Gavin Turk with Kling & Bang in Reykjavik this July until August. Collaborate.

8. I pick up my half a season season ticket for Luton Town tomorrow. £100 not £400.

9. Eric Rosoman and the Great Central in Leicester want me. A solo later this year (excellent). 

10. A lot of artwork isn't working.

11. Stuff around me is the work. 

12. It's all in the iPhone. 

13. Aid & Abet in the Autumn. A one-dayer. Mic and pa plus Luton van. Impact. Performance. Artists. Documented. Gone.

14. Watch these spaces.