late shows

may in newcastle means two things; rain and the late shows.

this year more than 50 cultural venues opened their doors for newcastlegateshead's late night culture crawl receiving around 30,000 visits between them.

to see event photos click here

calling all whistlers!

can you whistle birdsong? do you know anyone who can?

i need to record audio of humans imitating british wild birds for the early stages of a new project.

i've managed a quite convincing great tit and had what i thought was an engaging conversation with one in the park. however after a week of torturing my cats, it turns out i'm not a gifted whistler.

the birds listed below are links to the rspb website and audio clips of their song.
blackbird
magpie
robin
wren
jay

if you or anyone you know can do a half decent rendition of any of the above, or any other british wild bird, please get in touch.

info@sarahblood.com

muchas gracias!

coalesce

pink happy thoughts  steven whitehill

the group exhibition at london glassblowing gallery is extending its exhibition date to the end of the month. coalesce will now be open to the public until saturday 3rd of march 2013.

this has been a great show to be involved with and a fitting start to what is shaping up to be a busy exhibiting year.

coalesce artists:
sarah blood
vanessa cutler
catherine hough
peter layton
bruce marks
james maskrey
timothy rawlinson
amanda simmons
cathryn shilling
steven whitehill

testing... testing...

in an attempt to keep on top of/catch up with my blog, i've downloaded the blogger app on my phone. so to test how much i can do with it, here's some of what i've been up to today:

installed sn;afu into its new temporary home at the northern design centre, gateshead. seen below next to the get carter coffee table by raskl.

collected foam for the orders of cariboo that are due for shipping at the end of this week.

ok, going to press publish. fingers crossed!

super-natural 2012

scrying mirror with 'tituba' projection

this time last year i was working with newcastle based artist sneha solanki on her project super-natural.

inspired by the crossovers between synthetic biology and witchcraft, solanki spent time as artist in residence working in the emerging area of 'synthetic biology' at the centre for bacterial cell biology, newcastle university. here she spent a number of months developing synthetic life from atcg data, enzymes, proteins and chemical reactions.

the findings of this research were exhibited in super-natural at vane gallery as part of the av12 festival 2,804 still images of the created life were animated and viewed though a scrying mirror. 

for the project i made a large fused and etched scrying mirror on which a timelapse microscopy was projected. i also distorted a collection of scientific glassware which was shown as part of the installation.

installation view

manipulated scientific glass and scrying mirror with projection

shelving with manipulated glass

exhibition photography: lindsay duncanson and colin davison, courtesy of av festival

catching up

as usual, life and work have been busy and as usual the blog gets repeatedly bumped off my 'to-do' list.

so far 2012 has been a year of changes, the most significant being a studio move! after seven years at mushroom works, in march this year i moved to 36 lime street studios, in the heart of the ouseburn valley. although i miss my fellow 'shroomers, the new studio is a lot bigger and far more suitable for my kind of mess making.

the new studio had it's first public opening during the late shows in may, where there was fire, wine and neon cake a-plenty.

happy new year!

after almost 3 weeks break over the christmas holidays, the first week back in the studio was a little bit slow, to say the least. this week i'm getting back up to speed and have a whole bundle of exciting plans for coming year.

a good start are two lovely articles featuring my work.

the first is australian vogue who have a feature on works made with neon, which include my traveling light alongside lee broom's bright on bistro and membrane cube big by austrian design collective foruse.

the second is a lovely review of my work in perspective, an art, design and lifestyle blog written by elisabetta gatti. to view click here 

i've never been accused of kidnapping poetry and magic before. i think i like it!

seasoned greetings!

so you might have seen this image around and about recently. it's definitely in every supermarket in the land (and beyond) and i have it on good authority if you're on the london underground the posters are everywhere! 

i mentioned in an earlier post, #ldf'11 part one that cariboo was spotted by 'someone' during the exhibition in tent, part of the london design festival. the spotter was sarah tildesley, food stylist for none other than jamie oliver who asked to borrow them for the magazine shoot. after falling a little bit in love with them they decided to feature cariboo in the christmas show too. there is a lovely interview by georgia levy currently on the jamie magazine blog. jamie does look good in my pink neon antlers, but then i think everyone does!

jamie's christmas with bells on  

episode 1: wednesday 14th december 2011

9pm on channel 4

episode 2: tuesday 20th december 2011

9pm on channel 4

for information regarding prices and shipping of cariboo or any of my work, please contact me through my website.

wishing you a very merry christmas!

neon + vinyl

one of the highlights of the year has been my involvement in the neon + vinyl exhibition, plus art projects' alternative frieze show in october. curated by kerry ryan (neonist), declan mcmullan (artist) and jessica temple the exhibition showcased a wide range of creative talent working with media traditionally associated with street level advertising and industrial processes. it was incredible to have my work shown alongside new works by tracey emin, sarah lucas, gavin turk and franko b amongst others.

and of course the frieze week party was uber cool, with live music and an impromptu dj-ing spot by gavin turk we were dancing until the wee small hours.

photography: rory gardiner and david thompson

image 1: (left to right) stik - lovers. amanda eliasch - self portrait. sarah blood - object specific.

image 2: (l-r) peter lamb & paul hosking - although rare, they do exist. dingbot mclatchley - centre of the universe. sarah blood - object specific. gavin turk - the observing eye.

image 3: (l-r) john close - allonge. tim bromage - cheshire cat. stik - lovers. sarah blood - object specific

image 4: (l-r) 100% beefcock and the titbusters, morag myerscough - the king
image 5:  the frieze week party

image 6: kerry ryan - warning. 

#ldf '11 part two

the second exhibition at london design week was lux craft at origin. i was very excited to have been one of ten artists who work with light selected from 280 applicants to exhibit at lux craft.

the piece i created for the exhibition was an extension of light matter an installation i made earlier in the year. admittedly with hind site it may have been a little ambitions given the tight installation schedule, but i've never been one to be content with an easy life. the piece, white on white, was to be two sections of white neon, intersecting 10 suspended porcelain spheres. the two sections loosely entwining as they descend from above as if dancing. setting my goals just higher than i should usually serves me well (if you don't count the sleepless nights) but on this occasion the combination of ambitious new work, complicated hanging system, rushed install all amounted to breaking one of the sections of the piece.

these things happen. when you work with a fragile material such as glass and neon, you have to develop a pragmatic approach to breakages... and make plenty of spares. on this occasion though, i could have done with spares for my spares.

through my work i am interested in combining the seemingly fragile with the seemingly robust to question the definition of strength and permanence. it can sometimes walk a fine line between working and not. it's great when it does work, but when it doesn't you just have to learn from it and keep going. white on white was certainly a steep learning curve and i think i've just about ironed out the glitches, so that next time it's perfect.

#ldf '11 part one

to whoever, forever 2011

cariboo! 2009

duck! 2009

sharkbait wallpaper by kate usher

designed and made stand at tent_london 2011

london design festival was exciting and inspiring this year. installing new work in two different venues on the same day was certainly er...... educational! but with the help of my glamourous assistant, we managed to get everything installed in 12 hours straight and with only one hiccup.

at tent the designed and made stand looked great and everyone's products looked good on the stand. i was really pleased with my new piece for whoever, forever (top image) and kate usher's sharkbait wallpaper was the perfect background for my green neon duck! i also showed my pink neon antlers, cariboo. they featured on the design event stand at 100% design futures last year, where they were spotted by a designer at jack wills, and are now adorning a number of newly refurbished stores throughout the uk and hong kong. this year, they were spotted by someone else....... but more on that in another post.

london design festival 2011

the past few weeks (months) have been a blur of activity, take out food and not enough sleep, but i'm very exited to be launching two different bodies of work in two venues this year.

at tent london i will be exhibiting on the designed & made stand h09/h15 where i'll be showing a new wall based piece influenced by old sailor tattoos, the most recent addition to my production range, want it!

i'll also be installing a site specific neon and porcelain sculpture as part of lux craft at origin. inspired by lux: the measure of the intensity of light that hits or passes through a surface, as perceived by the human eye, the piece also draws inspiration from elements, compounds and molecular structure.

images of new work to follow shortly.... but in the mean time, come to the festival and say hello.

light fantastic

earlier this week, i installed four pieces of work for light fantastic, the new exhibition at broadfield house glass museum. other artists exhibiting are keith brocklehurst, richard wheater, sharon foley and tracey emin.

if you're in the stourbridge area between now and the 19th of february 2012, you should check it out. you won't be sorry!

light matter

light matter is the most recent commission for creative cohesion studios, in the regenerated sunnyside area of sunderland.
the sculpture was made from white argon filled tubes, handmade porcelain globes, with a single streak of red neon. it takes inspiration from the molecular structure of carbon, the element that unites all living things in the known universe.

the video documenting the installation of the piece was produced by mynamesdan and comprises of 1739 individual photographs at two frames a piece. photographs were taken during and leading up to the installation and include some making processes and a tractor, that somehow found it's way into the river tyne just outside my studio.

to see the light matter video, click here.

while light matter is a permanent installation, this week is the last chance to see banish the blues. the exhibition features my new and recent neon and mixed media works, alongside comic book art by p.r.e.s.s. and runs until saturday 26th of feb at creative cohesion.

100% design

i've been looking at my ever growing list of 'to do's and noticed that i've been bumping the 'update blog' bit for a week or two. as usual working, sleeping, eating and the in-between bits have been getting in the way of blog time. i have a (very disciplined) friend bethan laker, who (when not on maternity leave) has 'blog fridays', which is an idea that i fully intend to borrow.... at some point....

anyhoooo, this morning i found this blog: sorry i haven't posted, and it seems that although the reasons vary, i am not alone in my blog-neglect.

so i will skip the apologies of absence, (we're all to busy to read that stuff anyway, right?) and just let you know that i will be at 100% design, earls court in london next week (23-26th september) with a group of other artists and designers from the north east. i haven't been before, but i've heard it's good and not to be missed.

to the world brand new....

...is an exhibition of new work by myself and glass artist phil vickery (not to be confused with the tv chef or rugby player).

it's the first traditional gallery show i've done in a while and i have to say it has been a delight! washington arts centre have been fantastic, especially curator susannah and technician duncan, who have treated us like 'proper artists' from first contact, right through to the opening night.

it has been great to get my head around some new work and resolve ideas that have been buzzing round my head for the past couple of years, in particular castle in the sky (pictured, top) a mixed media installation, which i mentioned as an 'idea in progress' in my first blog back in february. the exhibition combines installation with more representational neon pieces, birdhouse for the soul (pictured middle) and the abstract neon and concrete luna fossils (pictured, bottom) to explore ideas about home; the imaginary, the abstract and the actual. the lovely people at the crack magazine recommend you go see it if you can!

to the world brand new is showing at washington arts centre, tyne and wear from now until the 16th of october.

the summer so far...

the good thing about this summer is that i've been really busy with conferences, exhibitions, festivals, making new work and contacts. the bad time about this summer is that i've had so much on, i haven't had time to blog about it!

june saw me stateside, firstly in louisville, kentucky for the glass art society conference, which was as exciting and exhausting as usual. after the conference i headed on to new york for a few days, where i saw some amazing art, enjoyed the sunshine and walked about 500 miles. i returned to the uk with a stack of business cards from new contacts, a head full of ideas and the need to sleep for a week! highlights of the trip were discovering the 21c museum hotel, louisville, that not only had a full blown gallery in the lobby, but also made killer martinis, and art-jacking moma, new york. no seriously, i really art-jacked moma.

in july i was at art in action at waterperry gardens, demonstrating making my work and showing in the best of the best exhibition. it's the third year i've been invited and was definitely my best show yet; four days of camping, glass bending, and non stop talking! one of the 25,000 visitors was Teleri l-j from the crafts council, who included an image of my best of the best exhibit in her blog about the festival.

staying out for the summer!

is it really june already?!

may marched by at a ferocious pace with the late shows and a radio interview gari from the culture thing, proving to be the perfect warm up to what is looking to be a busy and exciting summer.

as well as enjoying the recent sunshine i've been preparing to head stateside this week for the glass gathering of the year; the 40th annual glass art society conference in kentucky. i'm looking forward to three frenetic days of exhibitions, demos, lectures and catching up with colleagues from all over the world, before heading to new york for a few days of research and 'gallery bashing'.

photographs: fire and lots of it! late shows @ mushroom works.

tall man in my studio, late shows @ mushroom works.

pylons in saltwell park, work in progress.

it's a living thing

it's finally spring! which means it's time for living north live. taking place at the newcastle racecourse on the 26th, 27th and 28th of march, it is billed as one of the north's social and shopping highlights (!) featuring the very best products and ideas in interiors, homes, gardens and my personal favorite - food. I will be showcasing pieces of work from my want it! range with wok by bettina nissen, michael armstrong (afid design) and nick james under the banner of mushroom works. 

come along and say hi.

photograph: cariboo  sarah blood,  2009

lights, cameras, achtung!

i have john, a student from newcastle college in my studio this morning. he's photographing my studio and work for his final year project, so while he's doing lighting tests (not easy when it comes to neon) and before i have to pose for mug shots, i thought i'd catch up on a bit of blogging.

there's a lot going on in the north east at the moment. if you're in the gateshead area between now and may 19th , you have to visit the baltic centre for contemporary art for the jenny holzer and jordan baseman exhibitions. the preview on wednesday was nothing short of amazing. rumor has it the holzer exhibition, which is spread over two floors, utilizes 48,000 leds, it certainly makes for a hypnotic experience. bateman's narratives are equally seductive, yet visually couldn't be more different.  both exhibitions are definitely not to be missed! 

while you're in an arty mood the kitch-en gallery gallery is also worth a visit with great originals and limited edition prints on sale by urban artists such as craww, the cloud commission, and my personal favorite jess douglas. but you have to be quick, the red, or in this case pink dots were flying up thick and fast at the preview last night and the gallery is only open saturday 6th and 13th of march. 

photographs top to bottom: john hipkin measuring light, jenny holzer monument (detail) 2008, the cloud commission - forgotten the title, sorry carl!