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Art Talks

Wednesday 27 April 2005: Art Talk by Sculptor David Heathcote David Heathcote works in stone and bronze.   His principle themes are the human figure and the human head, developed in a figurative - creative way.   He produces works for domestic as well as public spaces and his sculpture ranges from reliefs to fully three-dimensional pieces, and from hand size to over life size.   His influences are listed as artistic, cubist, cultural, dynamic, humanistic, lithic, monumental, oriental, sculptural, semi abstract, stone, garden, organic, touchable, humanistic, touchable, tactile. As well as discussing his work David talked about his career as an artist in both Nigeria and Britain. He has exhibited sculpture in the Art Within Grasp in Maidstone in 1991. Kent Association for the Blind, in Canterbury, has a wood sculpture of his on long loan and has designed a bronze sculpture specifically for a garden for blind people in Henrietta Park in Bath.

Calanit Schachner and Bill Waltier "Space" Project Talk In February, Calanit Schachner and Bill Waltier gave a talk on their recent collaborative project "Space". Calanit Schachner met Bill Waltier through Art Through Touch. Calanit Schachner: 'The project is a collaborative practice between a totally blind man (Bill Waltier) and myself who tried to investigate the concept of vision, perception and blindness through the photographic medium. Through the process, I was trying to question about the 'sight' of the visually impaired person towards me. In order to do this, I am trying to create a dialog between myself as a photographer and one whose vision and sight is my tool on the one hand, and the visually impaired person who 'sees' and 'views' things in a different way on the other hand'. During the talk Calanit and Bill discussed how they photographed each other with blinded cameras, a technique developed by Calanit to make the situation of photographing between them more equal. This process involves taking the photographs with an infrared black and white negative, digital medium format camera with a dark red filter. This "blinds" both the camera and Calanit the photographer. In other words, the photographer is looking into something that is not visible. With the aid of the computer, layers are removed to reveal the image on the computer screen. Using this technique, Calanit created an equal visual condition between Bill and herself. Calanit's pictures portray the sensual illusion of the photograph. Beauty and objectivity within the horizon of the barely visible. They contain genuine stillness. Not just its idea but something more like the stillness that follows separation. A kind of imperceptible movement. The work produced during this project was shown recently at the Jeffrey Charles Gallery and was Calanit's first solo show in this country. Click on pictures for more detail

Sally Booth 'Still Lights' Art Talk Artist and ATT member Sally Booth presented a discussion her recent work 'Still Lights'. Sally specialised in painting for her Fine Art degree at Bristol and more recently completed an MA in Fine Art (Drawing) at Wimbledon School of Art. In 1988 she undertook The British Sketchbook Tour, a solo drawing tour round Britain, which was followed by a series of one-person shows around the country. She has exhibited her work at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, the Royal Festival Hall, the Courtauld Institute and the Richard Attenborough Centre. 'Still Lights is a painting project that explores the nature of vision and visual impairment in conjunction with photography and technology.   I have returned to the practice of traditional still life to make a series of very small, close-up, intimate paintings and pastel studies of coloured glass bottles to explore the qualities of light, blurred focus and altered colour sense that my own particular vision can produce'. 'As the project has developed and the level of light has changed with the seasons, the work has progressed from dark to light, and is both a celebration of vision and an exploration of its loss through lack of light.   This is also reflected in the photographs produced as light boxes, which show objects and colours blurred, abstracted and obscured by a screen, echoing my experience of the grained and milky quality of vision through a cataract'. Sally Booth.

Jonathan Huxley Art Talk ..   You Don't Know me But .... This rather different Art Talk by the painter Jonathan Huxley asked such questions as.. " How did I arrive in New York a complete unknown and within one month end up making ultraviolet paintings for Grace Jones's Birthday party? " " What happened when I gave a lecture on art and vision to one hundred and fifty Japanese student nurses in Tokyo ? What's Spanish for "French Ultramarine" and "can you please stop frying sardines I'm trying to paint here!" These were some of the questions he answered in his bizarre story of how he managed to exist as a full-time painter from leaving the Royal Academy Schools in 1992 until now... oh and lastly: Who is Jonathan Huxley anyway ?