Building Text at Broadgate London
September 13, 2018
‘Building Text’ is my first solo London exhibition. Across three buildings at Broadgate London I spent the summer creating an almost entirely new body of artwork. It’s been a busy time that’s really pushed my creativity and design skills.
My starting point was the architectural details of the Broadgate site for the works in Exchange House and Bishopsgate 201. I selected recognisable structural influences, and some more subtle details and shapes from around the site before combining these with a poetic use of words, and Helvetica Bold font.
This exhibition brings together many threads of interest and influence including my fascination with spaces and architecture; themes of the Sun, Moon, and stars, as well as connections to dreams and the Unconscious, which run through much of my work.
I enjoy repetitive use of poems and words, giving a sense of rhythm and graphic design impact to my work. By playing with the same words in different works, I find that I can convey new meaning for my poems through form. For my sculptures, I’ve experimented with repetition of text to create patterns that subtly reflect shapes in the architecture. I use Helvetica Bold font as the basis to my designs because of the beautiful proportions that lend themselves to being joined together and built up into new forms and patterns.
I have also created sculptures that play with the placement of words in relation to the form of the structure, these require more investigation from the viewer as they must read the poems in reflections or at angles and around sides of the pieces. This encouragement for curiosity guides the visitor through the subtle narrative and wordplay as I combine art, poetry and design throughout the exhibition.
Each of the sculptures have been designed with a slotting system to fit together without the use of glue to integrate a structural system and method befitting of the title of the exhibition ‘Building Text’. It’s also playful as it’s reminiscent of the kit models put together by children. Colour and translucency of the Perspex complement the text references, and also the building materials such as the blues, greens and grey on building facades used in ‘Opacity of Dreams’, ‘Housed in Dream’ and ‘House of Echoes’. For ‘Sun’, ‘Moon’ and ‘Twilight’ Houses, and also ‘Star Garden’, I have used a more vivid colour palette to reflect the light types.
In the Broadgate Tower I have photography, graphic design and other wall-based works with a poetic focus.
You can view ‘Buiding Text’ across the Broadgate site from now until 26th October 2018. Please visit the Broadgate site for access information and opening times.
This exhibition has been beautifully curated by Rosie Glenn.
The Stories Under Our Feet
December 20, 2015

Rain – photo by John Lynch
‘The Stories Under Our Feet‘ are ephemeral light and text artworks trimming the edges of the benches that surround Manchester Central Library. I developed a series of short observational poems drawing on changing weather and seasons to create moments of contemplation for people walking by or sitting on the benches. The piece was developed for the Enlighten Manchester Festival of Light and Sound Art 2015 and was funded using public funding through Arts Council England.
I was pleased with the positive public response to the work. So many people stopped to slowly make their way around the benches to read the poems, smiling once they’d completed the set and commenting on how nice it was to see engaging artwork in the public domain.

Sunshift – photo by John Lynch
I changed the piece each night to shuffle the poems and show a variety. The light and shadow cast changed each night also, sometimes easy to read, other times a little more difficult and erring more towards the aesthetic of the feathery light and shadow effect. I like people to engage with my work and I also like to slow them down from their daily lives if only for a few moments. For some, they only noticed the attractive lighting effect, whereas others spent time reading the poems more carefully. Going off the feedback at the time, it seems something positive was gained from both types of encounter.
You can see more pictures of the work on my website here.

Lost and Found (couple) – Photo by John Lynch
I also created another piece “Lost and Found“: understated light and reflection pieces activated by the viewer. Passers by interrupt the reflection to become either ‘lost’ ,‘found’ or sometimes both to highlight the search for sense of self and connection between people.
One visitor told me that she lost her little boy in the library on the visit and found him at my piece – he’d positioned himself so that he had ‘lost’ projected onto him. She said once she’d found him, she took a picture of him with the word ‘found’ on him instead. Great to know my artwork helped to reunite the two, but also that it was easily understood and interacted with!

Lost and Found – Photo by John Lynch
Many thanks to John Lynch for the photos, and to Enlighten Manchester/Curated Place and Arts Council England for their support in realising these pieces.
Creative Writing and Light Art Workshops
December 10, 2015
In October I ran creative writing and light art workshops at Manchester Central Library as part of the build up to the Enlighten Manchester Festival of Light and Sound Art. These workshops explored themes of memory and identity using creative writing and a final session of light and shadow play.
The workshops were split into sections, the first introduced participants to the library resources for interesting reading and inspiration material in order to explore their own memories to tell stories in interesting literary ways. The second used experimental literary techniques to create new writings and further refine work for the final week. In the final session I introduced everyone to various light and shadow play techniques and long exposure photography. They also used their own writing to create pictures in the shadow word style I use in my own practice and in my Enlighten Manchester final piece “The Stories Under Our Feet“.
The inspiration for these workshops came from a previous project with the Stroke Association, which delivered workshops in creative writing, visual art and photography to help stroke survivors to explore their memories (I have written more on this project here: Curating Stroke: Stories of the Self Through Art and Science).
I’m really pleased with the workshops, I only wish I could have had longer to help develop more work as three sessions only provided a taster of what is possible!
Manifest Arts Festival 2015
December 3, 2015

Manifest Poster
This July Roger Bygott, John Lynch, and I directed a city-wide (Manchester and Salford) visual arts festival:
Manifest is a visual arts festival, showcasing the talent of North West based artists in a series of exhibitions and events across Manchester and Salford.
It took place 10th-12th July 2015 and during the second weekend of the busy Manchester International Festival. The timing was deliberate so that the festival would give visitors a flavour of the creative activity going on across the two cities all year round.
The exhibitions and events in the Manifest programme were at some of Manchester’s most prestigious institutions, such as Manchester Craft and Design Centre, John Ryland’s Library, and the newly opened HOME. Artist studios across both cities were coordinated for the first time to have open studios during the festival weekend to give a closer look at the scope of art being created across the city.
This year was a pilot festival and run on the passion of its participants, and we’re so thankful for the enthusiasm and support in making it happen. We couldn’t have been more pleased by the reaction of visitors and participating artists.
Our reasons for setting up Manifest:
Roger Bygott: “For me the inspiration and spirit of Manifest is about community association, trusting grassroots links and mutual encouragement. As artists practicing within this broad vibrant community we aim to help strengthen those connections and to share more widely and publicly the artistic fruits emerging from it.”
Elisa Artesero: “Many of the artists in Manifest exhibit nationally and internationally but remain based in the North West. We want to show the high standard of contemporary art being produced on our doorstop.”
John Lynch: “Artists want their work to be seen, we present the opportunity to see it.”
We even got a feature interview in a-n
The festival was a huge success in more ways than we’d expected and we’re still receiving positive feedback about the impact it has had on participating artists’ careers. During the three days and nearly 30 different events/exhibitions artists: sold their work, had in-depth critiques with curators, they gained commissions and potential exhibitions, and were able to show their work to an audience that would not have had the opportunity to see their work otherwise.
Months down the line we got an email from Susan Gunn, one of the artists to present her work at ‘Manifest Calling’ a show and tell at HOME. She had been contacted by contemporary classical composer, Ailis Ni Riain, who was impressed by her work when she presented it at ‘Manifest Calling’, and asked if she would design the album cover for her album ‘Linger’.
The pilot festival gave us a chance to just give it a go, to test the idea of the festival and to see if it would be possible to run. The three of us had an incredibly busy weekend trying to document all the events and ensure they were running as planned. My pet project for the weekend was to try out live streaming the festival with the Periscope app to give online viewers a flavour of parts of the festival. I didn’t know how useful or popular this would be, but it turned out to be surprisingly popular, getting up to 70 live views at a time. Not bad for a fairly new piece of technology and first festival!
We ended with a closing party at media bar, Texture, which was a lovely celebration of the weekend. One of the joys for me (and I’m sure Roger and John, also) was to spend an entire weekend looking around the cities’ arts spaces, seeing fantastic contemporary artwork, having lively conversations about the artistic and cultural scene and the lives and exciting careers of those who are based here.
Although, admittedly, there was almost too much to be able to get around in one weekend, it was brilliant to have it all there to choose from, a snapshot of the kind of things that are going on (often behind closed doors of studios) all year round. To able to facilitate that in some way was an absolute pleasure, and I think we proved what we set out to do – which was to show that we live in a vibrant and thriving cultural space that needs to be showcased every so often.
As for the future of Manifest, well, watch this space.

Manifest Logo
All photos taken by John Lynch, and the logo and programme designed by the talented Stephanie Hamer.
Curating ‘Stroke: Stories of the Self Through Art and Science’
December 2, 2015
Throughout 2015 I worked on a project with stroke survivors. I ran a set of visual arts workshops and curated the final exhibitions: one at Manchester Central Library, and the other at Manchester Museum. It was a wonderful experience and I feel privileged to have been through the process to help facilitate some of the workshops and to be able to curate the final exhibitions to help to tell these survivors’ stories.
About the project:
The Stroke Association and The University of Manchester ran creative workshops with 15 stroke survivors across a 9-month period in 2015. These focused on creative writing, visual arts and photography. The interactive workshops brought together stroke survivors, artists, filmmakers, clinicians, researchers and students from the University of Manchester and Salford Royal hospital.
Personal and collective stories of life before and after a stroke are told through the survivors’ artistic interpretations. Many of the survivors were shown the brain scan of their stroke. They were talked through their individual scans by leading stroke consultant, Professor Pippa Tyrell and NIHR Clinician Scientist Dr Adrian Parry-Jones, who explained the areas of the brain that were affected by the stroke and answered any questions they had. This was often an emotional moment and many of the survivors used this experience to create artistic responses and explore their feelings towards the journey from having a stroke to the lives they now live.
The Manchester Central Library exhibition, as part of The Manchester Science Festival, gave a more personal insight into a complex and often devastating condition. It is, however, also to show that there is potential for an enriching and positive life after stroke.
The pop-up exhibition and mask-making workshop at Manchester Museum on World Stroke Day was as a result of a special workshop I led during the project. Participants were given a tour of the Museum’s mask collection then they were given coloured tissue paper, glue and scissors to create masks that would reflect different emotions. Masks were made to represent or cover up emotions and also to promote positive emotions.
With thanks to the survivors who created these personal and expressive pieces of artwork:
Peter Osbourne, Keila Moore, Peter Wright, Raymond Garner, Paul Edgerton, Mary Davis, Janette Kirkham, Debbie Concagh, Mark Pizey, George Shone, Janet Stoppard, Carol Banks, Ann Williams, Michaela Holden, Graeme Snell
Also many thanks to the other workshop leaders – Caroline Edge for photography, and Janet Rogerson for creative writing. Special thanks to Joyce Booth and the volunteers from the Stroke Association for helping to coordinate and facilitate all of the workshops, and to Dr Stephanie Snow, who has led the project and is using this as research for her work on documenting the History of Stroke.
A video of the project:
Snow poems
January 29, 2015
Inspired by the recent cold snap. First came the snow…
Snow gazing
From my window
Fat flakes
Look like
Feathers
Shaken loose
From pillows
By neighbours
Protesting another
Work day.
Then came the hail…
Hail
Hundreds of
Tiny ice fists
Hammer urgently
At the window
Light Holds Me Here – processes
September 17, 2014
Well I’ve been working away on my solo exhibition ‘Light Holds Me Here’ and things are starting to come together. I don’t want to go too much into detail about exactly what I’m creating as I’d like it to be a surprise. I am, however, working on a huge scale, one which I’ve never worked on before and in order to develop the work I’ve gone through a few new processes.
I can, and do, think in terms of space – how to move around it and what effect I’d really like to create in an installation. I’ve worked with small scale models of my installation to develop the ideas and lighting effects I’m wanting to create. I imagine it’s a bit like how architects work when they build their scale models. Now I’m having the pieces manufactured at scale and so the full effect of the work within the actual space will not be apparent until I get there and install it – so it’s a nervous but also exciting time!
In the lead up I’ve had a studio critique day with various curators from places such as Manchester Art Gallery, Curated Place and the e-Luminate Festival Cambridge. This worked well to introduce my work and to coherently express what it is that I’m trying to do, and to get valuable feedback from professionals within the field. The response was really positive so it’s good to feel I have support from the people I respect in the industry. As a result, the Director of e-Luminate was able to secure a lighting sponsorship with Pulsar on my behalf, so I’ll be using top quality lights for the installation – brilliant news for a light artist!
This exhibition is a result of a period of research and development, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. The funding has given me time to concentrate on developing my practice, to find out about and work with new materials, learn new skills and show work on a much larger scale than previously possible. Next up will be the light and text festival in the Faroe Islands with Curated Place, but one thing at a time!
Dance
August 25, 2014
Make what we can
With our bodies.
For no one
In one hundred years
Will remember
How we danced
With a certain grace and
Free abandon,
Loving the life we have now.
I sometimes think about the moments some people lose because they are too embarrassed to really let go and take a moment for what it is, enjoy it for what it is. I dance a lot, it’s part of my practice to clear my mind to make way for new (or previously uncovered) ideas. In fact, most of my ideas come from a moment within the act of dancing (I am definitely not trained, nor do I study it). This is peculiar as the works don’t always include movement so specifically. Anyway, this was a poem I wrote quickly whilst dancing.