The Sampling Project

My installation work 'The Sampling Project' has been selected for the forthcoming 62 Group exhibition CTRL/Shift. The exhibition runs 21st July to 9th Sept 2018 at Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), Birmingham.

The Sampling Project (detail of installation) by Hannah Lamb, 2018 (photo by Yeshen Venema)

While I rest

A few photos from the weekend, from which I am gradually recovering. Thank you to everyone who visited the Butterfly Rooms during Saltaire Arts Trail, we had the most amazing feedback from visitors.

The last image is of the little artist editions I made to go with the Linear Mapping installation. I have a few left at £8.50 plus P&P so please leave a comment if you are interested.

Linear Mapping - take two

I am really pleased to have another chance to show Linear Mapping, this time in my own studio during Saltaire Arts Trail. It's always an interesting challenge to reconfigure an installation of components. I have no fixed arrangement, so we shall see how it works in this new space.

My studio at the Butterfly Rooms will be open 10 - 5 on Saturday 23rd May, 10 - 4 Sunday 24th and Monday 25th. I hope you will pop by and have a look...

Unpacking - repacking

It's been a busy few months for me, both in the studio and out and about. I haven't had a lot of time to think. Today I spent some time packing and re-packing artwork, which provided a little time to reflect on the projects I have been doing and where they are taking me. A talk I gave last week also gave me a chance to think about my creative practice and the many changes of direction I have followed.

Just at the moment I really feel like I am getting somewhere with finding ways to express my ideas. Of course there are lots of things I want to develop, but I do feel like the 'visual language' I am working with feels right.

There have been a few ambitious projects I have pursued that have worked out well, and shown me that I can work on a big scale (when before I thought I couldn't). I have also enjoyed working on installation pieces, which seems to satisfy an urge to arrange things in a space. I have also learnt a lot about myself, which feels like the whole point of making art, perhaps?

 

Linear Mapping

Earlier this month I travelled down to Buckinghamshire, to hang my installation work 'Linear Mapping' at One Church Street Gallery, Great Missenden. The work, created over a period of several months in West Yorkshire and Buckinghamshire, comprises a series of 'threads' or strands. Each thread represents a short walk I made in the countryside around my home near Bingley, or near where I grew up in Great Missenden. I was delighted to be one of the five artists selected to create installations for the Pinpoint II exhibition, particularly as the gallery is so close to 'home'.

Below you can see some details of 'Linear Mapping', with the work of fellow artist Gizella Warburton on the wall and plinths behind. As I was hanging the work I loved to see the relationship between my own work and the other work in the gallery - the lines in Gizella's work in particular. In fact until I started to hang the work at the gallery I had no idea how it would look as I hadn't had a suitable space to test it. In general I was pleasantly surprised with the weight and light of the piece and I think it is something I would like to develop further.

The other exhibiting artists are: Clare Barber, Sarah Burgess, Robert Moon, Gizella K Warbuton.

Pinpoint runs until 28th February 2015 at One Church Street Gallery, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, HP16 0AX, England. Open Thurs - Sat 11am - 4pm. Tel: 01494 868151

Final draft

As promised here are a few photos of the final installation of 'Draft' for the Pick & Mix exhibition. You can find more images on my Facebook page and more details about the exhibition here.

Exhibition runs until 18th February 2015 at The Dye House Gallery, Bradford College, BD7 1AY

Taking time to think

I haven't had much time in the studio recently. Taking some time there this afternoon I spent a long time cleaning and tidying. It always makes me feel guilty 'wasting' time like this, but later I felt I got a breakthrough. It seems I need to do mundane tasks, 'setting my stall out' before my mind can settle.

I finally feel like I am getting somewhere with my work for Pinpoint II.

Bundles from walk 9

Eco print on silk, walk 9

The language of lines (through a lense)

Although I only had a couple of hours at the studio and felt quite unfocussed I had a massively productive day. Sometimes when you don't over-think / over-work things they fall into place rather easily.

I was also reminded today of the important lesson I learnt as a student of photographing work in progress regularly. As a student as we were required to document our work and consequently I had to learn to take decent photos using a film SLR. I could never have known at the time just how important I would continue to find that process or how helpful it would become in the digital age of social media. A useful and timeless/timely lesson for life.

The work below is based on Walk 3 towards my installation for Pinpoint II later this year. I have so much still to do but I am starting to feel like I have the beginnings of something.

Stitch and silver

Still working on my silvery thread from walk 2.

A week of darkness

Perhaps that is a little melodramatic, but it feels as though I hardly saw daylight last week. It was my first time visiting Lithuania and our time was divided between the capital Vilnius and the second city Kaunas. The country seems a mixture of beautiful historic buildings, crumbling soviet brutalism and a new era of western inspired commercial buildings. On the whole I found it beautiful and would love to see the old town areas of both cities during daylight to truly appreciate them.

My visit was on college business with my colleague Andrea, delivering five days of training to fashion and textile companies and academics. Determined to see something of the country while were there we tried to spend as much time as possible in the evenings (when not preparing work for the following day) walking about to see the sights.

All that darkness had some benefits. Lithuanians are justifiably proud of their historic buildings and they are beautifully illuminated at night. We also came across this stunning installation in Vilnius. Made up of thousands of votive candles, the installation stretched across the square in front of the cathedral. The installation is a sad reminder of the loss of lives from car accidents in Lithuania, one for each person killed each year for over 20 years. The entire work created a gigantic bar chart. It made us a little nervous being driven to Kaunas early the next day.