Melanie Stidolph

I was invited by Tate St Ives to programme Film Club on 18 August as part of the gallery’s Summer of Art. Titled after the Air Supply hit of 1980, All Out of Love, the selected films draw on the exhaustion and frustration of endings, but also feats of effort: actions driven ‘out of love’. The screening included works by Margaret Salmon, winner of the first Max Mara Art Prize, Turner Prize nominee James Richards, Naomi Frears, collaborators Simon Bayliss and Susie Green with their new work Love Immersion and recent Falmouth University graduate Charlie Fairbairn.

Screened as part of The Voyeurs in St Ives last week, The Pleasure, The Privilege is the starting point for a new work. Based on short sequences unified through sung vocals from The Smiths song There is a light that never goes out, laid over ambient sounds of insects and birds. The developed film will utilise shifts between devised and incidental vignettes joined together to reflect an emotive pull and heightened observation of immediate surroundings. A snippet from the film is here – https://vimeo.com/

Thanks to Naomi and Simon for the invite. I’m showing a new film. There’s food (Dom from CAST so it’ll be good) and a bar. Frears & Bayliss Present: The Voyeurs – An Evening of Short Films by Anne McGuire | Tracy Moffatt | Rachael Jones | James Hankey | Melanie Stidolph | Jean Genet | Kurt Kren. 7 – 9.30pm, Thursday 2nd June. Free Admission.  3 Porthmeor Studios, St Ives Cornwall, TR26 1NG.

Met the excellent Ben James from South Kiosk on the recent The Cornwall Workshop. My work The Conversation III is being screened as part of the South Kiosk programme during Peckham 24 over the 20th – 21st May at the Nines Bar in Peckham – www.southkiosk.com

The Exchange in Penzance warmly hosted SWARM on Saturday 23rd April. Initiated by KARST and Back Lane West and organised by Field Notes SWARM invited artists and organisations from across the South West to meet and chat. Sharp and funny presentations from Gordon Dalton (featuring the above owl), Network Manager Visual Arts South West, and Lucy Stein and Simon Bayliss (‘Machu Picchu / Pecha Kulcha…’). Simon’s write up on the day is here. Thanks for the invite Field Notes.

The Photographers’ Gallery, London in collaboration with The Pin Projects, Beijing OCT-LOFT, Shenzhen and with support from the British Council present Work, Rest and Play: British Photography from the 1960s to Today, until 12 July 2015. Also on display is The World in London, a major public art project initiated by The Photographers’ Gallery in 2012 to coincide with the London Olympic and Paralympic Games. The project presents 204 photographic portraits of 204 Londoners, each originating from one of the nations competing at the Games. I was one of the 204 commissioned artists and the exhibition includes my portrait of Corina Armel from Mauritius (shutter triggered by Dot the cat).

Installing exhibition with Mandy Lee Jandrell at Solent Showcase Gallery. Joint exhibition, which comes from a desire to reflect the separate but simultaneous change in our practices and emphasise the recurring elements and new formal concerns of the work. Blindingly bright vegetation bursts into the space and there is an overlap of visual and voiced reflections on making art and life. Includes new videos She is already here, a homage to artist and photographer Nadège Mériau and collaborative work Exhaustion with Max Catterall. Exhibition runs until 20 June. //connectseverything.tumblr.com/

Filming in the studio this week, working on a new moving image piece for the forthcoming exhibition Eventually Everything Connects at Solent Showcase gallery with Mandy Lee Jandrell. Working title The Assistant, filming in Russian Club studios (thank you Matt Golden) around the idea of the slippage between a directed and accidental moment, conflating the role of Photographer / Assistant and the studio as a site of installation and potential dwelling.  Thanks to Nadège Mériau for her assistance and consulting.

Talk yesterday with Alice Walton at Format Festival for the Except The Mirror exhibition which I curated and features the work of Sophie Clements, Annie MacDonell, Tom Lovelace, Richard Paul, Melanie Stidolph and Alice Walton. Alice and I talked about and invited audience participation into the concept of The Double in artist’s practice.  Our starting point for the talk was this quote from Emma Cocker ‘An action is begun before knowing what it might enable. A conversation is initiated in the absence of intention; attention given to the pauses and durations breathed between the words.’

PIGDOGANDMONKEYFESTOS is an exhibition curated by Shaun Doyle & Mally Mallinson, exploring contemporary artists’ manifestos and works inspired by the manifesto format. I’m showing a new collaborative work made with Max Catterall, artists include; Dean Kenning, David Blandy and Larry Achiampong, Mathieu Beausejour, Clunie Reid, Oona Grimes, Richard Paul, Frank Wasser, Katie Schwab, Jenny Moore, Dominic from Luton, Alice Walton, Tanja Ritterbex, Benedict Drew, Doyle and Mallinson, Shane Bradford, Cedar Lewisohn, Patricia Ellis, Harriet Murray, Neil Taylor, Peter Lamb, Ami Clarke, Sarah Lucas, Leigh Clarke, Jessica Voorsanger, Emma Hart, Melanie Stidolph and Abigail Lane. Touring show, first iteration at AirSpace Gallery in June 2014. www.exeterphoenix.org.uk