Symposia: Forum 2017

 

MOSAIC: A CELEBRATION OF DESIGN, EXPRESSION & COLOUR

Friday 29th September to Sunday, 1 October, 2017.

A weekend of inspirational speakers and creative workshops

Edinburgh College of Art hosted by the University of Edinburgh, UK

Plus a members’ exhibition at Patriot Hall Gallery

Ticket prices for the all day Forum on Saturday, including lunch and refreshments:

Early Bird (8 April, 2017 to 16 June, 2017) £48 BAMM members/£58 non-members

From June 17 onwards:  £78 BAMM members/£88 non-members

Tickets available from Eventbrite from 8thApril

 

This year’s annual forum will be held in Edinburgh, Scotland, for the first time giving mosaic artists a unique opportunity to explore the world of Scottish mosaic, pick up insider’s tips from top mosaic practitioners and expand their creative horizons.The forum will be held at Edinburgh University’s College of Art which has recently become the custodian of fragments from the arches of Eduardo Paolozzi’s Tottenham Court Road mosaic.

 

Forum Weekend Programme Summary

People attending the Forum will have the opportunity to hear from Scottish, national and international mosaic practitioners to inspire and expand creative horizons.  The Forum will be hosted by The University of Edinburgh at Edinburgh College of Art which has recently become the custodian of fragments from the arches of Eduardo Paolozzi’s Tottenham Court Road mosaic.

 

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2017:

Private View - 6-8pm - of the BAMM open membership exhibition at Patriothall Gallery, Hamilton Place, Stockbridge, Edinburgh.  The exhibition will also include work by invited speakers and workshop leaders. Information about the exhibition will be available shortly.

Please select a free ticket from the Eventbrite page if you intend to come, so we have some idea of numbers attending.

 

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2017

9-10am: Forum Registration, morning refreshments, Mosaic Market and the Univeristy of Edinburgh 'Handling Session' of the Paolozzi Tottenham Court Road arches mosaic fragments.  (This is a not to be missed opportunity to view the mosaic fragments close up and is open to members and non-members). 

10-10.45: BAMM AGM

The Forum will directly follow the AGM.  There will be an hour break for lunch and an afternoon refreshment break, finishing at 6 / 6.30pm.

Speakers

  • Liv Laumenech of the University of Edinburgh on the Tottenham Court Road Paolozzi mosaic fragments
  • Chris Smith on working with Paolozzi on the TCR mosaics
  • Dugald MacInnes on the work of the Scottish mosaicist George Garson
  • Lillian Sizemore on women artists of the 20th century using mosaic and tile work
  • Nathalie Vin on her personal approach to mosaics
  • Emma Biggs on Byzantine mosaic art

PLUS

Pecha Kucha Style presentations (20 slides of 20 seconds) by Dugald MacInnes, Helen Miles, Marian Shapiro and Katy Galbraith.

AND

Handling the Paolozzi fragments, Mosaic Market, lunch and networking.

7pm Evening Social and Dinner at Spoon Restaurant

After the formal programme, enjoy an informal evening of drinks, food and mosaic chat nearby, at Spoon Restaurant. Mingle with other delegates in a relaxed atmosphere and unwind after a busy day of formal talks and presentations. Pay bar and two course buffet, offering seasonal dishes plus tea/coffee and a cake stand of desserts. Please buy a ticket and come and join us at Spoon, 6a Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9DH. 

Cost £24 - please book with your Forum tickets.

 

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2017 WORKSHOPS

 9:00-17:00 with an hour for lunch. 

  • Emma Biggs running mosaic artists’ tutorials
  • Joanna Kessel and Tamara Froud exploring colour and materiality in mosaics
  • Dugald MacInnes revealing the secrets of slate mosaics
  • Helen Miles demonstrating the mosaic mesh technique
  • Marian Shapiro teaching 3D forms for mosaic
  • Lillian Sizemore explaining geometry for mosaic artists

See workshop page for more details of workshops

 

BAMM 2017 Forum Speakers

Liv Laumenech, Public Arts Officer, University of Edinburgh.

ON the Tottenham Court Road mosaics, including a brief history of the famous Paolozzi masterpiece, future plans for the salvaged fragments and how the mosaics will be used within the university’s collection and its art on campus developments.

Since finishing her undergraduate degree in 2012, Liv Laumenech has worked in museums and galleries in both Ireland and the UK, supporting and delivering public engagement programmes for the arts and worked in arts administration roles. Along with commissioning and curating contemporary public art through working with organisations like ARTIST ROOMS, she has experience with curating and managing art collections. Having completed a masters in Art History and Curation at the Edinburgh College of Art, Liv is now back as Public Art Officer at the University of Edinburgh with the Tottenham Court Road mosaics as one of her main responsibilities.

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Christopher Smith, former director of Art Pavements.

ON the making of the Paolozzi Mosaic at Tottenham Court Road. An explanation of how some of Sir Eduardo Paolozzi’s designs for Tottenham Court Road station were interpreted and enhanced into mosaic.

Christopher Smith began working in conservation of Roman mosaics in 1972. Over the following years, he became active in the revival of modern mosaic: by mixing traditional techniques and modern ideas of mosaic interpretation he hoped to demonstrate on a larger scale how mosaic had many unique strengths and qualities. It was not just a durable copy of painting, often poorly executed. Between 1983-6, he worked on the Tottenham Court Road mosaics. He continued making and conserving mosaic and decorated tilework until 1995. Other works include the Phoenix at the Royal College of Art, Leicester Southgates, and Southampton railway station.

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Dugald MacInnes, Glasgow based slate mosaic artist

ON the work of Scottish mosaicist George Garson. Dugald, who studied under Garson at the Glasgow School of Art 1971-75, will demonstrate how Garson was ahead of his time in developing mosaic as an expressive art form. Examples of Garson’s small pieces and of his large-scale public works will be discussed.

Dugald MacInnes was born and raised on the west coast of Scotland, a landscape that would imbue him with passion for geology and archaeology. He was familiar with the slate quarries there, a familiarity that was to dramatically re-emerge when he was introduced to its use as an artistic medium by his tutor George Garson at the Glasgow School of Art. Following his graduation, Dugald obtained a degree in geology and, later, a qualification in archaeology; both disciplines providing him with a deeper understanding of the formation of landscape and how peoples throughout the ages have responded to it. It is slate that is Dugald’s principal medium; its variety of colour, texture, and form provides him with a range of approaches to his art. www.dugaldmacinnesart.com

ALSO GIVING A WORKSHOP (see below)

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Lillian Sizemore, mosaic artist specialising in geometry in mosaics.

ON trailblazing women artists who were active during the mid-20th century and whose experiments in mosaic and tilework expanded the potential of traditional arts.

Lillian Sizemore is an American artist working with mosaic since 1994. She’s been an invited artist in international cultural exchanges including Gaziantep, Turkey and Clauiano, Italy. Working with mandalas led her to studying geometry in depth whilst developing an extensive archive of mid-20th century mosaicists. She is widely recognized in the field as a ‘mosaic detective’ as her work aims to fill the historical gap of mosaic’s legacy. Her articles have been published in Andamento, Mosaic Art NOW, RawVision and the Society for Commercial Archaeology. www.lilliansizemore.com

ALSO GIVING A WORKSHOP (see below)

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Nathalie Vin, mixed media mosaic artist

ON her work and personal explorations as a mixed media and mosaic artist.

Nathalie Vin is a contemporary, mixed media and mosaic artist, best known for her explorative and highly intricate work. She has produced work in a variety of media including short films, urban light installations and painting. A French national, Vin has been living and working in the UK for the past two decades where she worked on numerous art projects including the spectacular after-dark multimedia event called ‘The Glow Project’ and on many public, community and private mosaic commissions. She has exhibited extensively internationally in various art galleries and museums such as The Medici Museum in Florence, Musee des Beaux-Arts in Chartres or the Glass Museum in Washington in the US.www.nathalievin.com

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Emma Biggs, mosaic artist

ON Byzantine mosaic art. This tradition, which lasted a thousand years, is complex, coded, rich and surprising – Emma will talk about how it relates to work being made today.

 

Emma Biggs has been a professional mosaicist for thirty years. Her particular interest is in using pattern and colour to convey something about the history of her chosen materials. These might be for example, industrial ceramics (Made in England), Roman pottery (Five Sisters), historical waste (Mudlark), or trace fossils she found on her allotment (in-of-oy). She makes paintings in collaboration with her partner, the artist and broadcaster Matthew Collings. They are represented by Vigo Gallery, W1. At present, they are working on a public art project in London’s East End, to be made in Italian glass smalti. www.emmabiggsmosaic.net

ALSO GIVING A WORKSHOP (see below)

Pecha Kucha Style Presentations:

Katy Galbraith: From Humble Beginnings - Looking at Katy’s journey from hobbyist to professional, using salvaged materials, and how she found her style thanks to BAMM.

Helen Miles: Finding inspiration – from Byzantine churches to obscure Roman pavements, Helen’s sources of mosaic inspiration are revealed.

Dugald MacInnes: Dugald will explain the approaches and techniques used in his mosaic work along with a display of the various kinds of slate that he uses.

Marian Shapiro : Not just smashing stuff up and sticking it on.  A short tour of 13 years of mosaic practice from the button box to abstraction.

 

WORKSHOPS on Sunday 1st October

For more detailed information about the individual workshops, please see the WORKSHOP Page

EMMA BIGGS: Mosaic artists’ tutorials

(biography: see above)

Feedback and critique. Participants send images in advance, and bring a completed piece to the workshop. We will look at interesting international work that seems to relate to that of the participants and discuss potential new directions to explore. The session will be constructive, but participants must be willing to talk publicly about aims and intentions.

 

JOANNA KESSEL AND TAMARA FROUD: COLOUR - IT'S A MATERIAL THING with an introduction by Chris Smith

Mosaic offers a unique opportunity to work with ‘tangible colour’. Tamara Froud and Joanna Kessel will co-tutor this experimental workshop, encouraging participants to explore colour and the effects created through material and textural qualities. Christopher Smith will present an introduction to the use of colour in mosaic, with particular attention to Tottenham Court Road.

 Tamara Froud works extensively with schools and communities to create site-specific artwork for public and private spaces. Her work can be seen around the South of England and internationally, in Miami, Austria and Chile.
www.artmosaicdesign.co.uk

Joanna Kessel studied at Edinburgh College of Art and the Royal College of Art. She creates exquisitely crafted contemporary mosaics for exhibition - her work is shown internationally, at London Design Fair and this year with the Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh. Joanna is co-organising the Edinburgh Forum. www.joannakessel.co.uk

Christopher Smith worked in conservation and creation of mosaic until 1995, completing over 600 projects. In 1984 he began work on the interpretation and translation of Eduardo Paolozzi’s designs for Tottenham Court Road into mosaic.

 

DUGALD MACINNES: WORKING WITH SLATE

(Biography: see above)

The workshop will explore the qualities, variety, and artistic potential of slate. Participants will produce a work or works that express the forces of nature, particularly the geological forces that have shaped and continue to shape our planet.

 

HELEN MILES: THE MOSAIC MESH TECHNIQUE

The mosaic mesh technique is enormously versatile. It’s ideal for creating mosaics to fit awkward spaces and surfaces, which need to be light enough for transportation or for large works which are too unwieldy to be made in one piece. Helen Miles’ workshop will provide an A-Z of this useful method.

Helen Miles learnt how to make mosaics with Greek masters of the craft in Thessaloniki and Athens who taught using traditional methods with a focus on Byzantine iconography. Later, she became fixated with Roman designs and now makes site specific mosaics in marble for a wide variety of clients both in Europe and America as well as writing a popular blog on all manner of mosaic matters. www.helenmilesmosaics.org      

 

MARIAN SHAPIRO:3D FORMS FOR MOSAIC

Bend Fold and Undulate

In this fun, hands-on session you will discover how to make lightweight, dimensional, hand-formed substrates (mosaic bases) suitable for indoor or outdoor use. Working with fibreglass mesh and cement-based adhesive you will design and make two small wall-hanging substrates - one folded and/or undulating and the other hollow.

Originally trained in art and theatre, Marian Shapiro became fascinated by the possibilities of the ancient art of mosaic in 2002 and has been a full-time working artist since 2003. Living in the Blue Mountains just outside Sydney, she likes a visual and verbal pun and is well known for her sense of colour and her dimensional mosaic work which gives the impression of movement and material.   Her work is shown and collected nationally and internationally and has also been featured in a numerous books and magazines.   Marian frequently travels both in Australia and abroad to speak and teach. www.dariandesign.com

 

LILLIAN SIZEMORE : GEOMETRY IN MOSAICS

(Biography - see above) 

The Lotus: Infinite Blossom of Geometry

Starting with a stunning visual presentation, participants are guided to construct hand-drawn patterns, including versions of the lotus. The aim is confidence and accuracy, and to understand geometry as a symbolic language. You may bring photos or mosaics for one-on-one review. Leave with handouts and several hand drawn designs. This is a design course for mosaicists.