boultbee

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Framework-for-Practice (current research)

Installation at Broadway Gallery for Near Now, Nottingham. 18–21 August 2022.

Framework-for-Practice is a project led by myself and architectural designer/artist Will Harvey. The project utilises both the architectural and symbolic attributes of scaffolding to create a minimal-waste, flexible and adaptable framework which supports a wealth of creative research and exploration, and to enable the building, repair and restoration of culture and creativity. Framework-for-Practice endeavours to critique, elevate, communicate, facilitate and support projects within Nottingham and Nottinghamshire that aim to provoke and promote positive and long-lasting cultural change. The creative kit of parts continues to be used for collaberative exhibitons and project in and around Nottingham. A project website documents some of these outcomes, Framework-for-Practice

Current research, updated 08/04/2024: Colaberating with musician Tom Harris, we've planned a series of events situated around a structure turning Broadway Gallery into an instrument, Sonic Sculptures.

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Acorns to Oaks (current research)

Lichtenburg, Berlin. Lichtenburg Studios Residency. Sept/Oct 2022.

In Lichtenburg, Berlin, during my residency at Lichtenburg Studios (Sept/Oct 2022), I collected acorns from across the city and used them to make 117 seed bombs. I then threw these seed bombs in various locations I discovered while exploring Lichtenburg on foot, with the aim of establishing at least one oak tree in the area. The acorn is the fruit of the oak tree, each containing one seed encased in a tough, brown shell. Seed bombs are seeds wrapped in a layer of earth, allowing them to be easily thrown into areas that may be difficult to access traditionally. An oak tree can be introduced to any land simply by throwing or dropping seed balls onto the ground. The potential for a seed bomb to transform an environment for centuries resonates with my interest in time-based art. To help me select locations for the seed bombs, I used the following criteria: The locations needed to be undisturbed, receive good sunlight, and be spaced sufficiently from other seed bombs and existing trees. The documentation for the artwork consists of two parts: a list of coordinates providing a general idea of where each seed bomb was thrown, for potential revisits in the future, and a GIF featuring screenshots from 49 of the sites using imagery from Google Maps. Current research, updated 08/04/2024: I've become fascinated by trees. Trees grow slowly, forcing artistic expression to be considered on a much larger timescale than traditional mediums. Species can live for hundreds of years, with some reaching thousands, defining the landscape for generations. For the right tree, in the right place, the tree will live far longer than most human beings. Growing and planting native tree species has prompted me to question the legacy of my creativity. Can planting a tree be considered a creative act? Given the climate crisis we face, should artworks have defined environmental and ecological benefits? These questions have led me to develop new artworks and workshops related to the themes of growth.

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People vs. Power (current research)

Workshop at Primary, Nottingham. 2022.

People vs. Power: Re-imagining Our Local Power Station workshops invited people to make and share proposals to repurpose the architecture of the last coal-fired power station in Britain, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire, in response to plans to knock-down and redevelop the site. The workshops were delivered seven times with groups of up to twenty participants. The free workshops took place at several venues across the city of Nottingham, including Nottingham Contemporary, Primary, Green Light in the City, and Nottingham Green Festival (2023). The drawings, created by members of the public on activity sheets during the workshops, are to be deposited in the Nottinghamshire Archive. The collection totals approximately sixty unique drawings. I and project collaborator William Harvey have delivered three crayon-based workshop formats, between 2021 and 2022, each focused on a site in the public realm in Nottingham. The workshop formats all shared the same invitation: to re-imagine architecture and civic space through drawing, using an activity sheet as a tool, to visualize ideas for the future of a site. The titles of the three workshop formats, listed in reverse chronological order, are Reclaim Nottingham Castle; The Future of the Broad Marsh Shopping Centre; and, People vs. Power: Re-imagining Our Local Power Station. Current research, updated 08/04/2024: A publication is being generated to document the project.

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New artist book: 'People vs. Power: Re-imagining Our Local Power Station', By Ryan Boultbee and Will Harvey (2024). 26 pages, includes A3 activity sheet.

The publication documents a series of workshops, titled 'People vs. Power: Re-imagining Our Local Power Station'. The workshops invited people to share their proposals to repurpose the architecture of the last coal-fired power station in Britain, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire – a response to plans to demolish the site once it ceases operation in September 2024.

A limited number of the hand-made publications about the soon-to-be decommissioned Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station are available for backorder only. Please get in touch for more details.

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I think this work had a poetic title, like scanning life and death, but I can't remember Film. 2023.

Blank sheet of paper, photocopied. Then, the print-out was photocopied again. Repeated, until the printer ran out of ink. The prints were scanned to make this short video. Physical works exhibited at Surface Gallery, Nottingham, in Early 2023.

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Temporary Bug Hotel Kit Postal Project. 2023.

Create a DIY bug hotel with everything in the flat-pack kit. Carefully place the tiny structure that you make into any green space you can access; to help you care for local bugs in your neighbourhood and create a welcoming space for them.

The pack includes a sheet of cardboard with a water-resistant wax coating, paper, tape, and two sizes of paper straw. The materials provided to make the bug hotel could last for up to a year outside. When the structure is no longer useful, it can be easily composted, as all the materials are biodegradable.

A DIY bug hotel will provide bugs, such as ladybirds, bees, spiders and woodlice, with a safe place to shelter, look after their young, and hide. I hope that, after seeing the success of your bug hotel, you will be inspired to find more ways to look after bugs in your local area.

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My Perfect World Workshop

Lincoln with UK New Artists’ Foundations Programme. Oct 2022.

The invitation to the young people during the workshop was to think about what their perfect world would look like. Each young person was given a sheet of A3 paper, with a circle outline in the centre to fill. To help them put pen to paper, they were asked to orientate their utopia around an issue or concern. This is the crayon drawing I made during the workshop. 

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Let’s Run

Ink on canvas. January 2022. 100 x 100cm.

Exhibited as part of Without the Sun (14th – 29th January 2022) at Surface Gallery, Nottingham; the culmination of the eight-week Platform residency awarded to three local artists.

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If it wasn’t for the work, I don’t think I’d have made it throught this

 Installation. Backlit, Nottingham, July 2021.

I wanted the viewer to witness a canvas wasting away, slumped in the corner, or folded over, a folly, melting into the environment, as though it were an ice cream dropped in the sun, or a human being slumped on the sofa during the lockdown. For me, the title spoke of resistance, but on viewing the work, it appeared as if the form and surface had unintentionally given up; a result of my lockdown experience, surrounded by blank canvases and failed artworks. Perhaps, I wasn’t as stoic as I imagined.

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Home

Installation. Nottingham. April 2021.

The soiled living room centre piece I lived on, and with, during the Lockdown. A thirty-year-old sofa with a unique stay-at-home patina, a scratch-and-sniff patchwork of spilt dinners and a sweaty summer.

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Looking Back

December 2020. Nottingham Trent University.

Looking back’ turned a gallery space inside out. My action flipped the visible surfaces of the gallery to reveal the superimposed actions registered on the back of the walls by years of students. By inverting the white cube, I invited the viewer to consider the history of a space that tries to exist outside of time: the gallery space is physically ‘reset’ after each use, returned as close as possible to a neutral white cube. I find this reflective action of looking back particularly poignant. To me, this gallery space is always looking forward: forward to the next artist, show, or tutorial. But, in the context of a national lockdown, we have to look back to fill the space.

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Spatialprint

Painting. Surface Gallery, Nottingham. September, 2020.

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The Art of Working (Internationally): Ryan Boultbee

The Art of Working (Internationally) is a series of short documentary films featuring interviews and work from three UK artists. The interviews focus on the influence and impact of having international experiences either through festivals, exhibitions, performances or residencies.

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Commissioner: UK Young Artists / Eurodesk UK

Producer: Underhill Creative

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Me+Home=Art

Lockdown Activity Pack. July 2020.

The Me + Home = Art is an activity pack made up of eight unique tasks to help you to look creatively at the space you occupy every day: your home and the objects within it. The project was commissioned by Young Creative Awards Nottingam, in response to the lockdown that occurred in March 2019, due to COVID-19.

Link: Read the Activity Pack

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Restrictions/ Intuition

Aftermath 2020 is an ongoing digital exhibition exploring the legacy of the Bauhaus through the practices of ten contemporary artists and ten new artworks. Ryan’s contribution to the exhibition, ‘Restrictions/ Intuition’, was made at home, during the COVID-19 lockdown, by burning oven-made wax paper.

Links: Aftermath 2020 Digital Exhibtion Restrictions/ Intuition Artist's Page Publication

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Even though they try to change, it still looks the same?

The collaborative work is based on conversations between Ryan Boultbee and Sandra Gilarska about environmental damage, particularly the devastating forest fires in Australia at the time. The project was shaped by the artists’ differing points of view about our chances.

Commissioned by Young Creative Awards Nottingam

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Break In

Artwork installed for the ‘Spotlight on Surface’ Exhibition. The work is plaster and emulsion paint on the gallery’s door. The door was kicked in and boarded up after multiple robberies.

Artwork on display in Surface Gallery, Nottingham.