#hondartza

[letsmilebecauseithappened]

[dabid-motozalea]

Mi remanso de paz.

100 metros de lado a lado que se quedan en 20 cuando sube la marea.

Nunca suele haber más de 8 o 10 personas, aunque por lo general no hay nadie y la disfruto solo.

Con el único ruido de las olas

[kalebizia]

Ereaga beach. Neguri 2022

[juankarh]

#Fototeka_Bizileku: #Itsasoak biltzen nau - The #sea gathers me. #olatua #wave #hondarra #sand #koloreak #colors #hondartza #beach #kostaldea #itasertza #coast #water #ura https://www.instagram.com/p/CpDrM6ntTeI/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ionmarkelargazkiak]

[mag-linares]

Playa de Malkorbe, #Getaria, #PaísVasco. Malkorbe #Beach, #BasqueCountry Malkorbe #hondartza, #EuskalHerria #DiadelaFotografia #DiaMundialdelaFotografia #PhotographyDay #PhotographyDay2022 #sinfiltros #nofilters https://t.co/n0iSePSGoZ (en Getaria, Basque Country) https://www.instagram.com/p/Chc0dxFMt0j/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[beautiful-basque-country]

Hondartza, oraintxe bertan (Donostia).

The beach, right now.

PS. Sorry for the mini hiatus, we've had lots of things to do lately. All is well. We'll try to post more regularly from now on 😘.

[pintto]

20230930 Donostia. San Migeleko marea bizien eragina, Ondarreta hondartza urik gabe. SantaKlara uhartea gertu ikusten da.

[ultralowoxygen]

Berria Beach by Iker Merodio Via Flickr: Berria hondartza. Camera: Pentax K1000. Lens: SMC Asahi Pentax-M 1.2 50mm. Film: Kodak Pro Image 100.

[lanternlightersblog]

#Repost @valenti_morera__nou • • • • • • Kontxako Hondartza Faroles enceses i capvespre rogenc al passeig de la Kontxa, a Donostia. Aquestes faroles modernistes son un dels simbols de la ciutat i son obra de l'autor del projecte global del passeig: Juan R. Alday, que les va dissenyar el 1909. A més, una reproducció d'aquesta farola s'entrega cada any, des de 1986, al Festival Internacional de Cine de San Sebastian. És el premi Donosti en reconeixement a la carrera cinematogràfica de qui el rep. #donostia #lakontxa #capvespre #llumicolor #evening #eveningcolors #colors_of_day #redish #redishot #farola #beach #beachvibes #platja #capvespresquenamoren #nightlights #thelightsofbeauty #lampposts #llumsiombres #llumsicolors #euskadi #euskadigrafias #igerseuskadi #onfire_travels #Ukrainewillwin https://www.instagram.com/p/Cky_7I0ox6R/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[stellabarak]

Highlights of 2021-22

It is autumn here in the U.K. already. Leaves are falling on the ground, a reminder of nature's cycles. Summer, for most of us is over. September comes back with a bang and back to school, back to teaching, back to whatever it is that autumn brings.

So let's pack away the flip-flops for now

I have not had a lot of time to write here on my blog since last August now, come to think about it!! I have been working a lot over this last year, behind the scenes. More than usually. I have taken a new approach into my art practice and have moved into ceramics and working with clay.

I thought of trying to cover some of the lost ground here on my blog and backtrack some entries.... but then I thought this is going to be an impossible task, best left for the time being.

2021-22 has been great to me and keeping to some rituals, I'll go by the academic year !

I'll try to summarise with the key highlights of the past year.

In October 2021, I joined Sunken Studios at Leeds, and my journey with clay and ceramics was rekindled. It has been one of the most enjoyable yet demanding processes in my practice. You can read some of my thoughts via their blog, here:

Simple Flowers was a photographic project that I did in November 2021, in collaboration with the brilliant Elizabeth Simpson of In-a-gadda-da-vida flowers. The project that came out of that, titled Simple Flowers, was featured on Gold Circle, a great online curated space for contemporary photography, by Marina Syrmakezi. You can also view all the images on my website, if you go to my website links embedded here !

2022 began even better, as I was awarded an artists bursary, through A-N the Artists Information Company. My project proposal was to explore intuition in art, working with clay as a new direction in my practice as well as combining digital methods of production in my existing photographic work.

The grant supported my membership at Sunken Studios as well as a course on hand-building and throwing !!! I never thought I would have a go at throwing pots on a potters wheel, but there's always a new challenge and a learning curve. And guess what, I am still doing it and I really enjoy it. There is something so meditative when you are working on the wheel with a ball of clay.

Having said that, my forte and fascination still remains with hand-building. Working with clay is as one of the elements of my practice, rather than being the key focus of my work.

In March 2022 I was selected to be a member of the YSI Sculpture Network for 2022, amongst many other brilliant sculptors and artists.

So out of all these recent new directions, I was working on an upcoming group show, Seeing Stars, which took place at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery and opened to the public in April 2022.

Ariadne Abandoned, was a project that I had been researching for a while, since as far back as 2020. I had sent out several proposals with this project in mind, for other open calls, exhibitions etc. none of which materialised.

When the time came to start working on the upcoming group show, I decided to discuss my ideas about the installation with the curator of Seeing Stars, Hondartza Fraga. And to my delight, she accepted my proposal of Ariadne the group show!

Utilising the myth of Ariadne, the Cretan Princess, I wanted to give a new interpretation, from a female perspective. Ariadne, was famous for giving her ball of thread to Theseus, to help him escape the Labyrinth, once he had slain the Minotaur. He promised to take her back with him to Athens and make her queen. Instead, on their trip back, he cruelly abandoned her on the island of Naxos. Ariadne Abandoned is a moment captured throughout the centuries in art history and literature like no other. From ceramic vases to later oil paintings, like Angelica Kauffmann's Ariadne Abandoned (1774, see here below) I was compelled to do more research.

Through my research I found that the best part of the story of Ariadne, comes after her abandonment on the shores of Naxos. It is there that she is found by the god Dionysos, who rescues her and falls in love with her. They marry, and her wedding crown is tossed into the sky, as Ovid retells in his Metamorphoses:

"So that she might shine among the eternal stars, he (Dionysos) took the crown from her forehead, and set it in the sky. It soared through the rarified sky air and as it soared, its jewels changed to bright fires and took their place retaining the appearance of a crown, the Corona Borealis."

Ariadne's story thus has a happy ending, as she is the one who becomes a constellation in the night sky. She is visible in the Northern Hemisphere in late Spring to Autumn, and her crown sits between Hercules and Bootes.

And so it began, a frantic three months of work and preparation. Ariadne is by far the most bold and multi-faceted installation that I have worked on to date. It combined hand-built ceramic objects with my material of choice, glittering space-craft Mylar. I decided to use the first drawing of constellations, made by Hevelius in the 1690's - see the image above. This was to become embedded on the top part of the installation. Her crown would then hang alongside the two other constellations that sit on either side, Hercules and Bootes.

Her earthly presence, before becoming a star in the night time sky, was marked by her flip-flops and box of thread as well as two spindles. In the middle of the installation is a tribute to Dionysos, in the grapes as he was the divine intervention that helped her.

This had to be laser-cut to precision, for which I did some tests on my own but am forever grateful to Duke Makes fabrications in Leeds as they did the final cut on the largest sheet of Mylar I have ever cut, of about 3metres in length!!! Phew

Thankfully, it all came together and after three months of hand-building, failed attempts at ceramic flip-flops, glaze tests and other fun, I installed the work at the gallery in April 2022.

Just before our group show opened for the public, I had a bonus trip to see the Venice Art Biennale for the first time during the preview week.

The Milk of Dreams - this is another chapter all-together, I should really do a separate post on it, since it will be running until November 2022. I simply can't chose what artist or whose work to prioritise here as there are so many brilliant, astounding work and by all - female cast. Instead I will put a teaser photograph of me super excited when I arrived at the Giardini

as well as the ethereal spirit of Ithell Colquhoun whose presence guided me and led me to the Biennale this year, under the guise of Richard Shillitoe.

I came back in late April full of dreams and art and love and life and feeling grateful.

On April 26th our group show, Seeing Stars, opened to the public and it was so nice to see and be with people in person after what has felt a very long time.

The show continued until 30th July 2022. In July alongside Mischka Henner and Hondartza Fraga, I have a talk as part of our exhibition

For pretty much July and August I continued working with clay at the ceramic studios, I continued writing, mostly, I haven't told anyone I write (a lot!) Its a secret but you may have guessed it.

July was a quick trip to Arles, for the first time ever for me for the Rencontres Photography Festival.

August I had a much needed break in Greece.

That's all for a bit of a whistle-stop tour of my last (academic) year's highlights.

Here below is an observation of Ariadne's Crown I did in June, aka Corona Borealis as the constellation is known in star language. The photo is taken on my phone using via the Stellarium App.

She shines in the night time sky, see if you can catch her!

[gohartz]

Historia aurreko kontakizuna

Atxabiribil hondartza. Flysch.

[juankarh]

#FototekaBizileku #olatuak #waves #denboralea #hondartza #Kontxa #Donostia #EuskalHerria https://www.instagram.com/p/CG7LmbsDnCD/?igshid=1ttye2v1vf14b

[ionmarkelargazkiak]

[b-ellota]