The Clock

New Art Exchange

Christian Marclays highly aclaimed work THE CLOCK

" Its by far the best thing I have seen in the British Art Show7, it's inspirational for a young filmmaker like myself, its opened up a whole range of possibilities on the filmmaking spectrum for me. I did a six minute film and I was really ripping my hair out, he made a twenty-four hour film. Thats impressive. I really enjoyed it, despite being clips from different films, I thought there was plenty of narrative. Time was passing, the audio held the film together, the edits were seemless. It's something thats so simple and basic, but it keeps you watching, there's something in there for everyone. " Bruce

The Artist Taxi Driver

Billy and Bruce recommend Mark MacGowan's work

The Artist Taxi Driver

In the days of the comet...

We went to see the British Art Show 7 at Nottingham Contemporary Arts today. We weren't allowed to take photos for copywrite reasons. Billy enjoyed work by Sheffield based artist Haroon Mirza.

" I liked the sound installation, he used sounds you wouldn't have normally have heard, everyday default sounds, everything was defunct. I definitely think the audio playing in that room alongside the different installations from the different artists fitted in and influenced my perception of the other works. It made me feel like a bloody artist!"

Afterwards we met up with inclusion activists Caroline and Maresa MacKeith

Billy tried his hand at a bit of landscape photography at Attenborough Nature Reserve.

Jet Lagged

Bitches Tea Boys are jet lagged having passed through 3 time zones from Dundee to Nottingham changing at Newcastle and Grantham. Bruce announced he fancies a wee intervention with £50 notes so if anybody has any he can use please pop down with them.

Once in the city we visited three exhibitions Wunderkammer at The Art Organisation, Trade Gallery screened video documentation of Joseph Beuys 1974 performance with a Coyote I Like America and America Likes Me.

The Attic Gallery at Thoresby One hosted Joseph Hallam's show Touchdown.

Bruce on Touchdown

"I liked it, wacky, never seen nothing like that, loads of colours a bit space age"

Billy on Wunderkammer

"No narrative pure bonkers"

I've had an email from Portia Simpson from York she is thinking of setting up a monthly Tagtool club for artists with drinking, drawing, making, discussing etc starting Jan 2011

" we would LOVE it if you could come along to one or two? Just trying to locate a chilled, creative bar or space to hold it."

If any of you Dundee based artists are going near York, or fancy a Tagtool trip down, I can put you in touch with Portia.

Tagtool at Illuminating York Festival

iink ( Matthias Fritz) came over from Austria to create four nights of projections at the Illuminating York festival which provided the National Trust's Treasurers House as a backdrop for projecting on. I went over for the Friday evening, many thousands came to view the work that evening.

It was great to meet the festival team members who knew about the Nine Trades project from the Tagtool blog. Alistair and I should have met Portia Simpson ( festivals officer) earlier this year at the Tagtool International Gathering but the Icelandic volcano eruptions prevented her from making it so it was good to finally meet her.

It was the first time I'd been able to use the Tagtool to draw on such a huge scale outdoors. Simple drawings were very effective. I got to mess about with the pen and gamepad for about half an hour. I really enjoyed it.

19 November sees the Winter Light Festival in Dundee, it would be wonderful if one of the Dundee Tagtools could play a part in that.

NIne Trades in November 2010

Expect another spurt of activity on the Nine Trades front.

Bitches Tea Boys are returning to Nottingham in November.

I will be back in Dundee 11-15 November...

On Monday 7th November Billy and Bruce will be deomstrating the art of making a good cup of tea and presenting their work at Nottingham's Hostel Liaison Group to hostel users who are embarking on making video based work with Ian Nesbitt from Annexinema. They'll also be getting a mentoring session from artist Chris Graham. Plus checking out the British Art Show as well as attending Sideshow fringe events on the Nottingham arts scene.

Lots of activity on the Tagtool scene, local Tagtoolers are meeting and organising behind the scenes, expect to see some Tagtool outdoor projections in future.

A real highlight this month will be having Matthias Fritz co founder of OMA International over from Austria from 10-12th November. He will be presenting at Neon festival and meeting up with other Tagtoolers. I was with Matthias (also known as iink) last week at the York Illumination Festival and met with Velocity33 York based Tagtoolers.

The Nine Trades Tagtool features at the Guerilla Gallery who with Neon will be hosting a party on the 6th and 7th floor of the Greenmarket car park on Saturday 13th from 8 til late.