I am pleased to announce I will be delivering a Graphic Design night class through Adult learning in Shetland this semester. The course is dead cheap, runs for six weeks and is aimed at the beginner and intermediate level also anyone who is interested! We will learn the creative process from research, idea generating, development through to final concept. The course is supported by Shetland Arts.
If you would like more information please email me at work: jono.sandilands@shetlandarts.org
Recently I was commissioned to produce a film for Portage: Finger Symbols, a Shetland Arts exhibition at Bonhoga Gallery, Shetland. I worked alongside fellow artist Chloe Garrick who was commissioned as photographer for the exhibition and also More info below.
Portage: Finger Symbols, an exhibition exploring rings and finger ornaments, curated by Mary Smith can be seen at Bonhoga Gallery, Weisdale, Shetland from 7 August to 5 September. The exhibition shows contemporary work created by emerging and established international makers and also features photography by Chloe Garrick and a film by Jono Sandilands. The film can also be viewed online as Shetland Arts’ first online exhibition.
Co:Lab's latest project description from Co:Lab blog (www.colabproject.blogspot.com/) __ Produced over the course of a month for exhibition at this year's VunkFest Music and Arts extravaganza, co:lab's latest project is a six colour, cross pollinated, geometric delight.
Recalling the overprint collaboration of co:lab's debut outing, each of the three final pieces in the SC&T project bare the creative stamp of all three co:lab members.
The prints are built up from a simple geometric template – a triangle within a circle within a square. In week one we each tackled the square (leaving a space for a subsequent circle to occupy). At this point Jono, Beto and Andrew all chose two colour as a signature to carry through the project and ensure some kind of continuity through the set.
At the end of the first week we came together with the fruit of our labour and left with each other's as a stimulus for week two – the circle. Both this and the triangular element of the project differ slightly from step one in that we each, from that point on, had the freedom to bleed one of our chosen colours out into the preceding shape and through the artwork of our fellow co:labbers.
We moved up a print size with this project and following week three's triangle we were faced with finding a new source for acetates. Up until now we have been printing these out on Jono's A4 printer but with SC&T's maximum working size of 350mm x 350mm we had to look for outside assistance. Fortunately Beto happened upon a recommendation for www.copyexpress.co.uk who were extremely helpful and provided A3 acetate we could patch together with amazing next day deliverly!
Jono cunningly managed to bypass the acetate stage by producing his contribution in cut paper which could be placed straight onto the coated screen when exposing.
Printing went fairly smoothly and it's been rather pleasant washing out the screens in the summer sun even though we've had issues with the hose and managed to burn out the motor on one of our pressure washers.
SC&T was hanging in The Shetland Museum's Learning Room between the 9th and the 11th July alongside many other artists contributing to this year's VunkFest. The museum also played host to a series of short films on the Sunday and of course you can read about all the great bands playing that fantastic weekend here. For more information on all the going on check out www.myspace.com/vunkventures
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A few pictures of my paper cut positives which were used in place of acetate/film to expose stencil to screen:
First of all, for those who have stopped by recently - you may have noticed the lack of updates on latest projects. It has been a busy old summer of projects amongst other things including moving into a new flat and trips away to London through my placement at Shetland Arts - to work on an exciting project, involving the branding of Shetland Art's new venue, Mareel. More about this in future posts, I'm sure.
So to begin the update, I will start with Vunk Fest.
Vunk Fest is an alternative music and art festival in Shetland. This year I was involved with the Vunk Fest Visual Arts Collective which was a group brought together to create work as a collective. We chose to involve the musicians as a greater part of the visual arts side of the festival and break down preconceived barriers between the artforms of the festival. We also arranged a pop-up shop in the run up to the festival which I briefly blogged about in May here. Wow summer has gone by fast!
My main focus over the build up to Vunk for the collective was on "The Drum Splattering". Murray Arthur of Shetland Drums kindly agreed to sponsor himself and a drum kit for the idea, which was to film a completely white drum kit splattered in paint while someone played along to a backing track, the film would be used as a promo to the festival and the drum kit would be used on stage at the gigs.
First I had to figure out a way to splatter paint on the drums, a test film with an old cymbal and house paint was set up back in March, this concluded that the simplest way to fling the paint would be most successful, this method was plastic cups.
Next step was preparing the drums. The sponsored drums were Murray's practice kit, which were coloured red. This meant a few days of full on sanding action to take the existing lacquer and paint off and back to bare wood.
The drums were then sprayed white over the next week. Another point to add was the metal hardware had to be numbered and documented to make sure everything fitted back together seamlessly and fast!
This preparation process took some time to do but was a great feeling to get the drums looking so good at the end. They look brilliant just white, but they were missing that something Vunk.
Moving on now, we arranged to commit the splattering during the following week but the spray paint dried faster than anticipated and with a beautiful looking Sunday night we pushed the filming forward. Thankfully everyone managed to get there on short notice to help out. At this point I must thank Karen & Kirsty Bruce, My Dad for transport to location, Murray Arthur and the splatterers Chris Storey, Birdy, John, Elaine and Jamie.
I really couldn't be more happy with how the drums turned out in the end they look and sound brilliant! There was always a slight element of worry that the sound quality would be effected but after getting Murray along for a quick tune up we realised they sound good! Phew!
So now please enjoy the final film with music by kind permission of Poison Popcorn and El Pedro. Thanks for looking!
