April 2015

Untitled-1

Images l-r: (c) Mandy Williams; (c) Emmanuelle Foussat; (c) Ingrid Newton

In May I'll be showing some work from the Before series for One Stop Photo London, a fringe exhibition that takes place at the same time as Photo London (20 - 24 May) in Seven Dials, Covent Garden. The other photographers taking part are Hamid Blad, Elisabeth Blanchet, Etienne Clément, Emmanuelle Foussat, Helio Leon, Ingrid Newton and Agnès Villette. It has been organised in partnership with Balthazart and bealondoner.com. The private view is Wednesday 20 May, 6 - 10pm - all welcome!

IMG_1488uncoveredbw This past month I've been shooting more video by the river. I have a lot of footage to look through and edit, but am excited by the potential of this work as a future installation.

Also this month I've been shortlisted for the British Women Artist's Competition 2015 which is great news. The shortlist includes some very interesting sculpture and installation and I'm happy to be included with these artists.

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March 2015

London Independent Photography Magazine Spring 2015

I found out this week that London Independent Photography had made one of my Unseen Landscape images their magazine cover for the Spring 2015 Topography issue which was a lovely surprise. There's some very strong photography throughout this issue and I particularly like the work by Ingrid Newton, Celine Marchbank and Sara Wallach. The magazine's on sale at the Photographers' Gallery, Serpentine Gallery and Whitechapel Gallery as well as other London galleries.

I was pleased to find out that the postcard that I'd submitted to Visual Aids in New York for their annual benefit, Postcards from the Edge, sold to a buyer in New York. This featured another photograph from the Unseen Landscape series.

From Riverbed Stories video 2015 (c) Mandy Williams

I have recently started work on a video to accompany the Riverbed Stories photographs and am feeling excited about its development. I was inspired by some of the video work I saw in Paris last month and am approaching this project from a new perspective.

I shall also be taking part in a group show in London this May, more details to follow.

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February 2015

Riverbed Stories #26 (c) Mandy Williams

Much of January has been spent photographing - working on the Riverbed Stories project as well as continuing to add new images to Unseen Landscapes.

Unseen Landscape #9 (c) Mandy Williams

One of the Unseen Landscapes images was included in the Postcards from the Edge annual benefit for Visual Aids in New York. The submitted postcards were on display at Luhring Augustine and attracted a huge crowd. This photograph is by Kourosh Noorbaksh.

Postcards from the Edge for Visual Aids at Luhring Augustine, New York (c) Kourosh Noorbaksh

I've also been looking at producing a new video project and began shooting for this at the end of January.

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January 2015

Wishing everyone a very happy New Year! 2014 was a really good year and highlights included taking part in the Now Wakes the Sea exhibition in Kinsale, Ireland, exhibiting at Somerset House with the National Open Art Competition, being part of Deptford X and Photomonth and receiving the photography award at the Royal West of England Academy.  Throughout the year I felt very enthusiastic about photography and completely obsessed by different projects.

As the year ended I took part in Here From Now, a landscape photography exhibition at the Camden Image Gallery, which featured international photographers and some really excellent work.

The year also ended with the National Open Art exhibition touring to the Minerva Theatre in Chichester, Sussex. I wasn't able to see the show (which finishes 3 January), but this image taken by NOAC shows my Riverbed Stories photograph next to Rogan Brown's prize-winning work.

Later this month I shall be contributing to Postcards from the Edge, the annual Visual Aids Benefit which is being held at Luhring Augustine in New York.

Looking forward to 2015 and working on new projects.

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December 2014

Preview night at Rich Mix, Shoreditch

Sea(e)scape exhibition in Covent Garden and the Photomonth Photo-Open both finished last week and the RWA Open exhibition ends this weekend - it's been a really busy autumn. There was a great crowd for the preview night of the Photo-Open at Rich Mix in Shoreditch as the show was one of the Top 5 selected First Thursday events. I had six photographs in Imagining the East End and there was some great work by photographers David Hoffmann and Dougie Wallace. Thanks to Maggie and Amy for inviting me to take part.

Later this month the National Open Art exhibition that was at Somerset House moves onto Chichester in Sussex and my work will be shown at the Minerva Theatre until early January. I hope to get down and see the show in its new venue.

Here From Now - photograph (c) Nina Sever

Also this month, I'm happy to be included in Here From Now, a landscape photography exhibition featuring some great photographers from around the world. The exhibition, curated by artist William Esdale, will open on Saturday 13 December at the Camden Image Gallery in London and run until the 19 December. I'm showing a couple of images from Riverbed Stories as well as my self-published book. Knowing some of the other photographers' work I would really recommend people try to see this show.

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November 2014

Riverbed Stories, RWA Bristol

I found out early in October that my photograph Riverbed Stories had been selected for the Royal West of England Academy's 162nd open exhibition and was notified a few days later that it had been awarded the Redcliffe Press photography prize which was great news. I went down to the opening event in Bristol to see the exhibition and collect the award. The RWA is a beautiful space and the exhibition is spread out over several rooms, with moving image a new category this year. The exhibition continues through to 7 December.

Opening preview at RWA Bristol

The RWA open has been lucky for me - it was 2011 when I was last there and won the Printmaking Today prize for original print.

One of the Frame photographs in the Sea(e)scape exhibition, Seven Dials

This month Sea(e)scape exhibition continues at Seven Dials Club in Covent Garden and on 6 November the Photomonth Photo-Open starts at Rich Mix, Shoreditch. The theme is ‘Imagining the East End’ and there are 33 photographers exhibiting. I'm very happy to be a guest artist and looking forward to seeing the work. The exhibition is open daily from 10am to 10pm and runs until 30 November.

October 2014

Riverbed Stories at Creekside Discovery Centre, Deptford X (c) Mandy Williams 2014

September was a busy and interesting month. One of the highlights was visiting Ireland for the first time to attend the Kinsale Arts Festival where I had three photographs in the Now Wakes the Sea exhibition. I enjoyed seeing the other work in the show by artists Collette Egan, Elizabeth Lyne, Joan Sugre, Laura Smith, Luke Sisk, Miriam O’Connor, Rita O’Driscoll and Sean Guinan, as well as visiting separate exhibitions by Kathy Prendegast and Daphne Wright.

Riverbed Stories (c) Mandy Williams; in foreground Installation (c) Luke Sisk in Now Wakes the Sea exhibition

As soon as I was back two other exhibitions were installed - one at Seven Dials in Covent Garden and one at the Creekside Discovery Centre in Deptford for the Deptford X festival.

The Covent Garden exhibition, sea (e) scape, has been organised by Balthazart and features photography by myself and Elisabeth Blanchet. I'm pleased to be showing work from two different series, Frame and Immerse. The show opens 1 October and runs through to the end of November, there will be a private view in early November.

The Deptford X exhibition runs over two weekends, finishing on Sunday 5 October. I'm showing seven large-scale weatherproof prints from Riverbed Stories which have been printed up by Concorde Graphics and installed on the large exterior creekside wall. The Creekside Discovery Centre is the perfect place to show this work - all credit to Festival Director Caz Underwood for her management of this project. There are many different arts activities happening throughout Deptford - pleased to have seen a few of these on the festival launch night, particularly liked work by artists Nicola Rae and Victoria Rance.

Also in late September, the National Open Art exhibition opened at Somerset House, London. I went along to the artists' preview evening which was really enjoyable. 122 works were on show from an original submission of around 3500. Many prizes were awarded during the evening.

Riverbed Stories on display at Somerset House (c) Mandy Williams

As Riverbed Stories has been featured in different exhibitions this Autumn, I thought it would be a good time to self-publish a book of a selection of these images. 23 photographs are included in the publication - a full preview can be seen here.

Finally, I was very happy to be invited to be a guest artist for this year's Photomonth. I'll write more about this next month when the work will be on display in Shoreditch.

September 2014

(c) Mandy Williams 2014

August was an exciting month and I'm grateful for the new opportunities that developed. The next couple of months are going to be busy.

At the start of the month I'd been invited to take part in a 'critical discussion' at the Greenwich Gallery with photographer Elisabeth Blanchet. She and I visited the exhibition by local London Independent Photography members to prepare for the 7 August event and the evening was enjoyable and very welcoming. I'd heard of Elisabeth before because of her fascinating work with the Prefab museum, but it was a pleasure to collaborate with her on this event.

On 20 August I travelled down to Salisbury for the opening for the LOST exhibition and was glad to have seen it. A great concept and interesting work on display. I particularly enjoyed seeing the wax handbags by Henny Burnett + David O'Connor's re-staged Map performance. The show, which includes work by Stephanie Douet, Sonia Martin, Prudence Maltby, Dave King and Matt White is on until 28 September.

At the end of July I had found out my photograph from the Riverbed Stories series had made it through the first round of judging for the National Open Art competition show and I had to deliver the framed print for the 2nd round of judging in late August. It was good to discover the drop-off point in Sussex was very close to somewhere I had wanted to re-visit and photograph (the 12th century church at Hardham) so it turned into a day out with the camera. During the following week I was excited to find out the piece had been selected for the NOAC exhibition. It begins in September at Somerset House, London (runs 26 September - 25 October) and then moves to Chichester in December.

More news will follow later this month about Now Wakes the Sea, the Deptford X Festival and a pop-up two person exhibition in October/November.

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August 2014

(c) Salisbury Arts Centre

This month I'll be taking part in the LOST exhibition at Salisbury Arts Centre. The show, which has been curated by Fiona Cassidy and Michele Whiting, runs from 21 August to 28 September.

I am also preparing three images for the Now Wakes the Sea exhibition, guest curated by Tessa Fitzjohn, which will be at the Kinsale Arts Festival in West Cork from 19 - 28 September. The exhibition features nine artists who were selected by Helen Carey (Director/ Curator Limerick City Gallery of Art), Kathy Prendergast (Artist IRE), Ingrid Swenson (Director, Peer, London) and Trish Brennan (CIT College of Art and Design).  Click on the link for the festival programme - the exhibition is on page 19.

Last month I was also pleased to have work selected for the Deptford X Fringe which takes place in London at the end of September. Deptford X is London’s longest running contemporary visual arts festival and has been experienced by over one million people since inception in 1998. It runs 26 September to 5 October.

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July 2014

(c) Mandy Williams 2014

Over the past month I've continued to photograph along the river in South East London and Kent adding to the Riverbed Stories series. Some of the existing images can be seen here. The landscape changes so much in the summer; it's interesting to compare the images through the seasons.

I am really happy that work from this series has just been selected for a group exhibition in Ireland in September. The show was one that I very much wanted to take part in and I'm now hoping that I may get over to Ireland during the show.

I have also had work selected for a group exhibition in Salisbury and that show will open in late August.  It's quite a different show in that it will feature work from pre-2000, so I had put forward a photograph that I'd exhibited in Canada in 1999. Completely different from my current work - it's large-scale, hand-painted photography.

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June 2014

still from inside (c) Mandy Williams

I was pleased to find out that my video, Inside, was selected for an exhibition called Home, at the Bridewell Studios and Gallery in Liverpool. The show, which ran from 16 May - 1 June, featured work by 28 artists and was part of the LightNight Liverpool 2014 programme.

I was also happy to discover that my Re-Collect work had been included in a photography blog out of the University of Texas in San Antonio by Annali Juarez. Throughout the month different photographers had been highlighted, many of whom I particularly admire such as Michael Wolf, Pipilotti Rist, and Nan Goldin.

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May 2014

I have an interview published in the May edition of an Italian-based online magazine called LandEscape Art Review. The publication features innovative contemporary art that references landscape. The editorial team sent an interesting set of questions after selecting nine of my images for publication from an open submission process. Happy that I managed to reference William Burroughs! Take a look if you have some time - there are eight artists featured - I particularly like Thomas Ladd's photography and work by Gürkan Mıhçı.

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April 2014

I was happy to find out that this photograph from Riverbed Stories is the centrefold image of the new London Independent Photography Magazine. The magazine comes out three times a year and is available through the Photographers Gallery, Serpentine, Whitechapel, Photofusion and National Portrait Gallery. I've been working on this series since late December, (although documenting this area since 2009), and  shooting at this location a couple of times a month.

I am also anticipating inclusion in two publications later in April - one of which includes a feature and interview. Both are non-UK publications. I'll include links to them once they're available.

Over the past month I've been collecting content for the video project and also building up a few different photographic series. I'm aiming for at least 12-15 strong images for each project from which to start printing.

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March 2014

Inside video was recently selected for the inaugural Sidney Cooper Film Open at the Sidney Cooper Gallery, Christchurch University, Canterbury. The Film Open, curated by Hazel Stone, ran from 20 - 22 February and featured 13 short films. I was able to visit and see all of them and was really happy with the technical quality of the screening and the other films on the programme, which included works by Patricia Wilson Smith, Stacey Guthrie and Anna MacDonald.

This month my Dream House video gets to travel to Dunedin, New Zealand, where it has been selected to be screened as part of the Dunedin Fringe Festival. Initiated in 2000, the Dunedin Fringe  aims to bring experimental contemporary art to a wider audience and to support the work of emerging audiences. Dunedin is apparently the furthest city in the world from London so it's exciting to think of the video being seen there.

I've also begun the early stages of a new audio visual work. It's a subject close to my heart and has been on the back burner for months. I'm unsure at this time how the finished work will be presented but I'm beginning to collect the material I need and will let it find its form during the editing process.

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February 2014

(c) Mandy Williams 2014

Since the New Year I've been busy shooting across several different series of work and building up portfolios of new images. Some of these I'll definitely develop further. I've had an idea for a video for some time and can see some of these photographs complementing this project.

In late January I once again took part in the annual fundraiser, Postcards from the Edge, to raise money for Visual Aids. The group exhibition was held at Luhring Augustine, New York. Lots of artists took part and it looked like the show was really well attended.

Another benefit exhibition takes place in early February. This time it's a biennial fundraiser for Studio 1.1., a non-profit artist-run gallery in East London which I've known for several years and want to support. At the last count around 90 artists were contributing work so the preview night is going to be very busy!

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December 2013

Still from Inside (c) Mandy Williams 2010

Earlier this month my video Inside was screened at the 8th International Streaming Festival of Audio-Visual Art in their Documenta Programme. The festival, which is organised out of The Hague in the Netherlands, ran from 1 - 15 December.  It featured independent artists exhibiting unconventional audiovisual art from all over the world and I was happy to have had my work selected.

2013 has been a really good year - from having a one-person show in London in March, to being part of the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, and having video and audio work selected and screened in Athens, Cairo, Washington, Moscow, Lisbon,The Hague, and in the UK.

Looking forward to 2014 and working on new projects.

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September 2013

Still from Dream House (c) Mandy Williams 2013

At the beginning of August I found out that my video Dream House had been selected for the Cairo Video Festival, which takes place from the 25 September to 7 October. The Cairo Video Festival, curated by Mohamed Allam and Dia Hamed, presents a diverse program of experimental film and video art from around the world. Dream House screens on Saturday 5 October in a programme that includes videos made by artists from Canada, Austria, Australia, Scotland and the USA.

(c) Mandy Williams 2013

Earlier in the month I produced a short audio piece, 20 minute journey, for an open call called Intermission: Audio portraits of place - Mapping the space between A and B. The work was selected by Jennie Savage and Nuno Torres from the Echoes project in Lisbon to be broadcast on Portugese Radio on 21 and 22 September in the 'Convergence' programme of the event.

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August 2013

Still from Inside (c) Mandy Williams 2010

Very excited to have had my video, Inside, selected for the Washington Project of the Arts Experimental Media Screening 2013 at The Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design, Washington on 23 September. The event is one of two screenings organised by the WPA - the other being at the Phillips Collection - that feature works which explore and examine privacy and surveillance in contemporary society. Jason Eppink, Associate Curator of Digital Media at Museum of the Moving Image in New York City, has selected the program.

Also in the USA, I'm contributing a small photograph on aluminium, House #5, for a benefit in Detroit later this month. The benefit, organised by Museum of New Art's Director Jef Bourgeau, will raise money for MoNA and includes work by 75 artists, including Pae White, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Uta Barth and Iain Baxter.

House #5 (c) Mandy Williams 2009

Over the past couple of months I've begun to collect ideas for a new video project which I hope to begin shooting in October.

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July 2013

In June my video, Inside, was screened at Firstsite in Colchester for the Playing with Space Artist Film Screening curated by Lawrence Bradby as part of RIBA’s Love Architecture Festival 2013. The invitation came as a result of being a member of Axis. I didn't get to attend the event but the programme looked very interesting with films by Alex Pearl, Ruairi Watson and Claire Hope amongst others.

(c) Mandy Williams 2012

In early July I found out that one of my photographs, Before #7, had been selected for the Hot-One-Hundred exhibition at Schwartz Gallery in Hackney Wick. The show features 100 artists and the work was chosen by Ismail Erbil and Patrick Michalopoulos, the artist-curators of Schwartz Gallery. The exhibition opens on 17 July and I'm excited to see how the show will look installed in the gallery.

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