Chinese Embassy, Kurt Schwitters, New Ideas...

Well, what a day I had yesterday, probably one of the best days of this year for definite and one to remember for a long time. Firstly off to the Chinese Embassy to put in for my Visa application, collection next week for my journey to Beijing!!! I am so excited I can't quite explain how inspiring this trip will be and what will be created, I organically await its development. 

Then onto the Tate Britain to see the new Kurt Schwitters exhibition. I have been eagerly awaiting this exhibit for sometime now after I heard the news about what was going to take place, and I can't quite explain to you how unbelievably moving, inspirational and stunning this show is. As you walk through the Tate Britain's entrance, through the double doors into the first room, you are struck by the sheer enormousness  and abundance of his works. As you turn to very corner, at every wall his collages, intermixed with his painting pull you closer to examine a mind set, a history and ethos so poetic, sensitive and thoughtful, one so honest and true it made my head pause and my heart pound. 

Paint so thickly applied, cotton so softly adhered, newspapers torn in such a way, every detail of every work is composed with a passion and deep understanding of the material applied and why it has its placed within the form. Schwitters process is so inspiring, and always has been to me. A great influence and lessons taught by his pieces, as you appreciate the life he lead as he made these works and the importance of his ideology in a time when he was deemed by the Nazi's, a degenerative artist.

The exhibition is vast, with every room you enter another pound in your chest, as you see his work move, change and develop collage, painting, sculpture, poems. Everything he touched, he touched with a sensitive hand and with his poetry and short stories a humour that is dadist and entertaining. Hearing him preform his poems is quite an experience!

Words, can't really do justice and in my words can't truly explain the magnitude this man has had on my practice and my mind set, I left the exhibition hours later with a warmth I haven't felt in years and a desire to produce work, ideas for my new collaborative project based out in Beijing. Above are some initial ideas that I worked on yesterday for this new project, more to follow as the process develops.

Amsterdam bound, next trip Beijing...

So it wouldn't be a new year without, some of the old... and what seems more appropriate than a trip to Amsterdam! I am off on Thursday to visit a few friends and see some wonderful shows, including my favourite Dutch duo Mr T & Mr R known as WassinkLundgren for their solo show at Foam Museum, but also a little bit of fashion at the Gasworks for Amsterdam Fashion Week. I know it will be filled with much laughter, wonderful works and then onto another adventure...

Soon after my return, I plan for an incredible trip, one of a lifetime as I prepare for a new collaborative project based out in China. I am off to Beijing on a residency to start producing an extraordinary body of work alongside an amazing Photography Collector which will debut at the Format Festival in March of this year. My works will be in their preliminary stages as we start our process, but what I can advise is that this is something worth waiting for and watching the progress from March into the later part of the year. More to follow as I get prepared and plan my trip.....

See WassinkLundgren's show here: http://www.foam.org/visit-foam/calendar/2013-exhibitions/wassinklundgren-one-group-show

PayPal Purchasing

You can now purchase your copy of "The Photograph as Contemporary Art" by simply emailing studio.melindajgibson@gmail.com and using your PayPal account to pay. It's is super quick and reliable and we ship worldwide. Don't miss out on your copy.....

studio.melindajgibson@gmail.com

Happy New Year - And a New Editorial... for Material Girl Magazine!

So a very Happy New Year to all! I have a feeling that 2013 is going to be super busy!! A great start for me as my new editorial is out in a lovely Fashion magazine from Austria called Material Girl. Shot in my old studio location, back in early November the lovely Marie Zucker took my portrait and here is the finished result.

The magazine is a really beautiful thing, well worth a look if you haven't yet seen one, all the good magazine stores stock it. See more here: http://materialgirl-mag.com/

Merry Christmas - Thank You Mercedes-Benz!

    

   

So here it is..... my commission for Mercedes-Benz, literally just finished and launched yesterday afternoon on MB! Magazine. It was a great project, where I worked with the amazing Lucid-Ly and MB crew on a bespoke project around the new A-Class AMG Sport based here in London. We travelled around to five different locations, all of which are inspirational for me and worked with a photographer to produce new material that I could re-use for collages. A very different take from my normal source material as I art directed the photographer to produce certain imagery I wanted to use!

A great project, resulting in a exciting and fun shoot last week, check out the article here: 

http://www5.mercedes-benz.com/en/zeitgeist/london-from-a-different-angle-melinda-gibson-a-class/

http://mb.mercedes-benz.com/en/article/4371/London+From+a+Different+Angle

After all this excitement, its time for a rest, so I bid you farewell and to have a very happy, joyful and Merry Christmas and look forward to new and exciting times in 2013...... and there is already something wonderful planned, where I am off to Beijing!!!!

Photo-eye Best Books of 2012

I have great pleasure announcing that my first book, "The Photograph as Contemporary Art" has been selected by Tom Claxton and Erik Kessels in Photo-eye's Best Books of 2012!

Tom Claxton writes, "Gibson's debut title intricately culls the pages of curator Charlotte Cotton's (2004) seminal book of the same name. The resulting re-appropriated photo-collages challenge our understanding of the original work and their canonization in photo history- a wonderfully smart, thoughtful and beautifully constructed object."

And Erik Kessels, "Every single one of these books were put together by hand and took about 3 hours to be finished. The photographic collage work of Gibson is very well expressed in this book full of stickers."

See more of the Best Books of 2012 here; http://www.photoeye.com/magazine_admin/index.cfm/bestbooks.2012

It Fashion Feature

While of this Farfetch promotion has been going on, I forgot to mention that I found a great article about my handmade books in this beautiful online magazine from Barcelona! Available in both Spanish and English the site is great and well worth a visit.

The feature talks through my handmade books and here is a little taster, 

"Around a year ago, photographer Joan Fontcuberta wrote at Babelia, El País’ literary supplement: “We’re witnessing a photobook boom. […] And all this takes place while bad omens predict both the end of printed paper and the death of photography.”

Firecracker’s October’s featured photographer, former assistant to Martin Parr or Wolfgang Tilmans and FOAM Magazine photography prize winner Melinda Gibson, seems to be determined to fight both of them: during the last Unseen fair, a brand new event for professionals and photography lovers which takes place in Amsterdam, created live a photobook –yes, a photography book, and yes, on printed paper– with the images of her project “The Photograph as Contemporary Art”.

Melinda Gibson seems to be determined to fight the end of printed paper and the death of photography."

Read more here: http://itfashion.com/en/culture/frames-en/melinda-gibson-y-sus-fotolibros-diy/

Planet Notion Feature

To follow on with the promotion surrounding Farfetch's commissions, while we were filming I got interviewed by Planet Notion Magazine. It was a great, little informal interview about my collaboration with Farfetch, talking more depth about the visuals behind the design and my thoughts surrounding Christmas as a whole, with reference to my medium Photography.

Here's a little exert from the lovely article, "Here at Notion, we got to visit the studio of Melinda Gibson. Having studied photography at London College of Communication, Melinda focuses on the way we see and look at things- namely within photography. Always working by hand, Melinda cuts out vital sections of photographs to see how this impacts our understanding of the image. 

PN: So what’s this piece about for you?                                                        MG: It’s about Christmas, but not in an obvious shiny and glittery way.

PN: Can you take us through it?                                                                      MG: Sure. I got all the images from old vintage magazines, and this first image, (middle top) is an image that I burnt with a candle, and behind it is from a selection of Christmas children’s toys, and then part of those images have been removed and replaced with a red backing- because it is Christmas after all.

The second image (left B&W) is from a Christmas festivity, in a pub setting with a couple having a drink. I removed their faces and replaced the mans face space with Christmas themed text, and the woman’s with an ink drawing which I traced from a 1950’s magazine of a traditional Christmas plant, which is also used in the man’s jackets.

The third image is of a boy, where I removed the face and hands and replaced them with wintery themed trees…"

See more here: http://www.planetnotion.com/2012/11/28/unwrap-christmas-with-farfetch-com/

Christmas Wrapping Paper Launched Today on Farfetch.com

So today is a very exciting day as my Christmas Wrapping Paper project for Farfetch.com goes live on their site! The paper I created forms the sidebars of the website with an exclusive feature on the project we worked on over the past few months. There is a great little film about my process and me making the work!

The feature includes personal pictures of my family at Christmas inter-mixed with pieces from current and older bodies of work. With texts stating, "Fashions favourite collages..." and "Melinda's work has graced the likes of AnOther Magazine, Harpers Bazaar, Maire Claire, Nowness and FOAM..." the feature is fantastic and being in the mix with other incredible artists like Meadham Kirchhoff, Margot Bowman and Gary Card this is just a wonderful festive project!

See more here: http://www.farfetch.com/ 

Wallpaper* iPad App

On Saturday 24th November saw my new book The Photograph as Contemporary Art featured as a Case Study on the Wallpaper* App. Using photomontage XIV as the main image, the featured stated, 

"The Photograph as Contemporary Art' by Melinda Gibson, has been a project in the making for nearly 2 years. Working with Dutch design studio Kummer & Herrman, she took the iconic book of the same name by Charlotte Cotton as her raw material, to construct around 30 unique photo-montages, which have sparked photographic debate....."

Download the free wallpaper app to read and see more here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/wallpaper*-case-studies/id408888024?mt=8

To order you copy of the book email studio.melindajgibson@gmail.com

Filming Debut

So today saw my filming debut, with a bright and early start to make use of the sunny morning! The filming was part of additional press and publicity around a commission I completed for a Christmas Campaign for an iterative Fashion company.

We had a great little team, an amazing film crew that were super quick and really produced some incredible imagery, I just can't wait to see the final edited film, I think it's going to be very beautiful and tactile that really explains visually how I work and my rather labour intensive process. 

While this was going on in the studio today, I was also interviewed by both my client but also got interviewed by a lovely lady from a very interesting Online Magazine about the commission, which will run later this month, very exciting times indeed.

I will keep you posted with all news relating to this commission as it gets released very soon indeed.

MC Motors, Wrapping Paper, Daido, Photoshoots

Wow, what a week! It started off last Friday and its been all go since then. Firstly a little dinner trip to MC Motors in Dalston to have an extraordinary dinner hosted by Jose Cuervo Traditional Tequila with the Art of Dining. It was an amazing venue that was beautifully designed by one of the team from AOD and we eat great food and drank rather too much beer and Tequila! 

Then onto a weekend packed of commission making and a surprise invitation to the Tate on Sunday to see Daido Moriyama make his new book live in the East Room, with wonderful views over the Thames. What an event it was, he had live silk screen printers making 2 versions of the cover, a wall covered head to toe in images that you yourself could order into sequence for your very own book! And a fare few people putting the books together in 30 minutes. I thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the book making and taking a break from that of my own to witness and be part of another fabulous idea by the great Daido Moriyama. The book is truly wonderful and it was an honor to be there, seeing it be made.

Then onto a Photo-shoot for an editorial piece about my new book in Material Girl coming out soon for the Fall issue. Great shoot with a lovely photographer called Marie Zucker taking my portrait. What a week and the next are coming thick and fast and with much of the same.

More commission news coming soon...