‘Run to draw the World’
Physical activity and artistic creativity, running and drawing at the same time an auto-phenomenological exploration.
I am interested in the purpose and practice of illustration beyond the boundaries of the commercial and published page, my aim is to become the ultimate-itinerant-illustrator running and drawing through the world.
In my research the philosophical will underpin the sociological rather than lead the analysis. A phenomenological approach will emphasise subjectivity, description, interpretation, and agency, to examine the ‘lived experience’ of ‘running and drawing’, or similar combinations of creativity and physical movement, gathering evidence of what is experienced, imagined, drawn, remembered and felt initially by the researcher, and subsequently through participant case studies.
Particularly relevant to this research are eidetic or vivid mental images, which the phenomenological approach treats authoritatively (Cerbone, 2006). Whilst running, the drawings made construct eidetic visions relating to part of the ‘lived experience’ that further trigger memories of that experience when revisited either through the drawings themselves or the places in which they were drawn. By repeating the activity in a variety of scenarios these drawings become data used to analyse the similarities, differences, meanings and ‘knowledge’ from monitoring data collected from experiences.
In order to understand the ‘essence’ of phenomena in parallel with phenomenological philosophy, researchers have highlighted the difficulties of a nuanced approach which relies upon ‘imagination’ and ‘perception’ unquestioningly, thus having no definitive path. For this research such complexities will be necessary. Used synchronously with autoethno/phenomenographical approaches, detailed analysis can be provided from drawings and films made whilst running to be considered as evidence in reflective writing. This will command a difficult and multifaceted philosophy (Allen-Collinson, 2009) which will allow the researcher to use this as evidence which can be seen as ‘new knowledge’ (Richardson, 2000), and through this approach examine the ‘lived experience’ of the research itself to explore a ‘rich’ (Trotman, 2006) lifeworld which values the imagination.
2013/2014
‘Space is deep’
Daniel Blau Gallery Hoxton Square London
December 2013 – February 2014
‘What is P*A*St?’
Cardiff M.A.D.E January 2014 including workshops and performances
‘From London with Love’
Material gallery and bookshop
Rivington Street London
December 2013
Funded by the Arts Council of Wales
‘A Christmas P*A*St’ a multi media puppet show through 24 doors
Arcade Cardiff
21st December 2013 – 6th January 2014
‘Once Upon Again’
London Winns Gallery 28.06.13 – 04.11.13
La Science Fiction – with Run To Draw:
Medoc Marathon France Performance September 2013
2012/2013
P*A*St installation Arcade Cardiff July 2013
‘See How They Run’ – with Run To Draw:
Edinburgh Marathon performance May 2013
‘Once Upon Again’
Cardiff Milkwood Gallery 27.02.13 – 09.03.13
‘The Function of Folk’
Ethnographic Museum Krakow November 2012 – January 2013
‘The Princess and The Pea and the Deep Blue Sea’–
Performance Wardrobe Theatre Bristol November 2012
‘Krakow Run’
Performance November 2012
‘Pheidippides 1’
Cardiff half Marathon performance October 2012
‘The Princess and the Pea’- Installation and Performance
Ethnographic Museum Krakow November 2012
2011/2012
P*A*St: Puppet Performance three tales adapted from Peter Carey’s Short Stories
Cardiff Design Festival October 2011
‘Folk After Auschwitz’
Cardiff library October 2011
2010/2011
Close Eyes To Exit: Red Gallery Rivington Street London, 1st- 18th April 2011, Exhibition and publication
Make Room: Milkwood Gallery Cardiff, 12th – 24th April 2011
Falmouth Metamorphosis Illustration Forum, Shadow Play Alchemy Redolence & Enchantment
‘Paper Horses: Women Witchcraft & Sex’: Solo Show Material Gallery Kingly Court London
Varoom article ‘A Kind of Magic’ August 2010
Solo Shows
Welcome to the World of Amelia Johnstone – Material Ludlow 2009
‘Polska Podroz: with Cossacks, the Devil, Shellewellyn and Me’, The Blue Room, Royal College of Art London, December 2002
Random, Reverie and Rapture’, The Blue Room, Royal College of Art London, April 2002
Group Shows
Bare Bones Neu Gallery November 2009 and March 2010.
Faust Work exhibited as part of the Big Draw Material Ludlow October 2008
Celebration 150 years West Buckland School opened by Princess Royal October 2008
‘Le Gun the Family’ La Rochelle School Shoreditch London September 2008
‘Le Gun’- Dream Machine – Performance and Exhibition White Chapel Gallery London June 2007
‘Planet Le Gun’- Brighton, January 2007
‘Strange Works’ – March of the Dead, October 2006
‘Le Gun’: Festival of Illustration Brick Lane London May 2006
‘Le Gun’: No 8 Regent Street London, June – September 2005
Book Arts Exhibition – Hereford College of Arts – April 2005 and Hay on Wye Festival May 2005
‘Le Gun’, Notting Hill Arts Club, September – November 2005
‘Body Interpretations’, St Martin’s in the Fields Crypt Gallery, September – October 2005,
‘Le Gun’, The Match Bar, Oxford Street, London, July – September 2004,
‘Le Gun’, ICA London and L’Institute Francais Kensington London, In collaboration with the COMICA Festival, May – July 2004
‘Your Cup’: an exhibition celebrating sustainability and the cup, Hockney Gallery, Royal College of Art London, December 2003
The Show 2: Communications Art and Design, Henry Moore Gallery, Royal College of Art London, June – July 2003
Folio Society 25th Anniversary Awards, Seminar rooms, Royal College of Art London, April – May 2003
Work in Progress, Royal College of Art London, January 2003
Letter Press Annual Show, Hockney Gallery, Steven’s Building, Royal College of Art London, May – June 2002
‘The Reading Room’, The Blue Room, Royal College of Art London, June 2002
Folio Society Awards, Seminar rooms, Royal College of Art London, May 2002
Performances
‘Quentin Follies’: Charleston Farmhouse Sussex, ‘Mansfield and Miller’, July 2004
Bath Music Festival: ‘Immigration’: a performance with slides and cut outs with original music by Ben Hardwick, Royal Academy of Music, and the words of Italo Calvino from his ‘Invisible Cities’, May 2002
Notting Hill Arts Club
‘Poetry with slides’, February 2002
Awards
Hay festival Book Arts Award for ‘The Severed Head Society’ 2007
Folio Society Award for Narrative illustration of Goethe’s Faust, Royal College of Art: May 2002
Brian Robb Memorial Scholarship, Royal College of Art: June 2002
