I also felt bad (at first) that I was bombarding a lot of friends with quotes, articles and rants on queer issues and that they'd just switch off and stop listening to me. Yes, I was worried about losing friends. And it has happened, even close friends have stopped talking to me or come forth with problematic views that has lead to a clean-cut severance of our bonds of friendship.
At the same time a magical and interesting thing happened that I had not expected - People listened. Friends, who I had genuinely worried about being the 'not everyone in the world is out to get you' speech kind of people, started to listen, and learn, and become...dare I say it...allies.
People were coming forward to me in real life and telling me they were reading a lot of the articles I post and the rants I go on. That they are learning more than they thought they would and were beginning to check their privilege, which as we know is an essential part of being a good ally. Hell, part of being a decent human being.

I found that a surprising number of my friends who are not queer or trans DO actually give a shit about trans and non-binary rights and even want to work to make the world a better place for me and other queer folx. Who'da guessed?
I also felt like I was just spending my time preaching to the choir of other queer folx on my social media who already feel the same as me, have the same politics and are screaming the same things I am, but to know that others are actually taking the time to engage and fight alongside is a wonderful thing. It's not quite as echo chambery as I believed!

So. As tiring as it can get sometimes (well most of the time, but I'll save self-care & activism for another time) I want to continue to be a shoutin', screamin', angry queer and because of that I have one request to make of you -

Keep on being an ally.

It's a (life)long journey but I promise it's worth it. ​

Xena: Warrior Princess is the earliest of these, starting in September 1995 and running until June 2001. The character originally appeared in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and quickly gained a following which, naturally, led to her own spin-off with Lucy Lawless reprising the role. Ancient Greece has always been rich with material for creative folks to draw from because of it's fantastical mythology. Unlike Buffy and Charmed, Xena is not set in a fixed location and the characters travel to various other countries interacting with their culture and myths.
Even though Xena seemed like she hated everyone, she does show a softer and more compassionate side. Through the violence there comes a point where she acknowledges that she should avoid it where possible and fights only in defence of herself, her loved ones and for the greater good. ​

Buffy promotes themes that the other two shows preach and more. Joss Whedon created something fantastic in Buffy that made it so endearing - he made her human. Every single episode she has to deal with things that we mere mortals have to deal with every day. Friends, family, love, death, sex, school, college, work etc. All our complexities blown up to scales that they do sometimes feel like and made ever more fantastical by the addition of magic and demons.

This is perhaps the most important lesson I have learned from any TV show...or in fact the most important lesson ever.

​Buffy has taught me how to be human.

My review of the Jonathan Trayte and Stass Paraskos exhibitions at The Tetley are out now on The State of the Arts.

​Click HERE or on the image below to have a nosey at it.

Today is my favourite day of the week - Folklore Thursday. It is the day that Twitter becomes an archive of folklore, stories and history, and I get to learn a lot of awesome and sometimes wacky things. Here are some of the things I learned about today:

A typical tale of 3s, of not judging a...er...serpent...by it's appearance, treachery and loss. 

Eye of Newt and Devil's Dung were just code names it would seem...

Or if you'd prefer to make friends with the faeries instead of pushing them away, here is a lovely article on...

This is a very long article from the Smithsonian, but it is also very interesting. I am always intrigued how folklore was used as the 'logical' (or there abouts) solution, when in hindsight these things seem absolutely ridiculous!
When your family is prone to tuberculosis, you blame a dead relative (who also died of this) as the one rising from the dead and draining your family. And the solution? Exhume them and eat or burn their heart. I am a tad confused as to why people's minds, in the particular case mentioned in the article, immediately went to the dead relatives when what would have made more sense would be the one unaffected (immune?) relative being the vampire and drawing life from the dying ones....but anyway. Still worth a read to hear from folklorist Michael Bell about vampire pilgrimages and the like.   

So, I've just got round to watching the 3rd episode of the Grayson Perry: All Man documentary.
I think this one was my favourite so far as it did actually try to look at the different shades of 'men' and 'masculinity'. 
And what better to represent it in the world of bankers that a bloody great ceramic cock. I did enjoy that he likened all the skyscrapers to giant phalluses and questioned the men who build them. (Are they over-compensating?...)
The work he produced this episode, to me, felt significantly more aggressive than the others despite those looking at physical violence (cage fighting and wielding sharp implements) in masculinity. The first chap's reaction to the work was great, I love that he immediately went on the defensive when compared to the posher, richer gentlemen who seemed to like it and agree with him.
While I still feel the series as a whole wasn't so clear on it's focus - was it men? Was it masculinity? Was it the people who were affected by these notions? Or perhaps all at once?
If you are going to look at a subject like this, you need more than 3 episodes to make it feel more than a novelty or an excuse for Channel 4 to wheel him out and try to win another BAFTA. Why was the other end of the man/masculinity spectrum not shown at least to lend contrast? Perhaps he feels that other side is not as interesting or that he maybe already knows too much about it and would now like the chance to explore this machismo for a change, from the safe distance of 'transvestite potter' of course, making him quite unthreatening to it. Although I'm sure the Channel 4 camera crew helped with that somewhat too.

An interesting thing happened during my viewing though. After they had interviewed the women who had experienced and were affected by the white male domination of the financial sector, I got to the ad break and an advert for the new Melissa McCarthy film The Boss came on, with her portraying a woman displaying the masculine aggressive behavior that had just been discussed and even condemned.
Interesting may not be the right word to use for that, but the placement of that was certainly something.

Immediately I found the dailies list very helpful. I started off with simple daily routine things - Get dressed, make the bed, brush teeth, wash face etc. with some things have a morning and evening checklist on them to be completed before that task was considered done. I then began to add other things that might be helpful assigned to certain days of the week, like checking the 'Folklore Thursday' hashtag on Twitter on Thursdays to help out with research.

Every time you complete a task you gain in-game coinage (gold or several silver coins) and experience.
When things on the Dailies list aren't ticked off by midnight, the damage your poor little avatar. You loose Health Points.
This is where Habitica really starts to work for me. I get distressed at the thought of little Ryan getting hurt and that it also makes me realise that when I don't do important daily things I know I need to do, it creates problems for me in reality. It is showing me that my actions do have consequences by putting them in this gamified format where I can immediately see it happening.

Yay for re-connecting with reality!

The To Dos list is, as the name implies, a to do list. You add to it tasks that need to be done and can assign it a date to be done by and a difficulty. If you know the task is a big or difficult one, you can make it reflect this meaning that when you complete it you get more coinage and experience.
Now the to do list doesn't damage your character if things aren't done. Even if you apply a deadline to it. 

Tasks not done on the to do list change colour the longer you leave them. They go from a standard yellow colour, which everything starts out at, to orange, to an urgent red. It does present a dilemma when things aren't on a specific time scale or you are waiting for someone to get back to you on something and the task sits there for a while. I suppose that is more about time/task management. 

The final list you are given is the Habits list. This allows you to track and control your habits, giving you plus and minus buttons that will let you gain experience and coinage for something, or detract Health Points for it.. You can see what you have done well and not done well by the changing colour on this list too. Blue things are what you are doing really well at, Green are things you have been ok at doing, Yellow is bog standard, Orange not so good and Red is for things you have been terrible at.

On this list I again started out simple with getting up before 9am, sitting at a table to work and not on the bed. I then added habits like walking into town, which I want to do more often, and habits I want to get rid of like taking a taxi home when I have 'missed the last bus'.
This is also going to hopefully help me improve other habits like reading more. I am one of those people who buys books telling myself I will get around to reading them when I have finished the one I am on now, which will take me ages to do. 

Now to cover the avatar and it's development.

You get to create your little avatar in your own image (or not if you'd prefer to be bright green or rainbow coloured) down to your skin tone, hair colour and style, the build of your body and they even have a wheelchair option where you can have your avatar sit in a wheelchair, which I think is pretty great of them to do so!
You start off with basic health and an experience bar, both of which increase as your level grows. Once you reach the correct level you then unlock the ability to gain items with your achievements, you can even get eggs so you can hatch a pet to go with your avatar.
When you pick up food in-game you can feed your pet and when it becomes big enough, you can ride it.
​
When you reach the right level for it, you can stop being a freelancer and chose a class. The classes are your usual RPG type classes - Warrior, Mage, Rogue, Healer. As you can see above, I have chosen to be a mage, so I can finally live the dream of becoming a wizard!

So to wrap this post up, I feel like this has already helped me make improvements to my productivity and life in general. I will keep on using it as...well...why would I stop?...I'm not a master wizard yet.
Hopefully this will be one part of the positive influences on me and allow me to become more productive and achieve all the things I keep telling myself I will do, but don't do because of that ol' devil procrastination.

I really enjoy strategy and RPG (Role Playing Games) and this can be problematic. A while ago I noticed I was so into some of these games that hours and hours of my life would be consumed by planning for these games. I would spend what felt like forever devising strategies to play and attempt to beat these games and not achieve much in my reality.

While I was getting really good at building ancient cities on games like Pharaoh, Master of Olympus: Zeus or Age of Empires, I would wish that I could transfer this kind of motivation and productivity into my everyday life. Why can't life be more like video games?! (This has nothing to do with me wanting to be a kick-ass dark elf mage....well maybe a little...)

So when the new year began, I decided to add more lists to my life. I like lists. Lists are fun. If I can make lists of possible combinations of Pokemon to use to beat the Elite Four then why can't I make lists to make things happen in reality a little more?
This is exactly what I did. I started making meal plans so I would know what I was going to cook for tea, which informed my shopping list when I next went into town. I then started a morning and evening routine list. I found I was using these lists, but only to tick off the basic tasks and leaving others I deemed not so important as sporadic.

This continued and up until now I allowed it, but I've come across something that I hope will help.

Habitica.

Habitica is a website/app that helps you organize your life and turns it into an RPG. You get a little character avatar to represent yourself and then you add your to do lists - Dailies, general To Do List and Habits. When you complete something on the to do lists you are rewarded with experience and in-game coinage, however if you fail to do the tasks you loose health points etc. as you would in a traditional RPG. It also helps you track and adjust your habits, if you want to do more or less of something.

So I've signed up to it. It's free so why the hell not. Hopefully this will fulfil my wish of becoming a kick-ass dark elf......I mean...of becoming more productive. I'll do a progress report post in about 2 weeks to see how this has gone.

Ok. So, I wrote this post for the start of LGBT* History Month but was hesitant to actually post it for a few reasons:

• I wasn't sure if I actually wanted to write this post as it is kind of personal. After a wee bit of consideration I decided that I should.
• I am not really a fan of LGBT* History Month. I feel a similar way about it as Morgan Freeman said he felt about Black History Month. However, I am in favor of anything that opens a dialogue between people on issues, so I participate.
• I prefer to identify as Queer as opposed LGBT*. The amount of letters added to that just keeps growing as it tries to become more of an umbrella term and I feel that as it expands, it brings more difficulties in trying to be all encompassing . It has become, as the fabulous Jamie Fletcher has described it, 'the Alphabet Club'. Also the LGBT* community has a whole mess of issues and the Queer community has felt much more welcoming for me personally.

A while back I decided to search my feelings on gender. In particular, my gender. I have never been able to identify with binary gender, despite being housed in this singular male form. I have found this to be the best way to describe my relationship with my body, I am 'housed' within this male body and have grown to accept that. At times I still feel uncomfortable with it.
A lot of the time I forget it is that, a male body, and am sometimes starkly reminded by others with "You're a man."

Over my 23 years there have been many crises of my gender and my masculinity. Not just by me, but by family, friends and boyfriends (That is not to say all of my friends have had this. I have a wonderful, loving and supportive circle of friends that I am honoured to have in my life. Sorry, I'll stop the soppy gushing now.)  I have tried to explore this over time and continue to do so every day.
One of the biggest periods of exploration was a few years ago, attend the Queer Eye workshops run by Leeds Art Gallery and Cast-off Drama. Since deciding it was the artist's life for me, I have found it much easier to engage with large topics, such as gender, through art. Through this I gained more confidence to explore and figure out my thoughts and feeling on gender and my gender in particular.
I felt I needed to search for the box where I keep my gender in a bid to understand it at last. After some 'soul searching' I found my box and it was unsurprisingly empty. It was something I think I had known all along.

I do not feel I identify with gender. I do not feel I have a gender. The nearest term I have found to describe how I feel is 'Agender'. This is a term used as a non-binary phrase for someone who feels they don't identify with other gender identities, that they perhaps don't have a gender or are gender neutral.
The acceptance of this has allowed me to feel more at ease with myself and also with how others may identify. Gender is a complex and ever-changing issue with more ways of identifying your gender than I think could ever really be quantified. 
In terms of pronouns, I personally don't mind how I am referred to so long as it is without negative or hate speech. I do however feel an affinity for the 'Mx' gender-neutral title as opposed to my usual 'Mr'. I have considered changing to the usage of it and would very much still like to.

I will add that how I verbally identify depends on my situation at the time - I prefer to say that I am Agender or Queer. However sometimes it can be easier just to describe myself as a gay man, I am in a male body and I am attracted to men, it can save a lot of time and energy when I do have those days where I can't face going through explanations of queer and gender politics (Yes I'm guilty of having days where I can just about manage to face other humans, we all have them at some point).

I suppose this post was, in part, written for myself as an open acceptance of my gender identity and what could be more open than putting it on the internet for everyone to see. Here I have been able to write and articulate my thoughts and feelings in a positive way and make this another step on my life-long journey of being queer, an artist and a human being.

 I have 3 new things to announce!

First of which is that I will be taking part in the Awkwoods Rural Retreat at Live Art Bisrto, between 6th and 8th March. A workshop about awkward audience participatory performance run by Daniel Oliver.
More information on it and him can be found here.

The second announcement is that I will be performing my new piece 'A Queen's Speech' at Ketchup Cabaret, a queer and alternative cabaret night, on 19th March at Live Art Bistro. A Facebook event can be found here and tickets can be purchased here.

Keep an eye out for me in these fantastic projects! Come and see me perform and help make my 2016 another brilliant year!

As a fan of Harry Potter and the world that J.K Rowling has so lovingly crafted I've been mulling this thought over for quite a while now - what would have happened if Voldemort had won?

This is of course going from the assumption that it is not in an alternate universe/multiverse where Neville Longbottom will step up the chosen one. So, let's imagine what would happen if during the battle of Hogwarts when Harry goes into the forest to confront Voldemort, he does not drop the Resurrection Stone and keeps it upon his person. And also that he chooses not to come back while in Limbo chatting away with Dumbledore.


Harry Potter is dead.

Voldemort has the elder wand. He finds the Resurrection Stone and Invisibility Cloak on the body of his nemesis and keeps them, ignorant of their importance for the time being, then continues his display in front of those who were opposing him. He accepts those who submit and slaughters those who continue to rebel. Proclaiming himself the most powerful wizard in the world, he ties up all loose ends and seats himself as ruler of the wizarding world, with his loyal minions in positions of power. First in Britain with Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic, and with no one to directly oppose him he extends his reach beyond across Europe, America and eventually around the world. He can now afford to be patient and allow his minions to take care of this regime change. While this happens he becomes curious as to why Harry had kept one of his horcruxes and looks further into this, discovering the legend of the Deathly Hallows and that possessing these makes him the master of death. The Elder Wand has submitted to him as he has dispatched its last master and the others submit recognising him as the last living descendant of the Peverell brothers.

Mad with power he concludes that he is, for all intensive purposes, a god.
This theory comes from the idea that gods and goddesses of the ancient world were power-mad wizards and witches, much of them interpreted by muggles. To me the Greek Gods definitely fit this bill. Egyptian Gods sounds though they could have been animagi or metamorphmagi, which is where the animal heads came from. The metamorphmagus trait could have been much more common in ancient times. The power hungry witches and wizards using their powers and fear to establish cults to themselves, but not being true gods they were still unable to evade an inevitable death. 

Back to Voldemort.
He believes he is immune to death and an all powerful being. Not content with just ruling the magical world, he plots to also take over the muggle world. This could be achieved with surprising ease, influencing or corrupting those in positions of power and forcing any resistance with the Imperious and Cruciatus curses or killing them and replacing them with his own people. Naturally this would start with Britain as it would be easier for him to hold and his influence would spread across the world, making displays of power to prove that he is almighty.

By this point it is likely that he would have repressed and regressed any technological advancement from the muggles to reduce the likelihood of rebellion, or rather his minions would have. Given his arrogance and that he now believes himself a god I'd imagine he would not concern himself with something so trivial, however the Death Eaters and others loyal to him would need to ensure themselves to be untouchable as they are not immortal.

Of course his immortality is only theory at this point. While the life expectancy of wizardkind is much longer than that of muggles, there is still no guarantee that he can not die naturally as Ignotus Peverell did eventually. Although he accepted death, whereas Voldemort is less likely to. This could still take an exceptionally long time though, a life prolonged through many forms of magic, which would be longer than all other wizards.


That is where my thoughts end. My conclusion being that Voldemort would naturally declare himself an all powerful god. Well what else does one do when you are essentially the most powerful being on the planet?

So 2016 is here already. I had originally wanted to do a end of year thank you post, but a start of the year one will do just as well I'm sure.

The past year has certainly been a spectacularly eventful one. I met a lot of people and made many new beautiful friends who have all had positive influences on me, my life and my art. A lot has happened so I'll try to keep this a brief overview and thank you.

2015 held a score of fantastic exhibitions and performances to see, even the arrival of the British Art Show 8 here in Leeds, which had everybody clamboring to have an event on. It also held some fantastic opportunities for projects and work.

First of the projects I was involved with was Artist Anonymous. A platform for talks, discussions, showing work. Natasha, Emma and I organized events where we gave participants to interpret a theme and create work and discussion around it. We had many people from all paths, creative and non-creative, and was a great place for exploration and conversation.

So to wrap this blog post up I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone I have had the privilege of working with this year and to all the friends, old and new, that I have had the pleasure of knowing this year and hope to know you for many more years to come! 

I'll leave you here with a selection of pictures from my year.

Today the HOARD project is doing our Twitter Takeover of @Unfold_Leeds twitter account for the British Art Show 8, tweeting all about our project. I even wrote a post on Leeds Inspired blog about it. Click on the links or image below to see them.

Good news everyone! I am currently an artist in residence at The Hepworth Gallery's The Calder space as part of Pavilion's Follies of Youth exhibition.
The exhibition comprises of 3 artists - Ruth Lyons, Giles Bailey and Amelia Crouch - commissioned by Pavilion to create responses to lost Capability Brown landscapes in West Yorkshire, using parts of the research archive provided by the group of creatives known as the Follies of Youth, which I am a part of.

The residencies are for 5 of the Follies to work with the archive, the space and the commissioned work to create a further response as part of a finnisage to the exhibition, to take place 28th May - 31st May. My days in residence are listed bellow and you can visit the Follies of Youth website for more info on the project, also there is a downloadable PDF with info on the other artists involved in the residency at the bottom of the post. I shall be developing a performance for this so keep your eyes peeled for that announcement in the near future! 

PomoGaze presents AGender: After Party - Monday 16th June 2014

Open call for cabaret and live performers for PomoGaze's AGender after-party!
As the first day of the AGender conference draws to a close, Wharf Chambers will play host to an after-party to celebrate queer culture. A night of performance, music, fun and dancing to be enjoyed by all.
We are looking for cabaret acts, live performers and DJs to showcase this celebration.

Plan and schedule

5pm - Conference draws to a close and Wharf Chambers opens.
6pm til 8pm - Event Begins with cabaret and live performance.
8pm til 9pm - PomoGaze's first drag competition for best dressed, best drag king and queen etc.
9pm til late - DJs start so the fun and dancing can really begin! 
(Wharf Chambers is licensed until 3am so we can dance til then.)

To get involved or for more information contact Ryan Thompson: Ry.M.Thompson@gmail.com

http://www.leeds.gov.uk/museumsandgalleries/Pages/PomoGaze

A group of about 25 of us were led up to the Howard Assembly Room where the piece had been installed, for a special preview led by the artist himself.
I had heard of Chris Watson's installation Hy Brasil but nothing about it before I went, this I felt worked in my favor as I was able to go in with an open mind open to whatever there may have been to be experienced. The added advantage of having the artists himself their to explain it to those of us on the Arts&Minds trip made it all the more worth it.

Hearing him speak about the origins of the project and the myth of Hy Brasil, an island supposedly just off the south west coast of Ireland, was fascinating. I really enjoy seeing other artists get so passionate talking about the work as I imagine they were about making. It sounds as though the island and its myths had become truly an obsession for Chris over recent years and this was echoed throughout the work in sound, light and in atmosphere.
In a brief introduction where he explained the piece and the sounds of creatures that were encompassed in it, some linking to Hy Brasil itself, some linking to the myths of the time when it was documented on sea charts, such as mermaids or giant reptiles, even creative mythology of his own of creatures he believed could have been carried to the island by sky or sea and colonized.   

Once the introduction was over we were told we were allowed to sit in any of the chairs dotted around or walk around or even lie on the island in the middle (this was my personal favorite! Experiencing art from an island of pillows!) as the piece played for 20 minutes. It navigated us across the island from the ocean to the shore, to the land and jungle, to the craggy land and up to the mountain peaks. 
It was a relaxing and magical experience to be sure, I felt like a child pretending the living room floor was the sea and the pillows were my raft. Then the beautiful climax of the piece approached where the lights, which had been adapting to the sounds throughout, faded into the night sky complete with twinkling stars.

I will stress at this point that my attempt to describe the work here in my blog falls short and that it is something I would insist experiencing for yourself, as it is designed to be experienced and not just seen or read about. Alas, in similar nature to the island itself which appears once every seven years, Chris Watson's Hy Brasil is not touring or due to be shown again anytime soon. So I would suggest going to see it now before it finishes on 15th March and disappears...possibly forever!

You can find out more about Chris Watson's Hy Brasil here:
http://www.operanorth.co.uk/productions/hy-brasil-the-isle-is-full-of-noises

After spending a bit of time with Pavilion and their Follies of Youth programme I have begun to take an interest in follies. Some of them being small wonders in a large landscape/city, which I find a very lovely concept.

I have always walked past this one on Cardigan Road and spent hours fantasizing about what it could possibly have been...until now. Someone told me that it was actually a Bear Pit intended to be part of a Zoo and Botanical Garden in Hyde Park/Burley in Leeds that didn't come to much fruition and that you could easily climb through the fence and explore it. So I did.

I have to admit seeing something like this in Hyde Park was rather magical. I has been restored by Leeds Civic Trust in 1966 but appears to have been rather unkempt since then, lots of beer cans etc. strewn about it and even a mattress or two which put me off my plan of returning in the night to see how it looked in the dark.

Whilst taking pictures of the facade someone tugged on my coat. It was a boy in school uniform who then said "'Scuse me mister, if you're interested in t'bear pit you can go round to 'ole in t'fence instead o' climbin' over."
I thanked him and told him I already knew about the gap in the fence and wanted to get some nice pictures of the front before going in. He said "Fair enough" and then walked off quite pleased with himself.   

After a little while of fawning over the facade I plucked up the courage to walk along the side and jump through the hole in the fence and into the undergrowth where I got caught on every branch on the way through. Once I pushed trough the clearing there was the giant red brick lined drop of the pit itself.

So here is a January update on a couple of art I have seen or been involved in.

Around mid-January the art scene of Leeds kicked back into its flow with the realization of one of Dennis Oppenheim's firework sculptures MIND TWIST at the Henry Moore Institute , which was very beautiful and quite spectacular. There was even a talk on his work afterwards by Luigi Kurman who worked closely with him in Germany between 1979 and 1985. It was very interesting to hear about the art from someone who had involvement in its assembly.

I also attended steering group meetings for a Queer Culture Festival centred around the exhibition the Leeds City Art Gallery will be holding around the work of Claude Cahun and Marlow Moss starting in June.
The continuation of Pavilion's Follies of Youth programme, exploring lost 'Capability' Brown landscapes in the run up to the 300th of his birth, is also something I am going to be involved with. An exciting two year project and all research of which will be recorded on the Follies of Youth blog here: http://pavilionypp.tumblr.com/

Here is an update on what has happened over the last month or so since my last post:

Pavilion have had several events which have been extremely fascinating.
Melvin Moti, the artist who is the main part of their current programme, came back to the Majestic to be interviewed about his film The Eightfold Dot and launch a publication to accompany it. I was lucky enough that Melvin Moti signed it and for other Pavilion volunteers.

There was then a fascinating talk on the history of the Eyebright Well that was said to be situated around the site of the Majestic, just on Wellington Street. It was very interesting to hear of Leeds history and links with the old healing wells. The Eyebright well, as you can probably guess from the name, was said to have the power to restore eyesight. Links were also made between it and the Eyebright plant, which grew not far from there and was also said to heal the eyes.

And then finally, I got let loose upon the Majestic itself to help co-ordinate and exhibition of local artists linked with Pavilion. Our  one night only exhibition The Follies of Youth.The Follies of Youth is a collective of emerging artists and curators working with Pavilion to research and realise ambitious contemporary art and community projects in heritage spaces throughout Leeds. 

It was extremely exciting to have access to the space and we just couldn't wait to start communicating with it. With a generous mix of performance, projection, installations and photography, 10 artists each constructed a response to the space in a way they had experienced it. We then opened up the building and exhibition for one night on Friday 13th no less! What a treat this was!
Unfortunately I did not get to see many of this visitors as I was performing, but I heard great things in the aftermath and can boast visitor numbers of 100+ in less than 2 hours. Needless to say we were all very happy Follies indeed to have such a success! 

Well 2013 has been a very exciting year. Already preparing plans for next year so keep your eyes peeled!

First off, a big huge thank you to York Contemporary Art Walk! Art walks are always fun, informative and inspiring, if you have a regular one in your town I would recommend joining in!

Lead by Jennifer Alexander, Assistant Curator at York Art Gallery, the October installment of York's Art Walk began at St Mary's with the Bruce Nauman exhibition. Made possible by Artist Rooms touring work of several influential contemporary artists collected by Anthony d'Offay across the UK, the exhibition presents an eclectic mix of Nauman's art spanning three decades of his career. The work on show includes his neon, videos, sculptures and installations all given alternate context being installed in a church turned art gallery.
Since the closure of York Art Gallery for refurbishment in 2012 (due to re-open in 2015) St Mary's has been thrust into the front line of Art in York. Whilst full of commercial galleries, there are few (If any other) free art galleries to explore in York.

Also on the art walk agenda was the pop up gallery that had sprung up in Amnesty For Books on Goodramgate and curated by students from York College.  Working with the York Museums Trust they set out to create a response to the Nauman exhibition and featured the talents of practicing artists Poppy Whatmore, Yvonne Carmichael, Bonnie Powell and Charlotte Salt as well as St Mary's home grown artists Chris House and Hannah Savage.
The exhibition itself had an interesting range of work crossing mediums from sculpture and print to performance and installation. There was definitely a Nauman-like aura to it, much of the work allowing the viewer to discern their own meaning from it.

The art walk then led us nicely onto the Spark commissions for Illuminating York, in particular Ritchard Allaway's Experiential Consumption. Allaway's installed florescent tube lighting strategically placed in and around the tree in Duncombe Place Memorial Gardens. He addressed the commission's theme for this year, "Tree of Life", rather splendidly. Utilising light, colour and mirror he illustrated Nidhug the dragon feasting on the third root of Yggdrasill and consuming any and all life that crosses his path.

After the art walk I got the chance to explore the rest of Illuminating York. This is where the night got very exciting!

Similar to Allaway's installation was Thor's Oak: A York Thing by Same Sky that was situated on Parliament Street. Not part of the Spark commission but a supporting piece, Thor's Oak is a sculpted oak tree infusing traditional willow work with high-tech active lighting. This piece drew upon the 'Thing'; the Thing was an early form of Viking parliament, this making use of York's rich Viking heritage and possibly hinting towards its history with Guy Fawkes and the British parliament.

Hoping back on the Spark trail, another thoroughly enjoyable piece was by Viaperfomance in the Treasurer's House gardens. Sunset Dance - Small Gods was an up close experience to see into the world of the lesser Viking Gods.
Viapeformance area contemporary theatre company based in York and run by Kiran Tanna and Rich Wade. Their work is focused on sound, moment and dance. The performance itself was an exotic portrayal of Asgard, the world of the Viking Gods. It certainly was combination of sound, movement and proximity creating quite the phantasmal atmosphere. Sunset Dance - Small Gods sounds as though it was a firm favourite, boasting audiences of 10,000 over the entire festival.

Highlight of the festival was one of the main projections, The Storyteller, a narrative film and animation depicting the tale of Eric Bloodaxe - a great Viking king - projected onto the front of the York Museum. The film seemed to last only 10 minutes and although I was expecting something longer, what was shown in that time was truly amazing. Seeing such a fantastic projection up close was the best of Illuminating York I have ever seen! Created by Immersive, who have worked on the 2012 London Olympics and on live shows with bands such as The Script, collaborating with Gaia Nova. The only bad thing about it was all the tall people that seemed to insist on standing in front of me.

Illuminating York is one of the best annual festival the city hosts and seems to improve every year. I am already excited to see how they can better themselves for 2014!