Small objects by Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva

Ladies Purses by Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva

From 29 May until 30 July, the Maker’s Cabinets in the Brighton Museum shop will host a number of small pieces by a local artist, Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva.

Hadzi-Vasileva creates ambitious sculptural works and site-specific installations. She was born in Macedonia, and now lives and works in Brighton. Her work has been extensively commissioned and exhibited nationally and internationally. Elpida works with materials that are unusual, precious, ordinary and ephemeral, from organic materials and foodstuffs to gold leaf.

Hadzi-Vasileva graduated from Glasgow School of Art with first class honours, BA in Sculpture in 1996 and obtained an MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London in 1998.

Recent commission include: St Bede’s Catholic College, commission as part of Bristol’s Building Schools for the Future program; Southgate Project, Bath; Public Room, Skopje, Macedonia; Spitalfields Sculpture Prize, Allen & Overy, London; Motectum, Gloucester Cathedral.

Exhibitions include: Pied a Terre, a Two Michelin Star restaurant in London; ‘Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive’, Towner Contemporary Art Museum, Eastbourne; ‘me, you & them’ at the 51^st Venice Biennale; ‘Butterflies in the Stomach’ at L’H du Siege, France; ‘Time Stands Still’ at Kilmainham Gaol Museum, Dublin.

She has taken part in a number of European residency programmes including ArtSway, Gloucester Cathedral, Irish Museum of Modern Art and Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship.

Hadzi-Vasileva aims to develop works which resonate with the particular place, both inside and out. This stimulates her to develop new methods using unusual materials which are linked to the specific environment (e.g. butter, fish skins, chicken skins, rice, trees, fir cones, watercress etc.).

Underlying all of Hadzi-Vasileva’s practice is an interest in exposing that which is not normally encountered. This concern with light, darkness, colour, texture and smell has produced a series of works that explore their symbolic nature and intimacy whilst also attempting to expose the importance of the material to its place.

In exploring these un-encountered spaces or places Hadzi-Vasileva aims for a resonance with fable or fairly story, a suggestion of promised Arcadias or Utopias which are unattainable, hoping to encourage a sublime experience for the visitor.

The work exhibited here is a special opportunity for Brighton residents and visitors to purchase unique pieces that have been carefully developed and are hand made by the artist.

Hadzi-Vasileva is also showing work at the Royal Academy Summer Show in London from 4 June – 12 August 2012

Please enquire at the Museum shop or contact the artist direct at

elpihv@me.com    http://www.elpihv.co.uk

World Stories: Young Voices – My Experience, Mike

Meet the young people who have been involved in developing the new World Stories: Young Voices Gallery which opens at Brighton Museum and Art gallery on 23 June 2012.

Mike and mask

Q. Who are you and how did you get involved?

A. Hi, my name is Mike and I’m 19. I first got involved with the project way back in the summertime of 2010 when I was asked to take photos of a project that was being run at my local art group in Whitehawk, in collaboration with Brighton Museum. This led to me becoming the official young person photographer for the project and the museum. After this I got invited into and involved with The Museum Collective.

Mike

Q. What have you done?

A. Mainly, I was the official young person photographer for the project, which was good work experience as I was doing a photography course at college! I got to photograph loads of projects and events, I think the first event I photographed for the museum was White Night 2010

I then joined the Museum Collective and got a say in loads of things to do with the museum too, including events and the development of the new gallery (which I’ve heard rumours that it will contain some of the photos I took for the project).

Q. What has been the most important thing you have learned during this project?

A. I think just how to work with other people and communicate on all different levels. I also learnt, hands on, about professional practice when working as a photographer in a work style role.

Photo taken by Mike

Q. What new skills do you feel that you have developed?  

 A. I feel my photographic skills have improved by the help of working with a range of professional photographers, and also my planning and organisations skills.

Working with the museum has also opened up incredible new opportunities for me even now, like taking photos of different things and even more recently to assist with a one week photography project with other young people, which gave me the experience to teach others! I believe that investing in this experience and working on my skills whilst working with the Museum taught me valuable lessons which later aided me into my employment as a youth worker -which is where I’m at today!

Q. What did you enjoy the most?

A. I enjoyed it all but my absolute favourite thing of all time must’ve been going behind the scenes and seeing how the museum ‘works’ if you like!

QR Codes in the Modern British Paintings Gallery

Brighton Museum’s Fine Art gallery

How can the old and the new enhance and compliment each other?

Is there a place for technology at traditional sites such as museums?

Does technology help people to engage with artworks?

These are some of the questions that artist and volunteer Jennifer Milarski has been asking.

Come and help her get closer to the answers in the Modern British Paintings Gallery, on the first floor of the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery from 29 May – 1 June.

‘I have introduced the idea of QR codes into the gallery, as I want to find out how people really feel about the use of technology in traditional spaces such as museums or heritage sites.

The idea is to use the QR codes as a way to bring a new perspective to the artists and their work, to make the artists more accessible by having an image of them and to show their work in the context of other works by them in the museum’s Fine Art collection.

I was drawn to the Modern British Paintings Gallery by the fact that a lot of the artists in this gallery were connected somehow, and not only by painting. The narratives between the artists and between their works is what appealed to me. The little unknown or seemingly insignificant details about people can actually add an interesting dimension to the work .’

It is advisable to download a QR reader onto your smartphone prior to visiting the gallery. Suggested for iphone is Scan which is downloadable from the app store for free or QR Droid for Android, also free of charge.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a smartphone or a QR reader as Jennifer will be present in the gallery with her own mobile device to help with any technical issues and demonstrate the project.