lois palframan ARTIST
Reviews
'your work is honest and carries something of your heart and soul and speaks to soul and speaks to people' Kay Grant
'birthmarks' Gry Buhrkall
'really nice' Simon Reynell, Another Timbre CDs
minimalist and very light touch, beautiful...
'deliberate moments of colour' Sam Boer, communications and research assistant , International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation, University of Guelph
'fabulous Scores' Karen Sherwood, Director of Cupola Gallery.
'perfect' Gill Whiteley,senior lecturer,art history and visual culture, Loughborough University
very cutting edge Dr Willow Jane Thompson
'subtle and graceful' Amparo Arrospide.
'drifting through the ages from shadow to brightness showing the pathway of light. a picture of the universe. energy. uplifting'. Doreen James.
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Kestutis Vasiliunas- Lithuanian Artist‘s Book in the World Context
beautiful...
'I love their minimal intensity and abstract quality of the marks.....'
Claudi Piripippi
Only today!! Last chance... - Redcar Contemporary Art Gallery | Facebook residency 2013 exhibition SUN SEA SKY SAND
preparing to vocalise/improvise 'form of bamboo', at University Arms, Sheffield, end of March 2024
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At Edge of See’ is a new collaborative project between Lois Palframan (art) and Kay Grant (voice). Both use improvisation as an approach to exploring and seeing the world with fresh eyes and open ears. Lois creates her drawings from an inner silent place. Kay decorates the silence, interpreting the drawings through sound. The result is a sort of ‘anti-lecture’ on art and music, with meaning conveyed beyond words. Lois lives in Sheffield and works alongside improvisers including Charlie Collins and Beatrix Ward-Fernandez. Kay lives in London and has played with many musicians, amongst them Alex Ward, Adrian Northover, Marcio Mattos, Jim Dvorak, John Edwards, Ntshuks Bonga, Caroline Kraabel and Hannah Marshall.
This event forms part of Making Ways, a programme supported by Sheffield Culture Consortium through Arts Council England to showcase, celebrate and develop the exceptional contemporary visual art produced in the city.
'unusual and minimalist exhibition',JakeHarries, curator. 'brave, variety'
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'Bird-like traces!
Vocalizations highly original! Bird-like whispers, whistling, silence..'
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Scores: Painting Not Writing, an exhibition by Lois Palframan -
An exhibition in Access Space's small Foyer gallery of around 40 visual artworks intended to be played in an improvised way by musicians.
Based on an impossibly objective description, these pieces, rectangles where the white of the pictorial surface prevails, with all its load of reminiscences, with all the pictorial cultural baggage that the observer may or may not have, pose a provocation ( at least one). The pictorial elements on the white surface (usual metaphor for silence, but also for light) are minimal, micro elements, tiny lines - straight, false straight, curvilinear, spirals, loops -, micro circles that can also be grammatical stops, exclamation or interrogation signs as a minimum concession to textual language, mysteriously ambiguous sketches of drawings, arrow points, delicate strokes, faintly coloured or grey ... In some pieces (scores 13, 12, 1, 9 for example) there are lines that go down from the nonexistent frame, descend or rise from the edge of the canvas (page), as if they were continuing an outside line, as if a line of light descended from the sky, crossed the border and entered the white of the visual surface. A game that wants to make drawing and world come together. It could also be said that they all trace tropisms, the term for a biological phenomenon, indicating growth or turning movement of a biological organism, usually a plant, in response to an environmental stimulus, which includes the tendencies for the stalk to grow towards light (phototropism) and the roots to grow downward towards the water or interior of the earth (gravitropism). Palframan´s tropisms are endowed with a great sense of humor and a resistance to make sign, to signify, to refer to or act as proxy for any kind of representational art or vision of reality. Even though associations are inevitable, by way of contrast. Translating to the pictorial work the well known linguistic theory of Saussure, where every sign is made up of signifier and signified, Palframan ´s works refuse to form signs, but let the signifiers breathe. For this reason, hers is the work of a contemporary visual artist, who rejects and questions the search for unity (political, psychological, pictorial). If such a search for unity is always at the service of those who impose it, if capitalism produces its imaginaries, if it challenges us with a repertoire of forms and experiences for our consumption and subjectivation, our way of resistance can´t be to contribute with new imaginaries that will be incorporated into the repertoire. There is, therefore, resistance to meaning, which in turn destabilizes the observer.
A few brief notes on these works (scores 0 to 13) - Amparo Arróspide 2017 poet
Partiendo de una descripción imposiblemente objetiva, estas piezas, rectángulos donde se impone el blanco del lienzo y de la superficie pictórica, con toda su carga de reminiscencias, con todo el bagaje cultural pictórico que pueda tener o no tener el observador, plantean una provocación (al menos una). Los elementos pictóricos sobre el blanco (habitual metáfora del silencio, pero también de la luz) son mínimos, microelementos, líneas minúsculas – rectas, falsas rectas, curvilíneas, espirales, bucles-, microcírculos que pueden ser también puntos, algún signo de interrogación y de exclamación como una concesión al lenguaje textual, esbozos de dibujos, misteriosos en cuanto ambiguos, ángulos puntas de flechas, trazos delicados, tenues, en color y en grisáceo negro… En algunas piezas (scores 13, 12, 1, 9 por ejemplo) hay líneas que bajan desde el marco inexistente, descienden o ascienden desde el borde del lienzo (de la página) , como si continuaran una línea exterior, como si una línea de luz descendiera desde el cielo, atravesara el límite y entrara en el blanco de la superficie visual. Un juego que quiere hacer confluir dibujo y mundo.Podría también decirse que todas trazan tropismos, el término botánico para designar a las plantas que se dirigen o inclinan hacia la luz (fototropismo) y también a las que van hacia el agua o el interior de la tierra. Tropismos con un gran sentido del humor y con una resistencia a hacer signo, a significar, a representar una visión figurativa de la realidad. Trasladando a la obra pictórica la teoría lingüística de Saussure, donde todo signo está conformado por significante y significado, en los trabajos de Palframan se rehúye el formar signos, se deja respirar a los significantes. Por ello es la de una artista visual actual, que rehúye y cuestiona la búsqueda de la unidad (política, psicológica, pictórica). Si esta búsqueda siempre está al servicio de quien la impone, si el capitalismo produce imaginarios, si nos interpela con un conjunto de formas y experiencias para nuestro consumo y subjetivación, nuestro modo de resistencia no puede ser el de contribuir con nuevos imaginarios que a su vez serán incorporados al repertorio. Hay, pues, resistencia a la significación, que desestabiliza al observador.
Review by Cupola Gallery of "Colour Code" 2017...' to the muted colours of Lois Palframan'
1st Feb. 2018. 'score' at Access Space, Sheffield. 'GREAT', brilliant, novel :-
Access Space invites you to the first performance of the latest work by artist lois palframan, “score”. In this collaborative concert a trio of musicians explore the implications inherent in the word, while projections of the artwork, running concurrent with the performance, provide the audience with added insight into the process. “The live and spontaneous interpretation by the musicians is some kind of resolution of the conflict between title and artwork”.
BEATRIX WARD-FERNANDEZ violin
CHARLIE COLLINS waterphone & percussion
FAYE MacCALMAN clarinet & tenor saxophone
lois palframan visuals
Beatrix Ward-Fernandez is a UK based violinist and theremin player with an interest in all forms of improvised and contemporary composed music. Her trio has performed at the international theremin symposium "Hands Off", while her audio installation, “Castillo de Luna “ (for theremin & waterphone) has been exhibited at the AC Institute in New York. Her music has been released on Discus, Found Property, Singing Knives, and Classwar Karaoke.
Charlie Collins is a creative percussionist, free polyrhythmic drummer, and sound artist, based in the UK. His work continues to explore the boundaries between pure sound and rhythm, frequently incorporating metal percussion and free improvisation. Early recordings for cult labels Industrial, Fetish, and Doublevision were soon followed by collaborations with many of the pioneers of free improvisation, while his interest in East Asian percussion and rhythm technique is displayed in current work with komungo player Eun-Jung Kim, pianist Yoko Miura, visual artist Bongsu Park, composer Ryoko Akama, and Butoh dancer Tsukasa Kamidate. He is one of a handful of musicians to have played both Derek Bailey’s Company Week and Top Of The Pops.
Faye MacCalman is an improviser, performer, and composer based in the North East of England. Playing clarinet, saxophone, and sometimes her voice, she works in a variety of contexts, exploring melodies, rhythm, story telling, and sound.
She currently writes for and leads the garage-jazz trio Archipelago, is a member of bodhran-reeds-piano Trio F-C-T, and The Ornette Coleman inspired John Pope Quintet, while also having a duo with percussionist Charlie Collins. Alongside this she has also recorded and toured with eclectic folk group The Unthanks, and teaches saxophone at Newcastle University and elsewhere.
Since being immersed in the creative music scene of Montreal in 2015, Faye has continued to forge links with artists internationally as well as nationally, including Wilbert De Joode, Olie Brice, Ab Baars, Ellwood Epps, Corey Mwamba, Graeme Wilson, Charlie Collins, Greta Buitkute, Rhodri Davies, Shelly Knotts, Ig Henneman, and Beatrix Ward-Fernandez.
13.3.18
improvisation workshop and concert with Kay Grant, Jan Todd, Lyn Hodnett and others, playing improvised graphic score. harp, vocals, accordion, percussion, and more. 'philosophical variety' 'PLAYABLE'
'landscape of a very calm imaginary place' Kay Grant
'drawings are comfortable to look at, calming, soothing .' :- 20 x 20 Access exhibition 2019
'at edge of see'
marvellous, lovely, works, avant-garde, interesting, great, exceptional, cool, awesome,... :-