Walthastow Garden Party 2015

Sat 18 and Sun 19 July 2015
Lloyd Park
Forest Road
E17 5JW

http://www.walthamstowgardenparty.com/

This year I will be working in partnership and participating in this years Walthamstow Garden Party which is produced by the Barbican and Create, and is a Waltham Forest event. The Garden Party is free event which brings together national and international artists.

I will be helping to open the doors once again to the Lloyd Park Studios which make up a packed programme across the whole weekend which will feature music and dance stages showcasing international and local talent, a story pavilion presenting local artists, writers and performers in an uniquely intimate space, stalls and workshops from local designer-makers in the Useful and Beautiful Craft Marquee and the Real Food Festival’s extraordinary range of street food from across the world.

The Lloyd Park Studios sit at the heart of Lloyd Park just to the back of the award winning William Morris Gallery

This year’s Walthamstow Garden Party follows a very popular first year in 2014, which saw 34,000 people celebrate the summer in Lloyd Park. The Barbican and Create once again join forces with Waltham Forest Council to repeat last year’s success delivered in partnership with local organisations.

2015 E17 Art Trail

Me and the E17 Art Trail 2015: See link for details

http://www.e17arttrail.co.uk/index.php?page=101&passed_index=247

I am pleased to say that I will be part of this years E17 Art Trail. This will be my 5th year taking part in the Trail and I will be opening my new studio to show some of my most recent artwork. My studio is housed in the Lloyd Park Studios behind the Award winning William Morris Gallery.

The preview will be from 6 - 8pm on the 12 June. The studio will be open to the general public on 13 and 14 June from 12 - 6pm. The address is Lloyd Park Studios, Lloyd Park, Forest Road, London, E17 5EH

The E17 Art Trail is now one of the key cultural events in London. Now in its 11th year the Trail has played a vital role in Waltham Forest's cultural profile. The event has created an annual focus for the Borough where Waltham Forest has establish a clear identity were you can feel part of a wider community. The Art Trail has also helped to create a strong argument on the how cultural events and activities can further social and economic regeneration of an area. The major efforts to save and revitalise the William Morris Gallery with funding was secured to bring this now major cultural venue back to life is a central part of cultural regeneration in our borough.

One of the major assets that underpins the Art Trail each year is the artists, of course I would say this because I'm one of the artists. But an art trail wouldn't be an art trail without art and the artists that create it. A lot of personal time and resources goes into producing the artwork and the events that showcase the artwork. We all have personal reasons as artists why we get involved in the Art Trail but I think the common denominator for us all is that the E17 Art Trail is a great way of creating public engagement around our work and practice. The general public has a great opportunity to see some of the best artistic talent in London for FREE, and to buy a piece of cultural at an affordable price.

But the E17 Art Trail wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the efforts of Laura Kerry, Morag McGuire and Cris Thompson and its supporters. On a personnel level the Art Trail has become a major event to be involved in as professional artist and I hope to be involved at some level over the next 11 years.  

Solo Exhibition at the Tokarska Gallery, London

I have great pleasure to inform you that I have been invited to show my work in a solo exhibition at Tokarska Gallery in East London. See the gallery web-site for more detail. 

The exhibition will show the artwork created for my project ‘Changing Spaces’ which received funding from Arts Council England and support from the Lee Valley Park Authority. The project focused on the visual impact of the development of the Olympic Park created and its relationship with the Lee Valley Park. From this concept Jonathan produce a series of ten 3-dimensional abstract works that interacts with the changing environment around the Olympic Park and its inherent connectedness to the wider context of the 26 mile long, 10,000 acre Lee Valley Regional Park. Using recycled building materials and found objects from both of these parks I created a number of wall-mounted sculptures that explore regeneration and the natural and industrial history of the area.

http://tokarskagallery.co.uk/changingspaces

Preview:  Thursday 24 October 2013 at 7pm

Exhibition Date: 24 October - 2 November
General open times: Thursday - Saturday, 12pm - 7pm or by appointment

163 Forest Rd
Walthamstow
London, E17 6HE

Nearest Tube: Blackhorse Lane on the Victoria Line. 5 minute walk from tube

Opening Day

Thanks to everyone who came to the opening. It was great to see so many people there. If you have any  photos or comments please send to me and I'll post them up on the blog.  See link below for local press coverage: New Sculptures unveiled at Nature Reserve

Mayor of Waltham Forest, Richard Sweden opening the exhibition

Jonathan O'Dea and the Mayor of Waltham Forest Richard Sweden unveiling the site specific sculpture: Intervention

Visitors making their way down to the sculpture site

Challenges of the project

There are several general challenges to this project but these are the kind of things familiar to anyone who is working to produce a body of work within a specific time frame. As usual reality has a habit of intervening and taking up time allotted for the studio. However, I know (more or less) the artistic and material parameters of most pieces I want to do for this exhibition and the preparation and planning is on track which is really the most important aspect of any project. The biggest challenge of all involves something I have never done before!

The piece which I know is going to be the most difficult to tackle for this project is a 3 metre sculpture that I will produce from a felled tree. The tree is from the Lee Valley Park and will form the basis for the first site-specific sculpture that I have ever worked on. This is a challenge that is beyond anything I have ever attempted before and as you can see from these images, the first challenge was moving the tree from its original site to the sculpture site! 

Planning is definitely the most important aspect of this piece because it will be done on-site in public view over a period of several weeks so I need to have a really clear idea of how the work could evolve. I am really looking forward to getting stuck into this aspect of the project but at the same time it is a little scary. I am hoping to create a sculpture that is artistically engaging and appealing to the public and also remains in complete harmony with its own environment.


The really exciting thing about this piece of work is that it will remain in situ after the exhibition. So it will become a permanent sculpture  in the Lee Valley along one of the main public footpaths leading to the Olympic Park.  I will post images of my progress on this sculpture as it emerges.

Article in the Guardian on the impact of the Olympic Park

A friend of my sent me link to an interesting article in the Guardian by Alexandra Topping. The article looks at the impact of the development of the Olympic Park and its connection to the surrounding area:

An alternative Olympic tour takes in Hackney's art, history and fashions

The article in many ways touches upon what I am trying to achieve in my project. Have a look and see for yourself and please feel free to leave comment on the blog.

Welcome to Changing Spaces

Raw materials

Over the next few months I will be developing new visual art for the Cultural Olympiad 2012. This project is supported by Arts Council England and the Lee Valley Park Authority. This blog is an opportunity for people to engage in the creation of the project and to post comment and opinion. The series of completed works will go on display in June 2012 at the Waterworks Nature Reserve in Waltham Forest.

My aim is to produce art that is abstract and which makes people curious about the materials and how the work is constructed. I want to link this curiosity with the physical techniques and methods used in the regeneration of brownfield sites (the Olympic Park) and the revitalising of the Lee Valley Park. My interest in these practical, creative processes is partly a result of working on construction sites over many years. This experience informed my own interest in regeneration and all the things that go unseen by the public when regeneration projects are undertaken as well as their huge impact on our visual and cultural environment. 



Transformed

 

The Olympic Delivery Authority has provided me with access to the Olympic Park to inform the development of Changing Spaces. Additionally, the ODA and the Lee Valley Park Authority have provided me with recycled building materials and found objects for inclusion in the final artworks. This access will not only make this project feasible, but it will enable me to capture some of the more abstract yet intrinsic physical changes like those created by construction workers, park visitors and natural phenomena - the kind of minutiae that people walk by every day but never really notice.