“Everything starts somewhere, though many physicists disagree. But people have always been dimly aware of the problem with the start of things. They wonder how the snowplough driver gets to work, or how the makers of dictionaries look up the spelling of words”. ~Terry Pratchett
”Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop”. ~Lewis Carroll
Everything has to start somewhere and as a creator is the blank page, canvas or new project daunting or the start of the next creative adventure?
As we move through life we experience multiple, micro beginnings and endings. New loves, family, connections, work, home spaces, life stages and everything in between.
Starting something can be as hard as the ending and the ending can be as liberating as the start.
And what of those spaces in between - the liminal and the heterotopia, transitional spaces that are not a beginning and not an end?
And this is how artists responded to the theme this month,
Artist: x-x-x Jojo
Instagram: @jojothephotographer
Title: The circle game
MEDIUM: Photograph
DESCRIPTION: As a man approaching my sixties I am deeply aware of my mortality. The older I get the more I think of the path I have travelled and how I have evolved. What if I could travel back in time to nurture my inner child that shed so many tears for so many years. beginnings / endings: the circle game goes round and round...
Artist: Fred Fabre
Instagram: @Drawlogia
MEDIUM: Oil , 70 x 100 cm
DESCRIPTION: In “Awakening” , the toddler's innocent act of removing VR glasses plunges us into a world engulfed in flames, offering a profound meditation on the idea that "the ending is in the beginning." Inspired by the philosophy of Baudrillard, the painting unveils a disquieting truth about our contemporary existence—a world increasingly shaped by simulacra and false images. It prompts us to question the very nature of reality itself, where the line between the genuine and the illusory becomes ever more elusive.
Artist: Smriti Mehra
Instagram: @smriti_mehra
.Description: “Like Dadima Like Smriti”
With this project, Smriti embarks upon remembrance, which is also the meaning of her name. She ventures into this territory in an attempt to not leave unnoticed the deep imprints of those closest to her. She acknowledges that her memories are fraught with biases, gaps, fictions and fact but what she attempts to stay true to is the emotion paired with the fragments of memory and a newer understanding of her relationships. She is both a purveyor of information and storyteller and is challenged by taking the mundane & every day and unravelling & reassembling these details into visible intricacies.
While sorting through her grandmother's things after her death, Smriti came across a trunk full of her grandfather's clothes that her grandmother had put away after his very sudden and early demise. This project is about loss, letting go and preserving memory.
Artist: MARIN Flora Michèle
Instagram: @bougealexandra
Description: I present mom's bones because this is how we are born with bones and flesh and in old age, near death, we leave with our bones and little flesh.
Artist: Kairi Sirendi
Instagram: @kairisirendi
Description: “The beginning and the end point”. MEDIUM
Bracelet. Sterling silver. Ironically, this bracelet represents both the beginning and the end point, as a similar bracelet is used both for newborns in the maternity hospital and for the dead in the morgue. Life begins and ends with the same little plastic band.
Artist: Ann Kopka
Instagram: @annkopka
Description: Distance Travelled Time Taken. MEDIUM: Used window envelopes.
“The Beginning”. A desire to make work from discarded ephemera and humble disposable objects. My inspiration being Marcel Duchamp’s Mile of String and his comment “you can always see through a window……..if you want to.” So could I collect a mile of used window envelopes? Yes with the help of enthusiastic friends and family. The willingness to collect was clearly captivating as mountains of used window envelopes soon began to appear on my doorstep. I cut out the windows and glued them together informing the collectors when certain “milestones” were reached. “The Ending”. Eventually the windows, now in long chains, measured a mile in length and the collecting had to stop. Here the work is installed in All Saints Church Harrow Weald London about 10 years ago. Each window envelope, dispatched with a lick and opened with a rip, told its own unique story and had its own beginning and ending.
Artist: Catherine Levey
Instagram: @catherine.levey
Description: “Augustine I”. MEDIUM: Oil. Augustine was one of the group of Parisian 'hysterics' when Dr Charcot began this diagnosis. She ended her 5 year stay in his hospital by escaping dressed as a man. In the liminal space inbetween she became famous for her poses captured by photography during hysterical attacks.
Artist: Wai Yi Chung
Instagram: @waiyi.chung.art
Description: “Temple of Time (wall)”. MEDIUM Acrylic, enamel, emulsion mural.
My visual language, called the "entanglement" mainly comprises intricate labyrinthine 2D/3D line drawings on different kinds of surfaces, physically and virtually, as an analogy to my life story and philosophical view of life and being. The entanglement is a labyrinth structure, manifesting the contradiction about the human condition, or in general, life—seeing the labyrinth and walking into it, trying to find the goal. Although one is not forced to do so one will always be lured and destined to fall prey to it. The highlight of the entanglement is my artist's labour of hand drawing and painting that first follows an unidentified logic behind the unconscious automatic movement of the hand and then the focused mind to complete it. My “labyrinth” is one that only a human would be able to solve.
Artist: Innokenty Sharkov
Instagram: @innsharkov
Description: “Day First”. MEDIUM: Ceramics. At once I dare to read And write : " In the beginning was the deed." Faust, Goethe That very episode with Faust's reflections on the interpretation of beginnings. What came first... the word? the thought? the power? And if the birth of existence is not a random occurrence, then what lies at the origins of that event, which some call the 'big bang,' and others – the first day? The question most likely arose when humans could separate themselves from the cosmos, juxtapose 'I' and 'IT.' However, to this day, no one has found an answer. Hence, the 'first day' remains but shadows of hands tearing apart the fabric of existence.
Artist: Lewis Andrews
Instagram: @lewis_andrews_art
“Forge II” MEDIUM
Indian Ink on Watercolour Paper.
DESCRIPTION
These drawings are created using the remnants of dead stars. Incorporating materials containing atomic elements that trace back to the hearts of stars during their life and death, they serve as a monument to these fallen giants with carbon being the richest element within the drawings. The drawings break down distance and time to echo the moments where death and the seeds of life meet. Bridging the vast distances between us and these galactic furnaces to reaffirm that we are not just part of the cosmos but are actively part of it. The carbon atoms in these drawings, the carbon atoms in your body, the carbon in our machines, and the carbon in all other living beings can be traced back to stars that lived light years above your heads. The end of a star's life releases the seeds that will begin a cycle with the end result being new stars, new planets and if conditions are just right, you.
Artist: Semeurs de Graines de Rêves - Lan et Yves Grandclément
Instagram: @semeursdegrainesdereves
Description: “Spiral”. MEDIUM folding of white hanji paper. "Beginnings and Endings » We think and believe that artistic creativity is a continuum or a way, there is no beginning nor ending. We work all days. One day, we decide that an artwork is finished, without the need to add something else and because our view moves and evolves, the same artwork appears an another day unfinished. A spiral is moving, changing with light, the same and never the same, a way with a beginning and an end or not…..
Artist: Ania Tomaszewska-Nelson
Instagram: @tomaszewskanelson
Description: “Closing the Circle”. MEDIUM: video. In a child’s development, to draw a circle is a milestone after which a child can draw a person, learn to write or invent a wheel. The profound simplicity of my tractor drawn mandala collides with the machine-operated effort. The evening blue of the first snow collides with the ripping sound. Beautiful and brutalist at the same time, this piece comments on work and agriculture. It’s a dramatic history of humans and their planet.
Artist: Lucy Nelson
Instagram: @lucycollardnelson
Description: “Seed”. MEDIUM: Silicone, pigment, paper clay, monofilament, TPU.
A seed implies the hope of a new beginning, the spark before growth. But how do we feel when that process of growth is interrupted or never comes to fruition in the first place? Drawing upon the experience of maternal loss, I create imagined organisms that are suspended within a moment, delving into bodily fragility and precariousness.
Artist: Frances-Ann Norton
Instagram: @francesann2819
Description: ”Room II”. MEDIUM acrylics on cartridge. My Dad's study. Cramped next to a Victorian wardrobe full of top hats, a cloak which belonged to Jacob Kramer, fans and gloves, I tried to paint, and use the room as an artist studio. the room became a ghost room, a haunted room, I tried to imagine it a white cube but just ended up painting BLACK paintings.
Artist: Matt Greenhill
Instagram: @caketinartist
Description: “Love for Sale (2015)”. MEDIUM: Photograph. What was the story? There was a beginning and clearly an end but does the wedding photo represent the space in between? Is this a capture of love; duty, conformity or ritual?
Artist: Sid and Jim
Instagram: @sid_smith
Description: “Bordering on the perennial”. MEDIUM: Installation (Acrylic paint, Wallpaper). A room wallpapered with images of forget-me-nots, a perennial flower synonymous with remembrance, in the process of being painted back to white.
Artist: Melissa Speed
Instagram: @speed.melissa
Description: “The Gift”, MEDIUM: Pastel. The gifting of a caught rodent by a cat to their human is a particular bond. The contrast between the sadness of the end of the shrew's life and the joy my cat was exhibiting was striking and I felt compelled to capture the moment. The work is 18x24cm.
Artist: Beth Barlow
Instagram: @bethbarlow13
Description: “A Box Of Endings!. MEDIUM: Toilet roll tubes and watercolour paintings on wallpaper. 21 paintings which explore the theme of endings. The painting was exhibited on a pole and also used in the creation of the film "When Will It End?". I was struck by how the act of unrolling the scrolls which seems significant and somehow filmic. Perhaps it’s because when viewing the paintings in their landscape format it’s impossible to view their content all at once so they read like a narrative. I also enjoy the fact that when in the box they are mysterious. We have no idea if they are good, bad or mediocre paintings. They are like endings anticipated but often unseen, subtle and unpredictable.
Artist: Gabriella Presnal
Instagram: @gabriellapresnal
Description: “Heterotopia Still 1”. MEDIUM: Video. Inspired by Foucault’s concept of heterochronies (othered times) & heterotopias (othered spaces) which are often in between utopias and dystopias and mirroring or disturbing/deconstructing the surrounding spaces. The interest was in exploring some of these heterotopic spaces and what makes them othered in an attempt to further explore spatiality and schizophrenic politics described by Deleuze & Guatarri. The work was filmed in Paimio, Espoo, and Helsinki, Finland as well as Madeira, Portugal. Heterotopias are labeled according to a specific set of characteristics. Such as; a ritualistic process to enter or become the space, having heterochronies, a space that juxtaposes many spaces, places of deviation or for behavior outside the norm, and spaces for crisis. Wonderland has also been critiqued as a literary example of heterotopia, hence, the use of parts of the silent film Alice in Wonderland (1915) distributed by the American Film Manufacturing Company (film in the public domain/copyright expired).
Artist: Ray Gumbley
Instagram: @raygumbleyphotography
Description: “The Ascent Alone”. MEDIUM: Photography. As an artist I sought in 'The Ascent Alone,' to capture through photography the profound contemplation of the solitary voyage in birth and in death, exploring the notion of where the journey truly commences and concludes. I also ask the question of whether both life and death are a journey on which we ascend rather than descend.
Artist: Stephen Harwood
Instagram: @stephenharwoodartist
Description: “Marian Court, Demolished II (2023)”. MEDIUM: Monotype and Carbon Pencil on Paper. Marian Court is a former 1960s-built council estate in Hackney, and one of Hackney Council's biggest ever regeneration projects. Despite local protests and campaigning, 136 homes were subject to compulsory purchase orders and demolition began in 2021 with one family still on the premises. Redevelopment is expected to be completed by 2025. Of the 275 homes proposed only 80 will be social housing. The space, now cleared of rubble, awaits its next chapter. The atmosphere is one of sadness and loss. But there is anger too, and tension fills the air.
Artist: Kathy Bruce
Instagram: @Kat10bruce
Description: “Gingerbread House 1--How it Began”, MEDIUM: Photograph. I initially hand baked and decorated this Gingerbread house for a Xmas decoration but I liked even better, the idea of placing it outside in the elements for the animals to inhabit. I wanted to document its disappearance; its end. I photographed it daily for 3 weeks.
Artist: Ocean Chan
Instagram: @oceanashes_
Description: “Real VS Fake”, MEDIUM: Acrylic on canvas. Perhaps the beginning could be the end and the end could be the beginning. Traditionally, the canvas serves as a substrate upon which images and compositions are bestowed. It is, in essence, a silent backdrop to artistic expression. However, I sought to disrupt this established norm by contemplating the unconventional act of exposing the typically concealed aspect of the canvas – its reverse side – as the focal point of artistic inquiry. My artistic journey has been one of deliberate subversion and reinvention, where the boundary between the beginning and the end, the conventional and the unconventional, is blurred. This conceptual shift has ignited a dynamic dialogue that challenges established norms and beckons us to reimagine the possibilities within the realm of artistic expression.
