Here, Nicola shares some thoughts on the works she has created for EXPARTE, an exhibition curated by curator collective Something Human in London, 2015. Discussing themes of language, text and journey, she describes her interactive artwork ‘Six Thousand Moments’ and her piece ‘Constellation’.
Read MoreBurning and weaving: Time-lapse of installation artwork
This video is about Area Clearance - an installation artwork made in 2018, paired with a poem of the same name by Marc Nair. The artwork and poem tackle the subject of genocide of the Rohingya tribe in Myanmar, featuring burned paper, prayer leaves, ash and coal to make an archway which visitors can step into. Showcased at Myanm/art Gallery, Yangon, in collaboration with Intersections Gallery Singapore.
Read MoreVideo: The making of a public sculpture
The sculpture unveiling in 2018 coincided with the dedication ceremony for the USC Shoah Foundation’s new home at Leavey Library at University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The artwork features the life story of Jona Goldrich, a holocaust survivor who escaped from Poland during WW2. Jona’s testimony has been sculpted into an artwork.
Read MoreShare with me in Unexpected Happiness
Do you believe in serendipity? It often seems to me that the things which occur seem to be just the right thing - even if I don't know it at the time, I do believe that life's twists and turns have their purpose. That the lows help us value the highs. I experience lots of moments of unexpected happiness, small snatches of joy, which catch me unaware. I try to be open to this - noticing when something is wonderful or good, even if it's simply the pattern of a coffee spill that turned out to be quite beautiful - it's up to me whether to decide it's a mess to be mopped up or a chance for inspiration, (or perhaps a learning about the usefulness of coasters).
Read MoreTime Flows With Endless Possibilities: A review of commissioned sculpture 'the Flow of Time'
This October, in addition to the Human Archive Project that is her solo exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum, contemporary artist Nicola Anthony had the opportunity to collaborate with fellow Yellow Ribbon Artist mentors Barry Yeow and Kim Whye Kee on a sculptural installation titled Flow of Time.
Read MoreOn Trust: Changi Women’s Prison Artist Mentor Programme (Yellow Ribbon Project)
Throughout my practice, I have been fascinated by people’s stories, social memory and oral history. There is a warmth and kinship in connecting with people, hearing their stories and knowing that it took a lot of courage to talk about painful or life-changing experiences close to their heart. To understand another person’s existence, their joys, fears and learnings, forms an inherent and essential part of my artistic approach. Which is why the opportunity to take on the role of a mentor in the Art Programme at Changi Women's Prison is both special and valuable to my creative development.
Read MoreSaint Paul’s Survives: The burned ink painting of London’s iconic Cathedral
Today I will share with you an interesting historical fact (plus a couple of interesting tangents). It’s not a religious post but this happens to be about a Saint – St. Paul, whose feast day is today: 29th June.
Earlier this year I exhibited this artwork which features St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The artwork is a symbol of human survival, resilience and courage, as well as making a stand, and having faith in ourselves and others. As a point of intersection between Singapore and London, the former Supreme Court of Singapore which is now National Gallery Singapore is said to take inspiration from Christopher Wren’s dome design for St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Entitled Saint Pauls Survives (Ghosts of the past), this artwork is inspired by the photograph (also captioned ‘St. Pauls Survives’) published in newspapers after the night raid of 29/30 December 1940, the 114th night of the London Blitz of World War II.
New digital fine art print: exclusive edition of 15 | Part print, part sculpture, part drawing
A swirling tangle of timeline...
Earlier this year there was a moment which made my senses tingle as I saw the final print of this artwork emerge on its gorgeous paper, thanks to the printing experts at NPE Art Residency. It is my first digital fine art print in a long time, (an exclusive edition of 15, available at Intersections Gallery). I want to share with you the journey of this artwork... I had been working on sketches and maps of connections, creating vast drawings of webbed, intersecting lines. The artwork pairs with a poem called 'Museum of London' by Marc Nair. With my traditional pen on paper technique I drew my ideas from the lines on our palm which some people believe map our destiny; the interconnections on a family tree or a social network which map our now and our beginnings; as well as timelines which span back into history to connect us to multiple versions of the past.
Read MoreArtwork Focus | Gotong Royong | Kinetic poetry art by Nicola Anthony & Marc Nair
Gotong Royong is a twisting, turning, tumbling, kinetic artwork, in which letters and words spill like loose sand. I am extremely proud to present this interactive piece in the exhibition, Intersection, a collaboration between myself and poet Marc Nair. Below I explain the art piece with a video and some insight into the creative process.
Read MoreInside the studio at NPE Art Residency
This October, Nicola Anthony has been invited into NPE Print's Art Residency Programme 2016. Located in the heart of the traditional industrial/print sector of Kallang, Singapore, Nicola aims to utilise the residency and unique studio space/facilities for experimentations with new paper-based and incense-burnt drawing techniques, as well as light projections and large-scale creations. And ultimately, to create a body of works for a collaborative project with local poet Marc Nair, called 'Intersection'.
Read MoreDebbie Cheung interviews Nicola Anthony: What is Ouroboros and other questions answered....
Debbie Cheung interviews Nicola Anthony
To start off, how did the decision to use ping pong balls in this SEA Games project develop?
Rather than be overly literal in making sport the subject of the artwork, I decided to be a bit abstract and challenge myself to use sports equipment as sculptural material, and think about the deeper message of teams and connections within sports as a theme. I knew it would carry a meaningful message because when you get so many voices together, there is a sense of a human team, and something quite magical happens.
Read MoreMaking Scented clay: Children's Art workshop
I was thrilled to host an art & learning workshop at a Social Change in Action event this month. The whole SOCH event saw 1500 kids in attendance.
As well as a learning message for the children, I also learned a lot from the kids - a reminder that yes, art is for everyone, it can be multigenerational, it can help to change stereotypes, it has no language barrier, it works amazingly to bring you together with people you only just met, and, that art will always be a part of life: it's been around since the very beginning and will continue, to be.
Sign up to find out more about kids or adults art workshops
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My 8000 piece artwork: Behind the scenes
I have been taking the ‘found object’ to a new level, and I will also be telling all the stories of the process of finding and collecting the individual seeds (all 8000 of them), through the artwork and via this blog. The sculpture Pass It On began with the simple idea of a sentence as a line with a beginning and end. The resulting sculpture comprises more than 8000 saga seeds, which the audience is invited to take and pass on.
Read MoreSynesthesia: landscapes of scent, songs splashed out in ink.
syn·es·the·sia
[sin-uhs-thee-zhuh, -zhee-uh, -zee-uh] noun: A sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color.
I was asked to participate in the ‘Synethesia Project’ with the Fabelist Collective. To me, this theme spoke of landscapes painted with scent, movements being portrayed through melody or discord, songs splashed out in colorful ink, and days of the week flowing by in waves of texture. But things didn’t quite go that way…
Read MoreThe Fragmented Novel: A love affair with words
I have a bit of an obsession: My creativity has an affaire de coeur with language, words, letters, stories and narratives. Here's a glimpse into that world of word-addiction...
I often go on treasure hunts in search ofold books, scraps of stories, manuscripts and magazines. I am intrigued with both the visual shapes & patterns of letters and words as they scrawl, meander and march across the page… and also with their wider significance. They are story tellers and signifiers, they represent & depict the world out there beyond the page. They are cunning, devilish, candid, true.
Read MoreA new sense of beginning
Having recently relocated to a new studio in Singapore where I am making a new body of work, I decided to make this post more about my working process than my artwork progress.
Singapore is amazing, sensory and inspirational. In my first week I felt both swamped in things to do (as I have everything to do in terms of exciting new places to visit, pushing forward my projects / studio / ongoing initiatives as well as setting up a new home for the time that I am here) and also a rather unusual, floating feeling of nothing to do (as I am so new to life here nothing is set in stone yet, and I have no set daily routine.)
Read MoreA shift: London to Singapore
It’s been a while since I put fingertips to keyboard. As some readers, fellow creatives and friends will know, my efforts and braincells have been flurrying around over the last few months working to set up a second art studio in Singapore. Here, I will be creating a new body of artwork, as well as some exciting opportunities for other artists who will get the chance to take part in an exchange programme. Whilst time intensive, the process has involved forging many exciting new relationships and collaborations, meeting new people and discovering new places. I am delighted, amazed and overwhelmed to tell you that I am finally here: ensconced in my new art studio, equipped with a fresh horde of brushes, metallic pigments and ink pens, in the inspiring city of Singapore.
Read MoreHeart sketches and sculptures
Guess what I am doing with one of these?
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