memory – Kelise Franclemont

Posted on March 11, 2022April 19, 2022 by kelise72 — Leave a comment

#365LoveNotesToSelf in “Love and Loss” – Inside Job Collective’s Biennale 2022 at Tate Modern

My #365LoveNotesToSelf project was selected this year [2022] to be exhibited in Tate’s staff biennale, themed “Love and Loss” which is scheduled 16-23 March 2022 in Tate Exchange – Level 5 at Tate Modern.

Note to Self: It’s that time of year again and maybe it’s the weather or maybe a condition of surviving the past two years… but I’m sure I’m not alone when I say, I am (again) in a deep blue funk. So this Valentine’s Day, I’ve decided to reiterate my #365LoveNotestoSelf project from 2017-2018 in which I attempted to alleviate a depressive episode by making a self-portrait every day for a year. The aim was, then as it is now, to give myself a loving gift: an envelope of time full of a kind of “love note to me”, by which I will remind myself daily of what love looks like – by gazing in a mirror and drawing what I see.

For in order to really see, one must make the time to look deeply.

I’ve chosen to create self-portraits (instead of, say, making selfies on my iPhone) because in these creative sessions, I must really look in order to draw what’s looking back at me…and maybe, after another 365 of these love notes in a row, it will become easier day-by-day to see through any of the dark days with a dose of self-love, with positivity, confidence, and joy.

For the “Love and Loss” exhibition at Tat e, my intention is to share a new self-portrait every day in keeping with my daily online visual journal of sorts on Instagram: @kelisefranclemont. So who knows how I’ll be feeling on the day!

Exhibition Details:

Tate Modern
Level 5, Blavatnik BuildingBankside
London SE1 9TG

Dates and Times
16–23 March 2022 12.00 – 18.00

Free with All Tate Modern Collections Route ticket. Advance booking is recommended

More info and to book free tickets: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/inside-job

More about the 2017-2018 project: https://kelisefranclemont.com/2017/02/14/365-days-of-love-notes-myself-to-me/

#365LoveNotesToSelf, Day 365/365, 2017-2018, collage of 365 prints each around 2×3 cm, collage approximately 1.5 m x 1.5 m.
Dimensions of each original drawing, painting, or photograph varies from as small as several centimeters to 1.5 m.

Posted on August 25, 2019August 2, 2020 by kelise72 — Leave a comment

Make your own story with Corduroy Dog using AR (demo/instructions)

Scan (or tap) the QR code with your smart phone and you can take my childhood memory of Corduroy Dog with you and make your own story. Keep scrolling to share your story, find out“how to” and see a demo, or to watch the film.

Apple or Android (Vectary viewer) – Safari browser recommended

Android/other smartphone (Sketchfab viewer)

Share your story

Some hashtags and @’s:

#digitalart #digitaldesign #interactiveart #augmentedreality #virtualreality #ar #vr #corduroydog #dogsofinstagram #digitaldogs #petstagram #toystory #toydog #velveteenrabbit

@kelisefranclemont @vectary3d @tate @tateexchange @insidejobcollective

how to (PDF)

Click to View/Download Make-your-story-with-Corduroy-Dog (PDF)

Demo

watch the film

Posted on August 25, 2019August 2, 2020 by kelise72 — Leave a comment

Corduroy Dog (or, How Memories Become Real), 2019, digital film and AR object, dur. 21m13s (feature short)

A story of how a childhood memory became Real. The main character, Corduroy Dog, is made in virtual 3D from the memory of a precious childhood artefact, and becomes the main character in the re-telling of a favourite bedtime story.

Mock-umentary (duration 21m13s), digital film and digital/AR memory object (Corduroy Dog). Directed, filmed, and edited by Kelise Franclemont. Reading from “A Velveteen Rabbit” (1922) by Margery Williams.

As seen in Tate Staff Biennale 2019

Corduroy Dog was made real by Vectary 3D.

http://www.vectary.com

Posted on June 15, 2019August 2, 2020 by kelise72 — Leave a comment

‘Corduroy Dog (or, How Memories Become Real)’, 2019, digital film and digital/AR objects (trailer)

Here is the story of how a memory and a seminal artefact from my childhood became Real.

Mock-umentary (duration approx. 20 minutes), digital film and digital/AR memory object (Corduroy Dog). Directed and edited by Kelise Franclemont. Reading from “A Velveteen Rabbit” (1922) by Margery Williams.

Feature short coming soon (28 August 2019)!

Posted on June 2, 2019August 2, 2020 by kelise72 — Leave a comment

Spending time with Thyrsis (Volunteers Week at Tate Britain, London)

A vital component of my art practice is finding ways to share my passion with others (outside of exhibiting my artwork or teaching, of course!) So when the opportunity to join Tate as a Volunteer Visitor Host came up, I said “yes!” immediately. I have always loved Tate since my first visit to Tate Modern in 2004 where I experienced Olafur Eliasson’s “Weather Project”, one of those life-changing artworks I’ll never forget.

Tate’s real “superpower”, though, is not just in this one artwork; their true strength lies in the impactful way of taking the viewer on a journey – it’s their ability to tell a story through the experience of art that I find compelling – and I wanted to be a part of that story. Also, my role as a Visitor Host is a great way to share my passion for art with other people whom I might not meet otherwise. It’s a real pleasure to help others enjoy Tate’s collection in variety of ways – it might be a chance conversation about a particular artwork, providing information about activities that day, or just guiding them through the 500 years of British Art.

Which brings me to “Thrysis” (James Havard Thomas, 1912, bronze), prominently displayed just inside the Millbank entrance. Thyrsis hasn’t always been a favourite; but I noticed it more and more each time a group of school children came through the door; of the four works in this foyer, the kids seem to notice Thyrsis first, pointing and giggling, while adults rarely notice him at all.

James Havard Thomas, ‘Thyrsis’, 1912, bronze, at Tate Britain, London. Image courtesy Tate.org.uk

Who is this naked flute player, I asked myself. A few minutes and an iPhone led me to the story of Thyrsis depicted here, a bold shepherd boy who challenged a god/musical genius, Corydon, to a singing contest – and lost. Perhaps, as is often a god’s way, Thyrsis lost his life for his audacity. Or at the very least, his dignity, which was hardly fair, considering Corydon’s poetic prowess.

Another reference more contemporary to Thomas’s time was a poem with which the artist surely was familiar, by Mathew Arnold (1865) about lost youth – in which Arnold writes that it was Time that conquers Thyrsis, not Corydon. Standing next to the sculpture now, I find it beautifully ironic that all the kids notice this bold young man (frozen in the moment of dauntless hope that he might win a contest against someone far more experienced and accomplished than he, a god), while adults pass Thyrsis right on by and don’t offer a second glance.

I’ve heard it said, “youth is wasted on the young”, yet the way our young visitors engage with this artwork may suggest otherwise…

Images courtesy http://www.twitter.com/tate

Posted on February 22, 2018August 2, 2020 by kelise72 — Leave a comment

#365LoveNotesToSelf – a year of self portraits

In a year-long experiment, #365LoveNotesToSelf is a project about finding love by giving oneself the gifts of time and looking deeply, one day at a time. #365LoveNotesToSelf is also part of the “Selfie” exhibition on at Candid Arts Trust, London from 23 February to 4th March 2018.

I am here and now

What started as a last-ditch effort to make myself feel better from encroaching depression, I kept at it for a year and in time, developed a pattern of self-love, perseverance, and mindfulness that continues today. I learned how to give myself a break and be flexible (some days it’s just not possible to stick to the plan so learned to make a new one!) I discovered I do have the determination and stamina for a long project (when in the past, I would often run out of steam half-way through). And even though I had a few days here and there with a low mood, it is with joy and pride when I say I can’t remember the last time I felt depression actually take hold.

It’s been a year and I feel like I’m just at the beginning. Stay tuned!

Duo show ‘Fragments and Traces’ about time, memory, and travel – Platform 1 Gallery, Wandsworth Arts Fringe

Kelise Franclemont, ‘Postcards from the Land of No People (wish you were here)’, 2015, postcard prints in a wooden rack. Image courtesy the artist.

Image courtesy Antonia Jackson.

Fragments and Traces: l’invitation au voyage

Kelise Franclemont and Antonia Jackson explore memory, travel, and passage of time through paintings, installation, and new media. Throughout each day, along with the exhibition of artworks, Antonia and Kelise will engage visitors in trading memories and creating new ones in an ongoing make-one/take-one souvenir postcard exchange.

Wandsworth Common Station, Platform 1 in London, UK. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

“Fragments and Traces: l’invitation au voyage” is in conjunction with Wandsworth Arts Fringe 2016, a festival of creativity and performance throughout the borough from 6 to 22 May 2016.

One subsequent weekends at Platform 1 Gallery are two more shows: “Transcending” from artist Ema Mano Epps with Verica Kovacevska and Norman Mine, and finally, “Fragment” by sculptor Anna Flemming.

Click the flyer below to see more details:

‘The Promised Land (in amazing stereoscopic vision)’, 2016, digital video and stereoscopic goggles

Kelise Franclemont, 'The Promised Land', 2016, HD digital video on iPad with stereoscopic goggles and sound, duration 1:40 (looped). Image courtesy the artist. — *Kelise Franclemont, ‘The Promised Land’, 2016, HD digital video on iPad with stereoscopic goggles and sound, duration 1:40 (looped). Image courtesy the artist.*

The “Promised Land”, the land of milk and honey, the place where all good things will come to the chosen people and the true believers. In London, the “Promised Land” is not just for immigrants and dreamers, those who aspire to wealth and privilege that can be had in the capital, London is already here for the posh and the prosperous. This great golden city belongs to the movers and the shakers, the 1% who can afford to live in high-rise flats and work in their downtown shiny offices.

Not everyone is so lucky in the lottery of birth and not everybody finds the better life they seek when they get to “The Promised Land” they keep hearing about from their parents, friends, and politicians, tales that have been told since the Industrial Age…the sounds of building a high-rise contrasts starkly with the images in a different story of broken promises, dead-ends, and forgotten dreams.

Kelise Franclemont, ‘The Promised Land’, 2016, HD digital video on iPad with stereoscopic goggles and sound, duration 1:40 (looped) – EXCERPT

If the video does not auto-play, please click here.

‘The Promised Land’ was recently exhibited in ‘Fast Forward/Rewind’ – Chelsea Alumni Summer Show 2016 at Punctum Gallery, Chelsea College of Arts, from 18-22 July 2016.

Posted on January 17, 2016July 21, 2016 by kelise72 — Leave a comment

‘Postcards’ selected for ‘Identity’ group exhibition with AWAH, Manchester

“Postcards from the Land of No People (wish you were here)”, 2015, printed postcards in a wooden rack

Kelise Franclemont, ‘Postcards from the land of no people’, 2015, printed cards in a wooden rack.

Kelise Franclemont, ‘Bedouins of the Holy Land’, 2015, postcard in a postcard rack as part of ‘Visit Palestine (See it for yourself)’, in MA FA Interim Show, 22 Jan 2015 at Chelsea College of Arts, London.

A contemporary Orientalist sees herself in Palestine through a series of souvenir postcards… whether or not she belongs or is welcome there…

This piece is about how memory and identity intermingle and become truth for the author of that history. A series of found images dated from late 1890s are appropriated from the US Library of Congress “Holy Land” archives and the artist inserts herself into the image attempting to become an integral part of the narrative by almost any means possible. This can be a metaphor for personal history, the artist having once been immersed in all things Palestinian by marriage or the images could point to some vague but potent longing to belong to the exotic “Other” culture, even for just a moment as a tourist to some foreign land. There is an element of humour here, with the artist fully aware of the “square peg, round hole” issues at play here and the absurdity of a certain tone of Colonialism that tries to overwrite history, yet there is no lacking in sincerity for the love of this corner of the Earth once known as the “Land of No People”.

Kelise Franclemont, ‘Postcards from the land of no people’, 2015, printed cards in a wooden rack.

‘My darling, wish you were here! I was disappointed to find the real Mary’s well in the centre of a car park and it doesn’t even have running water, so tourists are welcome to bring their own bottled l’eau to reenact the biblical water gathering experience.’

On the reverse of each card is written a message from the artist to “My darling” (a lover? a family member? a friend?), with the sentiment, “wish you were here!” along with a short message to share the experience with the postcard recipient.

To see this and the many other works in “Identity” (21 January to 13 March 2016), head to Manchester to Art with a Heart [AWAH], a charity arts organisation in nearby Altrincham.

Founded in 2012, AWAH is a charity that comprises of 4-5 small exhibition galleries, hosting workshops, exhibitions, charitable events, and volunteering opportunities aimed at supporting the arts and creative communities, as well as promoting Altrincham heritage and history.

If you’re in the area, have a look in!

Posted on November 12, 2015February 11, 2016 by kelise72 — Leave a comment

‘A walk through Palestine’ installation included in ‘Ruins of Time’ exhibition – The Crypt Gallery, St Pancras, London

Kelise Franclemont, installation view ‘A Walk through Palestine (collectable, artefact, relic, souvenir)’, 2015, installation of sound, printed posters, and found objects. Image courtesy the artist.

Kelise Franclemont, detail of ‘A Walk through Palestine (collectable, artefact, relic, souvenir)’, 2015, installation of sound, printed posters, and found objects. Image courtesy the artist.

This small stone was once part of pleasing mathematics in tessellated patterns… a fan, a leaf, a flower. It remained in that belonging for nearly 2000 years until one day, it was dislocated from its home. In this instant, this fragment was transformed from artefact into another kind of ruin. A relic, this souvenir now belongs to no more than a memory, a resurrected existence in minutes and megabytes, and thus has become something much easier to destroy and to forget.

If you missed seeing “Ruins of Time” at The Crypt Gallery in St Pancras, click the link to walk through the virtual tour here: https://vimeo.com/154992121 [Vimeo, duration 13:02 minutes]. My work appears at 4:45.

Kelise Franclemont, detail ‘A Walk through Palestine’, 2015, iPhone and video, duration 10:00mins (looped)

‘Caught in the Act’, 2015, series of digital photographic prints

This exhibition of digital photographic prints by Kelise Franclemont, candidly documents preparation for the final MA Fine Art Summer show in August 2015. Stealing a glimpse of artists in the act of making, the images invite an intimacy with the subject. Taken on an iPhone without the artist’s knowledge or permission, these documents are being shared publicly for the first time as Display #17 for Chelsea Cafe Project.

These images capture fragmentary moments of production, becoming part of the history and biography of artist and artwork. By sharing these perceived intimacies, the photographer is embedding themselves within a narrative to an externalised audience; invited here to observe the relationship between the maker and the made. – from Chelsea Cafe Project blog. Display #17 curated by Cherie Silver.

Stephen, 2015, digital photo print. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont

Georgie, 2015, digital photo print. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont

Paul, 2015, digital photo print. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont

Anonymous, 2015, digital photo print. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont

MA Fine Art student, 2015, digital photo print. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont

Laura, 2015, digital photo print. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont

Johnny, 2015, digital photo print. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont

‘A Walk through Palestine (collectable, artefact, relic, souvenir)’, 2015, installation

Kelise Franclemont, detail of ‘A Walk through Palestine (collectable, artefact, relic, souvenir)’, 2015, installation. Image courtesy the artist.

Scan for the audio guide that accompanies ‘A Walk Through Palestine’

Even the photos we take on our smartphones, stolen memories are remade to suit our own histories.

As seen in:

MA Fine Art Postgraduate Summer Show 2015

at Chelsea College of Arts, London

‘lockers’ – pop-up residency and exhibition, Chelsea College of Arts, London

It’s a pop-up show in the CG05 corridor (near the part-timer’s base room) in which each of us takes one locker and curates an exhibition in the 30 x 30 x 43 cm cubby. It is a response to the locker as a space, a container, a set of limitations, boundaries, a wish granted, or some other response.

Of course, there are only 20 lockers and almost 30 people in part-time 1 & 2 group so this might also turn into an exercise in negotiation, compromise, and teamwork!

What I propose is 1-2 (or more) people choose a locker, and put an object in or installation… and then place a padlock on the door (for safety). During the exhibition, the lock is enigmatically left on or perhaps the door is left wide open for uninhibited viewing.

‘alchemy of the perfect fragrance (growing up in Illinois)’, 2015, found scents and installation

The_alchemy_of_Growing_up_in_Illinois — Kelise Franclemont, detail of ‘growing up in Illinois’, 2015, installation in ‘lockers’ at Chelsea College of Arts, London. Photo courtesy the artist.

This one’s about memories, and how they are made… in this case, through my sense of smell. Each of 12 scents is carefully crafted and a little story is attached to the bottle. The viewer could ignore my story in favour of their own…

Part of the ‘lockers’ – a pop-up exhibition and residency in 20 small lockable spaces, at Chelsea College of Arts, London.

18 – 25 June 2015.

Posted on May 7, 2015January 21, 2016 by kelise72 — Leave a comment

‘Memoirs of a stone (part 1 – the flight from Hyrcania)’, 2015, installation and found items, in ‘Housed’ at Chelsea College of Arts, London

17 Chelsea MA students (12 MA Fine Art, 5 MA Curating & Collections) enter into a week-long cooperative exhibition in which the curators, who see the show for the first time mid-week, will reconsider curation and transform the space. The project is an experiment which aims to “…challenge the ‘occupancy’ inside the regimented frameworks” such as may be found in the academic or gallery setting. From 7-10 April 2015 at Chelsea College of Arts.

Re-examining the relation between artist and curator

The basis of Housed: was about the relation (some might say “hierarchy”?) between artist and curator, firstly in a gallery/exhibition setting, secondly in academia. In the first half of the week, the dozen artists installed the show, collaboratively of course, installing their work with consideration for the siting as well as “conversations” between the nearby pieces.

Learn more about the project and how it evolved on the ‘Housed’ blog…

My proposed work, ‘memoirs of a stone (Part I – The flight from Hyrcania)’ was an installation of drawings on paper, a short looping film with sound, and several found objects, most importantly, a small piece of red shale about 1 cm big.

In the first part of week, a writing desk was situated in the doorway, a small intimate space which may inspire quiet reflection as the viewer may pause and read or handle the drawings. Further along in the exhibition in the next room, one might come across the small red stone on a black velvet jewel block, positioned on the floor.

Kelise Franclemont, installation view of ‘memoirs of a stone (part I – the flight from Hyrcania)’, 2015, installation of video, drawings, collage, and found objects, in ‘Housed’ at Chelsea Cookhouse, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.

Mid-way through the week, the curators came into the project with a fresh perspective to re-hang the work, possibly creating new conversations and altering the “flow” of the exhibition overall.

‘Memoirs of a stone’ was relocated to another room entirely, which somehow “opened up” the work in a positive way. The little stone, placed next to Paul Abbott’s work (the video/busts on plinths – left image) somehow crystallised for both works the reference to Greco-Roman era, with busts on plinths and the Roman-era mosaic tile. Then the writing desk, even though in a more open space, still allowed for intimacy placed in the corner, adjacent to a large airy window.

Kelise Franclemont, installation view after curator intervention, ‘memoirs of a stone (part I – the flight from Hyrcania)’, 2015, installation of video, drawings, collage, and found objects, in ‘Housed’ at Chelsea Cookhouse, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.

For many of the artists, the re-curation improved the flow and openness for the exhibition overall, and opened up each work to have more “breathing space”, a marked positive change. If nothing else, the project allowed for a different way to see and experience the works in this very successful week.

Tag: memory