MARKING TIME

Andrew Bracey and Kate Buckley

General Practice, Lincoln

26th April – 18th May 2024

Marking Time is an exhibition by two artists – Andrew Bracey and Kate Buckley- who both have a studio at General Practice. The artworks on show all represent a record of the passing of time, a simultaneous making and marking of time. Both artists use repetitive processes, materials and mark-making to ‘just be’. The artworks represent a contradictory space of denial of and coping with global and personal distresses, difficulties and traumas. For the artists they represent artworks that do not quite fit with their larger practices, but were things that needed to be done, as Buckley says “what does one do when the old ways of doing don’t make sense anymore?!“ Together, they represent a non-verbal dialogue that is not about articulating ‘something’ but rather about ‘being-with’ each other and ‘not-knowing-yet,’ as part of a journey that goes on till it stops, without a planned destination.

Kate Buckley is showing (k)not about any thing, a series of five flax and cotton yarn crochet sculptures made over the space of five years. She describes the work as: “making without too much activity, without much material, without the need to look for anything new, making without need of a special place for making, making without being busy with ideas, making without need to show or explain anything, making without any intention other than one little loop followed by another, on repeat, like the ticking of the clock, round and round… pliable becoming rigid, solid yet full of holes… growing so very slowly, tightly looping round in my hands whilst something else is unravelling.”

Andrew Bracey has three different works in the show. Over twenty five years he has been making Palette from the left over paint that do not make it onto his actual paintings. Somewhat perversely, it has become the best painting he has made. The other two pieces are works that have developed from Bracey contracting Long COVID that hugely affected his ability to make (or do) anything. Following his doctor's advice, he started to draw for five minutes each day, which soon developed into a system for tracking time. “When I started, the five minutes exhausted me, as of today I barely think of it, becoming something else to fit into daily life; some days I do not manage it, or more likely forget to do it. I am glad I still do it, it is now important to remember what was. A big part of Long COVID is about managing energy. Even now I need to plan my days.”

Artist talk with Kerry Langsdale: Saturday 18th May, 2-3:30pm

Artists Andrew Bracey and Kate Buckley will briefly talk about their work in the show and its relation to time, and philosopher Kerry Langdale will introduce the philosophy of time, research into folk concepts of time, and her interdisciplinary work on The Art of Time Project. This will be followed by a conversation between the three, with plenty of opportunities for questions at the end.

Kerry Langsdale has recently completed a PhD specialising in the philosophy of time. In 2022 she developed The Art of Time Project, which explores the philosophy of time through the lens of contemporary art. Her practice now lies at the intersection of philosophy and contemporary art, culminating in an ongoing series of artworks and projects that invite viewers to contemplate the nature of time. Grounded in her academic research, Langsdale's artistic projects serve as accessible portals to complex temporal ideas.

Artist’s workshop: Saturday 4th May, 2:4pm

Kate and Andrew will share their processes in an afternoon workshop at General Practice. Participants will have the opportunity to making their own pieces and there will be opportunity for informal conversation in response to the exhibition. The workshop is free, but donations towards General Practice are most welcome.

Info

Exhibition Title: Marking Time

Where: General Practice, 25 Clasketgate, Lincoln, LN2 1JJ

When: 26th April – 18th May 2024, open Friday 3, 10, 17th May 12-4pm and Saturdays 4th and 18thMay 12-4pm

Private View: 26th April 6-9 pm

Artist talk: 18th May 2-3:30pm

Artist’s workshop: 4th May 2:4pm

Everything is free

Website: https://www.general-practice.net/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/generalpractice/

Please note General Practice is on the top floor and is only accessed by stairs.

Contact: for further information please contact Andrew on abracey@lincoln.ac.uk

Reflected Self Portraits

Andrew Bracey: Reflected Self Portraits is an exhibition of self-portraits taken using the reflective surfaces of other artists’ artworks. It continues Bracey’s long-running interest in creating artworks that draw upon, appropriate, and add new visual dialogue with other artists’ works. Bracey has been taking these photographs since 2009 and has so far collected an archive of over 700 images. The photographs are simultaneously a visual record of the artist over time and close-ups or details of other artists’ work (one that happens to feature Bracey within them). At General Practice, Bracey will be showing the full archive in a new three-part video installation. A large-scale slide show projection relentlessly shows distinct depictions of the artist, in front of which is a monitor that acts both as a text panel for each photograph and a text-based artwork that hints towards conceptual questioning of the authorship. A soundtrack for installation is provided by the final video of Bracey smashing a mirror, adding another self-portrait but not one that is made with the reflective surface of a mirror.

The selection of artists whose work is captured in the Reflected Self Portraits is non-hierarchical, ranging from current art students and emerging artists to established and ‘superstar’ contemporary artists. Bracey is solely looking for only one characteristic; is the reflective materiality of the artwork’s surface enough to generate a self-portrait? Any other qualities of the artwork - be they to do with status, concept, interpretation, artistic intentions or meaning – are jettisoned in the creative process. In this way, Bracey could be seen to be acting parasitically, akin to a ‘mooch’, ‘sponger’ or ‘toady’ who is said to live at the expense of others. In this case, Bracey is not engaged with a rich understanding or dialogue with the other artist’s work, but purely using this one material quality within the existing artworks to generate new ones. On the other hand, Bracey is fully acknowledging the use of the other artists within the exhibition and is not ‘plagiarising’ or appropriating the other artist’s artwork to claim authorship of them. Is he simply making a self-portrait photograph that ‘happens’ to use the material qualities of their artwork?

Artist Talk

A special artist talk takes place on the last day of the Reflected Self Portrait exhibition at 3 pm on Saturday 9th March. Bracey will discuss the ideas behind the exhibition and put them into context of his current PhD research and his wider art practice that is re-examining motivations for the use of existing artworks by contemporary artworks that are additional to those closely aligned with appropriation art. The talk will be informal with plenty of opportunities for questions. 

Practice-Research at Project Space, Plus, Lincoln

Andrew Bracey is also showing his work, Self-ish Portraits, in a two-person show with Alice Bell at Project Space Plus at the University of Lincoln from 24th Feburary – 1st March 2024, open Monday to Friday 10am-4pm.

Seasonal Strokes

A belated holiday group show by General Practice studio members marks the beginning of a journey in 2024. An experimental experience of live projections, sculptures, print, paintings, and conversations.

2nd - 3rd February 2024