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The Aqueous Art Movement at Art Gallery

Joined
14 May 2009
Messages
316
Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

From the weds 3rd to Sunday 7th November 2010, "The Aqueous Art Movement" consisting of George Farmer, Graeme Edwards, Dan Crawford and myself will be displaying a collection of conventional and abstract aquascapes at the Maverik showroom art gallery, 68-72 Redchurch Street, London E2 7DP.

The venue is open to the public daily between 10am and 6pm, and on Thursday evening it will remain open until 10pm. The exhibition is free to attend and no booking is required.

When the 4 of us first discussed the idea we agreed the scapes should be working examples of the hobby/artform, rather than instantly created display pieces, so most of the aquascapes we plan to display are already growing in.

We hope to bring aquascaping to a wider audiance, and gain it the recognition it deserves as an art form.

It would be great see lots of UKaps people there, if you let us know when you intend to visit we can make sure we will be there.

Cheers,
James
 
Re: Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

Great idea,do you not think it would have been a good idea to have asked if any members here would liked to have contributed a scape in some form,after all i thought ukaps was a society,surely with a greater range of scapes on display it would have made better public viewing,

just my two penneth,regards ,
john.
 
Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

James,

Having just posted here for the first time today looking for advice on my own design of a planted tank, and still a relative newcomer, I will look forward to attending this event. I work in London so the Thursday evening should be a possibility.

Well done, I have to say. This is exactly the kind of event this hobby needs and I hope as well as showing your works, you manage to get to talk with many members of the general public who are perhaps sceptical of venturing into this rewarding hobby.

Cheers

Gavin
 
Re: Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

john starkey said:
Great idea,do you not think it would have been a good idea to have asked if any members here would liked to have contributed a scape in some form,after all i thought ukaps was a society,surely with a greater range of scapes on display it would have made better public viewing,

just my two penneth,regards ,
john.

Fair comment John, i would have loved to have thrown the event open to all UKaps members if I could, but I had to fight tooth and nail just to get the 4 of us accepted. On top of this I don't have the time or skills to coordinate a project of this scale involving any more people. Also, we cannot display a UKaps banner at the event, so although we will of course be able to promote UKaps via word of mouth and flyers, we did not feel it would be fair to make it a Ukaps event and take UKaps funds. We feel that UKaps is more about promoting aquascaping as a hobby and I'm sure the founders and members wil continue do to this admirably.The idea of the Aqueous art movement is to promote aquascaping as an artform, which is why we opted to pay the considerable cost of hiring an art gallery from our own pockets. I hope this goes some way to explain our decisions and that nobody is offeneded by what we have done, we just seek to raise awareness in a new arena.


Gfish said:
James,

Having just posted here for the first time today looking for advice on my own design of a planted tank, and still a relative newcomer, I will look forward to attending this event. I work in London so the Thursday evening should be a possibility.

Well done, I have to say. This is exactly the kind of event this hobby needs and I hope as well as showing your works, you manage to get to talk with many members of the general public who are perhaps sceptical of venturing into this rewarding hobby.

Cheers

Gavin

Thanks Gavin, it would be great to see you there.
Do make sure to find us and introduce yourself.

Cheers,
James
 
Re: Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

Hi James,i take your point about the limited numbers and the task in organising a larger event,but feel as a society if we are to move on i feel it should be done as a body and not four individuals,as for the cost coming out of your own pockets (which may be admirable) i am sure collectively one or two members of ukaps even in these hards times could have found a few bob to help pay the fee,s,after all its all about moving forwards together and keeping members up to date with planned events,isn.t that why we have an events section ;) ,
regards john.
 
Re: Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

Fully agree with John, I think it should have been much more transparent in the intentions and outcomes, there are many of us on here who would have killed to have put a scape forward.

The very best of luck with it. Next step the world, huh?
 
Re: Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

john starkey said:
Hi James,i take your point about the limited numbers and the task in organising a larger event,but feel as a society if we are to move on i feel it should be done as a body and not four individuals,as for the cost coming out of your own pockets (which may be admirable) i am sure collectively one or two members of ukaps even in these hards times could have found a few bob to help pay the fee,s,after all its all about moving forwards together and keeping members up to date with planned events,isn.t that why we have an events section ;) ,
regards john.
Garuf said:
Fully agree with John, I think it should have been much more transparent in the intentions and outcomes, there are many of us on here who would have killed to have put a scape forward.

The very best of luck with it. Next step the world, huh?
Thanks, John and Gareth. I'm glad you brought up these important points as they need addressing for the benefit of all of us, some of whom may not wish to post here.

To re-iterate what James has posted, this event is completely exclusive of UKAPS. It was my suggestion that James post this on UKAPS, to hopefully get some visitors during the exhibition from the UKAPS Membership who see this as a positive move.

I am sorry if any members feel excluded because of this event. This was not our intention at all. We work hard on UKAPS to try and promote the planted tank and aquascaping hobby. Perhaps sometimes the way we do this is not to everyone's liking, but we cannot please all of the people, all of the time, and a balance has to be acheived.

James has worked incredibly hard on this project, so far almost completely on his own.

Graeme, Dan and I were invited to be a part of it, and we were flattered. Other members were also considered but due to the reasons stated already by James, this unfortunately was not possible. Whether or not James made the right decision by inviting us remains to be seen, but we will try our best with the resources and skills we have to promote aquascaping as an art form.

Finally, events like this are not out of anyone's reach.

Rather than waiting to be invited on to projects, why not start your own. We all started somewhere.

It could be something as simple as asking your LFS if they fancy you re-scaping their display tank. Or submitting an article to PFK. Or starting your own aquascaping contest. Get hold of potential sponsors for prizes etc. etc. Don't wait for things to land on your lap.

Go out there and do positive stuff to get noticed. :D
 
Re: Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

Well said George.

I'll be heading down there (with other LFKC members, thread here) on the evening of Thu 4th Nov.
Looks like the best day\time to go as Dan, George, and James will all be there :thumbup:
 
Re: Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

Thanks George. To make it clear, I was invited by James to show some work at an exhibition that he had planned with some "arty" friends, it's not exclusively aquatic, it's not exclusively UKAPS, we were just invited to do something and we're going to do it. I hope to see some of you there, the more the better!

Let's not make this into something that it isn't, it's about a few people working off their own back to get some aquascapes to a wider audience. This should be a positive thing.
 
Re: Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

I was a little dissapointed at the negative remarks that had been posted.

The point is, we are all doing this because we love the hobby. James has created an oportunity to promote aquascaping to a new audiance, for which he is the first to do so, and has worked so hard to make it happen.
You can all make things happen in this hobby, and as George said, don't wait for it to drop on your lap!
Perhaps there needs to be more effort on every body's part to promote the hobby, not just a small handful who do things, like what James has orgonised.
You have ukaps because a small group (the founders) made it happen. You to can make things happen.

I wish to meet as many of you there as possible AND to promote this art form to people who are still yet to be presented with this new art form.

Cheers.
Graeme.
 
Re: Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

My remarks seem to have upset one or two,though not intended to do so seem have been taken down that road,if it had been explained in the first place what the evnt was all about and that it was not a exclusive aquatic art event then maybe I would have been more reserved,and if the event was a more personal event for the people taking part then maybe it should have remained so,
Regards,
John.
 
Re: Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

I'd like to wish you all the very best of luck with this event.

I know how much work goes in to organising an exhibition and its not to be taken lightly. It can only be a good thing for aquascaping in the UK, and that in turn will be good for ukaps :D

I'll be there on the Thursday at least, and really look forward to catching up with you all.

Tony
 
Re: Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

i've seen you guys did for Tropica at interzoo. And based on my understanding you do the same now again but now without a giant's help. I can't imagine moving just your tanks to the event how much work really is... a lot!
event like this move the hobby forward and you perfectly represent the art form of the scaping with this team.

good luck guys can't wait to see the photos later on. :thumbup: :angelic:
amazing opportunity guys!
 
Re: Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

good luck guys.

It's bit of treck for me, I was tempted to record it, but it's just not possible.
 
Re: Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

Thanks for all your comments guys :D
I'm really excited about this, if not a little nervous.

Cheers,
James
 
Re: Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

pics please!
Have you been given any ideas as to the setting of the tanks against the other work on show? I'm intrigued to know if you're tailoring your tanks to the environment and the other stuff on show, particularly the abstract tanks described!
Will you be showing pics of other tanks as well (as these surely count as art!) or just the "live" ones?
GReat work guys - whether it's carrying the UKAPS banner or not it's fantastic to see artistic conventions get challenged!
Has anyone approached Yorkshire Sculpture Park with a similar concept - they have indoor display places and the nature of the place lends itself to the juxtaposition (long word for a Saturday morning!) of nature and art. I'm pretty clear that i have nowhere near the kudos or skill of youguys to carry it forward but i wonder what you might be able to develop off the back of this?
Good luck chaps!
Matt
 
Re: Live aquascapes at a London art gallery

Morning all,I obviously wish James and the other guys all the very best,I may have seemed to come across heavy handed with my words but I was not being negative far from it,I just thought that if it was mentioned earlier then members could have helped James in some way especially those members who live close to London,
Anyway all the best and I hope its ammassive success for you,regards,john
 
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