 Excellent turn out. Thank you everyone who made it down and who has helped out with the show. GET IN TOUCH IF YOU WANT TO TAKE PART IN A ELECTRONIC / ARTS WORKSHOP TOMORROW – more info here - http://leilahoustonart.weebly.com/straightening-out.html or email leilahouston392@gmail.com A special thank you to: David Wilson Clark for working with my idea and electronically add my sound to the box; Andrew Johnston (Johnny C) working with my recorded sounds and creating the ambience for my sound work; Dan Cowlam for curatorial support and being an on-going mentor; Natalie Beech for written support and marketing; Mel Fletcher assistance in coordation and website design; the talented James Chantry for documenting the show; Sean Clark for sorting all the electronics for the workshop and ongoing collaborations; also to artists Anna Lucas & John Newling helping me realise my ideas in the studio and the great mentoring you gave me; the lovely Anna, Zory and Lewis for assisting with the launch and looking after the work during the show. Lastly, a major thank you to Leicester's City Festival & Newarke Houses Museum for including the show in the festival - so nice to be in such a beautiful and historic setting. 
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This week I led a really good workshop/meet the artist with 50 people of all ages looking at my show, starting this Friday. Here are some of the examples of ideas inspired b my work and the Jack in the Box project. Thank you everyone that came and helped out for the day! More info about the show here. For more workshops/ school visits, email: leilahouston392@gmail.com or, visit leilahoustonart.weebly.com/straightening-out.html On the 19th August 2018 I will be delivering a similar workshop/ meet the artist day however, supporting visitors to add sound using Arduino's.  These guys were great. We disscused what we are attracted to can be also be what scares us. They creatively thought of making Jack in to a scary forest. We then placed it into the gallery and thought about the shadows and lighting. Really great work by a lovely family.   Leila Houston (London, 1977) is a visual artist whose work investigates the social, political and historical aspects of a place and the impact we have on our environments.
Houston uses site-responsive installations to explore connections between the external atmosphere and the internal sensation within places, providing reflections on the language of architecture and the associations we draw through memory and the senses. Working predominantly with video, sound and structure, much of her artwork cultivates immersive atmospheres for the spectator, often inviting them to take part or contribute to the work. In straightening out the petals, Houston investigates the very human fascination with fear and our desire to feel it. In her continuing experimentation with sound, this work creates atmospheric soundscapes that bring colour to the space, exploring the way in which objects absorb or become a part of their environment. Using the age old Jack in the Box, Houston has reappropriated the toy to explore what we are attracted to and the sinister underbelly of it. Drawing on themes of inequality and poverty that run throughout much of Houston’s work, straightening out the petals invites the audience to revisit traditional motifs and symbols in our society and what they represent. Houston has contrasted recorded sounds with the rhyme ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’, which dates back to the 1700s and originates in cockney rhyming slang (weasel and stoat for ‘coat’) for the poor at the time pawning their coat for money in hard times. Swans, a symbol of elegance and an animal owned and protected by the Crown, wind themselves around the reappropriated box. A bird bath is recreated, inspired by Houston seeing and recording her niece and nephew developing their own in the garden, drawing back to innocence and affinity with the natural world. Raging seascapes are captured in Houston’s photography and video work, depicting the conflicting excitement and dread that water can evoke. How does nature nurture us? How has the material world moved towards or away from this? Straightening out the petals, an ongoing development, a work-in-progress that will evolve, culminating in a final exhibition later this year. for the jack in the box project being exhibted Leicester Festivals & Events at Newark Museum Leicester Saturday 18 August - Monday 27 August 2018 Opening times: 11am - 3pm Preview event: Friday 17 August 2018, 5 - 7.30pm workshops: Saturday 9th August 2018 – Creating jack in the boxes with sound Saturday 26th August 2018 – Darren O Brian's Audio Adventure around castle gardens and riverbank thankyou David Wilson Clarke for helping divice together ! well happy see video here ..... on the event page   |
Leila Houston
Leila Houston (London, 1977) is a visual artist whose work investigates the social, political and historical aspects of a place. Categories
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