My practice follows two paths. Drawings and sculptures, which are essentially abstract and process led, and sculpture which is more ideas led and externally referential.
My practice follows two paths. Drawings and sculptures, which are essentially abstract and process led, and sculpture which is more ideas led and externally referential.
I like the notion of ‘making a drawing’, which suggests the physics and the performance of the activity. I think of my drawings as flat sculptures, not drawings for sculptures, but constructions of materials, which occupy a very shallow space. I avoid deliberate illusion or external reference and often employ repetition as a means of building structure and a sense of labour.
My process led sculpture follows a similar process but occupies an expanded space and utilizes a much greater range of materials. I group these sculptures under the rubrik pooh sticks, as they are generated through a process of play, without preconceived outcomes, and as with the drawings I often allow outside agents such as chance or gravity to affect ‘wobbles’ or loss of complete control.
I want my work to stray or wander away from what we think we know in order to be surprised, not by something new, but by something which is already there.
The ideas led sculptures of late have been mostly made during artist residencies. These are also arrived at through a process of play and response to materials and place. The attraction of a residency for me is the absence of the familiar and the improvisation required as a consequence of the dislocation; necessity being the mother of invention.
I think my work is about the gap; there is always a gap; the space between mind and matter, the dislocation between language and reality, the dilemma between problem and resolution, the divide between one person’s view and another.
ALAN FRANKLIN
EDUCATION
1981-83 Goldsmiths College - MA
1975-77 West Surrey College of Art and Design - 1st class Hons
1973-74 St. Martins School of Art
1972-73 Banbury School of Art
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2000 - 2016
2016 Shuffle Herrick Gallery, London
2015 Repetiton/Variation Frameless Gallery, London
Mapping Time Frameless Gallery, London
2014 Aggregations The Project Gallery, Arundel (solo).
Informal Elements OVADA , Oxford
Precession One Church Street Gallery, Gt Missenden (solo).
2013 Import Brick Lane Gallery, London.
2012 tra_verse The China Shop Gallery, Oxford (solo)
2010 Rearranging Formulae (part1); unwrapping books O3 Gallery, Oxford
Rearranging Formulae (part2); unwrapping books Oxford University Press, Oxford
2009 Endnotes: unwrapping books O3 Gallery Oxford
2008 On The Surface The Parlour, Camden, London
Collision Festival of moving image, music, art and performance, Area 10, Peckham,
Paths of Dialogue La Maison de L’International, Grenoble, France
2006 Gold Ovada Gallery, Oxford (3 person)
2004 The Garden of Earthly Delights Brockwell Park, London
2003 Flypitch Brixton Market, London.
2002 Journey of the Stone Bonhoga Gallery, Shetland.
2001 Journey of the Stone Gallerie de Beerenburght, Holland.
RESIDENCIES - COMMISSIONS
2016 Three week residency Cafe Tissardmine, Morocco.
2015 Two week residency Atina, Italy
2014 Two week residency Atina, Italy.
2012 Two week Joya residency at Cortijada Los Gázquez, Andalusia.
2011 One month residency at Baer Arts Centre, Iceland
1997 Kielder Forest, Northumberland.
1997 The Gardens Of Gaia Kent.
1996 Three month residency at the European Ceramic Work Centre, Holland.
1995 Sculptor in Residence, Grizedale Forest, Cumbria.
1993 Artists Plener, Suchedniow, nr. Kielce, Poland.
1991-92 Sculpture Residency, Chiltern Sculpture Trail.
1990 Sculpture Residency, Chiltern Sculpture Trail.
1989 Artists Plener, Przemysl, Poland.
LECTURESHIP POSTS
1999 - Senior Lecturer, Buckinghamshire New University - BA Fine Art
2004 - 07 Head of Fine Art, Buckinghamshire New University
1998 - 99 Part-time Buckinghamshire New University – BA Fine Art
1987 - 99 Associate Lecturer (0.5) Oxfordshire School of Art & Design
- Foundation, General Art & Design, P/T Access into Art & Design
Ist Year Fine Art Degree (Joint Hons) - and P/T BA Fine Art.
1989 - 98 Part-time Buckinghamshire New University - Foundation.
1988 Part-time Berkshire College of Art & Design - Foundation.
1985 – 87 Part-time Buckinghamshire New University - Foundation.
1985 – 86 Part-time Brookes University - Foundation 3D.
ARTS MANAGEMENT/CURATORIAL POSITIONS
2002 - 2005 Director of Magdalen Road Studios.
1994 –1998 Trustee, Company Secretary and Programming Board Member of
Chiltern Sculpture Trust.
1990 Founding member of the Chiltern Sculpture Trail.
1988 –1992 Oxfordshire Visual Arts Festival (Artweek) Board of Management
