Buggles my first outdoor sited Being - Burghley Sculpture Gardens

Celebration Event at Burghley Sculpture Gardens 16.06.18

How many excuses can I come up with for not publicising my recent Frillip Moolog activities  more loudly (or even that I haven't publicised them at all...)?

Well hello Buggles! 

Don’t answer please/ that’s a rhetorical question.

Anyway, here’s a run down....

Sept 2017- June 2018: I have been fully 'up to my armpits in alligators' in PGCE Design Technology training with Sheffield Hallam University and three placement schools in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire. 

My life has been completely: Backpacks, Lesson Plans and PowerPoints. 

One recurring phrase that has popped into my mind sporadically throughout the course has been a Brian Eno quote, “When you hit 50 it’s good to give your life a bit of a shake-up”. ........The thing is..... I thought that I’d already done that in 2014 (when I actually did turn 50) .... 

But here I am -  June 2018, aged 54 and with my fresh PGCE (teaching qualification).... How ‘shook up’ (in a good way) do I feel? 

But this post isn’t about teaching… no it’s about FrillipMoolog and the art I’ve made and got out there in this past year. 

Drum roll please….. ‘Buggles’…my first ever outdoor-sited FrillipMoolog being is currently lounging (sloth-like) across a branch on a (specially selected) tree bough in Burghley Sculpture Gardens.

It started with one of those ‘out of the blue’ e mails back in June 2017 asking if I'd be interested in submitting a proposal. Then a visit to Burghley to discover that, not only is the sculpture garden absolutely fantastic, but that there are also some great artists exhibited in the permanent sculpture garden too. 

I contacted some of my friends and thanks to very positive comments from Richard Bett and Lucy Strachan I got my 'finger out' and submitted a proposal. 

I'd already earmarked a tree at Burghley and these are my first very rough sketches of how my sci-fi 'sloth' might look

However, I was still quite overwhelmed by my teacher training responsibilities so at this point I was still not sure if I would have the time to make a suitable FrillipMoolog being in a way that I felt comfortable with. But in true Kirsty fashion I had already identified some materials that I thought I’d like to work with and so had begun a (tentative) materials purchasing spree. 

I’d bought more than £100 worth of these faceted metallic cocktail goblets before I'd actually decided on the final design of Buggles.

I could see a lot of potential in these segmented lids especially as I've been fascinated by segments for a loooong time)

Like I’ve said before, playing with materials is a serious part of my practice. I still smile to myself when I hear myself giggle in this video that my son filmed back in Feb.

Installation happened in early April and the Otherworldy show runs until the end of October 2018. I’m really grateful to Mike Shaw for inviting me to submit a proposal and also very glad that I accepted the challenge as it proves yet again that it is worth pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.

I’ve learnt a huge amount this year:

• What it takes to be a professionally qualified teacher.
• How much I enjoy working with young people.
• How much I love being in my studio, playing with materials and making new work.
• How much I value the support and encouragement of the people that I surround myself with (they know who they are).

Otherworldly

The 2018 Burghley Sculpture Garden exhibition explores the surreal, strange, magical, cosmic and interplanetary. The sculptures in the show span our world and the known existence; exploring the geological, the celestial, and the extra-terrestrial.
Exhibiting Artists: Mark Beattie, Anthony Carr, Dallas Collins, Colin Furze, Andy Hazell, Kevin Hope, Conor Hurford, Darius Martisius, John McDonald, Michael Marriott, Denis O’Connor, Joanne Risley, Pete Rogers, Ben Rowe, Kirsty E Smith, Jim Unsworth

Show runs until 28.10.18