The Couch trip International Video Art Festival 2006

Wanted: artists video works (any theme) on VHS tape or DVD
(approx five minutes long)
To be shown for one night only in a living room of a ground floor flat in Cardiff Wales UK.

Please send video material plus SAE for return to:

The Barrie J Davies World Headquarters
93B Diana Street, Roath,
Cardiff, Wales, UK CF24 4TT

Closing Date for submissions:
20th Feb 2006

For more information call: 07910474720

How to be an artist by barrie j davies

You too can be an artist if you follow the following guidelines.

Good luck and happy art making.

you need a studio. All artists must have a studio.

Make sure your studio is in a state of chaos like Francis bacons.

you need a easel. (only if you are going to paint)

you need a café to hang out in, to drink strong black coffee and smoke cheap cigarettes.
You need some form of facial hair or stubble for the correct look.

You need to get rid of your brightly coloured clothes and just wear black, all artists wear black.

You need to make sure that these clothes are from a charity shop and are tread bare and covered with paint.

You must go to as many private views at galleries as possible and drink as much free booze as possible, not forgetting to look at the artwork and talking to people to network.

You must make sure you own a pair of sunglasses for those bad days with a hangover or just when you want to look cool.

For male artists make sure you have the cool earring in one ear.

Make sure you document all the artwork you make in which to show gallery owners and potential buyers.

Don’t worry about having an original idea there are plenty that you can appropriate.
Start reading lots of art books any one will do.

Don’t forget to always carry a sketch book with you at all times to sketch those important things down.

You will also need the all important artists beret.

Keep a sketchbook / note book next to the bed in case of those four o’clock in the morning ideas.
Watch all art programmes on television, no matter how dull and childish.

Don’t forget to watch the turner prize on channel four every year, (it can be very funny).

For painting make sure you have a palette to mix up all your colours on.

Make sure you hang out in art shops to check out art materials.

Make sure you have a very good chin stroking technique when looking at art.

Make sure you always have a sharp pencil ready.

Make sure that your shoes are black and covered in paint.

You will also need a beaten up small car or push bike to get from home to the studio or the pub.

Art education can be important, but don’t forget Francis bacon who never went to art college.

Some weeks spend more money on your art materials than food so you suffer for art.

Enter as many art competitons as possible.

Make sure that you get some of you artwork on the walls of the café that you go to.

Try and meet other artists sometimes this can be good and bad for discussing ideas, sometimes over a few bottles of whisky.

Make sure that you have some part time job to keep the money coming in, such as wimpy or McDonalds.

Never give up and work hard.

Be very cautious of gallery owners they can rip you off.

Make sure if you are going to paint nudes you will need a model (a naked one will do).

Don’t forget that making art is about art and not money other wise you would be stockbroker or a doctor.

Remember to show any art work at any time, any place, you never know who will see it.

Don’t forget that it can also be very lonely in the studio on your own.

Make sure you get your self advertised for free in the yellow page under a free listing.

Remember to have fun with your art work. Humour is very important.

Even the stupid ideas can work. Such as martin creed who turns a light on and off.

Try you best to show your artwork abroad. It means you also get a holiday out of it.

Make sure you have a coffee maker to for coffee to keep you going in the studio.

The life and times of Barrie J Davies

BARRIE J DAVIES:
Born In Milford Haven Pembrokeshire Wales 10th of September 1977

web: www.barriejdavies.com Email:barriejdaviesisanartist@hotmail.com

The work of Barrie J Davies ranges from the use of various media playing with meanings, images, objects and texts to create possible new fictions and reality to reassess the world and space around us through the guise of language and displacement. Humour is the catalyst in which is manipulated to help guide the work to possible understandings.

EDUCATION
2004 - University of Wales Institute Cardiff – MA Fine Art
2000 - Southampton Institute – BA Hons Fine Art (Time Based Media)
1997 - Carmarthen College of Art and Design – Foundation Course

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2006 – "THE BALLAD OF BARRIE J" G39, Cardiff, Wales
2005 – "MAY CONTAIN NUTS" Oriel I Bawb, Snowdon Mill, Porthmadog, Wales
2005 – "BARRIE J DAVIES IS AN ARTIST" Fold Gallery, Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria, England
2004 – "BLOW MY MONKEY" The Red Box Gallery, Ninian Road, Cardiff, Wales
2003 – "SERENDIPITY" The Circle Gallery, Muni Arts Centre, Pontypridd, Wales
2001 – "23 RPM" Haverfordwest Library Gallery, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales
2000 –"CRIME SCENE" Project Milford, Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, Wales
1998 – "WORLDS MOST WANTED" Haverfordwest Community Centre, Pembrokeshire, Wales

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2006 – "WISH YOU WERE HERE!" Artshed, Ware, Herts, England
2005 – "MULTIPLEX 4" The Old Cinema Art Space, Hoxton, London, England
2005 – "SLICE 3" Chapter Art Gallery, Cardiff, Wales (curated by Alan Baynes and Andy Fung)
2005 – "MULTIPLEX 3" The Old Cinema Art Space, Hoxton, London, England
2005 – "SECRET" The Royal College of Art, London, England
2005 – "THE WELSH CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR 2005" Oriel I Bawb, Porthmadog, Wales,
2005 – "MOBILE" Arena Gallery, Liverpool, England
2005 – "SUPER 8 STATION 2" Station Art space, Bristol, England
2005 – “OBSESSION” GALERI X, Istanbul, Turkey
2005 – "STATES OF UNION ?" Catalyst Arts, Belfast, Northern Ireland
2004 – "THE POST CARD SHOW" The Surface Gallery, Nottingham, England
2004 – "SLICE 2" Tactile Bosch Artspace, Llandaff North, Cardiff, Wales
2004 – "FLIM – FLAM" G39, Mill lane, Cardiff, Wales (Curated by Anthony Shapland)
2004 – "PERFECTLY NORMAL" Tactile Bosch Artspace, Cardiff, Wales
2003 – "SLICE" Jacobs Market Art Space, Cardiff, Wales
2003 – "DRAWING, THE END OF THE LINE" Ecole Municipale de Dessin, Saint-lo, France
2003 – "CAERLEON ARTS FAIR" Artavia Gallery, Caerleon, Wales
2002 – "ART IN THE MARKET" Newport market Gallery, Newport, Wales
2002 – "SUMMER" Brooklyn Art Gallery, Cardiff Wales
2001 – "CHRISTMAS" InkSpot Arts and Crafts Centre Gallery, Cardiff, Wales
2000 – "ANONYMOUS" Southampton Institute Fine Art Degree show, Southampton, England
1998 – "ALCHEMY" St Mary’s Market, Southampton, England

SOLO PERFORMANCES, EVENTS, HAPPENINGS AND PROJECTS
2005 – “ON THE PISS” A happening / event/ pub crawl starting at the Tut and Shive pub City Road Cardiff going to other pubs in Cardiff. Images of this event documented for Barrie J Davies Website. 27th may
2004 – "THE MUSEUM OF NOTHINGNESS" Mail Art project collecting objects that represent ‘nothing’, publicised in The Western Mail and AN magazine, Nov
2003 – “THE GREAT NATIONAL GIVE AWAY” a mail art project giving away free unframed abstract paintings to galleries and members of the public
2002 – "REJECTED: 2002 to Present" an on going collection project file of art gallery rejection letters.

CURATORIAL ACTIVITIES
2006 – "THE COUCH TRIP" curator and organiser of an exhibition of Video art in the lounge of a flat in Cardiff, Mar
2005 – “ALL WASHED UP!” curator and organiser of an exhibition of artwork in a Bathroom in Cardiff, Aug

COMMISSIONS, AWARDS AND RESIDENCES
2005 – The Red Box Gallery Award for The Baddest Painting
2005 – Quench Magazine – cover image

SELECTED CRITICAL REVIEWS, MEDIA AND PRESS COVERAGE
2005 – Cumberland & Westmorland Herald "Its all a matter of taste"6th Aug, p4
2005 – South Wales Echo, “Glass half empty for pub crawl record attempt” 28th may, p.3
2005 – Red Dragon FM “The Art Pub Crawl” 27th may
2005 – South Wales Echo, “Can this man organise a booze-up in a brewery?” 20th may, p.8
2005 – BBC Website “Live Art Pub Crawl” may
2005 – Quench Magazine “Artist or Knob Head?”, Vol 2 Issue 23, p.8 & p.9
2004 – The Western Mail "Hunt for something to prove nothing" 23rd Nov, p.14
2005 – "Obsession" Exhibition Catalogue CD ROM
2004 – MA fine Art Degree Show Catalogue,
2004 – S4C Television Documentary "Slay Maker" May 6th, 9.30pm
2003 – "Drawing, The end of the line" Exhibition Catalogue
2001 – Buzz Magazine - Feb
2000 – Milford Mercury Newspaper "01 Gallery For Milford?" 21st July p. 72000 – Southampton Institute Fine Art Degree Show Ca

The work of the artist barrie j davies

Once upon a time there was an conceptual artist born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, called
Barrie J Davies.

Barrie J Davies is an artist who has anarchically explored the absurdity of contemporary life working in his paintings, photographs, sculptures, poetry, videos, films, drawings, performance works, publications, badges, posters, signs, public interventions and written works.
He has exhibited his old unframed abstract paintings on paper and sold them for one pound each.
He organised an art pub crawl called "on the piss" designed as a focus for getting people together to talk about art while going out for a night around the pubs in Cardiff. Documentation of this event was posted on his website barriejdavies.com and for the people that came along they were each given a limited edition badge which said "on the piss with Barrie J Davies".
He has made a 'liberating' video work of releasing yellow bath-time ducks on to a lake alongside real ducks and swans to explore the man-made world against the natural world.
He has set up the world's first "Museum of Nothingness", a project designed to collect and preserve objects in a briefcase to which the public has donated to represent their idea of 'nothing' and 'nothingness'.
He has made many word and text based drawings and paintings which explore the ideas of contemporary art and its limitations.
He has put up temporary text based signs and posters around the city of Cardiff to explore the confusion that we face in moving around in our daily lives. They have been documented as photographs.
He has sold some artworks on Ebay when he has been strapped for cash.
He has organised an exhibition of art works by other artists in the bathroom of his flat, called "All Washed up!".
He has exhibited his collection of rejection letters from galleries for a ongoing project called "Rejected". This file of letters runs from 2002 to the present day.
Another one of his projects was to introduce the "Unlimited Print" which is an unlimited edition, ink on A4 paper print (2004), which is available to download free from his website barriejdavies.com as a word document.
For his latest artwork called "NO SMOKING", he is collecting as many cigarette butts as possible from the streets of Cardiff to make into the worlds largest cigarette butt sculpture to represent the death of smoking in today's increasingly cigarette-phobic society.

The artwork of Barrie J Davies explores the funny and the stupid things of life that make us laugh or get in the way or just get on our nerves or even make us fall over; they are always completely off the wall.

for more information about the life and work of the artist barrie j davies go to
www.barriejdavies.com

hello from barrie j davies

I have never done this before but there is always a time for something new.

All the best barrie j davies.

for more information about the life and work of the artist barrie j davies go to
www.barriejdavies.com