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There is something supremely narrative about the idea of a lighthouse and my interest in writing this story as my response to The Kick-About No.131 began with thinking about the role of the lighthouse keeper, and why a person might be in need of all that isolation and the routine that comes with the job.…
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Our last Kick-About was a celebratory compendium of five years of ‘kicking it about’—and speaking personally, I do look forward to these fortnightly opportunities to ‘think a thing, do a thing and share a thing’ as little lights on the horizon of often more humdrum vistas. Fittingly, this first prompt of the ‘new year’ is…
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This week’s 130th edition of The Kick-About marks the fifth anniversary of an activity first started back during the strange, listless days of the COVID lock-downs. The short version is that, every two weeks, a loose collective of artists make ‘new work in a short time’ in response to a specific prompt. This is the…
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The last edition of the Kick-About was prompted by the idea of a ‘treasure trove’—a phrase that could just as easily apply to this week’s anniversary edition. The big number is the total number of weeks in five years—marking how long The Kick-About has been up and running (you can explore all 129 previous editions…
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Early last year, when I was in France, I found a stash of wonderfully rusty implements, stuffed into a deep crevice in an old wall. I don’t know why they were hidden away like that, but the keys are these great big ‘storybook’ ones that should be hanging off the belt of a wizard. The…
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For our last Kick-About, we revelled in the razor-sharp satire of James Gillray. This week it’s a celebration of found things, forgotten relics, and hidden gems brought into the light—and for all previous editions of The Kick-About, click here. Graeme Daly “My niece and I were both watching a favourite film of ours—The Goonies—and one…
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Our latest Kick-About prompt made my 3D-fingers itch: something about James Gillray’s physical deformations and soft, pink colour palette had me defaulting to this technique, in which you ‘free-build’ out of pads of stuffed nylon and use a needle and thread to ‘sculpt’. Next, you use PVA glue to harden the object, and then you…
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The last edition of The Kick-About found us immersed in the symbolic world of Kiki Smith, where myth, body, and nature intertwined. This time, the mood shifts as we relish the biting wit and exaggerated forms of James Gillray, inspiring these latest works created in a short time. For all previous editions of The Kick-About,…
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I liked the strong narrative element—and the scratchy, witchy vibes of Kiki Smith’s figures (our prompt for The Kick-About No. 127) that sense too of the promise of magic, and the environs of the woods. I don’t draw really, but I decided I’d just begin something by using charcoal on tracing paper to conjure up…
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Our last edition of The Kick-About immersed us in the shimmering world of iridescence—a celebration of light in perpetual transformation. This week, we turn our attention to the evocative art of Kiki Smith, whose work probes themes of mortality, the human body and the interplay of myth and nature. For all previous editions of The…
Red's Kingdom 