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Tracey Falcon
University College for the Creative Arts (BA (Hons) Fine Art / 2004)
  • Shipping News, Wight
    Size (H x W x D): 33 x 33 x 3 cm
    £300.00
  • Really
    Size (H x W x D): 97 x 28 x 3 cm
    £750.00
  • Shipping News, Cromarty
    Size (H x W x D): 33 x 33 x 3 cm
    £300.00
  • Shipping News, Fisher
    Size (H x W x D): 33 x 33 x 3 cm
    £300.00
  • At Stake
    Size (H x W x D): 77.5 x 67.5 x 3 cm
    £5,000.00
  • Shipping News, Tyne
    Size (H x W x D): 33 x 33 x 3 cm
    £300.00
  • Set in Stone
    Size (H x W x D): 40 x 40 x 18 cm
    £525.00
  • Typeset
    Size (H x W x D): 83 x 45 x 3 cm
    £750.00

Profile

 

Tracey Falcon, ‘Already Read’ series. Newspaper work.



 

Tracey started working with paper to make a piece of work in response to the Gulf War. After discovering the versatility of paper, Tracey has made work using only newspaper since 2004.


Much of her work starts off in the form of newspaper ‘tree trunks’ or ‘prosthetic branches’ and stays outdoors for a number of months (the longest being in situ for 3 years) in order to weather.


In 2008 three newspaper ‘tree trunks’ made for the Folkestone Trienniel Fringe were set fire to in the Coastal Park. This began a 2 year experimental phase during which time Tracey tried various ways to draw with fire onto newspaper. The images on her latest work are drawn onto the paper using a blowtorch.


As newspaper comes from wood and is turned back to a wood like product through the tree trunks and ‘prosthetic limbs Tracey makes, so charcoal, that traditional drawing material, comes from burning wood.

Cycles of nature and cycles of life. Drawn from nature, newspaper is then drawn back into nature and some, drawn on by nature.


Newspaper tree trunks and prosthetic branches, share the stories they’ve been charged to keep. Stories both from the trees they come from and from the human world branded onto the newspaper.  As the rings on the trees offer information on the land over time, the pages of the newspaper are steeped in human history.  Information, truth, opinion, fact, lies, propaganda; fed through the thin pages for all to contribute to and all to feed on. History – the writing on the wall.


Reshaping the stories into new narratives in 2 dimensions, the wall mounted newspaper works seek to reference the trees before the newspaper, the stories of the newspaper and new words suggested by the worked newspaper. Each wall based piece comes with its own story.  Sometimes in these stories it’s not easy to see the wood for the trees.

Exhibitions

2012

26 Feb - 1 April Colne Gallery, Colchester Hospital, Essex

 

 

2011

December - January 2012. The Sportsman, Faversham Road, Seasalter. Kent. CT5 4BP

September - December. Solo exhibition at Cloisters, 1 Pump Court, Temple. London. EC4Y 7AA.

 

2010

December. Here Today, reflections on and remnants of the past. Group show. The Outside World Gallery, London E2.

October–November. Cross My Art - 210 Pentonville. Pop up Exhibition London.

October.  Livelitattheword WordART exhibition at The Horsebridge Centre Whitstable

September–October. Art and Escape Gallery Awards Exhibition. Shortlisted for annual awards.

June–August. Stark Gallery Canterbury.

June–July. Fowle Hall Features/Accident and Emergence. Group Exhibition.

2009

July–August. Pulp Fictions at Rochester Art Gallery. Group exhibition of artists using paper in their work. I also did an artist workshop in response to the exhibition and Rochester Cathedral. Work from this was installed in the garden at Rochester Cathedral.

March–April. ko-ax Mascalls Gallery. Exhibition showcasing 6 Kent artists.

2008

October. Whitstable Open Studios. Charity exhibition. Artists Open Studio Trail.

October. Canterbury Art Fair. Exhibition as part of the Canterbury Festival.

August–Nov. Folkestone Fringe, part of the Folkestone Triennial Fringe. Public installation at The Coastal Park.

June. Charlton Arts Centre Open Exhibition

February–July. Chimaera Gallery. Group exhibition.

2007

November/December. Chimaera Gallery. Group exhibition.

October. Canterbury Art Fair. Exhibition as part of the Canterbury Festival.

August. Godinton House Gardens. Wild Garden sculpture exhibition.

June. Hackwood Art Festival. Exhibited work and also ran workshop on environmental/recycled art to primary school students.

June–Oct. Art in the Garden, Sir Harold Hillier Gardens. Summer exhibition.

2006

October. Canterbury Festival Arts Fair. Exhibition as part of Canterbury Festival.

September-October. Exhibition at The Herbert Read Gallery, University College for the Creative Arts, Canterbury.

August 2006 I Slug. A group exhibition at the Horsebridge Centre, Whitstable.

2005

November. Seagull. A group exhibition at the Old Town Gallery, Margate.

February-March. Plant/Transplant. Exhibition at Substation, Margate and St Peter’s Church Sandwich. Site specific work evolving as the work was moved to the second site.

2004

July 2004- 2007 Canterbury Environmental Education Centre. I received a bursary awarded by English Nature and the Environmental Centre to create 3 site specific sculptures for the Environmental Centre dealing with both the nature of the site and the natural environment. This work was documented for 3 years. I also assisted in taking several workshops in environmental art for teachers and young people with special needs as part of the bursary.

July. Margate Rocks. Open exhibition.

March. Invasion. Public exhibition, City Wall, Canterbury.

2003

July–September. Group exhibition at Local Hero Records

May. The March Group exhibition at Local Hero Records, Canterbury

February–March. Group exhibition at Eurostar’s Ashford International Station.

February. My video work shown alongside that of other students at an exhibition at UKC.

1996 – 1997

Youth Arts Festival, Hong Kong. Arranging/participating in

art projects for young people. ‘Aids Awareness’ project for Kelly Support Group.

The ‘Aids Awareness’ project was seen by Medicin Sans Frontiers and we were asked

to take the project into two Vietnamese refugee centres. We held two days at

Whitehead and High Island Centres involving music, dance, theatre and art.

Medicin Sans Frontiers commission to design some murals for their clinic at Pillar

Point refugee centre. I took a small group of artists with me and we involved children

from the centre in the painting process.

‘Art in the Park’, an annual event designed for children and young adults to become

involved in art projects. I organised activities for two of these events. For the second

of these I worked with a young girl from one of the Vietnamese refugee centres.

‘Under Construction’, a project involving three refugee centres. I coordinated the

project at the school in Pillar Point refugee centre. We then exhibited the works from

the three centres in two locations in Hong Kong. I assisted in hanging exhibitions of

various community arts projects around Hong Kong.

 

 

Interview

What is your favourite film of all time?

This changes all the time. I've just seen Far From Heaven and loved it a lot. Have loved Withnail and I enough to watch it more than once, also Underground and almost anything by Emir Kusterica. I don't think there will ever be just one favourite film.

What music are you currently listening to and why?

Have just listened to Black Light by Calexico, this makes me listen to it with my whole body.  

Which living artists do you most admire and why?

I admire all artists. For the sheer perseverance it takes to continue to make work. For providing such rich inspiration for discussion and debate.

Which deceased artist do you most admire and why?

My admiration goes out to all as I said before. There are artists whose work provokes different reactions in me but if we're sticking to admiration, art and all who make it get mine.

Which exhibition that you have visited made the greatest impact on you and why?

I have been blown away many times. Going to a huge event like Venice Bienale or Documenta has probably most knocked my socks off by the sheer size and amount of art on show.  Tania Bruguera's work has made me cry.

What is the question you get asked most frequently about your work and how do you answer it?

What made you start using newspaper in this way?

I started chopping up paper in response to the Iraq war in about 2003. I was making quite political work at the time and chopped up UN resolutions, the world map and newspaper headlines to make a piece of work called 12000 pages (which was 12000 pieces of paper) which referred to a report on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq which the Americans had edited before giving it to the UN. Handling all that paper gave me the feel of it. Soon after that I proposed to make my first newspaper tree trunks and was awarded a bursary by English Nature and Broadoak Nature Reserve to do this.

What / who inspired you to be an artist?

By being incurably interested in life and people. Needing to question, examine,  dissect and reconstruct.

Can you tell us about where you make your art and what if any the significance of this location is?

I have a studio in my house. It's small. I use it because it's cheap and I can go there any time. A friend and I once decided we would have made it when we have a studio with a fork lift truck in it. I haven't got one yet and now I think I'd like a scissor lift in there too.

What do you like most about being an artist?

Making work.

What is your greatest achievement as an artist to date?

Not giving up.

What are your plans for the coming year?

To continue to exhibit, next one is at the end of this month. Also to continue my project and education work.  I am lucky enough to work with some amazing organisations such as Turner Contemporary, where I met the Queen and Prince Philip in November (got my name in the papers too as the Prince made me laugh and the papers decided it was one of his 'gaffs'). I will also be working a lot with Stour Valley Arts who are based in the gorgeous Kings Wood in Challock, Kent and I have project proposals out there with a collective of artists through Workers of Art and all sorts of irons in the fire! And I am making a new series of work. Busy as ever.