New Works

Ok, it's been a while since I've written on this wall but now that the MA business is done it's time to move forward and start creating work to sell (hopefully). So, this is now my dedicated site for showcasing my recycled / up-cycled art work. In the same vein as before I will be taking various items out of the land-fill chain, destined for the slag heap and turning them back into desired objects, re-injecting the value into the matter! So, watch this space. Currently I am working on another suitcase - kindly given to me by Keith Baxter of The Famous Potatoes of Leigh-on-Sea, and designing a set of place names for a friends wedding.

The Pudding!

Proof is in the pudding as they say, and what a treat it was to see two of my Freecycle donors at the private view of my exhibition! The evening went much better than I expected and I spoke to lots of people about my work who seemed interested. So, it all kind of worked out nicely. For the Freecyclers who couldn't make it there were a plethora of children who gladly opened the remainder of the presents - especially pleased were they with the collectibles they unwrapped from the tree, which they had fun recognising from the picture on the wall.
It certainly was rewarding to finally put up my work and talk to people about it, and although I maybe somewhere in the region of£252.78 lighter, I feel much richer for it!

So, if you're reading this and it's not yet the 8th January 2010, then please do come and see the exhibition of the MA work at The Minories in Colchester. After that we're moving to Slack Space so maybe I'll see you there too! I'll post back on this blog once my next project is underway!

Bye for now!

The Turner Prize 2009...

I forgot to mention that I went to see the Turner Prize nominees a few weeks back. Having heard an interesting piece on BBC Radio 4, talking about this year being a return to more traditional art skills, such as drawing, I was very excited to see this years work. Alas, it wasn't what I expected, but of course it never is an that's almost the point. But, besides Richard Wright's amazingly intricate gold leaf site specific wall mural (which didn't particularly turn me on actually) it still all seemed a bit too vague and over-conceptual in places (Enrico). Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the work there but I really did want to see some more traditional works. Recently the BBC2 documentary series on 'Modern Art' has been concerned with beauty but also what seems to be a sea change in the work of artists in the wake of the Young British Artists - a more relaxed and less antagonistic approach to their work and work which focusses more on traditional skills. I like this trend, if it is a trend of course, it seems more like a return to normality in the art world, away from the recent era of the Tate Modern's 'Paris Salon' approach to contemporary art. If they want to bring in the crowds, trad is where its at as far as I'm concerned, and I'm going to earn and use as many skills as necessary to create work with lasting resonance, rather than novelty trends.
Of course, I see the irony in my statement, but although I appreciate Richard Wright's wall piece for it's relaxed and less antagonistic approach, its understated, yet grand demeanor, it just didn't make a lasting impression on me, anymore than a gold laura ashley wallpaper print. It's not exactly William Morris!

The Warhol Effect!

I've been going back to Warhol recently. I was thinking about the delicious irony that using popular culture has in art works. My latest 'COLLECTIBLES' (thefoamdiaries) are an attempt to make an ironic statement about the value of art by making strangely alluring collectible pieces from my foam. I was thinking about Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs and how my initial idea for the foam, concerning notions of protection, could be turned on its head to create products that serve the opposite function of representing aspiration. Maslow said that we all have different levels of needs, beginning with basic needs such as protection and food, and rising through the hierarchy to self-actualisation, the ultimate self-fulfilment, which for me is reflected in the products we purchase - especially the one's that are all shiny and new. So I decided that this could be a theme of my pieces, or at least some of them -to elicit that aspirational emotion in their texture and form, shiny, smooth, golden etc.

On Mass...

It's been an interesting aspect of my project, trying to make my work for little or no money. Some people, like Dan below, have offered materials for free with enthusiasm for my idea and others have been more cautious about my intentions, taking a stand-offish stance and seeming almost mistrusting of me. Maybe they think I'm taking them for a ride, waltzing into their lives and attempting to charm them whilst relieving them of their materials. I suppose I had hoped that some people would see the benefit in being named on my blog as helpful people who are interested in culture and that I could help promote their business as individual traders/skilled workers.

Skilled workers are perhaps overlooked these days. We hardly think about the process of making an object/product. We might assume it's been made by a machine and therefore a functional, albeit decorative object that has had no human attention in it's production. By using disregarded objects/materials and the help of skilled workers in creating my work I hope to highlight this importance and in these complex days of consumerism ethics it's something for us to consider - the level of consumption and production we've come to accept. On the news tonight the BBC heralded the return of its Cargo container, which had gone round the world collecting products from every continent and had come into problems because the recent downturn has affected the production of consumer goods dramatically in some countries. Maybe the industrial world is beginning to slow down and we will see a new interest in unique handmade products from local trades people instead of walking along the high streets staring at mass-produced identical products.

Dan The Man!

What a lovely bloke is Mr. Daniel Sandford at The Frame Shop. Not only did he give me an A2 Frame, he also let me have some his old small frames for an extremely good bargain price! He's been in the shop as it's proprietor for three years now, after taking over from the previous owner, who retired. Dan was bored working in a boring office job and decided he didn't like that anymore and got a loan to buy the shop. A great chap indeed. He also gave me the details of a local frame supply store that he thinks might be able to help me get some more of the frames I'm looking for for my exhibition. Not bad for a days work!

Art V's The Commodity?

Some say that art is a product and some say it isn't. The fact of the matter is that art sells and is therefore, sometimes, a commodity. That doesn't mean it has to be about money - indeed sometimes it is against it's own 'commodification' - such as Damien Hirst's Skull, which is priceless! Nicolas Bourriaud, in Relational Aesthetics, suggested that the art event/experience itself could be used as a way of making art that is experienced outside of capitalist exchange, suggesting it might be possible to separate art and the commodity, or at least make a statement about being against the commodification of art, by making the art experience the 'art object' itself. But can we really separate art from commodity in the consumer age? And what is the point arguing the toss? If artists want to make autonomous work that makes a comment about capitalist society or make socially-engaged public art that's great isn't it? We must all want diverse art, afterall. But if the money isn't there to support artists then they are forced into creating art work for others, rather than themselves deciding how their work might manifest and one of the downsides and ironies of Relational Aesthetics is that it has added to the argument that calls for a justification of the impact of art that characterised the last decade and the political search for evidence of arts transformative power - which Relational Art suggested in its implication that art can rebuild the damaged bonds between people caused by individualistic consumption. But anyway, can art really exist outside the exchanges of capitalist culture? A simple answer is perhaps: not if it wants to make any money, or use money to make it!
We can however, find new ways of making art using sustainable resources, which might offset the costs in the long run. And if the profits of art, whatever they may be, are without an element of exploitation, political or otherwise, then this kind of works against the idea of art as a commodity, I think?

Retail v's Art Therapy!

I found the following comments on this site to explain the economic term Positive Externalities ...

"A positive externality exists when an individual or firm making a decision does not receive the full benefit of the decision. The benefit to the individual or firm is less than the benefit to society. Thus when a positive externality exists in an unregulated market, the marginal benefit curve (the demand curve) of the individual making the decision is less than the marginal benefit curve to society. With positive externalities, less is produced and consumed than the socially optimal level."

Basically, the SOCIALLY OPTIMAL level is when the outlay of a business is equal to the returns it gets OR what a consumer pays for a product is at the same rate at which they consume it - therefore meaning that the marginal COST of a product is equal to the marginal benefit to society.

Examples of the Problem of social gain!

"There are many Common examples of a positive externality. Immunization prevents an individual from getting a disease, but has the positive effect of the individual not being able to spread the disease to others. Keeping your yard well maintained helps your house's value and also helps the value of your neighbors' homes. Beekeepers can collect honey from their hives, but the bees will also pollinate surrounding fields and thus aid farmers."

Apparently this is a problem - so lets see how we can solve it, before all this social gain nonsense gets out of control!

Solving the Positive Externality Problem
"In order to get consumers to consume more of a good that has a positive externality, a subsidy can be given to them. The subsidy will increase the marginal benefit they receive when they consume the good. The subsidy can be payed for by all those who receive the external benefits."

So, there you have it - the Problem of positive social gain is solved by simply giving discounts and bulk-buy incentives to encourage the consumer to buy more. Isn't that what they tried to do recently by suspending VAT in Britain, til they realised that people were more interested in saving than spending? Why not just drive down the cost of living? I think the idea is to increase the demand for a product so as to ensure it maintains a high price and more items get sold. But that just creates more waste when a product, like the one's I've attained from Freecycle don't serve a purpose anymore, for one reason or another. Maybe that reason is because the previous owner needed something new, maybe they actually need it, maybe the item is damaged and they can't/don't want to fix it or they simply have too much stuff because they find it hard to get rid of even the most arbitrary of items. Whatever the reason one thing seems to tie them all together - the item itself represents a need.

The problem of Retail Therapy is that, like any other addiction, it is perhaps a replacement for some other need. If your goal in life is to collect as many items as possible that's fine but I seriously doubt that is the case for most people.

But anyway, now I've almost finished my rant, I think I'll round this entry off buy suggesting that the consumption philosophy doesn't help business - instead perhaps it just creates a world of emotionally malnourished, self-orientated confusionoids who don't understand what they really need. I personally believe that true satisfaction in life comes through achievement. Not the secondary achievement of having earned enough money selling insurance so you can buy a new sofa to match the new curtains; but in the primary achievement of expression and interaction with world through the process of creativity. In short, Art can create positive eventualities without the experience of loss. Art is the antithesis to the banality of consumption.

Positive Externalities!

Today I found a very interesting Facebook of an emerging MA artist, Eleanor Davies, who turns waste materials into interesting furniture and other decorative eco pieces that she sells. Her work is also part of this years Wombledon College of Art MA exhibition. I like this take on eco art, it's very theatrical - which makes sense as Eleanor recently graduated with a first class honours degree in Theatre: Design and Performance. In fact, Eleanor has already started her own business and you can see on her facebook page the photos of the event, plus the catalogue of playful works that employ a mixture of novel ideas and traditional craft skills, including wood joinery and upholstering. I shall definately be going to the exhibition at Wimbledon College of Art (4th - 9th Sept).

What I like most about this work is the fact that, like the works in the second lives exhibition, merges notions of art and craft and has a social conscience. However, I think that with my work I want to edge away from the design aspect to create work that considers notions of community and contemporary culture. I also have no plans to sell my work and will actually be giving it away for free so that the 'surplus value' created by my physical work is returned as a 'positive externality' for the community, retrieving the original surplus value created by the industrial process.

Value-added

For me it's important that my work should not have an ‘exchange value’, because it then becomes just another product. On the contrary, my art works will be given back to the Colchester Freecycle community for free, turning waste/valueless objects back into desireable objects that provoke notions of the potential of creativity; also investigating Marx’s notion of value in that I am investigating the potential for consumer and industrial waste to turned back into a form of 'profit' for communities by way of community engagement with my work.

What is interesting is that, just as Marx never really offered a tangible solution to the deficiencies of the capitalist system, art, too suggests new visions of the world, stimulating debate, without necessarily offering tangible solutions. Marx’s work and ideas continually inspire political and philosophical debate as well as a lot of art work and art theory (such as Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetics). His ideas continue to live and breath, for as long as capitalism thrives anyway, just as art will always be part of our lives. Perhaps we can view art as part of the same process of our struggles - indeed, alongside Marx's ideas about class struggles too.

Marx postulated that the Bourgeoisie (capitalists) will be overthrown by the proletariat (underclass) that it created, just as the Aristocrats were overthrown by the Bourgeoisie that it created. Who knows how and when such a revolution could begin to occur, maybe it already has, or maybe Marx was wrong, but perhaps we can see it happening as part of our cultural evolution. For instance, Capitalism gave rise to and feeds off Popular Culture (mass culture) and perhaps popular culture (the culture of the common people) is overthrowing Bourgeois culture. Perhaps you can see it happening in entertainment in the shift from industry-generated to user-generated media content in the current advent of the digital revolution. Is Bourgoise (Business) culture creating the conditions for its own demise?

For example, the internet has become a powerful aspect of entertainment and culture (and politics), and, as a result advertising revenues in the media industry are rapidly shifting from traditional entertainment sources such as TV to the internet, depleting advertising revenues for mainstream terrestrial and digital TV and this, it has been suggested, encourages companies to produce middle of the road TV programmes aimed at mass markets in a bid to win commissions from (evermore revenue-conscious) broadcast executives.
This makes it harder for any commercial businesses (such as ITV, Channels 4,5 Virgin and Sky) to justify quality programmes, even with pressure from regulatory bodies, such as Ofcom in the UK, who aim for plurality and diversity in broadcasting, whilst de-regulating ownership rules to make way for more and more companies in an already saturated market – which makes worse the problem of obtaining already scarce advertising revenues but produces more 'choice' for the viewers (Hmm, I'm thinking Sky?).
So, audiences are turning to underground sources – internet TV for example – for different content, such as Youtube or Podcasts, or other free content, where they can find an increasing amount of content by independent producers and amateurs in the (presently unregulated) internet TV boom - and watch it at their convenience.

So what effect does this scenario have on the cultural landscape? I believe we are experiencing a cultural revolution that is threatening capitalist cultural values, such as competitiveness, as corporations soak up their competition and make huge losses as we are currently seeing across the entire media industry -which is our main cultural outlet outside of our communities. And all this is compounded by issues such as the banking crisis and climate change, which is driving up the cost of living in western societies and restricting their economies even further.

So, I am not concerned with making art products that have an exchange value. Rather, I believe that art can make a positive contribution to our cultural landscape in these turbulent times, as it did during the second world war - after which was created two of the most extraordinary examples of interventionist government policy here in the uk - the NHS and The Arts Council. As I have said before, good ideas, like these, are free, it’s just our commitment as artists and our ability to think creatively that can make great art happen for free or at minimal cost.

I think that at community level, art projects can be made for free by including people in the process and by utilising networks, such as the Freecycle network, that operate, in one sense, outside capitalist modes of exchange. I am quite sure that it is possible to devise great ideas for art using free materials (of which we have seen there are plenty around), free space (such as temporary development plots for community gardens or empty office/shop spaces for exhibitions or temporary artist work areas) and a broader definition of artistic activity to include all manner of human interaction – community cultural projects involving anything from gardens to social events to sculpture.

So , where was I... Ah, yes, turning waste back into profit - or rather 'abstract profit' - in the form of community engagement, whilst creating autonomous art works, made possible through the freedom of creativity and the abundance of free resources around us!


Incidently, the picture Ive used at the top of this entry is the logo from the Value-added conference held recently to discuss 'Roles, participation and economies in contemporary visual practice'. There was a focus on 'participation and social exclusion in current European, central and local government cultural and regeneration policies' and was centrally concerned with London based artists in this process of regeneration, referring to previous policy statements and their emphasis on 'Excellence' and other leadership qualities for arts practitioners.
I also recently read an article in 'Variant' entitled 'The Artist as Executive: The Executive as Artist' which was concerned with policical terms such as 'Social Exclusion' 'Excellence' and 'Leadership' and the seeming drive to managerialise artists to adopt business philosophies. Kirsten Forket also highlights that the term 'Exclusion' removes the possibility of exploitation in that 'one is not exploited but simply excluded'. Indeed, as Forket also points out, in Ruth Levitas' book 'The Inclusive Society: Social exclusion and New Labour' this discourse removes the power relations that produce inequality so that 'terms like inequality and exploitation' start to disappear. So, if you're not 'included' in the economic drive (in a capitalist sense - even as an exploited worker) then you are 'excluded' from society.


Therefore, it seems ironic that Godelier (1970) highlights Marx's term 'Surplus Value' as evidence for exploitation and the German word for Surplus Value is.....yep, 'VALUE ADDED'.

The Next Life

The Museum of Arts and Design in New York has a specific focus to explore the intersection of art, craft and design in contemporary visual arts from 1945 to the present day. Moreover, the Museum focuses on how contemporary artistic creativity can transform materials ‘through processes ranging from the handmade to cutting-edge technologies’. So, their recent exhibition, entitled ‘Second Lives: remixing the ordinary’ in which selected artists have transformed discarded, everyday or ‘valueless’ objects into works of art, is a perfect example of their ethos and direction.
The works are impressive, using strong evocative imagery and symbolism to stimulate thoughts about sustainability, but also function, value and identity. Furthermore, although the common ground between the works is the re-purposing of discarded objects it is also the focus on craft and design, as can be seen in the intricate construction of the works.
What I find particularly interesting is that this exhibition focuses on the interstice between the realms of art, craft and design, which are usually held apart by a narrow focus; and so this exhibition is also a statement about the role of the artist, in that it highlights the potential of the creative mind to not only make connections between phenomena but also how art ‘products’ are placed in the chain of production by merging design and politics.
One interesting example is Tara Donovan’s piece ‘Bluffs’; a sculpture that resembles a coral or seaweed of some description, made from translucent shirt buttons intricately glued together to form the life-like piece, which shimmers in the light and appears almost animated. What I like about this piece is that to me it points to the idea that humanity is the only living thing on the planet that doesn’t give everything back to the circle of life – ours ends with industry. So, the juxtapose of shirt buttons (a mass-produced industry product) and coral (an essential aspect of the earths ecology which is gradually dying every day as a result of climate change) speaks volumes about both the role of industry in climate change and the role of the artist, who’s work is but a thought-provoking image to be toured around the open-prison that is the gallery system like a thought frozen in the political cycle. I'd love to read the essays by curators David McFadden and Lowery Sims and the artist statements and biographies but I can't afford the $75 plus shipping costs ($9.50) for the catalogue.
I can’t ignore the fact that my work and ideas are similar to the works in this exhibition, in that I too am re-purposing/up-cycling discarded objects; but there are a few significant differences. Firstly, my work is less focussed on making a statement about sustainability and more about the interactions that result as part of my process – collecting objects, meeting new people, involving them in the art work, the meetings between people and the event at which they meet. In this way I am interested in the possibility of creating connections within the Colchester community but specifically in a way that stimulates thoughts about community, consumerism and industry and the role of creativity and art in our lives. Moreover, by laying bare my entire thought process in the pages of this blog and the diaries of my work I am attempting to make this work understandable and open to feedback and criticism from anyone at any time – which I intend to take on board and assimilate into my art where possible, which I believe makes my work more democratic and hopefully will inspire others to flex their creative and intellectual muscles. I hope also that this opportunity for interaction with my audience will allow my work to go further than the gallery system into the social and cultural ether of the community at large. I’m not suggesting that any of the works in Second Lives don’t do this through the stimulation of debate but, as my work is focussed at community level, I feel that the immediacy of this interaction could be more potent.


Secondly, I am also interested in Marx’s notions of ‘exchange value’ and ‘abstract labour’, which brings into question where the value lies in the art work. Is the value to be found in the intricate nature of the labour – the process of creating the art works through an obvious display of craftsmanship (the abstract labour); or is the value to be found in the aesthetic of the art object and its sublime nature – the thought provoking aspect? The art works created for the second lives exhibition do display aspects of craft and design but their true value is in their sublime nature and the meaning they inject back into discarded materials because it’s this added feature which takes an object/product and makes it politically significant.
I also want to focus on aspects of the objects to provoke thoughts, but not about global issues per se. The objects may inspire me in ways that I want to remain open to. I may, for example, re-use an object for its original purpose but in a way that provokes thought. An example of this might be my wooden pencil case, which at present I am considering restoring, utilising antique restoration techniques, to create a wooden pencil box who’s beauty is so resonant that it outweighs its function – suggesting the connection between value and beauty but also between austerity and sustainability. However, I may decide to work with aspects of the pencil box related to its physical properties, such as the imperial measurement scale on its ruler, or the name inscribed on the front by the young girl who carried it to school everyday in the 1960’s, when consumer culture accelerated. Or I may use all of these aspects to make a comment about sustainable communities and the importance of the education system in our economy and the place of the arts within this system and or community regeneration schemes – afterall, every generation regenerates!

The Object is the Subject

Following on from my previous blog entry I feel I can now explain a little better the purpose of Free.Art and my intentions with this project.

You could say I have an interest in recycling and green issues, and this has had some influence on my artistic practice. But also I have always been interested in how politics and industry have shaped our lives. However, to cut a long story short I shall summarise for you my concept and thinking behind this project.

Firstly, I was inspired by the idea that the interactions between people can be viewed as aesthetic objects (see my first blog entry) in an art context - meetings, events, interventions etc. This explanation is a summary of a more complex concept called Relational Aesthetics (Nicolas Bouuriaud) and is said to work well for community regeneration projects because it is an approach which can involve cultural activity and community involvement and creates interactions that are outside of the usual exchanges we experience as consumers in contemporary society and can help to rebuild bonds between people through shared experiences.

I thought about how I could introduce more people in Colchester, and beyond, to the artistic process in an interactive way that was thought-provoking and engaging. Secondly, I kind of merged this with Karl Marx's notion that art is the 'absolute merchandise' because its value is represented by its own image - i.e. art is worth what we see in it - it is not a commodity that has a price (exchange value) that is indicative of the amount of 'abstract labour' that went into it.

The result of this merger was that through the up-cycling of everyday objects obtained on the Colchester Freecycle network - a network that functions outside of the usual exchanges we experience as consumers - I could firstly re-introduce meaning and value back into objects that have lost any value for their owners, through studying their physical properties.

Secondly, I wanted to create a scenario whereby I could invite the kind donors of Freecycle to participate in my art work by attending an exhibition at christmas and opening presents I have made for them using the free materials they gave me. Hence, they can meet and discuss these objects and their new manifestations as works of art and perhaps form new friendships and learn more about my artistic practice and why I'm doing what I do.

The reason I chose to exhibit this work partly in a gallery space is to recognise the political sigificance of the gallery system in providing a space where good art can be viewed by all, and to recognise its relevance to our heritage and cultural life. However, my work is also online because in this domain it has more potential to be acessible to more people, whether the gallery is open or not, and will live on after the exhibition comes down.

Also, central to my idea is that I believe tht art can and should be free - free to be whatever it can be, free to create, to think and to breath life into our daily lives without being heavily reliant on funding or sponsorship wherever possible.
Art to me is about creativity and ideas, and good ideas are free, so we should share them to help envision our world in new and better ways. This art is free; the materials used to make it are all free, the information and links to other information are free and this blog was made for free - only my time and energy creating the products and learning new skills has been the cost for me - plus my travel expenses - so its all good.

So, there you have it, my idea in a nutshell - believe me, the written proposal and the 30 minute presentation I had to do to accompany it were a touch harder to compose! AND I would really appreciate any comments anyone has on my work as I'd love to incorporate any criticisms or ideas anyone has about my work so I can make my process as interactive as possible!

As you have probably noticed already there are a number of diaries I am updating regularly on the right hand side, which are links to those pages, so you can read about my project and my process as and when it happens - or whenever in the future you might come accross any of them.
This is my main page and here I will be contemplating and conceptualising my ideas as I read and experience contemporary art practices, galleries, exhibitions, meetings, events and day to day phenomena that inspires my thoughts, so feel free to give me feedback and tell me about your thoughts too. Plus if you get the chance please do come and see the exhibition that my MA colleagues and I will be putting on for four weeks in December (2009) at The Minories art gallery on Elm road, Colchester, Essex.

Time and Gallery Space

Mark Walinger's exhibition at the Hayward earlier this year (and presently touring the UK)entitled 'The Russian Linesman' explored the themes of 'Frontiers, Borders and Thresholds' (echoing Nicolas Bourriaud's Altermodern concept...see below) and was interested particularly in 'the ambiguities of perception and the interface between different realms of knowledge and experience'. There was an array of thought-provoking artefacts including his own 'Time and Relative Dimensions in Space' (2001) - a life-sized mirrored representation of Doctor Who's TARDIS which was placed in one corner, opposite another corner, so that by standing in a particular spot the reflection of the walls and skirting boards matched those behind the actual TARDIS, giving the illusion that the TARDIS was somehow in the process of materialsing into the space from some other dimension, as it would appear to do in the fictional TV series.
What Wallinger is conveying is a sense that our percptions are fallable - that they are subject to a particular subjective point of view that is unique for every individual and are therefore ambiguous.
I like this piece alot.
It reminds me that my own perception is a mere reflection of my previous knowledge and experience affecting what and how I perceive the world at any given moment. The beauty of this realisation is it means that our perceptions of the world can potentially be altered for the better by new knowledge and positive experiences. This to me is truely great art because it literally does change my perception of the world, but it also does something else...
By coming to this conclusion I then must also agree that the world is therefore changeable through my percpetions of it and that if I review my percpetions of the everyday - the interactions I have, the objects I own, the all-too-familiar everyday environment I barely notice usually and the decisions I make based on assumptions that are themselves based on subjective experience, I might just be able to envision my place in the world with more possibilities and inspiration.
However, if I'm not interested in art or going to art galleries then maybe I'd never get this knowledge or experience. It's a shame that some really good ideas by artists are locked away in gallery spaces never to be experienced by some people. It seems a sign of the times that creative minds are hidden away whilst bankers and politicians get to make important decisions that require creative solutions. Maybe, just maybe, if artists were to give up trying to make money by selling their art to rich people, as just another product in the marketplace, they might step outside the gallery system and enter into a direct engagement with the rest of society in a bid to inspire the everyday person in the communities of the world to put down their credit cards and reconsider what is important and what actually makes them happy.

The Russian Linesman is at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea til 20th Sept 2009.

Time and Space?

It is a well-known concept that our social relations are dictated to a large extent by the means of production but also by our physical environment. We are pushed here, slotted into there and ever-more restricted to enclosed and compartmentalised social spaces, which represent to us particular functions and modes of exchange. These rules of exchange and location make us feel more and more isolated, which is in contrast to the vision of the global community sold to us by the consumer-focussed virtual world, in which we can be anywhere anytime, which then locates our consciousness in many different places at any one time and therefore de-values the here and now and the exchanges we have between human to human. Also, because we can do more with our time, we feel compelled to do more with the time we supposedly save in the advent of mass communication and modern forms of technology, which allow us to do more than one thing at once.
There is a positive side to this, in that people can perceive greater things and aspirations for themselves, but as the pace of life speeds up and the value we place on everyday interactions diminishes, how do we cope with our isolation and frustration and the disruption of our physical community in the wake of our new/parallel, digitally based consciousness? We consume more and produce less, which then de-values our sense of self and individuality. Also, our analytical skills have shifted from a social to an individual locus, which further isolates us from our physical environment and interactions in the everyday.
How can we see our lives, ourselves, others differently? How can we view ourselves in space and time through the mediums we have? What mediums? Physical mediums/art objects/presence/everyday objects, design objects that make a statement about our views of ourselves in space and time? And how does this affect the way we view each ‘other’? This is not a reactionary discourse but does require a certain amount of collaboration in that a discussion is needed…in the second meaning of discussion: An interaction with something or someone.
So, these notions of time, space, place in time, the here and now, have been plaguing my mind because I can’t work out what questions I am asking. Why does it matter that we understand where we are? What would happen if we could be in the moment for more than just a moment - where would we be then? In some other world? A virtual world that is actual? And what is the benefit of this – to lift our consciousness from the confines of the human condition to emancipation and beyond?
But who wants emancipation anyway? Its not religious emancipation we want, its release from ourselves, or rather the reality we have constructed for ourselves through the medium of exchange with the collective reality construct – the contract we have signed with ourselves to ensure our survival/success in the current clime as we perceive it. Surely all we really want is to be recognised for our individual quality? But this can’t be achieved by collaboration can it? Surely, we are required by our learned sense of self-consciousness to be the very article of our own perception of perfection? But, perfection is unrealistic and unimaginable – perfection is infinite imperfection. So where does that leave us? Never attaining any knowledge of our true selves? You could suggest that we learn more about ourselves from others – like a mirror. Maybe we are all mirrors of each other, noticing in others what we ourselves want or don’t want?
However, as perfection is unattainable, maybe our real concern should be how to attain the freedom to express ourselves without anxiety…without letting our perceptions of what we think others are thinking get in the way of feeling happy and in the moment. Perhaps only then, through creative freedom of expression can we become our selves and appreciate each other. I don’t know – maybe I’m crazy, or maybe I’m drunk – you decide, but I know I’d like to think I/we can expand our perceptions of reality in a way that can be both a self exploration and a collaboration? Next on the agenda….Magic moments!

Idea 13 Launch: Thursday 5th March

Having been a member of the virtual forum for some time I was very keen to attend the physical launch of Idea13 last Thursday. I was interested to see who would be there and what might be discussed but most of all, who I could meet.
Two days before the launch of Idea 13 my mood was dampened momentarily by a straight-talking friend of mine who likened the event to a 'communist meet' with little chance of emerging activity. Then my positive mood was re-ignited and I retorted that the idea of providing an event whereby a diagonal slice of artists, politicians, business representatives and journalists with a common interest in the arts was a great way of getting people to think in different ways and imagine new possibilities. The one problem I had was that I didn’t want to just talk to people I had already met before. I wanted to meet new faces and hear about what else was going on. So, I decided to take some recording equipment. I thought this would be a great way of butting in on people’s conversations and introducing myself without having to be introduced by a ‘mutual friend!’
This worked marvellously and I’m happy to say that the people I met were both interesting and motivated.

The evening began with some positive short talks and everyone seemed optimistic about mingling. During the course of the evening I met a good mix of folk! Here are some quotes:


Kerry: Local Designer and Artist.
“Great to see lots of creative people. It’s expanded the art scene out of Leigh-on-sea into a wider area”.

Paul: Enthusiast (Previously from Colchester): The arts scene seems well organised and flowing and loose in Southend, with all the venues. Colchester is more formal. People seem to be more open-minded in Southend.”

Mike: The White Bus (Film education and film exhibition): “Things are going great in Southend. The Southend Film Festival is being built up over a period of time, based at some key venues – the Odeon and some smaller venues, such as the Library, where from April we’ll be showing indie films, foreign films, every wed eve from 7.30.”

Nick Harris: Head of Culture and Sport, Southend Council: There’s lots of cultural activity in Southend. The Village Green event was such a success we’re hoping to do it again next year. It was very beneficial – this is the birth of something new.”

One of my favourite interviews was with Deidra, who was involved in the funding for the renovation of the Church for the East 15 acting school. She talked of Southend’s latent potential over the years and how there has always been an eclectic mix of creative people in Southend-on-Sea, stunning natural essence and “fantastic views’ of the estuary.” But, more importantly, and what resonated with me the most, was her optimism that these convivial scenarios, these meetings and chances for encounter really do allow people to shift their focus away from negative media, locally and internationally, and our blind addiction to consumerism, back to the simple enjoyment of “being around people and being in a community” and interacting!

http://idea13.org/

ALTERMODERN: A quest for a Modernity.

This weekend I visited the Tate Britain to see the latest Triennial exhibition, entitled ‘Altermodern’, curated by controversial French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud.
The proceedings began with a talk beforehand about the exhibition, its aims and context, which was, in hindsight, a nice way to begin if you hadn’t read anything about Nicolas Bourriaud or his term ‘Altermodern’, but if you had was a neat outline and an opportunity for the audience to voice their opinions and perhaps ironic objections to what some seemed to think as an autocratic discourse centred on one persons opinion; though, interestingly, no one complained about the radical decision to use foreign artists in a traditionally ‘British Arts’ show.
I think, and this is just my opinion of course, that everyone has opinions they’d like to share with others, so why not build those into a philosophy, write a few highly regarded books on contemporary art and start a renowned art gallery in Paris? Some people do more than merely offer criticism – which as Bourriaud might point out is a postmodern stance, ‘mourning’ the failures of the Modernists without offering a positive solution.

A first, the concept of Altermodern seems a positive one that surely resonates with a generation of artists that have the task of defining global issues and is hence a political stance that he says is a ‘loading and rebooting’ of the terms of modernism, ‘re-engaging with the history of politics’. Bourriaud envisages a Modernity that is created from scratch by contemporary artists. Themes such as Time, Space, History and Geography are to be explored if we are to find meaning in the ‘maze’ of the contemporary.
Initially, four ‘Prologues’, beginning in April last year, were set up as an opportunity for artists to muse on this notion, through debate and practice.
In Prologue 1, April 2008, critic Okwui Enwezor introduced and debated curator Nicolas Bourriaud’s concept of Altermodern, with films and performances by three artists followed by Prologue2: Exile, 3: Travel and 4: Borders.

Nicolas Bourriaud explains all in this short video: http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/altermodern/


After the talk we had lunch while we digested the context of the exhibition and went to investigate the Altermodern phenomena. There are 28 artists exhibiting, the foreigners referred to as ‘Passers By’ and the booklet takes you on a disorientating tour around the works, in no discernable order. The range and scope of the works covers many mediums, as the manifesto suggests, from Loris Gréaud’s ‘Tremors Where Forever’, 30 minutes of brain frequencies broadcasted from a central unit to vibrate the floor space, crossing the borders of science, performance, time and space, to Marcus Coates ‘The Plovers Wing’, where he questions the borders between human and animal consciousness through shamanistic services to a regional Australian mayor, offering empathy, channelled from the animal world.


Not everyone is agreeable. In his article for the Times culture supplement Waldemar Januszack labels it ‘phoney intellectualism’ indicative of the ‘pompous’ Paris Salon approach:
‘Just as the Paris salon favoured the conceptual over the actual — pretentious history painting over vivid snapshots of everyday life — so the Tate supports art that imagines it is on a higher plane than the everyday.

On one hand I can’t help agreeing that art should never become detached from people to the degree where it loses touch with its audience, especially in these difficult financial times when we are forced to address issues of necessity on such a mass, global level. Though, on the other hand I also think that in the maze that is contemporary culture, where genres mix and merge, identity becomes more fragmented and people struggle to find a voice in the rigid structures of western capitalism, we should not be afraid to challenge our perspectives on the world and examine the issues that this describes, so that we may find a new voice and alternative identities to the one’s sold us through capitalist ideology in the convergence culture that is warping our usual reference points. Perhaps a quest to re-engage with the terms of modernity could allow us to side-step the linear path of commercial progress, put us back in touch with the experimental nature of humanity and balance the books for enlightenment.

On reflection though I couldn't help wondering that perhaps Bourriauds previous ideas about Relational Aesthitics must not be forgotten, and perhaps the idea of all human activity, suggested as an interstice, a space for the creation of form, is still an undercoat that needs to be explored, especially as a bridging vehicle for marginal audiences to accept these new ideas as relevant to them in the short term at least, perhaps on a community level.

Andrew Hunt - Focal Point Gallery, Southend

Last week I had a chat with Andrew Hunt, the new curator of Southend on Sea's Focal Point Gallery to see what he thought were the new challenges facing marginal /rural galleries such as Focal Point. He is a very nice chap and had some interesting things to say - here's the, er, edited version!



Andrew Hunt’s career to date (artist, curator, organiser, publisher, critic, collaborator, facilitator) is gleaming with vision and energy. He regularly contributes to frieze magazine, Art Monthly and has contributed to the Tate publication Tate Etc., as well as taking part in the ‘Nought to Sixty’ exhibition at the ICA last July, further gaining a reputation as a well-respected contemporary curator.He has also recently taken over as Director of Southend’s Focal Point Gallery, where I lured him from his post to the Southend library café to discuss his vision in this new role.



I: Among a wealth of projects, you have previously curated for International Project Space (IPS) in Bournville, South Birmingham and Norwich Gallery. Are you drawn to locations that show signs of cultural and artistic potential and do you envisage new possibilities for improving Southend’s cultural status?





AH: I like Southend for a number of reasons. Norwich Gallery and the IPS in Bournville were very interesting places to work because they were very regional, marginal galleries and it was interesting to see how art functions in these places. For example, the Bournville/George Cadbury, Quaker context was a very interesting subject matter. And similarly Southend has very idiosyncratic cultural aspects.
Southend interests me in that it’s near to London, yet far enough to have its own identity. Also, if you look at the map of the Thames Gateway you’ll see that it’s roughly the same size as London, overlapping it to the east. I’m interested in that de-centred idea and creating a new centre as an alternative to London. There’s too much going on in London, so things get missed, but in smaller places things will get recognised. Also, London doesn’t have to look outside itself, whereas through necessity, places like Southend will have to look beyond themselves to keep going. In Southend, we’re very local but also international, with a few international artists coming in, and because we’ll be inviting interesting and influential people in the art world to openings and events, this also help promote local artists to London visitors and tourists.





I: Your wide-ranging experience within the art world to date is punctuated by an inventive and strategic approach to curating, demonstrating how cross-discipline collaborations can galvanise practices and strengthen communities.In particular, your publishing project Slimvolume Poster Publication has earned you a national and perhaps international reputation as an innovative contemporary curator.Do you find that a more collaborative and strategic approach helps focus your energies and strengthen the impact of the works therein, and do you envisage any similar collaboration with local artists or groups?


AH: Southend is going through a very exciting time. There are a number of emerging organisations, and we intend to partner as many of these as possible and to be as creative as possible within these partnerships.I’m interested in facilitating ideas rather than prescribing ideas. If there is any art in curating it’s in choosing the best artists possible and working with them. We’ll be working with artists who are at stage in their career where they are about to take off or have taken off already.You mention Slimvolume Poster Publication. This continues to be a success, and a similar distribution process will happen for this programme, with limited edition prints and books available free, or to purchase at a very low price, so it’s also a really affordable way for people to get involved in collecting art.


I: In your article for frieze magazine on the Arts Sheffield 08 exhibition you show an enthusiasm for curator Jan Verwoert’s attempt to fuse the international and the local.Do you think that as ‘city’ and ‘digital’ culture merge deeper into the fabric of local life, this social issue is becoming increasingly important for curators of traditional and local galleries in areas that could perhaps benefit from a widened perspective of their public spaces in a local and international sense?





AH: Jan’s focus on the notion of over-production in Sheffield reflects the interesting mixture of ambition and modesty there. And again, I think there’s a similarity in Southend.The idea of the local and the international is interesting because most international artists don’t come from capital cities; so they understand the context of a marginal place. Some local artists, such as Tris Vonna-Michell – who was born in Roachford and brought up in Leigh-on-Sea - already have an international reputation, though I don’t mind the idea of approaching artists that only have a theoretical relationship with Southend, just to show Southend from a fresh perspective. Digital culture is one of our identities at Focal Point and within this context we’re trying to extend perceptions of lens based media. Before, the gallery was very traditional but I see the gallery as an office where we can show documentation of events that happen externally. And with our partners, we’re going to be facilitating local performances and, for example, researching issues such as communication and networks concerning the local community. We’ll also be communicating projects by post, by our website by email, with the intention of testing things –we like publications that people don’t know exactly what they are. Is it a print, is it a piece of art, is it a book, is it an institutional publication, is it a gift? That can work in a positive engagement with the community, so it is an exchange with people. The good thing about art is that it is confusing and doesn’t necessarily have any specific purpose - even though governments and funders are trying to show that it has. Its purposelessness is its beauty. Sometimes that’s the only way newness can be constructed, if things don’t make sense.





I: Considering your previous experiences, what is your vision for the direction of the Focal Point Gallery?





AH: The direction is to make the Focal Point programme one of the best regional arts programmes in the UK. We have some restrictions but in a positive sense we intend to branch out and work as creatively as we can with other partners. The success of our programmes will depend on the artists that we work with and our list of artists planned is very exciting. Also, through our marketing and publications we will hopefully make it very successful. And it will be interesting for local people to see cutting edge contemporary art in Southend.





I: Are there any up and coming exhibitions you can tell us about?



AH: In March/April we’ve got Alastair MacKinven showing some of his famous painting/performances. After that is Clunie Reid, who works in collage and photography, and who’s just received an award at the Zoo Art Fair and was part of the ICA ‘Nought to Sixty’ exhibition.In July/August is Milly Thompson’s first regional solo show, which will hopefully be very beautiful. Then there’s Erik Blinderman, an up and coming American artist. Interestingly, all of these artists will be exhibiting a solo regional show for the first time in the UK.After that we begin our artists in residence programme. We have funding from the Esmée Fairbaim Foundation to subsidise three artists to live and work in Southend for three months each from July 2009 to March 2010, with three resulting exhibitions back to back between January and July 2010.

Relational Possibilities...

Hi - this is my first post...

I am currently studying for my MA in Arts in a Social Context and want to express my thoughts about my work in the hope that I might get some feedback good or bad about my ideas. Presently I am musing on relational aesthetics - the aesthetics of human interaction - human behaviours as form that can hold an aesthetic quality. I wanted to start with a definition of the term Interstice and then show some pictures of artists work that interests me. You can see above work by Esther Stocker and Vanessa Beecroft. I have chosen to show you examples of these works becuase I feel they represent the extremities of human interactions - from Esther Stocker's introspective meditations on personal locations in relationship to a chaotic universe to Vanessa Beecroft's stark feminist images that fragment feminist reactions yet to me represent the contradictions of the human condition in the consumer age.

Interstice \in-TUR-stuhs\, noun;plural interstices \in-TUR-stuh-seez; -suhz\:

1. A space between things or parts, especially a space between things closely set; a narrow chink; a crack; a crevice; an interval.

Everyday I think about my interactions with people, psychological and physiological. What happens between people? I feel curious about the transaction of physical and mental space and where these sensations meet to form reactions/events, sometimes subtle, sometimes strong. I think, "it must be the context, as well as the content" and I try to control my reactions or surpress them because it feels like sometimes people sense my awareness and I can see they are somehow anxious about me, even though they have no reason to be. This is frustrating because I enjoy feeling alive and in touch with people and situations in the present, in the here and now, because there is a freedom in the pure exchanges that result from freeing your mind of agendas and because I want to feel connected to people without experiencing the underlying fear people seem to have of the 'Other', which I think is linked to the competitive ideologies of capitalist society which we let inhibit the possibilities of our personal interactions.