Latest articles for The Editorial: The Planning Season
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Goodbye!
by Ruth Barker 7 Sep 2011
Hello,
It does feel quite strange to be doing this for the last time. Yesterday I added my last Reflections article (it’s a good one, too – by Mark Chalmers from Sustrans) and today it’s time for the last post, as it were.
What to say? Well Goodbye I guess! I am quite sad though as I’ve really enjoyed my time on the site and I think I’ve worked hard to try and make PAR+RS as relevant, honest, and engaging as possible. I’ve been very lucky to have worked with so many brilliant contributors to do that though: each and every person who submits an article, or sends us information for our listings, or keeps a blog, becomes part of an amorphous PAR+RS community. It’s you guys who have really made the site, not me. And if PAR+RS is successful – as I think it certainly is – then it’s you who should get the credit for that success. So well done all, and thankyou. You’ve made my job a pleasure, and I’ve learned a lot from you!
I still have some tidying up to do around the site, but I’ll clock off for the last time at 5pm today. The email address will stay the same and will be inherited by the new Producer. So keep making PAR+RS great by sending in your work, your ideas, and your comments. I’m looking forward to being a reader rather than a writer, so I’ll certainly be using the site to find out what you’re all up to.
OK, well that’s it from me I guess. Take care everyone – it’s been a blast.
Au revoir, (couldn’t quite do the Goodbye thing after all)
XRuth.
Thanks to David Harding for the image.
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Timespan
by Ruth Barker 5 Sep 2011
Hello,
over the weekend I was away on my very last PAR+RS assignment, this time to visit Timespan in the village of Helmsdale. I had such a great time that I didn’t want to leave! I’m not sure if it was the timing, so close to the end of my time here at PAR+RS, but I have to say that I think this has been my favourite of all the PAR+RS trips I’ve made.
I got a grotesquely early train on Friday morning and arrived in Helmsdale for a meeting with Timespan’s director Nicola Henderson, who gave me some background on the organisation, how it functions, and how it has developed. Timespan has a really interesting history as it was initiated by the community themselves as a heritage centre. From very grassroots beginnings the organisation seems to have grown from strength to strength, with a paid Director, Archivist, and Front of House Manager (apologies if I’ve missed anyone!) in addition to a brilliant and formidable army of volunteers. These volunteers seem to be at the heart of Timespan’s operation and its success, as they bind the organisation within the existing structures of community. This certainly isn’t to belittle the work done by the paid members of staff: Nicola in particular seems to be tireless in her energy and commitment to developing a programme of truly national stature and significance.
Nicola giving a tour of the museum
A phrase that appears often in Timespan’s branding and publicity is ‘A meeting place between our past and our future’. This is a big statement, defining as it does a moment of the present, with all it’s contradictions and compromises and complexity. And yet having spent some time with the organisation I do think that it makes a lot of sense. The core of the building is the museum, housing a fantastic collection of local artefacts which, luckily for me as I didn’t get nearly enough time over the weekend, you can explore online. Orbitting around this solid centre are the various events, exhibitions, and residencies that extend to include the work of contemporary artists, alongside heritage initiatives and explicitly community focused projects. It certainly worked in the sense of getting me, an outsider, interested and enthusiastic about the village, the wider landscape, and the experiences of the people who live and work there. Obviously I can’t give the perspective of a local resident, but I hope that we at PAR+RS can encourage Timespan to develop an article for us that might be able to explore those particular relationships a little more.
As a result of guest curator Kirsteen Macdonald, there are two residencies taking place at Timespan at the moment, one of which, by Graham Fagen, is coming to a close; and the other, by Corin Sworn, is due to finish with an exhibition in October. This weekend a programme of events had been co-ordinated by Timespan together with Kirsteen, and so I had a chance to see Graham’s film Baile An Or on Friday night, and also to watch a series of short film works that were developed by local community members as a kind of parallel to Graham’s work. Saturday was packed with a full and hugely interesting programme with highlights including Corin’s conversation with Timespan’s archivist Jacquie Aitken; a screening of Timothy Neat and Hamish Henderson’s 1976 documentary The Summer Walkers; and Drew Wright (aka Wounded Knee)’s incredible vocal performance in the ice house. Not withstanding of course the wonderful food and conversation that was shared throughout.
Corin introducing her work, and talking about her time in Helmsdale
Slide from Graham’s presentation
On Sunday I had a real treat as Jean Sargent, chair of Timespan’s board took us on a walk in the glorious sunshine to get a sense of the landscape and get a feel for Timespan – and Helmsdale’s – broader context. This was such a pleasure, and a real highpoint of my visit. Thanks Jean, for being so generous!
Enjoying the views
Thanks are also due to Kirsteen – not just for all her hard work and organisation that enabled the whole weekend to happen, but also (most importantly) for giving me a lift back to Glasgow in time to catch PJ Harvey’s amazing performance at the Royal Concert Hall. It was BRILLIANT. Jaw droppingly so. Thanks Kirsteen!
So, all in all, a pretty knackering but pretty great weekend, so I feel that I’m really leaving on a high. This Wednesday is my last ever PAR+RS day, so I’m spending this week just finishing things off really. Gosh, it’ll be quite strange to sign off for the last time… Gulp!
Work in Timespan’s garden
More later,
R.
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Listed
by Ruth Barker 31 Aug 2011
Deary me,
I nearly forgot – while I was waiting at Reception at the Creative Scotland offices (see below for an account of my meeting with Ian Smith), I spotted this in the Herald:
Seems like David has finally been recognised as a work of art in his own right.
more later,
R.
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Copyright
by Ruth Barker 31 Aug 2011
Hello,
I had a very interesting conversation yesterday with Ian Smith, Portfolio Manager for Music and IP Development at Creative Scotland.
I first came into contact with Ian a few weeks ago as a result of some conversations in relation to the Martin Creed’s new Scotsman Steps commission in Edinburgh (see the images in my previous post, below). It seems that once the work was complete, there was a question of possible copyright infringement that arose when a local business tried to use photographs of the work in their own publicity material. Ian was called upon to give advice – what are the rules in that case? The steps are located in the public sphere, so how much right does the artist retain to control how others can use the work?
It’s just one example, but sheds some light on a really complex topic of how public works exist in relation to copyright law, which is, after all, there to protect artists. So I decided to meet with Ian in order to continue the conversation and get more of a sense of how artists are affected by (and might be protected by) copyright as a field.
The first thing Ian stressed to me was that there are two really great resources that should be a first port of call to anyone trying to figure out a copyright question: The Intellectual Assets Centre and the Intellectual Property Office (both of which you can also find on PAR+RS’ links page).
I told Ian (though he probably knew already) that for artists the question of copyright pulls in two directions: we want to know how we an protect our work from others’ exploitation; but we also want to know what we are allowed to do in respect to referencing, sampling, or reproducing the works of others (how does Richard Prince for example, get away with his rephotographs?) 1
Ian was clear in his repeated confirmation that the copyright of an image (or an object) always resides with its creator2. So I guess when working with re-appropriation or collage the artist needs to be mindful of the rights of the original creator of the material they are using as source. Exactly where the lines are drawn on this, as we can see from the Richard Prince example, is still a matter that may be challenged.
I threw lots of examples at Ian (What if this? What if that?) 3 who patiently answered the questions that it was possible to answer, and didn’t make me feel a fool for asking them. It was a very useful conversation, and what really came across was just how passionate Ian is about letting artists know that they have rights in this field, and that they should take responsibility for those rights. Artists, he told me, very often don’t know what their rights are and so they can’t insist on them. Worse, they often don’t bother to know what their rights are – even though their work is often their livelihood! I could tell that this is an issue he feels strongly about.
As I was leaving, Ian said something that really stuck with me for the rest of the day. I won’t be able to phrase it as eloquently as he did, but essentially he was describing the need for all of us to foster a culture of professional respect within the creative sphere, where artists are respected for their skills. That respect, he feels, comes partly from understanding – and respecting – our professional rights.
Food for thought. If anyone does have particular copyright issues that can’t easily be solved through the links above to the IA Centre or the Intellectual Property Office, Ian said that he’d be happy to hear from you. Just contact him via Creative Scotland.
More later,
R.
1 Except of course, that he doesn’t always get away with it
2 Unless of course that creator has signed away their rights to a third party, like an agent or gallerist. But even in that case, it was within the artist’s rights to sign those rights away, if you see what I mean.
3 “What about if I make a sculpture, and you take a photograph of that sculpture? Who has copyright of the photograph?” The answer is that the photographer probably owns the copyright of the photograph, but that they would have had to acquire permission from the sculptor, or the sculptor’s representative, to take it.
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Stepping
by Ruth Barker 29 Aug 2011
Hello,
thought you might like to see these pics of Martin Creed’s Scotman Steps. David Harding was, by chance, on the same train as me so we went to see the work together.
I really loved this new work. I think it’s a really good example of a permanent public commission. Walking up the steps felt a lot like a gift.
More later,
R.
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Return of the Big Ladies
by Ruth Barker 26 Aug 2011
Hello,
Following my earlier posts on the subject, I noticed that the Guardian newspaper have also been doing a round-up of Big Ladies – in their Lifestyle section, for some reason. Click the link at the top of the article to see images of the works.
Are there really more of them about at the moment? Most of them smack of a real conservatism to me. It’s something that frustrates me I’m afraid: We have very little permanent civic statuary in this country to commemorate individual women’s contributions to history, society, or ideas, even though our streets are filled with memorials to men on horses. And yet generalised women are present, not memorialising or commemorating, but often just decorating or embellishing: just, it seems, “to be admired”.
Enough already!
R
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400 Women
by Ruth Barker 24 Aug 2011
Hello,
I spent the day in Edinburgh yesterday, checking out the Art Festival. I intended to write up a wee report for you today, letting you know my highlights and disappointments but in the end I’m just going to write about one work that I thought really had an impact. Apologies to all the projects that I’m not going to mention. Apologies also for the squinty pictures from my phone.
Near the end of my day, I strolled down New Street and popped into 400 Women, at Canongate Venture. I’m going to just reprint an extract from the exhibition info sheet (by Gemma Rolls-Bentley), rather than trying to paraphrase;
“400 Women is a direct response to the abduction, rape and murder of hundreds of women in the Mexican border region of Cuidad Juarez since 1993 […]
“In early 2006 Tamsyn Challenger traveled to Mexico where she met with some of the families of murdered and missing women. She was particularly marked by meeting Consuelo Valenzuela whose daughter Julieta went missing in 2001, at the age of 17. As Challenger said goodbye, the desperate mother frantically pressed postcards into her hands. […]
“To create the body of work that comprises the installation 400 Women, Tamsyn Challenger enlisted the help of nearly 200 fellow artists over a five-year period, inviting each to produce a portrait of one of the missing or murdered girls. […] Along with the photograph that she chose for each artist she sent out a short description, often in the form of a forensic report, of each case; this contained information such as what the girl was last seen wearing or details of ho and where the murders occurred."
The effect is quite startling. Entering this temporary exhibition venue you find three floors of dilapidated rooms with paint peeling from the walls and detritus, in some cases, scattered on the floor. In these unloved spaces is painting and after painting, of uniform size and regular theme. Face after face looks out, in a wide range of style and medium, but the subjects are all young, and all female. Occasionally the lines of variously rendered eyes are interrupted by a work that shows only a name (these are ‘name portraits’ for women for whom no photograph could be found), or by a work that portrays its subject in a non-figurative way. But it is the conventional portraits that stay with you, giving faces as they do to women who have been rendered faceless by their real life obliteration.
I have to confess that I didn’t expect to like this exhibition. I thought that it seemed very literal – or even simplistic. And yet I found myself unexpectedly moved, perhaps by that very linear simplicity. The act of depiction has real significance. The care that was present in those depictions had resonance. I felt that there was something ritual here; in facemaking, in remembering, in portraying. The act became sincere, for me. And because of that I felt that it had meaning.
There were some problems with it as art, I felt. I didn’t like the venue because the impersonal, institutional nature of the architecture didn’t seem appropriate. The unloved state of the building and the lack of care that had been invested in the presentation seemed at odds with the gentleness of the gesture it contained. I didn’t like that fallen plaster hadn’t been swept up, or that paint flecks were allowed to drop to the floor. This didn’t feel like a shrine – it felt like temporary storage. Or perhaps it felt as though I was being asked to make too clunky a link: this is a disused school, now falling apart; many of the 400 Women were not women at all, but school-aged girls… Or – worse – it felt that it could be ironic somehow, like it was intended as some kind of casual ‘comment’ – this would be a real pulled punch, as the viewer needs to know that this work is being produced and presented with the care and sincerity that it deserves.
There was also a question raised in that some portraits were clearly a lot ‘better’ than others – more skilled, more powerful, more evocative. This in itself not surprising: Paula Rego is one of the contributing artists, as are Maggi Hambling and Miranda Whall – other contributors are less well known, and some are also considerably less skilled. What do we do as viewers with this inequality? This isn’t competition, but I have to be honest and say that I looked at some images for a lot longer than I looked at others (without knowing the artist’s name by the way – the individual works aren’t visibly credited on the wall).
I wasn’t keen also on the hanging of the portraits – again it felt provisional, or compromised. Overall I didn’t feel that the care of the original invitation by Challenger, or the care and deliberation of her artist-participants, was mirrored by adequate thoughtfulness and care in portrait’s works’ curation. This was a shame, as I do think that that moment of interface or encounter (effectively between the viewer and the idea) is a critical one.
But, having said that, I did find that this – problematic as aspects may be – was the stand-out work for me at this year’s Festival. Maybe it just caught me at a thoughtful moment? Hard to say, but it’s certainly the project that gave me most to think about, and has left me with the most vivid impression. Elsewhere, there was a lot of art about art. This at least was art about something.
More later,
R
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Public?
by Ruth Barker 22 Aug 2011
Hello,
Just read on the BBC that Tracy Emin has installed a neon piece in Downing Street. I thought that that was quite interesting, and it reminded me of this post, which I wrote back in March 2009 about the tapestry copy of Picasso’s Guernica that hangs outside the security council room in the UN building in New York.
There’s something particularly intriguing I think about these particular contexts where art and politics might meet. One difference between these examples though is that the Guernica copy was – I think – an acquisition, while the Emin was a new commission: the artist in this latest case devising a new work with this strange and challenging site in mind (evidenced by her quote in the BBC piece that the new work “has to relate to different people on different levels because of all the dignitaries and world leaders and religious groups who go to Number 10”).
How successful has she been? Well, it’s certainly not as bold as the Guernica tapestry.
More later,
R
ps – Jean Cameron sent me this link to the New York Times’ images of outdoor sculptures in NYC. I kinda like Urs Fischer’s bear on page 5! But I was a bit freaked out when I did a google image search. Maybe you can have too many bears, after all…
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Sharing
by Ruth Barker 18 Aug 2011
Hello,
just a couple of things to share with you today.
Take a look at this and keep reading all the way to the bottom to see why I posted it for you. “Ham fisted and out of touch”? What a disappointing throw away remark in the context of this interesting article.
I also wanted to share this slightly melancholy picture I took at the gates to the Forgotten Island.
How sad! It’s gone. But that of course, is always the beauty of non-permanence…
More later,
R
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Wakey Wakey
by Ruth Barker 16 Aug 2011
Hello,
over the weekend I visited the new Hepworth gallery in Wakefield. It was great! I really loved it – as a building and a collection.
There’s a permanent collection of Barbara Hepworth’s work there, which is drawn together by the ‘Hepworth Gift’, a series of working models and drawings showing how work was developed and produced; as well as a temporary exhibition currently by Eva Rothschild. I thought all of it was very well put together, and that the building itself was really gloriously designed, with big windows, generous ceilings, and well proportioned rooms. It was dead busy, too.
Outside I was surprised to see The Black Cloud by Heather and Ivan Morrison, recontextualised but very recognisable. I didn’t get to see the work first hand when it was in Bristol, but I’d heard a lot about it of course, so I was very pleased to discover it in Wakefield, where I could finally have a proper nosey about.
Is this floor new? It’s lovely.
The only reservation I had with the curation is that I hope that the ‘Hepworth in context’ display in Gallery 3 is rehung regularly. It’s great to show the artist’s work in relation to their contemporaries but this is of course a subjective and limited comparison, so it would be great to be able to shuffle this every so often to shed new light on how the work sits within a broader view. A pretty minor quibble though.
More later,
R
STOP PRESS: Just read this on Tom Flynn’s Artknows blog. I’d never even thought about it! If anyone wants to follow this up with an article for PAR+RS – maybe by interviewing Tom about his own invetsigations, just let me know.
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Clean Up
by Ruth Barker 10 Aug 2011
Hello,
Blimey, these riots in England are a bit crazy. Wiser heads than mine are trying to make sense of it all, so I won’t wade in at this stage. What I will do though, is direct you to this article by Dan Thompson. Dan is an artist based in Worthing, and is founder of the Empty Shops Network.
Good to see Adhocracy getting a name-check, too.
No riots in Glasgow. Maybe it’s too wet.
More later,
R.
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Virtual Festival
by Ruth Barker 9 Aug 2011
Hello,
I just had an email from artist Jim Colquhoun, letting me know about a project he’s involved in. I just had a browse and there is some really interesting stuff on there (including Jim’s, of course), so go take a look.
Hi Ruth
Hope you are very well. Just thought I’d let you know about this bit of public art, its called ghostcity and it is a series of downloadable spoken pieces/performances/sound works that direct you around various bits of Edinburgh: Virtual Festival
I’m in there (of course!) as are others and much of the work has a bit of a psychogeographical tilt I think…
Its the future! (probably)
Cheers and see you soon,
Jim.Enjoy. And don’t forget to send me links to new work. I love hearing about stuff.
More later,
R. -
Indirect Exchange
by Ruth Barker 8 Aug 2011
Hello,
On Friday I went to The indirect exchange of uncertain value: the performance of public art; a symposium to coincide with the launch of Joanne Tatham & Tom O’Sullivan’s new off-site project for Collective, sited at Fettes College in Edinburgh.
On the train on the way to Edinburgh, I noticed this in the Metro (below). Later I Googled it and found this. Actually, judging by the comments below the article, local opinion seems to be divided.
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As I walked in the glorious sunshine I passed by St Andrews Square and saw this:
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- It’s the Edinburgh Arts Festival’s Solar Pavillion, designed by Karen Forbes. Looks great in the garden, and I hope it’ll be well used..
When I got to the college, I spent much of the day with a vague and persistent sense that I should be doffing my cap to someone. Fettes is unbelievably … well – just look at it. Gosh.
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But the day was great – a really well developed series of speakers who delivered a brilliant series of presentations:
10.30 – 11.30
Registration, optional tour of Fettes11.30 – 12 o’clock
Tom Leonard: Poetry Reading12 o’clock – 12.45
Fiona Jardine; The Transfiguration of the Commonplace12.45 – 1.45
Lunch, optional tour of Fettes1.45 – 2.30
Elizabeth Price; Artist’s talk2.30 – 3.15
Chris Evans; performance event – I don’t know if I’ve explained myself1.15 – 4.30
Owen Hatherley; Militant Modernism4.30 – 5.30
Vito Acconci; OPERATING (ON) PERSONS PLACES & THINGS5.30 – 6.30
snacks, optional tour of Fettes6.30 Public preview of the project.
I was particularly impressed I think, with how well each presentation stood on it’s own as an invitation to a train of thought, but also how each related both to other speakers’ presentations – and to Tom & Joanne’s work outside. The ‘curation’ of the day was impeccable.
Tom’s poetry reading (from Outside the Narrative) was warm and sincere and brilliant. Watch a clip of him reading here. He’s got an amazing voice
Fiona gave a very incisive lecture from which I made a lot of notes, but I really liked the way that she connected ideas. Resonant for me me was her phrase about writing being a technical extension of presence, which she went on the relate to the image of a railway. Her thoughts around ‘the commonplace’ as a physical / non physical location of shared knowledge started a lot of thoughts that I’m sure I’ll return to.
I had seen Elisabeth Price’s work User Group Disco at the British Art Show so it was great to hear her talk about the work – and others – in more depth. Again, the connections to Tom & Joanne’s work were really interesting, and I began to think about how important shifts in languages are to all the speakers’ practices so far.
Chris Evans’ performance event – in which a small group of people sit in another room and discuss a work that they have previously seen, which an audience watched them via video link – was unexpectedly funny, and intensely human. The work in question was Rosemary Trockel’s Goodbye Mrs. Monipaer, a short film that The Sculpture Center in New York describes as “a cinematic pantomime that explores the psychologically fraught role-playing that can emerge between artists and gallerists, studio and market concerns, and private and public selves.” Again, I found myself thinking a lot about questions of articulation, language, and miscommunication.
The next presentation was the only one I had reservations about. Owen Hatherley was talking about his research into the aesthetics and ideologies of housing schemes’ architecture – with particular reference to social housing in urban centres. There’s a wiki summary of his book here. I just didn’t warm to this – maybe I found it too dislocated from it’s context (the examples were all English, and though he was speaking in Scotland, this wasn’t contextualised). Or maybe I just found Owen’s presentation a bit divorced from the actual experience of these landscapes. His was very much a view from the outside looking in, and one which I (who grew up in an inner city housing estate) didn’t particularly recognise. In a literal sense, he kept talking about the external facades and appearance of these schemes. It’s funny, but when you live there, that’s not the bit that you find interesting.
But the final presentation more than made up for it. Vito Acconci was brilliant! He gave a long (well over time) and perfectly pitched artist’s talk, which gave an incredibly generous insight into the evolution of his practice. I really was blown away by it.
There are loads of moments that I could pick out, but one will have to do, otherwise this post will be far too long. As Vito began to move from making gallery projects and performances into making architecture (his current practice, as Acconci Studio) he went by way of public art. An important source of funding for him at the time was the much discussed 1% for art policy. But, as Vito pointed out, 1% for art can also be a statement of worth: if you’re allotting 1% of the funds to art and 99% to architecture, then maybe you’re also saying that art is worth 1% of what architecture is worth. And maybe that’s worth thinking about. It made Vito think about making architecture, rather than art.
Anyway, it’s important to reiterate that what was tying that whole day together was the presence of the work outside, which I thought was just great. You can find out more information about the work through Collective I haven’t posted many images deliberately, as I think you need to go an see it for yourselves! Book your tickets here
More later,
R
- PS Big Hello to Geraldine Heaney! It was good to finally meet you. I also saw the lovely Lyndsay Mann who reminded me about The Agent RIA’s project Spelling the Myth; and Damian Killeen who gave me a flier for Big Things On The Beach’s Public Art Fest. There’s certainly a lot on at the Festival this year!
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Stalled Spaces
by Ruth Barker 4 Aug 2011
Hello,
I’m just back from a very interesting meeting with Heather Claridge and her colleague Seamus Connolly, from Glasgow City Council’s Development and Regeneration Services team. Heather and Seamus are working on the Stalled Spaces initiative which I previously mentioned here. I learned a bit about the background of the initiative, and then we spoke about it’s potential for the future.
Stalled Spaces has its origin in a Council motion of 2008, which drew attention to the various spaces around the city where developments were not currently going ahead. An initial successful phase, in which GCC offered advice to organisations and community groups who wished to make use of these spaces, has been followed by the current strategy through which (in partnership with GHA) projects can apply for a small fund to help cover costs. The emphasis is very much on encouraging community-led initiatives to make use of these spaces while they are temporarily available, with the understanding that the intended development will still at some point go ahead.
Interestingly, Stalled Spaces seems so far to be unique. I haven’t found any other examples of an initiative that works in quite this way – where community activity is being funded, but not incorporated into any broader masterplan of civic strategy. Do let me know though, if you are aware of similar schemes, as we’d like to cover them.
It’s how to inspire community groups to find new ways to work with their Spaces that Heather and Seamus are now considering. 21 projects have so far succeeded in accessing the Stalled Spaces funding, of which the majority are temporary growing projects. While being clear that they greatly appreciate the value of these initiatives, the GCC team are keen to broaden the scope of the fund to support other kinds of project, too – including those that include public art. They point out that growing projects aren’t suited to every Space, nor to every community. Public art might be one way of broadening the spectrum of approaches – and might be a useful way of tackling the inherent temporary-ness of these spaces – caught as they are in a moment between their past and future incarnations.
So I suppose that this post is a first step to drawing more attention to Stalled Spaces and the opportunities it may offer artists who wish to work with a community to re-imagine, re-use, and re-define a Stalled Space near them. Though I’m sure the context is a challenging one, I also think that there maybe something very interesting here. We have two Reflections articles coming up about Stalled Space initiatives: one from Giant Productions about their Stalled Space project The Forgotten Island, and one from journalist Yasmin Ali, who is taking more of an urbanist’s overview. Look out for them both in September.
And if anyone is feeling inspired after reading this, do think about contacting the Stalled Spaces team, and let us know about your project, too.
More later,
R.
- nearly forgot. Two links for you: I came across this today, and was very intrigued: San Francisco’s Parklets; and PAR+RS’ administrator Berengere also forwarded me this addition to my ‘big ladies’ collection… Thanks – I think.
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Raiding
by Ruth Barker 29 Jul 2011
Hello,
Hope so! If you do, send your photos of the raid to admin@publicartscotland.com and we’ll add them to our Facebook Page.
It looks great! Well done Matt. Hope the weather holds for you…
More later,
R.
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On Curating Critique
by Ruth Barker 28 Jul 2011
Hello,
Kirsteen Macdonald emailed me this morning to say that Curating Critique, is now available for free as issue 9 of On Curating.
Curating Critique is a book originally published in 2007 by Revolver, and ICE (the Institute for Curatorship and Education, at Edinburgh College of Art) as the first ICE Reader. It’s not explicitly about public art, but I’d recommend it as a read that offers lots of ideas, many of which are very relevant to current conversations in public art.
Interesting to see something that was only available in a very limited way as a hard copy book, to spread it’s wings via e-publishing…
Give it a go – it’s free after all – and let me know what you think.
More later,
R.
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Ingratitude
by Ruth Barker 26 Jul 2011
Hello,
Chris Fremantle forwarded this link to me over the weekend. Interesting reading.
Perhaps it connects to the previous post, where I was musing about artist’s ability / desire to be ‘political’. Or, maybe, a related question – about whether or not ‘the public’ are likely to perceive artwork as being explicitly political. I feel (wholly subjectively, with no evidence) that people see artists as being very individualist creatures these days, caught up with self expression and the pursuit of their careers. Perhaps therefore, they have less expectation that artists may also be, have, or make politics.
Just musing.
More later,
R
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Droning
by Ruth Barker 22 Jul 2011
Hello,
I picked this up today. Interesting perhaps because I was speaking to Tonia Lu who works at Ricefield recently about a perceived shift by artists moving away from explicit political positioning.
Thoughts anyone?
More later,
R.
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Size Is Everything
by Ruth Barker 21 Jul 2011
Hello,
Look! Another massive lady!
""Even worse than the statue itself is the photo-op behaviour it inspires."
If any of you are in Chicago right now, why not engage in some photo-op behaviour for our Facebook page?
Looking forward to it,
More later,
R
(here are some slightly smaller sculptural ladies. I suppose people have been making them for a very long time. These ones are, I think, amazing.)
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Keeping Busy
by Ruth Barker 12 Jul 2011
Hello,
My friend Anne sent me this. Ginny – thanks for your Horse’s Heids comment. What do you make of this one?!
That Mr. Jencks is certainly a very busy man!
More later,
R
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Some News
by Ruth Barker 10 Jul 2011
Hello,
I have a bit of an odd Blog post to write today. And with very mixed emotions. You might have noticed that I’ve been busy lately. Well, I have some news to share: I’m leaving PAR+RS in September.
I’m leaving for the best of reasons – to concentrate on starting a practice-based PhD at Newcastle University. But I’m also quite sad. I’ve run PAR+RS since 2007, and I’ve taken the site from its pre-live Beta stage, to its current very lively life. The site has grown a huge amount, and I’ve grown too – I feel like I’ve learned a lot from PAR+RS and though my job hasn’t always been easy, it’s certainly never been boring.
The post of Producer was advertised today, and I’d really encourage you to think about applying. You can see the ad here, but take a note of the deadline: Friday 29th July (it’s not far away so get your applications in fast!).
So of course I’ll be sorry to leave, but I’m also excited to start something new. I’m looking forward to seeing how PAR+RS continues to grow and to change under the stewardship of a new Producer. And though I hope you think I’ve done a good job over the years, I also hope that you’ll support and challenge whoever the new Producer is, just as much as you have supported and challenged me from time to time.
Sniff sniff. Right! Enough of all that. PAR+RS is now on Facebook! Check it out, give us a Like, and drop us a comment. Hooray! It’s the dawn of a whole new era.
More later, and please do think about applying, because there are loads of you out there who could do great things with PAR+RS.
R
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Facebook A-Go-Go
by Ruth Barker 8 Jul 2011
Hello,
Yes! We are now proudly on Facebook. You can check us out here and we’re really trying to spread the word, so please give us a Like, or write us a comment, or do whatever it is you do on Facebook to say Hello.
We’re going to use this as a way to show just how many great events and projects there are going on, and we’ll be happy to add your project’s images to our page.
Gosh, how exciting. Please come and visit!
Oh yes – a friend emailed this link to me today. Comments, as always, more than welcome…
More later,
R. -
On Stars and Mirrored Yachts
by Ruth Barker 5 Jul 2011
Hello,
I wanted to share these with you. Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich have been out and about in their very Bonnie Boat
The work is very beautifully described on their website
“Celestial Radio is a seductive and functional sculptural object, a radio station housed on a sailing boat whose surface is covered by 60, 0000 inch square mirror tiles; she splinters daylight as if transmitting Morse code messages. The Celeste travels literally across the high seas while conceptually exploring the metaphorical oceans of life’s big questions both cosmic and microscopic.
Each time the Celeste anchors off shore in a new location we engage local people in conversations and interviews, recording sound and mixing music to create a site-specific broadcast.”And I’m sure that you’ve heard about Cecil Balmond’s winning design for The Great Unknown? You can see some BBC Coverage here There’ll be much, much more on PAR+RS about this enormous project very soon, so keep your eyes peeled.
More later,
R
Image shows Charles Jencks/Cecil Balmond design, Star of Caledonia, winner of the Gretna Landmark’s ‘Great Unknown’ competition. With thanks to Wide Open (South Scotland) Ltd.
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Holes
by Ruth Barker 1 Jul 2011
Hello,
I came across this in Bellahouston Park the other day:
and really liked it. I find it very satisfying when I discover a piece of work by accident. It’s almost always more pleasurable (and usually more true to the work’s intention), to encounter things this way, than to go out and deliberately seek them.
Has anyone else come across any new work lately? Send us a picture if so.
More later,
R.
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Who talks? Who listens?
by Ruth Barker 15 Jun 2011
Hello,
I was in Dundee yesterday (I loved Nina Rhode’s show at DCA, by the way) for a meeting with Ken Neil, Tracy Mackenna, and Edwin Janssen as we discuss the next stage in the Mapping the Future project. Remember that? The event we held last year? Well anyway, when we initially planned the project knew that symposia and conferences can just be a talking shop: a bunch of folk sitting in a room talking about things, and that that conversation a) never reaches a wider public and b) never changes anything.
I really believe in the importance of conversation. I think that talking is important and when conversation and discussion doesn’t happen, I think we really feel the lack of it. But in order to learn and to inform ourselves – we can’t just talk. We have to listen as well, and we have to include as many people as we can in the conversation.
So a lot of the meeting that Edwin, Tracy, Ken and I had yesterday was about that question of who talks? and who listens? It’s an important thing to question. Ken Neil has produced a really brilliant document as a result of his being appointed as a Correspondent for Mapping. His response is thoughtful, insightful, and illuminating, pulling together lots of the ideas and questions that came up through the Speakers’ presentations, but also through the group discussion. But what should we do with this document when it’s finished? Obviously we want people to read it, but how can we distribute it? And – importantly – how can we make sure that a broad audience can access it? How can we invite people who may not agree with the report’s suggestions / conclusions / provocations / speculations to read it? It’s no good if the only people who browse it already agree with much of what is said.
It’s a question that has cropped up tangentially recently in a couple of conversations I’ve had about publishing in Scotland. Where are the Scotland-based publishers who are producing our glorious art-books? Well, they’re thin on the ground (not least because the people who love to buy glorious art books don’t often have much disposable income). But that means that we’re really lacking something. Publishing is a way to make thoughts permanent. We archive the moment of our fallible, changeable, flawed and incomplete words, so that others can read them, and challenge them, or build upon them. Blogging is ok, but it’s transient. I can go back and change what I said last year, for example. online, authors can edit. But when a book is on your shelf, then the words inside it stay there, whether the author changes their mind or not. And I think that books circulate in a way that online texts don’t, always. But, on the other hand online is free and books certainly aren’t.
I feel like there are a lot of questions at the moment about this – which is more durable? which is more democratic? which is more effective? I also think that those questions are probably occurring because of our particular moment in history, when ‘online’ is still a fairly recent phenomenon that many of us didn’t grow up with. I wonder what the questions will be in a hundred years? I wonder what happened when the printing press was invented? I imagine that there were similar ponderings.
Anyway, the upshot is that Ken has written something that I think could be very useful, and that at some point in the coming months it will be available to read! Whatever else happens to it, it’ll be sure to be here on PAR+RS, so you’ll all get a chance to browse – and no doubt – challenge its content.
Oh and the picture? Similar ones have found their way into the Editorial before, and I don’t apologise. It shows my an extract of my ever-growing bookshelf, something that I won’t be parting with any time soon, no matter what the internet offers!
More later,
R.PS – on the blog front, has everyone seen Andrew Dixon’s? I wish I had a profile picture like that! I love it – it’s like he’s in space, looking down at us all…
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Wedding Bells
by Ruth Barker 13 Jun 2011
Hello,
Gosh, I’ve been lazy again with the blog – too much time spent working, there’s been not enough energy left to tell you lot about it.
Anyway, working late tonight trying to get some stuff finished, and I’ve just put a new article up on the site. It’s a good one, though I do say so myself; some really interesting thoughts from Denys Candy and Reiko Goto. Well done to both for all their hard work on it.
And I have just enough energy left to say a massive Good Luck to our brilliant administrator Berengere, who’s getting married this Saturday. Hurray!
Berengere left not-so-sunny Scotland at the weekend, bound for very-sunny France to get ready for her big day, so apologies to anyone who feels that the News and Opps this week aren’t up to their usual high standard, as I’ll be adding them myself. Do let me know if I make any hideous mistakes as the week goes on…
More later,
R.
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Responses
by Ruth Barker 30 May 2011
Hello,
I had an email today from Variant, and I thought I’d pass on the invitation it contained. The magazine are looking for short analytical responses to the issues raised by Andrew Dixon in his interview in the Spring issue of Variant. It’s an interesting article so I hope that some of you might be tempted to contribute.
I also thought I’d add the link to the radio programme I mentioned in my last post.
And did anyone hear Start The Week this morning. Charles Jencks was on it. Who says the BBC never cover public art?
more later,
R.
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Doing It In The Street
by Ruth Barker 26 May 2011
Hello,
I’m taking half an hour off from looking at our upcoming article to listen to a really interesting programme on Radio 4. It’s called Doing It In The Street and it’s a history of street performance, presented by Martin Reeve.
I found it really useful to think about street theatre as having a parallel history to that of public art, as it seems to be generated from many of the same political, social, and artistic catalysts. Interesting to hear about the connection to guy Debord and the Situationists – whom I haven’t thought about in terms of the context of street theatre before.
It’ll be on the iplayer soon. I can’t give the link yet, as the programme’s still on, so it hasn’t yet been uploaded to the archive. But I’ll put it hear later. Remember you only get 7 days to listen back so check it out soon.
Good old Radio 4. I love it.
More later,
R -
Can't think of a snappy title today
by Ruth Barker 25 May 2011
Hello,
and how is everyone? I don’t think that this is going to be a long post, but I wanted to drop in and say Hi because I haven’t posted on the blog for a bit. I didn’t want you to think I’d forgotten you!
I was away in New York for a couple of weeks, and then since I came home I’ve been super-busy clearing the backlog of emails and Things To Do that had accumulated in my absence. I’m getting to the end of it now though, so thought I’d take a moment to update the blog.
A highlight of my NYC trip was definitely the High Line – a totally amazing public space! Every city should have one – though the cost must be extraordinary. I found it to be a hugely creatively imagined and generous space, which (literally) gave me a whole new perspective on the city. As a serious garden-fan, I have to say that the planting was also really impressive. Of course, I don’t know how the space functioned prior to the park’s development and it would be interesting to know more about the politics of its planning. I was interested to read This interview with Majora Carter, founder of the brilliant Sustainable South Bronx project for example. If anyone wants to write an informed piece about the High Line (and related projects) drop me a line.
I also came across the Andy Monument. If I’m honest (and I always try to be), it’s kinda cheap and nasty looking. I couldn’t decide if I liked that about it or not. I do like the way that it’s become a shrine though – that at least seemed fitting. Come to think of it, I think I’ve written about memorials and shrines before…
Back home, my attention was drawn to this which I think has the potential (note: potential ) to produce something quite interesting. I’d like to see what artists who aren’t known for their public work would make of it, as I reckon that something that used a very restrained formal language could be very successful. I’d be curious to see what someone like Camilla Løw came up with. Or even Martin Boyce? I’m sure I’ll get some stick for that shortlist, but there you go. Feel free to be outraged at my unguarded musings…
Oh and one more thing before I go. Damian Killeen drew my attention to this piece in the Scotsman Enjoy!
More later,
R
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Raploch on Film
by Ruth Barker 22 Apr 2011
Hello,
I’ve just heard about an event that I’d love to go to, but I can’t make it. It’s an outdoor film screening in Raploch (short extract from the press release below). Would anyone like to attend, and report back for PAR+RS in return for having your expenses paid? I think it’ll be a really enjoyable event.
Just drop me an email before you go, if you fancy it.
RAPLOCH on FILM
EARTH DAY – FRIDAY 22nd APRIL – 7.45 – 9.15 p.m.
Outdoor Film Screening
The event is free and open to allWhat do you do with a gap site or a stalled space while you wait for the market to pick up? In Raploch they do things a bit differently. Two years ago Raploch URC, along with Architecture and Design Scotland, Rankin Fraser Architects and arts organisation Wave, proposed an idea to the then Scottish Arts Council, to take a large area of land known as Site Seven at the back of Craighall crescent in Raploch, and think about how it could be made available to the community during the years before it would be built on. Plans to plant the land and open it up for a variety of uses were made, and this Friday sees the inaugural event take place. As the first event on the Green Arena, it is also no coincidence that it takes place on Earth Day, (April 22nd).
I hope someone is tempted by this as we’d really like to cover it!
More later,
R -
Ai Weiwei
by Ruth Barker 18 Apr 2011
Hello,
Does anyone have any ideas for something we could do in Scotland to continue to show our support for Ai Weiwei?
Some news reports here:
This is just a sample – there’s a lot of stuff out there.
More later,
R
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Hinting and Tipping
by Ruth Barker 13 Apr 2011
Hello,
I met with Peter McCaughey yesterday, to discuss the progress on the Hints and Tips books. They’re looking good, but we still have a lot of work to do.
We had a few really interesting conversations about the ethics of editing, and also of attribution. After some discussion we felt that we liked the anecdotal style of the comments we received, and that this was actually quite important to try and preserve. It’s important to me that we don’t give any sense that we think we have the unequivocal ‘solution’ to public art. I think keeping the personal nature of the contributions will retain that sense that these are a series of generous voices sharing their personal views and experiences. This is specifically why they are so valuable, and so worth reading.
It seems as though we’ll also be directly attributing each contribution – unless anyone tells us that they’d prefer their views not to be credited. I’ll soon be contacting everyone whose words will appear, to check that their details are correct.
Again, there was a conversation that took place about the implications of saying where a particular comment came from. At first I was worried that by contextualising the contributions, we might inadvertently make a hierarchy for them (we might be unintentionally implying that the reader attach more credence to Comment A from Ms Internationally Renowned Practitioner, that to Comment B from Mr Recent Graduate). But Peter persuaded me otherwise. It is, he reminded me, important that we remind ourselves of the context from which someone speaks. Mr Recent Graduate may have a far more incisive view, and one that’s far more relevant to the majority of us, than Ms Internationally Renowned. The challenges he faces may be far more recognisable, and urgent, and it’s important to recognise and respect his individual experience and perspective. It’s hard to do this if we don’t know who he is. Context is, as ever, everything. And personal testimony is an important part of the mix. That said, so is the choice for anonymity, so of course we’ll be respecting that, too.
It was good to see the progress though, and I’m looking forward to getting the books to printing stage. I think the first run will be very much a first edition – full of omissions and things that in retrospect we will wish we’d done differently. But that’s ok, I think. Things change so fast in this field that sometimes it’s good to get a flawed but sincere attempt out there at the right time, rather than missing the moment by waiting for perfection.
I may have to revise my opinion on that last one, but for now at least, I think it’s the right route to go down. Thankyou as ever to everyone who has been so generous with their time and thoughts. We really appreciate having such great material to work with!
Hope you’re all well,
more later,
R.
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RTPI Manifesto
by Ruth Barker 1 Apr 2011
Hello,
Shaping the Future of Scotland: A Planning System to Support Sustainable Change.
This is the title of the new Royal Town Planning Institute in Scotland’s new manifesto for the 2011 Scottish elections, and it makes some strong and significant demands. Key amongst them is a call for a Cabinet Secretary with overall responsibility for planning, as well as a plea for both a Planning Committee within the Scottish Parliament itself; and the formation of a Scottish Planning Forum – a central responsibility for which would be to ensure political commitment for sustainable development, as well as economic growth.
You can read an article on the RTPI website, written by James Butler, here.
And you can download and read the manifesto itself, here.
The RTPI site reports the Convenor of the RTPI in Scotland, David Suttie, as stating that “Planners are passionate people who are totally focused on improving the quality of life for people. Planning ensures that we put the right things in the right places at the right time. It can help achieve economic growth, sustainable development and successful places".
I’d be really interested to know readers’ thoughts on this. Does ‘putting the right things in the right places at the right time’ necessarily stifle creativity, individuality, or distinctiveness? Should environmental sustainability be our greatest priority and, if so, what are we willing to sacrifice in order to achieve it? And where and how can public art practice fit into all this? Can public art be a tool to deliver ‘successful places’, or should subversion always be at the heart of contemporary practice?
Send me your comments or – even better – email me to discuss writing an article for the Reflections area.
Can’t wait to hear from you.
more later,
R
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Stalled
by Ruth Barker 30 Mar 2011
Hello,
a couple of people have drawn my attention to the support that Glasgow City Council is providing for community groups to revitalise ‘stalled’ spaces in the city.
It’s an interesting proposition. If anyone is thinking of applying for this fund to work in a creative way, let me know as we’d be interested in covering it on PAR+RS.
Also, I was wondering if this scheme was unique to Glasgow? Surely not. Let me know about alternative or equivalent schemes that exist elsewhere – this could also be an idea for a Reflection piece if anyone wanted to explore the similarities and differences through an article? As always, let me know if this sparks your interest.
more later,
R.
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Corporate Planning
by Ruth Barker 28 Mar 2011
Hello,
sticking to our Planning theme, I have something here that you may be interested in: Creative Scotland’s corporate plan
Have a read and let me know what you think the impacts might be for public art. If there’s enough interest, this may be something we’ll follow up with an article, so drop me a line if you’d like to write a Reflection on this subject.
More later,
R.
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Cold Money
by Ruth Barker 23 Mar 2011
Hello,
Thought this was quite interesting.
More later,
R. -
SURF
by Ruth Barker 18 Mar 2011
Hello,
Yesterday I went to SURF’s annual conference.
It was a long day, but interesting. And very cold (!) as the heating was broken so we were blasted with chilled air for most of the morning sessions. Brrr!
I thought I’d give a run-down on the day. I’ll start with the programme to give an idea of the range of speakers, and will transcribe some of my notes, below.
Programme:
Early Morning Session
9am Registration and coffee
9.30 Welcome and introduction
Guest Chair Andrew Lyon, Converger, International Futures Forum.
9.45 ‘Who and What?’ Electronic voting session
10am Community Resilience and Poverty
Julia Unwin, Chief Executive, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
10.20 Cross Border Lessons
Pat Ritchie, Chief Executive, Homes and Communities Agency
10.40 Questions and comments
11am Coffee, networking.Late Morning Session
11.25 National Priorities and electronic voting session
Andy Milne, Chief Executive, SURF
11.55 Healthy Resilience
George Dodds, Director for Programme Design and Delivery, NHS Scotland
12.15 Themed and facilitated discussion groups
1.15 LunchAfternoon Session
2pm Resilience and community participation
John Cassidy, Chair, Cambuslang and Rutherglen Community Health Initiative
2.20 A Transatlantic View
Denys Candy, International Creative Regeneration Practitioner
2.40 Discussion Group Feedback
3.15 Where Now? Panel session
4pm Summary
4.10 Close and coffee.These are my notes – they’re a little messy but I hope they might give an impression of my train of thought as the day progressed. Some are directly related to particular presentations, but some are more general. As you’ll see some of the presentations were more relevant to the field of public art than others, but I think that all of them provided least one question to take with me. You can download the slides from the keynote presentations from the SURF website.
- what is resilience?
- who generates it?
- What do we hope it brings?
- Or protects us from?Creativity as a process of: keeping as many things as possible in your head at the same time without taking a decision about any of them; and then making something new out of understanding them.
Encountering difficulties? Don’t bounce back – bounce beyond!
Julia Unwin:
- changing social contract.
- Emphasis on local
- Economy of deficit following an economy of surplus.Andy Milne
- What do we mean by Regeneration? Perhaps it’s a collective response to the damaging effects of change.
- If a process does not result in benefits to the health and well-being of people, then we cannot justify calling it ‘regeneration’,- Scottish Government describes themes of Solidarity (closing the gap between rich and poor); Cohesion (closing the gap between geographical areas); and Participation.
- Housing associations are now considered ‘key delivery vehicles’ of regeneration.
George Dodds
- ‘The Big Society’ has been around for 100s of years. It doesn’t need a new label. We need to say Thankyou to the people who are already living this way, and who always have had that sense of social responsibility. Not the ‘heroes’ but the ordinary people who do small things, like knocking on a neighbour’s door to ask if they’re ok. They’re the people who build societies, but they’re the people we never find out about.
- Nb place of artists within all of this…
- Reference to Raploch URC site as an example of a good project (Peter McCaughey link)
- do things with people, not to themJohn Cassidy – community volunteer. Comment to speakers: You’re using too much jargon!
- Nb what does language mean when is no longer communicates, but instead conveys (eg. a set of ideas or references)?Quote from the Tackling Poverty Board 2011
“We must not underestimate the resources needed to include people effectively”Time for Change 2010
Quotes from Dr Harry Burns (quotes I think by John Cassidy – apologies if I’m wrong here)
“We need to do more. At a time of economic uncertainty threats to the health of disadvantage communities increase and, if Scotland is to continue to progress and to do so at an accelerated pace, new approaches to health creation need to be considered.”- our body chemistry is affected by our social conditions.
- Health benefits are not always delivered by traditional health mechanisms. Eg huge health benefits from community radio project, but heard to get this funded by health budgets.Denys Candy
Denys’ presentation was great! I have a vested interest though as he’s recently written a Reflection for PAR+RS (due to go live on the site very soon) in which he discusses the Find The Rivers project. In the meantime, here’s an account of his SURF presentation.How do we heal post industrial places?
Pittsburgh: already depressed before the economic crash. Previously a steel city, but production much declined. Post industrial.History of civic displacement as ‘regeneration’ strategy. ‘Areas of blight’ defined by civic authority – often tied to race, as tended to be African American neighbourhoods (still a very segregated culture). When areas are geographically isolated they degenerate very quickly in terms of health, poverty, and housing. Interdependent aspects of health and wellbeing.
‘we need to include planning strategies, but also to go beyond planning’
Denys’ strategy has been a community driven process of re-experiencing place.
Appreciate existing community leadership.
‘Power of a confluence’ – point where the rivers join one another.
Hill District of Pittsburgh was a poor and socially isolated area, which people from other parts of town didn’t either visit or cut through. Thinking about the perceptual maps we have of a city – the areas you go and don’t go. Areas are often racially defined. Segregation.
Denys attempted to changing perceptions by changing experiences. He bypassed planners and went straight to individuals living in the Hill District.
Thinking about the river as a place but also as a metaphor. A transformative act: got people to go out onto the river. Gave people a new perspective looking from the river back onto their own neighbourhood. The took people up into the hills to look down and see new routes through the city.Re-imagining places.
A new narrative emerged of the district as a place full of trees, surrounded by the river. This narrative was accepted by the community because they had seen it themselves (from the river perspective).
Also lots of events – art, music, artists.
Led to sense of reconnection – to people, to rivers, to the Northern edge of the district.Design vision emerged from this re-imagining. Specific design plans emerging from the process, and from the various stakeholder.
Need to bring lots of people into the process, and to give creative people permission to think and to explore. BUT also need to make this creative exploration serve the broader vision of the people who live there.
‘Confluence’ project. A mixed music event designed to attract a mixed audience. Event based in the Hill Distict, intended to draw people in who wouldn’t otherwise enter the District.
Value placed on creating ‘joyful space’ without worrying too much about what the outcomes of that might be.
Brought in bigger partners once the groundwork had been done,
Less a masterplan, and more an ecological framework on which development can take place. Lots of small events and actions. Challenge of climate change. Produced a ‘greenprint’ that re-imagined the Hill District as a ‘village in the woods’. Launched the Greenprint with a barbeque and a big sign outside where everyone could come along and eat and talk about it.
Civic ecology – planet falling apart. Look at water, energy, food at local level. What are our local ecologies?
Link to Helix project in Falkirk, and some of the strategies being used there.
‘We’ve got to get to work. We’ve got to be artful, we’ve got to be communitarian, and we’ve got to honour history but not be shackled by it. We’ve got to go beyond simple engagement and do some deep looking. We’ve got to know the local dna, and respect that uniqueness.’
More later,
R.
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Crucifixion
by Ruth Barker 18 Mar 2011
Hello,
Just listening to this and it’s riveting…
More later,
R.
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Glenrothes
by Ruth Barker 14 Mar 2011
Hello,
Did anyone else see this article from The Courier, describing recent goings-on in Glenrothes?
Those of you who know your public art history will recall that Glenrothes is notable for being hugely forward thinking in its employment of a ‘town artist’ in 1968, with a job description that David Harding (who held the post from 1968 – 1978) remembers as stating “that the artist would, ‘contribute to the external built environment of the town’, but it also said that the artist would be called upon for other things such as graphic design (probably a concession to the doubters).” 1
A huge amount of work was commissioned in Glenrothes as a result of this forward thinking scheme, and even though much of it now looks fairly dated, articles like that in the Courier suggest that local residents are still very attached to much of the work. I sent the article to David as I thought he’d be interested in the continuing legacy of those early projects. He replied, saying:
“I did know things were happening in Glenrothes and so it was interesting to read that even the Dundee paper was running something. None of the works mentioned were ones that I did, however I did give an interview to the local paper2 saying that most of the works in the town were deep in housing neighbourhoods and this policy of removing them to parks etc diminished the housing areas (or words to that effect).
“One work I did is threatened by a massive Sainsbury development in the town centre and Historic Scotland are making moves to list it. The MSP mentioned has raised the whole issue in Parliament. The developers are wanting to relocate it so we’ll see.”
So as we think about the nature of Planning, sometimes it’s useful to consider the long view. And to think about the various perspectives involved: relocating this work clearly has a different meaning to the local community who have taken ownership over it, that it may to Fife Council’s Area Services manager, who says that the intention is to increase the work’s ‘prominence’.
Prominence to whom? We may ask, because the relocation of an artwork from a residential setting to a roundabout clearly changes the way that we may encounter it.
More people will see the work, but for a shorter amount of time.
Fewer people may touch the work, stroke it, sit on it or vandalise it.
How do we value each of these interactions, and why? The move will clearly make the work more prominent to some people, and less prominent to others. The direction of this shift is from a small number of people having a long-term and intimate experience of the work; towards a large number of people having a short-term and fleeting experience of the same piece. In terms of planning, this is an important distinction. The way that we choose location one over the other may speak volumes about our priorities, and our assumptions.Comments welcome!
More later,
R.
1 http://www.davidharding.net/article12/index.php
2 http://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/local-headlines/glenrothes_town_art_row_rumbles_on_1_1501648
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New Season
by Ruth Barker 8 Mar 2011
Hello,
and welcome to the new PAR+RS Season, where we’ll be looking at the theme of Planning.
We’ll be thinking about project planning, masterplanning, planning permissions, urban planning, time planning, and the planning of our next steps. We’ll be questioning how to plan, what to plan for, and what it is that planners really do. We’ll even be asking whether planning is a good thing at all, or whether we can do without it.
Planning – its presence or its absence – is at the heart of many projects’ success or failure. At a broader level, governmental or strategic planning influences how places are shaped. We plan our time, as well as our resources, and this is deeply important to how we imagine and interpret all of our activities.
We’ve been asking artists, architects, planners, and urbanists to contribute their thoughts, and ask their own questions. We’ve got lots of new articles coming up, with some exciting new writers to profile too. And don’t forget its not too late to join in the conversation! If the articles here inspire your rage or incite your imagination, we want to hear about it. Email the editor if you want to contribute, or post your comments online. We can’t wait to hear from you.
In our first batch of articles for you, we have Gordon Murray, Angus Farquhar and Ed Hollis, considering NVA’s recent contribution to the Venice Architecture Biennale 2010, in On Venice And Cardross.
Alongside this, we’re keeping open our Hints and Tips call until March 11th, so there’s still a few days left to get your contributions in. For those who haven’t heard, PAR+RS is collaborating with artist Peter McCaughey to produce a series of books jointly authored by PAR+RS readers, who are contributing their advice on how to produce artwork in the public realm.
We’re also pleased to present two exclusive Features for you this Season. Urbanist Diarmaid Lawlor of Architecture and Design Scotland presents his thoughts on Re Thinking Place: Creativity in Austerity while artist Anthony Schrag considers Legislating Risk his report on the city of Seattle’s percent for art ordinance.
Remember too that Creative Scotland are still offering a new PAR+RS Professional Development investment opportunity: is there a public art related event you want to attend, organisation you want to meet, or project you want to see? Click here to find out how you could have your expenses paid in return for contributing to the PAR+RS website.
There’ll be loads of new articles coming up, so keep checking back to find out what’s new.
More later,
R.
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Old Friends
by Ruth Barker 8 Mar 2011
Hello,
just a note to welcome back to the Blogs. There are more still to come, but it’s very good indeed to see that we have the first 5 of the PAR+RS blogs back up. There are some real gems there, if anyone wants to revisit them and have a browse through the posts.
Of course I must again extend my apologies that it’s taken this long to get them back – not least because some of the information in them is no doubt now out of date. I hope that some of the Bloggers may be wiling to make short posts letting you know what they’re up to now.
In the meantime though, enjoy, and thanks again to all our Bloggers. We really appreciate all your hard work and generosity. If anyone wants to start up a Blog, giving us the inside view on a project that they’re working on, just drop me a line at the usual address.
More later,
R
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Read This
by Ruth Barker 5 Mar 2011
Hello,
BBC News article on the appalling treatment of Russian artists’ collective Voina
More later
R
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Last Minute Article Sought!
by Ruth Barker 3 Mar 2011
Hello,
we’re looking for a writer to cover a light installation in Derbyshire, comparing it to NVA’s Speed of Light Edinburgh 2012 commission.
The Derbyshire work is Meander by Charles Monkhouse, and is taking place in the Derwent Valley on Saturday 5 March, 6pm – 10pm. The work is an Intermediate Commission for re:place
Image is a visualisation of the work Meander by Charles Monkhouse. With thanks to re:place.
The re:place website describes Monkhouse’s installation as recreating “an earlier form of the River Derwent, still trapped within its valley sides but floating high above the current valley bottom. The installation will be at night with up to 200 individual lights.” For more information, check here
You can of course write about the work if you can’t make it to Derbyshire next weekend, but it would be great to see Meander first hand. There’s no fee attached to this article (unfortunately) but we can cover your expenses.
This is a quick one, so the first person to write to me at producer@publicartscotland.com gets to write the piece. What are you waiting for?!
more later,
R. -
The Colour of Things
by Ruth Barker 2 Mar 2011
Hello,
Not really public art related, but utterly fascinating anyway
More later,
R.
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Dark Days
by Ruth Barker 28 Feb 2011
Hello,
Collective in Edinburgh are screening Dark Days by Marc Singer. I love this film! Go see it if you can.
Dark Days
13th March 2011
5pm
Collective, Cockburn St, Edinburgh.
More later,
R. -
The Death of The Death of Hercules.
by Ruth Barker 22 Feb 2011
Hello,
I’m adding an image of Rotterdam Central Library which is tinged with regret, because a project I’ve been working on has just been cancelled.
It raised an interesting question though, which is why I raise it here. Since October I’ve been talking to a woman I shall here call M, about the possibility of doing a public performance in the Library’s foyer. M approached me about it (she’s curated / organised / managed several performance events in public locations around the city of Rotterdam), and I was keen to do something in such an unusual location.
We’d been speaking for a while and the work was well into development. I often work with a fashion designer, Lesley Hepburn, who produces bespoke garments for the performances, and I’d commissioned a new piece from her, which was already complete. I’d finished the script (called ‘The Death of Hercules’) and was into rehearsals, when it emerged that M hadn’t yet got permission to use the site. This is the work in development:
The library is a very public space, and M at first suggested that we didn’t need explicit permission from the institution, reasoning that I could perform more spontaneously, occupying the space unannounced, as it were. I was very uncomfortable with this proposal, and flat refused, which was probably frustrating for M (sorry M). It took me a while to be able to articulate why it was so important to me to get official permission, but here’s what I came up with:
1. I wanted to feel invited in.
2. I wanted the work to be a gift to the people who use the library. I wanted the performance to be happening for them, rather than at them.
3. I didn’t want to feel that I was critiquing the library space. I wanted to feel that I was adding to it, instead.
4. I wanted the work to have its own space and time within the library.
5. I wanted the work to feel wanted.
This isn’t to undermine the validity or importance of interventionist work. It isn’t to prescribe how any other work should or could be made. But it was important for me to realise that in this case, in this place for this work, I wanted that frame of the official sanction, the formal invitation. It surprised me to learn just how much the lack of that changed (for me) the meaning of the gesture I was making.
And so the project isn’t now going to happen. At least, it isn’t going to happen yet, and it isn’t going to happen in the library. I’m still talking to M and in many ways I feel as though this unexpected change of plan might be for the best. I think we both understand my practice a little better than we did before. And we’re looking for a new space – a new context that can we build the work within.
Wish us luck,
More later,
R.
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Bring Back The Blogs!
by Ruth Barker 21 Feb 2011
Hello,
Good news people: The blogs are (coming) back!
I got news from our web developer today that the technical updates carried out on the site recently mean that the PAR+RS blogs (which you may recall have been hidden since last April because of concerns regarding copyright) are ready to go Live again.
I’ve written to everyone who has kept a PAR+RS blog in the past, to let them know and to ask each of them to follow a link that will allow their own blog to be made live again. So fingers crossed that over the next few days we should see some of the Blogs reappearing.
I’m really pleased about this. The logs are an essential way of keeping up to date with current projects, but they’re also a great way to be able to look back on a project’s development. I know that when I’ve been involved in any public work, the temptation after it has finished has been to mentally edit the narrative of the piece – to encourage the conclusion to meet the original intention. Blogs can be a really interesting counterpoint to that as they record the experiential improvisations that happen along the way.
This is also then, a good opportunity to extend an invitation to anyone who is involved (as a commissioner, an artist, a team member, participant, artist, project manager, etc etc) in a project at the moment. Would you like to keep a blog for us? Drop me a line at the usual address if so.
More later,
R.
STOP PRESS: Just heard about this project which had somehow passed me by. Is anyone planning to attend the event at Anatomy Theatre and Museum at King’s College, London (May 20th and 21st, 2011)? If so please let us know. There could be some money available to pay your expenses if you’re willing to write up a short account in return.
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Tweaking
by Ruth Barker 17 Feb 2011
Hello,
I’m pretty busy today so just a quick note to say Sorry to anyone who’s had problems using the site over the past few days.
We had to make some upgrades to the technical side of the PAR+RS site, and this meant that the site was down for a few days. Since it came back online, I know that some of you have had problems logging in. All the bugs are now hopefully out of the system, but you will now have to login with your registered email address, rather than your previous username. You may also have to re-confirm that you are a real person rather than a spambot by following a PAR+RS link that will be emailed to you. This only takes a moment and, though I know it’s a pain, I’m assured that it will allow the site to run more smoothly in the long run.
So sorry about all that, but I hope it doesn’t put you off adding your Hints and Tips: There’s still time for more of your advice…
more later,
R
PS: I’m sorry about the awful photograph that’s appeared on the Home Page link to the Editorial. Gosh. Somehow the order of the Blog’s images has been reversed, with the result that the most recent post has been accompanied by the very oldest picture! It’s of me in Orkney, in case you were interested. Now, I just need to figure out how to fix it…
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Next Step
by Ruth Barker 8 Feb 2011
Hello,
Many thanks to everyone who’s already posted their Public Art Advice in out Hints and Tips article. And to everyone who still intends to but hasn’t quite got round to it yet: Do It. We really genuinely need to get all the information we can – from a really wide range of experiences.
So far we’ve had quite a bit from artists and project managers, but not so much from members of communities, or those with less direct professional experience. So come on, I know you’re out there – let us know your advice! And I’m particularly keen to hear from folks like T Aikenhead who’ve supported the site by sharing their views in the past.
OK, enough haranguing. I’ve been rereading Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy lately, and I wouldn’t want to think that its tone had affected me too much.
Ben Spencer sent me a link to Yasmin, which I’m ashamed to say that I hadn’t heard of before.
By coincidence they are discussing ‘Next Step Publishing’ at the moment. Here’s what they say about it:
“Next Step Publishing. In the few years ahead of us, many things will change. Most human activities already include publishing digital information: be it shopping, working, relating with people, relaxing. This information will not remain in usual places (databases and monitors), but it will progressively become produceable and accessible directly from objects, architectures, clothes, and bodies. This change is drastically augmenting in speed, and now virtually every surface can become a monitor, an input device or a generator of information, mutating completely our potential understanding of our bodies, of cities, of relationships and other common (or less common) human activities. THis is what we mean by “Next Step Publishing”: both a chance for pioneeristic investigation through sciences, arts and design, and to present currently existing significative practices and their meaning to both sciences, arts and creativity."
You can contribute to the discussion on Yasmin’s pages here
‘Interesting,’ I thought…
More later,
R.
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The Big Book Ask
by Ruth Barker 2 Feb 2011
Hello,
So, here it is: Hints and Tips
Check it out, have a think, and send us your thoughts. I think this could be something really significant that we’re putting together. I hope so, anyway. It seems a very democratic way of making our voices heard, so I hope as many people as possible share their advice.
Please send the link around to your own networks and contacts, and encourage those you know to send us their Tips. This is only going to work if we all chip in.
I’ll be interested to see if there’s consensus in what makes for a good working environment, or whether the Comments start to contradict each other. For instance, this morning I thought I’d put my head above the parapet, and I submitted a Tip that artists should always try to sign a contract if there’s money involved. Now to me (having had a couple of sticky situations in the past, which were made stickier because there was no contract) that seems like common sense. But perhaps tomorrow we’ll get someone else saying that artists should never sign a contract because it puts a limit on what they can do and how the work can evolve… I think it would be great if we did start to have those kind of disagreements, because they’d show just how varied the field is, and just how nuanced our experiences are.
I have high hopes for the finished books as well. In a way (following on from what I was writing yesterday) I’m hoping that this model may play to the strengths of both online and print media. The PAR+RS site is hopefully open and flexible enough that any readers who wish to can submit their thoughts. But then those thoughts will be made more permanent when they are translated into print on a page. There is something about a physical book which is still, to me, intensely valuable. A web page can change very easily (and this dynamism is often a great thing); it can also disappear with a single click. But a book is a different thing. It is durable and solid – once it’s printed, the words on that page are indelible. And even if we change our minds later about what it is we write today, it will still be good to be able to hold those words in our hands and remember that we used to see the world like that.
So come on, be generous. Share your experiences, and let’s try to shape the way that practice happens.
Utopian I know, but where would we be without at least the possibility of utopia?
More later,
R
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Keep Reading
by Ruth Barker 1 Feb 2011
Hello,
still with books on my mind (see the post below), I read this and this this morning.
Books are important, ladies and gentlemen. I know I don’t have to remind you of that, but it’s good to say it every so often. Especially as this is an online resource, and sometimes we may imagine that the screen and the page sit in opposition to, or even in competition with, one another. I don’t think that they do, by the way. I think they have quite different strengths.
The Strength Of My Bookshelves
Check back tomorrow for details of the hints and tips publications.
More later,
R
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Sallying Forth
by Ruth Barker 28 Jan 2011
Hello,
I’ve often wondered if people called Sally dislike the above phrase as much as I dislike the word ‘ruthless’. I suppose this came to mind because artist Peter McCaughey once told me that he cannot abide the phrase ‘to peter out’ meaning to dwindle to nothing, and I met with Peter yesterday, so his idiosyncrasies were on my mind.
By the time I left this meeting I found that I’d agreed to collaborate on a series of four books that Peter is producing, which will be filled with ‘hints and tips’ on how to approach the dangerous field of public art. I’m not totally sure how this agreement came about, as surely no-one in their right mind would take on something so crazy… All I can say is that Mr McCaughey has clearly missed his calling as a Middle East peace negotiator. It seems he can get people to agree to anything. Hmmm.
Still, swallowing back my rising hysteria as it dawns on me exactly what I may have let myself in for, I can say that I think the books will be great – but only with YOUR help, readers. Next week I’ll be posting a new article in the Reflections area, explaining what exactly we need from you and why you should help. I’m serious, as this will be a literary endeavour collectively authored by the PAR+RS readership. And I’m sure you’re up to the task as we’ve been having some truly brilliant comments lately, which continually remind me how rich your collective expertise really is.
So take this as a teaser, and check back next week (I’m aiming to get the article up on Wednesday) for the details. There’ll be a link to the piece on the homepage as well as from the Blog, so it should be easy to find.
Oh, and another small update: the redevelopment work on the Blogs is almost complete! Hooray! So fingers crossed we’ll be able to relaunch them in the next few weeks. Thanks for your patience everyone.
Thanks also go to Chris Fremantle for sending me this picture:
sometimes we wrestle with big ideas.
More later,
R -
Big Questions, No Answers.
by Ruth Barker 22 Jan 2011
Hello,
Hope you’re all well. I didn’t post last week, although I did write an article, and then decided not to hit SAVE. I’ve been mulling it over all week, and then thought I’d just tell you about it instead.
The thing is, I went to a brilliant event last week, so thanks to Creative Scotland’s Andrew Leitch for inviting me to attend an Inspiring Communities Peer Learning event in Glasgow.
You can learn more about the Inspire fund here, and I have to say that all of the projects represented on the day seemed really exciting. We heard some great presentations by a fantastic bunch of motivated, enthusiastic, sensitive, and engaged people – all of whose projects are at different stages of development. Because none of the projects are complete, I really admired the candour and generosity that everyone showed in sharing their experiences with the group.I left the day feeling really optimistic about the projects that are taking place in Scotland at the moment, and the people who are making them happen. From the community leaders to the arts professionals (and everyone else in between) currently involved in the Inspire projects, I got a huge sense of commitment, energy, and integrity. I’m genuinely looking forward to seeing how the projects grow, and hopefully we’ll be able to cover some of them on PAR+RS.
Afterwards, I started thinking about questions of responsibility, which is what I tried to write my blog post about, but it came out all wrong, so I’m glad I didn’t post it. I’m going to try again though. But I’d like to make clear that these questions were not triggered by any of the Inspire projects I heard about. It’s more a train of thought that I’ve been mulling over for a while, and this seemed a timely moment to voice it.
I’m going to try and put my thoughts into questions, rather than answers, because that’s how I’m feeling about it all.
1. Are community-led, participatory projects important?
(yes, I think they are. I’m not going to answer all of my own questions, but this is one that I’m fairly clear about!)2. Is art a useful tool with which to work through complex social situations and challenges, in order to bring benefit to people?
3. Do those benefits include things like reductions in anti-social behaviour, increases in participants’ skills or employability, improvements in an area’s infrastructure or appearance in order to attract other investment, or psychological benefits like an increase in self esteem?
4. Are arts professionals the best informed, educated and / or supported to make decisions about or deliver social benefits?
5. Should other services be taking the lead in funding, employing, or supporting arts professionals to provide these services, if it is felt that this model (of community led participatory arts projects) is in fact the best way to deliver these benefits?
6. Is this likely ‘in the current economic climate’?
I suppose I worry that we, as arts professionals, might not always have the skills needed to work in this way. After all, if you do take a look at the studies that sociologists and psychologists have done into the questions of deprivation for example, or self esteem, you quickly find that this is a complicated and sophisticated area. I’m certainly no expert in any of this, and I’m concerned that often we (I include myself in this) look to ‘common sense’ rather than any evidence, to choose what decision to make or which route to follow. More worryingly, we as arts professionals might decide to engage with a project based on its merits as art, rather than by understanding its merits (or challenges) as ‘social action’.
I say ‘more worryingly’ but is that worrying? After all, art is our specialism – it’s what we value and know about and believe in. You see my quandary here. Really I’m talking about priorities. About who makes decisions, and how they know whether they’re doing the right thing. And which scale of ‘right things’ they’re looking at (- is this the right art decision, or the right social decision? Because they may not always be the same).
I sometimes also worry that in working with such integrity and goodwill, artists might be making themselves vulnerable sometimes. Social workers and others learn about maintaining professional distance when they engage with challenging situation. I don’t think that artists get the same kind of support. Would they want it?
Maybe I’ve got this all wrong and that really we should be celebrating a ‘portfolio approach’ (Yuk! Awful phrase) where different professionals from the fields of healthcare, crime prevention, education, and the arts, can each contribute to improving our social environment. I suppose partly it comes down to the role we think of art as having in our society. What is art for, after all? And that’s perhaps the biggest question of all.
Yours thoughtfully,
R.
Can of Worms!
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Great Headline
by Ruth Barker 12 Jan 2011
Hello,
Just read this by Moira Jeffrey in the Scotsman, and thought you might like it.
‘Do we trust the Scottish landscape so little that we must always try to improve it with spectacle?’
More later,
R.
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Happy New Year
by Ruth Barker 6 Jan 2011
Hello,
After a hectic (but great) Christmas and New Year split as always between West Yorkshire and the Outer Hebrides, it’s back to Glasgow and back to work. I’ve spent today catching up on PAR+RS related things, and thinking about the upcoming Planning Season – which will hopefully be launched very soon.
There are lots of great articles in the pipeline, but there’s still time to get in touch in you have something of your own you’d like to contribute.
I just have a couple of things to share with you. One is a curious article from the Guardian newspaper about the dismissal of Michael Stone’s claim that his attack on Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness was actually an example of performance art. I remember Stone making this unusual claim at the time, and I’ve been wondering how it would turn out…
The second is this brilliant New Year image, which was sent to me by visual artist Janie Nicoll. Check out her website here.
More later,
R. -
Happy Holidays
by Ruth Barker 22 Dec 2010
Hello,
How’s this for a seasonal phone-doodle?
Just a note to wish all our readers the very best for the festive season. I’m going to be taking a break from now until the beginning of January, when I’ll be back to launch the new PAR+RS Season on Planning. Get ready for new articles, opportunities, and musings from the Editorial Blog.
For now though, stay warm, travel safe if you have somewhere to go, and have a wonderful winter break.
Have a wonderful time, and a great 2011.
More later,
R -
IOTA News
by Ruth Barker 14 Dec 2010
Hello,
found this in my inbox this morning, from the ever-connected Matt Baker.
Hi Ruth – you are maybe aware already of the significant act of bravery by Highland Council in voting to support IOTA with some core funding. If no, then I thought it might make a bit of good news amongst the general pessimism about public finances.
Some info about it here: http://sacrificialmaterials.blogspot.com/2010/12/new-chapter-in-highlands.htmlHere’s a live version of that link.
As Matt says, it’s great to get a bit of good news. Hooray for the Highland Council! I had actually heard about this, but it’s great to get Matt’s nudge to make a bit of a shout about it on PAR+RS. IOTA have done some great work (a big Well Done goes out to Susan Christie and her team) in Inverness, and this news means – I hope – that their sucesses will continue. Drop us a line when you can Susan, we love to hear from you.
Matt also sent me a link to this Blog I hadn’t come across before Interesting stuff. Hello to messinwithquanta – drop us a line here at PAR+RS if you’d like to contribute.
In other news, I’m at CCA today, working with some equipment hired from GMAC to try and video a performance to camera. It’s hard work, but I should get back to it. Wish me luck.
More later,
R.
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In Correspondence
by Ruth Barker 13 Dec 2010
Hello,
corresponding with a friend recently, they confided their views on the Turner Prize news. I thought it was hilarious, and asked if I could let you read it. Happily they said yes. Please be as generous, and take this in the spirit in which it is intended.
Thankfully as a mature artist with a certain amount of Turner Prizes under my belt I was unphased by outcome, phew! I’m extremely happy to see the single female voice used as a counterpoint within the fabric of the city. However unlike other sound artists such as Hildegard Westerkamp, Tori WrÃ¥nes, Kaffe Matthews or Michaela Melián, poor old Susan only has one trick which she’s flogged to near death a long time ago. On this occassion its important for me to say what’s what.
I’m hoping next year that when they announce the winner of the Turner Prize they will just be honest and say. “And the winner goes to……….. The Turner Prize”.
Finally the internal loop will be complete, a black hole will open up and the phase inversed. Unlikely, granted, but much needed.[later, my email correspondent elaborated]
What has been one of the most interesting aspects of whole TP coverage is reading the journalists’ fantastically inarticulate descriptions of her art and sound art in general. I guess they just don’t get training in sound art in art history class these days. One day in Istanbul listening to the call to prayer from the millions of minaret’s would bring them up to speed pronto.
More later,
R. -
Susan Philipsz Wins The Turner Prize
by Ruth Barker 7 Dec 2010
Hello,
just a note as I’m busy busy busy, but wanted to say Congratulations to Susan Philipsz. You can see a link to the Gi Coverage of her win (and a clip of the work itself) here.
Susan Philipsz, Glasgow 2009, Courtesy the artist.
Good stuff for Scottish art, I reckon, and brilliant to see an artist being nominated for such a high profile award based on a public work.
Ah, but I can hear Matt Baker asking: is Lowlands public art at all? And I’d probably say something about that sliding scale of publicness again. The more work I see the more I think that very few projects are wholly or purely public. There are degrees in all things, not least in this. I think many people will have encountered Lowlands publicly – in the sense that they will have come across it unexpectedly in public space. This is of course in addition to the Gi Festival audience who went looking for the work, and so had it framed in a very different way (by, in fact, an explicitly art context) through the festival programme. Could it be that Lowlands as it existed in Glasgow was actually two distinct works, defined not so much by a change in the state of the work itself, as by the different perspectives of these distinct audiences? Not sure. Something to muse over, perhaps.
More later, hope everyone’s wrapped up warm. Hello to Anne Marie, Al, and Sarah, who were trapped in their cars for hours last night (all three being teachers who had struggled into their schools). Glad you all made it home safe eventually. I hope everybody else did, too.
R.
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Snow snow snow snow.
by Ruth Barker 29 Nov 2010
Hello,
I love the snow. I’ve been working on PAR+RS all day and resisting the urge to run out to the park and play. But then I felt guilty for my frivolous thoughts because I heard from Fanny Christie at PVAF that the weekend’s weather has seriously disrupted plans for an upcoming project, and I remembered that for many many people (especially those who have a journey to make) the snow is not fun in the least. So wrap up warm and take care, everyone. And good luck getting back on schedule, Fanny.
So, today I’ve been writing to lots of brilliant people trying to hassle (sorry, ‘enourage’) them into writing for PAR+RS. Take this as a reminder – send us your articles! I’m particularly interested at the moment in hearing from architects, planners, strategists, landscape designers, urbanists, and all the rest of you. If you are reading this list and know of someone to whom I should be speaking, drop me a line with your suggestion. I’m hoping to get some really good pieces for the upcoming Planning season…
Thanks loads to Matt for his thoughtful Comment to my post ‘Sacrificial Materials’ below. I’d love to come back on one thing (sorry if I’m hogging the debate – do chip in on Matt’s new blog here). It’s that thing about a division between gallery art/public art; and gallery artist/public artist. I guess one thing I’ve been mulling over lately is that many artists, myself included, make work that’s on a sliding scale of publicness, with some projects being more public than others. I choose to work across different contexts at different times, and many other artists do the same. You’re unusual in some ways, Matt, in that you are fairly exclusively a public artist in the sense that you describe – an artist who always makes publicly sited work. Where does that leave the rest of us? Is it an all or nothing thing?
And I can completely sympathise with your last sentence, about public art practice not getting the meaty discussion it deserves. Incidentally, I was reading Carol Becker on the subject of ‘The Artist As Public Intellectual’ recently. Did I mention this before on the Blog? I’ve a feeling that I might have done. Anyway, it’s raised a lot of interesting questions for me, which I’m in the process of thinking through (thanks to Jason E Bowman for pointing me in its direction).
Becker writes about the importance of the artist’s voice in society, and she places that voice as one that might speak about inequality, politics, and justice. This is of course important, but I’ve also been thinking about the importance of artists being able to speak about art. I think – very genuinely – that art is incredibly important. I really believe that it’s one of the most important things that humans do. And because I believe that, I also believe that it’s important that art is discussed well and fully and humanely, and that we strive do so in public.More later,
R. -
Sacrifical Materials
by Ruth Barker 26 Nov 2010
Hello,
I just tried to leave a comment on Matt Baker’s new blog Sacrificial Materials but I failed for some reason, so I’ll post it here instead.
I was going to link to it anyway.
Here goes:
Hi Matt,
Thanks so much for sending me the link to this. I suspect that it may have been me you were thinking of (and generously not naming) when you say:
“I have even heard this stated more simply as ‘anything that does not happen in a gallery’â€
Touché, if so – though I would like to expand
.
Firstly, I usually try say that we can talk about public art as being anything that is not contextualised by a gallery. This is not quite the same as anything that’s not in a gallery – as contexts aren’t always physical, after all. We can think about a theoretical context, as well as the context of association or framing that encompasses the signage or interpretive strategies of galleries’ off site projects. So hopefully there’s a little more nuance there than a simple inside/outside binary.Secondly, Yes. This is absolutely a brutal and blunt definition. And that’s deliberate on my part. I like to have a bit of friction in my life. The phrase ‘public art’ is awkward and irritating. It’s impossible to define, but it’s also a shorthand. We can use it to outline a vague and problematic territory, quickly.
Is this useful? Yes, I think so – sometimes. If I use words like ‘relational practice’ or ‘site-sensitive installation’ people outside the art-world have no idea what I mean. If I say ‘public art’ people may have a narrower idea of what I mean than is actually the case, but it does give us a place to start from as we begin to talk.Contentious? Certainly, but I’m all for a bit of contention. I think we’re lucky in a way to have been stuck with such a lame moniker, which nobody likes. I know of no-one in the field who’s happy with the phrase ‘public art’ and for that reason we don’t ever take it for granted as a definition. We do not respect it and so we are not bound by it.
I think we have to keep challenging our terms, in exactly the way you’re doing here, Matt. We have to keep interrogating languages as well as practices, and we have to keep asking the difficult questions. But at the back of my mind I still have a sneaky suspicion that the moment at which we become satisfied with our answers is the moment when we stop making art, so let’s make sure that that satisfaction is a long way off. Long live the friction!
Best,
Ruth. -
Dublin
by Ruth Barker 22 Nov 2010
Hello,
Guardian Article: Dublin’s independent arts scene is a silver lining in the recession-hit city
as always, comments welcome. Let us know if you’re Dublin based and want to give a different perspective.
More later,
R. -
The Culture cafe
by Ruth Barker 20 Nov 2010
Hello,
Listen if you dare.
I’ll be appearing of BBC Scotland’s The Culture Cafe on Tuesday at 1.15, along with Moira Jeffrey, Nuno Sacramento, and Andy Scott.Wish me luck,
More later,
R. -
Mary Midgely
by Ruth Barker 19 Nov 2010
Hello,
I just got an email from the excellent Laura Simpson at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design to remind me that Mary Midgely is speaking tonight, in conversation with artist Paul Noble, at the University of Dundee.
This reminder wasn’t totally welcome as I’m Mary Midgely’s biggest fan but I can’t go! So I’m understandably gutted. Sigh. I’m pasting the info Laura sent below, so anyone who’s in the area please don’t miss this chance to hear one of the finest philiosophers of our age… And if you do go, write and tell me how it went. I think Midgely’s writing has had a huge influence on how I think about art and its relationships to people, to society, to thinking, and to culture. I read The Solitary Self a few weeks ago, and I’d recommend it to anyone as an example of generous and humane thought and imagination. And Hooray for that.
More later,
R.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place Leading philosopher Mary Midgley in conversation with renowned artist Paul Noble.
D’Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre, Tower Building, University of Dundee, Friday 19 November, 5.30pm.
Admission is free and there is no need to book
Chaired by Professor Nicholas Davey, Dean of the School of Humanities, University of DundeeFor the final public event of the year-long D’Arcy Thompson 150th anniversary events programme, the University of Dundee is hosting a fascinating evening of discussion on Friday 19 November featuring the eminent philosopher Mary Midgley in conversation with the acclaimed contemporary artist Paul Noble.
Mary Midgley has been one of the UK’s best known philosophers since her first book Beast and Man was published in 1978. Since then she has published numerous provocative and critically acclaimed works including Evolution as a Religion (1985), Science as Salvation (1992) and Science and Poetry (2001). Each offers a powerful critique of science’s claim to hold all the answers, which has led many to see science as the new religion. With great intelligence and wit, she has argued for the fundamental necessity of philosophy and the social sciences in understanding the human race, leading the Guardian to describe her in 2001 as “the most frightening philosopher in the countryâ€.
Entering into what promises to be a fascinating discussion with Midgley is the artist Paul Noble, whose epic yet humourous works have been remarked upon as “a cross between Robert Crumb and Hieronymus Bosch†(The Guardian, 2008). First known as one of the founder members of the influential artists- run venue the City Racing Gallery in London (1988–98), Paul Noble has produced an extraordinary amount of work that combines meticulous craft with a political vision to produce a synthesis of drawing, architecture, philosophy and satire. Noble gained international recognition in the 1990s for his monumental ongoing project – the imaginative depiction of a fictional city called Nobson Newtown. Appearing as a bird’s eye view of urban devastation or ravaged forestry, Nobson Newtown conceals quotations from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat and T S Eliot’s The Wasteland and is represented through intricate pencil drawings, sculptures, tapestries, rugs and animations. Noble has exhibited works at numerous internationally significant venues including Tate Gallery, the Whitechapel Gallery and Gagosian Gallery, New York. His works are also held in the collections of Tate Modern, the Museum of Modern Art, New York and Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art.
D’Arcy Thompson argued strongly for the fundamental interdisciplinarity of science, the arts and humanities, and was as keenly interested in art, literature and philosophy as he was in science. This unique event, which will be chaired by the University’s Dean of Humanities and Professor of Philosophy Nicholas Davey, will pay tribute to D’Arcy’s influence and provide a truly stimulating meeting of minds.
The event begins at 5.30pm in the D’Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre in the Tower Building. Admission is free and there is no need to book.
Mary Midgley in conversation with Paul Noble has been jointly organised by the University of Dundee’s Museum Services, Exhibitions & VRC at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design and School of Humanities (Philosophy programme).
Enquiries: 01382 385 330 exhibitions@dundee.ac.uk exhibitions.dundee.ac.uk
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Francis McKee Article
by Ruth Barker 15 Nov 2010
Hello,
More later,
R. -
Rotterdam
by Ruth Barker 15 Nov 2010
Hello,
So I was in Rotterdam this weekend as I had a show opening at the brilliant artist run project Sils. Hello to all the great folks I met, not least the hardworking members of the Sils committee – Stefano Calligaro, Rachel Carey, Teresa Iannotta, David Stamp and Kathrin Wolkowicz.
I wasn’t in the city for long, but did get to learn a little bit about the public art scene. SKOR clearly a huge influence on the local sector, as is a 1% for art policy for new-build schemes in the city. I spotted more than a few examples of works produced as part of this policy – not least this sculpture sited alongside a skatepark. I was told that the commissioned artist asked the skaters what they’d like to see, and the answer was ‘a Transformer, please.’ This made me think immediately of my brother, who would without doubt have said exactly the same. So Will, this one’s for you.
Transformer, unknown artist, Rotterdam
Have to go as I have loads to get through today,
More later,
R. -
Comments Please!
by Ruth Barker 9 Nov 2010
Hello,
The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones onart blog says:
“The current proposals, overshadowed by Gormley’s people, invite a populist campaign that I predict will emerge in 2011 for a new edition of One and Other, to give even more folk the chance to stand on a plinth. Fine. Perhaps then we can forget about the fourth plinth, and move on to more interesting locations and possibilities for public art.”
Any thoughts?
Sorry about the Guardian media bias on these last two posts. Sheer coincidence – just a couple of things that caught my eye.
More later,
R. -
House Arrest
by Ruth Barker 8 Nov 2010
Hello,
thought you might find this interesting/worrying/important.
Video clip of the artist discussing art, politics, and speaking freely.
More later,
R. -
The World Doesn't Stop Just Because You're Busy
by Ruth Barker 4 Nov 2010
Hello,
Sometimes I do wish it would at least slow down (the world that is). Still, it’s always good to be busy. Mapping the Future went well, I think. I’ve read back through my Blog entries for the events and my toes have curled with the amount of typos I found. Blame my enthusiasm for getting the posts up in record time. So one of my jobs for the next while is a gradual proof-reading and correcting of the masses of text. Apologies to anyone who found the errors truly painful.
KEN NEIL’S SUMMARY OF ALL THE EVENTS IS NOW AVAILABLE HERE!
One of the best things about the event for me was the opportunity to speak to lots of people whom I usually just email. And also, of course to meet some new people. I thought I’d report back on just a few of those conversations.
Firstly, Damian Killeen of Big Things on the Beach told me about the brilliant web documentation of the Creative Time Summit 2: Revolutions in Public Practice. Go have a trawl, it’s really great.
Secondly, Anne Petrie of Creative Scotland suggested something that I’m still mulling over. She questioned the fetish of The New in contemporary public art discourse. Why are we always struggling towards new things, or trying to find out what’s going to be next? Thanks for that, Anne. I don’t have an answer for you unless it’s something vague about the human condition, but I do think it’s a damned good question.
I’ve been thinking this week about how some of the conversations and ideas from Mapping can be carried on, on PAR+RS.
I’d like to pick up on something that came up in Day 3’s discussion and have some coverage of BAD public art projects. Projects and pieces that have failed in someone’s eyes (though of course failure, just like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder). So please get in touch if you have a piece you’d like to suggest. I haven’t quite decided what form the article will take and it may well be guided by your ideas, so let me have them! I already have a piece of my own that I’d like to volunteer as an example of failure, but it’d be good if others were bold enough to share their own bad experiences too. But we’re also happy to receive nominations for works that aren’t your own of course.I’m also keen to commission an article about the history (and present) of public art in Seattle, looking at the legacy of its percent for art ordinance. I feel like Seattle often gets name-dropped in these kind of conversations, but it’d be an interesting subject to really explore. Let me know if you feel like this is something you’d like to take on, as I’ll be looking for a writer. We pay a small fee for all our commissioned features. Just drop me a line at the usual address.
What else, readers? Let me know which bits of the conversation you’d like to know more about and I’ll do my very best. Remember that our upcoming Season (starting in a few weeks) will be Planning, so think about that as a loose guide.
I was back in Dundee yesterday and saw a picture of the winning design for the new V&A. Very nice! I did lean towards the Stephen Holl proposal, but Kengo Kuma’s does perhaps does look a mite more practical.
Finally, I thought I’d send you this link to a new online commission I was working on for Intersections. Let me know what you think.
At The Temple To An Unknown God, Ruth Barker, 2010
More later,
R. -
Dundee Day 3 part 2
by Ruth Barker 22 Oct 2010
I was cut off! I think my Day 3 posting was too long.
Here is the remainder.
apologies,
R.
David Harding: So why are we in this situation? How can we change the political attitude to culture generally? We can compare what’s happening today with the spending review with what happened in Sweden in the 1980s. There, even though they were in a situation of financial poverty, it would have been politically untenable to cut arts budgets. It was seen as a time to increase funding for the arts. That could not happen here.
David Harding
Edwin: Do artists have a new role to take on, as politicians? After all, the role of the artist shifts as culture as a whole shifts.
Jason: We need to think about ways to store knowledge. What is the role of the curator in public art commissioning? After all, there are very different kinds of expertise involved, as well as multiple stakeholders, who have to come together around a fantasy of something that does not yet exist.
David Harding: I think that the Royston Road project with Lucy Byatt (see Lucy’s presentation from Day 2 in posting below), is a good example of best practice.
David Watt: How was that project funded?
Graham Fagen: It received European Regeneration funding.
David Harding: Ah, because of the poisoned soil sites and so on [Nb. Please see David’s Comment below, for details of this].
Jenny Crowe: Actually the European Regeneration money went into the physical infrastructure work on site in Royston. The artists’ residencies were funded by the Scottish Arts Council.
Susan Christie: I think it’s important to come back to that idea of bad public art. We skirt around it, and avoid talking about the bad examples in enough depth to learn from them. Until we do, we’re missing a big part of the picture.
Jason: It’s interesting that Scotland is vanguarded for its artists, but it seems to fail in the public art sector. Why does anyone think this might be?
Neil: Scotland is such a small country. Instead of lobbying, we should just get involved directly in politics. We can’t be atomised. There is currently an assault on Scottish culture by a Tory government in Westminster. We should be asking the big questions about what is public life? What is public property? What is public policy?
Jason: Policies comes and go in cycles, and those cycles are determined by Government, They are party political.
Neil: We need independent people in government to represent us.
Chris Fremantle: I’ve noticed that most public art projects we hold up as good examples are ones initiated by artists – Royston Road is a notable exception. I’m aware that we’re in danger on conflating lots of different kinds of practice under one ‘public art’ heading. We need to expand our lexicon. We need to be aware that the possibilities for a project are different depending on who you are. We need to develop the specificity of our lexicon to be able to better describe and convey those possibilities.
Unknown Contributor (let me know who you were!): I’m not convinced we should concentrate on bad examples. There is an invisibility of excellence, an unawareness of the best projects. When I came into public art, from a background in gallery curating where I had far more control, I thought of my role as being one of ‘damage limitation.’
We will never get rid of bad public art because we will never get rid of bad art. The idea of public juries [as proposed by Venu] is frightening! We know what that kind of X Factor process creates. We need to lobby for excellence so that we don’t loose what we already have – a legacy of good practice that extends back to the 70s. We need to raise the level. We can’t have a hierarchical system even if artists are at the top of that hierarchy. We can’t have artists commissioning architects for example, we have to find models for experts to work together.
We have a responsibility to raise the general level of understanding around public art so that people can demand excellence from projects.David Harding: Look at some of the projects in Gateshead as an example.
Judith (sorry, I don’t know your surname): In the northeast [of England] there are many great examples of projects, partly because there are a great many engaged and talented people, but there is also Locus+, which has been very influential.
Ross: Going back to the importance of the political landscape, we can see exactly how important art is seen to be by the way that the position of culture minister is just a revolving door that people pass through on their way down.
Ross Sinclair
David Butler: When you’re talking about the northeast as an example, you should recognise that Gateshead has a very rare legacy of a post war left wing council who saw culture as a product of the people. The area is still reaping the benefits of that uncommon heritage.
Not Sure Who: The language of public benefit is significant. How do we articulate what we’re doing in the language of public benefit?
Hilary Nicol (I think? Apologies if this wasn’t you): I get asked about public benefit all the time You have to talk about histories. The projects that survive in our memories, and in our histories of practice, are the ones that are excellent.
David Butler: Do people feel confident in saying that? Or are we, to a degree, atomised?
David Butler
Jason: But I’m not only interested in knowledge transfer. I also want to know about knowledge generation. We’re not even close to talking about wisdom yet!
David Harding: Is that question of ‘public benefit’ asked in the Netherlands as well?
Edwin: Yes, but it’s asked in a different way. Language is important because you do need to know the language of the people you’re dealing with. That’s why we need an agency, and research, and data. We have to be more savvy. But artists have better things to do than to spend their time learning these languages – they need to be making their work. That’s why it’s the role of an agency to learn these languages instead.
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Dundee Day 3 part 1
by Ruth Barker 22 Oct 2010
Hello again,
And I’ve a feeling that this post may be the most monstrous of the lot! We’ll see how it goes. Thanks to everyone who made it along to the events – it was great to meet some new people and make some new friends, as well as catching up with some folk that I haven’t seen in ages. And it was a pleasure as always to know that there are so many people who are so informed, so passionate, and so insightful about the past, present and future of public art practice. Hurray!
So, the final day of Mapping the Future was ably chaired by the brilliant Jason E Bowman and the speakers were Claire Doherty (Director of Situations, Bristol); Venu Dhupa (Director of Creative Development); Professor Tracy Mackenna (Artist and Chair of Contemporary Art Practice DJCAD); and Dr Ken Neil (writer, academic, and Director of the Forum for Critical Enquiry at Glasgow School of Art).
The day began with an apology as Claire Doherty was prevented from joining us in person, although she did provide a DVD version of her presentation, which was coupled with a powerpoint of images. Actually the presentation itself worked very well – the only shame being that of course Claire couldn’t answer questions, which meant that her experience was missing from the later discussion. This couldn’t be helped though, as the reasons for her absence were totally unavoidable.
The only other regret I had was that speaker Venu Dhupa was unable to attend some of the other speakers’ presentations, and that she also had to leave before the end of the day. It was great that Venu was able to join us at the event at all of course, but as her new position as Creative Scotland’s Director of Creative Development means that she is now much an important figure in the sector, I’ll try to ensure that she gets a copy of correspondent Ken Neil’s final report, as well as the rest of the documentation from the series. It’s the least we can offer, I think!
OK, deep breath; and I’ll delve into my notebook. I’m quite glad that this is the last time I’ll have to do this for a while!
Jason E Bowman
Jason Bowman began with a restatement of the questions for the previous two events, focussing on the question framing this final event: What do we need to do now to shape the future of public art? He drew our attention to the presence of Necessity (‘what do we need’) and Immediacy (‘to do now’).
Quote ‘Necessity creates powerful impulses. Once you feel that something is necessary, it creates an impulse to do it or not to do it, whatever it may be. It may be very strong and you feel compelled, propelled. Necessity is one of the most powerful forces – it overrides all instincts eventually. If people feel something is necessary they’ll even go against the instinct of self-preservation.’
On Dialogue, David Bohm, Lee NicholNeed as a mechanism to prioritise.
Claire Doherty.
ABSTRACT.
Time to go Slow. The countdown to the London 2012 Olympic Games has begun, polarising the UK art sector between the monumental gesture and utopian subversion, media-driven event culture and grass roots slow movement. Claire Doherty considers how, under the cloud of an imminent public funding storm, a fundamental shift in the consideration of public time is characterising emergent art practices and curatorial endeavours. A series of open-ended durational projects offer a fresh perspective on the seemingly exhausted arguments over participation and critical legitimacy, whilst the orthodoxy of the artistic action is being remade through quiet interruptions which unsettle place memory. Concurrently critical and spectacular engagements are colliding through epic acts which enter the social imagination through cumulative or nomadic projects.
Claire Doherty’s presentation in absentia
Poised between the spending review and the Olympic games; between a climate of gloom and of anticipation. But polarisation masks complexity.
Recent change in public art commissioning where artists who wouldn’t previously have been considered as practitioners who would make work for public contexts, have begun to produce works sited within the public realm. At the same time there’s been a shift from the production of monuments to the production of events.
There’s a polarity that’s been assumed where the monument is positioned in opposition to the critical gesture. Will examine this perceived polarisation.Situations is a base from which to produce projects. You can read Situations’ curatorial statement here ‘Honesty of approach.’
Example of Olympic Park. Anish Kapoor – Arcelor Mittal Orbit commission. Costs £19 million – criticised by both a tabloid hysteria that’s descried the imposition of public art, and a broadsheet scepticism of the choice of artist. [Nb. Cathedral of Shit had something to say about it, too.]
Image of planning proposal for Arcelor Mittal Orbit tied to lamppost. ‘A nod towards public consultation and to public engagement.’
Contrasted with ‘tactical’ work by Hilary Powell – The Games, a series of performative actions that included using the inner ring road as a running circuit, and claiming a discarded mattress as a trampoline. Also Lara Almarcegui – Guide to the Wastelands of the Lea Valley, small bookwork that agitates the idea that there was nothing present in the Olympic sites previously. Also Freee billboard projects – installed text work that says THE FUNCTION OF PUBLIC ART FOR REGENERATION IS TO SEX UP THE CONTROL OF THE UNDERCLASSES.
But the Olympic Delivery Authority does have an artist in residence. Artists are seen as part of the regeneration process in a more subtle way that simple the Anish Kapoor example. Compare with Bristol – Neville Gabie’s work at Cabot Circus development site. Click here for online presentation of Neville Talking about his work. Please ignore awful intro from me!An image was shown that I’m sure stuck in everyone’s mind, but I can’t find a link to it, so I’ll have to try and describe it to you: The work was (I think) part of the series of interventions that have happened at Cabot Circus in Bristol, and was by Richard Wentworth. The work was very slight – a polystyrene coffee cup wedged in the small gap between two buildings. The photograph showed, at either side of the frame, the walls of two buildings rising up out of shot. The squashed cup was in the centre of the frame, bridging the gap between the two walls, and also holding them apart. I’ll keep looking for the reference and will add it here if / when I find it. If anyone else has the correct details, stick ‘em in a comment below.
BUT. Are these frail interventions (by artists such as Wentworth, Powell, Almarcegui etc) simply empty gestures? ‘Dancing on the edge of regeneration.’ Ornamental self reflexivity. What are we to make of a constant practice of questioning, when artists could (and should?) be producing change through inspiration?
Alternative counter culture has changed the terms of engagement. Example of the silent disco held at Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth. Publicness has changed. Mobilisation of publics. Shared events are diffusing the polarity between the large scale and the ephemeral.
Reference to Guy Debord – Society of the Spectacle. Spectacle (as a negative term) occurs when shared experiences are atomised, leading to a sense of ‘false togetherness.’ Example of Antony Gormley’s One and Other in which 2,400 people occupied the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square for sixty minutes each, picked at random from nearly 35,000 who applied.
“Whether you see the plinth as a protest or pole-dance platform; studio or stocks; playpen or pulpit; as a frame for interrogation or for meditation, it has provided an open space of possibility for many to test their sense of self and how they might communicate this to a wider world.â€
But this is false democracy at its worst – it’s like an excruciating episode of Big Brother. The project’s physical paraphernalia (lights, nets, cameras etc) dwarfed the personal testimonies themselves. The plinth became a platform of public mockery – ref to comments on much online media etc. Mediated. Passive consumption.Two pivotal questions to consider as we consider the future of public art commissioning.
1) Problematic polarisation between the monumental and the critical.
2) The changing nature of publicness.Public art has benefited from public and private investment in regeneration initiatives. IXIA (among others) has suggested that the spending review will mean a decrease in regeneration projects nationally. Eg of the shelving of the Building Schools for the Future programme, which will mean that a significant number of public works which may otherwise have been developed as part of these schools, now simply wont now happen. Local authorities ‘place wide’ initiatives have huge implications for the future of commissioning (eg. 106s).
If public art is to be evaluated through the benefits it provides to public life, we risk developing a climate that is increasingly risk averse, where there are fewer radical practices, and fewer experimental, challenging, and dispersed outcomes.
One possible solution may be to think about time, not space, we need to persuade commissioners, clients, stakeholders that artists need time. Time to make false starts, to change their minds, to dream, and to think.
Why is value always attached to endurance? Why should the objects of public art not have time limits? Places are not static sites onto which public art may be grafted. Contexts change.
One helpful way of thinking about this may be the example of the Slow Movement, which prioritises local resources, and hospitality. Resonance with ideas of publicness. Structure through which to think about the life span of public art projects. Ref to Carl Honore.
Examples of a groundswell of support for the ethos of Slow: The Big Lunch at The Eden Project; Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie’s work; NVA – Glasgow Harvest; ongoing projects at Grizedale Arts.Social change through challenging the norms of food production. Public time – slowness and sociability. Shared cultural experiences – not offered through building projects or gallery works. More examples can be found in the upsurge of pavilion projects: Serpentine Pavillions; Portavillion projects (images of ROSY: the Ballarina); "Heather and Ivan Morison’:http://www.morison.info/index.html – ‘I’m So Sorry, Goodbye’.
Slow thinking: Ranciere – participation does not guarantee critical legitimacy. Characteristics of Slow Time projects include: critical legitimacy; social change; long lasting legacy.
Also: Duration. Eg of Locating the Producers. Places are always in a state of becoming. International projects across series’ of events over time. A coalescence of temporary constituencies that come together over time. Centre for Possible Studies – Edgware Road, London; Liverpool Biennial How to Design a Happy City. Importance of connecting projects. Grizedale Arts, base at Lawson Park, moves beyond ‘worthiness’ to challenge place identity – eg of Pablo Bronstein’s chicken house.
But we have to be mindful that durational projects need a certain kind of support, and a particular kind of commissioning. Can be challenging.Value of Interruption: ‘the need to arrest attention’. Heather and Ivan Morison – I Lost Her Near Fantasy Island. Crashed lorry present for one day only, with a slew of jettisoned flowers: no interpretation, no signage, no explanation. Monumental sculpture and a participatory gesture as, at the end of the day, queues of people formed and the flowers were given away. Not conceived of as a gift, but became one.
This commission lead to the idea for One Day Sculpture (took place in New Zealand 2008/2009) resulted in 20 new commissions, where each work was present in completed form for 24 hours. Took place in many different sites, contexts, locations across a broad geographic area. Some artists were international, others local. Each work was autonomous, with the implicit question of ‘what happens when lots of brief, unconnected commissions happen is series?’ Strategy to agitate the public mind about what public sculpture might be. Mobilising public. Examples of projects: Javier Tellez; Thomas Hirshorn; Liz Allen; Heather and Ivan Morison’s Journee des Barricades.
One Day Sculpture showed how artists might respond to temporal and spatial parameters. The potential of projects to gather constituents.
Heather and Ivan Morison – The Black Cloud. Sculpture and host for events about sustainable futures. Wide range of events. Duration over seasons. Read the PAR+RS article here
A desire for the epic. Examples: Wonders of Weston. Oslo Harbour – Slow Time, 5-10 year project to develop a non-commercial waterfront and shared community feeling.For the Cultural Olympiad, Situations are working with Alex Hartley on Nowhere Island. ‘Imagine standing on a stony beach at the southern tip of the British Isles, looking out towards France. An island spears, seeming alien, pulled by a tug boat.’
Antarctic island that was revealed through melting ice, which has been ‘discovered’ by Alex and then sailed into international waters (Nb. How do you sail an island?), to become a micronation. Epic intervention in public time, to capture the imagination and suggest possible futures.Jason Bowman: As Claire isn’t here to answer questions, will open the floor to discussion about her presentation.
Begin by questioning Claire’s presupposition of a contradiction between notions of monumentality and notions of criticality. Sometimes monuments are both critical and important. Point of privilege – marking in time. Example of the importance of producing a monument to mark the Armenian Genocide – which internationally is still not recognised as a genocide. Is it not important to permanently raise a marker to that atrocity?
Secondly, problematics of ‘Slow’ as a movement. Slowness of production or consumption? Seems as though consumption happens at the same rate, and only production is slowed.
Also, regarding ‘Interruption’ reminder of Irit Rogoff’s characterisation of interruption as ‘the dynamic of looking away’. Ought we to be looking away?
Danger of profiling projects that return to failed political systems – eg slow movement as a gesture towards communism. Slow movement is also a kind of conservatism – by prioritising localism and belonging, where is the space for unbelonging?Neil Mulholland: The dichotomy between the monumental and the temporary is a false dichotomy – the distinction doesn’t hold water. ‘It’s odd to pursue that as meaningful.’ Also, regarding time – is essentially fast and slow simultaneously. The Slow movement is ‘middle-class death.’ Slowness is highly privileged.
The notion of monumentalism must think about ‘the long now’. Ancient monuments must be included in any discourse of permanence. They’re how we know about what has gone before. Lack of engagement with material culture in Claire’s presentation. Too trapped. She’s not asking the big questions. We have to look deep into the past and the future, not just get hung up on the now. Trapped in a cultural paradigm. Can’t see out of it.
Neil Mulholland
Venu Dhupa.
ABSTRACT: Having recently moved to Scotland, rather than addressing specifically ‘the way forward for public art in Scotland’, Venu will draw on her experience of engaging with public art as a participant, theorist and commissioner. She will share some ideas on the value of art in the public space in the current context.
Venu Dhupa
Background of 20 years in the sector. ‘I am an activist’ – there are values I believe in and I want to stand up for those values, and take them with me wherever I go.
Values: Leadership; Innovation; Creative Entrepreneurship.Those responsible for making things happen – investing the energy and the time and the commitment – rarely have enough time for reflection, for beauty.
Anecdote: wrote an article about the use of screened projections of live events where (for example) you may have a live event taking place in a venue or arena, and a screened feed being shown elsewhere. Article questioned whether the screened version was ‘the real thing’ or whether it was a kind of ‘second hand live’. The article was published to no great response. But then wrote another piece about noticing that it is typically women who have to carry heavy shopping bags around. To her surprise, on publication, this second piece received far greater response from the public. Why might this be?
Public art helps us make sense of public space. Many of the questions revolve around issues of power. Marking time.
Eg of Anish Kapoor’s Sky Mirror (Nottingham). Part of a team that initiated a 1 year process of public engagement before the work’s installation. Engaged with many different publics and many different stakeholders. The engagement process is still ongoing. There’s been no vandalism and the work has been voted the most loved landmark in the city. Also in the city is a sculpture of Brian Clough – proud that the public love both.Sky mirror London – wrong context? Very different work.
Micro / Macro:
Simon Tegala – artist working with bio data.
stanza – artist whose work is located in the virtual sphere – online context means that it’s for a very particular audience.When invited to participate in Mapping the Future, was provided with a lot of background material on SAC supported projects. Lots of factual data, but far less discourse about feeling and opinion in relation to works.
Venu Dhupa
Context is important. Art should encourage empowerment. We are a species unlike any other. We can see to the ends of the universe, and into the tiny hearts of atoms. But we’re facing crises. The crises of climate change; of threats to our supplies of water and food; of our creaking institutions. We are a small nation in a new global context. We have to find our voice. Rapacious flow of finance means that we’re valued as units rather than as individual people.
Naomi Klein – Shock doctrine. Free market economies; widening UK gap between the rich and the poor; slavery; demographic change; economic crisis.
Could knowledge -industry be our saviour? But this raises questions:
1) How do we involve new and diverse talent?
2) How do we measure the impact of art?‘Cultural war’ over who is allowed to use / own what. Scientists are developing synthetic neural networks – we may eventually become just interfaces.
Painted (above) a picture of an ever evolving global social context that demonstrates both the beauty and the fragility of man. But what is the place of art within all of this? Thinking about a Darwinian idea of public art’s possible function. ‘In scrutiny there is hope.’ Public art is crucial in shaping individuals’ responses to the issues outlined. Public art can fight the demise of the species!
Dynamic played out in many media. Art institutions talk about playing a part but in the past they have failed. Public art has a great many dimensions. Some artists are able to capture the zeitgeist in a powerful way. We have to encourage questioning, and reflection. Examine our position in the world from different perspectives. When individuals are engaged by art, they are acknowledged. By being acknowledged they are validated and so empowered.Creative Scotland needs to find and to champion iterative models. We need artists to provoke and to comfort us during that process. Brokering national relationships. There are so many opportunities for public art – in locations from the coastline to the virtual world. Public art is just one response to the challenges we face – and one that bears relationships to a particular history of practice. We must also think about ‘Creativity’ as a notion: it is much harder to discuss, but it is just as important.
Jason: Can you expand on the notion of micro and macro relationships?
Venu: We’re stuck in a hierarchy. We need to engage with both. Need to be inclusive – we can’t just talk to ourselves.
I don’t like midrange responses in which people are divorced from immediacy – example of X Factor voting.
Proposal of an experiment in choices. Example of asking members of the public to think about priorities in the health service – eg should money be spent on cancer drug or kidney dialysis machine? Perhaps a citizen’s jury model could be set up to look at public art.Jason: ‘Horizontalising’ models?
Venu: There’s a lot on insincerity about what goes on. Refers back to Claire’s example of Gormley. Inclusion is not the same as consultation. And experimentation is expensive.
Jason: Interested in the mention of your quest for information following your invitation to attend the day. Is there a lack of a methodological framework that can communicate ‘worth’ at policy level?
Venu Dhupa
Venu: Have to ask ‘what is the added value of Creative Scotland?’ Historically there’s a tension between an arts council as a method of representing artsist to government; and an arts council as a mechanism to dish out government funds. Need to bring the arguments to a government (of whatever party political makeup) that is obsessed with figures. This is what adds value. ‘We either value art or we don’t’ – with implication that if we do, then we should do something about it?
Jason: Thinking about the non-linearity of time and space in public art (ref back to Neil Mulholland’s comment regarding Claire Doherty’s presentation). How could this be fitted into a value framework?
Venu: Current frameworks don’t function well. Example of Artichoke’s elephant puppet in London. Public endorsement for that work came through provocation as a strategy for engagement. Agitation (through asking for what was apparently impossible) led to problem solving, which in turn led to a sense of ownership over the work.
There has been a petition against the cuts. Why have so few people signed it? We need to work outside traditional boundaries. Example of small project ran in the West Midlands, which taught good business practice through using examples from the arts.Mike Collier: You talk about empowerment, and yet at this time of cuts more and more power is being taken away from artists. Artists are having to fit their work around or between very demanding pressures – the Olympic games for example, which may deny funding to any artist who can’t incorporate the theme of ‘sport’ into their work. To be empowered, we need to be able to take direct action. What can we do practically to take back control?
Mike Collier
Venu: Empowerment has to be an internal thing.
Mike: That’s easy to say when you have power.
Venu: But no-one else can make you empowered. It has to be a process that you go through yourself. Empowerment is a state of being. In terms of direct action and what can you do, you can protest. The reality is that it’s a difficult situation. It wouldn’t be so bad if we felt that we were all in it together, that we were all sharing in the pain, but it doesn’t seem that that’s so. Reference to recent Dispatches TV programme ‘How the Rich Beat The Taxman.’
Jackie Donachie: But if you say that everyone’s already empowered, that’s surely an argument for doing nothing at all?
Jacqueline Donachie
Venu: No, the question is how do we enable empowerment in those who don’t feel empowered already. But that empowerment has to happen from within the individual.
Jackie: Through lobbying and advocacy as well as grant-giving.
Ross Sinclair: By adding ‘empowerment’ to all those other ideas like beauty, public benefit, enjoyment, and so on, you’re making an impossible list of things that you want art to do.
Ross Sinclair
Venu: I do believe that art can be a means to empower. But it’s not the only thing that empowers people – there are lots of other things that can empower and what works will depend on the individual involved.
I’ve given a personal perspective. My presentation was about what I believe to be important. I do think that the public discussion around art has been diminished and reduced. Discussion used to be more holistic. Now value is seen in strictly financial terms, so we’re not seeing public discourse enriched by culture. Example of how, during Indian Independence, huge emphasis was put on the importance of culture: richness of discourse around cultural importance. By losing this public presence of cultural discourse, we’ve become less of a human / humane society now. This is why I’m trying to mention beauty and humanity in contexts where we might not otherwise expect to hear those terms.Ross: Thinking about that reference to the importance of culture at the time of Indian independence… is that part of a discussion about Scottish independence?
Venu: I don’t know.
Chris Fremantle: a statistic that was mentioned at the recent Temporary Services event in Chicago suggested that the general public agree that art is important, but do not rate artists as being important. Could you comment?
Venu: Why does that matter? Surely everybody like to feel important, but other than that, what’s the difficulty with that split?
Jason: I think Chris is raising that idea because of your previous comment about raising the level of public discourse surrounding art. The split he’s referring to suggests that people aren’t making the connection between the culture that they find important, and the people who are producing it. There’s a divorce between the product and the production. Even though art is acknowledged as important, the creative individual is not valued as a public intellectual.
Venu: But that’s not a cause and effect relationship.
Chris: The point is, is you want a creative economy, you need to value the people who are actually the ones producing the work. Or, to perhaps to look at it a different way, what question should your citizen’s jury ask? And who will be contributing to the answer?
Venu: Is a creative economy really built on artists? Or on creativity? Creativity can manifest in different ways. In economic terms for example, the success of a TV might be measured in advertising revenue. In the example of a citizen’s jury, I’d say that the discourse is more valuable than the question. We could also think about having experimental control groups – for example one group made up of artists and curators, and another of other citizens.
Creative people do sometimes need support. Shift between income need / generation.Jean Cameron: In your presentation you mentioned Steve Tanza’s work, and said that it was only for a very particular audience. Relationship to Creative Scotland not being about art for all?
Venu: I only said that about Steve Tanza’s work because it exists online and so not everyone has access to it. The Arts Council England’s strapline used to be ‘Great Art For Everyone’ [Nb you can download ACE’s 2009 consultation document ‘Achieving Great Art For All’, here . It’s difficult because we’re forced into having straplines and in an effort to sound inclusive you can end up sounding clichéd. There is a genuine impetus for Creative Scotland to reach the largest group possible, and to at least indicate that there are opportunities for investment. The tension of course is between those who are already regularly funded, and those who have not yet been funded.
Graham Fagen: Going back to the kind of information you were given about public art, as background to attending this symposium event. What should be measured, and for what reasons?
Venu: Example of NESTA saying that they wanted to empower individuals because increasing people’s skills will lead to other benefits. But increasing pressures on achieving social outcomes developed over time. Because there was too much to measure, nothing was measured appropriately, and the overall ‘story’ was diluted. A lot of money had been spent, but it was hard to give a clear sense of what it had achieved, and also what the potential was. We need fewer measureables and more powerful discourse.
Jason: I have one final question before we break for lunch. Venu, what do we need to do now to shape the future of public art?
Venu: We need to know why we’re doing it.
Tracy Mackenna
ABSTRACT: ‘The studio as a public site for learning’. Tracy Mackenna is an artist who has worked in higher education as a lecturer and in leadership roles for over two decades and who contributes to the development of cultural organisations nationally and internationally. From the perspective of the rapidly shifting pedagogic and funding climates within which art education now sits, she will propose a model for the integration of teaching and learning, practice and research that takes as its starting point the potential of art as a critical agent in the debates about society and its public sites. Central to this proposition is the collaborative practice she shares with Edwin Janssen that is a discursive site for art making, presentation and exchange. Together they assume the roles of producer, facilitator, educator and researcher and broker interdisciplinary relationships to debate and reflect on social, political and cultural issues.
Tracy Mackenna
Though takes on a range of different perspectives through her various roles as an artist, educator, etc, sees her central position as one of being an artist who constantly commitment to partnerships; a role which is sustained even with the pressures of teaching.
Title for the talk has evolved, and has been rethought (with input from Edwin) as:
TomTom Practice: Empowering Art Students to Navigate Public Spheres.Michael Lingner: “There is no art that exists outside of public space, only the choice between different types of public forums, each involving its own conditions of communication.†From Art as a System Within Society Van Eyck Academie PPPP: Place, Position, Presentation, Public, Ine Gevers (Ed.) (currently out of print).
Clarification of terms: ‘Participation’ – used roughly in the sense it’s had from circa 1990s, although still contested language. ‘Engagement’ both in the sense of an artist engaging with others, and in the sense of artists engaging with each other. ‘Public’ various suggested meanings including: the states in which we are (Scotland as a country? Or as a UK region?); the things that must be shared because they don’t belong to an individual; the things that are outside the household.
Knowledge as communicative exchange. Not fixed. Exchanges occur.
Labels are not that important.
Site / place / context as different structures.
Importance of social issues.
Significantly, functioning as artists gives shape to our own identities. That’s important when based within a college: value of individual.
Own projects (as ‘Tracy Mackenna and Edwin Janssen’) ‘extend our investigation of the issues we’re interested in.’ Don’t necessarily frame own practice as ‘Public Art’. Still an idea that public art practice leads to compromise and deep unhappiness.Key phrases: Negotiation; critical engagement; competition; taking control; resistance; resisting the brief; subversion; failure; self doubt.
As educators, paid to be brokers or mediators standing between the students and the outside world. But this is a very old fashioned idea of what an art school could be. Art schools are in a difficult position. Their future is not shiny. As institutions, art schools are slow and entrenched. They’re too big, too hierarchical, too structured.
Jan Verwoert 2006. Open Academy as new model.
‘no longer institutions for art, but places where art is received, produced, presented collected, distributed. Idea of Open Academy has consequences for art, the practice of exhibition-making, and for art education itself.’
But we’re very far away from this. The art school platforms are those of studio; gallery; public sphere; and academia (this last in particular as Duncan of Jordanstone is housed within the University of Dundee – the art school here is between two worlds.Approach to education is to retain ‘teaching’ as an element within the mix of other roles and responsibilities. Allow students to expand boundaries. Done within a context of highly regulated structures and heavy and abstract monitoring systems. Measured by students’ results. Comment that one student has suggested that Mapping the Future might become a model for future education?
The European League of Institutes of the Arts emphasises shifts in the pedagogical model, an aspiration to inform future European legislation, and an intention to develop stimulating environments. Manifesto here Very relevant. Look at mismatches between labour and skills. Value systems – not enough value placed on the systems that make art happen.
In terms of artistic research in the institution, there’s a pressure for artists to become researchers. And, more than that, to become good researchers in order to generate money for the institution – money that, incidentally, the institution apportions internally in any way they see fit. But research can be defined as ‘ a process of investigation leading to new insights that can be shared.’ Very vague and open to challenge. What could research be? This emphasis on research does have an impact though as people are forced to adapt their artistic practices in order to meet criteria.Unpacking a Collaborative practice: Bar Chat.
This beer mat project brought together a number of different strategies, but was significant because it stressed how important it was to be in control of the whole project budget.Edwin originally studied Social Sciences at University of Groningen, the Netherlands, and Tracy studied sculpture at Glasgow School of Art. Collaborative practice began after meeting after meeting as participants in Manifesta 1 (1997). Edwin was looking at relationships between local and international systems.
Example of 1998 exhibition Ed and Ellis in Toyko, (you can even buy a sticker )produced as part of P3 Art and Environment, a Tokyo based project that describes itself as investigating ’a dynamic interactive formative process between people and the environment, as well as people and society (more info here) To develop the work spent time in Tokyo, researching, navigating. Highly visual strategies to communicate with a predominantly Japanese audience. Questions of both translation and participation. Project grew exponentially, participation from other organisations (but the artists were at the time often unaware of these other links and connections). Spent a lot of time out on the streets. Collected a group of hard core volunteers who became both audience and participants. At the time, living in Netherlands – question of investment: how much can you invest in a place that you will leave again?
Tour of motorways, which were built for the Olympics, and constructed over the top of the canals, which were previously public spaces.
Sustained relationship with the city. Project culminated in a closing event, which was devised to relate to the volunteers’ existing passion for dance. Became a dance based event, which broke down some of the existing hierarchies.Example of project in the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam – Ed and Ellis in Schiedam Old museum with an existing collection, but the city itself had lost its identity. Critical aspects were: access to local government; and time. The project was a long time in development and there were lots of changes. Importance of keeping open the possibility for failure.
Developed a fake political party to campaign in the local election, but without standing a candidate. In a strange development, they were then asked to run for real! But declined. Were a number of ‘crunch moments’ at which the work rubbed up abrasively against ‘the real’ example of other candidates complaining that ‘Ed and Ellis’ had more funding, more visible campaign. What are the implications of this politically etc?Example Merchants’ House Garden project, Kircaldy. Artists found this project dissatisfying. Relationships were not sustained by partners, despite previously made commitments. Ambitions proved to be larger than the project’s scope. Project was connected to the desired regeneration of Kircaldy, although how much regeneration actually took place is debateable. The garden was developed as a performance space, a space for group activity, for allotments, etc. The project was part of the international network Changing Habitats, linking projects in urban spaces from different European regions, and was held up as a showcase, even though Tracy and Edwin feel that the project was a failure.
Resisting the Brief: project with Stedelijk Amsterdam to look at artists’ studios in a high density urban area. The expectation was that the work would ‘expose’ the multicultural ‘issues’ of the place. But this was felt to be very problematic. Instead decided to make a private portrait of one person from within that community. Arguments about funding, legacy etc. In the end, a one night event was agreed, where different groups – including the communities of funders, artists etc – were present. [Nb this layering of communities is important – community / group not defined by geographic location, but through a kind of self definition that encompasses ideas like social position, social role, etc]
Tracy Mackenna
Recontextualising practice through the context of art school.
Edwin’s father died through assisted suicide. Important to find ways to deal with this – ways to talk about, and question it. Difficulty in how ideas are discussed culturally –also difference between UK and Netherlands. In addition, recognition that students are also often dealing with very serious personal situations while they are studying.
Produced LIFE IS OVER! If you want it exhibition sited within the art school – this was a strategic decision that took account of the fact that in the terms of institutional research credit, an art school based exhibition was ‘worth less’ than an externally hosted one.
Combination of borrowed and new work. 4 week presence in the space, generation process incorporating text, discussion, all centred around the exploration of end of life issues. Students were involved – worked in groups, and discussion took place that was not distinguished from the exhibition itself.
The art school context enabled the work to address a particular audience of students and staff from across departments, as well as individuals from other arts organisations (mostly local).Desire for a model that doesn’t attach itself to (or become bound by) current financial systems. Open spaces where anything can happen. Example of a question raised by Jonathon Baxter (then a student who was engaged with the project): ‘when you decide to go to art school, are you stepping into the world, or stepping out of it?’
Argument that art education is increasingly moving away from the real world. Focus on practice led research; the ability to understand research; and combined learning and teaching models. We should be thinking about how we can teach (and learn) outside of the art school building itself. Do we need art schools in the traditional sense any more? [Nb. Compare this with Diarmaid Lawlor’s presentation on Day 2, where he began by asking us to think about ‘outcomes’ (eg the facilitation of learning) rather than ‘traditional methods’ (eg building a school)].We should be thinking about moving teaching outside of the limiting parameters of a single architectural space that has been – almost arbitrarily – designated as a space in which to learn about ‘art’. We need to think about a flux of teachers, a multidisciplinary approach that spans across a variety of partnership organisations and models. Rooted and many spaces, not one. We need to teach skills, not ‘art’. And we need to keep the student experience at the heart of what we do.
Jason: Thinking about the Bologna Process that foregrounds horizontalising as a structure. Also about that list of crucial phrases ‘resistance’ etc. Those phrases clearly relate to classic avant garde strategies – so how do those two things go together?
Tracy: They don’t! Crux point. With current models, they can’t be reconciled. Staff are not well discussed in the Bologna model. There’s a very real danger in the fact that it is not difficult to be informal – or even to be outside – with students.
Holly (sorry, didn’t catch your surname): Your manifesto seems good – but my own course – the APCP course at Duncan of Jordanstone – is currently in difficulty. How could you apply the thoughts you’ve offered in your presentation in that context?
Holly
Tracy (contextualising for the rest of audience): APCP stands for Art, Philosophy, and Contemporary Practice. This is a BA Hons programme that sits within Fine Art.
There are massive cuts coming to education. I can’t shape things enough to change the system. The situation as it is, is such that you’d have to start from scratch. But one problem is that students themselves are often too passive. In the case of APC however, the students have been vocal about the proposed changes and that’s a god thing. It’s not easy. Fundamental change can never be a quick process. At the moment changes are finance led and that’s the wrong way round.Holly: Can positive changes happen?
Tracy: If it is to happen, the first step is to engage with like-minded people.
Edwin Janssen: Subversive strategies are often key. Perhaps the kind of changes you want to see could be tackled through a public art project? Think about ideas of placemaking in art, and that might relate to the current situation. Don’t be submissive. We may often feel as though we are pushed into a situation about which we can do nothing but we did choose to come into this art school context, and there is significance in that choice. Change starts with the ability to affect one’s immediate environment. It’s not always about trying to empower people that you don’t even know.
Neil Mulholland: Duncan of Jordanstone used to have a Public Art degree. What happened to that? How do art schools engage with the public now? After all, Bill Gates has said that the university is dead, that it’s been replaced with ideas like open source, and so on. Look at MIT.
Tracy: That was the Master of Public Art course, and it became what is now the MFA course.
Other Contributor (sorry, I don’t know your name): The change from one to the other reflects trends in teaching, and in art.
David Harding: It just evolved into a more general course.
Tracy: But why should art schools be in particular buildings? Importance of building meaningful partnerships with other organisations. It would be better for art schools to have less students and more partners. That way we could actually move through a changing terrain. At the moment, old architecture is prescribing new ideas.
Neil: The public are currently invisible within the education system.
Tracy: This is a very current issue, because there have recently been massive discussions taking place due tot he refurbishment of Duncan of Jordanstone. Discussions of use and usership. We have had to argue the value of our exhibitions department, when its clear that it’s vital that the art school still has a gallery and a strong exhibitions team. There are of course many publics involved in an art school in many different ways, but we haven’t yet fully identified who they are and how they interact. There are multiple specialist audiences for example.
David Butler: I’m based at the fine art department at Newcastle University, and actually I think that art school buildings are hugely important. The art school as a space becomes a home. It builds a family for the students. Following on from that, it’s important to think about our recent graduates as an important community. We’ve talked about the physical limits of the art school building, but we can also ask when as well as where, does an art school stop? We have to fracture the idea that art school stops as soon as you’ve got your degree.
David Butler
Tracy: yes, there are systems in place to look at ‘graduate destinations’, but it’s also important to plot the duration of the relationships that are begun at art school. For example, we have successful students who have chosen to stay in Dundee, and often those are the students that we have strong relationships with. It isn’t to say that they choose to stay because of those relationships, but of course it is vital to the cultural life of the city that they do stay.
Edwin: Back to the idea of empowering. Art schools don’t just educate artists, they educate all kinds of people. Where and when does the education of artists actually happen? Need to develop the conditions of the area you want to work in. This is why we need to develop the potential of public art. Often people don’t know that potential. Artists are part of the reception of art.
Jason: Are art schools actually better at educating audiences than artists?
Ken Neil
ABSTRACT. Correspondent Ken Neil has attended all three symposia. He will summarise and contextualise the discussions that have taken place over the three events. His final report will be published online with the aim of influencing public art advocacy and policy.
Ken Neil
Been in ‘receiving mode’ (Moira Jeffrey’s comment) for most of the three days, trying to absorb the conversations in preparation for the production of his report / response. If anyone wishes to contact Ken to add thoughts / questions etc his email is k.neil [at] gsa.ac.uk
Mention of this blog as a useful source. Thanks Ken! I hope you’ve found it useful too, readers.
Image of Graham’s rose as an image of optimism that must (and does) flourish despite the difficulties of the present situation. A ‘sensible optimism’. Used this optimism to think about the first question that was asked by Diarmaid in his presentation: ‘What is it that we want to do? We still just have to try to achieve the things we want to achieve, despite the fact that we will have a bit less money to do that with.’
Then in a moment of ‘writer’s stupor’ began to think about the dongles protruding from the backs of the laptops and project on the presenter’s table at the front of the room. Described the importance of identifying the dongles that connect the different people and roles within the sector, as well as being able to identity the connections that haven’t yet been noticed, or made. Finding new links, and new constituencies, become even more crucial in times of adversity.
Neil then gave a stunning, incisive and efficient summary of all the presentations so far, including those from today. At least one member of the audience was wondering whether he was going to summarise his own presentation, and thus open a black hole in the universe. He finished with a diagram showing the kinds of interrelationships that he had begin to chart. I’ll try to re-present it here, bearing in mind that I can’t draw boxes on the blog.
3 interrelated ideas:
- Good guidance in terms of discourse
- Good guidance in terms of public art projects
- Good guidance in terms of public art commissioning
all wrapped up in: Good sense.Sorry Ken. It’s not nearly so clear as yours, but basically those three ideas are not supposed to be in a hierarchy, and they’re also all connected to each other (both informing and responding to each other). And all of them are surrounded by a frame of Good Sense. As all things should be.
All three ideas should also be refined through reference to what has already happened in the sector. We should be able to learn from our successes and our failures. There are other questions that come out of this analysis including (but not limited too – I didn’t get a chance to get them all down!):
- what roles are there for institutions?
- How best can we engage with the perceptions of the public without falling into the trap of thinking in dichotomies (as pointed out by Jeanne on Day 1).
- Peter on Day 2 spoke about the need for aimlessness – but how can this be reconciled with other demands for quality, efficacy, coherence etc?Good public art can influence policies to inform exciting temporary fields of intervention.
Act up!
Legacies that connect particularities to broad concerns – policy framework that can be central yet particular.
Jason then explained the task for the last session. Before breaking for coffee, everyone was given a single Post It note (no expense spared!). On this they were to write one question, which they felt was the most important and most urgent. They were to wear their Post It during coffee (actually, very few people actually wore theirs, as they didn’t want to look silly). During the break our (brilliant) administrator Annette McTavish and I arranged the seating into six small groups. Each group would be moderated by a member of the team who had co-ordinated the symposium.
After coffee we were given 15 minutes to establish what each group member’s question was, and then to synthesise all of these down to one answer (per group) to the day’s question of: What do we need to do now to shape the future of public art? Again Jason drew our attention to the qualities of singularity (we should identify one thing); to necessity, and to immediacy.
Fifteen minutes wasn’t very long (!) and so by necessity each group presented a fairly rough perspective. It was a very useful exercise in prioritising however, and there was a high level of participation: everyone was engaged in the conversation, and able to push and pull their own priorities in relation to the group whole. When the groups reported back to the room at the end of 15 minutes, the concerns were familiar – often focussing around the themes of support for artists practices, the value of the artistic process or presence, the desire for quality, and the need for advocacy and understanding.
Jason then expanded the conversation in order to pick up on some of these points. I will try to summarise the discussion below, but as always be aware that I may miss, or misrepresent key points. Please please get in touch if you’d like to add or correct anything.
Jason identifies some key ideas for the final discussion: Languages; reassessment of ‘the polis’; questioning if the relationship of practitioners to policy intervention.
In addition: artists as a sector are understood to be individualists. How do we create a critical mass?David Harding: Can I ask a difficult question? What do we do about bad public art?
Jason: Do you feel that that’s related to policy?
David Harding: No. It’s just down to uninformed judgements and assessments. We need to talk about practicalities. The same questions have been asked for decades. How does bad public art come about? Because there are good examples of public art commissioning. Look at Seattle. With good curation, a broad group of specialists on the panel, and good critical work, good public art can be commissioned. But it’s not happening in Scotland. Why don’t we think about how commissioners could be funded to support artists’ initiatives? Artists often actively want to work in particular areas – why isn’t this more supported?
David Harding
Edwin: But that’s already happening. Artists have been able to apply for funding from the Scottish Arts Council to fund their own projects. Why is the situation in Scotland different to that in Seattle? These questions – even thought they may be the same questions – are useful as a way to provide insight into what is already there. We have to know where we are in order to move things on.
David Harding: So why are we in this situation? How can we change the political attitude to culture generally? We can compare what’s happening today with the spending review with what happened in Sweden in the 1980s. There, even though they were in a situation of financial poverty, it would have been politically untenable t
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Dundee Day 2
by Ruth Barker 16 Oct 2010
Hello,
This is going to be another whopper. Apologies for the length. I do think it’s useful though, and I’ve had some good feedback, which has convinced me to carry on.
The day was again good, with a broad range of presentations. My only real disappointment was that we lost the time for questions in the morning. We had an extended Q&A in the afternoon, but sometimes it’s really good to be able to put that immediate point right after a speaker has finished. Ah well, you can’t have everything!
Our chair for the day, Alastair Snow had a totally different style to Moira on Day One, and was far quicker to get involved in the debate himself, which was interesting to see.
Anyway, lots of notes to post, so I’ll just get on with it. As always, apologies for any bias, misunderstandings, errors, omissions or typos. Any mistakes are my own rather than the speakers.
Chair: Alastair Snow – Director Alastair Snow Associates + Projects
Speakers:
Clive Gillman – Director of DCA
Peter McCaughey – Artist
Diarmaid Lawlor – Head of Urbanism at Architecture + Design Scotland
Lucy Byatt – Head of National Programmes at the Contemporary Art Society.
Chair Alastair Snow in discussion with correspondent Ken Neil
Introduction by Alastair Snow:
We are speaking from Scotland, not always about Scotland. context – Scottish Arts Council changeover to Creative Scotland. Creative Scotland aspires to be a ‘leader in the field’. To be so, must therefore endeavour to commission, test, advise, support new work. Are structures in place for it to do so?
Wittgenstein – a limit to what can be said. Therefore, instead we must show, and do, and feel.
Pavel Buchler (paraphrased) – ‘artists don’t make art, they make artworks. Artists make things in the world, and we call those things ‘art’’
Emphasised the breadth of the audience for the day, reminding us that in the room were housing specialists, planners, architects and urbanists, as well as artists, designers, commissioners and local authority officers. Ambitious mix! All of whom hoped to participate in the day. Housing officers in particular mentioned as being ‘experts in public space’, who might be rising to the challenges of the recession by focussing on investments in places, rather than new buildings.Clive Gilman
ABSTRACT
Clive Gillman has worked as an artist producing artworks for the public domain as well as being professionally engaged with cultural policy in both a local and national context. For this presentation Clive will explore some ideas and some illustrations of what the factors might be that contribute to the success (or otherwise) of art projects in the public domain. He will look at current cultural policy in Scotland and, drawing on personal and institutional experiences of specific projects in Scotland and England, he will address the many, often conflicting, elements that contribute to making art happen successfully in public places and spaces.
Clive Gilman
Clive positions himself as an artist, even though he sometimes feels like (and has to act like) a chief executive. But important to hold onto self-definition as an artist – why? Because being an artist might be a privilege? Because it might be a vanity?! Allows to ‘Refresh my soul’.
Ref to PAR+RS Feature: Ray McKenzie – How Not To Commission.
Nice phrase: ‘I do have notes, but usually I prefer to busk.’
Image of Russian Futurist’s Manifesto. ‘A Slap in the Face for Public Taste.’
Difficulty inherent in received ideas of public taste – a taste that is usually assumed to be conservative and unambitious. We may feel instinctively that such assumptions are incorrect but we still have to navigate the fact that some people see themselves as the (usually unelected) guardians or protectors of that public taste.
Projects from FACT.
Rafael Lozano Hemmer – Body Movies Relational Architecture.
Public spectacle. Spotlight on 20m high screen. When people stood between the light and the screen they cast a shadow. A computer programme then projected images of other people into the shape of this shadow (the images were selected base solely on shape-matching. Trace of your own self, filled by someone else. It’s you, but not-you. ‘it’s a ‘hair on the back of your neck’ piece.’Tenant Spin 1999.
Oldest tower block in Liverpool was scheduled for demolition. The tenants had established their own space in which to hold self-devised projects, events and activities – some of which might be ‘cultural’ while other were practical, or social. Artists’ group Superflex facilitated a series of regular 1 hour internet broadcasts, though which tenants could converse, soapbox, play music, act, speak, etc. Architects spoke about future plans, also artists projects, Will Self, David Puttnam, new music etc.
Became very popular. When the towerblock was demolished (interestingly, still discussed as a success even though it did not prevent the demolition. Is this a difference between art and activism?) the residents took the project with them, Took ownership over it. The project has become viral and has kept going. Landlords now build the infrastructure needed for the broadcasts into their buildings. The principle of self-broadcast has become integrated into social housing.
Significantly, many of the residents were aged 50+, and other cultural projects had focussed on their age, or on the tenants pasts or memories. Superflex encouraged looking towards / commenting on / shaping the future. But the project must keep rejuvenating, because previous participants / contributors have now died.
Note that Glasgow artist Allan Dunn was involved. Ex Environmental Art Dept. at GSA.
[OK, so artists catalyse an action that others adopt and then claim as their own. (Where) do we cease defining that action as part of the artists’ artwork? Is this important?]Metroscopes. Work by Clive.
New media as a medium opens a space and offers a notion there’s a new domain to be explored. The two main challenges of that new domain might be: 1) how we can link it to the public realm, coupled with 2) the practical fragility of the technology itself.
Five masts were installed in a public square. They were linked to a computer that searches the internet for phrases that begin with the words “Liverpool is…â€; “Odessa is…â€; “Shanghai is…†“Köln is…” “Dublin is…” The sourced phrase, from ‘Liverpool is’ up until the next full stop, is then displayed on the mast. Becomes a changing social map, social expectation. Was built in hope rather than in expectation that the work could be sustained, but it is still functioning. Problems may arise later because the original technology was not top end, and so it will (at some future point) fail. Specifically, the computer’s memory is getting full of all the sourced sentences.
Ideas of permanence.‘In discussing public art we must remain clear that there are (and have been) two distinct approaches. It is sometimes assumed that an idea of morality and a ‘public service ethic’ underpins all public art practice, and that there is a fundamental difference between public art practice and gallery practice – the latter of which does not share these ethical concerns; while the former is divorced from the ‘art canon’. This perceived difference was legitimised by Nicholas Bourriaud in Relational Aesthetics (1998), which emphasised the relational quality of artworks in the public realm. ‘Community art’, which was once cursed, was now gilded.
‘Relational Aesthetics was searching for a rationale through which we could discuss public work, but deeper analysis does not support it. There are deep contradictions. There is, in much of the post Relational Aesthetics discourse surrounding public art an assumed truth that public artworks share notions of morality and ethics. But there is a raft of practice that should not be ignored or passed over, which shares an aesthetic with some ‘relational’ projects yet does not share these projects’ values.’Many works fail both as acts of empowerment, and as acts of art.
‘We (artists, the artworld) eat things up and turn them into art. But sometimes we eat and eat and do not appreciate the very fragile and subtle nature of the things we consume.’
Suzanne Lacy – there is no quick fix to the big problems.
Tramway Conference ‘Common Work’ 2007. At this conference it was possible to see the divergence between two kinds of practices – distinctly different, but discussed in the same terms on the same platform. Some artists were generating community engagement processes and were invested in them for their own sake. Other artists were using community engagement as a texture for their work – this kind of work described as ‘medium-based practices that are not providing values’, but are firmly rooted in ‘art’.
This is not a value based distinction, but we need to be clear about which type of practice we are talking about, in which case. ‘Not all public art is a response to engagement. Public art can happen without a community, and without the ethic of partnership.’
2005 DCA commissions. Our Surroundings.
Meeting Place In The Garden, after Partick Geddes. Apolonija SuSterSic. (Interesting review here)
On a patch of empty ground near the waterfront in Dundee, land was turfed and a greenhouse erected. The work was conversation-based, focussing around facilitating discussion about proposals for waterfront redevelopment plans. Despite fears, the greenhouse (quite an exposed site) was not destroyed, perhaps because of engagement processes that had been implemented. The work engaged with those who used the space and only existed (as art) once people began to participate. A document of people’s contributions was drawn up and given to the waterfront scheme’s Director of Planning – ‘a profound gesture’. (Whether this document has been influential may be doubted).Project funded by Scottish Arts council Lottery fund. Other recent SAC funds – Public Art Fund, Inspire fund, Inspiring Communities – also influential support for projects in the public realm. Many of the projects funded reflect the presence of the interventionist ethic described above.
Example of projects funded in 2009 through the Public Art Fund Dundenance; NVA Cardross; The Common Guild’s collaboration with the Lighthouse to develop a public pavilion in a Glasgow park; Project BluePrint; North Edinburgh Arts Public Art Project; The Glasgow Womens’ Library’s Making Space for Women project; Deveron Arts; and Big Things on the Beach.
Many of these seem to be informed by notions of ‘the community’ as much as (if not more than) notions of art.‘Is there, in these projects, a desire to create great art?’Recent workshop in Stornaway discussed the future of lottery funding. Example of Inspire fund, a recent scheme to support the development arts projects that met ideals for public engagement. There was very high take up of the funds – projects like Stirling Empower, Big Man Walking, Starcatchers, Arts Extreme in Aberdeen, Central Station in Glasgow, Mirrie Dancers in Shetland, etc etc.
Projects informed by a desire for community engagement that is pursued with commitment and integrity – but not informed by a vision of/for art. Article in The Scotsman newspaper questioning awards made through Inspire fund called the fund an example of ‘capricious decision-making’.But it’s difficult to argue against the principles of engagement. The different parts of this set of relationships are not reconciled however, and because of this we can and should continue to unpick them. Comment that one result of these processes is that investments are made in projects that don’t have the infrastructure to deliver. Funders then have to invest in systems of bureaucracy to ensure that these projects get off the ground.
Strategic document – public art as a solution to a perceived problem with a planning process.
Rhetoric of Placemaking – a phrase too often used and too seldom understood. Misplaced intention. Andrew Dixon, new head of Creative Scotland has a background in placemaking from his previous role in Newcastle [Nb as previous head of NewcastleGateshead Initiative. Prediction that Creative Scotland will increasingly prioritise placemaking as a strategy. ‘We’re still looking for a rhetoric that will allow us to deliver an ethic.’
Project for Public Spaces, US based initiative that is generating (or popularising) the quasi-religious language of placemaking. ‘This is the new creed’ an unpromblematised set of ‘slogans’ which is itself problematic. [see: Public Art an Introduction’]
Example of a tender invitation released for the delivery of Routes and Clusters’ operational plan. The requirements were in a language of procurement, not a language of art. Gulf of expectations. The process removes momentum. Becomes bathetic. Anticlimax.
Rochdale – Drake Street Observatory.
Clive invited to develop a new media work for a street that a new tram-line was being routed down. Discovered that there was no public consultation process, and, when tried to talk to residents, found that the best approach was to say he was an artist – was quickly welcomed. Produced a website that put people at the centre of their world. A temporary project that was supporting people’s\voices. The commissioners were also happy with the outcomes.Eg also of Neville Rae’s website about Public Art of Cumbernauld. Long term durational involvement in a place. Contrasted with: Andy Scott, Arria. Dubbed ‘The Angel of the Nauld’
‘The prism of the spectacle.’ Media significance of the Angel of the North – has become a benchmark also in the literal sense of measuring. Size as a measure of significance.
Eg of people misunderstanding public works, acquistition above sensitivity or understanding. Holocaust memorial in Harrisburg, US. Stainless steel core representing the star of David with, spiralling around it, core 10 steel spikes representing Nazism. The core 10 steel would rust and decay, leaving the stainless steel shiny and intact. But people didn’t like the rust. So the commissioners had the core 10 steel removed and replaced with stainless. The artist is now suing the commissioners.
Eg of Robert Markey sneakers – huge painted sneakers sited on the street, celebrating the city’s links with dance. Artist had painted a pole dancer on the sole of the sneaker – acknowledging the fact that the pole dancers were the city’s only professional dancers. But the commissioners didn’t like it so they painted it over. Artist was very philosophical about it ‘leaving the sole black as a reminder.’
Difficulty of ‘what the community want.’Eg “Villa Victoria, Liverpool.”
Terrifying reminder of the conflicts between engaged practice and ideas of morality.Peter McCaughey
ABSTRACT: Peter McCaughey will draw upon his various roles as artist, lecturer in Sculpture and Environmental Art at Glasgow School of Art and the Director of Wave, a nano arts organisation working in the field of art and public realm. One of his current positions through Wave is as Creative Advisor to Glasgow Housing Association (GHA). This appointment was described as an invitation to assist the GHA to think differently about itself.
McCaughey, working with arts consultant Ben Spencer, is encouraging GHA to support a network of art commissions that address the variety of site typologies and a significant range of the tactical and strategic approaches taken by GHA in its day to day work. Peter will talk about the challenges of engaging with a large organisation which has no specific arts remit but which has a clear aspiration to be an active partner within the regeneration of the city.
He is interested in how artists can re route and re-invent the way that things operate within functioning systems. The talk is a double challenge: to organisations to foster new relationships to art; and to artists to develop new tools to deal with and value these opportunities.
Peter MacCaughey
Starts by putting a bell on the table – Know your own strengths and weaknesses! Ring when I’m out of time.
‘Importance of work that is not invited, not asked for. Work that invited itself in.’ Art as Top Cat manipulating the city.
You have to know your audience. Who’s here? Show of hands for:
Artists
Arts Workers
Policy Makers
Educators
ManagersMark Lombardi drawing about mapping systems and the relationships between things. But the problem with conferences and consultations is that often the scintillating colours of people’s opinions and ideas are stirred together, only to end up as a muddy-coloured mix. Our conversation has to be built around this moment, this present.
Image of Economic Value of Public Art is the Increase the Value of Private Property.
Notes about practice:
maintains many different roles:
- Artist in residence at Glasgow Housing Association with Ben Spencer, Artists Placement Group model of the ‘incidental person, being paid to be present (within a system, amongst other people in that system);
Also
- part time tutor in sculpture / environmental art dept at Glasgow School of Art.
And
- runs Wave, small public art company. Wave generates income, which funds Particle – Peter’s more personal projects. Wave also employs / involves other artists / specialists at times. Note that while arts in the public realm usually work alone, all other specialists work in teams.Sculpture and Environmental art ‘Mapping Project’. Introductory project to get students to engage with (or just see) the city in a different way. Students throw a dart at a map of Glasgow, and then go the point selected by the dart, and work from there.
Turn specifics into ambiguities.
Begin in the middle.
Don’t be dominated by what you think you know.
Ethics, points of intersection between people: very difficult to negotiate with all the subtleness needed. Maybe we shouldn’t bother! There’s a temptation to retreat to the studio. But we’re here to speak about the rise and rise of public art and so we should resist that urge.
‘I am an acolyte and an advocate for public art; because I think it’s so important.’Looking at the city as a space – reference to Mark Boyle’s work.
Every year sets the students an exercise where they sit in a garage studio-space, with the roller shutter down. Peter raises the roller shutter, and the students watch the city through the revealed view for a set amount of time. Then the shutter comes down again.
One year ‘out of boredom’, Peter went round to the front of the street, removed his clothes, ran naked across the point where the students were viewing, then put his clothes back on and came back round nonchalantly, to where the students were still watching. When asked to describe what they had seen, out of a group of 15 only 2 accurately ‘saw’ what had happened – that Peter had run past naked. Others failed to see or mis-saw what had happened – to the extent of one student believing that they had seen a car accident.Reference to the symposium States of Play: Art and Culture in Scotland Today (took place in Gilmorehill Centre, Glasgow on 09/10/10). During the time for questions, Peter asked Christine Borland, who had been presenting, what might be the value of relational engagements. Christine answered that the value lies in helping others (medical specialists, in her case) to tolerate ambiguity. Value of retaining doubt. Peter argues that we need a society that can tolerate doubt and ambiguity.
Thought experiments. In its broadest sense, thought experimentation is the process of employing imaginary situations to help us understand the way things really are. Used in lots of other fields, but not used in art. Not taught in artschools. Why?
Munster sculpture Park: Gabriel Orozco proposal for a working Ferris wheel half buried under the ground. Proposal refused, as too dangerous. Maurizio Cattelan responded by hiring a children’s book illustrator and a writer to write the fiction of the Ferris wheel – to write the Ferris wheel into the past. ‘The Wheel of Misfortune.’
Phrase – ‘the web of the room’ referring to the interconnectedness of all the people present. Brokering the spaces between us. We need better tools.
Problem with Clive’s call for ‘great art’. This is a default position. There is no fixed criteria for great art. Perhaps there is no great art? What might great art be, or not be? There is nothing to chase.
‘I’m a relational creature. I cannot separate art from its relational structures, from its stories, and its people.’Discovered that GHA is an aspirational place. Many officers come from GHA homes. There is an honourable investment in making places better. Aim to map out different ways in which artists might become part of GHA’s processes. Multiple spaces / opportunities for artists.
George Kelly, in 1964ish promoted the ‘as if’ position as a way to move towards knowledge. Constructive alternativism. Loosen our constructions.
Artists are often not interested enough in what artwork does. John Cage – meaning lies in meaninglessness. We need to think more about what work does.
Liam Gillick – “The middle ground, the compromise, is what interests me most.†Peter’s 1993 work at the Queen Elizabeth Square flats [see slide 85.] was outrageous in its difficulty. Lots of compromises had to be made, there were lots of quick revisions and changes that had to be made. There was a death onsite – there were huge decisions that had to be taken. But we imagine that great art comes from control. That control equals integrity. But this is just a convention. It’s a wonderful cornerstone but there are other models. Maybe we should think about models in which the word ‘art’ might disappear. Partnerships. Compromise. Ref to the naming of art row between Grant Kester and Clare Bishop. We could make ourselves free by loosening some terms, and asking how do we attribute value.
Kosuth quote “What is it that might be art, that is not art?†Some processes that we go through as artists are not themselves artworks – they remain just processes. But they are still valuable because they are still processes.Placemaking will happen whether we like it or not. We have an invitation to be there and we should take up that invitation. These meetings are full of people (usually men) who are making decisions about our spaces. Who gave them the right? Who decided that those people would be the ones to take the decisions? Where are all the other people who might have an opinion? The poets, the writers, the anthropologists, the others?
If you identify a convention, ask it a question. Take nothing for granted. For example – instrumentalism is often assumed to be negative. Why? Aren’t instruments important? And can’t they shape things?
‘These are nascent thoughts. These are questions that are happening right now because of the projects I’ve involved in right at this moment.’
Fighting with ideas of existing critique. Don’t trust your instincts. We should be more disinterested. But the downside is that when one remains in doubt, it can depoliticise us. We can find it hard to take sides with certainty. We become adaptors. So there has to be a balance. But still we cannot take things for granted. Dialectics is useful but it is based on logic, which in only a tiny part of the world.Alastair Snow: Ken Walpole has stated that mixed use economies are the most successful type of public realm economy because of the fact of the mixture of different people doing different things. Something intangible is gained from proximity.
Diamaid Lawlor.
ABSTRACT: Policy planning, places, public art
This presentation will explore the concept of public-ness in Scottish placemaking, particularly in the context of the reform of the planning system. Using case studies, the presentation will look at the role of public art in the context of physical planning policies which seek to promote the creation of ‘places where people want to be’. This exploration will look at processes of re-imagining and managing existing public spaces, processes of temporarily using derelict space as a public resource and processes of promoting cultural entrepreneurship to inform organic processes of regeneration in a city neighbourhood. Using these observations, the presentation will conclude with a discussion as to the possible opportunities of public art in physical place policy, and how these policies might enable or inhibit the commissioning of public art.
Complexity of the public sector. Many conflicting and complex relationships. The story of the boom – example of personal experience in Dublin. In 1994 much of the city was in a state of dereliction, but within 7 years there was a massive upsurge in building, and within 10 years there was a radical reinvention of the city – expansion in finance, construction, waterfront development, and a wholesale change in people’s relationships to the city.
And now it’s all gone. We’re at ‘the finish’. That massive expansion won’t happen again. Art and design in Scotland is now looking at itself at a moment of ‘finish’. That paradigm of expansion is gone. We must scenario the future. The finish is relative: finishes are also beginnings.The economies of Urbanism. Eg: learning traditionally happens in a building: a school. But is the school necessary? The outcome should not be the building of a school – the outcome should be learning. The building is incidental. After all – places teach. If we spend time in the city itself, we can see the ways that people do things. We can learn from the city.
Are we too stuck on process? Do we emphasis outcomes enough? Is it right to build buildings and expect (or hope) that they will be filled by processes and people?Public art
Public policy
The interesting thing is public.
No one ever owns the public good. We are only ever custodians of it.In all this talk of cuts and spending review and the big society, we have to ask what is the public outcome? 1943 – Simone Weil in The Need For Roots, asked ‘What kind of place shall we have?’
’what is required if men and women are to feel at home in society and recover their full society?’‘what is most particular, is most general.’ What said that?
The everyday public domain.Policy should know that you cannot divorce professional responsibility from human responsibility.
The relations that make people people have changed since Victorian times. But have we acknowledged that?
’I disagree with beautification as an outcome.’
What are the contradictions?
CABE talks about ‘great architecture’. Where is the greatness? We have images of ‘great’ buildings but where are the people?
‘Place’ as relational. ‘Place’ as locally constituted. People participate in multiple places simultaneously.
Indy Johar Everyday as an aim. Scotland has many small places: the everyday is important.
Marc Auge – Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity Places are about stories, histories, identities, relations. Photo of Whitby, a group of people at the top of a hill, looking back out over the town. One man is looking down on the houses, the buildings. But one man is on his back, looking at the sky, looking out. He’s utterly relaxed, comfortable in ordinariness. Whatever this feeling is, it’s desirable.Globally connected, locally situated. Diverse contemporary relations. Victoria station, London – public dancing that started and stopped apparently spontaneously. What is the publicness of this action? What is the connectedness? Is publicness a kind of connectedness?
Ecologies of tolerance: we need to think about ecosystems rather than answers. Tolerance allows extraordinary things to happen in simple ways (at simple moments). Communities of interest – in the twenty first century these communities have speeded up.Three keys ideas / qualities:
Authenticity: (of stories, of leadership): It’s important that authenticity can be ugly and difficult. It’s about noticing, recognising part of the world.
Public Space: democratic exchange. Ethics and knowledge: public knowledge / private knowledge. We shouldn’t be dependant on one nor the other exclusively. Democratic knowledge combines both.
Distinctiveness: physical, functional, and intangible distinctiveness. Functional distinctiveness is not dependant on architecture. Intangible distinctiveness arises from the capability of people.
Council of Economic Advisers
December 2008.
Recommendation 14.
“too much development in Scotland is a missed opportunity and of mediocre or indifferent quality […] the ultimate test of an effective planning system is the maintenance and creation of places where people want to be. We need to rise to that challenge.â€
These are territories to be taken on by people. By us.The Climate Change Act of 2009 is a sustainable economic growth strategy. But we must always ask the why. For what outcomes? When someone says that we must reduce emissions we have to ask: to enable what?
Place and scale. Purpose: Place and Policy contexts.
Dundee local plan is currently being developed. There’s enough policy already – it’s about what we do with it. The Scottish Government’s spending is set to fall dramatically over the next 15 years. But we can ask ‘what is the money this being spent, being spent for?’ we should stop thinking about what is not (the cuts). We must think instead about what is, and about what we want. We have to focus on outcomes. Make it happen.
‘We have to stop thinking about schools, and start thinking about learning.’Lucy Byatt
ABSTRACT: There is a sort of art that emerges from public art policies and strategies, from the availability of funds through section 106’s, from marketing plans and audience development agendas. It is a sort of art that is pushed and pulled, ‘briefed’ out of shape by committees of stakeholders, and funders, of ‘user groups’ and health and safety experts. These sorts of processes, more often than not, produces art of considerable physical size and cost yet of very little consequence. Yet policies and strategies are an inevitability; required to ensure legitimacy and momentum? Public art policies though, seem to live in a world of their own, unconnected to the other pressing matters of developing healthy cultural ecologies within our towns and cities, connected more to the limitations of planning regulations or linked to the confines of community development initiatives. There has never been a more important moment to act in partnership and in a more joined up strategic way. Byatt has been a commissioner and a consultant and has also been on the ‘other side’ the client – she finds that, in all these roles she would always prefer to work with artists who are not just engaged with production of certainty or spectacularity; resorting to formulas to avoid risk is never the solution. We can rest assured that what we regard as success now, will have been someone’s great and considerable risk at some stage. To illustrate this presentation she will use examples of projects that she has commissioned and more recent projects that are being initiated through the Contemporary Art Society.
What are the public benefits of public art? Eg of Banksy exhibition in Bristol which raised revenue for the council through all the parking fine collected from visitors who underestimated the length of the queues to get in.
Policy makers are guilty because of promises they made in the boomtime: connection to the very idea (principle) of regeneration. Big money is a thing of the past.
’I’m going to start my presentation from the end, and then go back to the beginning.’
“The Contemporary Art Society’:http://www.contemporaryartsociety.org/ is an old organisation. Legacy of 100 years. Membership of 64 public collections. Idea of patronage. One new commission (funded by a patron) for Graves Art Gallery: Museums Sheffield: Katerina Sedà , Czech artist who only works with her own community. Trust. Artist has said that her way of working is ‘like a criminal investigation.’
Action as an act.
Actors. Sedà speaks about character traits ‘I can recognise other Czechs in the street.’
The bus stop story (catalyst for Sedà ’s practice): waiting for a bus with a group of people she didn’t know. The weather turned bad and a scarf was blown by the wind. At the same moment a branch snapped and a man coughed. At that moment of synchronicity somehow these two separate happenings became conflated in a miraculous link or joining into the image of a profile in the landscape. The people of the place’s people became lodged in the landscape.
BUT story is fraught with fantasy – romantic idea of where we came from.1994 worked with Julia Radcliffe on Visual Arts Project in Glasgow. Was introduced to the world of public art. People making big decisions about public space. The projects undertaken by VAP came from a very particular social, economic, cultural context:
- Gallery of Modern Art was being run by Julian Spalding.
- Culture of international exchange
- Bunch of very successful recent graduates from GSA.
- Inspirational talk by John Latham – introduced idea of the incidental person.
- And there were a lot of empty buildings – towerblocks coming down.‘The situation was porous. One was able to inhabit it.’
Ref to local activists who held hands in front of bulldozers. How to introduce them to artists?
1999 Year of Architecture and Design. Started with slow processes followed by a rush to the finish line. Power relationships change during the course of a project.
Got artists involved with housing association. Established a space. Residency based structure. Brokering relationships between artists and other specialists. Not a showing / exhibiting space, but a talking, kitchen space. Non-office. Non-beaurocratic. Did not start with the intention of becoming a public art ‘agency’ (but perhaps it did?)In architecture, arguably function is more important than aesthetics.
‘we have to pursue endless negotiation to ensure that we’re not being overly romantic.’
‘The Millenium Hut’, designed by Studio Kap Architects in collaboration with Claire Barclay. Was it naive? Was a product of the boomtime. Intention to provide a ‘community store’ for equipment for gardening etc.
Royston Road. Project provided room to tackle something that hadn’t been able to tackle in 1999. Architects had looked at plans, not at the place. This meant that that they couldn’t look at use. more info
Jenny Brownrigg project, worked with women reading romantic fiction. Book club. Writing project – seven years on it’s still running.
Importance of ‘event’. Importance of the moment. Moments of celebration. Human moments. Meals, performances, coming together. interactions punctuated by theatre. Hosting. Roots interactions into places, and roots memories into places.
Projects ‘driven from the place’.
Royston is still very deprived. ‘Without the community’s pushing for it, we wouldn’t have gone in.’ It had to be something rooted. Relationship of call and response, where the artist is responding to an exchange.The company was in need of funds, so took on a more ‘corporate’ project, for which the client wanted an ‘Angel of the North’ type outcome. Loch Lomond Shores project 2001. Worked with Jenny Crowe to develop Bird Station by Mary Redmond. Mary needed a lot of persuading to take the project on, but the end result was successful. Many artists daunted by the prospect of undertaking work in the public realm. They find the processes combative, and it doesn’t appeal. Example of missed opportunities where artists who might produce fantastic work never engage with the possibility. [Press coverage ]
Project in The Pier Arts Centre, Orkney.
Hannah Rickards, Thunder 2004.
Complex soundwork in which an audio recording of a clap of thunder was stretched out, and a group of 6 musicians was invited to score and then play the resulting sound. This musical version was then compressed back to the duration of the original clap of thunder. Rickards is clear that the ‘work’ is the resulting sound, but the complex series of relationships that surround that single outcome are also important to consider. Issues of trust, specialism, expertise, and event. The performative cycle that was involved in making the work happen expands and enriches the work.Why are public art policies always about adding stuff to places? We have to change the way we think. There’s no money left. We have to think about Section 106s, and patronage – both individual and corporate. We are the brokers of our cultural ecologies. We need to think strategically about what is public. Studio and street are part of the same economic network, and we have to understand better the ways in which they are related. We cannot think about ‘public art’ in isolation – doing so will ghettoise it. Thinking about public art in the broadest terms possible will lead to different kinds of people being able to become involved in it. In the last few years artists roles have continued to expand – they now become project managers etc. Roles change. We must be flexible.
Spike Island example of an arts centre becoming part of a city’s ecology. 600 people now have a front door key – far more than ever before. Example from Warsaw of Edward Krasinski’s studio, in a flat on the 11th floor of an apartment block. Place of exchange and debate, hosting, and meeting. Very vibrant, important part of the art community’s ecology. After the artist’s death, complex conversation about whether (and how) to keep or preserve the flat. As a functional space? As a monument? etc. Decided to preserve the core of the space exactly as it had been left, but to use the balconies around the flat to continue to exhibit, and so allow the place to stay ‘alive’ and evolving. Artists can still stay there, and so the ecology of hosting continues. The apartment block is still otherwise residential – Lucy had to ask the neighbours where to go, when she first visited. The flat is not part of any masterplan – instead it’s part of life. This is important. It retains meaning. Contrasted with eg Bilbao, a kind of non-place, divorced from place, ‘_where culture spins away from us.’_ Some works (image of figurative sculpture of a guy on the street) create agonies of questions. They can only exist because they are deeply rooted locally. Idea of trust.
Anecdote about Douglas Gordon’s Empire sign. Originally a VAP commission for the wall outside the Mitre Bar in Glasgow, but subsequently had to be relocated just around the corner to Tontine Lane [Nb. I think because the building whose wall it was attached to was sold]. Has become a Glasgow art-landmark. But when the work was first proposed it was turned down for planning permission. Then by sheer chance Lucy sat next to a relevant planner on a plane. They talked for the whole flight, but never mentioned Empire. And when the planning application was resubmitted, it passed. Proximity is important. Exposure to ideas, even in a gentle way, is important, and can change people’s minds.
Eg of Royston Rd project. One of the trees planted by Graham (see Dundee Day 1 entry) was claimed by some members of the community as a memorial to an individual who was associated with one of Glasgow’s football clubs. The tree was festooned with scarves, flags etc and became a target for opposing members of the community. The tree was attacked and even chopped down, but it was then replanted – again by the community – and has since grown and flourished. Realities of public work: friction; meaning; eruption.
Panel Discussion
Apologies if I’ve missed any contributions, and for the missing names.
Panel Discussion
The question framing Day 2 was put to each of the panellists in turn by chair Alastair Snow: Is public policy fit for the purpose of commissioning public art?
Diarmaid: Yes it is. Policy already enables us to do what we need – it isn’t the fault of policy is we don’t already do that. Move towards having less policy, not more. In the current climate we’re unlikely to have any new policies brought in, apart from ones dealing explicitly with eg climate change. Think about policy that’s already there. We need to be proactive in constructing our own contexts.
Clive: I don’t know. Policies are about management of resources. People can subvert policies. If policy is confused, then it becomes a problem. But it’s always the people on the ground who actually do things. Put trust in people, rather than policies.
Lucy: If we are to have policies for public art, those policies must be flexible, specific, and reinvented for every context. We need to couple broad principles with the capacity for reinvention. If we think in terms of brokership we have to ask two fundamental questions: who is the broker?; and who are the partners being brokered?
Peter: We have to be inventive. We have to take the bones of what already exists and build up from there. As an example, when commissions are developed, why is not enough allocated to the maintenance of permanent work? Maintenance is a work’s life – it’s everything that happens once it’s out in the world. What if we took the budget for a work’s production as £X, and then its maintenance as 5 x £X ? That £5X could pay for an artist to stick around once the work was finished, and to keep thinking about the work – to adapt, change, or decommission it.
Jacqueline Donachie
Jackie Donachie: Arts Strategies are often not tied to arts budgets. Recently worked on a project when an existing strategy had led to nothing but paper. The money that had been spent on that paper document could have been better spent on paying for an artist’s presence – a bum on a seat during meetings. Because artists are good at asking Why? And they’re very skilled.
Alastair: Arts Officer can be conduit. Are there any Arts Officers here?
Liz Conacher: There’s not much integration between the parties.
Alastair: What would help that?
Liz: we need better communication across departments. More partnership working. We need more ways to educate people who’ve not got an arts background as to what art is able to achieve.
Alastair: how easy is it for you to be proactive and commission?
Liz: budgets are small, and the arts budget is a tiny fraction of the overall budget. Small team with small resources. There’s a recognition that art is needed, but it’s still being ‘inserted’ at the very end of a process.
Sally Thompson: Works for Aberdeenshire Council and NHS Gramprian. Mentioned BREEAM environmental assessment method. There’s a public perception of art as a luxury, public bodies have to be seen to be careful about how they’re spending money. Have to balance responsibilities and priorities. Importance of remembering that art doesn’t have to be ‘things’.
Sally Thompson
Diamaid: have to balance people’s desire to be involved with the value of their involvement. Not enough just to want to be involved – there has to be a value form that involvement. Every project must involve magic and logic. We need to see as well as measure.
Jackie: But there are good examples of successful projects where you can trace ‘added value’. Example of employee absenteeism decreasing when people have a nice building to go to work in.
Sally: Capital budgets vs. revenue budgets. The two are not integrated.
Peter: Jackie is an active citizen within her community. Expand the language of the remit that we give ourselves. We are transdisciplinary. Use knowledge in different ways; use different languages. GHA use a statistical analysis tool to qualify the unquantifiable – for example to put a ‘worth’ to voluntary work.
Damien Killeen: Big Things on the beach has given people confidence to say what they want.
Alastair: Idea of citizenship?
Damien: Education is influential. Trust. Empowering.
Alastair: Deveron Arts – The Town in the Venue.
Merlyn Riggs: In many Deveron projects, the work done leading up to (and around) an event = highly important. The processes as important as the outcome.
Merlyn Riggs
Alastair: Deveron Arts’ town rebranding project Room to Roam.
Sally: was soccuessful because Room to Roam was chosen by – and now adopted by – the community.
Graham Fagen: Are Spike Island, or DCA, public art projects?
Graham Fagen
Lucy: Yes. Spike in the City programme. Source of activity within the city. Had previously been a sense of powerlessness.
Rocca Gutteridge (to Lucy): But there wasn’t a wholly positive response to the changes you introduced at Spike. Could you talk about that?
Rocca Gutteridge
Lucy: People have a sense of nostalgia – has sympathy with that. Individuals move on, but sometimes still want to maintain a connection to an organisation they were involved in previously. You can’t keep things the same forever. Contexts change, and organisations have to change with them.
Clive: No. DCA is not a public art project. Because there’s no such thing as ‘public art’. There’s just art that happens in different places. There’s no such thing as ‘public’ wither. Hugely interlocking systems of communities. DCA move in and out of those communities as it’s appropriate.
Ross Sinclair (to Peter): ‘As an artist I think of myself as a responsible individual, but I’m stil pissed off when you talk about artists ‘retreating to the studio.’ Why shouldn’t I go to my studio and make work? Why should I spend my time going to meetings?’
Clive: Art that comes out of policies is not always good art. ‘I long for direct action’.
Ross: ‘But we’re still only talking about one model. I can’t work for free any more. I’ve got responsibilities – a family.’
Lucy: Not all the time spent in engagement is a chore – some experiences are great.
Peter: Ross would be a great presence at those tables that he doesn’t want to be at, with people who don’t want him to be there.
Diarmaid: But it’s a crucial point. We shouldn’t feel obliged to take on every role that there is. We need to think about ecologies of people, who have different skills and who might be acting in different ways.
Juliet Dean: from PACE. Many projects emerge in an ad hoc way through change conversations and contacts. There is no infrastructure, no formalised communication.
Juliet Dean
Peter: Sometimes ad hoc is good. Sometimes it’s all we’ve got. Chance conversations can lead to a ripple effect. But how can we get the right people to come to these events (like Mapping the Future) so that they have the chance to see great projects?
Sally: example of CABE project at Peterhead – sans facon. Often due to one person in the right place at the right time. Serendipity. We have to educate the most senior people who will actually be taking the decisions. ‘I’m an advocate. Every day.’
Jonathon Baxter: Are we interested in accessing or in challenging policy?
Clive: Policy balances direct action. Without policy we would have anarchy, which is not productive. Policy has to understand what’s going on in the field, but perhaps it also has to lag behind a little. The policy can’t lead. Problems come when the policy actually blocks things from happening.
Peter: Different methodologies at different times. Inconsistent. Is this good or not? ‘I’ve become more political, and that’s surprised me.’ ‘Deftly working within a system.’ Richard Wentworth: Artists and con-men both wilfully disrupt systems. Importance of raising consciousness. But Variant magazine’s criticisms of Creative Scotland are making it hard for Creative Scotland to progress. Old question – do you work within the system, or do you challenge it from the outside?
Jonathan: I don’t know enough about Creative Scotland to be able to answer that.
Peter: That’s deadly.
Lucy: we are all wincing with uncertainty because of the spending review. But knowing is always better than not knowing. It’s hard to develop leadership in a climate of uncertainty. Vision should not be tied to funding. We should be vigorous and firey! The tail of funding must not wag the dog of art. We must not be funding led.
Diarmaid: Why try to map the cosmos when you can say clearly who you are, instead? Policy follows trends on the ground. When you formalise activity, sometimes you freeze or inhibit it.
As always, use the comment button below to send your thoughts, corrections, irritations. I’ll be back next week with the final installment.
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Dundee Day 1
by Ruth Barker 11 Oct 2010
Hello,
So last Wednesday was the first of the Mapping the Future symposia, with speakers Tom van Gestel from SKOR; artist Jeanne van Heeswijk; Dr Judith Rugg, who’s Reader in Fine Art Theory at the University for the Creative Arts; and last but not least Graham Fagen – Artist and Senior Lecturer at Duncan of Jordanstone. The chair was Moira Jeffrey, who did a brilliant job. We also took the opportunity to launch a new PAR+RS commissioned poster by Sarah Tripp. More on this later as I don’t have room here.
The day was fully booked, and we had a brilliant audience who seemed fully engaged, informed, and invested in the sector.
The first two presentations from Jeanne and Tom were brilliant, and the feedback I got after their presentations was uniformly positive.
After lunch (haggis-balls!) Judith Rugg’s presentation was very different in approach, and responses to it were very divergent – a real love it or hate it situation. Unlike Jeanne and Tom, Judith read from a paper (actually an extract from her new book Exploring Site Specific Art, Issues of Space and Internationalism) and – significantly – she was not speaking from the perspective of first person generation (as in ‘this is what I made / did / commissioned; this is why’) but instead from the perspective of analysis (as in ‘someone made / did / commissioned this; this is what that might mean, or what it might tell us’). She also suffered I think because, while the other speakers discussed strategies for empowering individuals, with a decided optimism of approach, Judith discussed site-specific (rather than necessarily public) works that were designed to make people unconfortable or to raise difficult or problematic ideas. The aesthetics of anxiety can never be feel-good. Personally I enjoyed her presentation and felt it gave a dimension to the day that would otherwise have been missing. But I know that for every person who told me that they’d really enjoyed Judith’s paper, there were others who felt that there were decided problems with it. Perhaps this is something we can return to later.
The final presentation was Graham Fagen’s, who – as the only Scotland based speaker, and the only speaker describing projects that took place in the UK – returned us to a more local perspective, and brought us back to that on-the-ground voice of process and experience. We closed with a panel discussion that drew out some very relevant questions and cautions from all four contributors.
Tracy Mackenna introduces the day
The presentations were filmed, and I believe that comprehensive documentation will go up on the Mapping the Future website as soon as it’s been processed but I thought in the meantime that it would be useful for my to go through some of my own notes, just to give a sense of some of the topics that were discussed. Apologies in advance for inaccuracies, massive gaps in note taking, and / or reporting bias!
Tom van Gestel.
ABSTRACT: Tom van Gestel will present examples of the Foundation Art and Public Space’s (SKOR) practice and will elaborate on its history. He will highlight the range of projects they run from a new policy for art and healthcare to the story of a Scottish King’s daughter who wanted to be cured of blindness.
Tom van Gestel
Useful phrases:
‘We have an office, but usually we’re out.’‘We could give people what they want, but usually we do the opposite.’
Part 1: Discussed ‘public’ in relation to shared experiences (I suppose a shared language of experience? A public experience is one that we’ve all gone through?). As an example he cited the experience of being a patient in a health care system. SKOR has curated / commissioned a long running series of projects that take ‘healthcare’ as a context.
examples:
Aernout Mik – AAP Moving ourang outang located in centre for disability care. Interactive.Juan Munoz – Psychiatric Care ’s-Hertogenbosch
Permanent public sculptureLino Hellings and Yvonne Dr̦ge Wendel Рthe train compartment
Nursing home. Trying to find a symbol of total relaxation. Installed seating to recreate a train carriage. Subsequently adopted as ‘treatment’. Relationship to instrumentalism?Part 2: ‘Urban’. SKOR’s 10 year project series promoting Urbanism.
Examples.
Parasite Paradise – various artists
The project began by thinking about mapping a freshly constructed New Town by showing all the facilities that were not yet there – eg museum, cinema, bar etc etc. Then SKOR developed a ‘settlement’ made up of a series of artist proposals to fill these perceived gaps in infrastructure. Some were usable, others were more abstract.
Artists (list from website): Acconci , Maurer United Architects , Böthlingk , Fishkin en Leiderman , Atelier van Lieshout , Böhm/ Saffer/ Lang , Joosting Bunk , Wapenaar , Oosterhuis/ Lénard/ Rubbens , Winter , Hörbelt , Bergen , Deleu , Ansiau , Architekten, 2012- , Bik van der Pol in cooperation with Korteknie Stuhlmacher , HAP , Braak , Exilhäuser Architekten , Atelier Kempe Thill architects and planners , Lancel , Vrijen , Milohnic & Paschke i.s.m. Resonatorcoop , Roseboom/ Weemen , Tsivopoulos.‘Function’ in these projects seems sometimes intended, sometimes not intended. Different kinds of function (practical function vs symbolic function) (function vs usefulness).
Who is the audience for these works?
Art as advocacy?
Art as catalyst?Sculpture Park for the Twenty First Century.
Fernando Sanchez Castillo – brilliant barricade sculpture. Cast bronze, life size barricade of crashed cars. At the opening, Tom threw a molotov cocktail at it!
Part 3: Rural
Importance of storytelling. “Eight artists were invited for the ‘In Verbelinge, art based on stories in Stellingwerfs’ event in 1999. Ooststellingwerf is a thinly populated area in South-West Friesland. The landscape there is determined by old peat moors, sand drifts and the basins of the rivers Kuunder (Tjonger) and Linde.”
Images of the below projects here
Georgina Starr – Popping up in Ooststellingwerf
Talent show street performance.Job Koelewijn – cinema with permanent showing of a film made in the local area. Relationship between real and projected space. Epic soundtrack.
Cilia Erens – In the footsteps of Saint Oda
Dinie Bedans
“How can one return the legend of Saint Oda and the founding of Sint-Oedenrode with its famous castles to the collective consciousness by means of a contemporary design?’’Part 4: Global
Allan Sekula and Noel Burch – The Forgotten Space
Request for a monument to record the fact that a community were against the building of a rail link. Produced a film, which was ten years in development, but which this year won the Orrizonti jury prize at the 67th Venice Film Festival 2010.Nice phrase from the film ‘upstream, the hinterland’
Jeanne van Heeswijk.
ABSTRACT: On temporary territories to play with, confront and discuss Jeanne van Heeswijk will talk on the problematic position of the public domain in our present day society. In parallel she will present cases she has worked on in the Netherlands; to reflect upon the problematic situations she encounters and the need to work closely with communities to try to establish connections not only within the community but also from the community to the outside world and back.
Jeanne van Heeswijk
Opening remarks: ‘We have to talk about inclusive practice; practice that includes people.’
‘Participation in public space’.
Mention of Gediminas Urbonas – associate professor at MIT – art culture and technology‘Daily trivialities are important. By bringing them to the fore you see the power of life.’
Because of the way the site is laid out, I cant link to Jeanne’s projects individually. But you can browse them all here
Bus station project, Lithuania. Catalysed by an email sent to Jeanne from the town, which resulted in a one day performance that was documented in a film. This was a ‘no-budget’ project done with a very light touch. Very quick and apparently simple gestures in the public space of the bus station (which was due for demolition, against the wishes of the townspeople). The film was then projected in the town.
‘Who decides the future of a city?’
Who decides what the city is for?’Notion of expertise. Artists working with communities are working with experts in their own place. Temporary fields of interaction are collaborations and conjuntions between experts.
Jeanne’s work ‘Reveals the image that is already seen by the people who live there.’
Act.
Act up.
Act out.‘The question is not about this single bus station. It’s about the principle of decision making.’
Talking Trash 2010.
Recycling project in Australia, resulted in a (suprisingly traditional?) ‘educational exhibition.’ Commission for Centre for Contemporary Art Sydney and the garbage transport company.‘In that sense it is performative, but not in the sense of performances.’
Next Project [title?]
Disappearing landsapes, buildings etc tied to memories. Commission from local province. Made 120 movies of people charting personal lost places / landmarks related to the building of a new road. The videos were installed as an emotional map, tracing the line of the road.Art and Use
Art and Influence.‘Practice as portraiture rather than masterplanning.’
Questions
Edwin Janssen – Question about context of infrastructural framework supporting projects like SKOR. V different to Scotland.Jean Cameron – Question about choices of practitioner – about relationship between practice and context.
Jeanne – individuals as co-editors.
Tom – scale of duration in relation to changing contexts.Gosh! Only half way through! This is going to be massive. Sorry everyone…
Luckily, I think I took fewer notes as the day wore on and my writing-hand got tired…Judith Rugg.
ABSTRACT: Judith Rugg will discuss issues of visibility, cultural identity and belonging, displacement, marginalisation and the environment which are raised in some temporarily sited international artworks in Santa Fe, Paris, Toronto and China. These site-specific artworks, she will argue, provoke critical readings of the relationships between contemporary art and space which contest assumptions of public space as spatially coherent, free from conflict and exempt from its social geographies.Book title: Exploring Site Specific Art, Issues of Space and Internationalism)
Judith Rugg
Anxiety linked to Cultural Identity as a concern. Nb, link back to Tom talking about public experience as ones that we’ve all gone through.
Carl Michael von Hausswolff – Red Night 1999.
Light installation at Our Lady of Guadalupe Cemetery, Santa Fe. the cemetary was illuminated in red light. The work had to be removed after 2 nights following complaints.Barrier between real and imaginary – references to the cinematic – horror movie.
Death / loss of identity = loss of cultural identity.
Day of the Dead as marker or cultural identity. Collective expression of national identity. Ref to Romero’s Day of the Dead movie.
‘focus points around which cultural identities coalesce’.
Performing identity. Link back to Jeanne’s discussion of acting in public space. Pivotal position of rituals in self identity. Our Lady of Guadalupe – combination of cultures: Cult of the Virgin = great Mother, dreadful and nurturing, life and death = images of death and rebirth = adopted as a language to make sense of the past and come to terms with cultural loss. ‘Apocalyptic and benign’.Lacanian ritual of performance as a repetition of the known = comfort, consistency. Red Night exposed neglect and revealed a loss of ritual (lack of upkeep of the cemetary suggests a neglect of ritualised public mourning). ‘A trick of the light can expose the neglect of belief systems’ and this exposure can be accutely uncomfortable. The myth is dependant on the rituals that contain it. Illusions maintain cultural identities?
Next example – [I have the title of the work down as ‘Forest Surpise’ and the artist as some variation of ‘Bunetti’ (no first name). However, I’ve googled any and every variation of both title and description and found nothing! Can anyone shed any light?]
Sited in a park near Paris, trees were painted with burnt sienna up to a point about half way up their trunks.
Nature / Culture
Familiar / Strange
‘Double simulation of the real.’ Both ominous and playful. Estrangement. References to how our contemporary view of nature is mediated. Creeping toxicity. Unseen pollutants. Articulates a sense of anxiety. The difficulty (our difficulty) in ‘seeing’ nature without cultural and/or economic lenses. Nature as a visual construct. Ref to Guattari – environmental, social relations and subjectivity. Nature not separate from culture – links environmental polution with the polution of consciousness.
Global urgency to re-examine ways of living and to find antidotes.
Making strange – nature as an idea that is culturally positioned. Our ways of seeing are provisional.Produced for the Second Guangzhou Triennial (titled ‘Beyond: An Extraordinary Space of Experimentation for Modernization’) and sited on top of the Guangdong Museum of Art, which is itself in the Pearl River Delta – a group of southern Chinese cities (including Shenzhen and Guangzhou), which have experienced massive urban development and associated problems. A full scale minaret was built on the museum’s roof, but constructed of just green netting and bamboo. It was illuminated (presumably only at night?) and looked a bit like it was under construction. It also resembled a three dimensional drawing, or an architect’s proposal made visible. As an image of a structure, Minaret looks ‘speculative’, somehow, even though it was luminous and visible from a good distance away. The artist, a non-Muslim Malaysian, identified with Muslim workers in the Pearl River Delta’s cities, seeing them as a marginalised group within society. Position of Muslims within Chinese culture – living outside Confucianism equated with being outside culture and therefore outside ‘civilisation’.
Relationship between contemporary art museum and capitalism. Migrant workers implementing the urbal economic development of a culture from which they are marginalised.
Structure’s fragile armature suggesting armies of peripheral workers? Suggesting a city formed by fragile yet interconnecting social cultural processes. Human infrastructure is glowing and impertinant: making visible a symbol for what is otherwise ignored.Final example – Sleeping Rough performance.
[again – I can’t find the artist’s name, or the correct title for this work. Can anyone help?]Performance work in which an artist ‘slept’ in a sleeping bag on the floor during a party at an artfair. People stepped over and around her, but eventually she was asked to leave.
Rational / irrational
Inclusion / exclusion
Social networks as systems based on exclusions. Gentrification – building of studios etc in run down areas – can polarise the city further, and introduces polarisation into very poor areas.
Displacement.
Homeless people as outsiders to the planning and use of the city. Transgression to reveal a ‘truth’. Boundaries between self and others made visible. Moral boundaries used to reinforce physical boundaries. Homelessness as discrepant. Performance as a way to reveal the non-performed.
Emphasises that all space, including the gallery, is a site of social and cultural politics: that public space is unstable and precarious.Questions
Neil Mulholland – Noting a shift towards the symbolic (in contrast to previous presentations). Question about who built the Minaret?Graham Fagen
ABSTRACT: Graham Fagen will describe the practice and process of the commissions to produce public works of art for two particular places in Britain.
Where the Heart Is was developed and made for two new pocket parks and homes in the Royston area of Glasgow and took the form of a hybrid tea rose.
For St Agnes consists of four bronze plaques set into the footpaths at the thresholds of the four entrances to the park of the same name in St Pauls Bristol.
Both commissions explore the appropriation of meaning — through a recognized artwork — by individuals, groups and nations and how such symbols can transcend cultural boundaries to become new signifiers for both the history and future of communities.
Graham Fagen
Introduced idea of ‘form and former’ – mouldmaking in a cultural, metaphorical sense. The relationship between a form and its former is symbiotic (and contradictory). Image of a wooden box held together with clamps, with a cement block, cast in the box, sitting next to it. To make the form (the block) you need a former (the box). But to make the former (the box) you need to know the form (the block).
Royston Project: Where the Heart is
Thinking about ways of behaving – investment in pocket parks at the same time as there was neglect of housing.
Tree as an art object. People were able to plant a tree and name it in honour of someone. Became a strategic way of encouraging the council to cut the grass in areas that weren’t strictly speaking part of their remit – eg grass in residential areas.
The rose project evolved from knowledge of a local (already existing) rose growing competition. When the rose had been named (again through competition – question of who got to sit on the judging panel) anyone who wanted one could have one. Inclusive notional community.Sited in Park in St Agnes / St Paul’s area. Similar social make-up to Royston, but with different racial dynamic – Royston mostly white with Catholic / Protestant sectarian divide; St Agnes – larger Black population with Afro Carribean / Islamic Somalian divide.
Thinking about Victorian public sculpture (because of the existing aesthetic of the park) combined with an equatorial aesthetic. Thinking about local names for the park, which illuminate local histories and territories. Thinking about use of the park as a through route or corridor.Production of small text works for the two smallest entrances / exits to the park combining ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ references; and two larger bronze floor plaques for the larger exists. One says ‘Where the Heart is’ and shows a rose. The other ‘For I and I’ and a palm tree.
Cultural forming in specificity. At the same time as the Grahm was involved in the Royston Project, the Imperial War Museum invited him to be UK War Artist for Kosovo.
Led to two questions: The first (perhaps asked during an interview) was ‘How can artists influence war?’ Graham answered by describing another interview – this time with the Sex Pistols. The questioner asks what, at a time of massive social depivation, the band are going to do? The answer comes: “We’ll make it worse.”The second was asked during a community meeting in Royston, when Graham said that he’d be away for a while as he had to go to Kosovo. Someone living in Royston asked him “Where do you feel safest? Here or there?”
Phrase: Meaningful Conversation. Producing meaningful things is not the same as solving problems. Perhaps it’s more important.
Questions
Damian Killeen – question to Judith Rugg about why she had involved no discussion of public reception of the works she’d described. How does Judith know how the public responded to the works? If she doesn’t know this, how can she legitimately discuss the works?
Damian Killeen
Judith – stressed that this was not what she was interested in, and clarified that public responses had not been part of her research.
Reiko Goto – questioned ideas of use and morality. Talked about blind-spots, and urged caution.
Panel Discussion
This is not exhaustive!
Panel Discussion
Rocca Gutteridge: Question about Public Legacies – what are the legacies of some of the projects discussed? Return to the idea of the importance of the public voice of commentary.
Tom There are always a variety of values at stake, and this will be reflected in the variety of public responses.
Jeanne Example of a legacy being the introduction – by public demand- of a public art education via a formally taught public art course.
Phrase – Narrative Monuments: a retold story can become monumental.
Falsity of permanence and the difficulty of promises.
Avoid Formulae.
Graham Fagen, Judith Rugg, Moira Jeffrey
Wendy McMurdo: Mentions the legacy of artists – great to see the number of artists that SKOR have been able to commission. Question: What would you like to see most in the future of commissioning?
Tom Managing failure: risk-taking in commissioning, and understanding one’s own capacity to take risks.
Katie Nicoll: Question about Jeanne’s project where a partnership funder didn’t like the outcome of the work, and pulled out. How did she deal with that?
Jeanne By the time the partner pulled out, the community network was already established, and this was the most important relationship. Everything else is added on to this, so if an external partner os lost, it’s not the end of the world. Or the end of the work. ‘You can’t grow roses without some shit’.
‘Working in this way, is going to get your hands dirty. I can’t work in isolation. We need to be involved in networks and some of those networks might be problematic. We can’t pretend that that isn’t so.’Ross Sinclair: Question about extending that sentiment to the issue of reponsibility. Back to Tom’s phrase about not always giving people what they want.
Ross Sinclair
Graham The value of having a curator to work with as well as a client, combined with the importance of the artist being able to walk away from a process that isn’t appropriate.
Jeanne ‘We can’t be naive. MoMA (for example) is as much of a logo – as much of a brand – as anything else.’
Graham ‘yes, but as a brand, MoMA means something different to, say, Coke.’ [Nb, I don’t think ‘coke’ was actually the brand used as an example. Did anyone pick up on what was actually suggested?]
Ben Spencer: Question about the importance of duration.
Damian Killeen: Question about democratisation. Why are there no members of the public on the panel?
Jeanne Beware of dichotomies.
Phew! Apologies for the massive post! I’ll be taking notes again this Wednesday, and will post them here as soon as I can – certainly before the final symposium on the 20th. I hope these are useful to people although do remember that this is very much a record of one person’s impressions of the day. Please feel free to give a more rounded account by using the comment space below to continue the conversation, or to put me right on anything you feel I’ve mis- or under-represented.
More later.
R. -
Tyneside to Aberdeenshire
by Ruth Barker 4 Oct 2010
Hello,
A busy couple of days as on Friday I was in Tyneside on a site visit for a new work I’m in the middle of; and then on Saturday it was up to Aberdeenshire for the Red Herring Weekend at Deveron Arts in Huntly, coinciding with the Expanded Fields symposium at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop in Lumsden.
My meeting in Newcastle was very exciting as I was able to visit the reconstructed Roman Bath House at Segedunum Museum in Wallsend. There’s something about the name ‘Wall’s End’ that I find strangely poignant – a place defined just by being on the end of something. And Wallsend feels like that somehow. It’s a funny place. The museum is great though and the bathhouse is superb. I’m really enjoying putting the new work together (though, as ever, it’s a bit of a stretch to meet the deadline!) and of course I’ll put a link here when I sort out a date.
My trip north was likewise rewarding. After a bit of a delay on the trains1, I arrived in Huntly in time to get a glimpse of Stéfanie Bourne’s Red Herring Installation, before heading off of the Town Collection Walk, lead by Claudia Zeiske. Claudia gave a really fascinating tour of Huntly and opened my eyes to the Town Collection itself – as Claudia says, I don’t really think there’s anything else like it, though if anyone knows of a similar model please let us know.
Claudia explained that each artist who develops a project through Deveron Arts is asked to donate a piece of work (of whatever scale, or worth, or kind) to the town. As a result, the spaces of Huntly, both interior and exterior, including retail, domestic and industrial locations, are becoming homes to a wide range of gifted artworks. This is such an interesting process in so many ways, that I’m thinking of writing a more substantial piece about it. The ways it starts to permeate the town, the way it remaps, the idea of legacy, the ways in which it traces relationships… There’s just so much that I don’t have the space to go into here.
I think Deveron Arts are doing something very important in unpicking the various relationships between artists and places. When we think about the significance of how public art practice is developing – as we try in our various ways to chart histories and trajectories of practice – I think that the projects that Claudia is instigating up in Huntly can be seen as being some of the most influential. Check out Room to Roam if you don’t believe me.
Below are some (crappy) photographs I took during the walk.
We start at the Brander Building, where Claudia Zeiske gives us an introduction.
Kenny Hunter, Where In, Where At, Brinder Building, The Square, Huntly.
Our fearless leader!
Lean Coetzer, Bus Stop Dance, The Square, Huntly.
The words to town anthem Room to Roam, part of the rebranding project by Jacques Coetzer, The Gordon Arms, Huntly.
Claudia discusses the Room to Roam project
Jean Cameron enjoying the tour!
At Orbs Bookshop, discussing Eva Mertz’ Missing Picture, and the Empty Shop/Modern Monument.
The Empty Shop poster, glimpsed behing the counter at Orbs Bookshop.
Claudia remembering Paul Carter, and introducing us to his Miracle Over Huntly Castle, at Huntly Hotel.
After this, I went across to nearby Lumsden to check out SSW’s newly refurbished building, where I was particularly impressed by the super-efficient boiler and the underfloor heating! This is something all arts organisations should bear in mind: artists need to be warm and dry!
The Expanded Fields symposium featured two speakers: the brilliant Jeanne van Heeswijk, whom I’d heard speak before at an event at Grizedale Arts (which I wrote about here – she’s also speaking at Mapping the Future on Wednesday) and Nikolaj Oleynikov of collective Chto Delat?, whose work I didn’t know previously. I had to leave before the end, so I missed the whisky tasting and the dinner with Jackie Donachie (which I’m sure was exceedingly tasty), but I hope that the conversations continued into the evening. There were some really important points raised, which may carry over into our Mapping the Future symposia. Particularly interesting were the questions about artists’ responsibility, and about the possibility for agonism; and also art’s relationship to theory on one hand, and activism on the other. ‘Ah’ I hear you say, ‘that old chestnut.’
If I had a regret it was that (at least, while I was there) discussion never came back to Kraus’s original text Sculpture In the Expanded Field, which was mentioned in the introduction but never successfully resurfaced as a root or ground for the conversation, which might have been helpful. The chair, Mick Wilson, was great though – and a new name to me (which is always a pleasure). I googled him when I got home and discovered that:“Dr. Mick Wilson is an artist, writer and educator. He is Head of Fine Art at DIT, currently on secondment as Dean of GradCAM until August 31st 2010. He is a graduate of the NCAD and Trinity College Dublin.â€
This bio comes from the graduate school of creative arts and media. Apologies if any details are incorrect.
Right, I’m off to get some work done. I hope to see you in Dundee on Wednesday for Day 1 of Mapping the Future? If not, perhaps I’ll run into some of you on Saturday at AHM’s event State of Play: Art and Culture in Scotland Today. I’ll be there, delivering a manifesto. Apparently. Gulp!
More later,
R.1 Mine broke down and I was stranded in Inverurie till a replacement bus could be found. Hello! To the very nice father and daughter from Venezuela who were trying to reach Findhorn. I hope you made it in the end.
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The Next Time Someone Asks
by Ruth Barker 30 Sep 2010
me what I’ve been up to, I’m going to say:
“What I’m trying to do is effect an epistemological break with a series of artistic strategies. I’m trying deliberately to frustrate the ontological gaze of the spectator. And I’m breaking with realistic traditions of cinematic narration by suturing different elements together to make a multi-temporal piece.”
Ho ho ho. But seriously, there’s a good piece in The Guardian about Isaac Julien today. I’d really like to see the show at the Hayward.
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Horses Horses Everywhere
by Ruth Barker 28 Sep 2010
Hello,
I’ve been adding some information to the site today about Shelly Nadashi’s work Two Horses’ Scarecrow and I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to become acquainted with the work again. You can check out the new articles here and here.
The piece was commissioned back in Spring 2010, and as the first commission PAR+RS had tried to do, it was a great experience for me to write a brief, identify an artist, and talk through the work’s development. Being able to launch the work now at Mapping the Future feels like the conclusion to a really worthwhile project.
Nadashi at Schloss Brollin
I’ve been thinking a lot about the worth of PAR+RS’ venture into commissioning though – especially as we’ve recently been working with artist and designer Sarah Tripp on another commissioned work that will also be revealed at Mapping the Future. What does it mean for Public Art Scotland to be producing work as well as commenting on what others are doing? Is there a conflict of interest there? Is it a problem for PAR+RS to commission?
I realise that I’m probably not the right person to answer that, but I’m going to at least try and put some of my own thoughts on paper (or should that read ‘on screen’?)
For me, I think I see our forays into commissioning as a series of experiments, where we can try and learn from the discussions that happen on the site. At the same time of course, we’re continuing to further those discussions by feeding the completed work (and its production process) back into the mix.
I hope that there’s a generosity and a public benefit to doing that, but perhaps that’s only something that we can read retrospectively. PAR+RS is an online resource, and that identification is important. But we also have to remember that divisions between what’s online and what’s offline become increasingly artificial as online platforms inform and influence offline actions; and offline developments challenge and lead online developments. For PAR+RS to be meaningful, useful, and above all for it to remain a genuine part of the contemporary public art sector, I feel that the relationship between our online core and our offline moments has to be symbiotic. And one of the most fruitful ways I see that symbiosis working is when our online structure can generate new knowledge that transcends the context of the screen.
I think Two Horses’ Scarecrow does do that, and Mapping the Future is also part of that ongoing endeavour. I’m looking forward to the symposia, when people will be able to encounter this new work of Nadashi’s for the first time. But the piece will also exist here, on the site – which was part of the artist’s brief, after all – for the duration of the symposia (6th – 20th October).
As ever, let me know what you think,More later,
R. -
Time Flies
by Ruth Barker 24 Sep 2010
Hello,
It feels like the days have been speeding past lately. Maybe it’s got something to do with the end of the summer? I always feel like September’s the beginning of the year, with the season heralding a return to openings and lots of art events on the horizon. I’ve been truly amazed (and heartened) by the amount of public art related conferences and symposia I’ve been invited to lately.
Here’s a few that caught my eye, either recently passed or about to happen – let me know if you’re thinking of going to any:
Public Art Private Money
Thursday 23rd September, ICA, London
Public funding for the arts is at a moment of crisis. Where should the arts look for its money?Talking Cities: The Edinburgh Lectures
1st October – 24th March, various locations, Edinburgh.
Do cities do more than generate economic income for the region and the nation?Expanded Fields
Saturday 2nd October, SSW, Huntly.
Exploring ideas of collectivism and self-organisation for cultural organisations.The Arts of Place – Integrating Creativity and Regeneration
Thursday 7 October, National Media Museum, Bradford.
Exploring the impact of integrating culture and creativity with regenerationState of Play: Art and Culture in Scotland Today
Saturday 9th October, Gilmorehill Centre, Glasgow.
Providing a forum to examine the significance of art and culture for society today.The Black Country Creative Advantage Conference
Saturday 9th October, The Public, West Bromwich.
Reflecting on the impact of ‘partnership’ governance on urban development and to explore ideas on how we can work for social justice in this context.North Edinburgh Arts Public Art Seminar
Tuesday 12th October, North Edinburgh Arts.
Summarising the events of the year, and looking at how the enthusiasm, thinking and connections generated by NEA’s recent Public Art Project can be best used in the future.Creative Approaches to Real Regeneration
Wednesday 10th November, Pearce Institute, Glasgow
This conference is a cinematic exploration (no PowerPoint allowed!) of creative approaches to regenerating real communities.The queen bee (of course) amid this swarm of symposia will be PAR+RS / Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design’s Mapping the Future: Public Art In Scotland event taking place in Dundee over 3 consecutive Wednesdays in October. We’ve been working hard to programme a really great few days, and I think the event will make a great contribution to the discussions that so many are finding so relevant just now. There are a few tickets left – SO BOOK YOUR PLACE NOW! For those who can’t make it, we’ll be getting as much coverage as we can right here on your favourite public art website. If you want to contribute your own thoughts, irritations, confessions, obsessions, or impressions from the day, just let me know.
More later,
R
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On Seeking
by Ruth Barker 12 Sep 2010
Hello,
thought this might interest. It was published (in MacMag) at the start of the summer, but I only just got my act together to ask for a copy! Thanks for sorting that, Gareth.
More later,
R
On Seeking The Temporary In Contemporary Public Art
Of a short story, I once heard someone say that ‘its brevity doesn’t matter because its resonance remains.’ Thinking about public art, I find I disagree: not with the statement’s sentiment, but with its specificity. Because actually I think that brevity matters very much indeed. Sometimes, after all, it’s the brief nature of a work – the sense of the fleeting, the transient, the ephemeral – that lends its resonance.
Why? How might it be that significance is leant rather than lost by temporary-ness? I thought about it, sitting on the train between London and Glasgow, watching the landscape flash past the dull toughened glass of the window. I found a blue biro in my black bag, and on the back of a pink paper bag I wrote, slowly, as each point occurred to me in turn:
1. In art, resonance sometimes becomes permanence in memory (we may see something once, and remember it forever).
2. = Ephemerality as a kind of individual (but non-physical) permanence. The unexpected gift of the original moment of encounter might be dulled if repeated.
3. Also, public artwork is generally produced for a specific context. This context is not only physical but also social, emotional, economic, ergonomic, &c. In time, these contexts may shift. As they shift, a permanent public artwork may lose its moorings. Temporary work exists in the moment, and departs with it.
4. We are creatures of habit. If we see something (anything) too many times, we may find that it becomes invisible to us. Temporary work arrives and leaves again, asking us (as we pass that way to work) to notice first its presence, and then its absence.
5. A change is as good as a rest.
6. Familiarity breeds contempt.
Chewing my pen, I turned the paper bag over, still thinking, and not quite satisfied. On the side where the company’s logo was printed in light grey, I wrote quickly with my blue pen:
- But don’t we have confidence in our ability to make valuable, significant things?
- Isn’t there a value to having artists shape our civic spaces?
- Don’t we want to leave a legacy for the future?
- Don’t we have a responsibility to give value for money? How can we justify spending thousands on something that only lasts a year, a season, a month, a day, an hour?
- You talk about temporary works as if they’re a gift – appearing and disappearing, to remain in our memories like gold leaf glimpsed on a dirty wall (I mean, like something precious, unexpected, and gone the next time we look). But aren’t you actually taking something away when a temporary work disappears or fades away? You talk about giving, but I feel like I’ve lost something important.
- Out of sight, out of mind.
But at Carlisle I read the paper again. I was as dissatisfied as I thought I would be. With decision, I screwed the bag up and turned it into rubbish. So long as we’re still wondering, I thought, we’re doing all we can.
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Watch It
by Ruth Barker 10 Sep 2010
Hello,
David Shrigley says Save The Arts
more later,
R -
just a quick one
by Ruth Barker 6 Sep 2010
Hello,
Just wanted to send you a link to that article I was telling you about. You can find Maag Mag here. Scroll through the find the article, titled Places of Belonging. Or you can also read the whole thing here.
Let me know any thoughts,
more later,
R
PS: Oh, but I just saw this and had to share it. This is a form of musing very close to my own heart (and practice) but I also think it’s essential fodder for a site like this, which is essentially a forum to verbalise our experiences of contemporary public art. How we discuss and describe art matters. I firmly believe that the languages we use to talk about art influence how we experience, perceive, remember and understand – not just art, but the wider world. As such, finding ways to talk about (and write about, and think about) public art is one of the most important things we can do – other than making it, of course! ;)
Speak soon, R.
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Producers or Consumers?
by Ruth Barker 23 Aug 2010
Hello,
A significant amount of cultural thinking these days seems to revolve around the discussion of binaries – you know the kind of thing: are we at the centre or on the periphery? ; or is something public or is it private? ; are we talking urban or rural? and so on. I recently heard a new one though: are you a cultural producer or a cultural consumer?
I’ll bet it’s something you’d never worried about before, but now it seems that you may be invited to. In a moment of synchronicty I spotted this article in the Guardian today – funny isn’t it when you hear about something for the first time, and then suddenly it seems to be everywhere?
So, the problem I have with this producer/consumer division is that most people I know who produce ‘culture’ (writers, musicians, artists and so on) are also rabid consumers of it. Writers read, or course; musicians listen to music; artists go to shows. But artists also listen to music, and musicians also read books and writers also go to exhibitions. And to make matters even more complicated, I read (or ‘consume’) many many books and articles in order to produce creatively. It’s not ‘just’ a leisure / pleasure activity – consuming culture is itself a creative, productive, act. To split people up into those that consume and those who produce seems a meaningless exercise!
So why have I bothered to bring it to your attention? Two related reasons, actually:
1) sometimes a bad example can invite us to re-examine other examples that we previously assumed. OK, so producer/consumer is a silly division. But let’s take another look at public/private or centre/periphery. Are these distinctions valid? Are they useful?
2) what does the fact that ‘producer/consumer’ has appeared on the horizon of our discourse tell us? I think in essence it reminds us that our world is very complicated, and that we’re always looking for ways to simplify it. As humans, we constantly try to understand human behaviour (it’s vital that we do so, after all) and these binary splits are attempts to contain some of the hundreds of thousands of potential possibilities.
Of course, ‘chunking together’ information or ideas like this can be massively useful as a shorthand for us to notice and communicate trends and generalisations in our world. We might even find it an elegant, economical tool to think through ideas and generate new and creative questions. Like any shorthanding though, we need to remain conscious of the fact that we’re concealing complixity and difference for the sake of simplicity.
Sometimes, as I say, it takes a shorthand that just doesn’t work to remind us of how many of them we casually use. As both producers and consumers of culture, it’s important for us to be aware of the language we use to describe and understand it.
more later,
R.
What’s that?! A picture on the Blog! Hooray! Thanks to an upgrade from our fabulous web designer Keavy McMinn of Minimetre we can now embed images directly into the Blogs rather than having to list them all on a seperate page. Thanks Keavy! This, as I was thinking of those producer / consumer questions, is my temporary studio at CCA Glasgow’s Creative Lab, where I’m having a really productive month of reflection on my practice. Productive, yes – but on the desk you can also see a copy of Vogue and my ancient ipod, testifying to my simultaneous consumer status…
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Cash in Hand
by Ruth Barker 9 Aug 2010
Hello,
Firstly, I’d like to draw your attention to this contribute if you can.Secondly, I’d like to draw your attention to this contribute if… well this one’s more complicated. If you follow the link, you’ll see that Shetland Arts and Mission Models Money are running a consultation looking at whether artists are likely to be benefited by having the option to take out loans. A source tells me that the loans they’re talking about aren’t too big (around £500) and are envisaged as paying for fairly concrete costs – for example paying to frame a painting that could then be sold.
But loans are still a contentious issue so in a way I’m surprised to see that the survey’s been launched. I’d be curious to know more about its inception. Why the contention? Well, perhaps it’s stating the obvious, but many artists are not in the most stable financial circumstances. What happens to the painter in the above example if the painting doesn’t sell? I hate to say it, but artists sometimes don’t make the most objective business plans!
My own opinion is that loans are never an unproblematic option – not least because of the fundamental significance of one person being in debt to another. That doesn’t mean that they’re not an option though. There are plenty of loans on the market already after all. I know that there have been calls from some quarters for the consultation to be scrapped, but this itself raises questions to my mind. After all, surely artists are responsible enough to make their own views known in a consultation format like this? If loans aren’t wanted or needed, surely people will say so? And, of course, it may be that some people would find a loan of the type proposed by Shetland Arts and Mission Models Money to be useful. It’s never been the case, after all, that all creative practitioners will fit into the same box when it comes to what they want or need to keep their practice going.
So I am interested to know the results of the survey. If Shetland Arts or Mission Models Money want to get in touch we’d be more than happy to hear from you. Likewise if anyone else feels strongly about this issue.
Let us know your thoughts,
More later,
R.ps. Variant have reminded me that you can read some email exchanges regarding the survey – and an explanation of why Variant would like it to be withdrawn – here
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On NVA
by Ruth Barker 4 Aug 2010
Hello,
I met with Kitty Anderson today, for some very pleasant lunch and a catch up on her current work for NVA in Glasgow.1. Kitty, as some of you will know, also works as Communications Manager for The Common Guild, and until February this year was also at The Modern Institute, so she has a pretty amazing track record working for successful and innovative arts organisations in the city.
NVA are doing some very interesting things these days it seems, so it was great to get an inside perspective on what they’re up to. Two current / upcoming projects interested me particularly. I’ll give an overview of both (they’re very different) and then say a little about why my attention was so caught.
The first project is Glasgow Harvest, taking place at Tramway’s Hidden Gardens on 28th August, and billed as a ‘celebration of urban growing’. Here’s what the flier says:
“NVA invite everyone who grows their own food on whatever scale to take part in Glasgow’s biggest ever open air meal.
Come along for a day packed full of home produce, live music and performance. Get your own edible punk haircut, eat a poke of chips from the Great Scottish Double Chip Challenge, compare Allotment Soups, make a giant Jam Wall, marvel at Glasgow’s most Eccentric Sheds and help judge the Creative Containers competition.â€
Visitors are also encouraged to bring food to share, design and plant a creative container, and make a jar of jam. All in all it seems as though the project is highly engaged with its context, sited as it is within the broader SAGE initiative from NVA and ERZ landscape architects.
The other project Kitty mentioned that caught my attention is the plan – still at early stages – for NVA to work with the site of St Peter’s Seminary in Cardross, and the neighbouring Kilmahew Woodlands2. Much of the discussions for St Peter’s are still tentative and, indeed, the process currently seems poised at a somewhat fragile moment. You can read an old (and maybe a bit out-dated) press release from NVA’s archive here. But I do want to draw your attention to this bit – it’s part of a statement from Angus Farquhar (NVA’s Creative Director) that’s quoted in the release:
“The site [of St Peter’s Seminary] carries a remarkable 500 year history of human intervention, from the mediaeval foundations of Cardross Castle, the survival of natural woodlands and a stunning Victorian designed estate, to the powerful imposition of the 20th century seminary buildings. A creative landscape is driven not by a single focus or perspective on its heritage, conservation, environmental or leisure value, but by an inspired reading of the layers of history that underpin it, that define its complex character and the visionary artistic responses that can expand this narrative into a new century. The plan will allow us to look at temporary and permanent ways to take these ideas forward.â€
So, why did these very different projects strike me as so pertinent? I suppose (as always) it’s for a few different reasons. Partly there’s the way that NVA operates. I’m quite fascinated by the way that they seem to have found a new model for art production, and that that model seems remarkably fruitful. From a background in theatre, Angus has brought his energy and sincerity to a wide range of contexts and seems to have charged them all with a spirit of creative endeavour that is quite remarkable.
You can see the results in that here are two projects being carried forward at the same time by the same organisation and which – though they exist at very different scales and with very different intentions – share an overarching ambition that somehow draws them together. And yet there’s more than just a vague sense of approach that links them. Because both projects also share an ability to take an incisive look at humans’ complex relationships to landscape and culture. Together they continue NVA’s remarkable practice of exploring the patterns of behaviour and imagination that shape who we are and how we think. In the proposed project for St Peter’s, that is played out against the grand scale of cultural history and its attendant structures of religion, belief and heritage. In Glasgow Harvest, we discover it at the far more intimate but equally fundamental level of the personal production of food and community. But through both we still see (I think at least) how NVA continue to investigate and illuminate our multi-nodal points of relation to our world and each other. As their 20th anniversary approaches, that suddenly seems like quite an achievement.
Thanks for lunch, Kitty!
More later,
R.1 Read a PAR+RS Feature in which artist Anthony Schrag interviews NVA’s Creative Director Angus Farquhar here.
2 There are some fantastic pictures of St Peter’s on the Hidden Glasgow site here.
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Homomonument
by Ruth Barker 26 Jul 2010
Hello,
I was in Holland for a couple of days last week, and on Friday I made a trip to see the Homomonument in Amsterdam – something that I’ve intended to do for ages. I wanted to write about it here as, as it turned out, the memorial became a little essay on Temporary and Permanent-ness.
Located on the bank of the Keizersgracht canal, near the historic Westerkerk church, the Homomonument (perhaps the name sounds better in Dutch):
Commemorates all women and men ever oppressed and persecuted because of their Homosexuality.
Supports the International Lesbian and Gay movement in their struggle against contempt, discrimination, and oppression.
Demonstrates that we are not alone
Calls for permanent vigilance.
Past, present and future and represented by the 3 triangles on this square. Designed by Karin Daan, 1987. 1And it’s very successful, I think. Read here for a clear description of the work. The most successful element, I felt, is that representing the present – a series of steps leading down to the water’s edge. The triangle here makes a new space within the civic arena, demarcating an area that feels generous, and calm. You might feel a sense of the sacred here. And it seemed well used. In the time I was there several people came to sit on the steps, and others arrived with the clear intention of paying their respects. And at the triangle’s tip, just at the point when it edges furthest over the canal, there was evidence of another kind of use. A wreath of remembrance had been laid there, with candles, and a handwritten note telling a private story of atrocity on a personal scale.
And so there was a delicate moment played out; a permanent assertion of remembrance coupled with a temporary reminder that, though we might intone the words ‘never again’, acts of violence and hatred are still perpetrated, men and women still die in horror, and we must continue to find ways to mark their passing publicly. What does it mean to overlay the permanent with the temporary trace of an individual voice? It’s something about detail, I think. And about humanity. The temporary laying of flowers – a gesture that is nothing if not ephemeral – becomes a powerful statement that drags us back an acknowledgement of the individual, drawn against the background of plural commemoration.
The Homomonument is far more interesting to my mind than the other contemporary Amsterdam memorial – De Schreeuw (The Scream) by Jeroen Henneman, sited in the city’s Oosterpark. De Schreeuw a monument to free speech dedicated to the murdered filmmaker Theo van Gogh. But here I feel that the poetry of the abstract’s relationship to the specific (perhaps even the balance between ideas of the whole in relation to the fragment, which are essential to the notion of civic memorial) is unfulfilled. Let me know if you think otherwise – I’d be genuinely interested.
There’s something else I wanted to share with you, because someone shared it with me today. Just a photograph. This is an image of a sandstone barrier in Chapeltown, Leeds, intended to prevent cars being driven onto a grassed area. Someone’s sprayed a single word, which somehow transforms urban street furniture into something far more complicated and inexplicable. There’s a long history of religious graffiti in this sometimes charged area but this most minimal is either the very simplest or else by far the most complicated! As always, if this graffiti is yours, do let us know.
More later,
R.1 information from the Homomonument’s dedication signage, on site
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Welcome to the Team
by Ruth Barker 19 Jul 2010
Hello,
I have exciting news this week, as PAR+RS has a new administrator! Hooray! The lovely Bérengère Chabanis joined the team last week, and is bravely navigating the depths of Public Art Scotland with only me to guide her. So far she’s been surviving admirably. I’ve stolen an image from her Facebook page to show you what she looks like. I’m sure she wont mind…
Berengere’s email address is admin@publicartscotland.com and you should drop her a line with your press releases, news, events, and opportunities. Do keep us up to date with everything public art related that you’re doing, as it’s important that we stay up to date with everything from the biggest to the smallest projects. It’s the only way, after all, that we can stay informed and independent. There’s certainly a lot happening just now, despite the rubbish Scottish summer. Check out our events listings to find what’s going on in your area and further afield.
Lastly I wanted to mention that that most public of temporary public projects The Fourth Plinth is in the news again as the powers that be draw up a shortlist of artists to produce a new work that will occupy the plinth during the prestigious 2012 Olympic slot. Those being considered for what may turn out to be a poisoned chalice are: Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla ; Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset ; Katharina Fritsch ; Brian Griffiths ; Hew Locke and Mariele Neudecker
I’d be interested to know your thoughts. Top picks anyone? I think I’d go for Hew Locke, actually. Controversial, I know… What d’you reckon?
More later,
R. -
Places and Spaces
by Ruth Barker 12 Jul 2010
Hello,
so I just finished writing a Feature article for the next issue of NABROAD magazine, which is due out in August. The subject I was asked to write about was an interesting one, catalysed by the questions behind the project Third Space, a NABROAD Production for the Baltic Bienalle for Contemporary Art in St Petersburg.
Third Space’s curator, Pavla Alchin, wrote the following about the project:
“At the beginning of the 21st century, the Earth has been changed by globalization into a planet of nomads. It is hardly surprising that among the recent waves of immigrants are thousands of visual artists – history after all, is littered with creative people on the move. In the past the reasons for their exile where varied – persecution, a search for the exotic, from the need to survive to the need to be at a place of artistic innovation. Today many of these reasons remain the same.
However, I would like to suggest here another reason why artists find living abroad appealing. According to Czech born philosopher Vilem Flusser, exile and creativity are closely linked. In exile everything around us is new and becomes sharp and noisy. Uprooted people have to be creative to process an ocean of chaotic information that surrounds them, to change it into meaningful messages (1). It is perhaps this heightened state of perception that attracts creative minds.
The title of our project was borrowed from postcolonial scholar Homi K. Bhabha who first fore-grounded the concept of Third Space in his book The Location of Culture (1994). Bhabha sees the Third Space as a space of enunciation, where two social groups with different cultural traditions carry out special negotiations, which eventually lead to a displacement of the members of both groups from their origins. However, it is also supposed to bring about common identity, new in its hybridity (2).
Taking the above ideas as a kind of springboard, our project wishes to focus on artists who have decided to make this leap of faith in making their home in homelessness (3) and as a result are benefiting from a similar crosspollination of cultures."
1&3 from V. Flusser Writings, 2002.
2 from K. Ikas and G. Wagner, Communicating in the Third Space, 2009.It’s an interesting set of relationships that Alchin presents, and it was a useful incentive for me to think around some of these ideas of space and placelessness. One of the most fruitful realisations I made as I wrote was that of a personal paradox, which I’ll try to describe.
We speak a lot, after all, about the need for places rather than spaces, about the need we have to inhabit landscapes that have meaning and memory and association. We often feel that we know as a fact, that spaces with which we don’t connect, or territories that we pass through rather than inhabit, are sterile and lacking in humanity or love. And yet as I wrote this piece about placelessness, I realised that I actually feel a kind of joy about being in a place I do not know, and that I have no connection to.
I travel a lot, and one of my greatest pleasures is to walk the streets of a city that I don’t know and don’t quite understand, feeling my lack of connection and my outsideness. I really relish that sense of wonder that comes with dislocation. Does any on else feel that kind of pleasure? It can’t be that unusual, surely? It’s a great feeling! Or am I just weird? And does this devalue, in a way, our notions of placemaking?
Thoughts welcome! I’ll post a link to the article here once it’s up on NABROAD.
More later,
R. -
Into The New
by Ruth Barker 6 Jul 2010
Hello,
sorry I’ve been out of touch for a while. I’ve been out and about on my travels, doing a show in Givatayim in Israel, and then a site specific performance at Carrawburgh Mithraeum on Hadrian’s wall. I’ll be updating my CIAS blog with news about these as soon as I get the time, so as I don’t wish to duplicate I’ll move on to other news here for PAR+RS.So, what else is new? Well I guess Creative Scotland’s birth, after what’s felt like a very long gestation, is a pretty noteworthy item. As most readers of these page will already be aware, the process by which the Scottish Arts Council has become Creative Scotland has been – to say the least – controversial in some sections of Scotland’s art community.
Since 2008, Variant, the free arts and culture magazine, has kept up the Creative Scotland Blogspot as a forum to share their concerns that Creative Scotland is “overwhelmingly seeking to makes artists instruments of government policy – in the words of the bill, artists are to “support the government’s overarching purpose.”
In the interests of balance, this is how Creative Scotland describes itself on its own website:
“Creative Scotland is the new national leader for Scotland’s arts, screen and creative industries. It’s our job to help Scotland’s creativity shine at home and abroad.
We will invest in talented people and exciting ideas, develop the creative industries and champion everything that’s good about Scottish creativity.
Scotland boasts an incredible range of talent, from award-winning directors and writers to widely recognized actors and internationally renowned architects and digital companies. As a result of the wealth of indigenous talent, Scotland produces a huge volume of home-grown productions and products each year.
We think Scotland’s arts, culture and creative industries are worth shouting about. We’ll lead the shouting."
The relationships between arts and politics are – and always have been – complicated. I don’t agree with Leigh French (Variant magazine’s brilliant, vocal, dogmatic, and intractable Editor) that it’s necessarily a corrupt, negative, or destructive relationship. But I also can’t believe that it is a wholly benificent or unproblematic. Is that a cop-out on my part? Am I just sitting on the fence?
I don’t think so, but I’m sure Leigh would probably disagree with me. I guess I think that art is essentially linked to culture, and to the society in which it exists. We can’t divide art practice from the influence or economies of governmental politics, and I don’t feel that it would be useful to try to. But I also believe strongly in a pluralism of practices and models. In the light of this perhaps I feel that we need a push and pull between art and the political systems which (whether we like it or not) partly frame it. Part of that push and pull are the ways that the party in government supports and invests in art practice. But the other side of the relationship also has to involve the ways that artists criticise and contradict and activate themselves against that same government.
This push and pull can only be healthy of course when we have other points of reference and support as well – relationships with other human beings, with the market or the economy, relationships with music or poetry or with meaning. At the moment I feel that the artistic landscape in Scotland is hugely healthy because of the multiplicity of models that exist here. We have artist-run no-budget projects funded by people’s bar jobs and waitressing wages; we have civic institutions funded by taxpayers (and we are also, of course, taxpayers outselves); we have commercial projects well enmeshed in a global art market; we have community-run initiatives and privately funded enterprises and everything else inbetween.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that public funding – whatever the organisation that moderates it – is only one part of the picture. And in terms of artists’ relationships with the government, the funding provided by government agencies are only one part of that relationship. This isn’t to absolve us of responsibility when it comes to defining our own landscape, but rather to remind us of the complexity of that landscape as we try to navigate it. It’s good that there are voices like Variant’s to ring out in warning and remind us of the dangers, the reservations, and the difficulties. But it’s also good that there is investment in the arts, and that there are a variety of models around for artists to make use of in order to make projects happen. And if I’m brutal, then to me, that’s the most important thing of all – that artists are making work.
Incidentally, as I was writing this, I was listening with half an ear to Grayson Perry talking on Radio 4 about creativity. Seems like he’s always on the radio these days. Anyway, two things drifted into my brain from the discussion – both of which were no doubt filtered by the rambling content of this blog. The first was that apparently the Creative Industries make up a whopping 6.2 % of Britain’s GDP. Wowzers. I’m pretty sure that’s what they said, anyway. When asked to elaborate on what kind of organisations made up the cultural sector under this definition, it was things like advertising agencies, the performing arts (including music), digital and online media, and international broadcasting. But they stressed the importance of organisations like art schools and galleries and concert halls as providing the ‘life blood’ of the sector.
The other snippet was the one I want to end on, just because I think its lovely and it returns us aptly to the idea I always like to finish on – namely that of art itself, and its importance in the world. Creative endeavour, the writer Rose Tremain told Grayson, is a series of small “acts of repentance” that we make, and continue to make, throughout our lives. How poetic, I thought.
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Here and Now
by Ruth Barker 5 Jun 2010
Hello,
So, the temporary-ness of projects… It’s something that’s been in the news lately as the Fourth Plinth has a new occupant – surely this is the most visible example of a temporary public project that has really entered the public consciousness.
And I’d suggest, that that heterogeneous-many faced-multifaceted-uniquely experienced mass of people of whom we are part and parcel and whom we inexplicably lump with the catch-all term ‘the public’; well, they seem to quite like it. Or at least the conversations I read in the media seem now to be able to discuss the perceived merits or failures of the work in question, rather than being too hung up on how long said piece is going to be on the plinth for. It was a brave move, I feel, to use the plinth as a way to show temporary works. And it’s paid off. Partly because I think it’s been able to show something of the evolution of practice that exists in Britain at the moment. Ideas change over time, and the Fourth Plinth reflects that somehow. In a brief, tiny way. Like a ship in a bottle adrift over choppy seas…
It reminds me though, of some of the conversations I’ve been having lately with a range of interesting people. One day last week (or possibly the week before – I’ve been busy lately, and the days seems to blur into one another!) I met with Sorcha Dallas and Jenny Crowe about their project A New Path. We spoke about many things, but partly I became interested in the fact that all of the works they’ve selected for their research focus are permanent works1. Does this mean that temporary works are less available for subsequent reflection? Is it harder for a temporary work to enter a ‘canon’ of significance? I don’t think so, but I could be wrong.
Anyway, directly after this meeting I went up the Glasgow Women’s Library to meet with Dr Fiona Dean and artists Nicky Bird and Shauna McMullan, who were selected to undertake the Making Space for Women: Towards a New Public Artwork for Glasgow project for GWL. Something from the initial literature surrounding the project came back to me strongly. The GWL team had looked at the existing civic statuary in Glasgow – for much the same reasons as Sorcha and Jenny had also been looking at some of the permanent works in the city: reflecting on what exists already in order to learn more about possible ways to make new things in the future. What the GWL noticed was that none of the existing public monuments commemorated Glasgow’s women. They were all marking the achievements of the city’s men. And that realisation was something of a catalyst for action, and for the generation of new works by Shauna and by Nicky, and hopefully – eventually – for the development of a new public work that does something to address this current lack. But it did make me think about the nature of temporary and permanent. Because permanent work (to state the obvious) is still there even after the artist, the commissioner, and the public it was developed for, are all gone. The permanent public works we encounter reflect a particular context, even if that context then changes. They remind us of a time, of a way of thinking, even when that time is no longer the present, and even when that way of thinking seems outmoded or even wrong. Glasgow’s civic statues do not only represent men because only men have lead lives of achievement. Rather, they only represent men because they were erected at a time when the powers the be (certainly the powers that erect monuments) valued the achievements of men more highly than the achievements of women. That time, I hope, has passed. But for me it’s important that we remember that discrimination used to be commonplace. Is it right, after all, to edit our own cultural history? So I believe it is right to point out the fact – loudly! – that there is inequality in our civic record, and to do what we can to correct that now, in the work that is commissioned today and tomorrow. After all if we didn’t have those permanent indelible reminders of the thinking of our forefathers, would we also lose the catalyst to make our own marks on the landscape of our streets and squares?
And the flip side of this permanent evidence of the thinking of previous generations: the memorials (which do exist) to those we would rather not celebrate any more. What about the slavers, the colonialists, the tyrants, who still stand on their plinths with pigeons on their heads? Sculpted at a time when they were thought heroes or statesmen, what do we do with their images now that they are seen as criminals or monsters? Do we erase their monuments in an effort to forget? It’s difficult territory, clearly. My own feeling is that we should retain them as an acknowledgement of past injustice, but adapt or alter or mark them. Maybe we should write new inscriptions for them, or cut off their faces to mark the horrors they perpetrated, or relocate them from their original sites to someplace new that seems more fitting. There are plenty of possibilities.
But what does this have to do with temporary-ness? Well, only this. That the temporary is by necessity fleeting. In a hundred years we will be lucky if the documentation still exists and – if it does – we should be remember that all documentation is an edited version of the truth. It can never be the whole picture. By refraining from making indelible marks, do we risk our perspective on our contemporary world being lost to future generations?
As always, I’d love to read your thoughts.
More later,
R.1 of varying kinds of permanence, I grant you. It’s clear that Graham Fagen’s Where the Heart Is for example, uses a different register of permanence that Ian Hamilton Finlay’s pillars. But the work is still one that’s made to be around for a long time.
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New Season - Temporary Projects
by Ruth Barker 24 May 2010
Hello!
And welcome to the new PAR+RS Summer Season. Over the next few months we’ll be looking at Temporary Projects, in all their many forms and varieties.
The pros and cons of the temporary were first discussed on PAR+RS last year, when Ginny Hutchison’s Seven Sunsets project began a debate that featured on the Blog- Since that time the question of how the question of duration might effect artworks developed for public space has come up again and again, in projects such as The Black Cloud (Situations, Bristol), which was discussed at the recent SpeedWork Symposium.
With the rise and rise of art festivals and biennials (Scotland alone has Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art, Coast, and The Edinburgh Art Festival to name but three) we’ve seen temporary projects in unusual locations enter the mainstream of contemporary curatorial practice. The successes of the growing ranks of graffiti, interventionist, and street artists have also opened our eyes to the possibilities of works that are made for public space and then ‘abandoned’ to the whims of weather, civic obliteration, and public intervention. Shifts in commissioning strategies have also done much to encourage engagement with works that simply aren’t meant to last forever, but whose legacy must depend on the experience of a single moment, day, or season.
We’ve been asking artists, commissioners and other to share their experiences of temporary projects – the problems and the regrets as well as the times of triumph and illumination. We’ve got a whole host of fascinating insights lined up over the next few months, as the conversation will unfold throughout the summer. And don’t forget its not too late to join in the conversation! If the articles here incite you to rage or inspire you to generosity we want to hear about it. Email the editor if you want to contribute, or share your comments on line. We can’t wait to hear from you.
In our first batch of articles for you, we have Kirsty Innes of the Irvine Bay Regeneration Company, discussing beach front commissioning in Opera houses, raindrops and fishing boats – inspiring pupils’ designs on the future…
Most exciting of all, we’ve been working on our first ever PAR+RS commissioned artwork – a public performance / action by artist Shelly Nadashi, which we just can’t wait to share with you! We’ll be revealing the work in the coming weeks, so keep a close eye on the site to read much more on this soon…
For now though, I’ll leave you with a phrase I heard on the radio. A woman, talking about a short story she’d read, opined the following. “Its brevity doesn’t matter†she told her interviewer “so long as its resonance remains.†Wise words, perhaps?
More later,
R. -
Central Station's White Bike film
by Ruth Barker 18 May 2010
is brilliant. A really great piece of documentation.
Check it out:or NVA
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No Mention of the Election
by Ruth Barker 10 May 2010
Hello,
I heard today from Peacock Visual Arts, in Aberdeen, who were providing an update on the ongoing Union Terrace Gardens machinations.For those who don’t know about this (is there anyone left who doesn’t know about this?) ‘The City Square’ is a radical plan to transform Aberdeen city centre by raising Union Terrace Gardens and the Denburn Valley to the surrounding street level, covering over the railway and the dual carriageway. The proposal would create over 5 acres of ground at street level and a further 2.5 acres of all-weather, covered space. You can read all about the City Square Plan here
As it happens, many people have expressed reservations about such a radical building project, with concerns involving the loss of public green space and expansion of commercial and retail space. One of the principle voices in the campaign to rethink the plans has been that of Peacock Visual Arts, who – it turns out – had an existing plan to site a new Centre for Visual Arts on the same site. Peacock’s plan was all going swimmingly, until plans for The City Square were revealed.
The results of a public consultation showed that 55% of participants did not want the City Square proposal. The majority of respondants wanted green space and a contemporary arts centre in any future development on the site. A press release from Peacock at the time stated that:
“Reading carefully through the information released today we are delighted to see that all of the major elements that people want to see – greater accessibility, green space and cultural facilities – can be delivered in Peacock’s existing plans for Union Terrace Gardens.
“At a time of increasing pressure on the public purse Aberdeen can be seen to be leading the way in delivering quality public facilities and value for money by enabling the Peacock plans for Union Terrace Gardens to go ahead. We have a short funding window now until June to get the go-ahead for the new arts centre and we hope that in the light of the results of the public consultation ACSEF, Sir Ian Wood, and Aberdeen City Council will look positively at the Peacock scheme as the first stage of a win-win for Aberdeen.
“However, so far Sir Ian has stated the City Council must decide to proceed with the City Square as it stands or he will withdraw his £50 million.â€
Today though, Peacock provided the latest installment of the saga, and appealed again for the help of willing supporters. Maybe you can help them by writing to your local Councillor. I can’t, as I don’t live in Aberdeen. I have signed their petition though.
Here’s what they said:
“Dear all,
“As many of you will know the City Council are due to make a decision on the future of Union Terrace Gardens on May 19th.
“At this meeting they will have to decide whether to give Peacock the green light OR to continue with the development of the City Square project.
“Despite Sir Ian saying that he would withdraw if the Square did not meet with overwhelming support of the public, he has decided to continue with the project and make the City Council decide.
“The majority of people in the public consultation voted against the Square. We really hope that Aberdeen City Council represent the views of their electorate when making their decision.
“We need your help to ensure that they do.
“Every Aberdeen City Councillor will have a vote at this meeting so please do get in touch with yours (you can find them at www.writetothem.com) and urge them to make the right decision on the 19th. Please tell your friends to do the same.
“As ever, thank you all so much for you kind words and support. You have been truly amazing over this period and all of us here at Peacock are extremely grateful.
Elly and the Peacock Team"
As ever, comments from both sides welcome. There’s lots more information here.
more later,
R. -
Susan Phillipsz
by Ruth Barker 5 May 2010
So other people thought Lowlands was pretty good, too…
Great news. Hope she wins! And I’m interested to see what she’ll make for the show. Hope she’s able to work outside the gallery space, as it’d be great to see site specific practice being showcased. And interesting that this comes the year after Roger Hiorns was also shortlisted for a public work. Could public art practice’s star be in ascendant?
more later,
R. -
We're Back!
by Ruth Barker 22 Apr 2010
Hello Hello Hello,
it seems like an age since I saw you last. For those who’ve been trying to access the site over the past couple of weeks I can only apologise. We were forced to take PAR+RS offline while we sorted out some vital maintainance and admin issues that simply couldn’t wait. But I’m now very happy (you don’t know how happy – really) to say that everything PAR+RS-side is now shipshape again, and we’re back with a bang right into Gi!
We will of course be covering a lot of the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, but we’re also about to launch a new Spring / Summer Season on Temporary Public Projects so there’ll be lots of new articles to browse – do get in touch if there’s something you think we should know about. Gi is important though, as it’s a time during which a lot of international – and national – visitors come to Scotland to see what it is we’re doing here. Of course, not everything in the Festival has a relationship to contemporary public art, but it’s inarguable that much of it does – not least in the structure of the Festival itself, and the DIY ethos that still permeates it.
We’ll be picking out some of the best projects for your perusal in a public art themed Most Wanted; and we’ll have plenty of coverage of Jodi Rose’s Welcome to Bridgeland project, which is launching with an event tomorrow (Friday) at the South Portland Street Suspension Bridge in Glasgow (that’s the old red foot bridge on the River Clyde, next to Jamaica St Bridge). Please come down for the 8 o’clock start – hope to see you there!
We’re also looking forward to Jacqueline Donachie’s Speedwork Symposium, which PAR+RS has sponsored – save the date now and come down for a fantastic event at House for an Art Lover on April 29th.
For now though, I’ll have to leave you. I’ve got plenty to do getting ready for the new Season…
More later, and thanks for bearing with us through the temporary interruption.
R.
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"Beyond Doctor Who and dinosaurs even."
by Ruth Barker 9 Mar 2010
Hello,
Just a link this time.
More later,
R -
Homecoming
by Ruth Barker 6 Mar 2010
Hello,
On the train back to Scotland after spending a few days in London (just doing some research for a current project). I went to see the Henry Moore retrospective at Tate Britain, and would heartily recommend it to anyone who (like me) tends to think of Moore in relation to large-scale, contextually conservative, permanent works in front of banks. The show is a great look at the evolution of a sculptural practice that, when seen together like this, demonstrates an incredible articulacy and sensitivity. Completely new to me (probably shamefully) were Moore’s drawings, which I found hugely moving. Also fresh were his war works, and his mining drawings – complicated series of images and forms that still carry an eloquent weight and social power. Good to see.
At the British Museum was a similarly eye-opening exhibition of Mexican printmaking. Titled Revolution on Paper: Mexican prints 1910 – 1960 the exhibition concentrated on lithographs, but it was also good to see the more publicly disseminated side of printmaking represented through the inclusion of posters and book jackets. Coming out of the museum I ran into a friend who had happened upon this graphic intervention. Though very far from revolutionary (!), it was good to see that people are still intervening in their public space.
Other useful stuff I was lucky enough to see included the Chris Ofili show at Tate Britain, and The Kingdom if Ife at the British Museum. It was brilliant to be able to spend a whole day each in both the V&A and the British Museum, studying some of the items in their collections. Amazing but exhausting, a dedicated day-long trip to either one is something that everyone should do at least once, I reckon. I’ll warn you though – you still won’t make it round everything! For the temporary exhibitions though, the Kingdom of Ife is particularly relevant in terms of thinking about the relationships between art-making, culture, and public space. Go see it if you can, and let me know what you think.
While I was away, I was also liaising (cue appreciation of modern technology) with performance artist Shelly Nadashi, who will, I’m very happy to announce be working on PAR+RS’ first ever commissioned artwork. Hooray! As a lead into our Spring / Summer 2010 Temporary Projects Season, Shelly will be devising a series of public performances that will take place in Germany (where she is at the moment), Poland, and Scotland. I’m really pleased that Shelly’s agreed to take on the commission, and I’m thrilled that we’re going to be able to follow her progress in an exclusive Blog. I can’t wait to find out what form her final piece will take!
Anyway, writing this on the train, and great as London always is, I’m also very much looking forward to being back home.
More later,
R -
Swinging
by Ruth Barker 26 Feb 2010
Hello,
just saw this on the bbc website. Seems Christoph Büchel has raised some eyebrows (at least) with his new project at The Secession in Vienna.
In a slight departure from previous works I’ve seen, rather than creating an installative ‘hyper-real’ environment within a gallery (see here for an example of Hole at Kunsthalle Basel ) Büchel has this time re-sited an existing real space within the gallery context. Specifically he’s installed Element6, a pre-existing nightclub (or sex club – accounts vary), which is normally located elsewhere in the city of Vienna, inside the gallery space. The club will be open at night when the gallery is closed. During the day visitors to the gallery will have to walk through the club (which will then be closed, and empty of staff and patrons) to reach The Secession’s basement, where they’ll be able to view the Beethoven Frieze by Gustav Klimt. Beethoven Frieze is the wall painting Klimt produced in 1902 for the Vienna Secessionist exhibition. Intended as a temporary commission, the work was later retained and restored. Significantly for Büchel, Klimt’s mural was originally attacked as being pornographic, but has since become lauded as a civic ‘masterpiece’.
Two things obviously interesting here: One is the switch between a work that was intended to be permanent, which is then kept as a precious object for posterity. Ginny? Any thoughts? 1
The second is the nature of public space. The working definition of public art that I use for PAR+RS is ‘art practice that is not contextualised by a gallery or museum.’ Büchel’s work here interests me because it injects some friction to this idea. What happens when we re-contextualise the gallery itself, and temporarily lend it another function?
More later,
R1 Ginny Hutchison produced Seven Sunsets for Inverness city centre – a temporary commission that was then criticisedin the press for its very ephemerality. See previous Blog posts and comments.
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Chit Chat
by Ruth Barker 22 Feb 2010
Hello,
pretty busy over the last while, not least as I’ve been gearing up to start a Leverhulme-funded residency (part time, so as to leave room for PAR+RS) at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Artefact Studies at Newcastle University. There’s a bit of info here on the Intersections website. I’ll keep you up to date with that as it progresses, but for now it’s enough to say that I start officially in March, and that I’ll be down in Newcastle (on and off) for the following 10 months. Exciting!
Conversation has been flavouring the zeitgeist lately, as I’ve been chatting to Justin Carter and Neil McGuire at Glasgow School of Art about a cross-departmental St. George’s Cross Underpass project, and attending a few conversations regarding the tentatively proposed ‘Art Park’ in Bellahouston Park.
The latter is at very early stages of development, so it would be wrong to talk too much about it, other than to say that I hope that those co-ordinating the project continue to involve the wider community in the ongoing discussion.
The former on the other hand is almost at final proposal stage, so I don’t mind shedding a little light on how the conversations have been developing.
In 2009, Justin and Neil from GSA were contacted by the fantastic Katie Duffy of Glasgow City Council, to suggest that GSA students might be interested in an opportunity to propose a new work for the Saint George’s Cross pedestrian underpass in the West End of the city. There could be no guarantee that the work would be implemented, but it would be a great chance for students to develop some ideas for a difficult location, and to ‘pitch’ a new site specific project to the Council.
Of course the Artschool jumped at the opportunity to involve the students in such a unique professional practice experience, and Justin (from the Sculpture and Environmental Art department) and Neil (from Visual Communications) took the even more unusual decision to open up the process to all the departments across the schools of Fine Art, Design, and Architecture. As I’m no stranger to pedestrian underpasses and their environs (for my sins, check here ) I was asked to talk to the students at the start of the project – discussing how my own ideas had evolved as well as talking more broadly about contemporary public art practice. There were a lot of people at the talk, and I that time no-one knew really how the Saint George’s Cross underpass project might develop, or who might be involved. Various ideas were suggested – from mass collaboration, to rigorous competition, to a scrupulous division of labour. It was an exciting time, as it felt like a huge range of possibilities were open for discussion.
By the time I returned to the school a week or so ago to discover how things were progressing, a small core group had emerged and were working collaborativey towards a shared proposal. So that at a meeting set-up this month to allow the students to present their work so far, I found 5 (I think? Hope I haven’t mis-remembered) dedicated students from across the departments working closely together to come up with a final design. It was a real privilage to hear the group talk frankly about how they’d found the project by turns inspiring and infuriating, and to see how their ideas had evolved into a proposal that struck me as thoughtful, innovative, and ambitious.
When I met with the students on Feb 11th, there was still some work to be done on finalising their proposal, but the bare bones of it were certainly there. In essence, they’re hoping to plant a garden in the area surrounding the entrance to the underpass, and to contrast that with an installed aspect in the tunnel itself. The group had worked hard to negotiate a fearsomely limited budget and timescale, and I hope that Glasgow City Council appreciates the sincerity and the energy with which the brief has been tackled.
Once the students have made their proposal to the Council, and once they’ve heard whether or not it’s been accepted (I’ve got my fingers crossed for you guys!), I’ll be approaching them to see how we can best cover the work here on PAR+RS. It’s important to say at this point that I think the process they’ve gone through already has been a fascinating one – whether they are able to move onto the next stage of realisation or not. But in the meantime, let me know if there’s anything in particular you want to hear about the process so far. Perhaps we can draw up a list of questions for me to put to the group in an interview?
More later,
R -
Wonderous wonders
by Ruth Barker 9 Feb 2010
Hello,
last week I spent quite a bit of time in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. Not just for Jonathan Bonfiglio’s talk about which I grumbled ungenerously last time, but I’ve also been doing a fair bit of research into The Jeffrey Room, for an upcoming project. And that, happily, has been a wonderful experience. Visit the Virtual Mitchell hereThe Jeffrey Room is a beautiful space on the top floor ot the Mitchell, which houses the personal collection of the late Mr. Jeffrey – an individual with an eclectic but warmly personal taste for the classics, as well as natural history, architecture, and geography. The room itself is ornamented and baroque in its interior, lined with glass-fronted bookcases filled with the rare treasure of the collection. Tantalisingly, the Jeffrey collection has never been digitally archived, and so remains trancribed in ink in a suite of huge leather-bound books. If curious about exactly what the room holds, you can request these books and then lose yourself in them utterly in the hushed environment of the Archive Room, several floors below. From these arcane handwritten lists you can make requests and the books will be brought to you. You place them on cotton cushions in the Archve room, weight their pages with leather pads and straps, and peer inside. It’s addictive.
I made the following longlist of titles that took my fancy. So far I’ve requested and read those marked with a * but I may go back for more…
Cook, Howard T
Studies in Ruskin
1911Costume: A Cyclopedia *
Planche
1879Fashion in Paris
Uzanne
1901Chronicles of Newgate
Griffiths, A
1884Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland
Miller
1860Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches
Carlyle, T
date unknownPuss in Boots, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk
George Cruikshank
1864Dance of Death
Holbein
(Berwick, T)Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
C Mackay
1841Specimens of Ancient Sculpture
(Society of Dilettanti)
1809The Shipwreck, A Poem *
William Falconer
1858Flagellation and the Flagellants: A history of the rod in all countries
JG Bertram
1896Grecian Legends and Early History *
G Grote
1843The Mythology of Ancienct Greece and Italy
Keightley
1852Ancient Songs and Ballads *
Ritson J
1829History of the Witches of Renfrewshire who were burned on the Gallowgreen of Paisley
John Miller
1809I can’t decide if I’m reassured or dissappointed that most of these texts are now available to either buy as reprints through Amazon or to read online at Google Books…
more later,
R -
On 'On Movement and Memory'
by Ruth Barker 5 Feb 2010
Hello,
so on Wednesday I went to this talk at the Mitchell, organised by Glasgow Sculpture Studios as part of Jimmie Durham’s residency there. Speaker Jonathan Bonfiglio’s presentation was billed as “On Movement (and Memory) is a wide-ranging talk that encompasses all aspects of how we move and how that helps us to create memories, in an ultimately futile attempt to immortalise ourselves. These days, perhaps we have come to regard ourselves as Gods, and death as beneath us. Was it always thus?” I have to say I was disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, Bonfiglio seemed like a good guy as well as being obviously intelligent. But the talk itself was frustrating on a number of levels.
Firstly the room set-up was awkward and un-ergonomic. The chairs for the audience were arranged in two facing rows with a gap in the middle, almost like being on the tube – or maybe also a bit like how the two main parties sit in the House of Commons (although the gap was narrower and the rows were proportionately much longer and thinner, and only two chairs deep). Bonfiglio sat behind a desk placed at the far end – the equivalent of the Speaker’s position (or the door into the next tube carriage. Not sure how long I can keep up these two parallel similies, but I’ll do my best). This meant that not only were you distracted by trying not to make eye contact with people sitting opposite you (very like being on the tube, this. I’ve never been to the H of C’s so couldn’t comment) but also it was impossible for many in the audience, including me, to actually see the speaker and I couldn’t hear him, either! This last was partly because of a bad mic I think as the sound was very muffled, but also because he spoke very quickly and – I felt at least – kind of unclearly. This may just have been me though, as I am a bit hard of hearing.
What I did hear though, I’m afraid didn’t inspire. It felt like a very surface-skimming series of anecdotes, which weren’t either incisive or interrogatory, or esoteric and tangential. Perhaps Bonfiglio misjudged his audience? There were some mighty brains there (I don’t count myself in that by the way) and he could have done with picking up the slack a little. I was left with a feeling as if I’d just read a column in the lifestyle section of the Guardian. It was nice, but I just couldn’t figure out where it was going. Cultural theory it wasn’t.
So I want to finish with an off-the-top-of-my-head list of some Memory and Movement related things I would like to listen to a talk about. If anyone wishes to string together into a lecture for me, let me know!
- Memorials (to be fair Bonfiglio did touch on this, and even began to introduce a few ideas relating place to memory, but he didn’t illuminate the subject).
- The classical Method of Loci (a mnemonic system of memorised spatial relationships that establish, order and recollect stored memories).
- Native American narratological/spatial story structures (in which landscapes are mapped and routes recalled through storytelling).
- The memory theatre of Giulio Camillo (read the wonderful book by Frances A Yates – The Art of Memory) FAY rocks.
- I guess stuff by Miwon Kwon on Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity, or even Simon Schama’s canonical Landscape and Memory)
There’s just so much stuff out there – it’s such a vast field which, even though it’s been well picked over by some really interesting theorists, surely has much more still to give us. A few anecdotes aren’t going to contribute much to that though. No matter how much of a nice guy he seems.
Sorry to bang on about it. Usually I prefer to enthuse rather that critique. If it’s any consolation to Mr Bonfiglio and the GSS team, this post reflects my disappointment – a fact which reminds me that my expectations were high.
Ah well, better luck next time. And this is just my personal view after all. If you were there and disagreed, do let me know. Maybe you’ll change my mind.
more later,
R -
So much to read, so little time
by Ruth Barker 1 Feb 2010
Hello,
Nicola Wright, who contributed to the Reflection article you can read here is also Scottish Regional Editor for artartart magazine. As I inserted this factoid into the tiny biog above her review of the Steven Holl lecture, I thought I’d have a browse through artartart to see what they’d been up to lately.I discovered a real treat. This is such a great resource, with some genuinely interesting articles and opinions. Go take a look, and if any writers really catch your eye do let me know and I’ll try to get them for PAR+RS! Particularly interesting for me were Jen Martin’s piece – Your Place Or Mine? An Exploration of Generous Art Within Communities and Vanessa Bartlett’s Leading Or Following, Social engagement and mass participation in the Cultural Olympiad, which raised some very pertinent questions.
Great stuff. My other discovery this week was the fantastic Read Out! Read In! Feminist Lines of Flight in Art and Politics. This is a wonderfully generous archive of starting points and cataylsts for discussion, initiated by artists Kate Davis and Faith Wilding as part of their project The Long Loch: How Do We Go On From Here? at the CCA, Glasgow. Not simply a resource, but also the transcription of a community’s train of thought, I’d encourage you all to dip in and explore.
Happy browsing,
R -
Half the Work
by Ruth Barker 27 Jan 2010
Hello,
ok, so I want to describe a scenario for you: An artist makes a piece of site specific work. It’s a performance. But when the time comes for the public to see the work, something happens – something wholly unexpected – and the work is suddenly relocated, so the audience encounter it in a different location. The site specific work changes its site. What’s the result?
Well, a week ago I would have said that the work would have lost part of itself. Perhaps, thinking of my one-time tutor David Harding, I would have said that the performance had lost exactly half of itself (‘the context is half the work’, after all). Now I’ve been educated, by an unexpected event that suddenly changed the site of my public Rough Mix performance at Dance Base last Friday.
So, what was the result? Not quite what I’d expected, actually – but perhaps I should have known, logically, what the upshot would be. The work was removed from it’s intended site – true. And with that ousting – also true – it lost part of its previous self. BUT. The work was also re-placed in another site. And so developed another context, aquiring in turn another ‘half’ of itself. The work changed – it wasn’t the same work any more – but it was still a whole work. It was perhaps more interesting because it had taken a step away from my explicit intention and moved instead into the realm of happenstance.
Anyway, just a thought. Perhaps everyone else could have told me what would happen, but it took poor old me a little while to figure out!
More later,
R.oh, and do I hear you asking what the most recent image is? Ha! It is of course a Google-grabbed pic of The Poetry Path, by David Harding himself. The piece was developed in collaboration with poet Alan Bold, in Glenrothes Scotland, 1977.
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Interesting Times
by Ruth Barker 19 Jan 2010
Hello,
Two things I wanted to talk about today. Not sure yet if they’re related: we’ll have to wait and see.The first is Rough Mix related. All is going well at Dance Base, and all the practitioners’ projects are coming on apace. Actually, they’re coming on surprisingly quickly and confidently. In one week, we’ve all developed pieces which are interesting and even powerful, and everybody is on track to present a new work-in-progress at the public showing on Friday. So, how does this happen? What is it that has created this ‘hot-house’ atmosphere in which our 5 creative people (supported of course by our talented team of performers) are thriving?
The first thing that springs to mind is the supportive context – that there’s a strong network here, and that that facilitates our co-operative exploration. But there’s something else going on as well, because it is important I think, that we all come from different disciplines: somehow this has helped us work quickly and fruitfully on the new work. Why? In a sense this seems counter-intuitive. I would perhaps have predicted that the lack of a common language would have slowed us down. After all – we can’t use the ‘shorthands’ we often rely on (I can’t say, for example, that an idea is ‘too Jessica Harrison’ or whatever. The rest of the group wouldn’t be able to translate that). We’re also seeing other’s work out of context. My knowledge of the theories and histories of dance, drama and (to a lesser extent) film is minimal, and so I don’t immediately see where ideas come from, or how they may be related. None of this, in the event, has mattered however. In fact, it may have helped.
Robbed of a commonality of words, we have also been stripped of a commonality of assumptions, and I think this is at the root of our flourishing. Because we have been able to stretch and to play without being overly conscious of others’ opinions. This period of play (coming as it does within mature and in many cases very established practices) has been a little shake-up. A little invigorating mix-around which has produced some very interesting results, which are then – crucially – fed back into the dough to re-catalyse it. The balance of group-work, in which we’re all learning a new discipline together, and the time we have to think about our own individual projects has kept this motion of thinking and learning and doing in constant dialogue. Good stuff. And we still have 4 days left!
The other thing I’m thinking about on my morning commute is a snippet from Radio 4’s Front Row programme, which I heard last night. In it, they interviewed one of the artists who’s working on a project for the Cultural Olympiad – Anthony McCall who’s developing a new public sculpture for Birkenhead. The work will consist of a three-mile high column of cloud – intended to be visible from up to 100km away – and will be on-site for 18 months. The interviewer asked if McCall wanted his work to join the ranks of those intentionally temporary projects that ‘the public’ have fought to keep. I was curious, of course, because our next Theme will be Temporary Projects, and all that surrounds them. The way the interviewer phrased this question was particularly interesting. I’m paraphrasing here, but I think it’s almost right: ‘do you want the public to adopt your work, or are you looking for a bit of controversy?’ The artist seemed to think carefully about his answer. ‘Adopt is a good word’, he said. I think I’d agree with him.More later,
R. -
Please come!
by Ruth Barker 17 Jan 2010
Rough Mix
Rough Mix is Magnetic North’s inter-disciplinary creative development programme. It is an opportunity for theatre makers to collaborate with other practitioners, try out new ideas and introduce them to an audience. We bring together a small group of practitioners from different disciplines and give them time to start developing new projects in a supportive and collaborative atmosphere. The practitioners work together with a group of performers over a two week period before making a work in progress showing at the end. We believe that this project offers a unique opportunity for both established and emerging artists.
The current Rough Mix programme runs from January 11th-22nd 2010 at Dance Base in Edinburgh, supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Scottish Arts Council. The artists taking part are:
Ruth Barker – visual artist
Nicholas Bone – director
Catriona MacInnes – film-maker
Linda McLean – playwright
Ian Spink – choreographer/director
Who’ll be working with emerging theatre artist Harry Wilson and performers Catherine Gillard, Veronica Leer, Kirstin Murray, Michael Sherin and David Walshe.There will be a public showing at 5:00pm on Friday 22nd January (Dance Base, 14-16 Grassmarket, Edinburgh) – entry is free, just turn up. All welcome!
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O The Humanity
by Ruth Barker 14 Jan 2010
Hello,
Ok, so my internet access ‘issues’ haven’t been entirely solved, hence the slightly confusing double posting. The post below was meant to be uploaded yesterday, but God or (more likely) Microsoft had other ideas. Nevermind though, eh? It’s the thought that counts, and you (dear readers) were never far from my mind, promise.
I had an interesting Rough Mix day today, with an afternoon session on object manipulation and puppetry. I was fully astounded at how context (again – I know) had such a massive, life giving effect – a simple shift in an everyday object’s context was able to immediately denote not just animation but consciousness, intent, emotion, and narrative. I personally witnessed a washing-up brush massage and then hump a blue net sponge.
Just something I wanted to share with you.
More later,
R -
In The Rough Mix
by Ruth Barker 14 Jan 2010
Hello all,
Apologies for my late posting first of all. I’m doing a project in Edinburgh just now, and have had some technical difficulties regarding internet access, which slowed me up a little. Back online now though, and lots of thoughts to share. Also plenty of new 2010 events to add to the listing – some great things coming up – so do have a browse to see if any of them are near you.
The project I’m doing is called Rough Mix, and is based at Dance Base – a fantastic new building right in the heart of the city. It’s so central in fact, that I can see the castle walls rising up above me through the glass skylight in the rehearsal studio I’m working in.
Rough Mix is devised and curated by Nick Bone of Magnetic North, who brings together focussed groups of practitioners – all of whom are working with Live practice in some way – for fairly intensive 2 week residency periods.
There are 5 of us:
Linda McLean (playwright),
Ian Spink (choreographer),
Catriona MacInnes (film-maker), along with Nick (Magnetic North’s artistic director), and myself (performance artist).We are also lucky enough to be working with performers Catherine Gillard, Veronica Leer, Kirstin Murray, Michael Sherin and David Walshe; emerging theatre director Harry Wilson; and Shaun Bell, an arts journalism student who is documenting the project through written observation.
As a group of 12, we are spending every morning working on a technique called Viewpoints, which teaches us strategies to consider the body in relation to Space, Shape, Time, Emotion, Movement, and Story. Sheila, our tutor, is able to suggest very subtle ideas in a way that renders them wholly understandable but still very complex.
Personally I’m finding the work by turns mystifying, exhilarating, enlightening, and exhausting! It’s been quite a while since I was a student, so the act of spending every day learning so intensively has been a real privilege, but also genuinely tiring. It is amazing how great the cross-overs are though. I’m the only person not from a theatrical tradition, so at first I was quite intimidated and worried about being very out of my depth. My confidence has really increased, however, as I’ve increasingly felt part of the group, and realised that everyone else is learning from each other, too.
The first day we spent learning largely about Space or, to put it perhaps into language I’m more familiar with, Context. Because we were really talking about how things (people, objects) can be understood in relation to other things. Of course anyone can see how this relates directly to ideas of site specific practice and public work. But it was great to be able to examine these ideas from a slightly different perspective, and learn about how another discipline might negotiate them.
The other massive cross-over, and the one I wanted to finish on, was the idea of communication. This is something that has come up time and time again: how can we make our ideas, our intentions, our thoughts and feelings, intelligible to another? Clearly it’s a question for artists as well as for theatrical practitioners, and a fascinating one at that. Is there a single answer? Personally, I don’t think so, but I guess I’d always steer back to that idea of context, or place. What was that about it being ‘Half the Work’?
Anyway, lots to think about, but (as ever) more later.
R -
The Future (and all that).
by Ruth Barker 4 Jan 2010
Hello,
back to work properly, and does anyone else find writing ‘2010’ a bit strange? It feels very futuristic. And kind of looks wrong, if you know what I mean. Hmm.
I feel like this one’s going to be a good one, though. It’s a Gi Year for a start, and the preparations for that are already starting to fill me with a certain anticipation. A new Gi director, and a rejuvinated sense of the ambition and possibility offered by the festival add to the sense that Glasgow will remain the place to be this April. I keep hearing murmurings of fantastic sounding projects, so I can’t wait till the official ‘unveiling’ of the programme when we’ll be able to see exactly what will be on offer. Save the dates, ladies and gents: 16th March – 3rd April. Be there.
Stop Press
PAR+RS will be running a season on Temporary Projects during Gi, and we’re looking for articles! Reviews / commentaries on the Festival itself (a temporary project composed of temporary projects, as all Festivals must in essence be) on things you’ve seen, or done, or been involved in. Let us know! Email me or leave a comment below if you have any ideas of what we should be covering.So what else is happening in 2010? Upmost in the minds of many will be the Creative Scotland changeover, which is scheduled to start this year, although I reckon it’ll take a while before we can guage the full effects. I’m as much in the dark as everyone else seems to be about the detail of this, but I’d be glad to hear your comments, and I’ll certainly keep you up to date should I hear any news (actual news that is, rather than rumours, which I’m trying to stay away from).
What else will happen in 2010? Well lots of things, I imagine, but not least a General Election. Though I wouldn’t like to predict the outcome, it seems certain that there may be political changes on the horizon – no matter which party is successful at the polls. With everybody talking about spending cuts, I wouldn’t be suprised to learn that some cultural budgets may be affected.
On a slightly related note, I did hear at the end of December from Maggie Bolt, director of Public Art Online, who told me (after my previous Blog posting below) that Arts Council England have now confirmed that they will continue to fund PAO at least until March 2011, so that’s a real cause for celebration. Maggie, and all her readers, must be very relieved. As, it must be said, am I.
So, lots to look forward to in 2010, and plenty of changes which may be on the way this year. What are your highlights of 2009? And what are you most looking forward to in 2010? As always, do let me know.
more later,
Ruth. -
And a very Happy New Year.
by Ruth Barker 28 Dec 2009
Hello,
Completely forgot (in my haste to crack open the sherry) to mention the miraculous Berlin Berg! Many thanks go to Jodi Rose for pointing me in the right direction, and now I can say that I’m a total convert – every city should have one!
Start a campaign now, addressed to a local authority near you. What better dream to start 2010 than a world of beautiful Bergs?
More later,
R -
Merry Christmas!
by Ruth Barker 23 Dec 2009
Hello,
So, I’m back from Berlin, and feel like I’m stepping straight into the holiday season.
Berlin was amazing, and proved to be a really interesting trip. I met with curator Christine Nippe, who’s currently concluding her PhD, which has touched on the fascinating languages of cities and urban spaces. Christine is hoping to pursue an upcoming project in Scotland, as well as publishing her research, so expect to hear more from her very soon. I’ll certainly be looking out for her next project after catching her most recent curated exhibition Hardly Anything in the gallery Upstairs Berlin. Investigating how to represent the notion of ‘the void’, the show was thoughtful, layered, and provided much to discuss.
I also met with Mark Sander and his partner ElÃn Jakobsdóttir who treated me to a great conversation that ranged around language, meaning, and Elin’s sister’s home-made apple pie! All in all a very pleasant afternoon. Mark has been working on a project that I hope to be able to follow on PAR+RS in which he’s been using his skills as a portrait painter to ‘barter’ language lessons in Cairo, via the mechanism of a street cart. It’s a fascinating project, which may extend to a Glasgow evolution in 2010, so I do hope to be able to share it with you.I met many other fabulous people besides – special Hellos to Catherine, and Anna and Alex (of course) but also to Catriona and Fred, and the remarkable Lady Gaby. My own performance (my reason for being in Berlin in the first place) went well, I think, due in no small part to Lady Gaby’s expertise. My only regret was that unfortunately I was unable to meet with Harry Sachs from the Sculpture park, but as I hear on the grapevine that he may be Scotland-bound in the not-too-distant future, hopefully I may be able to catch up with him at some other point.
For now though, it remains only for me to kick off my work-weary shoes and raise a glass of sherry to the good times promised by 2010. Roll on Christmas – have a great one, everybody!
More in the New Year, with very best festive wishes to you and yours,
xR
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Berlin! Berlin!
by Ruth Barker 13 Dec 2009
Hello,
I’m writing this on Sunday night, because I’ve been working on PAR+RS stuff over the weekend as I may not have much time during the next week (for those who don’t know, I work 2 days a week on PAR+RS). The reason for my curtailed hours is that I’ll be in Berlin Wednesday 16th – Sunday 21st, working on a new performance. How exciting!I’ll be meeting up with lots of friends while I’m over there, so any PAR+RS readers who are in Berlin next week, feel free to drop me an email. I’m also looking forward to seeing Catherine Street, a lunchtime conversation with whom was the catalyst for the trip.
I’m also very much hoping to meet with Harry Sachs, a really interesting artist whose collaborative work with Franz Hoefner seems to inhabit and to question the spaces between art and architecture. There’s a recent book about them: Hoefner/Sachs. I’m particularly interested in the Skulpturenpark Berlin project, of which I’ll paste the details (from the Skulpterenpark website) here:
Harry Sachs
Park Sculpture in Sculpture Park, 2009
Location: Alte Jakobstrasse/Stallschreiberstrasse
The military zone dividing East and West Berlin was the largest park area in Germany during the time of the Berlin Wall. With the only visitors being soldiers of the GDR army, the park had clearly marked routes and a strict dog leash policy. Due to the extensive use of pesticides, the costs of maintainance were low. Lawn mowing and tree care were not necessary.
In the last 20 years, this green belt has received less monitoring and maintainence than in all of its time before. Once partitoned with unavoidable walls, it is now partly edged by fences and structured by random paths, along a spectrum of rank growth of diverse flora and fauna.
As part of the ongoing exhibition series, Landreform, this part of Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum will be declared a public park. To increase the amenity values of the place, the existing matrix of trails will be extended by new footpaths, organically blending in with the existing landscape. The rank growth will be secured and cultivated by circular framing. For recreation and contemplation a new park bench will be provided. People are encouraged to further bed plants and to place additional park benches. This sculpture is dedicated to those who have spontaneously used and developed the land for the last 20 years.Interesting eh? I think so. I’ll be visiting the Skulpturenpark and taking some pictures for the Blog, and, as I say, I do hope to be able to meet Harry himself. If I do (he’s a very busy guy), I’ll be sure to tell you all about it.
Anyone got any tips? What do I HAVE to see in Berlin?
More later,
R -
Plug
by Ruth Barker 8 Dec 2009
Hello,
a shameless plug! Hey, I put all your press releases up on the Events Page all the time…
Anyway, Ahem: Please join me if you can at Aye Aye books, CCA Glasgow, from 6.30 – 9pm this Thursday 10th December, where you’ll be able to pick up your FREE 12†vinyl record of In The Beginning.
In The Beginning was written for and first performed in the third floor offices of 57 – 61 Saint Vincent Street, Glasgow, in May 2009. The work was then recorded at Green Door Analogue Recording Studios, Glasgow. This studio recording has now been pressed as a limited edition 12†vinyl record, presented in a full colour sleeve with documentary photography by Kendall Koppe. There’s some more information about In The Beginning here. There’s more information about my work generally here, and other recent projects are listed over here.
The record will be available FREE at the launch, and afterwards for £7.00 from Aye Aye Books.
It would be great to see you there for mince pies and festive drinks.
Ruth Barker
Record Launch – In The Beginning.6.30 – 9pm
Thursday 10th DecemberAye Aye Books
CCA
350 Sauchiehall Street
Glasgow
SCOTLANDHope you can make it,
best wishes, xRuth
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A Concern
by Ruth Barker 8 Dec 2009
Last week I learnt that Arts Council England have decided to stop funding Public Art South West – a development agency that many feel has been a valuable resource and an important part of the contemporary public art landscape.
Here’s what ACE said in their press release:
“Public Art South West has provided a very successful service over the last 12 years. It has made a significant contribution to the south west in particular, where the value of public art is now widely accepted by both public and private sectors and increasingly delivered by a wide range of bodies.
“However, in the context of the Arts Council’s organisation review, with the need to save £6.5 million, it has been decided that the Arts Council should no longer deliver this and similar services directly. We will however aim to continue to provide advice around commissioning.
“Public Art South West will continue until the end of March 2010. Meanwhile we will be considering how we ensure the continuation of Public Art Online which was established by and has been run by Public Art South West for ten years.”
It seems that ACE no longer feel that Public Art South West is delivering a service that they are able to support, I assume because PASW no longers fits comfortably into new ACE structures. Apparently there will be an article in a-n in the near future that explores the development, but though it seems already too late to retain PASW, we must also stress the uncertainty attached to the future of Public Art Online.
Public Art Online offers a particular resource in the form of relatively objective case-studies and a wide pallet of available information. If PAO ceases to exist, this unique position will be lost and with it will be jettisoned one of the multiplicity of voices that I believe are needed in order to represent the complexity of contemporary practices. PAO’s Director Maggie Bolt is obviously concerned that a specific perspective will be missed if the site disappears, along with an online tool intended to be accessible to all – not just the artworld.
Do go check out Public Art Online if you haven’t already. It’s a great site, with lots of interesting bits and pieces on it. I don’t have any contact details or a web address you can go to if you want to express displeasure or concern. You could try Arts Council England but I’ve heard they deliver a standard response.
If anyone does know any more, do let us know. I’ll keep you up to date with anything I hear on the grapevine.
more later,
R -
Teaching and Learning
by Ruth Barker 30 Nov 2009
Hello,
busy week here at PAR+RS last week, as I’m trying to organise a PAR+RS-sponsored event that will take place during Glasgow international. I can’t confirm anything yet, but conversations so far seem to point to something quite special – yet another reason (should you need one) to save the Gi dates in Spring: April 16 – May 4th. Very exciting, but also kinda complex logistically…I was also at Glasgow Uni this week doing some teaching that touched on my own practice – working on an undergraduate module in the Theatre, Film, and TV department called Writing for Performance. I was hugely nervous, but the students were without exception brilliant. We had a great conversation about site specificity in relation to performance, and some of their questions and comments have really stayed with me. In particular was the issue of Control. I went out of my way to try and describe all the elements of a context that an artist might want to think about, and to make their work in relation to – things like the economic content, as well as the ergonomic, historical, and so on. But I think I explained this badly, and one student rightly picked me up on it, questioning my need to control every element within the location. I came across as some kind of wierd obsessive intent on manipulating the world to my own advantage. The only way I could think of to try to dig myself out of the hole was to admit my inarticulacy, beg their understanding, and try again, this time talking about the site specific work as a gift that the artist bequeathes to a space, and that that they must know the context intimately to be able to donate appropriately. With I guess the proviso that you’re also within your rights to give a gift that you know might jar the recipient. But that idea of site specificty as an article of control has stayed with me. The student touched something there, and I need to think more about it.
Later I set them an excercise – 15 minutes in which they each had to come up with a performer, a place, and a ‘why’, before pitching their proposal in 5 minutes flat. I was mightily impressed with the stuff they came up with, and the diversity of ideas and associations that were raised. The proposals were by turns funny, disconcerting, affectionate, thoughtful, generous, critical, personal, epic, and revealing. It’s a shame in a way to pick out particular examples, because each and every student deserves a congratulatory mention. I don’t have time to do them all justice though, so instead I will, despite myself, try to cherrypick a few just to give you some idea of the range.
There was the alternative guided tour of Glasgow city centre, with an open-top bus load of passengers treated to a psychogeographical derive composed of both historical and personal legacies – a potent mix of slavery and inebriation.
There was the intimate history of a single bench in Queen’s Park on the South Side of Glasgow, combining the narrative of the bench-maker with the social function of the object during a single summer’s day.
There was the billboard or newspaper ad that asked volunteers to meet at a given place and time. Unprepared, they are then met by John Hurt, who leads them into the darkness of a night-time forest, before telling them suitable stories.
And of course the evocative idea of the performer who walks the length of Erskine beach making visible (or audible) the multiple and contradictory histories of the place as they pause, recount a story, and walk again, all with the shadow Erskine bridge – notorious as a suicide spot – at their shoulder.
Brilliant. Well done all. You make me jealous of your lively brains.
more later,
RForgot to say – went to the CCA on Saturday for the bookfair and launch of 2HB and was wowed by performance work by Sarah Tripp and Katherine Elkin (the latter work scripted by Elkin and abley performed by Shelly Nadashi and Martine Myrup). A real treat!
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Temporary Permanence / Permanently Temporary
by Ruth Barker 16 Nov 2009
Hello,
I took a deliberate break from the Blog last week to allow some space for the responses to Inverness councillor Jim Crawford’s comments regarding ReImagining the Centre, and Ginny Hutchison’s work in particular.I was interested to read both Matt Baker and Ginny Hutchison’s thoughts, and I’m very grateful to both of them for being so frank.
Both Matt (one of the curators) and Ginny (the artist herself) picked up on the question of ‘temporary-ness’, and raised some intriguing ideas.
I was impressed with Matt’s deftly made point that society does not equate the worth of other cultural activities to their duration – he cites music, theatre, sport etc. This is an interesting one, and for me it suggests that commissioning an artwork is perhaps seen by some public bodies as a process of aquisition, as opposed to investment in an experience. Could this be true? I’d be curious to know what others may think.
Ginny meanwhile, is right to pick up on the notion of Legacy within public art commissioning – a notion that she quickly links to that of the value (or values – as Ginny specifies artistic, implementational, historical, economical &c.) of a work. There is however, another kind of legacy that cannot yet be judged in Inverness. This is the longer term legacy, even that which we might term the anecdotal or associative legacy. How will Seven Sunsets enter the imaginative space of the city? Whether through conversation, recollection, or half-recalled translation, the affective duration of Seven Sunsets may be far longer than the amount of time occupied by the work’s physical presence – and Councillor Crawford is himself contributing to that, for which we may be grateful. There is after all a school of thought that suggests that so-called permanent works in civic space soon become invisible to those who might pass them regularly but who rarely see them precisely because they are fixed and permanent aspects of the urban landscape. Temporary works may actually remain longer in our awareness because they are transient and fleeting. Don’t people say that Familiarity Breeds Contempt?
More on this later, I feel – it’s a big subject that may merit a Season of it’s own. For now I’ll leave you with this, from Huntly, just posted on Youtube by Deveron Arts.
Enjoy!
R
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Atchoo!
by Ruth Barker 2 Nov 2009
Hello,
feeling rotten this week as I’m down with the flu, and so haven’t done anything interesting lately. I even missed out on the openings this weekend at Glasgow Sculpture Studios, Warehouse of Horrors at SWG3 Julia Dottoli at Arch 1, and Ciara Phillips at Washington Garcia. I’m told they were all great, which hasn’t done much to cheer me up, I confess.
I was reading this today though, which was stirring my slimy brain into action. It’s a BBC article in which Inverness Councillor Jim Crawford criticises the recent Re Imagining the Centre event.
The BBc reported that “Mr Crawford said covering the tombstones was in bad taste and claimed people did not understand the wider project.” However, there are several more specific comments that I find very interesting. The first is a subtle thing, and hinges around his apparent dissatistfaction with some of the sites selected for the temporary public works that were commissioned.
Describing Ginny Hutchison’s Seven Sunsets Crawford is quoted as saying “Gold was painted in strips to represent sun rise or sunshine onto a doorway of the Victorian Market. In the evenings the doors are far enough back that local teenagers and alcoholics use it as a toilet, so the gold turned green.”
Initially I was unclear as to why Hutchison’s work in particular had been mentioned, but perhaps Crawford’s reticence can be read in a few of his remarks. Leaving aside the Councillor’s ambivalence regarding the specifics of the work (Hutchison actually gold leafed particular areas in several public locations within the city in a literal mapping of sunlight), Crawford’s criticism seems to be that the artist has made an undesirable aspect of the city centre (a recessed doorway that people urinate in) more visible by siting an artwork there. In addition to this, Crawford also seems to find the work less successful because the gold leaf itself reacted to this undesireable activity by changing colour. This perceived lack of sucess may be because the work acted as a ‘sign’ to the behaviour, or it may be connected to a concern regarding the work itself: that because the work was altered it was rendered ephemeral and so less worthwhile or less value for money; or that because the work was altered it no longer represented the artist’s original intention and so was in some sense flawed.
To take these points seperately, it seems clear in the first instance that for Crawford there is a clear link between the artwork and a sense that it should embellish or describe the aspects of the city that he himself finds pleasant, uplifting, or rewarding. This link between – essentially – artwork and beauty (or even morality) is one I find particularly interesting in the context of public art. Personally I don’t think that such a relationship is a given, though I know that many artists feel that their practices do (and ought to) inhabit a positive sphere of influence. You can read a longer text I wrote about ideas of ethics and aesthetics here although the issue with Hutchison’s work is also more complex because she has undeniably introduced something beautiful and precious into the space, and it is by this act that the pre-existing unpleasantness has been made more visible, and perhaps more public.
That the work may be less successful because of its ability to be affected by environmental impact is tied to Crawford’s final, underlying criticism, which is one that I found suprising in this context. In my first reading of this piece I expected the Councillor to say that the money could have been better spent (which he does). What I did not expect was to read that Crawford wishes that the money had been spent on a permanent public commission for the city.
This is a crucial conversation, and one that I hope the Councillor is able to follow up: the relative value of permanent versus temporary commissioning. It’s not something I can claim to have the answer to, but it is something I hope to be able to touch on during the present season. How do we understand the benefits (in artistic, as well as in implementational, historical, and economic terms) of something that is meant to last forever, as opposed to something that may only last a day, or a year, or even an hour?
I wonder whether Jim Crawford’s regret over Seven Sunsets is partly to do with loss at its passing? Perhaps it is not. Perhaps he feels that public money was spent on something that ended up showing the city in a bad light by highlighting the very antisocial behaviour that he would wish to erradicate. If he reads this, he’s more that welcome to join the discussion on-site. To be clear, I’m not trying to take sides in any debate about whether a permanent work should have been commissioned instead, but only to examine why someone might have found one of the works that was commissioned, problematic. It’s always worth talking clearly about the work that does exist as well as speculating about what might have been, after all. And if it’s true that one of Hutchison’s Seven Sunsets turned green through ill-use, then surely it’s also true that the other Sunsets did not and that they succeeded in bringing light to the luminous potential within the Inverness cityscape though their elegant, poetic, and above all beautiful, urban gestures.
More later,
R -
What Is Commissioning, Anyway?
by Ruth Barker 26 Oct 2009
Commissioning, commissioning commissioning, from the humble invitation to the contractual obligation: when the reach is so broad, what does ‘commissioning’ even mean?
The question may seem to be redundant – after all, we know what it means, don’t we? It means, well… I guess at a fundamental level, I’d suggest that to commission a piece of work may be to act as catalyst for that work. But that itself is an interesting – perhaps flawed – chemical analogy, suggesting as it does a substance that initiates or accelerates a reaction without itself being affected. How true is this of the figure of the commissioner? Significantly, I think that many commissioners are changed by the processes they set in motion, whether they end up wiser, poorer, more cynical, more enthused, or more exhausted.
And yet there is a softer, more poetic (perhaps read ‘less accurate’) idea of the catalyst that may help us here. The poetic catalyst initiates a change that they are then indivisible from – as some have argued that a free press may catalyse an informed electorate, or that belief may be a catalyst for intention. And just as the press may be changed, informed, and evolved by the electorate it has catalysed, so may the commissioner grow, diminish, or change as a result of the process they engage in.
It seems to me that commissioning is an essentially human gesture because it is at base an invitation for another to act. Where that invitation leads is surely multiple, but the desire that underlies it is in some ways a gesture of its own making.
More later, hope you enjoy the new season,
R.
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Fourth Plinth Empty, Regents Park Full, Turbine Hall Occupied by Nothing.
by Ruth Barker 19 Oct 2009
Hello,
Miserable rain today, and those perfect Autumn days we had last week seem to have been washed away, reminding me that it’s mid October already. On my mind today are the Frieze Art Fair (just finished), the fourth plinth (empty again), and Tate’s Turbine Hall (interestingly full, it seems, of Nothing).
There’ve been good reports this year from Freize, so perhaps the credit crunch hasn’t bitten as sharply as we may have feared. I haven’t had the detail yet (I didn’t go down to London last week) but I was reassured to hear on the grapevine that galleries hadn’t pulled their punches. Any readers have highlights they’d like to share? Let us know if so.
The most recent offering at the Tate’s Turbine Hall intrigues because again (like Olafur Eliasson’s Weather Project, Carsten Höller’s Test Site and even Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth) Miroslaw Balka’s How It Is is largely being discussed in relation to the reactions of the public. There has been a trend toward the experiential in the annual Unilever commissions, which has in some sense set the series apart, and has perhaps emphasised its ‘public’-ness. this is a contentious suggestion perhaps – the Unilever commissions are not after all public artworks as they are clearly contextualsed by an art gallery – but they are artworks commissioned for a public building and attended by many thousands of members of the public every year. I’m not sure that the visceral or experiential nature of work necessarily renders it ‘accessible’, though this may be put forward as an explanation for this trend towards the shared language of the bodily. Rather it seems that the shift away from the purely visual, the painterly, or an emphasis on craft leads predictabley to the grumpy question But is it art? to be asked by media pundits again and, unsuprisingly again (final paragraph, though check out also the comments, with particular reference to the first one, which opens with “I haven’t seen the work, but…”)
The dreaded question arose again as the fourth plinth in Trafalgar square reclaimed its emptiness after 2400 people have occupied it for 1 hour each over the last 100 days. I’m never sure whether it is only jounalists who are so tied to the question. I suspect so, though I have had to field it myself, most often when I worked for SPIN:, taking groups of interested people round contemporary art shows in the Glasgow.
Often when someone did ask me ‘But is it Art?’, I suspected that the question had already been answered in their own minds with a resounding No. Interestingly, people only seemed to ask the question about work they didn’t like. Also interestingly, people sometimes seemed to be suprised that asking this question did not stop the conversation but could, instead, actually start it. But after all, didn’t Joseph Kosuth himself ask “What is it that is not art that might be art?” Something I’ll leave you with, I think,
More later,
R -
How It Is
by Ruth Barker 13 Oct 2009
Interesting…
And Adrian Searle has some interesting things to say.
more later,
R -
Grizedale Journeys
by Ruth Barker 12 Oct 2009
Hello,
On Wednesday this week I went down to Grizedale Arts in Cumbria to attend the Public Art Needs Outsiders seminar event. This was the first in a series of planned events organised by IXIA and Places Matter! in collaboration with Situations, the research and commissioning programme at the University at the West of England.
There was a good bunch of speakers, I felt, and the focus – on an examination of residency models as ways for artists to engage with places that they didn’t call Home – was both broad enough to touch on wider contexts and focussed enough to keep conversation rigorous. I felt that there could have been a better gender balance at the event, as almost all the attendees were women while all the speakers bar one were men, which I did feel was slightly problematic. That said, I wouldn’t fault the approach or presentations of any of the individuals presenting, as they did touch on some interesting topics.
But who were they, and what did they talk about? I hear you ask. Well…
Alistair Hudson, the Deputy Director of Grizedale Arts was first up, and he gave an overview of some of the projects Grizedale has been involved in. He also deconstructed the seminar’s title slightly, to read it as ‘Public Art Needs Outsiders (from outside of art)’. This was an interesting slant, and Alistair expanded on it to state that art needs ‘outsiders’ (ie non-art specialists or contexts) because that is where works’ ‘bite’ or content comes from. Art cannot (he felt) talk about art forever.
Next Andreas Lang of publicworks talked about his experiences as the commissioned artist working on the Creative Egremont project, in which Grizedale worked within the town of Egremont as a cataylst for a range of artworks, events, and moments of change within this small rural community. This is far too big and interesting a project to do justice to here, so take a look over here to learn more.
After lunch (prepared wonderfully by Grizedale’s current artist in residence, who also washed a great many dirty dishes) we heard Paul Domela, Programme Director of the Liverpool Biennial in conversation with Kark-Heinz Klopf, the current artist in residence on Liverpool’s European Biennial Network Residency. Kark-Heinz talked very generously about his practice and the ways in which he has negotiated the city of Liverpool as a visitor as well as as an artist. He spoke very practically about his preference to have a ‘safe space’ away from the locations he was immersing himself in, and also spoke about the importance for him of the duration of the residency. Over the months, he explained, he has had time to review and evolve his first impressions, and his longer term accumulated experience of the city has offered him a very different footing than his initial response to that same place.
Jeanne van Heeswijk, the only female speaker, gave the day’s last presentation, as an artist member of the well known Dutch project The Blue House, which she discussed as an alternative residential model. Again, The Blue House Project does not deserve a swift paraphrase on my part. Just look at this information. Jeanne’s presentation was well balanced and passionate, though I do sense some frustration on the part of some British audiences when presented with seemingly idyllic Nordic/Dutch/Scandanavian projects that do not seem to face the same challanges that they might meet in this country (see N55 as an example of a Danish project which I have seen inspire fury in a Glasgow audience). In many ways I can understand the root of this ambivalence, though I do also think it’s worth seeing these projects for what they are: culturally context-specific engagements that come – undeniabley – from a particular set of circumstances, challenges, and opportunities. Jeanne made some good points, and made them well. She spoke particularly convincingly about the need for a shift in the language, and so the preconceptions, thay we may use to talk about residential projects. We should, she claimed, stop talking about artists ‘working with a community’. Instead she made the case for us to think about how artists can work with ’ a range of experts on location’; a neat shift in perspective that may just shed some light on our journeys through this complex landscape.
The day finished with smaller group discussions, and my group was set the question What are the challenges and pitfalls of negotiating an unfamiliar context as a visiting artist? We didn’t answer it so much as talk around it, and spoke mostly about the importance of commissioners taking risks with the structure and context of residencies, and accepting the possibility of failure and / or the unexpected. It felt like a good place to end up, and with plenty of tea and cake to prepare me for the journey home, I headed for the train, and home to Glasgow.
In other news? What else have I been doing… I went to a few openings, Bik van der Pol, It isn’t what it used to be and will never be again at the CCA in Glasgow (Check out the Loompanics book collection), and The October Show in Transmission; and on Friday I gave a talk to students at Glasgow School of Art, who are embarking on an intriguing collaborative public commission that i hope to tell you more about later… Intrigued? I hope so.
More later,
R -
La Biennale
by Ruth Barker 6 Oct 2009
Hello,
Back in Glasgow safe and sound from my little excursion to Venice. First of all, a little background: I’ve never been to the Biennale before, and so this trip was a surprise 30th birthday present (back in June, but it took a while to organise) from my husband, my family and my friends, who all chipped in to send me on my way. It was an extraordinary, wonderful, slightly overwhelming gift that I was completely unprepared for, and I honestly don’t know how to begin to thank everyone! I’ll do my best, I think, with a series of fine dinners.
So, as a first trip it was quite overwhelming I guess. The most incredible thing was the sheer amount of visual opulence in the city – a seemingly undifferentiated blur of art, architecture, religious splendour, low kitsch and high fashion. I’ve never seen a city so encased in embellishment. I doubt that there’s anything like it in the world.
And the Biennale itself? Endlessly fascinating, but not (I have to say) endlessly engaging. Some of the work was a LOT better than others – which is to say that some of it wasn’t all that great, in my humble opinion. Still, in a way that was kind of reassuring I suppose. My personal highlights were Scotland’s pavilion (maybe it’s just patriotism, but I thought Martin Boyce’s work was among the best things I saw); Mexico’s (artist: Teresa Margolles); The Netherlands’ (artist: Fiona Tan) and Central Asia’s pavilion, in which Kazakhstan was represented by Oksana Shatalova, Yelena Vorobyeva &Viktor Vorobyev; Kyrgyzstan was represented by Ermek Jaenisch; Tajikistan by Djamshed Kholikov, and Uzbekistan by Anzor Salidjanov. Oh and I also loved Pavel Pepperstein in the Russian pavillion. By far the best work I saw (or, to be more diplomatic, the work I liked best) in the Fare Mondi/Making Worlds surveys in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in the Giardini and the Arsenale was Nathalie Djurberg’s.
Among the most disappointing from my point of view was the presentation by the Denmark and Nordic Countries (Finland, Norway, Sweden). Titled The Collectors and much written about in the art press, this revolved around a single superfiction-like conceit that the pavilions were stage-set like homes of wealthy collectors, the work present being contextualised by its relationship to both an embedded fictional narrative (complete with ‘corpse’ floating in the outdoor pool) and the broader notion of an art market: the business of art business as Warhol might say. Personally I found the conceit limited and contrived, and also somewhat undermined by the physical positioning of the work within the Giardini site. There was something clumsy about it I felt, and almost old-fashioned in a YBA kind of way. Yes, art is part of a market, and it exists simultaneously in multiple, sometimes contradictory economies. But didn’t we establish that already?
Of course I didn’t see everything. In the time I had I think that would have been impossible, and I probably did miss some real gems. An interesting contrast was made however, by two of the off-site pavillions, which I happened to see consecutively. The first was Foreign Affairs the Taiwan pavilion showing work by Chien-Chi Chang, Chen Chieh-Jen, Hsieh Ying-Chun, and Cheng-Ta Yu. This was a disappointing show I felt, in which a serious topic (Taiwanese status, identity, and equality) was tackled in what felt like a very limited fashion. It made me think seriously about the role of the viewer in this kind of work. Much has been written about the multiple roles of artists within society, and the differing kinds of worth that these can inhabit and / or convey. The role of artist as social commentator, mirror, or window into a culture of community is established and inarguable. How though can we reconcile these roles with the experience of viewing the work that is produced when artists take on these roles in an unmediated or untranslated way? How are we to respond as viewers when a territory of inequality or injustice is placed before us? Is it beside the point to critique the size of a screen or the colour balance of a photograph? It seems wrong to do this somehow, and yet because we are encountering the work within an art context, we are primed to notice and respond to its visual codes and qualities. It’s a serious question, and one that I don’t raise facetiously. The aesthetic or ‘artistic’ content of the work in Foreign Affairs took second place to the political stance chosen. For the artists to choose to do this is inarguably their right. Likewise for the curator to choose to show the work. But the question remains, once the work is made and displayed, how and why is it disseminated to an art audience? Am I also expected to judge it in terms of its politics rather than its ‘art content’? And what does it mean if I do this? Where do I go from there, after I’ve decided to boycott Taiwanese goods, for example? The show left me flat, I’m afraid.
Leaving it, however, I made my way to another off-site space – the Mexican pavilion. Here I found another artist dealing with another social injustice. But here I also found real power in the work, and in the significance of a visual art approach and context for the work in What else could we talk about? For years, Mexican artist Teresa Margolles has investigated “the exploration of the artistic possibilities of human remains, the memory of the loss provoked by violent death and the institutions that manage human corpses.” Her work is lyrical but undeniable, full of a certain gestural poetry but unstinting in it’s ability to address this forlorn and mortal subject matter. There’s real weight to her practice, whether washing the floor of this 16th century Venetian palazzo in the blood of Mexican murder victims, or replacing the Mexican flag on the front of the building with a flag soaked in mud and the blood of the dead. Set against the statement that 2008 was the year when the most bullets have been fired in Mexico’s recent history, there’s a lot I could say about Margolles’ work, but this probably isn’t the right place. It’s important to say that her practice isn’t unproblematic – I’m sure that accusations of exploitation could be, and have been made – but partly it’s that complication, that tension, which appeals to me. Perhaps it’s that level of friction that makes it far more interesting as art, as well as that level of metamorphosis and gesture, which transforms her work from commentary into something ultimately, qualitatively, different.
More later,
R -
Lumsden and Away!
by Ruth Barker 27 Sep 2009
Hello,
I was up in Lumsden this past weekend, chairing an Art Breakfast event that was hosted by the Scottish Sculpture Workshop (many thanks to them) and curated by the incomparable Merlyn Riggs. The keynote speaker was the fantastic Peter Jenkinson, who gave an impassioned presentation touching on (amongst other things) the death of the audience, the position of the periphery, and the importance of art and our engagement with it. The talk was followed by a breakfast of wholly gargantuan proportions, and a great deal of interesting conversation. Many thanks to everyone who came along and contributed. I hope to get some documentation of the day up the site as soon as possible…
…once I get back from Venice! I go tomorrow (Monday) and back next week, when I will (promise) post a catch up.
more later,
R -
Deep Breaths / Temporary Nature
by Ruth Barker 21 Sep 2009
Hello,
Two events on this weekend, both of which I’ve mentioned before on the Blog. The first, on Friday night, was the opening of Deep Breaths at the Govanhill Baths. Curated by Alex Wilde, Deep Breaths allowed a range of artists to work on interventions sited within the Baths – a magnificent former public baths in the Southside of Glasgow. The Baths were closed by the City Council in 2001, an act which sparked both protests and dismay in the local community. Since that time a voluntary group of residents and interested others have campaigned for Govanhill Baths to reopen and fundraised for the cash to support a renovation project. Planning permission has now been granted for the Baths’ redevelopment, but the Council are still (it seems) reluctant to fully – and financially – support the project. Deep Breaths was timed to coincide with Doors Open Day, and was an opportunity for visitors to look around the empty building, as well as for artists to re-imagine and reinterpret the space. It was a great success, with (at last count) more than 2000 visitors through the door during the course of the weekend. I’ve posted the text of my catalogue essay for the event below.
The other event on this weekend in Glasgow was Temporary Nature curated by artist Allison Gibbs, and I’m not sure that it was just because they took place at the same time that I started to think about how they functioned in relation to one another. Temporary Nature took place on a patch of wasteground near the new BBC and STV buildings at Pacific Quay, close to the South bank of the Clyde as you travel out of the city centre towards Govan. The spaces all around here have been recently gentrified (pre-recession) with a scattering of media headquarters and stylish restaurants in amongst the Science Museum and SECC. Allison asked a small group of Glasgow-based artists (Stuart Gurden, Anna Mields, Louise Briggs [of Jaaliceklar ] and I) to each make new work for the space, and also made a new sculptural work herself – Crystal Habits – which was installed within the site for the two-day duration of the project. Stuart made a sound installation in which an authoritative voice reads the text from a found poster. The sound centered around a large stone embedded in a stubby clearing which provided a framed view of the nearby BBC building. Stuart I think originally intended visitors to sit on the stone and listen to the piece, with the media hub as a backdrop/perspective. But by midday Saturday a crowd of interested people had gathered, standing around the stone and watching it, as the apparent source of the disembodied ‘voice’. The piece was fantastically effective. Anna produced Sackgasse (Blind-alley) an ambitious, partly illusary, architectural structure that suggested something of a shelter as well as (perhaps) a contemporary concrete folly. Louise had installed a billboard work that perhaps most directly referenced the site’s various incarnations. The land is owned by developers, and so I assume it will be built on as soon as the owners feel that the markets have recovered enough they they can make a profit by selling or building on it. However things go, I doubt this verdant patch of land in such a prime location will remain as it is for long.
The wasteground itself was part of the site of the Glasgow Garden Festival and has since been left to its own devices, becoming an overgrown and tangled space that has developed its own pragmatism, routes and logic. When Allison invited me to develop a new piece of work for the site, I was reminded of some of the places I played as a kid. I grew up in council housing estates in the suburbs of Leeds in the North of England, and there were always plenty of these odd patches of land to explore and lay claim to. There’s something important in the way that these spaces inhabit our contemporary cities, and in the way that they might inhabit us, as well. They are very liminal spaces, neither wilderness nor not-wilderness, neither outside the city nor part of it, which I think are important in breaking down the temptation towards binaries: known / not known; urban / rural; empty / full. As well as a roving population of kids, the available evidence suggests that the wasteground is largely used these days by dog-walkers, cider-drinkers and outdoor-shaggers, which also made me think about the way that my own relationship with these kinds of spaces has changed as I’ve grown older. In the tomboy days of my youth I would have considered any unclaimed patch of beer-can laden scrubland big enough to build dens or climb trees in as my territory, to be explored and summarily conquered. Now I see these spaces as threats to be avoided; places not to walk alongside alone at night, and certainly not areas to enter into by myself, perhaps even in daylight. This is sad, obviously, but also rational, I tell myself. Still, it’s worth remembering that not so long ago I would have been sorely tempted by the possibilities offered by such a landscape.
The connection between Temporary Nature and Deep Breaths is of course that between art (it’s commissioning, its generation, and its positioning) and the physical and social contexts that surround it. Both of these projects function at two levels. The first is perhaps to use art to allow visitors to re-experience a particular space: whether by taking them to a location they wouldn’t normally go to; or by encouraging visitors to re-evaluate or re-perceive somewhere that have seen so many times that it has become invisible to them. The second is to use the opportunities offered by spaces and places we discover and that come to mean something to us (whether poetically or politically) as catalysts to enable art to happen. These strategies – if strategies they are – are clearly not mutually exclusive. And the distinction between ‘artists’ and ‘visitors’ is of course an artificial one. But one thing that thinking about these two projects has enforced in me is that sometimes ‘commissioning’ just comes down to an invitation, a curiosity, and a desire to see something happen. As it happens, that’s what our next PAR+RS season is all about. I’ll be sending our the newsletter soon with details of some of the treats we have in store for you over the next couple of months, but in the meantime do let me know your thoughts.
More later,
R
Deep Breaths: Steps Across The Floor; Ink Across The Walls.
The site of Govanhill Baths [open to the public 1914 – 2001] is a now a world within its own walls; the chipped tiles are home to verdant ferns and tracing ivy, the peeling paint falls like autumn leaves spiralling from lofty heights. And yet the site is decisively not – surprisingly perhaps – one that speaks today of loss or emptiness. Instead it is a space crammed with presence and belief, as the building’s rooms, pools, and corridors are punctuated by the work of more than 20 artists, many from the surrounding community.
Punctuated? Or perhaps Inhabited. Because the artists’ work here seems less to demarcate or define the rooms it occupies than to take on their shapes as we may take on the character or idiosyncrasies of the places where we live, becoming moulded just as we adapt and change them. In a building already so steeped in the lyrical, the meaningful, the unexpected and the out of place (hairs of mud on the pale tiled floors, concrete arches like great red ribs, the lost and found face of a resuscitation dummy) the work takes on a quiet certainty as it reveals rather than discovers, presenting rather than laying claim to this much loved, much contested, once-public space.
There is little unity to be found in the approaches, media, or languages of the artists’ work, and in many ways this reflects the generosity of the Baths themselves. There is much that we can find here, and no single line that we should take. The building is big and sprawling and wears the history of its long use explicitly. Here it is elegant and spacious in its period detail; there it is adapted, truncated, and UPVC-ed. And yet Govanhill Baths consistently overflows with a sense of the human, the personal, and the ergonomic, and it is this very fact that re-assets that palpable sense of variety.
Artists have worked to select and to articulate; to contradict and to celebrate; to memorialise and to embellish; to reinforce; to historicise; to invent; to explore; and to reveal. They have worked at every scale from the monumental to the intimate. They have occupied every corner and run the fingerprints of their consideration over every surface. As visitors, we can vicariously feel the artists’ attention, their thoughtfulness and their decision-making. We might even feel that their care has become an act of love for the building they have chosen to work within, or that Deep Breaths is, in fact, less an exhibition than a series of gifts.
This once-public-ness seems an indelible quality of the Baths as we now experience them through the wholly voluntary efforts of the Govanhill Baths Community Trust. These were after all, rooms that were once well known, frequented, and shared by a whole community. Then, we felt that this place was ours, whether we chose to use it or not. Now the building is no longer public. Now the doors to the Baths are closed and the windows are shuttered to our curiosity. Now we need permission from outside agencies to be able to be here, and today we understand that the artworks have become part of that invitation. We have come to see the artwork but, we admit, we have also come to see the Baths themselves. There is a power in walking these corridors. By coming here we are stating that we have not forgotten the world that waits quietly behind the padlocks.
To make our way through the rooms and subdivisions of rooms within the Baths is to read trace upon trace of human activity. People have walked, thought, made, swum, talked, laughed, lived, tried, learned, believed, wept, remembered, imagined, triumphed, trusted, and breathed here. The artworks in Deep Breaths remind us of that. And although the tone of the individual artists’ responses varies widely, the very presence of these artworks hints at hope for the Baths’ future, as well as regret for their present state. Because Govanhill Baths is inarguably a place of people and a place for people, which is perhaps why its decay seems so bodily as well as so poignant. The peeling paint that earlier reminded me of falling leaves is, on second glance, more like sloughing skin. When the doors close on this weekend, a space that was once a shared and public place will once again be closed and dormant. Not dead we know, but only sleeping.
Glasgow City Council closed Govanhill Baths in 2001, without any local consultation. Its loss is still keenly felt by the Govanhill community.
Ruth Barker is an artist who lives in Govanhill. -
insideout
by Ruth Barker 17 Sep 2009
Hello,
as promised, here is the essay for Dani Marti’s insideout exhibition.More later,
R
Sometimes We Aren’t Who We Think We Are
The Transgression of Autobiography in Dani Marti’s insideoutIn a cold basement, water drips occasionally from a ceiling that is not so much damp as semi aquatic. I can’t see the walls well, but the surfaces I can make out are pitted and stained. There’s an insistent, bone chilling draught, but the video by Spanish-Australian artist Dani Marti on the far wall is utterly crisp, and the image is perfectly sharp. Viewers drift in, watch, and leave again, mounting the creaking stairs with the scruff of boots and trainers that are trying to make no noise. There’s a hush here, as you might feel when someone says something publicly that is in essence intensely private.
In Time Is The Fire in Which We Burn, we watch for just over an hour as a man identified as ‘John’ lies naked in bed with Marti, the artist, and talks frankly, intimately, about his life. Marti listens, questions, prompts, touches. Sometimes he leaves the bed and disappears from shot before returning. Sometimes he gets up to move the camera. John remains in the bed and is clearly the focus of the film, though Marti never conceals his own presence. John talks endlessly about himself, and at least partly to himself. He is candid about his life as he perceives it, and as he describes it to us and to Marti. His life – John’s life – shifts between the multiple identities of any social being, and we watch him occupy several as the film progresses: as an HIV+ gay man; as a former prostitute; as a drug user; as a homecoming Scot; as a Glaswegian; as a man who has survived the failure of a relationship; as a man with good intentions; as a man who laughs and cries and thinks and wonders. And we likewise understand as we watch that this is not John’s whole life, but rather the life he chooses to present to us, on this day, at this time, in bed with Marti.
The portrait of John as it emerges from Time Is The Fire is undeniably intense and, despite the verbal, emotional, and psychological breadth of the work, the overwhelming sense is of the physical. As viewers our attention is continually rooted on John’s body whether he’s eating, wriggling, rubbing his head, or touching himself or Marti. The projected surface of John’s body is continually both present and available as he physically displays himself to us, the unseen viewer (present to him, we imagine, only as a tripod and camera in the bedroom, with all the overtones of pornography that that implies). This body focus is emphasised as John talks about his experiences of prostitution, describing how his body felt ‘given away’ and the emotional repercussions of that. As viewers we enter into this scrutiny as our perception of John’s physicality changes with what he reveals both verbally and visually – now he is vulnerable, now he is familiar, now he is cold, now he is thirsty, now he is tired, now he is aroused – and in relation to how he positions himself in relation to Marti, revealing and exposing himself emotionally, but simultaneously comparing himself against and even competing with, the body of the artist.
That the body of the artist is visibly part of this play of exchange is, of course, unusual. It is also a shift that is critical to the significance as well as the success of insideout. To render explicit (in several senses) the presence of the artist is a decision that positions Marti alongside his subjects/participants as a gay man living with HIV and making sense of his own sense of self. This is no outsider looking into a community to which they do not belong. Rather, here we have an artist voicing the separate, perhaps contradictory elements of himself through the thoughts and experiences of others – through their bodies, as well as their biographies.
It’s a complex position this, to see ourselves partly through the way others see themselves, but perhaps it is also an important one, as we seek to understand the relationships between ourselves and the social world that surrounds us. And although Marti is clearly not as vulnerable as the other participants in his films (he does, for example, control the editing) the unforgiving poetry of autobiography seems central to insideout as an exhibition. It is brought to the fore in the film Disclosure-Dani, a 14 minute film of the artist, again naked, as he is interviewed by unseen figures: a social worker specialising in HIV, a psychologist and friend; a psychotherapist; a hypnotherapist. Disclosure-Dani is intimate, transgressive, and not always flattering. But perhaps because of this it functions as the heart at the very centre of the exhibition, around which each of the other works are regulated. We genuinely feel for Marti here, charismatic as he is, but we also judge him, particularly as he breaks the taboos of his practice and talks about the strategies he uses in his film-making. This judgement again reinforces the quality of the autobiographical exchange around which insideout hinges. By exposing the anatomy of that exchange we feel that Marti withholds nothing from us, although the same quality of knowing through saying (of verbally articulating something in order to be able to recognise it) seems present in Marti’s interviews in at least as great a degree as in Time is the Fire or in Disclosure, the other epic ‘confessional’ piece in the show.
Disclosure-Dani is devastatingly honest, and placed as it is alongside the longer multichannel Disclosure – in which seven different men talk in fragmented glimpses about their sexuality, illness, and identity – it becomes a solid and inarguable centre. If Disclosure-Dani is the exhibition’s heart however, in Disclosure itself we find something more akin to its soul, for here is the true grief of the series. In Disclosure we find genuine and sincere tragedy on a scale so intimate that it becomes perhaps universal, revealing the very quietest, most broken of narratives as an older man cries. The biography that emerges through the words that this man cannot say as well as those he does, is of an biography composed of regret, and of an understanding of self that has been forged in intolerance and shaped by a blinding or negation of that very self: a selfhood that tries to shrink itself to nothing. And as this single voice is joined by others that surround and reposition it, Marti succeeds in presenting something that is not truly a portrait at all, but an exploration; a questioning of our understanding, as a society, of our own veracities and subjecthoods.
Because what is so significant about Time is the Fire, Disclosure, and Disclosure-Dani as well as the other works in insideout, is that though they are deeply rooted in a particular HIV+ gay identity, they are not necessarily about that identity. Rather they seem partly to talk about the problems of autobiography in its widest sense: the difficulty of knowing who we are; the difficulty of saying who we are; and what happens when, by saying something, we know it to be true. Because not everything we know about ourselves is true, and likewise, what we may know as truth today we may recognise as falsehood tomorrow. insideout is clearly partly Marti’s own autobiography but it may also perhaps be all of ours, whoever we are, so long as we ask ourselves questions to which we don’t always know the answer.
Back in the basement, John is crying, or maybe laughing. At times it’s hard to tell. The water continues to drip. The walls smell of damp, and plaster. I know this is not how Marti originally intended his most recent body of work to be shown in Glasgow, the city of it’s making, and the city in which Marti chooses to spend a significant part of his life. I know that some works in insideout are in this sodden basement because they’ve been withheld from public display in the city’s Gallery of Modern Art. And I know that the decision not to exhibit the work in the publicly funded GoMA was taken because the civic authority feared public displeasure and media criticism. And so I should feel that their relocation here is a compromise, a ghettoising insult to the sensitivity and intelligence of GoMA’s visitors as well as to Marti himself, and his participants in the films. But somehow I don’t, quite. Or rather, though I do feel the censure to be insulting, unwarranted, and even cowardly, I don’t feel that Marti’s decision to relocate emerges as a compromise.
The work here is strong enough to be seen anywhere. insideout is not, as we have seen, a series of objective documents whose validity may be challenged by their recontextualisation. Instead, as we watch this series of nuanced first-person impressions, each video shifts between fragments of unverifiable disclosure and the moments of silence that parallel them. The voices are fallible. They are edited and they are at times self conscious, just as we may be conscious that we are subjects as well as objects in the privacy of our own heads. By displaying such vulnerability in construction as well as content, Marti’s work must inescapably remind us of ourselves.
-
Media Coverage of Dani Marti show
by Ruth Barker 16 Sep 2009
Hello,
Dani Marti just sent me these links to yesterday’s media coverage of the removal of his work from the GoMA exhibition (see earlier Blog articles).
Thought I’d share them with you.more later,
R -
Clanjamfrey and Others
by Ruth Barker 14 Sep 2009
Hello,
Busy week last week, as in addition to my PAR+RS duties I was preparing for the opening of Mark Briggs’ exhibition at Washington Garcia, and preparing my script for a new performance I’m working on at the moment. Then on Friday I went up to Inverness for the Clanjamfrey event co-ordinated by Inverness Old Town Art as part of Re-Imagining The Centre.
The Clanjamfrey was great, a really fantastic couple of days and I was very glad I attended. Most impressive was the way that the discussions surrounding the formal presentations evolved so successfully – something that I’d tentatively attribute to the scheduling of the Philosopher’s Salon event early on in the programme. I missed this event as I was still installing the WG show on Thursday (more about this later), but from all accounts, after a slow start the Salon became a genuinely vibrant space within which a great many ideas were voiced. Having it on the first day of the Clanjamfrey really allowed it to become a catalyst rather than a space to consolidate or close down ideas, which was certainly useful I think. Another successful aspect was certainly the way that short presentations by specialists form multiple fields (not just visual arts) were grouped around particular questions. This again opened up fertile space for rethinking and questioning. I thought it might be useful to just stick up the programme so you can see the range of speakers. The highlight though (not that I’m biased!) for me was certainly the Keynote presentation by Neville Gabie, which PAR+RS was able to sponsor. More on this later, as I hope that we’re going to get a transcript of Neville’s talk up on the site. Remember too that these presentations were framed by the work that we were able to see in the city itself, from Matt Baker’s permanent 3 Virtues, sited right in the centre of the Old Town itself, to Ginny Hutchison’s ephemeral gold leaf Seven Sunsets and many more besides. More informantion, as ever, from the IOTA site
INVERNESSIAN CLANJAMFREY
Town House, Inverness 12.30 – 17.00 Friday 11th September 2009.13.30 Welcome and Introduction: Marie Mackintosh
13.35 Introduction to the afternoon: Alastair SnowSession 1 – How do you draw something the won’t stand still?
13.40 Matt Baker (public artist)
13.55 David Alston (author and historian)
14.10 Philomena de Lima (author, Director of Centre for Remote and Rural Studies, University of the Highlands and Islands, and private consultant advising of race equality strategies for public agencies).
14.25 Panel discussion and questions / comments, chaired by Alastair Snow.15.10 – 15.30 Coffee break.
Session 2 – Am I Standing At The Centre of the World?
15.30 Claudia Zeiske (Director of Deveron Arts)
15.45 Sam Harrison (Director of Open Ground place-based education project)
16.00 Rev Peter Nimmo (Minister of Old High Saint Stephen’s Church, Inverness)
16.15 Panel discussion and questions / comments, chaired by Alastair Snow.
17.00 Close of dayInverness Cathedral 9.30 – 13.00 Saturday 12th September 2009.
9.30 Introduction to the morning: Alastair Snow
9.35 Jan Hogarth (Dumfries and Galloway Arts Association)Session 3 – Whose Voice Needs to be Heard to make it ‘Public’?
9.50 Duncan McLean (landscape architect and urban designer with Land use Consultants)
10.05 Ruth Macdougall (environmental artist based in Glasgow)
10.20 Panel discussion and questions / comments, chaired by Alastair Snow.11.00 – 11.20 Coffee break
11.30 – 13.00 IOTA Keynote presentation: Neville Gabie, introduced by Ruth Barker (PAR+RS). Produced in association with Public Art Scotland.
Phew!
So, other than that, I was also helping out artist Mark Briggs and curator / director Kendall Koppe installing Mark’s show at Glasgow artist run gallery Washington Garcia. I’ve posted the press release below, but would (of course) encourage you to pop down if you can as it’s a really great exhibition. I’ll be invigilating tomorrow (Tuesday) so do introduce yourself if you’re passing. I love Mark’s work for the way it appropriates and transforms fragments and moments, but also seems to endlessly defer them. There’s something almost erotic sometimes in the way that his work never seems to reach a conclusion. Let me know what you think.
I also went to see the opening on Dani Marti’s exhibition in Glasgow on Thursday night last week (timed, I suspect, to coincide with the launch of the new Trongate 103 building). This, you may remember, is the work that was effectively censored from the Gallery of Modern Art in the city, apparently because elements in the City Council feared bad publicity from Dani’s frank depiction of HIV positive gay men (see earlier blog posts for details). I found the work moving, and at times uncomfortable viewing. Perhaps surprisingly, the film I found hardest to watch (I confess I didn’t make it to the end, and had to stop) was the film of Dani himself talking about his own life, and his approach to making work. Dani’s asked me to write a critical essay about the work, so when I do so I’ll post it here (with his permission, of course). Dani’s show is on till the 10th October at the Parnie St venue. Pop down if you can.
I’ve also been working quite a bit on the script of The Deer Woman, a new site specific work that I’ll perform for the first time at 2pm next Saturday 19th September. The work will be part of Temporary Nature, a project curated by Allison Gibbs that will take place on the wasteground opposite the BBC Building at Pacific Quay in Glasgow. Allison describes the site beautifully in her press release, mentioning that “A former fragment of the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival, the site, now part urban rambling ground, part social drop out space, exists as a rare interstitial landscape within the city; neither true wilderness, nor tended parkland.†I’ll post details in the PAR+RS events listing as soon as they’re finalised. Come on down! Hope to see you there.
More later,
R
GOOD
LOOKING
LOOKING
GOODMark Briggs @
Washington Garcia
Arch 24 (Unit 13)
Eastvale place
Glasgow, G3 8QGPreview: Saturday 12th September 2009, 7 – 10pm.
Washington Garcia is delighted to present Good Looking Looking Good by Mark Briggs at Arch 24 Eastvale Place.Briggs was awarded the highly competitive Washington Garcia Residency 2009, and has spent the summer months developing a new body of work within the gallery space. Good Looking Looking Good marks the culmination of an intensive period of reflection and production, which we have been excited to support.
During the residency, Briggs has expanded his interest in appropriating the moving image through drawing and video. Responding to his unique surroundings Briggs worked with the projected image, sound and indoor pyrotechnics. Throughout this new body of work, pre-existing source material has been manipulated, re-recorded or transcribed, allowing repetition to become a language that encompasses the acceptance of absurdity. Through glimpses of visual narrative, Briggs offers a series of displaced encounters laced with a blend of nostalgia and eroticism, which he describes as “sometimes confused, often compulsive, mostly disorientating.â€A commissioned essay will accompany Good Looking Looking Good from artist and writer Darren Rhymes.
Notes For Editor:
Washington Garcia
Arch 24 (Unit 13)
Eastvale Place
Glasgow, G3 8QG
Preview: 12th of September 2009. 7 – 10 pm
Exhibition Runs: 12th of September – 19th of September 2009
Gallery Hours Tuesday – Saturday 12-6pm or by appointment• *Please note the limited exhibition run *
• * We are no longer open on Sundays unless by prior arrangement. *Artist Biography:
Mark Briggs was born in Colchester in 1977, and resides in Glasgow since the completion of his MFA at Glasgow School of Art in 2008. Recent exhibitions have included group shows in Artnews Projects, Berlin; Bezalel Academy, Tel Aviv; and A Vermin, Glasgow. He describes his time as Washington Garcia’s artist in residence as providing “an opportunity to allow for freedom of investigation into working methods and practices.†-
Feminism, Baths, and things to do.
by Ruth Barker 7 Sep 2009
Hello,
I have made a new resolution to be more rigorous in my blogging. I will now try to write a post each week, and have set Mondays as my regular updating day, when I can try and let you know what I’ve been up to. By stating my intention to you like this, I realise I’m setting myself up for visible failure, but that’s ok. I will do my best, at least.
OK, so after a miserable week suffering with a cold, I went to the Subject in Process symposium at CCA, Glasgow on Friday.
Billed as a symposium on Feminism and Art, the day was, I think, a great success. Well curated, straightforward, and perfectly chaired by Sarah Lowndes who kept just the right balance between generosity of discussion and rigour of debate. The structure of the day itself was framed by the inspired decision to screen the 1979 Hegedus / D.A. Pennebaker documentary Town Bloody Hall in the morning, before any of the presentations. I would urge anyone who hasn’t seen this fantastic document – in which Norman Mailer struggles to chair a Debate on Women’s Liberation featuring a formidable panel of speakers Jill Johnston, Diana Trilling, Jacqueline Ceballos and Germaine Greer – to get hold of a copy. Mailer’s at times hilarious descent into inarticulate aggression and defensive insult-hurling has to be seen to be believed, forming as it does the centre of a narrative arc punctuated by presentations that are by turns elegant, witty, controlled, and always utterly articulate.
The CCA-hosted discussions that followed were, if more civilised (there was no wrestling on the stage of CCA 5) perhaps more also thoughtful as well as more generous, reflecting the shifts and evolutions that have occurred in the social and cultural context more generally as well as the development within the specifically feminist tradition. It was undoubtedly the best conference style event I’ve been to in while, and I’d offer my congratulations to all of the speakers – Sam Ainsley; Dr. Fiona Bradley; Kathryn Elkin; Adele Patrick; and Sarah Lowndes – for a much needed, and much enjoyed event.Yesterday (Sunday, for those not keeping up) I was given a privileged tour of the “Govanhill Baths” building on Glasgow’s South Side by artist and Govanhill Baths Community Trust member Alex Wilde. A centre of the Govanhill Community from its opening in 1914 till it was closed without public consultation in 2001, the Baths remains a focus of community action and aspiration, and a dedicated group have been trying to get the building restored and re-opened. As part of this ongoing project, Alex has been helping to co-ordinate a series of artistic interventions throughout the (now sadly dilapidated) Govanhill Baths building. The artists have been hampered by the restrictions placed on their access to the building by Glasgow City Council, though when I visited the place was a hive of enthusiastic activity. There seemed to be a huge variety in both scale and approach to the works, all of which were still in development prior to the Doors Open Day weekend on the 19th and 20th September, during which the building will be publicly accessible and the works can be viewed.
I was getting the tour in the first place because I’ve agreed to support the project by writing a piece for the small catalogue that will accompany the exhibition, talking about the building itself and the works that have been commissioned. My condition for doing so was that Alex contributes to PAR+RS an account of her experiences in commissioning 20-odd works for such a challenging site – so fingers crossed she won’t renege on her promise and you’ll get to see some fantastic images of this simply incredible building. I’m working on my wee essay just now, so I’ll post it here when it’s done.My other job today is to draft my introduction to Neville Gabie’s keynote presentation for the Invernessian Clanjamfrey, which I’m heading to on Friday. Neville’s contribution to the event is sponsored by PAR+RS and I’m looking forward to hearing what he has to say.
Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that I finally got to speak to Peter Jenkinson last week, starting the conversation that will allow me to chair Merlyn Riggs’ upcoming Art Breakfast event in Lumsden (hope to see you there!). It was very nice to chat to him, and to get a feel for the very genuine generosity which seems to underpin his practice as a cultural broker, as well as his approach. I’m more than looking forward to working with him, and I think the event itself will be particularly illuminating. Hope to see you there.
More later,
R
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Openness, Curiosity and Promiscuity
by Ruth Barker 21 Aug 2009
Hello,
today I’m musing on an upcoming event in Lumsden, an Art Breakfast no less, which I’ve been asked to chair 1.
The title is a good one “Make Friends with Strange People: The pressing need for greater openness, curiosity and promiscuity in the world of art.” and offers a great many starting points – but however will I narrow it down to something useful and interesting? And isn’t it strange that when invited to think about ‘openness’, my immediate response is to close that idea down into something more ‘manageable.’ Is that just me, I wonder, and my cowardly brain? Or could it be something more fundamental about the way we order our thoughts?
Hard to say at this point and, as I say I’m only at the beginning of my musings. It’ll prove a good way into a series of conversations I hope, and I hope likewise that some of you PAR+RS readers will be good enough to join us and offer your thoughts? 26th September in Lumsden – stick it in your diary if you haven’t already. Details below.
More later,
R1 Arts Breakfast with Peter Jenkinson and Merlyn Riggs
Village Hall, Lumsden, Aberdeenshire – 26 Sep 2009.Make Friends with Strange People:
The pressing need for greater openness, curiosity and promiscuity in the world of artKeynote Speaker: Peter Jenkinson of Channel 4’s Big Art Project
Guest Curator: Ruth Barker of PAR+RS
10am Saturday 26 September
Scottish Sculpture Workshop is delighted to welcome artist Merlyn Riggs to Lumsden, Aberdeenshire, to curate the latest of her series of Arts Breakfasts.
Devised by Merlyn and hosted by primary arts venues in the North East of Scotland, Arts Breakfasts are a series of social events intended to trigger networking and discussion across the region’s art community.
Merlyn has developed the concept of the Arts Breakfast to fill a gap in arts networking. The framework for these is based on the Platonic vision of a symposium as an active exchange of ideas facilitated through shared dining. In keeping with her practice, these events employ the art of hospitality to facilitate interactive, participatory and dialogical occasions, designed to engage participants in a social situation created around food.
With a simple template – listen, eat, talk – she develops and directs each breakfast individually, setting a topic for discussion and forming a theme suited to venue, place and audience.
Arts Breakfasts aim to raise the awareness of the cultural, economic and social importance of the visual arts and creative industries in the wider community, with the overall intention of creating a more sustainable constituency of influence.
Scottish Sculpture Workshop is pleased to invite members of the arts community to take part in an Arts Breakfast focusing around the issue of artists working in a public context.
We are delighted to confirm that our keynote speaker at the Arts Breakfast will be Peter Jenkinson of Channel 4’s “Big Art Projectâ€.
Peter Jenkinson has worked for over 20 years in the cultural sector, passionately advocating and acting for deep and lasting change across the cultural and political landscape.
Leading alongside will be artist and writer Ruth Barker of PAR+RS, who will chair the event.Date: 10am Saturday 26 September 2009
Venue: Lumsden Village Hall, Main Street, Lumsden
(250 yards south of Scottish Sculpture Workshop)Tickets: £15 per person
*Please note – pre-booking essential is essential for this event. We recommend early booking as this event is expected to be busyTo reserve a place, please call SSW on 01464 861372 or email us at office@ssw.org.uk
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Bible writing: the fallout
by Ruth Barker 20 Aug 2009
Hello,
thought you might be interested in this, which reveals some of the repercussions from GoMA’s recent difficulties (see earlier post).
I post this because I think Dani’s position is an important one, but also because I think it’s important that Public Art Scotland is able to consider the complex multiple relationships that exist between artists and the public realm which, as we’re reminded, is not always a one way street. For every moment when artists choose to ‘venture out’ into public spaces and contexts, there are also times when public discussion or sensitivity impacts upon the artworld. It’s very interesting indeed (to me at least) that Dani has sought to redress the imbalance he feels by recontextualising the works by placing them in public spaces outside of that gallery context. Would anyone be interested in hearing Dani talk more about why he chose to make this relocation? If so I’ll ask him to comment.
More later,
RSTATEMENT BY DANI MARTI
13 August 2009CANCELATION OF THE EXHIBIT AT GoMA – GLASGOW
Intimacy and disclosure project censored by Culture & Sport Glasgow.
Culture & Sport Glasgow commissioned me, Dani Marti, as an international artist living between Sydney and Glasgow, to create an exhibition as part of the sh[OUT] : Contemporary Art and Human Rights exhibition. As a result of the decision of Culture & Sport Glasgow to cancel 3 out of 4 of my artworks which were to be shown at GoMA (Glasgow Museum of Modern Art) as part of their sh[OUT] programme, I am forced to withdraw my entire exhibition from GoMA and make alternative, independent arrangements. The integrity and cohesion of my work has been damaged.
The decision to cancel the exhibition of most of my work negates the point of the 3 month residency with GoMA and Gay Men’s Health. The point of which was to address key issues such as gay men’s health and wellbeing, social and lifestyle factors, the stigma of homosexuality, and stigma associated with HIV status and disclosure. The project was aimed at reducing marginalization, social exclusion, homophobia, and HIV related stigma. Culture & Sport Glasgow’s recent decision, unfortunately, colludes with these oppressive social forces and quashes the voice of the artist, and does a tremendous disservice to the affected communities. GoMA’s compliance with Culture & Sport Glasgow’s decision, which came about due to pressure from Glasgow City Councillors, is both offensive and disrespectful to those individuals, and the respective communities, which have contributed to the art work and borne witness to exactly this kind of silencing. The participants’ voices, their social inclusion, and their civil rights are now at stake.
The purpose of the exhibition, like all art, is to provoke thought, and in particular this exhibition has been created to invite reflection upon one’s own experience of intimacy and disclosure, one’s own sexuality, and one’s own cultural attitudes to such aspects of human life. The frankness of the interviews contrasts with the often sexually repressed culture in which we live, both within the UK and specifically within Glasgow – an area which has long been influenced by constraining and oppressive religious morals. The art works which have been censored are clearly effective in their purpose – they invite the viewer to confront difficult truths about people, their sexuality, their capacity for pain, destructiveness, hedonism and intimacy. The fact that these art works are a victim of their own success is a testament to the power of the films, and a terrible indictment on the pervasive influence of oppressive values which influenced decision-makers in their choice to censor these films.
There has been a breach of trust as the contract between GoMA, Glasgay, and the artist stated that the purpose of the commission was to bring an awareness of those key issues among the gay community to a wider audience through an exhibition at GoMA and an offsite venue.
As an individual living with the HIV virus for over 20 years, and after spending most of my life living between Sydney and Barcelona before I moved to Glasgow in 2004, I am aware now of the huge stigma that surrounds HIV in Scotland.
Around 80% of HIV infections that occur in Scotland are among gay men. In Scotland by 2012 it is predicted that the number of people living with HIV and requiring specialist care is likely to increase by 5-to-13%.
Culture & Sport Glasgow has decided to move the rest of the sh[OUT] programme and associated residencies and key speakers to an event in Tramway in late November or December 2009 – at an as yet unconfirmed date, but a much later date than the end of the sh[OUT] programmme, presumably to avoid any pressure from the press, so (in their words) _“things can get discussed†in a “safer†and less public context._
The works that Culture & Sport Glasgow cancelled that were to be shown at GoMA are:
the films:
AUSMUSDAD
http://danimarti.com/videos/ausmusdad/
commissioned by Kunstalle Winterthur, 2009TIME IS THE FIRE IN WHICH WE BURN
http://danimarti.com/videos/time-is-the-fire-in-which-we-burn-2/
co-funded by GoMA, Glasgow, 2009sound installation:
PIG
still in productionIt was very important that both films were to be shown at GoMA as we have two HIV POSITIVE men being open, intimate and emotional about their thoughts, fears and dreams. One of an Australian, aged 63, divorced 15 years ago and with two children, and with a very positive outlook on life, and the other of a Glaswegian man, aged 33, who talks about his experience of becoming a prostitute who through the film reflects on his experiences and the meaning of life; a very sensitive, personal portrait. It is a key work to show in a public space like GoMA as there is such a large stigma in Scotland regarding HIV. The work would have helped so many HIV positive people – men and women – and also the general community to become more tolerant and to overcome so many preconceptions about being HIV. All the curators at GoMA, including Mark O’Neill, Head of Glasgow Museums, understood the importance of the work, but orders from “above†decided to “re-schedule†the viewing to one Sunday afternoon at Tramway and to then let us talk about it in a “safer†more secluded environment under the banner ‘sh[OUT] Debate: A Response’.
Culture & Sport Glasgow have objected to the frontal nudity and intimacy in AUSMUSDAD and to the conversations on drug consumption and a fisting reference in TIME IS THE FIRE IN WHICH WE BURN. The films include sometimes disturbing descriptions of life, sexuality, and include experiences of prostitution and drug addiction. It is not the purpose of art to gloss over the stark and often painful realities of life, but to give an alternative reading of it. When I explained to Culture & Sport Glasgow that AUSMUSDAD was recently screened in a Museum in Zurich with public acclaim their response was that Zurich is a much more advanced city for the Arts than Glasgow, and that the public in Glasgow was not educated enough and was not ready for it.
I agreed with GoMA and with Mark O’Neill, to enclose the screening area and to accordingly label it as 15+, and to publicly state some of the nature of the content of the films in order to give people a free choice of whether to enter the space or not. I was called into a second meeting two days later, and I was told, under the instructions of Bridget McConnell, Chief Executive of Culture and Sport Glasgow, that none of the films or the sound installation were going to be shown at GoMA.
PIG is a collaborative sound work with sound designer Diana Simpson: A dark and abstract exploration through sound into a pulsating underworld where echoes of intimate voices challenge the listener’s comfort zone. An abstraction referencing real sounds recorded from a gay nightclub – dance area and dark room – in Berlin. Following contact with Glasgow City Council, Culture & Sport Glasgow decided that it could be problematic and cancelled the work.
As an artist, I see the two films, the sound piece, and the big installation (Orifices, take2) of red blood scourers planned for the balcony area, as representing one single, coherent piece of work. As such it is conceptually impossible, and artistically incongruous, to separate out the pieces and simply remove those which the Council believe some viewers may find hard to reconcile with their own personal life experiences.
It is primarily an artistic project with a social conscience, which, due to other circumstances, now has a political dimension. It is a clear example of a homophobic position, evidently still very pertinent with some individuals of the City Council.
As a result of the current situation, I have decided to rethink the exhibition in response to Culture & Sport Glasgow’s decision:
ORIFICES (take2)
The only work accepted to be shown at GoMA, addressing HIV in an abstract and non-confronting way, which was to be two huge islands of plastic blood red scourer hanging from both internal balconies, of aprox. 4×3m each, involving 6601 scourers as the number of HIV positive cases registered in the last census. The work will now take the form of small red blood islands that will be placed in key locations around the city, from 1st to 10th September 2009. These sculptures will become part of the wider community in Glasgow:
Central Station, George Square, Mitchell Library, CCA, Tramway, Op. Concert Hall, under the statue of Donald Dewer, Trongate…I will be looking for volunteers to carry on the distribution and documentation of the different islands. If interested, please get back to me:
dani@danimarti.comFor further information on ORIFICES, please have a look on http://danimarti.com/texts/ then go to 2000, Ann Finnegan, ‘Thin Wall’
4 Parnie St. – opening on the 10th September 2009
This will be the second part of the exhibition that was meant to run parallel to the exhibition at GoMA, and I hope that we can still run with it.DISCLOSURE a four component video installation
The project consists of seven films in which individuals from a range of backgrounds and with a range of life experiences speak openly and candidly about their thoughts, their values and their life experiences. Some of these discussions naturally make uncomfortable viewing.The three cancelled works that were to be exhibited at GoMA will not be shown at Parnie Street, but will be available for viewing for one day at Tramway, Glasgow. Date still to be confirmed…
ENDS
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Right Wing Street Art?
by Ruth Barker 5 Aug 2009
Hello,
Actually a nice little analysis here of what now seems to be called ‘street art’ (back in my day we called it ‘intervention’. ‘Street art’ is more catchy I suppose. The kids’ll love it…).
Is it street art? Tough call seeing it in isolation like this. Propaganda (from right and left) has always had a interesting (sometimes caustic) relationship with other art practices. For what it’s worth, I don’t think this is a good example of a propagandist image. It’s a bit clunky and there isn’t that ‘grain of truth’ factor – the point at which the image somehow should ‘ring true’ even if (like me) you don’t agree with the sentiment 1.
Still, good to know that people still realise that images can be powerful, and that people still notice flyposting – for a while I was worried that anything 2D in public space was interpreted as a teaser advert.
More later,
R1 After all, the Joker isn’t a socialist, is he? Or did I completely miss the point of that film? Um, and I don’t think Obama is actually a socialist either… Not totally sure where they’re going with that analogy, but nevermind.
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Taking Over The World
by Ruth Barker 4 Aug 2009
Hello,
Taking over the world? At least they seem as though they are: GANGHUT have made the BBC news today with news that they’re planning to build “bizarre wooden structures” as part of Inverness’ Re-Imagining The Centre programme in September. I hope to see some of you at the Clanjamfrey event on the 11th and 12th of September, which Inverness Old Town Art are working on too.It’s good to see some more positive arts coverage on the beeb, after the depressing stories about GoMA bible project. This has been a massively frustrating tale as it has run and run in the Scottish, national, and even international press, with the Pope releasing a comment last week. For those who have missed this whole painful episode, let me recap: The Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow curates, every year, a ‘Social Justice’ exhibition, in which they showcase the ways in which various artists tackle or make reference to social justice themes. in the past, they’ve covered sectarianism (Roddy Buchanan), violence against women (Barbara Kruger), torture (Louise Bourgoise et al).
OK? So far, so good. This year’s curated exhibition was entitled sh[OUT] and featured a large group show of artists making work about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex identities (apologies if I’ve missed some out). To my mind, this year’s exhibition was far less successful than others I’ve seen – not because I’m a rabid homophobe, but because I felt that it was comparatively poorly / unimaginatively curated. Alongside this exhibition however, ran a series of outreach projects intended to introduce ideas of identity or sexuality to various different groups.
It is from one of these outreach projects that all the trouble started. One Glasgow artist was asked to lead some workshops with gay members of faith groups in the city. During these workshops, one of the group members became interested in the idea of the Bible as a personal artifact – as I understand she shared an anecdote about a Bible she’d used during Sunday School as a child, which she was encouraged to annotate so as to make it personal to her. This lead to her idea to ask other people – whom she felt might feel excluded from the sacred text – to likewise annotate (and so, presumably, to make more personal) a copy of the Bible provided for this purpose. The Bible was placed in GoMA, as part of a small exhibition related to the outreach programme. Perhaps predictably (go ahead, call me cynical) during the course of the exhibition, some members of the public decided to embellish the book while it was on display with some less than thoughtful inclusions including swear words and rude drawings. ’That’s a shame’ you may have thought at this point. But you would probably have reconciled yourself to the fact that there were greater tragedies going on in the world at the moment. Perhaps you would be right, but the Daily Mail newspaper might beg to differ.
Because the Daily Mail jumped on this story with lurid enthusiam (reveling in gratuitous headlines like ‘It wouldn’t happen to the Koran!’) and have devoted what seems like many miles of coverage to it. The lead artist is now receiving personal hatemail as the myth of the God-hating exhibition has spread (one Blog lead with ‘Homosexuals and Muslims team up against Christians’). The other media have followed the Mail’s lead, and the story has gone global – with no-one apparently bothering to fact check it. The Chinese Whisper suggests that An Artist is exhibiting a mutilated Bible in order to insult and outrage the Christian community. This is clearly not the case. The lady who devised the gesture is not herself an artist, and is (as I understand) a committed Christian who was seeking to explore her personal relationship to her own faith.
There are a couple of real issues here, and I make no apologies for dwelling on this story, as I think that some of the questions it raises are important for all of us who try to make work in the public sphere.
The degree lack of support / guidance given to the original outreach project could be questioned (and has been by some in the art community), as could perhaps the appropriate-ness of how the materials from the project were contextualised within GoMA’s galleries. A sincere worry however is that the negative coverage given to this storm in a teacup will put people off the gallery – which does a great deal of good work – and may further discourage them from participating in other outreach projects.
Another issue however is clearly the poor reporting of the project – the sensationalising of which those used to the British media have had to grow used to. Sad to say, newspapers need selling, and journalists (and their editors) are there to sell them by pitching juicy tales of moral outrage. However, the broader question this raises is why there is such a low level of understanding of contemporary art held by the general public – and the answer to that has to be a lack of education.
The only contact many people have with contemporary art is through media coverage of projects. in this case, the journalists didn’t seem to understand the project at all. Their editors didn’t seem to understand the project either. The readers of the newspapers certainly didn’t seem to understand the project – which is not surprising since by the time they were told the tale, it had become significantly distorted. With so little rigour to the reporting given to contemporary art, we perhaps shouldn’t be surprised that this overall understanding continues to be so low. And yet this leads to a vicious circle of attack and condemnation that becomes increasingly hard for we who are ‘in the know’ to circumvent: because if the only time that art makes it into the papers is for negative reasons, then people will start to think that art is a bad thing. If people think that art is a bad thing, then they will be less likely to seek out the truth of a distorted story, and less likely to give the artist the benefit of the doubt. And, as human beings on the whole prefer to have their opinions reflected by the media they read and watch, this means that Bad Art stories are the ones that will continue to grow legs and run. The lead artist in this case, as well as being badly effected by the personal and unpleasant hate mail he’s received, is also worried about his career. As he says, he would be more than happy to defend his own work against attack; however this is precisely not his work and so he doesn’t relish becoming known as ‘that guy who wrote f*ck on the Bible.’
I hate to leave this post on such a negative note, but this whole affair has left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. I’m not going to put any links to the Daily Mail coverage and it’s ensuing bandwagon, but a quick Google on your part will uncover a treasure trove of lazy reporting should you really wish to delve in the dirt.
Don’t get too muddy now,
more later,
R -
Bad Bahaviour
by Ruth Barker 31 Jul 2009
Hello,
and first apologies are in order. I’m afraid I’ve let the Blog slip a bit lately, and have no-one to blame but myself. Things have been pretty hectic during July (not least because of the sad passing of my much abused laptop – many thanks to BD for the brain transplant it has recently received), and it is the Blog that’s suffered.There have been many things that have caught my attention lately, and though I dit consider ‘saving’ some of them for future postings, I thought I’d give you a scattergun like catch up of some of the things that have been occupying me.
Orpheus and Eurydice
I’m working on a piece for the Edinburgh Arts Festival just now – a podcast performance no less. I’m scripting a reworked version of Orpheus and Eurydice, which I’m performing in a recording studio next week. The audio will be turned into a podcast which you can download from the Arts Festival website, so that you can listen to the text as you walk around the streets of the city. It’s been scripted to be sympathetic to a particular walk, but I think it will work anywhere. It’s designed to fit a walking rhythm, and hes been really good to work on – if a little last minute because I lost the completed first draft of the work when my laptop broke.
A lesson to us all: BACK EVERYTHING UP!I’ll put a link to the work here when it’s done.
In the Beginning
I’ve been finishing the vinyl for a recent work In The Beginning that was performed in Glasgow in May. I just got the test pressing back today, which is quite exciting… When it’s all done I’ll have a record launch (somewhere), so details of that to follow as well.Wheatfields (and the intolerance they inspire)
Frustrating this. I do read the Guardian and admire much of their political reporting (‘best of a bad bunch’, do I hear?), but my sprits always fail to soar when they talk about art. Likewise the Comments section below the main article.Vann Nath
But in the interests of even-handedness, I was deeply impressed and genuinely moved by the coverage of Vann Nath’s testimony during the war crimes trial of Khmer Rouge leader Kaing Guek Eav. Nath is an artist, and one of between 7 and 14 (accounts vary) survivors of the horrific Tuol Sleng torture centre in Phnom Penh where 16 000 people are thought to have been murdered by the regime. The UN backed tribunal took place this July in Cambodia and Nath wept as he offered his unique eyewitness testimony. He attributes his survival to his role as an artist, forced to produce portraits of Khmer Rouge leaders to survive. Now aged 63, he’s still making work, which you can see here.Northern Art Prize
This article in ArtReview was also of interest. Let me know what you think.I waved goodbye last night to Alhena Katsoff of A. Vermin as she leaves Scotland for opportunities in Amsterdam. Good luck Alhena!
And it was the end of an era last weekend as the Glasgow Project Room hosted its last ever exhibition in its current location at 64 Osborne Street. This venerable institution has hosted many fine artists, but ended on a suitable high note with a gnarly Maximalist painting extravaganza from Benny Merris, who coated every surface (and I do mean every surface) of the space in his trademark painterly exuberance. Later in the night there was music and dancing and a touch of nostalgia as well as curiosity about what the future may hold as the Project Room and the Independent Studios to which it is attached moves to the new Trongate 103 building in September.
Lots more I’m sure that I could mention but I’ll save the rest. Before I go I do want to say that I’ve been reading Trickster Makes This World by Lewis Hyde (who also wrote The Gift). It’s a great little book that I’d recommend to everyone and anyone. I’ve been raving about it lately so I thought I’d pass on my enthusiasm. Go read it!
More later,
R -
Procession
by Ruth Barker 6 Jul 2009
Hello,
Jeremy Deller’s most recent public work Procession was staged (if staged is the word) yesterday in Manchester, as part of the International Festival there. I wish I’d seen it (I didn’t), but I’ll present it to you as I’ve been able to reconstruct it from the media reports.Deller has been working with the multiplicity of Manchester’s publics to orchestrate a parade through the centre of the city, marking space while also marking something far more intangible through the series of self-identifications that are suddenly made explicit and public. For the procession was predominantly made up of groups of allegiance – some organised, like the Scouts; others social, like the Goths; some cultural, like the Shree Swaminarayan Gadi Piping Band; and others still were what we might call ‘single issue’, like the Unrepentant Smokers. Added to these were notes of cultural and social remembrance, the imagination of the city made flesh as decorated floats, as a steel band played the memory of Joy Division, or a factory with chimneys and mill works drifted through the streets on the back of a lorry.
This idea of the heterogeneous public – of many separate related or unrelated groups of people who may or may not be aware of each other – is one that long ago replaced the idea of the public as a mass with a single homogenous identity. And yet I have never before seen it so lovingly or generously made visible, with banners and floats and slogans and carnival.
As expertly nurtured by Deller, Procession is so much more than an essay into the make-up of the British populace. It is a song to the chaotic, personal, contradictory natures of people, both as they are as individuals and as they behave as groups. More than a gesture, Procession comes close to being some kind of celebration of the human condition as well as a tribute to the humanity of our civic spaces.
And, significantly, Procession moved. Trawling down the main thoroughfares of Manchester, it passed assembled crowds who waved and cheered and passed judgement and joined in. And who understood that they too were part it.
More later.
RSome of the media coverage.
Manchester International Festival
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Elevation Station images and thoughts
by Ruth Barker 15 Jun 2009
Hello,
I’m just adding those images, as promised, of the Elevation Station in progress. As I’m doing so, I’m also thinking through a question that was raised by Steve Murray – GANGHUT member and the driving force behind this project.In an email this morning (I’m sure he won’t mind me quoting him) asking if I could send thorugh copes of the images, Steve commented that he’d “Had a few interesting comments from someone yesterday who said they wondered what GANGHUT would be like if it wasnt men in charge. Strange i never really think of GANGHUT being like that, i always think theres so much going on that its neither one thing or the other.”
The gender issue is an interesting one, because it was something that I’d noticed myself. The question I had myself was not so much one of ‘men being in charge’ but that there was a clearly gendered division of labour. Throughout the day, the men tended to take responsibility for the physical construction of the Station, while the women tended to take responsibility for the banner making. It was also the women who made the sandwiches. The issue of being ‘in charge’ is slightly more complex as it may be more personal. From an outsider’s perspective, Steve seemed to be ‘in charge’, but I was aware that he had taken the initiative on this project as had been the contact person for both PAR+RS who offered the initial invitation and the Scottish Arts Council who provided financial support.
I didn’t feel that there was any prohibitive sense to this allocation of responsibilities. In fact, I was not aware of any roles actually being allocated at all. Rather I got the impression that individuals gravitated towards jobs that they could see needed doing, and that they felt they could do well. this was the case for the day volunteers as well as the core GANGHUTers. Should the men have been more ‘empowered’ to take on the more decorative tasks? Was there an implicit inhibition encountered, or was it more to do with having a particular skillsbase (which may itself be gendered)? Or does it really come down to personal preferences, with this particular group of individuals making their own choices for their own reasons?
I’m certainly going to revisit the collaborative experience of The Elevation Station – not least through a Reflection or two that will present some more of the documentation from the day, as well as some background. So I’ll definately be talking to the group again and I’ll be sure to ask them what they think about the gender issue. In the meantime, perhaps after looking at the images I’ve posted here, PAR+RS readers can add their own thoughts.
More later,
R -
The Elevation Station @ last
by Ruth Barker 13 Jun 2009
Hello,
so it’s done. And after all that, what did it mean? I’m not sure.A conversation sticks in my head: at some point today, a small, almost incidental aesthetic decision was being taken regarding the Station. How shall we do this? was the question; what should it look like? We didn’t know. And then somehow someone else said that it didn’t matter. What mattered was that we were doing something rather than nothing, and that we were doing it together. Is that true? Is that what really mattered? I don’t know. Is is possible that, amongst the group of us, we had a number of different priorities? I don’t know. I didn’t feel any stress or see any tension.
Throughout the day, there was a very genuine feeling of enjoyment and faith in process that I perceived in all the participants – those who’d spent the whole day there, and those who came for an hour or so and then left again. There were also points at which I suspected people felt less involved; when they wern’t sure what they should be doing, or were cold, bored, tired, or hungry. this was a very human interaction, after all.
Does all that emphasis on process mean that the end result is worth less? Does it mean that we have to evaluate the process itself rather than the object, and what does that imply about the fragility of that process? If the weather had been miserable for example, and we’d all had a miserable time as a result, would this have been a less successful work? Perhaps I’m too close to this particular process to be able to answer this just now. I wonder however, about that tower: I wonder about how and why it sits as a relic of our time spent talking and building. It’ll be there for 3 months now, if all goes to plan. That’s a lot longer than the single day that the ‘live’ part of the process took 1. But perhaps that’s always the way with memorials, and with relics.
More later,
R1 although GANGHUT’s planning and preparation obviously took a lot longer.
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The Elevation Station @ 4.06pm
by Ruth Barker 13 Jun 2009
Hello,
we’ve been very lucky and the rain has held off, and now we’re almost finished. The magestic height of the Elevation Station is surely a new landmark for the city of Dundee, towering as it does over the Mecca Bingo studded skyline. Well, almost towering above. It’s up there, at any rate.The banners are looking pretty fine, too. Very stirring. ‘Teamwork Makes The Dream Work’ has been the motif of the day (a pearl of wisdom coined by Ashley, one of the participants), and it has, I feel, certainly held true. So long as the dream in question is of a big wooden platform on stilts, anyway. Emotive stuff.
I’ll post more later when I’ve had time to digest, but for now, I’m satisfied that a good job has been well done. Look out for a Reflection giving an account of the day, and we’ve taken some video footage as well, which I’ll put up on the Public Art Scotland You Tube channel, just as soon as I get the chance.
More later,
R -
The Elevation Station @ 2.55pm
by Ruth Barker 13 Jun 2009
Hello,
the work is cracking on apace; the Station is up and looking sturdy, with the roof finished and the wall panels almost all attached. Elsewhere, smaller subgroups are designing and making fabric banners, which will hang from the top of the structure.Part of the ernest pace has been set by the weather, which (after a short sunny interlude) has now turned slightly gloomier. The clouds are encroaching, and they are hinting heavily towards coming rain. I’m hoping that it hold out long enough for me to post this and hide the netbook. Water and electricty don’t mix after all.
We’ve had an increasing number of visitors during the afternoon, with most staying for a chat, and many lending a hand. I’m suprised by how much ‘passing trade’ we’ve encountered – the raod by the side of the wasteground is a busy thouroughfare and there has been a constant stream of pedestrians asking what we’re doing. And whether we’re from the council – which we of course deny. Most if not all seem curious about the watchtower, which has raised the question of how what kind of presence the structure will have once we leave it alone. Hard to predict, I think.
More later,
R -
The Elevation Station @ 1.38pm
by Ruth Barker 13 Jun 2009
Hello,
so things are heating up now after the lunchtime lull. We have some more visitors, and the central platform of the station is looking more substantial. I haven’t talked much yet about what the work actually is, so maybe now would be a good time.The Elevation Station will be a kind of watchtower, constructed collaboratively by the GANGHUT team. It will be embellished by banners and signage, also collaboratively devised. Just now, the group intends that the tower will stay here for three months, sitting in some ways as an element of their DAC show, which opens on July 4th.
How collaborations function is always a difficult thing to make explicit. You risk, in some ways, a diffusion of the glue if its components are made public. I’ll risk saying however that so far GANGHUT seems less like a hive mind and more a small village democracy. The group’s members are quick to devolve some responsibility, and to relinquish their ownership of all decisions. Problems are solved through negotiation, compromise, competition. There’s a strong sense of playful experiment to the enterprise, and I get the sense that priorities are fluid and evolving. This is collaboration as choice, as possibility, as process.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
More later,
R -
The Elevation Station @ 1.30
by Ruth Barker 13 Jun 2009
Hello,
Just discovered that I can’t add images just now. I’ll post them as soon as I can though – maybe tonight?
More later,
R -
The Elevation Station @ 12.30
by Ruth Barker 13 Jun 2009
Hello,
welcome to our (almost) live coverage of the PAR+RS / GANGHUT collaboration: The Elevation Station. We’ve been on site for about two and a helf hours now, and we’re starting to settle into some kind of ongoing GANGHUT logic. We’ve set up camp on a patch of wasteground behind the DCA in Dundee, and we’re attempting to build the eponymous structure. Six GANGHUT members (GANGHUT are a longtime collaborative team of artists, who all still have their own individual practices as well – more info here ) have been joined by six volunteers, including myself and PAR+RS documenter for the day Berengere Chabanis, who has been photographing, filming, and sound recording the event.The space itself is an incongruous ‘lost’ space in the centre of Dundee, cut off by the dual carriageway and hidden by the backs of buildings on the Nethergate / Perth Road. I guess there used to be a functioning building here, but I have no way of knowing what it might have been.
We’re all mooching about (apart from me, I’m sitting on a rock to write this) in our hi vis tabards as it’s nearly lunchtime and there’s hunger in the air. A small sub-collective has been deputised to make the sandwiches. We’ve had a good morning, with what seems like fair progress made, and the cloud-drenched sky has given way to sunshine and even a patch of blue. Berengere assures me that it will rain at 4pm, but so far I’m hoping that she may be wrong.
I’ll have my sarnie, and then get back to you with some thoughts about the work.
More later,
R -
Collaboration Was Always A Difficult Art
by ruth barker 9 Jun 2009
Hello,
And welcome to the start of the PAR+RS Collaboration Season. The season will run from June 2009 – August 2009, and somewhere during that time we’ll also be announcing our Autumn Season, so keep your eyes peeling for that.I’ve had a busy couple of weeks making sure that everything is ticking over, and reading the brilliant (as always) submissions that many of you have contributed. Over the next week or so I’ll be starting to upload the first of the new articles, and you’ll also see a Collaborative flavour creeping into the news and opportunities, and the events. If you know of any collaborative projects happening near you, do let us know!
I’ll be using this space as a way to think about some of the questions raised by the articles, and by the idea of collaboration more generally. The Editorial Blog will also provide a focal point for my coverage of the PAR+RS commissioned event that’s taking place in Dundee on Saturday June 13th. I’m hoping (against hope perhaps – fingers crossed for technology) to provide regular Blog updates during the day as a way to record as well as comment upon the collaborative process. Wish me luck on that front…
So, a factual post today for which I’m sure you’ll forgive me. Back to the brain work soon but for now it’s All Systems Go! towards to utopian ideal of collaboration…
Feature – Between Conversation and Memory: Collaborative Conversation-Making.-
Reflection – We Have No Choice: Collaboration as a Place you Don’t Expect
Event – The Elevation Station: GANGHUT Collaboration
Opportunity – The Garden Gallery, Portobello
More later,
R -
Hottest Day of the Year
by ruth barker 1 Jun 2009
It is glorious outside, and I’m indoors working on PAR+RS. Grr. Still, I had yesterday (Sunday) off, which was a rare treat for me unfortunately as I’ve been very busy with lots of different projects lately. I spent it sleeping in Queen’s Park near my home in Glasgow, so I can’t feel too ill-treated.
I thought I’d post today as I haven’t written for a while, and I wanted to update you on what I’ve been up to. It’s been an interesting couple of weeks, if fairly hectic, and I hope the results of my labours will be seen on the site over the next while.
Shezad Dawood’s film Feature was the star of his solo show at Washington Garcia gallery in Glasgow (‘I Knew I Should Have Taken That Right Turn At Albuquerque’ runs May 22nd – 13th June 2009). As second in command at WG (the project is abley directed by my friend Kendall Koppe) I spent much of the week before the show painting the gallery walls black in readyness for the arrival of the artist and his assistant, Grant. Techinical issues aside, the show went smoothly, and I was free to think about in what ways the film itself might be considered a public work.
As a finished product, Feature certainly exists within a gallery context – the film has shown in Eastside Projects in Birmingham, Baibakov Art Projects in Moscow, and was included in this year’s Tate Triennial. Dawood is in many senses a ‘gallery artist’ (whatever that means), and he’s even at Venice this year as part of East-West Divan: Contemporary Art from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.
But the production of the film itself was very public. Produced during a residency at Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridgeshire, Feature is acted by a volunteer cast of artists and local people – many of whom belong to the variety of local membership groups that Dawood made contact with during the residency. The variety of both the focus and the membership of these groups reflects the degree to which Dawood integrated himself into the multiple communities of Cambridgeshire, as much as it suggests the heterogenity of any ‘public’ of the region. We see the local Chinese football team and we see (and hear) The Fairhaven Singers – a local Evangelist Christian choir. The Outlaws, a Western re-enactment society became key volunteers, but so did the members of the community’s underground leather scene. Members of the community who heard about the project turned up in costume to audition, and the generous, slightly chaotic nature of this participatory element is very much present in the play of the film – at once controlled, epic, playful, and light in it’s touch.
Feature is a cross genre exploration in ways far more subtle that it’s stated ‘Zombie Western’ dimension. Pulling apart the leaves between the private and the public it is very much at home in its own constructed, adopted, borrowed landscape. Pop by and see it if you have the chance.
I also met with several people who are at the very early stages of projects – always the most exciting time to talk about the possibilties of the work. It’s great to feel that so many things are at the brink of coming into being and perhaps that’s the most privilaged part of my role here at PAR+RS. Good luck to all those I’ve spoken to over the last couple of weeks, on what are an intriguing range of ideas and possibilities. Fingers crossed that all goes well. I’ll report more as and when I can.
Lastly I wanted to mention the visit made by Adam Szymczyk, director of the Kunsthalle Basel, who was in town to give a talk for Detours . I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days with Adam and was again interested in those projects he’s been involved with that span that divide between the private and the public. The Skulpturenpark Berlin Zentrum springs to mind as a good example – a sculpture park located within the former military zone or ‘death strip’ that divided East and West Berlin.
As practitioners engaged in the public realm and the possibilities it offers, these projects offer significant insights into the fluidity that public practice is capable of. I don’t have any answers to the questions that they also raise, but the confidence with which people like Adam or Shezad operates inspires my own confidence that public art can (and must) continue to be part of the cutting edge of contemporary art practice.
More later,
R -
The comments are interesting too.
by ruth barker 21 May 2009
Hello,
Take a look and let me know what you think.More later,
R -
Reading List?
by ruth barker 20 May 2009
Hello,
Yesterday I met with my friend Allison, who is hoping to co-ordinate or curate a public project involving a small group of artists and an area of ground which is slated for furture redevelopment.
I waxed lyrical about the power of public art, and in particular the legacy of invention and non-conformity gifted by the work of many feminist, black, and gay artists in 1960s and ‘70s America. Many of these artists, who felt disenfranchised by the gallery systems of the time, moved out into the public realm as a response to that, starting a lineage of practice that we have inherited today. Of course, that’s not the only history of public art – we also have to think about the history of civic sculpture and memorial, and other histories of marking and inhabiting public spaces – but at least it’s somewhere to start.
Anyway, I said I would post a list of texts that I’d found influential or helpful or interesting somehow (even if I didn’t wholly agree with them). If anyone’s seeking but not finding these titles, I would recommend trying Aye Aye Books. Check them out online or in person in the CCA Foyer on Fridays and Saturdays. If they don’t have what you’re looking for in stock you can contact them and they’ll try to get it in for you. And they’re dead nice.
Here goes:
Decadent: Public Art – Contentious Term and Contested Practice
David Harding and Pavel Buchler
Glasgow School of Art
Link to davidharding.netThe Lure of the Local: The Sense of Place in a Multicentered Society
Lucy Lippard
The New Press
Link to Lucy Lippard info.Public Sculpture of Glasgow
Ray McKenzie
Liverpool University Press
Read here.Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies
Sanford Levinson
Duke University Press
Read here.Remove Not the Ancient Landmark: Public Monuments and Moral Values
Donald Martin Reynolds
Routledge
Read here.Public Monuments: Art in Political Bondage, 1870-1997
Sergiusz Michalski
Reaktion Books
Read here.The Society of the Spectacle
Guy Debord
Rebel Press, London
Read here.The Practice of Everyday Life
Michel de Certeau
University of California Press
Read here.The Production of Space
Henri Lefebvre
Willy Blackwell
Read here.Invisible Cities
Italo Calvino
Vintage
Link to essayConversation Pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art
Grant Kester
University of California Press
Read hereRelational Aesthetics
Nicolas Bourriaud
Les Presse Du Reel
Link to GlossaryEssays on the Blurring of Art and Life
Allan Kaprow
University of California Press
Read here.One Place After Another: Site-specific Art and Locational Identity
Miwon Kwon
MIT Press
Read here.Aesthetics and Politics
Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Bertolt Brecht, Georg Lukacs
Verso Books
Read here.The Politics of Aesthetics
Jacques Ranciere
Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
Verso Books
Read here.Image-Music-Text
Roland Barthes
Fontana Press
some extracts here.Regarding the Pain of Others
Susan Sontag
Penguin
Observer Review.The Poetics of Space
Gaston Bachelard
Beacon Press
Inevtitable Amazon link here.The Art of Participation: 1950 to Now
Rudolf Frieling & Boris Groys
Thames & Hudson
Link to original exhibition.Art and Social Change: A Critical Reader
Will Bradley & Charles Esche
Tate Publishing / Afterall
Link to Afterall.So good luck Allison! There’s lots in there – tons of interesting ideas, and many arguable arguments. If anyone’s got any other suggestions, stick ‘em in a comment. It’s kind of an endless list, I guess…
More later,
R -
Paralysis
by ruth barker 13 May 2009
Hello Ailsa,
thanks! Glad you like the Blog and hopefully our upcoming Collaboration season will provide lots more food for thought (see comment on ‘how to make a chair’ below).
It’s an interesting point you raise about paralysis, and one which I hope may be taken up by some of those who are contributing articles.You say that you first identified what happens during collaboration with people from other sectors as ‘paralysis’, but then ‘realised it was part of the shift from your usual process.’ I think this is very insightful. It makes me think in terms of physical movement or momentum. When an object is moving in a given direction, for that direction to change it seems like there has to be a point at which the object’s velocity decreases. It looks like the object slows down, or even stops moving altogether for a tiny moment. How can I phrase this better? Perhaps I mean that (and I’m no physicist!) if an object is moving left, then for it to move right there must be a point at which it has ceased to move left but it hasn’t started moving right yet. Something that looks like paralysis might occur at the moment of transition.
Maybe that isn’t what happens to motion at all (like I say, I’ve never been much use at these things), but sometimes it feels as though that’s what happens, and that’s good enough to me. Maybe collaborations can also feel as though they pause creative momentum sometimes. Whether this is true of not, it might be good for us to follow Ailsa’s suggestion that this isn’t paralysis at all, but merely a moment within the changing of directions.
Cheers Ailsa,more later,
R -
How To Make a Chair
by ruth barker 11 May 2009
Hello,
After grumbling yesterday about the injustice of hailstorms in May, I’m writing today from my South facing Glasgow flat with the blinds down so as to see my screen in the otherwise glorious sunshine. Hurray for Summer!I’m off to meet Susan Christie from the Inverness Old Town Art project soon. I’ve arranged to meet her in the Tron for a coffee and a wee chat and catch up on the IOTA project, seeing as she’s in town. After that I have a Glasgow international- related meeting, for which I’ll be wearing my other hat as curator for Washington Garcia Gallery, Glasgow. It occurred that each of these (Gi, WG, and IOTA – bear with me on the accumulation of acronyms here) is in many ways a collaboration, which in turn got me thinking about some of the ideas I hope to be able to raise in our first PAR+RS themed season, starting next month.
Picking ‘Collaboration’ as our first theme seemed important because PAR+RS itself is an essentially collaborative enterprise, which couldn’t live without You, the people who read the articles and use the site. This isn’t to say that it’s a free for all, and neither are the other collaborative examples I suggested above. How can that work, then? – that mix of the egalitarian and the curated, the democratic and the selected. I’m not sure, but perhaps we can aim for the best of both worlds – the open energy of a place where people are free to contribute their thoughts, and the careful structuring of a thoughtfully collected train of ideas.
I’m hoping to start getting the first of the Collaboration-related submissions in to the editorial in-box soon, but this is a wee reminder that there’s still time to put something together if you fancy. Just drop me a line. If Collaboration isn’t quite your bag then don’t worry – the Autumn season will start in September, so I’m already starting to plan for that, with more updates on the Autumn theme to come. Though I don’t enjoy looking forward to the lengthening September nights when I’m only just emerging from the winter, it is useful to think about how Public Art Scotland can continue to enquire into the field that surrounds us, and the many forms it can and does take. I hope you agree with me.
Back to that idea of collaboration, I thought I’d share a quote from a talk I gave a few years ago, when I was part of a collaborative group. Perhaps it goes some way to describing the (perhaps utopian) process of making something together, as well as the ineffability of that process and the way I felt about it at the time.
“The most elusive part [of making a sculpture collaboratively] is how the piece evolves from an abstract verbal sketch to a physical object. A large part of that happens through drawing as the idea moves towards concretion but there’s also a very fundamental play between the internalised image and the externalised production.
“For example, if I asked each person in this room to imagine a chair, the mental images would probably all be quite similar, but still different. We can try and get them closer together – is your chair wooden or plastic? Does it have four legs or a swivel base? Is it painted? Sanded? Varnished? It goes on and on, but eventually through discussion we would all have roughly the same chair in our heads. If we tried to then make that chair together, we would be taking the object out of this very mutable abstract sense and turning it into something that you can feel and see, touch and sit on.
“That’s as close as I can come to describing the process that we go through as a group, but with the added reminder that rather than reproducing a pre-existing object that we have all seen before, we are trying to make a new object that none of us have seen.â€
Is this how something like Gi comes into being? Or IOTA? A series of conversations that come closer and closer together in an attempt to reach a point at which they consolidate and communicate a singularity? I don’t know. As I get older, I start to think that perhaps the spaces between the conversations – the points at which the images of the chair diverge – may be far more interesting.
More later,
R -
Seizure and the Turner
by ruth barker 29 Apr 2009
Hello,
So the Turner Prize is upon us once again, with this year’s shortlist announced yesterday: Lucy Skaer, Roger Hiorns, Richard Wright and Enrico David.
I guess I found the selection this time to be quite interesting with one artist in particular – Roger Hiorns – shortlisted specifically for a recent public work: Seizure was developed last year for a site in South London.See images of all the artists’ work in The Guardian here.
The BBC reported the shortlist here.
I’ve put my own images of Seizure here.
Seizure was commissioned by Artangel, the public art commissioning heavyweights who’ve been instrumental in a number of high profile British works in recent years (see list below). Unusually for a commissioning body, Artangel works by identifying a particular artist (or filmmaker, or writer, or composer, or choreographer or performer), who is then supported to develop their work for a specific, often public, context. As an organisation, Artangel are known for enabling artists to make work that otherwise simply couldn’t or wouldn’t happen. Perhaps because of their commitedly artist-centered approach, they’ve been able to time and again commission works that are ambitious, important, and landscape-changing within the public realm. They’ve been doing this pretty consistently since the early 1990’s, and I figure they’ve been a massively important part of shaping the awareness of the possibilities offered by contemporary practice in the public realm.
So, knowing Artangel’s impressive reputation I went down to London last year to see Seizure, which was then their latest commission. This was Hiorns’ first commission on a large scale and (as far as I know) his first urban, public, installation. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the piece, but I did know that the artist had been working with an empty group of maisonette flats in the South of the city, which had previously been part of an inner city housing estate. The flats had been vacated and were scheduled for demolition until Artangel negotiated temporary access to the site. I think the buildings have now been flattened.
When I arrived at the site on Harpur Road, it was busy with people. In a small sunny courtyard area between the derelict buildings, there were queues of people wearing sturdy black wellies, waiting to enter the flat and see the work itself.
Only a few visitors at a time were allowed in to see Hiorns’ startling chemical intervention. The artist and his team of technicians had sealed the entire lower flat and filled it to the brim with liquid copper sulphate solution. Crystals were allowed to form, the liquid was removed, and the former bedsit (now sculptural totem), was allowed to air. The result was literally transformative. The deep blue, almost luminous, crystals coated every interior surface with a thick carpet of intense geometric colour. Floors, walls, ceilings, as wlel as light fixings and a bath were encased in this new and brittle blue skin.
The domestic space was rendered entirely new through this chemical metamorphosis into a poetic re-imagining. The effect on the people who saw it was no less dramatic. I saw people laugh, cry out, touch the walls in disbelief and, above all, steal. Wearing Artangel-provided rubber gloves (like the wellies, these were compulsary for all visitors), people actually pulled crystals off the walls and hid them in their pockets. People really desired the work in a ‘gingerbread cottage’ kind of way. They wanted it for themselves, but it was as if they couldn’t help it. It reminded me of those who rip bluebells in armfuls from bluebell woods, and then take them home to die. It seemed as though visitors compulsively wanted to keep a fragment for themselves, even though to try and posses the space as a whole through the tiny individual parts that made up its shining carapace, was nonsensical.
The poetry of this condemned and lonely flat suddenly becoming so luxurious, magical, and desired, was potent. It’s a work I’m glad I’ve seen, and I’m interested to see the kind of public response that Turner nomination will bring. Likewise with fellow nominees Richard Wright – another artist specialising in the site specific – and Lucy Skaer, whose work with Henry VIII’s Wives (as well as her public interventions) has also both entered and investigated the public realm.
A jolly good showing then, not just for public art (three out of four shortlisted artists making site-specific non-gallery works is pretty unusual) but for Scotland as well: Richard Wright studied in Edinburgh and now lives in Glasgow, Lucy Skaer studied and lives in Glasgow. Hooray! The odd one out has to be Enrico David by that count, but I’m sure he’ll get over it.
More Later,
R
A few past Artangel projects whose names you’ll probably recognise:Catherine Yass: High Wire
Mathew Barney: The Cremaster Cycle
Rachel Whiteread: House
Michael Landy: Breakdown
Jeremy Deller: The Battle Of Orgreave
Juan Munoz / Gavin Bryars: Man in a Room Gambling
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Too Much Talk, Talk Too Much
by ruth barker 27 Apr 2009
Hello,
I’m feeling very technologically adequate, typing this on a train on the way from Edinburgh to Glasgow. Cue ‘oh the wonders of modern technology’. I was in our dear capital to give a talk at Edinburgh College of Art, some of which was directly PAR+RS related, and some of which was more of a digression. I had a small (in numbers, not in stature) but welcoming audience who asked some good and honest questions. I did my best to answer them in kind, so hope they found my wee chat useful. I was asked to talk about some of the different projects and audiences and organisations that I’m involved in at the moment, and so that’s what I tried to do. I spoke a bit more from my notes than I usually like to do, as I’m preparing for a performance next week – for which I’m in the middle of memorising a big chunk of text – so I didn’t quite trust the ad-libbing capacity of my poor abused brain!As there were a lot of students who couldn’t make the talk, I thought I’d post a transcript here for anyone who wishes to read it. I also thought it might be useful for me to include the rest of the images which were (mysteriously) absent from my powerpoint. Cue ‘ah the curses of modern technology’. Some of the rest of you might also be interested in reading my various brain pickings? I don’t know. I’ll add images and links tomorrow as I doubt I’ll have time today.
My sincere thanks once again to everyone who came along, and to Lucy for inviting me. Hope you liked it.
More Later,
RP.S. Big Hello to Louise! It was great to finally meet you – keep up the good work. r
Transcript of talk given at Edinburgh College of Art on 27/04/09.
Introductory remarks, followed by:
OK, so I’ve been asked to talk a little bit about my own practice, and also to talk about some of the things I do in addition to making my own work. I’ve decided to split the talk roughly into two. The first half is quite functional, I’m going to talk briefly about some of the roles I have within the art community, and some of the jobs that I do. The second half will be a reworking of a presentation I gave in Akureyri, in Iceland, in 2007, updated to include some more recent thoughts – some of which are taken from an essay called Live Art and Living, published last year in a book called ‘Its Not Hard: [Grammatical Error Intentional] Explorations of Live Art.’
The first thing to say is that I’m involved with quite a few different projects at the moment, and I’ve chosen to participate in all of them because they each interest me in different ways, and because I’m able to learn different skills through being involved in all of them.
The first one I’m going to talk about is my role as editor of the Public Art Scotland website, which is also known by the acronym PAR+RS – which stands for Public Art Resource and Research Scotland. Public Art Scotland was set up by the Scottish Arts Council after quite a dedicated period of research into the field of public art in this country. I’ve work for PAR+RS in a freelance capacity for the last 2 years, and I work on the site 2 days a week.
So what does Public Art Scotland do? All kinds of things, actually. As editor I commission new writing and research; I think about how the site can grow and I implement that; I keep a check on all the news and events that’re happening, and I’m always looking for new artists and new projects that we can cover. There’s also an ongoing archive of public projects that have received support from the SAC, which is actually incredibly useful if you want to know how much things cost to get off the ground, and what kind of commissioners and partners there are out there and things like that.
PAR+RS aims to build the capacity, knowledge and expertise of people working in public art across Scotland; and to do that by (as I’ve said) commissioning new writing, generating new knowledge, and challenging the field. It’s been a great project for me to work on, because I was able to come in before the site went Live and to really work hard to help shape the development of the site as a whole. As part of that, I guess my own attitude towards public art becomes important. Public art is something that I really believe in. It’s a big part of my own practice as an artist, but I think it’s also a big part of the way I think about art, and the way I understand art to function within the world.
The Public Art Scotland website covers a wide variety of work, from sculpture to live art, to non object based practice, to digital media, to everything else, but it does focus on work that operates somehow in the public realm. The working definition that I use for that (because I realise that what is and is not public is a very contentious area) is simply ‘artwork that is not contextualised by an art gallery’. The useful thing about that idea is that it suggests that art can happen anywhere where you don’t expect it –in bus shelters, in museums, in forests, in domestic spaces, in car parks, in swimming pools, in pubs, on top of mountains, online, and on CCTV. Public art is something uncontained; it’s something that is always changing, and it’s something that doesn’t have to follow the rules that are there in a gallery situation. The most amazing thing about public art is that we can’t really define it because it is always growing and changing in response to the ways in which the world we live is growing and changing. That’s because public art is inextricable part of that world, and that world is a part of public art.
Public art can be subversive, it can be celebratory, it can be supportive, it can be challenging, it can be argumentative, it can be ugly, it can be destructive and it can be beautiful, intelligent and inspiring. You could argue – and some people do – that public art can be far more dangerous than art in a gallery. But it can also be far more generous, more insightful, and more world changing and sometimes (just sometimes) it can do all this in the same work.
I could talk about how and why public practice might function in the way that it does, but really what I wanted to stress is the ways that the work I do as editor for Public Art Scotland really emerges from my practice as an artist. My role as editor informs the public work I make myself, but it is also informed by that public work. It’s a symbiotic process that I think is very common in how artists think about their different roles and responsibilities.The second project I want to talk about is my work for Detours, which is a project run by The Common Guild in collaboration with Glasgow School of Art. Detours is an ongoing series of talks, organised by the Common Guild, which presents views from elsewhere by leading curators, critics and museum directors. Speakers, who are usually from overseas, but always based outside Scotland, explore the connection between practice and context. They’re asked to look at and talk about how different institutions and professional, curatorial practices have taken shape in relation to specific places or situations. The project started in March last year, and the series will continue over three years. Speakers to date have included Jenni Lomax, Vasif Kortun, Nicolaus Schafhausen, Juliana Engberg, Richard Flood, and Polly Staple.
My role for Detours is as a kind of host or guide. While the speakers are in town, I show them around, I make sure they don’t get lost (you’d be surprised), and I talk to them. I take them to see shows and I introduce them to artists and organise studio visits (they usually have a list of people they want to meet up with while they’re here). I also chat to them in a very informal way about the city and the reasons why I love being an artist in Glasgow. I’m very honest about the city – you know it’s kinda poor and kinda ugly and kinda unprofessional, but there are reasons why each of those qualities enable amazing things to happen there. Sometimes when we live in a place we forget just how unique it is. Having people visit from out of town can be a way to remind us of that.
Lots of these people haven’t been to Scotland very often before and so part of my role is to talk about the particular economic, art historical and even economic situation that we find ourselves in as a country. In return they tell me about the contexts they are working within in their own situation – in New York or Rotterdam or Istanbul, and again I’m making contacts and starting to develop that network of people you know at an international level and on an international basis. It serves to really contextualise what we’re doing here in Scotland – not just the work that we’re making here but the way that we’re thinking as well, which is incredibly important. In a way it’s the flip side of Public Art Scotland – looking at international gallery based practices instead of public Scottish practices. There’s an irony there but there’s also a breadth that has been very useful to me as a practitioner, and also as someone who is just interested in the different ways that art is manifested.The third project I’m involved in at the moment is Washington Garcia Gallery in Glasgow, which I co-founded with Kendall Koppe, who is now the director, and another artist and good friend called Douglas Morland, who’s since taken a step back to concentrate on his own art practice and on his career as a musician. I’m now sometimes a curator and sometimes an editor and sometimes a writer for Washington Garcia.
The gallery started off as a pub conversation in a bar called The State in Glasgow, and it grew very quickly into a peripatetic curatorial project, where we used a variety of spaces to curate shows with a number of artists. We were quite flexible with the spaces we occupied – from residential tenement spaces, to retail spaces, to a working riding stables, just as and when it seemed appropriate. We had absolutely no money, but we had very a very particular aesthetic. We felt that there were already spaces who were working with the low-fi punky aesthetic, and we realised that this just didn’t suit some artists’ work. We felt there was a bit of a gap in provision, and so we thought we’d fill it with a very sincere, very ground up sort of project.
The project was also created as a response to our perception that some artists who live and work in Glasgow had become conspicuous by their absence from Glasgow’s thriving art scene. Claire Barclay for example had not shown work in Glasgow for six years prior to her exhibition with Washington Garcia. And we decided to offer Claire a space that was very difficult in some ways – ‘After the Field’ was a site-specific installation of new works in a barn at Dumbreck Riding School in Pollock Park, although you could see several of the pieces re-contextualised for the show she did just after Christmas in the Fruitmarket.
Another of our initial aims was to represent art from international artists who have had very little exposure in Scotland, which lead to our commissioning the first British solo-show of Kalup Linzy, in a disused Victorian retail space in Glasgow city centre, as part of the last Gi. Kalup is a Brooklyn-based artist working with video and performance, and he produced a combination of works on paper, video pieces, and live performance for the show. For those who missed it, his drag act, singing an R&B song called ‘ASSHOLE’ that he’d written himself, really did have to be seen to be believed.
We’ve recently got a new space where we hope we’ll be based for a while. We’ve been able to get some public funding, and Washington Garcia now occupies a railway arch in Eastvale Place in the West End of Glasgow. We’ll be based here for the next year, and we’re using the more permanent location to be even more ambitious with the works we’re commissioning and the artists we’re hosting. Our next show opens in May, and is a film by an artist called Shezad Dawood, who was part of the Tate Triennial this year. He’ll be showing a film work called Feature, which was recently exhibited at the Tate, this will be the first chance to see it in Scotland, and it’s got zombies, cowboys, and men in leather chaps, and if that doesn’t make you want to come see a show, I don’t know what will.
Settling into Arch 24 is going to give us the opportunity to reflect on Washington Garcia’s curatorial practice without the added pressures of continually being homeless, and I suppose our ability to go through that process will in a way be helped by what I’ve learnt through doing these other projects like Detours and Public Art Scotland. The people I meet and the work I see in these other roles of course influences the work I make myself, and that’s very healthy I think. However, clearly I do also have a much more direct role as an artist – as I’m going to go on to talk about now – and so these other positions in some ways still have to submit themselves to the priority of my practice as an artist; making public work, gallery work, and performances.That seems like a good place to pause, and to shift gears slightly. As I said, the next part of the talk is a reworking of a paper I gave in Iceland a couple of years ago, combined in part with some notes from a more recent essay on the significance of Live Art. In a way it’s talking more about my own work, and in a way maybe it’s just talking. But I hope you might find some parts of it interesting.
[note: the images for this section appear here. Sorry I can’t link to them individually.]
This is an image of a piece of wax. It’s a material that I’ve never actually worked with, but I like the idea of it. There’s a description in a book called The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, where she says
“His strange, heavy almost waxen face was not lined by experience. Rather, experience seemed to have washed it perfectly smooth, like a stone on a beach whose fissures have been eroded by successive tides.â€
A waxen face of waxen flesh. Perhaps the reason that makes sense is that wax has been used as a substitute for flesh for thousands of years. The reason I’m so interested in it, is that for me wax represents a point where the social and the poetic meaning of a material is almost indistinguishable from the functional meaning of that material.
The description of waxen flesh makes us feel a sense of the dead-ness in the surface. White wax of the true consistency should have the quality of lily-backs, with the same flat whiteness. Unpacking more than that, reaching the meaning of wax, is much more difficult. ‘Candlepower’, as an idea, is based on measurements taken of the light produced by a pure spermaceti candle weighing one sixth of a pound, and burning at a rate of 120 grams per hour. Spermaceti is found in the head of Sperm Whales, and used to be used to make candle wax.
Wax might be the space between light and time. Wax makes the flesh of candles as they eat up the slow-burn of the night, and it hints at mortality as metaphor. Wax is the colour of church candles, and of unlined faces illuminated only by candlelight. It’s the colour of probing tubers, or tumours beneath the skin. Wax is in the containment magic of seals, and so it can convey the interiority of an unbroken vessel.
Wax is thick, viscous, malleable and insoluble. Wax is used to make waxworks. Waxworks can be heated, melted and re-cast into the shape of someone else. Death masks are also made from wax, recreating the translucent quality of the dead.
In Britain, witches make waxen dolls, called poppets, made of wax. Witches are also supposed to use wax to take the mice out of houses: Catch a mouse and drop him in as much molten wax as will fit into the bottom of a saucepan; Cool the wax and remove it from the pan once it is solid; Keep it in your kitchen with the mouse inside it, and all the other mice will move out.
In 1979 in England, a woman from Plymouth went to her local witch because her daughter had a boyfriend she did not approve of. The witch filled the daughter’s glove with wax, and kept a hold of it until she’d changed her mind, and the girls married a decent navy man instead, six months later.Some of my recent work has revolved around a couple of ideas; death/mortality, and language/thinking. They aren’t so far apart as they might seem at first. A lot of our cultural thinking about death – certainly in a western, northern European context – comes down to the fear of a loss of recognition. A fear of absence, a fear of the loss of specificity in some ways.
Death is very anonymous because it is a common condition. Thinking and language are clearly related to that idea, as ways of defining and articulating self as well as others and the world. Through definition we are able to challenge nothingness, but the gap between thinking and articulation must also always be questioned.“Death is both alien and intimate to us, neither wholly strange nor purely one’s own. To this extent, ones relationship to it resembles one’s relationship to other people, who are likewise both fellows and strangers. Death may not be exactly a friend, but neither is it entirely an enemy…
My identity lies in the keeping of others… It is others who are the custodians of my selfhood… It is only in the speech I share with them that I can come to mean anything at all. That meaning is not one I can ever fully possess, since neither can those who fashion it.â€Terry Eagleton, After Theory, 2003
This makes me think of the American writer Susan Stewart, who talks about poetry as a kind of illumination. She talks about light through articulation, because to illuminate is also to see. She talks about words giving shape to darkness through the entry into it of language and metaphor. Perhaps I’d add the language of making as another way to make shape.
So this idea of definition or making is placed as a force that acts against obliteration, loss, death, and darkness.
I heard someone say once that art is a series of acts of witness. That the important thing about art is that it notices. That’s why, when a country or a society is taken over by a tyrant, the first thing to be banned, to be controlled, is art. Art in itself becomes an act of subversion or resistance, and yet it seems as though it can never be stamped out.
Art was made inside the Nazi Concentration camps. It’s made in prisons, in mental hospitals, and in the horror of civil war and revolution. Last year I met a guy from East Timor who invited me to go and make a text on a wall there. I was afraid, and so I turned him down. Then the next week someone shot the president, and now I feel like maybe I should have gone and written something on that wall.I heard someone else say once that when art is dangerous to make, artists rely on performance – exploiting its ephemerality, its lack of culpability, and the possibility that it may not be art at all.
As they perform, the artists are weighed down by the knowledge that their gestures cannot last, but are blown into the trees to hang like butchered things.
And, as they perform, the artists are buoyed up by the knowledge that their gestures cannot help but be remembered, as they are blown into the trees to hang like butchered things.
Art might be a way for cultures to bear witness to horror and atrocity. I’m talking here about the practice of art, rather than any single artwork. But sometimes you can see that moment of witness in an individual work. Maybe we can think about Picasso’s Guernica, or even Anselm Keifer’s Grane. But even in the most optimistic of still-lives you can still see the transience of flesh. These objects are recorded, here, and fixed. But they will be moved, and broken, and lost. They will decay. The image becomes a symbol of pre-imagined loss.
The reason why I’m telling you all this is that I think that for all artists who make work its actually really important to think about what art might be, as a thing. So often art gets talked about in terms of its function, its cost, its worth, its relationship to private property, to community cohesion, to economic indicators, and to public funding. I’m not saying that these things aren’t important. But I am saying that it’s also important to be able to talk about these acts as art, and not to be afraid of doing that.This is a piece of work I made last year. Its called The Choir Loft, and it’s an extension to the Cenotaph in Blackpool. It’s a memorial to all those who are killed in war who aren’t part of the army. People like civilians, but also people like resistance fighters, or medics, or journalists. The work is an invitation for a choir to sing. It’s made of white granite, and there’s a text on the back wall, set into contrasting blue granite, that says “SING SOFTLY, BE STILL, CEASE. I wanted to make something that would give people a place, and a gesture rather than offer a representation of something.
I’m very interested in the idea of memorials. Especially civic memorials as opposed to private memorials. You know – when a country or a city decides to visibly remember something, it seems to be an important way of marking a death or a loss, so that it is noticed and visibly described. This is a memorial I was commissioned to make for the Queen Mum, when she died a few years ago. It’s in the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow. It’s a poem about growth and decay, in a lot of ways. In some ways its quite anti-royalist, and I think actually it’s important for the memorial to contain those contradictions within it, just as the figure it is representing contained many contradictions.
The piece is made of jesmonite – a kind of resin, and so it’s very hard and permanent. It was a good solution to a very difficult site, because the gardens are very hot and very humid. I also wanted something that would change over time. The blocks are designed so that the letters are lower than the surface of the blocks. This is so that organic material, like algae and moss can start to grow in the letters, and actually begin to define the words. The top surface stays quite shiny. The other thing that will happen is that as the plants surrounding the blocks begin to grow, they will begin to hide the text, and the work will become more and more an implicit part of the plant collection.
My work usually tries to find a tension between the things I can control, and the things I can’t control. In my gallery work I set something in motion, but don’t over-prescribe the end result. In my performative work there is always a tension between the process of writing and the act of remembering. In my public work, I draw very much from the context as well as from the site, to make a work that has some kind of quality of liveness or change within it.
I like my work to be a moment of balance between an intention and a physical certainty.I know that I haven’t really gone through many pieces in detail, and I hope that isn’t something you’re disappointed by. I think we’re going to have time for a discussion, so if you want to know more about a particular work, you can ask me now. I hope what I have been able to do though is to give you something of a starting point, so that you can put that stuff about the more practical aspects of functioning as an artist into some kind of context.
Thanks.
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Songs from St Kilda
by ruth barker 23 Apr 2009
Hello,
The news that Saint Kilda in the Western Isles may get it’s own visitor centre (albeit – due to practical constraints – one located miles away from the island itself) reminded me of the opera that was staged on the island a couple of years ago.For those who don’t know, St Kilda is a small archipelago lying about 40 miles west of the Western Isles of Scotland. It’s often called ‘the most remote place in Britain’ although it was inhabited from earliest prehistoric times right up until 1930, when sustaining a community there finally became untenable and the final 36 people living on the island relocated to mainland Scotland.
The story of St Kilda is one that has often been told, and coloured to suit the teller’s political or romantic persuasion. What is certain is that a combination of emigration, lack of self sufficiency and chronic levels of disease and infant mortality combined to ensure that by the early 20th Century the St Kildan population felt that they could no longer remain on the island. In 1957 however, the 5th Marquess of Bute bequeathed the group of islands to The National Trust for Scotland, at which point St Kilda was designated a National Nature Reserve. These days the National Trust shares the island with the Ministry of Defence, who maintain a missile tracking station of the St Kildan island of Hirta.
In cultural terms, the island has in some senses become an image of loss and regret, or the one hand, balanced a sense of giddy remoteness, possibility, and non-conformity on the other. It has been used as an icon from everyone from Ross Sinclair’s New Republic of St Kilda to Scottish band Runrig’s At the Edge of the World, (sharing a title with the – to my mind – infinitely better 1937 film by Michael Powell [sorry Runrig fans, but there you go; I can’t stand them!]) to Bill Brydon’s 1982 Channel 4 film Ill Fares The Land
It was none of these that my vague train of thought turned to this morning however, but to St Kilda: A European Opera, performed in Gaelic in 2007. This laborious, ambitious, but in many ways groundbreaking international co-production was performed simultaneously on 22 and 23 June 2007 in five European venues: France (Valenciennes), Belgium (Mons), Germany (Düsseldorf), Austria (Hallstatt) and Scotland (Stornoway). The five performances were linked by live satellite connection to St Kilda and publicly webcast live on the BBC. You can read all about it “here.†http://www.stkilda.eu/the-project And it’s worth noting as well, that the Belgian production of the opera (called St Kilda: L’île des Hommes-Oiseaux) will be at the Edinburgh International Festival this year on the 15th, 16th and 17th August. I may even try and get tickets.
I can’t tell you why this project has stuck with me so endurably. Maybe it’s the simplicity of it, though ‘simple’ seems an odd way to describe such a huge work involving so much money and so many people scattered over half of Europe. And yet it is simple in some way. The act of singing, or of writing a song and singing it at the same time as someone else sings their song, seems to me a very simple and essential thing, and all the more powerful because of that. There’s a gesture of ephemerality to the gesture of song that is soft in the way that water can be soft (strong enough to tear down cliffs and gouge out landscapes) or brief in the way that words can be brief (long enough to withstand centuries and change the way we think and live and dream). Maybe it’s just that singing (or listening to song) sometimes makes us vulnerable, and that vulnerability seems a good memorial for a lost society and it’s people.
More later,
R -
How Timely
by ruth barker 14 Apr 2009
Hello,
Well, if it doesn’t happen to literally everyone, at least it still seems to happen to quite a lot of people.
More later,
R -
I guess it happens to everyone.
by ruth barker 9 Apr 2009
Hello,
In the very first blog posting I made, I mentioned a public work I was developing for St Johns Hospital in Livingston, as part of the Functionsuite / Artlink programme. You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned it since. At first that was because it wasn’t appropriate to make the work public yet, but last week things became a little more complicated, with the result that the work (or at least my part of it) won’t be going ahead.It was interesting that I hesitated in discussing this on the blog, and so it’s reminded me in a very real way how hard it is to talk about the failure of a project, even in a case like this where there appear to be no hard feelings on either side. There are certainly none on my part, and I don’t think that there are any on the side of the commissioners – Artlink in this case. If they do now hate me, they’ve been very discrete about it!
So what happened? Basically there was a breakdown in communication and, crucially, I had not been given a brief. I know, I know, I know. It was silly of me not to insist! Especially as this is actually the second public work I’ve been involved in where problems have arisen due to the lack of a clear brief signed off by both parties. On the first occasion the situation was saved by a fantastic project manager (I must give credit where it’s due and name Deborah Kell of RMJM architects for her skilled artist/client mediation) and the project in that case went ahead with only a brief delay.
This time, no brief and a lack of clarity at the outset as to the final budget led to my developing a proposed work that was inappropriate. Rather than either compromising the original idea or starting again from scratch, I chose to retire from the project with the blessing of Artlink, who conceded that I had been placed in an impossible position. For me, the situation was made more difficult because the people at Artlink are so great: aside from being personal friends with several of the people involved in this regretable situation, I’ve found everyone involved to be warm, generous and sincere in their approach to both the works commissioned and the contexts in which they’re made.
So now I’m left trying to figure out how I feel about the whole thing. It’s hard to pin down, but essentially I feel foolish, certainly, but also disappointed because I wanted to see the work happen. I feel guilty for making mistakes, but frustrated because my time and energies have come to nothing. I am genuinely relieved because the situation (before the decision to abort was reached) was making me anxious and unhappy. I’m also sincerely regretful because this is the first time I’ve been so deeply immersed in a piece of work that now won’t be realised. I feel like I’ve failed in a very real way and I do feel that I’ve let people down. But I also own that I’m more than slightly intrigued by the possibility of working with Functionsuite again – something which I really hope will still be a possibility.
The end of one project has a habit of casting one’s eye towards the next and perhaps I have to see this purely as a learning experience – albeit an expensive one in terms of time. Artists: learn from the mistakes made by others: Make sure you ALWAYS agree a brief! Even when, as in this case, you’re working with/for really lovely people whom you like and respect. I’ve written ‘even when’ but do I really mean ‘especially when?’ Ouch! That’s hard to admit, but I’ve a feeling it may be true… We may want to believe that our friends are infallible, but perhaps, after all, they’re not.
I’m glad in the end that I’ve told you of my woes. Honesty is always the best policy after all, and hopefully this less than glorious exposure will encourage others to talk about their projects ‘warts and all’. Be brave, bloggers. After all, failures happen to everyone sometimes (don’t they?! Reassure me here!).
More later,
R -
Returning to Tapestries
by ruth barker 31 Mar 2009
Hello,
Just saw this on the Guardian website and thought that Blog readers might be interested. It’s a video clip of Iwona Blazwick, director of the Whitechapel, talking to journalist Jonathan Glancey about the tapestry copy of Picasso’s Guernica (as discussed previously on the blog).Oh, and the Public Art Scotland YouTube page is now up and running. It’s still a little clunky, but give me time and I’ll keep adding bits and pieces to it. Go take a look.
More later,
R -
The Strangeness of Knowledge
by ruth barker 30 Mar 2009
Hello,
I recently heard an anecdote which touches on the fabular; a warning tale for public artists of our time.It seems that a well-known British artist was commissioned to produce a new, high profile public work for a scientific educational institution (not based, I’m glad to say, in Scotland). The work was elegant and ambitious, a thoughtful meditation on the fragility of knowledge and the transience of certainty. How do we know what we know? the work asked those who saw it; Do we know what we know at all? But the scientists at the institution weren’t pleased. They didn’t like the work because they found the question it raised to be inappropriate in that scientific context. Knowledge, they implied, is in some senses an absolute: a fact may be proved or disproved, but knowledge is something else, inviolate. We know what we know – and further thinking may underpin or supersede that. Scientists must, after all, stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before them – they stack their knowledge against the growing pile. And so the work was aborted and the artist went away. The institution continues its day-to-day business without the artist’s question hanging inappropriately over them.
There is no moral here as such. Like all the best fables, the story isn’t a tale of right and wrong but rather of difference and tension. Make of it what you will.
More later,
R -
The Importance of Tapestries
by ruth barker 29 Mar 2009
Hello,
I learnt this week that the tapestry copy of Picasso’s Guernica, which has hung outside the security council room at the United Nations in New York since 1985, has been temporarily removed for exhibition in the newly regenerated Whitechapel, London.
Somehow, the existence of this significantly located tapestry had previously passed me by. I did an image search to try and get a look at it in situ, and sure enough I found this picture from the Washington Times. Here the tapestry itself is fore-grounded by a figure who is, no doubt, at that very moment discussing the rise and fall of nations, or something of that ilk.
I was surprised at the colour change you can see in the photograph, with Picasso’s original stark greyscale here warmed by the tapestry’s sepia tones. The work is certainly no less strident for that however, and I was reminded just how stark an image of warfare Guernica is, with its brutal fragmentation pressed cheek-by-jowl against that unapologetically visceral image-making.
With that in mind it is surely a brave choice to hang outside the room in which the men in suits (and it is still mostly men I’m afraid with, a few notable exceptions) make such decisions about the inception and resolution of conflicts the world over. What does it mean that the shadow of Guernica hangs over them? Have the denizens of the UN become inured to Picasso’s severed equine nightmare, or does it sit above them like a tan memento mori, chastening their thoughts and inclinations? We may never know, unless worldwide disputes increase during the work’s temporary absence.
Musing on this last question reminds me that the last time that the tapestry was in the news was in 2003, during the build up to the war in Iraq, when Guernica was veiled during a press conference. If the blue curtain had not been tactfully raised to cover the work, John Negroponte and Colin Powell would have had to answer questions on Weapons of Mass Destruction with one of the most iconic anti-war images of the 20th Century as their backdrop. Of course the drapery was noticed, commented upon, and its significance endlessly discussed by commentators of every creed. Various explanations were suggested, ranging from the squeamishness of the Bush administration to have their comments framed by the legendary image of the Spanish Civil War; to sensitivity on the part of camera-operators, who realised that without speedy visual intervention, TV audiences would see Negroponte and Powell’s stern visages bordered by a striking depiction of a horse’s buttocks.
Naturally, the favoured interpretation depended largely on the political allegiances of the interpreter. However, the sincerity with which the act was discussed points in either case to the power that the gesture of concealing this image, still has. Guernica still presents us with a powerful image of horror, dissolution, and atrocity, which it is hard to ignore. It is challenging, difficult, and in many ways obtuse. No narrative history painting this, with easy friend or foe. The passage of the eye is offered no ease and no respite from the jarring, broken plane. And yet, difficult as it is, Guernica (and even its representation) still seems to impact very directly on a public imagination. People, I believe, feel the integrity of the work and are affected by it. In a very real way, the work represents something significant that people respond to – a something that transcends any traditional fine art commentary and enters a language at once more accessible, more public, and infinitely more difficult to describe.
There is no doubt that the tapestry’s continued presence in this politically significant location has become meaningful to a great many – both to those who see the work themselves, and to those who merely bare in mind its presence when they imagine this place that has seen the making of such momentous and difficult decisions. Public in this a complicated sense, we can see why the temporary veiling of this charged and prominent work attracted comment, outcry, justification, and empathy. Context is still important, after all.
More later,
R -
The Removal of Nakedness
by ruth barker 24 Mar 2009
Hello,
I was going to post this as a News item, but I decided I couldn’t really justify it. After all, it isn’t exactly public art – or is it? I still think it might be. Anyone else have an opinion?
It did make me laugh though, so I thought I’d stick it here instead.It seems that some joker / intervention artist [delete as applicable] has painted a naked portrait of Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, and then sneakily inserted it into the Royal Hibernian Academy gallery in Dublin. A similar painting, depicting Mr Cowen on the lavatory, was snuck into the National Gallery, also in Dublin. The latter work apparently went unnoticed in the collection for at least 20 minutes, although the National Gallery has called the police in to investigate.
Squinting at the tiny pic available on the BBC website here, I quite like the little painting, but who am I to judge? It seems that the authorities are taking a dim view.
I know it’s not new – Banksy did it ages ago – but I quite like news of this sort. There’s nothing like a bit of irreverance, I find. And I’m all for painting as a radical medium.
More later,
R -
Gods of the Earth, Gods of the Sea
by ruth barker 23 Mar 2009
Hello,
A plethora of parties this last weekend, with artist Michael Stumpf, gallerist Sorcha Dallas, and craftswoman Bérengère Chabanis among those sharing a birthday. Many happy returns to all (but I don’t think I’ll be eating any more cake for a while…)
So I promised to post some pictures of the Ian Hamilton Finlay piece I went to see in Orkney last year. And here they are
I went to Orkney last summer, to visit the Pier Art Centre in Stromness and meet with exhibitions officer Andrew Parkinson. We spoke about the recent redevelopment of The Pier by Reiach and Hall architects and how the building has helped the centre become embedded in the local community.
At the end of our meeting, Andrew gave me a black and white postcard showing Ian Hamilton Finlay’s Gods of the Earth, Gods of the Sea, an epic stone slab of a work, which he told me was sited on the nearby island of Rousay. As I had an extra day before my return to mainland Scotland, I decided to go and see the piece for myself. Andrew drew me a map and, fortified by provisions from the local shop, I set off early the next morning. I would take a bus from Stromness to Kirkwall, then another bus from Kirkwall to Tingwall, and finally the ferry from Tingwall to Rousay. From the harbour it should just be a short walk.
The weather as I set off was optimistically fresh and breezy, with a clean wash of late summer sun. As my ferry drew close to the Rousay harbour however, I saw the ominous low of a rain saturated cloudline approaching from the west. As I would have to walk the five miles or so to the work with no shelter this was a little concerning, but I still hoped I could outrun the downpour. I didn’t intend to be long in Rousay; just long enough to climb the hill, see the work, and return to the ferry. There is supposed to be a fantastic neolithic site on the far side of the island, but I wasn’t convinced that I could make it there and back on foot in time for the last ferry, and I didn’t want to be stranded.
Studying Andrew’s map, I began to plan my route as the ferry completed its crossing in absolute calm. Heading east along the road, I should find that the path would begin to climb. For about five miles I should follow the road round, past the church, the school and the old manse. If I kept going, Andrew had said that I should be fine, but that it was still very possible to miss Finlay’s work, lying as it does just off the road, to the right hand side. If I got to the very top of the hill, he had warned me, I had gone too far.
Once on dry land again I shouldered my light bag and set off, my eyes on the black cloud that seemed to crown the hill that I was starting to ascend. Five miles is a very short distance. Five miles up a steep hill is a bit longer. Five miles up a steep hill when you don’t quite know where you’re going is (mysteriously) quite a long way. The landscape was opaque somehow. I felt that it had it’s back to me, and I couldn’t find a way in to it. Livestock had a baleful look, and the cars that passed me did so at full speed, throwing up patterns of thin mud. At one point I passed a gated field in which stood the concrete ruins of a farmhouse, abrupt and stark as ancient dolmans against the hillside. The structure had a classical look, and, as I passed it, the first drops of rain fell, and an icy wind started.
The road became very steep very suddenly, climbing up to what seemed like the top of the island, and I had to hunch myself against the horizontal downpour. I was far too close to turn back so I struggled on, climbing up and up while the road beneath me became a sudden stream of cascading water. Almost at the brow of the hill, I had a moment of doubt – I could see nothing, and must have come too far. I had got no sense of the scale of the work from Andrew’s postcard, nor how far off the road the work was, and the small pale objects I kept staring at suspiciously always turned out to be distant sheep.
At the very crest, I saw it. Unmistakable, even in the (by now torrential) rain. A break in the low wall by the side of the road led to a cleared area at the very top of the cliffs. Rooted solidly in the earth, suspended against the pressure of the immense sky and the expanse of the Atlantic ocean, was a single pale slab with raised text and a net of dark lines. There was a weight to the work that was not solely due to its mass.
Approaching it from the road, tramping the heather and peat, Gods seems brooding and silent. And yet it is not a lonely work. Completed in 2005, not long before the artist’s death, there is a memorial quality to it that does not sit incongruously. Like all memorials perhaps, event those in lonely sites, the stone seems full – of words, of time, of thinking. Sitting on the brink of the land, it seems stable and complete.
Perhaps my response to Gods of the Earth would be less emotive if I had come across it in less elemental conditions, but perhaps not. Gods is a huge work, which demands to be looked upon as a monument. Unapologetic and uncompromising, it is unarguably a work that does not shirk the problematics of monumental sculpture. It is masculine and didactic, in a sense. It is certainly romantic, and will in time perhaps be thought dated and clichéd. It is true that Gods indelibly imposes itself onto this unique landscape and claims the heartstopping gulf of sky and sea as its own, stamping it’s identity on a place far older and greater and more complex than the work itself could ever be. And yet does it well, and with a certain power. I wont be able to forget it.
Click here for a Times Online article that mentions Gods.
To see more of Finlay’s work, you can visit his garden at Little Sparta: find out how here
To find out more about visiting Orkney, try here
More later,
R -
Hopefully the first of many
by ruth barker 20 Mar 2009
Hello,
I’ve decided to start a rolling PAR+RS editorial, with which I can share some thoughts. I’ll update as often as I can, but be warned that it may be erratic… As may, I’m afraid, the content. I’m hoping to keep a public art theme, but please don’t be angry with me if I get distracted along the way. You should of course feel free as always to add your comments below, and to pick me up on inevitable errors, ignorance, or banality.
So today I’ve been trawling Youtube for public art related matter, which I’m in the process of compiling for an upcoming overview for Reflections (look out for this, it will be posted soon). It’s amazing how much is out there! Call me naïve, but I’m impressed by the variety – from artists using the site as a way to document new works, to the folks who are diligently uploading archive material of Smithson, Bas Jan Ader et al. If anyone has any favourites that I should look at, do let me know.
I’m also trying to do a little bit on a small project I’m working on for St John’s Hospital in Livingston (part of the Functionsuite programme for Artlink). Early stages so far, but I’ll post pictures when there’s anything to see. This morning I was listening to audio recordings of people talking about themselves, and was thinking just how lyrical people can be sometimes. One lady recalled a nurse who looked after her when she was a child, remembering her dark blue uniform and white collar. “She was cool and fragrant and all of those things that you feel you’re not when you’re in hospital.†How eloquent, I thought.
So, a short post today because I have lots of other things to get done, but I promise I’ll return soon. In the meantime, send me those Youtube public art links.
Best wishes,
Ruth.p.s. The outrageously sunny author’s photo was taken in Orkney last summer, when I went to visit the Pier Art Centre, and also took the opportunity to voyage out to Rousay see one of the last pieces completed by Ian Hamilton Finlay before his death in 2006. I’ll tell you about it next time…
