down by the water front

Space, Creativity and Relationships

 

 

 

This Sunday’s report in the NYT Review on creativity, and the current shift toward group thinking has, I think, got some wider social connotations.

Taking the office space “brain storming”  ethic to its logical openplan-inclusive conclusion :

A video gaming company found their game thinkers unhappy…

“..It was one big warehouse space, with just tables, no walls, and everyone could see each other,” recalled Mike Mika, the former creative director. “We switched over to cubicles and were worried about it — you’d think in a creative environment that people would hate that. But it turns out they prefer having nooks and crannies they can hide away in and just be away from everybody.”

And Apple’s other man… 

“…The story of Apple’s origin speaks to the power of collaboration. Mr. Wozniak wouldn’t have been catalyzed by the Altair but for the kindred spirits of Homebrew. And he’d never have started Apple without Mr. Jobs.

But it’s also a story of solo spirit. If you look at how Mr. Wozniak got the work done — the sheer hard work of creating something from nothing — he did it alone. Late at night, all by himself.”

“ ..Mr. Wozniak offers this guidance to aspiring inventors:

Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me ... they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone .... I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone... Not on a committee. Not on a team.”

Artists and their strange bohemian approach to relationships also reached an almost mythical and clichéd status at one point. I don't believe by any means this was ever the norm, but space needed to create does seem to be just as relevant today.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-16500768

In this short news clip on changing attitudes within youth in Japan, there also seems a similarity; a move toward a more general acceptance of a desire for personal head space.

And although the emphasis in this piece is about a shift in attitudes with Japanese youth toward forming relationships. Apparently they are not committing to having children and/or being in a permanent relationship by “turning their backs on it”.

The term lack of interest in sex may have also been glibly used here to describe this shift; “….a third of young men are admitting they have no interest in sex - a figure that has doubled in the last two years”, may sound shocking especially from a male perspective. But the topic covered is actually about a decline in birth rates and a disinterest in forming relationships.

Not sure either, about the accentuation on "men not feeling able to catch up with the women".

But the crux is probably best found in two young people’s replies when asked how they felt about gender and relationships :

Her : "..People tell me I am too bubbly, maybe women are getting too strong, but I think that is a shame as I am only living my life in the way I like."

Him : "..Building a relationship seems like too much effort, to get her to like me, and me to like her, I'd have to give up everything I do at the weekend for her."

 

The idea that women and men don't necessarily want to "give up" their personal space on a permanent basis, unless they specifically want to have children - that and the fact gender attraction and birth rates are certainly far more complex than this report touches on. The essence of it does seem to be hinting at a similar thing.

And ok, sure, statistics are statistics and reporting is reporting. And the women are coming across as not wanting to sacrifice a career or their hard earned embodiments of freedom, (in sharp contrast to what many of their mothers did). For example by renting/owing their own place. And the men subsequently come across as being apathetic or disinterested.

Whereas, if looked at, from the point of the stereotypical relationships of the last generation, the move toward having a re-think of this kind of commitment seems entirely logical. Especially when looked at in the light of previous generation's divorce rates and emotional health issues that resulted.

Mutual-space relationships or non at all does seem to be a logical generational progression. Less emphasis on the biological and stereotypical mechanics of relationships and more on general personal emotional growth.

Note, the boy interviewed talked about his idea toward commitment in an a way that seemed almost the antithesis of many unhealthy aspects that can form in relationships, like co-dependence, lack of personal confidence etc etc.,.

So, not so much of an apathetic or selfish disinterest in relationships by the young, but maybe a move toward a collective breathing space with an interest in the future of human relationships in general, including their future offspring.
 

Sounds like the healthiest pre-approach to forming relationships that I’ve heard in years.

Clone Me!.....Again

 

Original photograph copyright of Glenn E Friedman

 

Public Relations, Plagiarism, and Self Promotion

 

 

This is how the World Assembly of Public Relations defined PR in August 1978 :

"The art and social science of analysing trends, predicting their consequences, counselling organizational leaders, and implementing planned programs of action, which will serve both the organization and the public interest".

 

So..... In a world now where it’s OK to use PR to maintain and promote any image and in turn fight for that image when the image is perceived to be threatened or damaged by a plagiarizer.

 

Is shameless self-promotion …the only way to go ?

 

I have taken a couple of examples of recent, contested or problematic image/ownership rights in the arts. 

 

Photographer / Artist : Glen E. Friedman’s Run DMC photograph being re-worked by Mr Brainwash, street artist ; with the ruling that the original had been plagiarised and the re-works to be *removed* (possibility of being destroyed)

Photographer / Photographer ; with Janine Gordon contesting Ryan McGinley’s re-works ; thrown out of court as vagaries of specific body imagery could not be *owned*

Art / ownership ; Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty land lease for this site specific land art and its continuing curation.

 

 

But first a little backdrop history:

 

The Music Industry set a precedent years ago having seen a mix of technological opportunity which enabled copying and sampling.

The realisation of the argument; to say that anything not left in its pure state is therefore plagiarised, on the surface, seems to have been rendered un-navigable with the rapid flux of internet connectivity today. Unless, of course (as always) you have enough time, money and clout to throw at it.

And true, knock-off pirated copying is still very much on the no-no agenda in all the arts. Artists need to get paid. End of.

Although I wish I could be more positive about this simplistic sentiment. There are so many middle men and Mr 20% involved in the promotion of artists, designers, photographers and their work, that altruism is probably only half the story in protecting the original work.

With artists also being protective of their intellectual property or brand from commercial sharks. And legislation leaning heavily toward an overall semblance of control in these *share it* times.

Couple this with social diversity; communities being so poor, having no infrastructure with any wider connective say-so. Or those who are so switched–on they find themselves in a democratic minefield of who is allowed to say what and when. Some fall foul of their on-line presence. Others manage to free-up and share information that otherwise would have been inaccessible to most.

No Doubt the internet, as a popular tool, has power. And so in the hands of so many, so relatively quickly, also makes it a moral, social and political soup.

 

 

This is an art blog so I am not drawing on wider (and deeper) issues like phone hacking or wiki-leaks and all that has churned up.

I have tried to bring together different aspect within the arts here:

A simple concept really; artist/designer/musician/photographer/writer/journalist has/makes an idea of something out of something and so *captures* it, puts some creative value on it, it can be accepted, rejected or copied!.

 

The arts having different nuances ; all having very different histories and with that subtleties in legislation over the years.

Different mediums of expression but I will use the word captured to refer to the finished piece. Whether it is fashion, photography film, art, music or writing.

 

 

And, I am using writing here purposely as the idea of the written word is possibly far more readily understood as a standard tool for capturing and furthering expression of an idea.

 

As with rip-offs, subsequent similar close-to-the-mark expressions can be seen as a blatant regurgitation or expression of a new idea.

PR uses journalism/writing as one medium to further promote an idea or object. Straight word- for– word regurgitation is now being abhorred (whether paid PR or not…)

But still using the same word format and possibly similar words differently to form another view or opinion, is accepted difference.

 

The difference of the captured expression is what marks it out as different.

So with that in mind….

 

The Music Industry >>

Considering the longevity of sampling and mixing within the music business (as opposed to art and even fashion with its rip-off culture now coming full circle sometimes throwing things up much more interesting than the original….)

The mix/music industry is now far more accepting of *sampling* as opposed to *stealing*.

>>The music industry initially resolved the copying issue mostly by making it acceptable to copy as long as a reference was given to the originator and so suing was curtailed to out and out rip-offs. In so the music industry became far more hypothetically in favour of unlimited free use as a means to an end.

An example of Music Industry PR in the 80’s- 90’s. The White Label (usually 12 inch dance music) was already put into clubs 3-6 months before the official artist was named with a release date.

An acceptable form of hype or PR which created demand and interest. The Buzz style of which has been embraced in fashion, film and art.

 

Fashion >>

Fashion has also had a long history of rip-off culture and subsequent suing. I could name not only high end brands (Asian sports shops emulating actual shop brand design is a current problem for original brands). Friends too with smaller outlets having their own designs copied and done differently (damage can be seen to be done to the original design's worth, if it is copied badly).

I know of at least one person who eventually gave up on this as the court cases began to take over and lasted years and cost too much. I think “sod him” was the ultimate term he used. He went on to make different designs (some of which …ahem… possibly had a similar nod to the rip-off merchants own…).

High end dress designer Roland Mouret, mentioned here before, while during a talk for Fashioning an Ethical Industry at the Fashion and Textile Museum London. Also expressed exasperation at his designs being ripped off literally as they hit his internet PR machine, way back in 2005. Battened-down secrecy was the only option, as he saw it then.

All was fair in love and war it seemed. But then things moved on in fashion….

Style Bubble’s recent article about Prada brogues and their ASOS counterparts points out that maybe the plagiarism issue in this case is much more about the lower end of High Fashion brands being affected by this done-differently and (slightly) cheaper design than any blatant damage to reputation rip-off issue. ASOS having used a different style and mood of colour mix (gold and silver).

 

Photography >>

Photography has a long history of *intellectual property rights just as in the film industry. The photograph technically belongs to the originator.

 

The case last week when a judge threw out a copyright infringement lawsuit against the artist Ryan McGinley. The lawsuit, brought by artist Janine Gordon, was about images that allegedly copied Ms. Gordon’s own photographs :

The judges conclusion…

“ The plaintiff’s apparent theory of infringement would assert copyright interests in virtually any figure with outstretched arms, an interracial kiss, or any nude female torso.”

 

 

Two practices converging :

Photography and Art >>

One example recently of two creative disciplines having met like this, is the recent photographer- suing- artist debacle over an original piece of photographic art work.

The original art-work-photograph of Glen E. Friedman’s Run DMC was upheld by a US judge as having been plagiarised by Thierry Guetta (Mr Brainwash) street artist.

It was seen as not being different enough from the original piece to warrant its own status as *art* coupled with possible value-damage to the original piece and its original status.

And there was another distracting, but important issue here as to whether this was also a Banksy/Guetta art joke ; * you can’t sue who you don’t know*. The idea being the identity of Theirry Guetta although real, is supposed to be close to Banksy’s own shadow.

 

 
 

Run DMC done again differently by Mr Brainwash photograph courtesy BoingBoing.net

and sampling Irony aside! this remake has been mosaicked with broken cd’s

 

 

Art >>

Spiral Jetty, just maybe has the crux of what is going on at the moment within the arts :

Greg Allen; a filmmaker, curator, art collector, web entrepreneur and a philanthropist and an artist in his own right is petitioning for the land lease which houses Roberts Smithson’s Spiral Jetty.

The basic story elaborated on by Felix Salmon's reuters blog…is that the land lease is up...and so up for grabs. Utah State Council is opening up the lease for bids and so Greg Allen is bidding (alongside other newcomers) and the original lease holders The Dia Foundation, who have looked after the work up until now.

 

Whatever the nuances of Allens intention the potential problem is clear:

The work is iconic and so attracts attention. The work was made from the land it sits on and the line between where it starts and where it ends cannot be easily drawn. It was made as a site specific piece and so was captured in this state. It is not replicable. It cannot be valued other than in terms of *public* consumption.

So renders it practically and artistically immoveable aside from the elements taking over.

 

Whichever area of the arts we are looking at, the point here isnt about theft or using anothers property to form the expression on.

 

 

The written word shows how it captures expression;

A word is understood in its singular original form and meaning. A building block.

Words can be rearranged to express different meaning and subtly so.

 

Cloning is cloning, as is regurgitation, however badly or well done. It has its place.

 

PR is a delicate and fine art these days and with it brand ownership similarly so.

Social media with all the potentials of the social graph being realised has provided a PR’s wet dream.

The captured image/design/ music/art/written word today is no less its own entity.

It is though being (un altruistically) contested more than before as to who actually owns *it*, and therefore owns its right to exist.

 

Artists take a collective creative chill pill, its going to get a whole lot rougher...

 

Don't Make Me Think....Just Raise The Ante

 

 

In amongst all the maelstrom of social media : with its tweets… be they purposeful political strategy's or not. Within all the FB nudges, pokes, likes, inane games, mind numbing time consuming *interactions* much lauded by the nay sayers and  robustly dismissed by the evangelical standard bearers of new media. Lies something vey close to my heart. Art.

And within this context of social media, like in every respected media. Artists make their art with their medium of choice and Critics critique it.FULL CIRCLE.

Art Fag City’s Paddy Johnson wrote an article in The L Magazine this past week on the relevance of Twitter art (a term she coined for convenience of the article). And in particular (as I see it) being very much on – her – patch, by citing local New York artists and raising questions about the relevance of the creative depth involved in their social media art.

Two artists in particular ; Man Bartlett and An Xiao (both having mentions on this blog before with their internet/twitter and in particular Man’s multi – on - line works). Were examples used in the line of questioning.  I also imagine that being on her relative home turf, her interaction with the physical side of the art and the artists is much more apparent than my one dimensional take on it… on-line-only, miles away in blighty etc. But as I see it this is not about how we interact with the medium more the art involved….So from this perspective….

Paddy Johnsons critique quite rightly, I thought, pointed out that maybe, just maybe in the light of growing bandwagon-esq lauding, commissioning and mucho – typing about the subject… had an air of devils advocate about it >>

That in the light of such possible complacency….Paddy Johnson saw the subject as needing a boot up the jacksy ……and she probably had the crux of it down ; that too much Twitter - art IS focused on it being a new-ish medium and so, as a vehicle, anything done with it automatically = art. Rather than raising questions through art about mediums like this by creating art within it. Her idea that the art should be pushing more boundaries of thought.

Close to my heart indeed! Artists, Art and their choice of how they use the medium :

To give a slightly different alignment. I am addressing local Dj Jose Fedez (while I’m in Spain)  in an up-coming post in lieu of the Electromar festival in Murcia later this month *headlined* by veteran Dj and all round share – it – with – the - people guy Moby.

The simplicity of the type of questions raised by the music industry such as created within mix music within Moby’s creative life time. Was very much about *new* mediums as vehicles and, was at the beginning, also seen as either an abstracted or removed experience of (original) music or a gravitational social experience.

One of Moby’s first majorly accepted pieces was made from an out and out lift from the Twin Peaks Theme Tune entitled Go. The advent of sampling and mixing had been around for a few years. But this blatant success by taking obviously readily suable material (from the film industry) AND making something that was more than aesthetically pleasing to quite a lot of people…subsequently made it a Classic in it own right. Advertising had already been *lifting* stuff for years by repackaging accepted music to endorse a product.

>> the bottom line being yes mixing is a medium, no, not everyone is going to create a Moby classic and yes people did eventually *get It* as a music – art – form. As opposed to renegade bad boys/girls *messing about* with new relatively un regulated media. It found its niches, it grew, changed, embraced. But it had a starting point.

 

I feel parallels here in the concept. And as far as Twitter art upping its communal ante Hell Yes !

But there is such a thing as subtly within art.

Paddy Johnson raised the question of not pushing the boundary's or that these artists were relying too heavily on the medium as content; social interactions and comments in that area ( to which she pointed out she already had a take on that, thank you, every time she IM'd a colleague from over her desk)… and did not need to participate in an art piece stating the same.

In spite of *chipping away slowly* or preaching to the converted by being one step removed from banality ie; stating the obvious, or an unchallenging foray into relational aesthetics. I believe there is a subtly in art that doesn't have to SHOUT the status quo down at every turn. That still moves or transcends though thought engagement. 

So to the medium :

Twitter engagement is personal one to one while being group oriented.This is the nature of it.

From this perspective Twitter art can be more than the sum of its parts.

It is shared in real time or delayed time. It can occupy or interact with a group *audience* much as live media or replay can.

Nothing that couldn't be done in a gallery space or other medium on a smaller scale in its pure form.

And to the art and artists :

The art exists not because of any lets-challenge-the-system-regulators or question its integrity as medium (unless the art and artist specifically set out to do that).

It exists in spite of the medium; it just allows a different kind of interaction. So the participatory/audience/artist are the only relational aspect. The art still exists in its own space. But experienced differently. Including the artists experience.

Just as with mix music and possibly the advent of electronic music perse, when it was luddite-ly seen only as bona fide if the instrument or engagement was *real* and not a  de-humanised product.

So to with social media as an inclusion – mechanism…even to the point of *fans*

But the art within the use of this mechanism is still its own entity and THEREIN lies the SUBLTY whether you think it banal, unquestioning, or not.

 

Hrag Vartanians article in Hyperallergic: Missing the Point About Twitter 

Art Fag City's article : Missing the Point About Don't Follow Twitter

Lives of Artists: The Curator

 

 

 

 

Louise Starkey

 

 

Opposite one of Robin Hood’s favourite residence's to rob, Nottingham Castle, sits the aptly named Castle Bar. Here was the site for Louise Starkey's latest exhibition; Stop Robbing The Rich. I’m sure if there was any indication in the title it was the RH scenario, but aside from that they found a unique space to hold something, and well, something I was surprised to see.





I was expecting a local event, if you like, artists brought together with nothing more in common than their city, and found instead a group of Urban Artists from all over the UK and beyond under the banner Affordable Art in the Heart of Nottingham.



Stop Robbing The Rich is Louise’s second show, and the first one in Nottingham.

She is a keen collector of Urban and Contemporary work and sometimes sells to finance her own art *habit* as she calls it!. So it was around two years ago that she sold a piece to an enthusiast in California. And usually keeping in touch with the people she deals with, as they have common passions a rapport ensued.

This particular buyer was also involved in the music industry and had got together with other likeminded people to buy an art gallery in Philadelphia.

When Louise found out about this she asked when she could have a show.  He replied “May 2009” which in her own words she said she “was shocked, as I didn't think he would take my request seriously”.

That was the start really for Louise and she hasn’t looked back. She still works full time at Nottingham Trent University, and also works as a part time chef. So her enthusiasm for her art and artists is palpable.

The show, which she called 'Cruel Britannia' "was to be an invasion of Urban-Contemporary work from the UK".

Setting up Cruel Britannia at the then T & P Gallery, Philadelphia

Louise mentioned it didn’t go unnoticed and joked

“The USA fought back with a Shepard Fairey paste up outside the gallery”.

When she got the unsold work back from Cruel she decided to recycle it, mash it up, and add to it, and show in a place which was more accessible to the UK where the work originated to balance the showing.

It was The Castle Bar that she chose and although in hind sight she noted “It was slightly shabbier than I would have liked when I got in the space last week so spent three solid days painting.  I wanted the show to look good but also to be a success for the artists and saw no point in making really expensive work available.  I wanted people to come and have a look, see something that they might like, but not have to really think it over and be concerned about a massive financial commitment that would make things difficult”. Going on to emphasise the fact “I had original work available from £10, and have enabled people to pay for work over a period of time if it makes it more affordable”.

Opening night of Stop Robbing The Rich, at The Castle Bar

Many of the artists in this exhibition are established and well known names in urban contemporary like:

 

Replete who has worked with people like Cold Cut (Matt Black & Jonathan More) and their Ninja Tune label.

 

DON who was brought up in Borneo and in his own words

” When I came back to England felt the confines of the concrete jungle around me. But it was to be a blessing. I looked at the stone and concrete walls in a different light, I saw them as vast spaces ready to be painted and moving spaces were even better, trains...like cheetahs in the wild, were fast, got everywhere, but most importantly, were always ‘spotted’ . I quickly learnt that a jungle kid could fast settle into his new pack when he earnt himself respect from his name and ‘got up’ . I was 12.

Old habits die hard and as important to me as it was then, it is now. I’ve taught East End children at an East End school to nicely mural a wall. I’ve convinced myself that you don’t have to cling onto a carriage late at night, under tungsten light, to be seen the next day. I’ve had my knuckles slapped and paid the price.

I have conformed as much as I am able for now, bringing my art to TV and Film. Employed to TAG a Batman set. WOW one of the best cities I’ve tagged....graff stays in my soul, the movement, the colours, the people, the sounds. Beat street, hiphop and those crazy, crazy legs are going to be around for a while longer and I’ll grow with it, its time has come”.

 

 

 

DON and DBO

Dan Kitchener

Luke Twigger

 

Louise went on to say “Kev Munday recently had his first solo show in Covent Garden called 'Making it up as I go along' and Matt Jordan enjoyed great success with a solo show in Athens earlier in the year”. Louise is also hoping to do a solo show of Matt's work soon.

Matt's skull - yes they are smarties! the flash is slightly obliterating the Hirst reference.

Matt Jordan (top) & Kev Munday

see the links for Matt in Athens and Kev in Covent Garden

As the result of 6 months hard work. Louise was more than delighted with how it looked, and for the three days it was showing, does seem a shame that it's gone already.

She is planning her next show for November, workload permitting, but apparently it's all in a rather dream like stage for now, once she gets cracking though, I’m sure it will be so much more than ok.


It's going to be called 'Hardly Original' and will, as she puts it "feature affordable prints from my little army of willing artists, that will have been made especially for the show and will be unavailable elsewhere”.





There were 16 artists involved in the exhibition and I hope to do a more in depth interview style post with some of them in the future.

For now though, here is a taste of the Stop Robbing The Rich exhibition with a list of the artists involved:

As Louise said later “I enlisted some of the artists I had approached for America, and approached some more.  For quite a few of the local artists it was their first show....(MaxRock, Kresh)”

In no particular order;

Jonny Norridge

Finbarr Dac

 

James Baker

 

DON

Dan Kitchener

The Shaw

Matt Jordan

SPQR

Kev Munday

Replete

Ben Allen

Ame72

 

 

 

 

Kid30

 

 

Maxrock

Kresh  :  no link as yet but will update

 

 

Luke Twigger

 

DBO

All the above images have been sourced from the artist's websites.

Back on Sunday with a look at Photographer Helen McCabe fresh from her degree with her very enigmatic work

Also a quick mention pre-post of Wednesday's Man Bartlett article - he is also doing something at this weekends Bushwick Open Studio (BOS) see here as well for NYTimes mention.  

 

Lives Of Artists

 

 

 

With another #class event emerging any time soon, I have decided to take a look at the lives of a group of artists and people involved with them from very different styles and stages of their *careers*.

 

 

 

This will be a series of images and discussions with artists from different areas and countries as they find and negotiate their way through the art world. Some fresh from degree shows, others still navigating them.

 

Whether established or aspiring to be established, this series of posts will endeavour to take a look at the very different and sometimes novel approaches on how they continue with their work. Addressing compromise, locations, and *the day job*.

But no less important, also a look at individual pieces of work and the artists behind.

 

 

The group include:

 

The Curator

Louise Starkey,who curated Cruel Britannia at the T & P Fine Art Gallery in Philadelphia last year.

Sadly the gallery itself had to close, even with the enthusiastic team that ran and supported it:

"After thirteen openings and showcasing 100+ international artists, T & P Fine Art will be closing their doors at the end of November, 2009. It may not have been ideal to open an art gallery at the beginning of the worst recession since the depression, but we found a cool spot, in an incredible city, showed some superb art, and had blast the entire time. Thank you to all who have supported us, patrons and artists alike. We hope to see you one last time between now and the end of November."

 

 

T & P Fine Art Gallery

 

And back from Cruel she decided to recycle it, mash it up, and add to it. Her most recent exhibition also includes up and coming if not already established  contemporary urban artists from the UK with Stop Robbing The Rich in Nottingham.

Stop Robbing The Rich, group exhibition

The Castle Bar, opposite Nottingham Castle

 

The Photographer

Helen McCabe from London who has just finished her degree in Nottingham. “I hope that by carrying this on alongside a job, Photography will continue to be something I do, because I enjoy it and not just something to keep me in a living”.

 

One of Helen McCabe's seven portraits

 

The Artist

Man Bartlett, who as son of US artist Bo Bartlett, is finding his feet as an artist in New York:

Man Bartlett's recent #24Echo held at P.P.O.W Gallery

in his words : ) By Man Bartlett and The Internet.

He pledged to repeat anything and everything that was tagged with #24echo via twitter feed and relayed over Ustream for 24 hours

 

 

"Labelling is a tricky thing as I also create drawings and installations. So usually I just say I'm an artist with practices in performance art, drawing, and installation."

"While there is sometimes an element of endurance in my performance practice, I prefer the term "duration." This distinction draws attention to the fact that the performances are simply happening in an extended amount of time, not specifically that pain or suffering is an integral part of that time".

Systema Mundi exhibition at Flux Gallery earlier this year:

 

 

"Flux Factory presents Systema Mundi, an exhibition of drawings, installation and pyrography by artist-in-residence Man Bartlett.

The works in this show include a “circle drawing” in which thousands of small circles are tightly clustered, and form a rectangle. From a distance it appears as a solid mass, but closer inspection reveals a chaotic yet ordered composition. A pyrography piece consists of small burned dots that appear to create or mimic the pattern of the grain of the wood beneath them. In opposition to these maximalist tendencies lies a minimalist earth and water installation, sourced from in and around the Flux Factory building.

This juxtaposition of means is of critical interest to the artist, whose work often deals with the union of paradoxes from within a wide spectrum of art history and human experience".

Both images and above text sourced from Flux Gallery.

 

 

The Fine Art Student

Tim......who half-way through his degree is embarking on a stint at a Cork Street Gallery in London for 2 months – despite his reservations about working in the midst of all things The-City-And-Art stand for.

 

 

From NTU bonington Fine Art Campus

To Cork Street's short but wealthy 1/4 mile

Stop Press! slight alteration....Tim has been called away to help in a performance, hence I will be coming back to him later in the next series.

So the fourth in this series is someone who I was completely blown away by. Her sheer enthusiasm and energy - for someone so young (in my terms!) - at 22 and a Graduate BA/MA fine artist Sarah Smizz

I know this is Sarahs web-page and is not strictly art but .....: )

The hashtag project first rolled out in February at the Winkleman Gallery for a successful month of discussions and with it delving into the ins, outs and polarities of the art market in the midst of that very art-centred city of NY.

The illuminating and upfront discussions took place with artists of all types and cultures - some relatively well known others from over the other side of the world.  Gallerists, Dealers, Critics, and Collectors also being invited to be in on the call. Enabling face to face and honest discussions about location, class, education, money, who exactly pulls the strings-who are the gatekeepers, those with specific agendas and the minefield of art protocol that tempts or repels artists and can exclude them from engaging on those basis.

 

 

With that very much in mind my first stop in this series is to address amongst other elements a local exhibition held over three days in a non gallery setting curated by Louise Starkey.

 

 

 

 

Starting this Wednesday!.........

Canned

 

 

 

I have been busily watching the Cannes film festival roll out, as Palme d’Or, although a big entity in general always seems to respect filmmakers-films rather than money spinning block buster’s (not that they don’t cross over ). But with that the stories and dramas are as diverse as the countries they come from. Only this year it struck me more than usual that a theme of *censorship* was playing out – not from the Cannes Board, indeed quite the opposite; from the countries the films had originated. Broadly speaking the two films in the lime light were being questioned quite heavily on their moral and truthful divulgences.

 

 

Cannes, France

 

 

One film, or intended film that hasn’t gone unnoticed in the media is by the Iranian film maker Jafar Panahi with his intention of making a film about the Iranian elections. And so it was a sad but not surprising fact to note that he was subsequently arrested, and as a juror at Cannes this year, Palme d’Or have left his chair empty in protest.

 

The other film has been made, and shown at Cannes within a contentious backdrop of protest and has a similar basis to one I reviewed here 3 years ago; Bouchareb’s Days of Glory.

 

His new film Outside The Law has been berated, as quoted in the Guardian;

“...it has been condemned by some politicians – even before they had seen it – as historically revisionist and “anti-French” .....” it has also caused protests from the far right and had high security scrutiny at the screenings".

 

 

 

Part of a review on this blog for the 2006 film;

 

Days Of Glory Indegines 2006

Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Sami Bouajila, Rachid Bouchareb

Director Rachid Bouchareb

film still; Days of Glory

 

 

 

A powerful portrayal of Second World War politics and beliefs. The story shows the French response to the impending danger of Hitlers troops, with a rousing recruitment drive held in the North African countries of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

The film follows the lives of four men who, like many others at the time, willingly joined the French Army. To some the prospect of being paid was an important part, but there was no doubt that the recruits intention was to help defeat the fascist threat.

The film offers the stark contrast of their homelands, to that of the French countryside, food, and way of life, but more importantly the attitude toward North African people within the French army structure. Prejudices are shown through the many inequalities metered out to them from second rate food to inadequate boots, lack of time off, and medical care, while mail was routinely lost.

These men subsequently found themselves fighting for a country most had never visited. Now enlisted, novices to infantry fighting and army life, the only option was to make a stand for their rights, whilst facing gruelling physical and emotional tests, as they fought their way across Europe finding allegiance amongst themselves.

The  film is strong in its core concept and this has been made all the more poignant, with the subsequent change of pension laws for North African Ex Service men by Jack Chirac after their pension rights had been abandoned by successive governments since the war.

Honoured at the Cannes film festival.

One scene shows the dilemma these men must have faced. Two of the men find themselves in a Church alone, unfamiliar with the religious artefacts.

One of them sees the collection box and starts to empty it, the other suggests it is maybe for the poor. Understanding he puts it back, but then asks the other about the terrible violence that was inflicted upon their families to colonise their country, what did they (the French) call it, it was called the suppression of the insurgents replies the other.

 

Bouchareb echoed his dismay in the Guardian article “...by what he saw as an ill informed fuss “I’m surprised because the film is meant to open a calm debate, not a battleground. We need to lance the abscess, we need to have a calm debate about what happened so that we can move on to something else.”

The article continues.....

“One central scene is a recreation of the Setif massacre in 1945, where French soldiers are seen gunning down hundreds of innocent, panicking Algerians. There are also scenes in Paris when Algerian suspects are beaten up and murdered by police. It would be hard to deny that any of that took place. But there are also scenes where you flinch at the ruthless zeal of the Algerian independence movement the FLN.”

 

So it was with and odd feeling I heard about the affront amongst politicians of Sarkosy’s UMP party and specifically one member Lionnel Luca condemning it as “anti-French.” And protestors from the far right echoing similar with one saying “What we want to make clear by demonstrating is that it is intolerable that public money from France can be used to sully the French army and France’s action in Algeria.”

I am not French and I did not live through the war nor was in Algeria at the time. But there seems to be a similarity, as with a lot of European countries, having left the past and world war atrocities (and there are) behind by not wanting to remember fact.

 

We live in different times now and although Europe pulled together in fighting a common aggressive enemy then. Things happened amidst all that too, that seemed acceptable at the time (or people could get away with it). These issues are hopefully becoming a far cry from that now. Although legacy’s linger on, on all sides: to name but a few, as it did involve virtually the whole planet in some form or other; Europe, Africa, Greece, Russia, Japan, Middle East, Vietnam, Australia.

 

Also the demise of an empire on that fateful day after the war in India when a colony of us Brits decided to abandon the continent suddenly in 1947 with a *leave them to it*approach. And very little structure left in place to avert the inevitable panic, mayhem and death that followed. The reverberated legacy of that moment still echoes very loudly today.

 

 

 

Partition ; the mass exodus to and from India and Pakistan

images; wikipedia

Denial seems rife, along with fears of opening-a-can-of-worms.

What with Super Judge Garzon in Spain being “temporarily suspended while the supreme court tries him on charges of distorting the law by opening an investigation into crimes against humanity carried out by the Franco regime”. Let bygones be bygones seems to be the mantra on that one.

To the unease still felt by some ex East Berliner Stasi refusing to believe they were anything other than pawns in a vast machine and some of the East Berliners who suffered the stasi refusing to believe the enemy within was anything other than the individual as the devil incarnate.

 

 

History hurts, and it must be difficult to reconcile, but connecting with our collective past is a must to reconnect and move forward.

 

But one thing troubles me when I hear of politicians in particular making sweeping and defamatory comments on the plot of a film or play without having seen it. I haven’t seen it but I am not passing comment of the actual film more the furore that is surrounding. And more importantly the seemingly non informed furore on the basis of a press release and the subject matter.

 

Whether a dictator putting a film maker on lockdown in Iran, or a gaggle of French Mp’s and protestors voicing opinions based on not much information, a similar hue is emerging.

 

That of control. Nothing new there true, but;

 

For example, in France’s case with Algeria. You invade a country (bound to be bloody and contentious) very recent history shows brutal invasion to be no different.

 

What is there to expect?, stories will be played out. It is part of our collective psyche to re-tell and try and clarify events.

So the element of any sort of censorship is how to enable those stories to be told responsibly and that in itself is a contentious issue; Irresponsible responses and agendas surrounding touchy subjects.

 

 

And I don’t think there is much difference here because of the inflammatory nature of the comments – it doesn’t speak calm and measured, and in the case of the politicians more knee jerk what will Joe Public think if we respond too lightly or off on the wrong side of the social spectrum for our voters. Pandering to public opinion, and perceived public opinion at that.

 

 

Someone has an agenda and that could and is being argued both ways, but an artist–story teller is getting it in the neck again because it has not been first dictated by a party line.

 

 

As Jafar Panahi said “ I never censor myself, I don’t make compromises. It’s very dangerous: if you censor yourself, it’s worse than if the government censors you. Any film maker who does that thinking they can please the authorities is going against their own interests.”

He has been released on bail of $200 per week, this Tuesday.

"During her acceptance speech for best actress on Sunday, Juliette Binoche launched an impassioned attack on Iran for holding Panahi. "His fault is to be an artist, to be independent," she said."

That seems a lot of outrage and bullying for trying to tell it like it is....

 

 

 

Back with more on Sunday......



Bling Me Good

 

 

 

I am all set I’m going to the flicks next weekend to see the NEW Sex And The City film.......I know!, but somehow it just seems right, like the Burger King you knew you would eventually succumb to even though it ticked all the relatively *wrong* boxes on the ethics front.

 

Do I really need to say who they are?........

 

(Ok I’m standing here alcy anonymous style and saying) Hello... my name’s Debbie and I am talking about the new SATC film – there I said it – and we don’t even need the full descriptive title, the abbreviated one is imprinted in our brains (well most of us).

 

What TF is it about that series and its films?. I admit too, that I succumbed to the TV series with the same sort of oh-so-wrong Burger King moment; a lot of looking forward to and then wondering what it was all about when the satient feeling began to wear off as soon as the credits rolled. But the anticipation was always there bringing me back for more (SATC that is not BK).

 

 

My daughter bought me the DVD of film no.1 as well. I know this makes me sound like an addict in denial but really I do know it’s just a bit of superfluous-fun-lite film down time.

 

 

So why can’t I leave it there? – because I think maybe there has been something in the whole phenomena of these four gals from NY and their soul bearing stories, that actually documents a shift it may not have done *feminism* as feminists would like to see it. And it didn’t do having-it-all women in the negative nor indeed the positive either.

Miranda

More a fantastical reality. No matter how much you empathised with, or envied Miranda and her job and subsequent baby and lifestyle juggling, hiring the housemaid was pure fantasy in most people’s world.

Carrie

Carrie’s journo –blog job which managed to bring in enough dosh to buy half of Harvey Nic's and Knightsbridge (if indeed she had lived London) was a fantasy that every working girl would love to have lived, writer or not - and probably especially if a writer.

 

 

Samantha doing her thing

Samantha’s expressive love life at 40+ was stuff of dreams (if that’s what floats your boat,  which for a lot of 40++ something’s it very probably is!) not a great deal of actual s-e-x on the screen but the sheer filmic anticipation was enough to trigger that après-satient moment.

 

 

Sweet Charlotte

All that and enjoying the playoffs between them and things like Charlotte’s prissy demise into Harrry’s arms, was just a squirmingly funny delight.

 

 

If the mixture was a cake it would have made it onto a Michelin starred Sweet Trolley (bit of an oxymoron kitchism there) but that is exactly how it came over!. All fluff and sassy to boot.

 

And it did, however fantastically and with fantastic locations, mirror what was happening – whether we liked it or not. Almost as spectacularly, ending with the film arriving just as the crisis hit everyone’s jobs and pockets ’08.

 

Samantha (Kim Cattrall ) has recently started work back in the UK in a new theatre production and was quoted saying in the Observer recently, despite her highly preened, coifed and buffed bod......  "I really don't think there's ever been a character like this before," she has said. "Well, there has been. But there's never been a woman who hasn't paid a terrible price for being free."

She has been in theatre in tandem with SATC for a while now and also appeared in amongst other productions Whose Life is it Anyway, about four years ago.

 

 

There is, I think, a parallel here......

 

The Carrie Bradshaw’s of this world certainly don’t have it any more easy these days even though the internet has opened up scope for writers. And if the statistics for Media studies degree courses are anything to go by there is no shortage of potential writers being churned out onto the jobs market as were art students a few years back.

Carrie at her Mac

Before her heady days of writing for Vogue and Book launches (nope I'm not jealous - really)

And here's an article in the Huffington Post by New York writer and poet Caroline Hagood who’s work style is perhaps a bit more akin to the Carrie character.

 

 

 

 

Whatever becomes popular as an aspirational choice I guess. Art students got wised up with the advent of ‘80’s and more importantly ‘90’s art with its young and famous types (money is in there somewhere). Just as the media has thrown up a plethora of journo’s chasing celebrity and sub-celebrity culture; this being a vital money spinner in regular news threatened, gossipy – internet times. The basis being a move from news reporting and pandering to the punter anything with a celebrity style slant of tidbit gossip revenue.

And Not necessarily with the writers remunerated. It’s a glamorous life; whoops I didn’t notice the paycheck-lite moment.

 

A shift though may be taking place, for writers actually being able to afford some of the Bradshaw shoe fetish (rather than being paid a pittance). As it seems we really do need news to be reported in these times rather than the diet of superfluous fluffy bits that had been increasingly adopted by a scared, internet threatened media.

 

This must be good news for good writers, with the climate of late having its freelance job websites adding insult to injury by requiring the work upfront – you and 50 or -60 others all competing for the whim of the client. That is a lot of time spent chasing a maybe lottery win of not much. Ok for students while studying but hardly the stuff of a further career. And ok it is no different than job interviews, statistics wise. But that idea was evolving into a permanent state for jobless writers.

 

The internet has proven to break up the old school thinking about writing and reporting. Also though the bottoming out of create more of what-they-want-content and now a space is opening up for writers to take a more active role in the content they create. A morphing of writing style if you like to include the writer’s thoughts as taken a stage further from dry reporting.

 

 

So I will be along for the SATC ride and indulge in whatever fantastical realms Michael Patrick King puts those ladies in this time, but you never know Samantha and Carrie may have just a bit more on their expensive collective sleeves than the odd broken, fantasy fuelled heart .......or maybe not !

 

I’m sold again either way!....

Sounds good!

 

 

 

 

 

NB;

The Broadway Cinema where I intend to plonk myself to watch this has a special night to indulge your Carrie fantasies and to dress appropo, the ticket comes complete with cocktails..... but is sadly sold out.

In hind sight though I probably would have had difficulty finding anything approaching the fashion- de-SATC required, come to think of it most of the people who frequent the Broadway would have similar Art House Cinema haven’t-got-a-thing-to-wear crisis, unless of course trying the fancy dress approach.

 

 

Now here is a link to some photos of the EFNY exhibition that started this week, more will be on the way I believe both on C-MONSTER.net and Art Fag City

Man Bartlett also has a tandem thing going on with his monthly prints... check them out and his really cool film of art in progress.........

 

 

 

And an afterthought on The Great Art Heist ; tricky one this, ok I’m not over keen on the actual paintings that were taken; could take them or leave them – pardon the pun. But how to offload them? – poor sods.

 

Ransom?   Urrrmmm....   I know!!   Problem with a high profile hand over?....could always use PayPal... simples!

 

 

 

Back on Wednesday!

 

 



 

Spot The Difference

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I am not a Sun reader but every now and then I have a look at other news outlets – just to see what’s up;

Me thinks though, a Big pinch of salt with the EU chiefs vagary’s here.....

 

 

THE iconic Vespa scooter has been axed after EU chiefs ruled it was not eco-friendly.

The company will stop production of the PX model - a cult bike for Mods - as the two-stroke engine does not fall within emissions guidelines.

The bike features a handlebar gear change, but only versions featuring a fully automatic gearbox will be allowed.

The 125cc model became an icon in the 1979 film Quadrophenia - with Phil Daniels' and Sting's Sixties characters riding them.

News of the closure came as hundreds of Mods showed off their scooters at the famous bank holiday weekender in Brighton, East Sussex.

Scootering magazine editor Andy Gillard said: "It's a shame because the Vespa PX is a design classic. My generation has grown up with it."

Vespa sell 15,000 PX bikes a year.

They are launching a 300cc model and a sports scooter.

 

OK, bearing the above in mind .........

So, spring is finally here and hopefully bees and things will start busying around in earnest. There has though, been another kind of buzz in the air recently, that of scooters and vespa types;

Swathes of them going up and down the boulevards. I always fancied myself riding one, not particularly for the style, although they are pretty neat, but just to whizz about the city. Vespa that is as opposed to getting moped burns on my legs from the engine – it happens - a friend has recently returned from Greece with just such a holiday affliction.

 

 

Anyway, these swarms of scooters seem to have taken over the Need-For-Speed boy racers of late, or maybe it’s just a different group of lads, either way they are well into it, competing for road/cycle space along with another group, the hi-viz jackets of roller blader’s anyone?.

So I did a double take while walking down past a canal-side bar on seeing something like this;

Full on Lambretta's

I had to go right up close to check the detail, and to see if there were any clues as to allegiances, I couldn’t see anything suggesting a group, only the ubiquitous union jack. ‘Cos the original riders of this type of bike apparently caused a riot or two when they were part of the Mods and Rockers thing. Not exactly best buddies.

Vespas UK style

I always thought the attention to detail of clothes etc., being very clique and precise. Like Teddy Boys before them, and later Skin Heads with their Sta-Prest, Dm’s and Ben Sherman’s, always neat and obviously a group.

 

Skinheads with their boots 'n' braces

photo from Tiaras and Trash fashion tribute to Doc Marten's birthday this year

I clocked the cafe terrace to see if I could find the riders. I was looking for a new-ish twist to the moped lads who’d been whizzing up and down through town. I didn’t have to look far – three blokes in their 50’s – 60’s with metallic helmets and fish-tail parkas sat comparing notes. Should have guessed really, it was never going to be a new thing.

Right about then a group of people around the same age passed the bikes which were immediately recognised, one even saying the name “Vespa” with reverence. Apparently Lambrettas were the aspirational posh version.

I thought no more about it, until seeing the England World Cup Bid gaffe (probably not a strong enough a word) over the now ex FIFA Triesman’s comments. Whichever way you look at it, someone in his position should have been extremely careful in saying anything which was potentially repeatable and allegatory. The Mail on Sunday, and let’s face it a lot of reporting is seemingly very underhand, whether or not using the convenient premise of free-speech. Agendas speak loudly.

Teenage identity has been scrutinised over and over again especially since the '50’s. And football identity no less.

But that youth phenomena also fitted into an as-was-then teenage *working class* expression.

For example the Beat(nik) generation of around the same time, were more literary and however their style and identity evolved it was formed on the basis of philosophical musings by people like Kerouac. A similar group mentality perhaps, evolving into hippiedom and beyond with riotous spinoffs, like the '60’s riots in Paris, but this was directed against the establishment.

Beatnik girls

Most of the confrontational youth groups have moved on from, say, the more obvious preening of the Teds, Mods, Rockers, and Skinhead styles. Some of those decisions were because the stakes of casual fighting in the street over who you were or represented were being cracked down on by long jail sentences rather than fines. The football and fashion and music scenes sort of morphed into designer label casual with brands like Lacoste, Stone Island, Fred Perry, Fruit of The Loom; laddish along with bands like The Style Council, New Order, through Happy Mondays, Stone Roses and Oasis, Blur and indie rock. The designer obsession was also fuelled by the fact the labels had not been marketed at these football going lads, with the price tags being potentially out of reach. Skin Heads also adopted a similar stance with the Crombie coat.

 

Recently the labels have become less big name brands (as some were adopting a specific label as symbolic of a uniform and with that wider issues of identity and fascism), so moves to more newer labels like YMC, APC and Nudie Jeans were made.

.  

Football Terrace with the 'croc' jacket

 

 

 

photos from the very illuminating stories of football and fashion from label  80's Casuals

 

 

 

Football Casual

 

Team-sides and separate groups now defined by style-label, money, football colours and district allegiances.

Turf wars and gang allegiances are another side to this.

Whichever way you look at it teens like to identify, teen-blokes have a lot of stuff called testosterone and energy and somewhere amid this is surely a need to find your teen-adult niche or group. A necessary transition, a fun transition, and yes there will always be some who will find an excuse to knock seven bells out of each other.

So, what time is it? A recession, a disenfranchised youth, and hacks and Lords/MP’s doing what they do best.

So on that basis;

Nil point for you Mr Triesman for being irresponsible and knowing better.

Nil point for you Mail on Sunday for being irresponsible, agenda or no agenda.

Nil point for you The Sun for being irresponsible in a different way, agenda or no agenda.

Infighting verbally at this level has definitely got a divide-and-rule feel about it if not a mobish-ness with a silver spoon tit-for-tat-sport all of it’s own.

Us and Them scenarios that are played out in *patriotic* sport rhetoric which is also evident in world politics is paying a price, in perpetuating standoff mentality.

Rather than recognising difference and effort in achieving.

Um......in my book it’s called setting an example?  

‘bout time too?.

Youth, Music, Culture, Football and Fashion:

Mark Leckey - Turner Prize winner ;

1999 video, 14 minutes  (apparently LUX.ORG do have his work but not this one)

Fiorucci Made Me Hard Core

 

 

New post riding by on Sunday........