down by the water front

Philosophical Sheep

Human Habits, Borders, and Philosophical Sheep !

 

A few years ago I was asked to help proof read a manuscript for a book entitled The Origin of Tongues by Nick Thom.

It was a book written by a Professor of Engineering at Nottingham’s University – he also had a personal passion about language and had spent many years researching and documenting the book – language based evidence of the world’s history of human evolution.

The book was to be self published, as many of the accepted schools of thought in this field (not his usual territory of engineering) were sceptical of the theory. It being new and also pretty much unique. So, with the usual channels of University endorsed publications being somewhat closed, the only option was to either sit on the idea or to self publish.

I have no proper idea of how well the book was received (although the book fairs were very keen) nor indeed how well it sold. It seemingly being very much a labour of love.

However, personally while reading, I was taken on a wonderful journey showing how many of our phonetic sounds can be linked or *matched* in some way to words and sounds half way across the globe – this being backed up by meticulous comparisons of linguistic symbols, words and detailed maps showing the movement and language of peoples. With the advent of things like the domestication of the horse and the evolution of ships from fishing boats etc.,

Early fishing boats travelled the coastal Far East, trading and mixing linguistic influence.

A simple example of phonetic similarity would be, say: the Latin Basilica and the name Basil, to the Russian Wassily, Vasil variants and the Greek Cirili. Being pronounced softly, neither a B, W nor a V or C but something in between ; a bit like screwing up your eyes to see a blurred image, but retaining the substance.

Also, looking recently at some meticulously documented photographs of a 2009 world trip taken by artist Man Bartlett. I was drawn to this idea in another way, through the imagery of the landscapes and seasons, with cultural idiosyncrasies and similarities: Historically, from obvious things like the architecture of occupying cultures to the abstract similarities of simple things like utensils.

Silver Drinking vessel from Peru.
Metals also became part of trade and added to the mix of civilisation's cultures; as different metals were never usually found in the same place.
 

 

Nick Thom’s book showed that the first known sounds ever documented were from around the Caucasus Mountains, spreading to the Urals and the Euphrates and Nile delta and then these sounds were seen to travel north and simultaneously south and east. The south reaching the coastal areas of Africa and the Arab Peninsular and the north splitting first upwards into Russia (Urals) and then west and north towards Gallic/Scandinavia and south towards Latin Spain and Italy while at the same time west through the Middle East to the Dravidian Indus and beyond the mountains into Mongolia, returning again with warring peoples back through the east and up through the Caucasus Mountains before the time of the Ottoman Empire.

Mongol Empire before the Ottomans

Part of Mongolia's Epic route through history: Chinese Mongol monk Rabban Bar Sauma who travelled from his home of Kahnbaliq (Beijing) as far as Mongol-controlled Persia, and from there was sent by the Ilkhan as an ambassador to visit the courts of Europe in 1287-1288.

  

Many structural ideas of the evolution of language within the book were already accepted fact, but the book then took certain elements futher and into a different domain.

And as this is an extremely simplified and assimilated version of the book on my part, I do really recommend reading this fascinating story to absorb the detail.

Nick Thom's The Origin of Tongues

 

All of these things came together to make our history as we know it, and are being constantly updated and documented:

Why and when the Spanish sailed to the Americas is pretty much a given. Not so much so, why the peoples north of Indo-China reached across the tip of Alaska from the Russian extremities (an area of land and ice? no longer there) to travel down into North America. And subsequently the South Americans voyaging across the sea to the Pacific Islands and beyond.

Whichever source is your choice and whether this is deemed as the absolute status-quo does not detract from the fact it is a fascinating story. But as with Nick and publishing an idea, then, not wholly endorsed. That we usually collectively perceive only commonly held beliefs as being fact. And if that status-quo is questioned by an individual or individuals, it can be seen as a threat to, or to undermine the *authority* of its acceptance. Rather than a logical reasoned debate into the possibility of it being fact or not.

Now I am not a philosopher – and certainly not educated in philosophy. But I can see that these commonly held beliefs coupled with borders, dogma, difference, idiosyncrasies and/or mistrust have sometimes led to wars which have been articulated in the name of democracy (or the will of the people). All enacted out, across the globe time and again.

It's a human thing I guess, many people will have experienced the possibly unnerving feeling of moving somewhere new and feeling like they don’t fit in –  because they do things differently, are misunderstood or just new, and therefore by default are seen, at best, as the new kid on the block or different, and at worst a threat and or inferior. This is a loose analogy but for the sake of description....

I read something else on Liberal attitudes being attributed to how friendly or outgoing you were as a child. But I guess a pinch of subjective salt has to be taken with that also.

Personal space, collective space, civilisation, necessities (along with desires) and beliefs.

 
This can all get a bit a-to-b-to-c and back again and sometimes I reach my own personal impasse, déjà vu or duh?! moments when dealing with the minutiae !......

So with this in mind I have taken these two videos from a series of 6 by Alain De Botton on the fundamentals of the human psyche: The Philosophy of Happiness as seen through various philosophers through time.

Here are two of his series of 6, best I think taken in order and bearing in mind they are 20 minutes each:

The first being Socrates on Self-confidence

 

The fourth being the French philosopher Montaigne on Self-esteem

 

Which, if seen first with this image of a brief history of the World’s borders and empires over 10 centuries just adds the cherry on the cake!.

 

Actually it’s mainly Europe but you will get the idea.

 

 

 

 

Back with more next Thursday 18th......

An Education - Mind The Gap

 

 

An Education - Mind The Gap

Frieze Art Fair has had another successful media paraded few days. An art fair I remember in Dazed’s fashion pages this time last year being described as a phenomena from its inception a mere 7 years ago.

 

Initially it started out as an Arts Council funded project in 2003 with former editors of Frieze magazine Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover. And very much to its credit has grown to become an event on London’s to-do-list-calendar straddling the bounds of high octane art commerce with new *unknown* stuff, along with media and tourist attraction revenue. Apparently this year, according to Dazed, the “celebrity filled traffic jam” of former years was no longer. Leaving more space for contemplative, slower paced and reasoned buying.

Well, as long as the artists are getting a look-in and a serious run for their money all the better (I’m saying somewhat simplistically).

I am going to try really hard to keep a cynical note out of this as I truly believe that platforms such as Frieze for all the run-away-commercialism of late have at least put art and artists in the public arena – if not always received in a good way.

 

Frieze Art Fair 2010 The Guardian Video Link Here: Doing The Fair For Free

 

I am though just a tiny bit reminded about the lack of real accessibility. In the light of there not being much wriggle room for gainful artistic employment after leaving the dogma of education at any level. With all the glitzy-ness of art fairs and the aspirational endeavours taken on by artists to afford to be in these spaces.

The acting profession – well known for not having a massive presence in education. Has built up an apprenticeship style; learn as you go along and build your career within the theatre environment. But this method now too has a different allure:

 
Good Actors no doubt have drawing power of audiences and salaries to indicate that, and although quality and remuneration (for a career worked hard for) is a deserved reward (not least because the starting pay is so low?). But as with Footballers the desire to be that top star – and not spend time in the crowd scenes learning. Instant genius, instant gratification, instant celebrity seems a preferred career path.
 

In general the artistic-arts don’t have any formal structure like this, outside education. Basically you are on your own; to go buy a set of pencils or whatever and good luck. Pretty similar to authors.

In the film An Education Nick Hornby’s screenplay – on the mid-teen years of journalist/writer Lynn Barber  - showed an incredibly relevant insight into educational aspirations, creative passions and money.

Ok spoiler alert here! :

The young and highly intelligent Jenny (Lynn) was being encouraged – mainly by her Dad - to reach Oxford University. This being early 1960’s post war Britain, and although not unheard of, females gaining entry to Oxford were not generally the rule. Jenny’s Dad reasoned she spend as much time as possible doing homework and tick all the right boxes for Oxford acceptability with hobbies like playing the Cello and joining a youth orchestra etc.,. Her life was structured accordingly.

 

The rub being...

She met a street-wise philanthropist who, fascinated, engaged with her intelligent and inquisitive personality by taking her on a highly cultural, but alternative view of the world as she knew it. Also enamouring her father along the way by conning him into thinking that he was an old Oxford-onian who could introduce his daughter to the inner circle of Oxford life.  Jenny's father was heard to say in agreement “after all its not what you know, it’s who you know”; much to Jenny's disbelief.

In short she threw up the chance to go to Oxford and embarked on a brief sojourn into London’s high life of cultural fun and the offer of marriage – only to be bitterly disappointed when she discovered her gentleman friend was in fact a married man – who certainly wasn’t about to become anything other.

Jenny went back to her headmistress with regret and swore she would re-do the year she had flunked. Only to be refused. She searched out her English teacher whom she had seen as the epitome of all the hard work, and as she saw it, the boring graduate after-life possibilities for a woman; her teacher took her in gave her private tuition – and happy ever after Lynn went to Oxford and became a real life eminent writer.

Lynn and others like her whether they have become famous writers, well-recognised writers, actors, artists or whatever, have had the opportunity to realise their thoughts through mentors in and outside of education. And arguably the relatively unglamorous life follow-on.

So too, on these lines I have been drawn to the recent Basquiat film The Radiant Child about his life at the height of his *fame*. Which, even though the film takes an inverted look at this, shows how the general hype purporting these facts as another poor-boy-done-good (and then bad) is still lapped up. The laissez-faire acceptability as inevitable almost makes me want to retch, yes it is good, yes it does show hope for *unknown* artists, or indeed anyone doing well out of adversity.

But sometimes aside from the genuine life affirming all-things-are-possible, I think of this as some kind of self appeasing and patronising rhetoric to either offset guilt or cloud the issue that artists, as a rule don’t have a steady track - never mind a fast track to being recognised, errrrr valued.

One thing’s for sure while post education open-doors for artists remain in limited supply (and have done well before the recession started). The difference between doing a piece of art and being *An Artist* ie; one who has been generally accepted as deserving of the term – usually in the form of a prestigious acquisition. I still feel there is way too huge a gap between the doing and being.

And just to emphasise - I was drawn to a (Frieze Art) collector Valeria Napoleone, who only collects women artists:

In The Guardian interview with Vanessa Thorpe

"I didn't start my collection because I felt there was an imbalance, but there was and there is," she says. "I don't know if I help or not, but it is a fantastic journey. I collect the artists I collect because they are great artists and the list of women artists that I still want to buy is very long."

So aside from these very valid points not least, having no clue by looking at the work of knowing it was made by a female even after the name had been distinguished. Unfortunately that cynical-lead-weight feeling began to drop down like a ton of bricks on reading the words:

“For Napoleone, contemporary art was an escape from the strictures of a conventionally well-heeled lifestyle and she now uses her power and expertise to promote and encourage women artists.”
"I think about my home when I buy," she admits. "I need to be able to live with the work. I like large pieces and I have quite large installations, but they should always be manageable in size."

Vanessa Thorpe went on to describe Valeria;

“The daughter of a wealthy northern Italian industrialist, Napoleone is sent images of key artworks in advance of the fair in case she wants to arrange an early viewing. All her favourite British galleries, which include Greengrassi in south London and Hollybush Gardens in east London, send her coveted invitations to their morning previews at the start of the fair. They know her tastes by now, but she is not convinced that it is an identifiably female sensibility.”

” A mother of three, Napoleone is married to Gregorio Napoleone, the partner in a private equity firm, and they live in an expensive enclave in south-west London. When she buys, it is to some extent a question of domestic interior design and not just public patronage.”


Ok, so let me get this right; a feel for women artists and buying art to escape the stifling conservative life of London’s exclusive few.

Excuse me while I try and erase this image of Tilda Swinton in I Am Love.

Is this another well endowed from every angle (I can’t say bored in this day and age) though no doubt well educated, ahem, woman buying art (with a cause?) and people taking notice of the critical direction .

And that her genuine love and passion is what it’s all about. Indeed, otherwise why do it.

 
Cynicism aside, I am sure hers is a good and genuine passion, enabled by a good academic background.

And really, what's not to love about that.

 

Shame isn’t it though, that more of your nominally educated don’t also have the clout, other than the occasional poor-boy-done-good, to say something similar in this manner.

 

   
What was that phrase – money talks? – in general I think, yes.

 

 

Back next Thursday 11th......

When I will also be visiting Cuadros Gallery's exhibition at Nottingham's Antenna Building:

Passionate about art?

Keen to discover some of Britain's finest artists? 

Interested in adding an affordable original to your collection?

Then join us on 11th November 2010 from 6pm for an exclusive art event to celebrate Antenna’s partnership with Hockley-based Cuadros, one of the foremost contemporary galleries in the midlands.

We’ll be filling two floors of Antenna with a stunning collection of contemporary art and entertainment, showcasing everything from up and coming talent to modern day masters. This is a unique opportunity for art lovers and collectors to meet many of the artists.

In addition, they’ll be the opportunity to sample the very best from Antenna's award-winning restaurant and bar – with canapés and celebration fizz. 

All artwork will be available to buy on the evening with experts from Cuadros on hand to add insight and provide advice. 

To RSVP or for more details email steve@antenna.uk.com

 

 

Groups And Gropius

 

 

 

Groups And Gropius

 

 

 

I am writing this to reassure you that despite my world-cup-heavy-schedule-realigned-life I will not be posting anything about football, as this is indeed an art-blog even with its add-on bits. No, no footie postings even if I was thinking that the Brian Clough analogy *The Beautiful Game* did have a certain ring to it when I found myself drifting a bit watching some of the highlights the other night.

 

 

The game does have a very flowing kind of choreograph even if some of the upfront contact is more often than not something akin to a nasty stamp on the foot (Camoranesi – Italy v Paraguay! tut!). The idea that football is all about macho and agro - if you take a step back and just watch the ebb and flow it is quite beautiful....

 

STOPPPP!!

 

WOAH! It nearly turned into a post about football

 

This is an art blog - repeat 100 times....

 

 

Ok,

Art:

 

 

Well actually the footie did inspire me a bit further because as I was assessing the groups and planning my life around the games. I noticed that the way Italy played against Paraguay in the first half – it just didn’t work for them – they had to change the way they played.

 

 

This is that team thing when they either play 4222 or 442 (something like that anyway) a subtle difference but can sometimes make the two up front become more pressurised-prima-donna-strikers and less of a team in motion. And the 4222 all the way down the line can lead to a robotic machine like display of neither one thing nor the other - but safely checking the ball every step of the way (think Czech Republic in last WC; they had experience, method and some quality players - so it kind of worked for them then).

 

 

This shows why the US system is often termed 4-2-2-2 rather than 4-4-2. The defensive midfielders (green) and the strikers (blue) take up conventional positions, but Dempsey and Donovan play very central (pink) forcing the England full-backs to come narrow.

 

Italy dominated the game but rarely provided a real goal threat, whilst Paraguay sat back, defended and were happy to rely on set-pieces. Marcello Lippi’s switch to 4-4-2 on the hour mark resulted in Italy looking a far better side.

image and text courtesy : zonalmarking.com

 

 

 

 

 

Ok footie drawing board over; the thing that I seem to notice though it’s the team in general, whichever way the nuances are played out that's usually the factor that wins the game and not individual stars (on their own).

 

 

The past few posts have covered artists along with the debates that came up with #class; and Sarah (Smizz) in the previous post was also very keen on the idea of team or the collective side of things in art practice, as a way to include and get things done.

 

It is so true because many creative’s do group-up; writers for example although they group, the reality of their actual practice is usually a solitary occupation. But Artists are uniquely solitary they don’t instinctively group, and their practice is usually a solitary occupation.

The Opera North production of Tosca

Writers are different in as much as they need other creative’s like comedians, actors, directors. And all the creative ensemble that goes with production. Plus without writers there would be no production. But the *machine* from the beginning to end product is a group effort of different creative talents, who in a collective luvvie kind of way all root for each other.

 

Writer's are held within that – the only parallel to artists being the solitary literary writer as opposed to screen or script. The commercial aspect of production is certainly a big factor and aside from the collective big–ups and mini spats between each other, the overall clout is big.

The writers’ strike proved that a couple of years ago – production and all the commerce that was wrapped in its entourage nearly ground to a halt – all because the writers downed pens, to sort out some pressing rights. It worked in the fact they were taken notice of – feared even.

 

Writers Guild Strike

image courtesy flikr; chanchanchepon

 

 

 

 

So the iceberg effect of the writers scenario was turned on it's head from people seeing the actors as the main part of a production - the icing on the cake - or the actors being primarily judged or held in esteem, because of that.

 

Artists on the other hand, because of their solitary offerings, are not usually involved with production companies and they work in the singular (unless a collaboration which tend to be more the exception than the rule).

 

And some artists similarly have become judged or exalted celebrity in the limelight.

But without the added benefit of a collective of integral parts in the process - they are essentially their own productions. It’s not cut and dried and different creative areas all have their solitary moments, but overall artists tend to see their work through from beginning to end effectively alone.

 

That and the very commercial nature at the centre of the art market makes me think that people like Gropius and the Bauhaus school/collective who brought emerging artists together like Klee and Kandinsky (and not just *big names* - my friends dad used to teach in a school based on it's semiotics as late as the sixties) were onto something.

 

 

Composition X Wassily Kandinsky

 

 

 

You may like, or not, the design ethic - and Bauhaus certainly had one - that groups can create. But overall the history of Gropius’s vision created a team that worked and was strong in numbers as it was in its *product*. Art, architecture, design, call it what you will the Gropius idea connected artists and created landmarks and benchmarks for other artists to make or break and art and artists in general were all stronger for it.

 

 

And so a lot of effort goes into the 90 minute game. The art of football has a collective heart beat -no matter how many groups the World Cup has or how competitive and crazily monetized the event appears to have become. None of those individual footballers are anything without their team mates.

 

 

A beautiful game indeed.

 

Ok truly, truly enough football analogies here.......

 

 

 

 

 

Back on Sunday with more ART (honest!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lives of Artists: The Graduate

Sarah Smizz


I first met Sarah through the #class project’s webby-internet tweetings and noticed she already knew the organising artists, William Powhida and many of the people involved hands on at Ed Winkleman’s in NY. Including Magda Sawon from Postmasters Gallery who did a very lively talk and discussion on running such a place from small beginnings to very independently focused well run gallery.



So I was intrigued when Sarah’s work was also posted onto the #class web-blog by William Powhida. I knew Sarah was at Sheffield Hallam Uni and was either finishing or part way through a BA or MA course. Along with the vague idea she had recently been to NY.

But nothing prepared me for the sheer energy in her response when I asked her about a post in this series.

Mostly this is Sarah’s wonderful reply - I have to say it completely blew me away! – a lot of me doesn’t want to faff around changing anything (& styling it into a me-neat little blog post).......at all!!

Take it away Sarah!.....

“so errrrrm about me?”

“I'm a working class kid from Doncaster, UK. (Souf Yorkshire) or as I like to call it - the DONXX in New YorKshire- hehe ;)”

“My story is an odd story. Basically, I grew up in a single parent family (my mom and my younger bro).

My mom gave birth to me when she was 16, and had no support so we've always lived in relative poverty really as she has no qualifications and racked up a crazy amount of debt.

And then my mom got super ill and we missed a tonne of rent payments and got kicked out of our house because it was a great excuse to then build luxury apartments in place of the place that we lived in.

So I was made homeless for about 8 months in total when I was 15, with my mom.

But we got things sorted eventually and things went back to semi normal. (I bring this up cuz its key in how/why I position myself and my practice).

I LOVE working in my studio -

feels like it gives me a sense of purpose and just really living the dream!!!

I got to university at 18 to study contemporary fine art - first 1 in my family - in 2006 - Sheffield Hallam Uni - without a foundation. I got accepted to all 6 Uni's I applied to, but SHU felt like the right decision, and I still stand by it today.   After 1st year I went over and did Camp America - I worked in the craft shop at a camp and I LOVED it!!!

I hitched hiked half way across the US (as a 19 yr old on my own) and got frauded! so I had NO cash for the last 2 weeks of my trip. It was like Into the Wild for real; and I thought this was awesome!

I got back to England, started my 2nd year and realised I loved working with people on projects like I started at camp.

So I got a group of my hommies together (which extended as we put a call out for interest) and started a thing called StreetForm.

This is a non-profits arts organization which delivers contemporary arts workshops for free in schools in South Yorkshire - priority at deprived schools as a way to engage kids with different learning techniques and kinda re-inspire their ideas and interests.

This turned out really successful.

At the same time we just got this new professor called Michael Corris from NYC.;

He was one of the players in art & language NY - I was interested in how dialogue and artists groups could engage in criticality as a community.

So I started another collective group called CAAD (contemporary art as dialogue). We started as a project like - the art school in the art school.

We went by our own rules and did collaborative shows engaging in different ideas surrounding the periphery and the art world. We put on our own art festival which you can see from the website too!

I was kinda taken aback by Michael Corris and he gave me some much needed confidence in my own ability as an artist - his knowledge is awesome in my research background - which was completely lacking in my other lecturers knowledge.

I felt like if I wanted to make it in the artworld (or critique it)  that I gotta experience it properly! and not just from Sheff art scene.

So I managed to name drop Michael Corris to Magda Sawon at Postmasters gallery in NYC (He's good friends with David Diao who Postmasters represent).  I’m the type of kid that doesn’t get amazing opportunities like this, I don’t look good on paper - state school educated, totally very rough around the edges - veryyy hopeful - thus naive about the world surrounding me; (naivety = I still get annoyed by people getting opportunities because of whom they know, and not from experience/applications)

Lucky for me Magda is one of the most kind, thoughtful, smart, risk-taking and generous women I have ever met. And she took a risk on me and let me work for her during the summer of 2008 in NYC.  I Had of course saved up all my own cash, and *it* still - despite all the other stuff I’ve done - is like THE BEST thing I’ve done - I learnt so much, made friends for life.

Turns out what I was missing was a strong smart woman role-model in the artworld/general, and Magda is just that for me. It was perfect working at Postmasters for me, because it allows my research to be a lot more even.

Postmasters allowed me not 2 be completely judgmental towards this 'elite' art world. I learnt that it’s not all bad (despite what I’d like to believe purely because of my outsider position).

That there are people who are willing to take risks and don't put shows on just for commercial success. And even though some commercial galleries are ultimately a business, they treat their artists like family.




It inspired my practice because it taught me that artists do have to be competent at what they do, relevant and risk-taking not just good at networking (although that totally helps).

Being in NYC at that time (during the boom) taught me how important criticality in an artist’s practice is. I just gotta accept that  I’m not that strong of an artist yet !. That’s ok though; got another - what 9 years? (me, with interjection ...errr Sarah maybe!, just maybe a mold has been broken here with that one!!)

In my 3rd year I switched from BA to a MART course, which is half a masters- integrated course. You do an extra year doing double credits in your 3rd yr and the LEA still pays all your tuition fees.

I had my 1st real London show at re-placed.  And got published in two books one of which was released at the Canadian Center of Architecture.


I was interested in the idea against the white cube space, and how collectives can have revolutionary potential. I used to make collages of buildings and fly poster them around the city in run down places.

You can see this work on my website Sarah Smizz

#class a reflection (also placed on thier web-blog by William Powhida)

 

We also did a project where we critiqued the biennale structure of art festivals - focusing on the Venice biennale.  It’s focus (of the project) was on curation and collaboration.

We created a biennale in a book talking about the periphery! and released it at the Venice biennale 2009 (www.projectbiennale.tk)

It was a fantastic project that is still on-going!

I taught Spanish kids English over the summer of 2009 and worked in a bookies, lol, saving cash for my internship at AREA Chicago in Chicago for 3 months.

This was my research about the artist as a social double agent. Can collectivism help to make change? Is institutional critique re-invented?

Have u ever been to Chicago? I suggest you check it out if you haven’t, there is SO MUCH stuff going on. it’s this vibrant art community that doesn’t get acknowledged in the way it should!

Magda invited me to put some work in her emerging artist show in Dec 2009. And then obviously I saw the proposal call for #class which suited me perfectly with my background, my research interests and the plain rejection that I feel/felt by both academia and the art world, amongst other systems; and did that show.

I felt like after the class experience I truly needed to embrace this investigation into collectivism - to a new level.

So I took a risk and changed the look of my work. And I’m really enjoying it. I’m not sure whether the risk will pay off for my degree show grade wise.

We also just curated a talk at TATE Britain on the contingencies in curation - some of this debate was brought up at #class!

I hate degree shows. I think that they're contrived. They don’t represent a person’s practice properly, especially not one that's diverse and exists in a different format. And so everything is compromised.

As part of the MArt - the deal is that you get a MA Place - and it’s one-module-studio-work;  and it only costs £800 of your own money. I’m not finishing my degree next year into a full MA because it doesn’t interest me now I’ve learnt what I needed to learn.

I'm sure I will go back and finish it when I’m stacking shelves in Asda or something but right now, the institution has grinded me down.  It doesn’t really accept me because my ideas don’t fit into the 'white cube' or 'relational aesthetics' lark.


Yet out of my whole graduating year (BA and MART) I’ve been the most 'successful'/done the most thus far. So it shouldn't be the grade that matters to me, but I’ve had to overcome certain barriers to get where I have got right now.

On June 23rd I’m heading back to the USA for four months; two months in Boston working with kids and a residency. Getting paid for it all - and good pay!.

Then I’m going to Syracuse University in NY State to hopefully start a project with an amazing professor up there who has similar research ideals as myself.

Then I’ll do a lil’ travel and come back to the UK for my November Residency with international film festival DocFest - which is also paid.

After November - gosh knows what is in store for me! ha!

I need a normal job - to make ends meet and pay off my crazy over-draft. I’ll probably move back to Sheffield cuz its convenient and my network of folks from Uni lies there, just whilst I sorta relay adulthood out in my head!

I will be starting my new project though “temporary department for (kinda) academic research". A curated project, and I want to release the bi-annual publication objekt that we set also set up this year.

I have an exhibition in Canada in May in 2011 to look forward to, (moving to Canada is on the cards for the year after).

I would ultimately LOVE to teach, from high school to university level as you have the chance to help change someone else’s future. But feel like I wanna give my practice a good taste of what it means for an artist to set up projects and continue in the real world with a 9-5 soul destroying job first.  I’m totally looking forward to it! (not liking the idea of paying council tax! haa) but let’s see how this optimism fades eh? :P

For me the journey of learning and experience is just as important as the practice itself cuz for me it all just seems to add up/inform the research (in the best respects). I don’t have a specifically special focus. I’m just interested in the idea of power in systems - regardless of what system. The ideas of access/ and class boundaries are always present.

Dialogue is very important for me; it’s all interesting for me, that and collectivism, I truly believe art does have the power to change the world, but more in helping, teaching, helping people to be optimistic, bringing people together etc.”.

Sarah Smizz

And, if I were ever to think *what’s the point* as we artists all do at various stages for various reasons:

Sarah, I hold a torch up to you and your inspiration!!!

Back on 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!