Coming soon: West Bromwich Connections. A short research project looking at reuniting the town centre with Dartmouth Park.
The project is run by Multistory and involves six artists. We will be looking at ways of improving the connection between the two locations through public works, waymarkers, signage and other interventions.
Posted by RichI’ve started the year with a whole load of projects and events lined up. Let’s hope I can keep that momentum going:
First off is ‘WOW: The Contemporary Art of Knit and Stitch’ which opened on Friday 13 January at the Gallery@Rheged in Penrith, Cumbria. I was commissioned to build a sheepfold using Thermafleece - an insulation material made from sheep’s wool. The show is on until 15 April.
I’ve got myself a free studio space for a year through Departure Foundation. I’ll be sharing a 32000sqft warehouse on a trading estate in Southall with nine other artists. I haven’t had a studio for so long (since 1998!) it’s going to be quite exciting to see what happens.
I’ve researched and written the Snapshots section of February’s a-n magazine. Pick up a copy to see what I’ve recommended.
Next comes ‘OpenAIR - Effecting Change’ on 11 February. OpenAIR is Artists’ Interaction and Representation’s inaugural forum for artists, taking place at firstsite in Colchester. It will be a day of dialogue and debate looking at how we can best work to effect change and encourage better living and working conditions for Artists. I’ll be part of a Q&A panel during the afternoon.
Straight after that is ‘The Art of Architecture’ at The Public in West Bromwich. I’m going to be building a work in response to people’s thoughts and feelings about, and around, The Public. This will occur over three days from 13 February.
On 17 April Rosalind Davis and Annabel Tilly’s exciting new venture ZeitgeistArtsProjects has it’s first exhibition: ‘Collectible’. I’ll be attempting to make a small work for inclusion in the show.
Finally, Daniel Hoffmann-Gill’s play ‘Our Style is Legendary’ begins a short run at Nottingham Playhouse. They will once again be using the moving truck scenery I designed.
Posted by Rich
Sheepfold is now on show at the Gallery@Rheged untill 15 April 2012.
Posted by RichI went to the seminar ‘The New Economy of Art: What are we worth? Artists and the Economic Crisis’ last night. It’s part of a series of discussions run by Artquest, CAS and DACS. It began with a panel discussion chaired by Gilane Tawadros with John Kieffer, Zineb Sedira and Bob and Roberta Smith, and then opened up to the audience for questions and discussion.
As usual I couldn’t think of a question until later on (I really have to work on that!). It was interesting and the panel spoke well, with tentative advice and supportive sounds (with the best advice coming from Sedira: “ask for a fee”), but I didn’t feel that they actually answered, or at least addressed, the question in the title of the seminar: What are we worth?
The problem I seem to come across most in my practice is that a large amount of the general public think that art is a waste of time and money. The measures the current government are bringing in (or taking out!) only go to compound this idea that the arts are the least important aspect of our society. Granted, they are not the most important either, but they have a place. Both Kieffer and Smith stressed the importance and impact of the arts in England; Smith particularly, eliciting ripples of applause for his rallying cries. But they’re preaching to the converted. Everyone in the room was either an artist, an arts professional or some kind of cultural engineer. We know art has an inherent value, we know that society will be a worse place without art, without theatre, without cinema, without music. My question to the panel would’ve been: what can we do to prove our worth - to convince those that think art is not for them to think otherwise?
Posted by Rich
