European Contemporary Arts Practitioner

A long intermission.

The recent group exhibition ‘Airspace Studio Show 12’ at Airspace Gallery (21 September-6 October 2012) went off successfully, introducing new work and the inaugural graduate artists-in-residence (also the curators) and creating a lasting impression.

A trip up north in Blackpool for the first time, and attending ‘Doug Fishbone & Friends Adventure Golf’ at Grundy Art Gallery (11 August-6 October 2012) was fun and accompanied the city well.

A short introduction.

Europe wins the 2012 Ryder Cup in golf.

A quickfire.

New work produced for ‘Airspace Studio Show 12’ was successful but only a test, receiving a passing grade. To see if one still can produce a certain nature was the exam. However a return to previously abstract art must be maintained as a signature.

Stay tuned for the next post regarding the proposal for Airspace gallery’s ‘In the Window’ exhibit.

Airspace Studio Show ’12

Preparations for the upcoming group exhibition at Airspace Gallery featuring all studio artists (including the two graduate artists-in-residence) are underway with titles and ideas bouncing off the walls like so many footballs.

The general feeling is not to have a common theme linking all work together because of the diversity of all artists’ working practices.

However the show promises to be a success with marketing and promotion, appealing to the local Stoke-on-Trent audience as well as (hopefully) national viewers.

The upcoming event also looks to introduce the inaugural graduate artists-in-residence to the Airspace gallery exhibition area and team, in-turn being introduced to Stoke-on-Trent since graduating.

There will be work that is new, old and just plain individual, acting as handshakes to the viewers; local or otherwise; who are keen to see and make their own interpretation of “what’s going on”.

One year since the last studio artists exhibit; ‘Kiss Me Quick’; in Margate 2011, this year’s pending title and showcased work seeks to display the lastest [forgive the brutish youthised dialect] awesomeness that makes the Airpspace collective… unique.

We who are about to exhibit salute you.

Following inspiration from an unlikely source, it is clear that what needs to be depicted; what needs to be represented and painted is LEADERSHIP and HISTORY.

A uniform is more than bureaucratic, it is armour; a shield; from those that elect or impeach a someone to uphold certain principles and values dear to their parties or governments of society.

An interesting piece of an on-line article published on Saturday 8 September 2012 introduced the figurehead Pedro I of Brazil (b. 1798 d. 1834), the founder and first ruler of the Empire of Brazil. It sounds strange to read “founder and first ruler of the Empire …” in this day and age, does it not? For how often does someone still manage to create an Empire and how long can it last? How long does it last?

In the example of Nicholas II of Russia (b. 1868 d. 1918), last Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland and titular King of Poland, it is a case where one is able to witness the loss of power rather than it’s creation, compared to Pedro I of Brazil.

But placing the two case studies together, is one reminded of the working-class Red October Revolution that shook the world in 10 days and brought about a Proletariat Utopia? Is the execution of the Russian Romanov royal family mourned behind each remaining artifact and remnant? Or is a pop culture example of uniform/costume as armour in the role of LEADERSHIP required? It just might be…

The popular American cult film PULP FICTION (1994, directed by Quentin Tarantino, Miramax Films) co-stars actor Bruce Willis (b. 1955) as an aging prizefighting boxer who in one particular scene, is wearing his ceremonial fighting robe. With it’s elegant colours of gold and black, Willis bears the robe as his character Butch Coolidge, appearing vaguely proud and having just awakened from a reverie, where he was granted responsibility for a gold watch belonging to generations of Coolidge men. This quick scene, thanks to it’s cinematography and wardrobe, encapsulates a vision of the director to present costume as symbolic armour.

Similarly; although only one pop culture reference was to be used as an example; the film MILLION DOLLAR BABY (2004, directed by Clint Eastwood, Lakeshore Entertainment/Malpaso Productions) features it’s leading actress Hilary Swank (b. 1974) playing a boxer whose robes (whilst on a European tour) bear the very Irish colours of green and white, and the nickname “Mo Chuisle” meaning “my darling, and my blood”.

Boxing, popular culture and historical former world leaders: what is the connection? Probably none. After all, “the author is dead” (1967, Roland Barthes) but streams of murky and clear water in rivers are capable of being joined.

However, returning to the topics first presented at the beginning of this post, is the notion of being elected into office/power, and serving the people. They possess the real authority to place and remove those that think of themselves at the top of the pyramid whereas in fact those at the bottom govern control silently and patiently, waiting for the day that they are needed and will be called upon to do right.

Attending a fine art exhibition like ‘Nothing Like Something Happens Anywhere’ (6 July – 2 September 2012) at Chapter Gallery, Cardiff, Wales is enough to make an abstract artist alternate their previous style, from violent brushstrokes to calming detail; from abstraction to Romanticism or Impressionism.

Among the featured artists was George Shaw (b. 1966), whose paintings of mundane suburban landscapes produced with model-making paint (Humbrol), are more than satisfactory in motivating someone to become a fellow practitioner.

His chosen medium is warming and inventive, and the subject matter’s imagery is familiar and alarming.

In an age of yet another recession, and spelling financial and political ruin, Shaw’s work reminds us of what it means to take risks but not for the wrong reasons. Not to squander countries currency, not to raise bad blood between types, and certainly not to lose the people’s trust.

It is inspiring…

But then, questions about the conflict between the working class and the Bourgeois arise, raising suspicion about integrity and compromise. Such a drastic move may not be cause for concern over selling-out, nor is it in league with evolution. It is simply impulse.

If artists did not look out of their windows to see the passage of time there would be no desire to craft. Everything would be for sale and nothing would be meeting the needs of the people who need it the most. What do they need? Creativity.

It is this will which has granted us the freedom to make decisions and carry us into the next day. This trait is genetic and at times, like anything inherited, can be abused often misinterpreted at times.

It is our choice to do what is necessary but choice depends on the freedom to choose. And if we live in a society on this earth in this day which would deny us the ability to pursue happiness, then we are already living in 1984. We have failed.

To paraphrase Orwell: wars are not meant to be won but continued so that there is always a ruling class and a working class, and a division that can be exploited.

This is what we should be painting. This is what we should be fighting.

Two days ago I completed the first of regular monthly support meetings to check in on progress with the Airspace Graduate Residency program and found it most enlightening.

There were several names of artists, organisations, groups and more that will only benefit the new work to be produced during this art opportunity, and for that Airspace deserves high praise.

Currently, there are 3 new sculptures in development: one with a complete frame in need of an exterior body and paint; and two still existing as ideas waiting to be built and crafted from the new material that has started to become a trademark – steel.

The idea behind these new sculptures will be to explore their visually associated contexts and to deconstruct their abilities to be monuments, dedications, memorials etc to Stoke-on-Trent’s community population and demographics.

There should not be an air of mystery to them, so these sculptures’ appearances will resemble but not copy, the following objects: a chandelier, a memorial plinth, and a modernist sculpture.

The reasons behind choosing such symbols of various concerns dates back to the point of this and any other artist residency: what you take with you.

The semiotics of words like trust and community, when applied to Stoke-on-Trent, have various exemplars and institutions. The city centre (Hanley) Library and Archives Centre has a modernist design; every town across the country and world has some form of a [war] memorial to draw people together. An empty plinth is begging for suggestions, whilst a chandelier is seldom seen in many parts of Stoke-on-Trent or the UK or even the world.

It looked and sounded like a terrific marriage of communal interaction when artist Jeremy Deller (b. 1966) proposed placing a bombed car from Iraq on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth project [The Spoils of War (Memorial for an Unknown Civilian)], which could have been rejected due to the controversial political aura it carried. Nevertheless, the fact that that car ended up in the Imperial War Museum speaks about the piece as a symbol of the latest Imperial [Empire] conflict: the War in Iraq.

But this post is not about comparing notes. This post is about, as blogging does, sharing. The fact that Stoke-on-Trent has been kind enough to share it’s multicultural, diverse among 5 towns all united as one city, makes it that much more special to someone not from the area. A resident artist for example.