Recently I’ve been using the internet to network: FaceBook and Twitter. Even though I’m living up a mountain in the middle of nowhere it is easy to be in contact with galleries, curators and fellow artists.
I’ve had a FaceBook account since the beginning, but just for friends – now I have a profile for my work. It is linked to Twitter, as is this blog. It has been an interesting experiment to see how the hits to my website have increased: up by 546 %.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jonathan-Moss-Art/26…
I am now making sure that I regularly post new events on my Axis pages as well.
http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=11547
Haven’t things changed in the last ten years or so? Not that long ago I remember being limited to the opportunities pages in the AN magazine, then sending out slides to the few galleries who advertised. Just in the previous few months I’ve noticed galleries and festivals prefer applications by a web link or image upload – it is so much more straightforward, time-efficient and ecological.
I have a lot of things going on and coming up and mostly thanks to AN. What started as a once-a-month read has become a community of artists, galleries and the AN team. Gillian Nicol and Andrew Bryant regularly interact with AN members on Artists’ Talking and on the forum, it seems as if barriers have disappeared and even an artist living outside London, in isolation, can work in a supportive environment.
Oblong Gallery daily screening:
http://www.oblonggallery.com/#/current/
Ottica TV screening by contemporary art movie makers projected onto the south facing side of the building at the junction of Wellesley Street and Walpole Road in central Croydon:
http://www.ottica-tv.com/high5/
Ottica TV annual screening:
http://www.ottica-tv.com/ottica2010/index.html
Video Screening with Bleach Box:
http://www.firestationartscentre.com/index.php?vie…
http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=11547
http://www.jonathan-moss.com
Today I visited the camp with my friend Deev, a sculptor. I’ve been invited to put on an exhibition in our local town on the theme of Rivesaltes. Instead of a solo show, or something purely information-giving, I’ve decided to show all the collaborations I have made on the theme.
All the work is wall-based, apart from the sound-art – so I thought I’d ask Deev to make a sculpture from found objects at the camp.
It went well and he took away a fallen wall section made from reinforced concrete – in three parts joined with iron bars. I’m looking forward to seeing what he does with it.
The light today was extraordinary, brilliant sun and dark sky, the atmosphere was very still. Sitting quietly, reflecting on the heavy weight of the past, I took a few more photos of the huts.
http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=11547
www.jonathan-moss.com
I’ve just been Skyped by two monks from Douai Abbey in Berkshire – I offered them four large paintings (1.80m x 2m) some time back. They are stored in my wife’s parents garage in Hampshire following a show in London a couple of years ago – it seems such a shame for them not to be seen.
I decided that they work best in a meditative environment rather than a gallery – we used to spend time at Douai Abbey when we lived in England, a real escape from the chaos of life. We are still in touch with one of the monks and he was pleased I contacted him. The taste of the community is quite traditional, but they were open to my ‘memory of nature / land with a history’ meditative textural pieces.
They are hoping to hang all four together which will be phenomenal – reminiscent of the Rothko Chapel? I’m so pleased they are going to a good home.
http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=11547
I was pleased to hear Matthew Collings’ views on video-art earlier this week on ‘School of Saatchi’: “Video-Art at the moment gets you brownie points if you do it”.
Everybody is doing it now. I remember four years ago I applied to be part of a BBC2 production on contemporary art (I saw the advert in a-n). I was accepted and when I asked one of the team why, she responded that they needed a video-artist in the group. I recall saying to my wife that I thought it would be a docu-soap and not my sort of thing, but I was pleased to be accepted and thought that the exposure could only be good. Shortly after that there were huge cuts in programming on the BBC, so the show was postponed.
Whilst we were watching ‘School of Saatchi’ Helen said to me: “Isn’t this the programme you were accepted for?”. Well, the format has changed a lot, its more glam and more ‘X-Factor’. I saw the advert for ‘School of Saatchi’ last year and would have applied but only UK residents were eligible. However, the point is, this time round there were 1000s of applicants, including probably 100s of video-artists. When I applied four years ago I got the impression that I was accepted because video-art was a bit different . . . how times have changed in such a short period. I put it down to the ease, accessibility and affordability of new technology amongst other things.
Throughout the programme the panel analysed the videos of some of the candidates. The prevalent debate was: “What makes this video-art and not film?”, an issue I’ve had to deal with a lot. Could my videos be categorised as film? I come from a totally different background to a film-maker. I am a painter and see my videos as an extension of my paintings. In my videos I address the same visual issues: colour, form, composition and texture but with the exciting additions of movement and sound.
Linked to this discussion is some good news. Whilst I was transcribing the interview with Norbert Herz yesterday I received an email from Bangkok confirming that one of my videos will be screened in a festival of abstract video: FRESH ABSTRACTIONS organised by the School of Architecture and Design at the University in Bangkok. Rarely does such an opportunity arise for abstract video-art.
Ten minutes later I received another email, this time from Ottica TV, a video streaming web channel of which I am a part. There is to be a screening in February at Bankside and a possible projection on a building in Croydon. So, back to work preparing disks for presentation . . . strange, as just this week I decided to get back to messing about with paint in my studio.
http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=11547
http://www.jonathan-moss.com
