Had to rearrange things a bit, so didn’t get to FACT and Mike on Friday. Instead I looked into whether ‘To have a studio or to not have a studio’, I do the thinking in my head, the work on the streets and the editing on the laptop, but would I benefit from having a studio. I spoke with Justin Keeper who is the Creative Development manager for Mushroom works, which runs a artist studio complexes in Newcastle and Gateshead. They have a number of film makers in their studios. He thinks I would benefit from having a studio as it would give me access to a creative community, peer to peer support and raise my visibility and I would come across as more professional as I could meet people etc at the studio rather than in town at coffee shops. He feels that yes the studio would be an added expense but it could be just what I need to make me more business minded and help me develop commercially. It is difficult. Are artists in todays world a business. I think I read too much Foucault when young, as I feel much of what I do is about anti professionalism, and breaking down the discourse of exclusion and it is hard to be commercially minded when the work I make is kind of anti establishment. More to ponder. Can I make the work I make but approach it with a greater level of career building awareness. I think of the projects as one at a time,and that every work might be the last opportunity I get, so I don’t plan ahead. We spoke about a a work such as ‘bus station sonata’ and how maybe I could tour a work like that, create it anew for a number of festivals. I am not sure I have the mindset for such a way of working, I normally make a work, then move on to another idea driven by a need to see how an idea looks when translated to reality. I know how ‘bus station sonata’ looks. Though if I keep going from idea to idea, will I in end exhaust myideas, maybe I should try and develop the bank of ideas I have already made and that I know work. So do multi-media artists working in the digital realm need a studio?
commuter play Beethoven
Saw James Lowther on friday. He was the arts officer for Durham and has now taken over at Berwick running the visual arts there. He is a really good officer, he always gets involved in the projects and has really strong project management skills. I spoke to him about my work, surprisingly he liked a project I did called ‘A ring Cycle’, where I got people to pass instruments. I have always really liked that project, which I did more for myself, but have always thought it is something I would have liked to develop and done more properly. He wasn’t that into the orchestra flashmob works, which is something I often find with people in the visual arts, even though they do well on-line, they never do that well in festivals and with galleries. James works with the Berwick film festival which seems a good opportunity for artists’ videos as they take an installational approach to much of the work they show. We spoke about how to succeed with applications for residencies and opportunities. He thinks that if you put something in it should have a connection to the remit, that sounds obvious, but often people put in applications with no real research into the area etc and what they show. So when he was at the DLI one of the only unsolicited projects he took on was one that was about military history which fits in with the museum that houses the gallery. At the moment in Berwick he has installed a crazy golf artwork, as the gallery is near the local golf course. We then got talking about why I work with over 50s in some of my projects, which led me to some deep soul searching as to why I do this, maybe I can at times be funding led. I guess that made me start to think about entertainment and the pleasure principle and how that fits into my work, the need I have to entertain with the product I generate and is that authentic or do I just want to be liked. Hmm lots to think about. I have booked in to see Mike Stubbs from Fact on Friday.
people make musing by passing instruments
Had my meet with Richard Hollinshead a sculpture and director of Grit and Pearl, a public art agency. There were many good points he raised. While video as a piece of long term public art would be problematic, often now with public art they are asked to make a number of temporary smaller works around the creation of the major art work, and he though my practice would fit in well to this commission process. This is an avenue I will pursue, and is a good avenue for other artists who make work not suited to long term installs. He also thought I should aim for larger budgets, which is also something I will use when negotiating new work, as he felt the quality of the work varied in terms of filming and larger budgets would give the work greater consistency in the amount of time and the equipment I could use to document the idea I create. I also talked to him about my inability to ever get through the commission process for a work, and that maybe I am not presenting myself in the right way, and he suggested letting him look over any future apps for some pointers, which would be great. He also said that Grit and Pearl will be running some form of open surgery for artists in the near future, which is really needed. It was really great just to talk with someone about what I do, in an open and theoretical way. Once outside of the arts education system it is hard to just talk with people about your ideas and artwork. I find lately that the only time I talk to interested bodies about what I do, is when I am making the work for them, and then it is really just about the practicalities, so this has been a really useful exercise. My next meet is with James Lowther on the 18th.
