So, spoke with Mike Stubbs on Skype. Mike is the Director and C.E.O. of FACT in Liverpool, and is a really knowledgable curator dealing with digital media. It was a very involved discussion. One aspect that came up was that I call myself a video artist. Mike thought this was a bit old fashioned in today’s culture. He is right, thinking afterwards I realised I started calling myself a ‘Video Artist’ mainly to be clear with the public who are in my work. I wanted them to know if they got involved, it wasn’t a film, they were involved in, but an artwork, and that I wasn’t a film maker, but I used video. If anything I think of myself as more performance or installation, my last project were flipbooks in libraries in Gateshead and featured no technology beyond the printed books. But the point being is give a thought as to how you describe or label yourself when talking to curators etc. probably just the tag artist will do, without a defining prefix, as art is about ideas often independent of medium. FACT are also producers on the Channel 4 scheme called Random Acts, which are short interventions on TV. Mike began in making artists work for broadcast TV and the Random Acts strand looks like it could be a good opportunity for artists, giving them a platform to reach a large audience and to work in the televisual sector. Mike said that such schemes working with curators such as FACT meant they were able to steer the commissioners in new and different ways and enable artists to find and complete their vision. I have done a little TV and radio work and it can get you a greater level of exposure, so it might be something worth exploring, though much of it is through pitching and often they want it done and completed Yesterday. Recently I was rung up by Radio 4 one Thursday and told that Ray Harryhausen was dead, ‘I knew this’ and they wanted to do stop motion on the radio, and had I any ideas for the Sunday morning show ‘Broadcasting House’!, fortunately I did. Artangel did a series of audio interventions on BBC Radio 4 earlier in the year, and the reception was mixed. Often these slots are short, a few minutes long, but this structure can benefit artists who aren’t confined by narrative and story arc. These slots are also seen as interventions, artists disrupt the normal narrative flow of the schedules.
Mike did comment that while he is aware of the importance of showing video work in the gallery he is also considering audience perspective, about the time it takes to see the videos, about developing experiential and installational works beyond the looped video, and if the videos are lengthy to provide seating.
Does showing your work in gallery spaces get you cultural points, or working in different arenas such as TV and radio attain you greater cultural capital, or equivalent cultural capital to a gallery show?
Sometimes it is all about the press coverage, the reviews, the views online. With a good approach and a strong concept I believe an individual or group working outside of the accepted gallery context can create as much, if not a greater cultural awareness amongst the public than in a gallery. Saying that though, FACT is celebrating it’s tenth anniversary and their show at the moment of commissioned work is very strong. We touched on the idea of the work as an art object, artists that sell DVDs or media files of their work in limited editions to collections and don’t enter the social distribution model. Mike felt if you could do that as an artist, then that is fine, but in today’s climate, with the cuts etc, an artist needs a plethora of ways of supporting themselves.
This is the balance, when your work becomes audience focused. I often wonder, do I lack integrity, am I only making projects to get attention and reach the mass audience, does my work lack substance, has my practice become corrupted by the need to be entertaining. Am I a Youtube baby?
images animated on palms for Angel of North anniversary
