Audio files from Symposium: Art Pracitse in a Social Context that took place in Sheffield in Dec 2011 are now on-line:
Socially Engaged Adventures
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Great text! Something to start the week withL
A Very Short Critique of Relational Aesthetics by Radical Culture Research Collective (RCRC)
http://transform.eipcp.net/correspondence/11963408…
excerpt:
It’s not that experiments in forms and models of sociability are not needed today – they certainly are. But to be politically relevant and effective, such experiments need to be grounded in (or at least actively linked to) social movements and struggles. (And there is no social progress without contestation and struggle: this for us is a basic materialist truth that makes any blanket refusal of “conflict” problematic.) As a gallery-based game, relational practices are cut off by an institutional divide from those who could use them. Who are the consumers of relational art? The cultural élite of the dominant classes, primarily, supplemented by the socially ambitious layers of a de-classed general public – the “culture vultures” and would-be cultural élite who form the crowds passing through the big biennials and exhibitions. (And this is a very different demographic from those marginalized communities whose members are sometimes enlisted for roles in relational works, such as those by Superflex or Marjetica Potrc.) In general, this audience does not tend to overlap with the people actively attempting to generate pressure for deep social change. There are exceptions, we know. But this is how the disruptive utopian energies that do exist in relational art are managed and kept within tolerable limits: the social separations, stratifications and (self-)selections of the art system enact a liberalization – that is, a de-radicalization – of social desire.
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A new commission for Red Nile Projects
In August 2011 I took part in a Red Nile Projects Factory Nights event in Stoke. http://www.rednile.org. The Factory Nights series give creative people of all disciplines a chance to visit, learn about and be inspired by a venue or location. In this case 25 of us took a tour of the Stoke National Garden Festival Park, one of six parks created on old industrial sites around the country during the 1980’s. Led by artist Anna Francis we explored and discussed the creation of the park in 1986, the heyday with visitors travelling from around the country to view the show gardens and public artworks by the likes of Anthony Gormley and Cornelia Parker, through to the gradual decline in use of the park to today when very few people in Stoke use or even know of the park.
Red Nile offer out commissions to the artists who take part in their events. These commissions are open to interpretation and could be for artists to research a theme that has sparked their interest, to create a new piece of work, to re-explore a past piece of work or to collaborate with another creative that you have met on the day. The program provides a truly unique opportunity.
My commission will see the creation of giant textile flowers. This commission is a continuation, exploration and development of the series of giant crocheted and fabric craft daffodils which I made last year which were displayed in shop and library windows and then toured summer musical festivals. The new work will be installed on a hill in the park which overlooks a huge retail park during an event in April. The work will explore using the giant blooms to engage people with the world around them.
This work is inspired by the magazine Woman’s Weekly who sponsored two of the gardens on the site; a cottage garden and a wildflower garden. Woman’s Weekly, amongst other things, regularly features knit and crochet patterns and gardening tips. This connection appealed to me as it is present in my work; using traditional textiles crafts to explore the natural world.
The themes and research of this commission will feed into my residency in Parson Cross on the Yorkshire Artspace Starter Studio Program for Engaged Practice. Particularly with a view to looking at ways of regenerating and re-engaging with green spaces.
You can follow the development of this commission here: ruthiefordrednile.blogspot.com
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Are you interested in any of these questions?
>>>Should culture be used to assist with social agendas?
>>>Can art be useful?
>>>What drives artists to work in a community context?
>>>What motivates people to engage with art/artists?
>>>>Is it better never to mention art?
>>>What difference does it make?
Don’t miss the event at Yorkshire Artspace tomorrow!
http://artspace.org.uk/blog/permalink/2011-11/symp…
(and there will be a small intervention by Ania as part of it!)
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It’s been a long time since I wrote. From March to October I was flat out with projects and since them I have been renovating a house which seems to have taken over every waking moment of my life! (We were warned).
Anyway now I have a bit of time to reflect on the projects that I have worked on over the past year so I thought I would add them to this blog.
The first is a project called Make Do Grow. The project was instigated by Yorkshire Atspace and funded by the Sheffield Church Burgess Fund. The project was seen as a platform for linking up the 3 Yorkshire Artspace starter studio programs: Metal, Ceramics and Engaged Practice (which I am undertaking).
The project was to work together to work with a group of 16-19 year olds. The theme was growing in the urban environment; the idea was to engage the young people with both growing, food production, craft, making and working as an artist. The idea was to do this through visits to urban growing spaces to provide ideas and drawing opportunities that would feed into the design and production a silver spoon and a ceramic bowl that could be used for soup produced from the gardens visited.
The project was also to give the artists a chance to run workshops with young people. I work regularly in the workshop situation so I took the role of project manager, a role I have not before experienced, overseeing the running of the project, liasing with the artists, the venues and the college.
It was a great learning experience for us all, artists and students alike and hopefully will become a yearly project for Yorkshire Artspace funding pending.
To read more about the project please visit: http://makedogrow.blogspot.com/
Ruthie 05/12/11
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