Something To Do With Art

Matt Chesney is an artist whose own work is based around performance, video and sculpture. He is also the founder and director of Backlit Nottingham, a gallery and studio complex based in a large industrial building with a fascinating history and links to human rights, anti-slavery and adult education for all.

Our conversation took place at Backlit in the summer just as lockdown ended and we were all trying to find our feet again and emerge back into the world. Matt showed me round the site and we previewed the first show that they were installing since lockdown. Matt was also very excited for a special visitor to Backlit who was arriving later in the day.

I particularly wanted to catch up with Matt to find out more about how he sees the role of the gallery and the curator in the art ecosystem. What choices does he make and why? I also was keen to hear the Backlit story and how he had managed to build up such a successful and thriving art community from a standing start. I was super-impressed by Matt’s commitment and drive, and his real sense of care and responsibility for all that they do.

This turned into one of those heart-warming conversations where you really feel the positive way in which art is such an important part of our social fabric. Thanks Matt!

You can listen to this episode here: https://soundcloud.com/robertgood_art/matthew-chesney

Next week: sound artist and ethical hacker MOOGZ tells me about his project [Malignancy], recorded over the course of 12 years as his mother Angela underwent radiotherapy, and how he has a soft spot for hacking nuclear installations.

Madi Acharya-Baskerville creates mixed media sculptures using found objects and discarded ephemera to explore themes including environmental concerns, migration and exile and gender issues.  Our conversation took place at her studio in Oxford, which was full of neatly piled boxes of found materials waiting to be used.

I particularly wanted to catch up with Madi after she had made a chance remark to me about the possibility of a Library of Lies as a conceptual counterpoint to my own Library of Truth. But in fact our discussions ranged widely over a number of topics to do with the creative process, and Madi shows me some of her recent work, including a three-buttocked sculpture that takes me somewhat by surprise.

I always enjoy recording these podcasts and being curious about what everyone is getting up to, and this episode felt like it was the most playful of the current series.

In this episode we also consider the relationship between art and ideas, and  Madi also tells me that she is thinking about writing a novel. I’m very much looking forward to reading it.

You can listen to this episode here: https://soundcloud.com/robertgood_art/madi-acharya-baskerville

Next week: Matt Chesney, director of Backlit Gallery Nottingham, tells me how (and why) he started the gallery and he explains the importance of community in everything that they do.

Karen Eng is a writer and artist who works in both analogue and digital media. She has experimented with VR, blockchain and NFTs, and is especially interested in art as a catalyst for innovation, cooperation and creating communities.

My conversation with Karen took place at her home in King’s Lynn where she told me about her involvement in a large-scale sci-fi time travel adventure taking place around the town. The multi-media installation is the culmination of a two-year project run by Collusion to use art and technology to find new and positive ways to engage people with the perils of climate change. We then took to the streets to see the artworks in situ.

So I wanted to catch up with Karen to find out about how she uses art as a force for social engagement and change, but I was also intrigued to learn more about her use of technology. Karen is an early adopter and an experimenter: by her own admission she has a restless curiosity about all forms of art making – whether it is letterpress and pastels or VR and crypto.

In this episode Karen also tells me about the importance of finding a supportive online community, and how the brave new world of crypto art is here to stay.

You can listen to this episode here: https://soundcloud.com/robertgood_art/karen-eng

Next week: Madi Acharya-Baskerville discusses her mixed media sculptures that she makes using found objects and discarded ephemera, and we attempt to find cake.

Egidija Čiricaitė is an artist, poet and PhD candidate at the Slade School of Fine Art and UCL Linguistics, where she is researching Relevance Theory and metaphor.

My conversation with Egidija took place at her home in South London, where she has a small office and creative space, crammed full with notes, books, materials and papers. Down the middle hangs what appears to be a washing line, pegged up with pages of drawings, ideas and experiments. We began, however, in the kitchen, where I attempted to pronounce Egijia’s surname – with mixed results.

I particularly wanted to catch up with Egidija because I wanted to find out more about the world of book arts. I am interested myself in the interplay between the visual and the verbal, but I confess that I have never really ‘got’ artists books, so I was hoping to find out where I was going wrong.

In this episode we talk about how books function as cultural objects, how our preconceptions inform our expectations of what the contents might be and how readers of books are portrayed on social media. We also discuss the relationship between academic research and artistic practice – what, if any, is the link between the two?

I especially liked the way in which Egidija tells me how she finally decided that she had become a poet, and I remember in this regard thinking at the time how vividly Egidija was able to describe scenes and situations she was talking about. I also enjoyed hearing about Relevance Theory and the way in which our brains construct reality from their surroundings.

Thank you to Egidija for a fascinating visit.

You can listen to this episode here: https://soundcloud.com/robertgood_art/egidija-ciricaite

Next week: Karen Eng takes me on a tour of Kings Lynn to see some large scale outdoor projections and we discuss her early adoption of new technologies such as VR, AR and NFTs.