tenyearstoturner

Please detail any barriers you have faced, past or present, to achieving your creative aspirations. (max. 500 words)

Me, you, them, words, forms, formats, geography, FAE, BMC! Barriers schmarriers, part and parcel of work, of life. Necessity is the mother of invention. Creativity is a means (“Find a way or make a way”) to bypass barriers. In three years of undergraduate study and two years of postgraduate study no guidance was given about form filling and my degree isn’t trusted. The reality of being an artist, what it means to try and be an artist, day in, day out, didn’t get discussed, not a mention. Maybe it’s different now, maybe there’s a module but it’s the ‘same’ as any other work. You have to fill in a form. The difference being I would rather fill in a form for work I want to do, rather than for a job I don’t want to do (which I’ve done, of course).

It seems like ‘a no brainer’ but it still means trying to articulate something visual into words and one of my reasons for wanting to be an artist is that it is predominantly a visual language, rather than written. So, just as I didn’t do a degree in form filling, neither did I study networking. I want the work to do the talking, art is a visual language. I want to achieve the Beuysian dream! I was the ‘everyone’ in the Whitechapel gallery looking at a piece of art work thinking “I could do that!” Twenty years later, filling in forms to achieve my creative aspirations, I’m following a perceived pathway, trying to demonstrate the courage of my convictions, commitment to my artistic cause, building a body of work, sustaining a practice, practicing what I preach. I am doing that. FAE is an acronym for Fundamental Attribution Error which means we blame a person as opposed to the system. I could surprise you, “it could be me!” An asterixed footnote – at talks about opportunities there is always the suggestion that it’s always worth submitting applications because even if you’re not chosen this time, maybe next time. You’ll be logged for future reference, so the system perpetuates the possible but there’s more supply than demand. Writing applications is a skill but it’s rare to receive feedback so the opportunity to learn and develop the necessary skill doesn’t exist, even after a successful ACE GFA submission. In my ACE application I described the non-lay audience as critically engaged but anecdotally they seemed reluctant to engage, a barrier Beyond My Control. I can’t oblige an audience to give their thoughts so I adapt to the system and adopt a Beckett-like fortitude and “…Fail again. Fail better.” At the end of the day, its horses for courses and barriers are part of the process to like and lump. However there is a sincere satisfaction in filling in the forms with honesty, knowing the words I’ve used are the best written representation of what I want to do (within the word count!)

even though it’s the same as the 4kb word document…I just don’t comprehend…ah well, que cera cera…

Derby Baths is an activity that includes performance and fabrication – to make real, and fake, sand castles to then be installed inland, sited away from the seaside.

Derby Baths is an aberration, to see something so familiar and so abundant in a seaside town “where you least expect it”. To re-appropriate a ready-made, to take it out of it’s context and site sand castles inland, in and around Blackpool on pavements, ledges, doorways, window ledges, nooks and crannies.

1. SouthShore (between Squires Gate – Harrowside – Watson Road)
2. Central (between      Bloomfield – Revoe – Hornby        Road)
3. North (between Caunce Street      – Claremont      – Gynn Square)

Derby Baths will borrow sand from the beach (to be returned) as well as fabricating fake sand castles (plaster and/or concrete, ‘glazed’ in sand, to remain, until removed) to site together, side by side, comparing and contrasting   temporary and permanent states. There is potential to cast in bronze, depending on fabrication costs and then site one of these microments permanently (with appropriate Blackpool Council permission).

The material, ‘grains of gold’, sand from the golden mile is the fabric and foundation of Blackpool’s tourist economy. Sandgrown is the colloquial name for someone born and bred in Blackpool, Sandgrown is Blackpool blood.

The product’s a castle, an Englishman’s home but a sand castle can easily be knocked down or washed away with waves, forgotten about after the funs finished.

Installation of sand castles at selected sites to involve ‘many hands’ wearing hi-viz clothes, a ceremony at each site, filmed for a secondary audience.

Recently there has been a growth in ‘buskers’ creating sand sculptures in town centres, a demonstration of a skill/craft but making sand castle is child’s play. You buy the mould from a souvenir shop on the front, fill it with sand, turn it upside down and voila! Easy, anyone could do it!

Recalling A level economics the work/leisure trade off revolved around labour supply/demand and the premise that as wages rise workers would be able to trade; less work, more leisure.

Unfortunately economics is a model based on ‘perfect’ knowledge. I submit a proposed activity and if selected agree to be remunerated approximately the living wage – a successful submission perpetuates the precarious “Weisure” off.

Mindful of the context I’m aware many workers in Blackpool are employed seasonally and are paid the minimum wage – their ability to afford their own home/castle is beyond their control, a position I have empathy with.

My practice embraces egalitarianism and researches the idea that an artist’s practice is their work and, as such, there is nothing necessarily special or unique about being an artist, it’s a choice amongst many. I think creativity is an essential human universal, through making work which anyone can do I aim to encourage interaction and dialogue between residents, artists and audiences about what it means to work as an artist, complicit in a competitive, consumer society.

Level Head                              Martin Hamblen                      Whitstable Biennale 2016

• Level Head      – a ten day project performing the phrase level headed through balancing a 6ft spirit level on my head      at various locations in Whitstable.
• I will perform Level      Head daily; inserted into audience’s everyday routine to be      encountered casually, ‘as and when’…
• And be at site-specific destinations, decided      through mutual curatorial suggestion, at set times of the day (to be advertised      appropriately).
• Level Head      is a durational performance adaptable to a variety of indoor and outdoor      spaces (weather permitting).
• Level Head      is low-tech, self-sufficient, socially engaged (I’m happy to talk to an      audience about contemporary art whilst performing contemporary art) and      conceptually motivated (as part of my practise I perform phrases, do the      saying).
• Level Head      is a subtle spectacle on a micromental scale.
• The £1000 budget would cover travel, the fees and      daily living allowance of performing five hours a day (one hour on, one      hour off, alternating between 8am and 9am starts) for ten consecutive days[1].
• I have recently completed a three hundred and      thirty hour performance of the phrase ‘a penny for your thoughts’. Sitting      on a pavement wearing a suit, my ‘stage’ framed by a hazard taped      hula-hoop, the gesture of giving juxtaposes a stereotypical street      exchange with a saying rarely seen, only said, creating an anomaly which      questions expectations, sparks curiosity and incites collaboration.
• My recent exhibitions include Feel Me[2]      (2015) at The Birley, Preston and Literacy      (2014) at Castlefield Gallery, Manchester.      In 2014 I performed Level Head in      Manchester, at Hazard, balancing a 6ft spirit level on my head for five      hours and in 2013 I performed 29,028[3]      walking “two steps forward, one step back” for sixty eight hours up and      down The Harris Flights; a      temporary installation of stairs leading from a public square to the first      floor of The Harris Museum and Art gallery in Preston, organised by In      Certain Places.
• Performing Level      Head for fifty hours at Whitstable Biennale 2016 would be an ambitious      new work.

[1] Would it be possible to rent a spare room/floor from someone you know?

[2] http://www.corridor8.co.uk/online/review-feel-me-the-birley-preston/

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNyibU4DYnM

Hello,

Thank you for applying to Whitstable Biennale’s 2016 Open Call. 

I am writing to say that your application wasn’t chosen. We had well over 300 applications, and it has been difficult whittling the numbers down to select just one project.

We would like to add your name to our email list for updates. Please let us know if you’d prefer not to receive information from us. 

LeftCoast – Blackpool and Wyre*

Lead organisation: Blackpool Coastal Housing Grant: £3,000,000 (original) + £1,000,000 (new funds)

LeftCoast aims to engage and excite audiences in Blackpool and Wyre, bringing world class arts to people living on the Fylde Coast. The project also aims to develop the skills of local artists and organisations, as well as improving the area’s arts infrastructure.

• 25,000 audience members attended 60 events and 45 workshops
• Two new art spaces were created
• SpareParts, a new outdoor art festival, was created in Fleetwood (in partnership with Fleetwood Festival of Transport)

LeftCoast’s ambition with their new funds is to creatively develop the unique cultural DNA of Blackpool and Wyre – to create a place where it is possible to be yourself, to experiment and produce amazing new work. They’ve identified five areas of focus: strengthening the community’s involvement in decision-making; taking the lead in the cultural vision of organisations across the region; creating partnerships to develop the arts and culture offer in the area; commissioning world-class activities; and ensuring all of this is sustainable.

“I never thought I’d see that in Fleetwood” – Audience member at SpareParts Festival

– See more at: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-funding/funding-programmes/creative-people-and-places-fund/projects-rounds-1-and-2/#sthash.kHHoTzil.dpuf

Thank you for taking the time to submit a proposal to part of the Lancashire festival this September. I am pleased to announce that your proposal has been accepted.

The event titled ‘Lancashire Encounter- Discover a world of culture & creativity on your doorstep’ will take place across Friday 25 – Sunday 27th September 2015 in Preston City Centre.

I will be in touch over the next couple of weeks to sort out agreement and logistics, in the meantime if you have any questions please feel free to contact me directly on the details below.