The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents
Claire Bishop
An interesting chapter from Bishops’ book Artificial Hells, we discussed the problems that occur when art becomes instrumentalised by the state. Somewhere along the way (social policy under new labour)it became arts job to cure society’s ills; money was made available for projects with a social focus and almost all funding now comes with some public engagement strings attached. The problem is that while these projects may be socially beneficial, it doesn’t necessarily follow that they are good art. They are being judged on the basis of how successful they are as social projects, yet not being compared to other (non-art-based) social projects nor being judged on an aesthetic level, critically, as art works. It looked at the politics, ethics and problems in involving people in artworks.
After a year of chopping and changing on the Spike Island sublet merry-go-round, I finally have a permanent space. I am very pleased to be in studio 26, sharing with artists Rich Broomhall and Helen Grant.
Every studio and every work place, has its own internal politics and Spike is of course no exception – I’ve been the funding rep here more or less since I first started subletting and have been made aware of both the longstanding and newer issues. Despite this, Spike Island is the only place I want to be as long I’m a practicing artist in Bristol. The facilities and workshops are amazing. Spike Associates and the associates space (where I run the Art & Politics Reading Group as part of the programme) are conveniently located in the building. There’s a gallery and a cafe. But the best part is the sense of community amongst the artists and the wealth of knowledge and skills that the community possess; I know that when I don’t know how to do something, somebody here definitely does, and they’ll be prepared to help out or exchange services.
My first mentoring session with Emma Cocker has been really productive. We had some important conversations and in the coming months I’m going to be reassessing my practice. One of things that came to the fore was that I use an authoritarian language when I talk about my work and wider practice. One of the things I’m craving is a playfulness that used to be present in some of my work but that has somehow been lost along the way. These two things are related. I need to change my ethos towards my practice and nurture it to reintroduce that sense of lightness.
Things to look at:
Askesis
Badiou – the 15 theses on contemporary art
Becky Shaw
Victoria Gray
Antonio Negri/Hart
Foucault – Care of the self
The Critical Engineering Manifesto
Julian Oliver, Gordan Savičić, Danja Vasiliev
&
On Friday Night Drinks, Workplace Affects in the Age of the Cubicle
The Affect Theory Reader, Melissa Gregg
The groups selected texts led to a long discussion around precarity in the arts, ideas around social and cultural capital, and the blurred lines between ‘work’ and ‘life’ as well as the professional and personal relationships between artists, peers, arts professionals and friends that contribute to the less than clear boundaries that we operate within.
It was particularly interesting how it relates to cultural hegemony and the activities of Girl Gang – we police and modify our own behaviours in order to fit in to cultural norms and in doing so we reproduce them. Girl Gang tries to challenge this self-censorship.
This weekend saw the inaugural Bristol Art Weekender take place across the city. Initiated by Situations, the project was the result of an Open Space event that asked ‘what future do we want for the visual arts in Bristol?’ It joined up all the major spaces with artist-led projects and some individual artist projects to provide a level platform for organisations of varying scale. I was reminded of the dynamic place Bristol has been known to be in the past, but which has been lacking in recent times.
I participated in Spike Open Studios; I’m subletting a little space by myself at the moment and this was a good chance to do something significant on my own. With the MOBAW project potentially in the pipeline – funding permitting – I’ve been thinking a lot lately about museums; the power dynamics at play, the difficulties faced when interpreting and presenting the past and the line between fiction and reality. This is VAULT.
