Feature - Page 14 of 32 - a-n The Artists Information Company

On the occasion of Sharjah Biennial 8, ‘Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change’, this a-n Collection focuses on creative processes at the intersections between art, radical politics and the environment.

“The process of social change is in desperate need of creativity and imagination, and the aesthetic process in urgent need of social engagement”

The planet’s ‘environmental emergency’ is providing inspiration for a growing movement of artists whose work focusing on habitats, social issues and survival aims to raise awareness. Anna Minton reports.

Arts Council England’s scheme to offer all interested parties the opportunity to make their views known on the issue of the public value of the arts.

First impression of the residency: Kafkaesque. It appears as an institution, possibly a police headquarters or seminary for lay priests.

Advice from artists on assessing opportunities

The current interest in artist/architect collaborations seems to date back to the late 1970s when architect Richard Hobbs invited artists into the design process for the Viewlands-Hoffman electrical substation in Seattle.

Adventure playgrounds, or junk playgrounds, as they were known, began life as occupied building sites, wastelands and bombsites that had been colonised by city children looking for interesting and adaptable spaces in which they could play in relative privacy away from adults.

One of the main tendencies in public space has been to minimise risk – providing mini-cities in which risk has been all but removed.

Residencies of any kind are a large undertaking for an artist to commit to both financially and emotionally. The time spent experimenting and finding a fresh perspective or continuing a train of thought uninterrupted must be weighed against the monetary […]