- Venue
- Sheffield Hallam University and S1 Artspace
- Location
- Yorkshire
This interview is on two parts. The first part can be read at www.a-n.co.uk/p/1390107
CM: Was the PhD course at Hallam formed recently? I don’t think I was aware of it while studying there.
BS: Oh no, Jaspar (Joseph-Lester) has built an amazing programme and people finish at different times. We’ve had quite a few students finish and new people are added every year. There’s a community at S1 Artspace where Hallam PhD students have studios.
CM: How do you think the university relates to the other institutions in the city now, do you think that relationship is different now than it was in the past?
BS: I probably don’t have a long enough history here to know, but I know there have been masses of informal relationships between practitioners who work at Hallam and people at S1, Site, and some relationship with the Millennium Galleries. There are moves to formalise these because they help the University to demonstrate things that are done to support graduates. To my knowledge those relationships have always been there; I’m sure they’ve ebbed and flowed but they seem strong to me. As part of Gravity we’ve been talking to Laura (Sillars, Director at Site) who has been really supportive. There are shows and research on the cards, none of which are fully concluded.
CM: You have been based in Liverpool and Sheffield in the past and now live in London while working here. Does it feel like Sheffield has a certain character?
BS: Very very much so. I don’t live in London because of the London art world – I’m not disinterested in it but I live there because like London as an extraordinary place. I like taking my kids to museums and I like them to have a sense of ownership of the capital. My partner also works at Kingston University. I was equally happy living in Sheffield, it does have a particular character and it is different to Liverpool, though obviously it was eight years ago that I was really involved in Liverpool’s artist led activity. Sheffield seems to have a more ‘can do’ attitude than Liverpool, or sometimes more ‘let’s do it anyway’. In Liverpool the critical debate was more developed when I was there, but it was sometimes negative which can stop things from getting done. There was a lot of antagonism around the perceived relationships between bigger and smaller organisations and ongoing tensions around who is perceived to be using more resources. I know that these issues are here as well but, and this is a gross characterisation, it feels a bit more light hearted and a little bit more playful. Also there are more connections with the commercial market and the norms of exhibiting and presenting. It doesn’t feel quite such a separate entity as Liverpool used to be. I must emphasise that my knowledge is out of date! I think Liverpool enjoys being the City of Liverpool. Quite a lot of Liverpudlians joke that Liverpool is a country and not part of Britain; there’s a kind of separateness that you don’t find here at all, partly because there is so much migration between Sheffield and London.
CM: There is always the desire to move on which isn’t always possible, but I think Sheffield feels very connected; it’s an hour away from many Northern cities, two hours to Liverpool, two hours to London. People don’t seem to feel defined by Sheffield here, they’re very mobile.
BS: Sheffield’s more corporate as well and I think that’s a good thing. I don’t mean it in a Starbucks sense, but that the City Council here seems confident and the public environment feels confident. Again that’s not a comparison with Liverpool but an observation. There’s an enjoyment of the built environment in Sheffield that gives a sense that this is a lovely place to live in, and it is.
CM: Lastly, if there was to be something else added to the art infrastructure of Sheffield, I’m interested to know what you think would be best addition?
BS: I know some organisations touch on this and I think Laura Sillars has spotted it, there’s a need for much more commissioning in the public realm or more projects that aren’t gallery based. It’s such a rich historical and cultural environment, why are there not more projects in the public realm or a big organisation making that happen? You can see how organisations like S1 are changing; S1 seems now to be like the old Ikon which I used to love, and the fact that it’s developed into the new Ikon is brilliant as well. There is a place for a critically intelligent big institution, and the Millennium Galleries’ remit is different. It has some good shows but it’s not that kind of institution.
CM: I’ve been told that the perception of Sheffield in Leeds is that Sheffield has more commercial connections and a strong set of galleries, where there is more artist led activity and public realm projects in Leeds. These things are always based on a perception, but with the writing collective we’re interested in how cities in Yorkshire relate, perhaps complement each other.
BS: That’s interesting, I’ve never thought of it like that as Sheffield really lacks galleries. There was a great one at Weston Park, the Mappin, and the Graves doesn’t quite perform that function. I’ve always thought the Dean Clough Gallery in Halifax was great- and a good model. There’s always the need for more, but the artist-led scene here seems really healthy. There are really lively young groups curating, and also some good digital art generation. There’s not enough live art, and there could be more public realm activity, both permanent and non permanent, especially as the council is so supportive. Sheffield Contemporary Art Forum do deliver this but only biannually. I used to feel very frustrated with Liverpool Biennial for years and years- they seemed to put on twenty odd not very well pulled off works when you could make three extraordinary works with a sense of scale. Tatsurou Bashi’s Villa Victoria at the third Liverpool Biennial just blew me away with its level of authority and commitment- and for me, a few works like that would do, instead of trying to activate a place. Models like Skulptur Projekte Münster to me seem much more focused.
CM: That’s something that artists in Sheffield have commented on in the past, and it was debated after the last Art Sheffield festival.
BS: There is always a pressure to serve everybody and have a spectrum of the small to the large. Actually the only thing that matters is quality but you have all these conflicting demands and arguments being put on you all the time and you just try and find quality in that. There are so many production resources and fabrication possibilities still in Sheffield to be used.
Becky Shaw is an artist, occasional writer, and course leader BA(Hons) Creative Art Practice, Sheffield Hallam University.
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Charlotte A Morgan is an artist based at S1 Artspace, Sheffield. She graduated with BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Sheffield Hallam University in 2007 and co-founded Critical Writing Collective in 2008. http://www.charlotteamorgan.co.uk
http://noinstitute.wordpress.com
