Becoming Part of Something.Part 2

Sometimes what feels like the impossible can actually happen….

I have finished a painting. A painting that I began just before I lost my studios and Core Gallery 3months ago. It has been a long drawn out process and the 2nd longest time it has ever taken me to complete a painting. The painting itself is a reflection on the riots in the summer. A reflection of society ripping itself apart. Of human damage. Of all the things people have invested time , energy and love, being smashed to bits and set on fire. Unhappiness breeding unhappiness. n it was an unsettling time for everyone. London, where I was, as they had initially broken out I cycled through the one in Peckham. The tension was of course palpable. Gangs congregated in front of my house, with headscarf’s and helmets covering their faces and made it impossible to leave my home- afraid of what could happen if I stayed and unable to leave either as either side of me were riots. No-one can really explain it, not in the language of journalism, sociology, government rhetoric or psychology. We cannot explain completely away such pivotal loaded significant moments in history.

The painting is of course of Reeves Corner in Croydon. Which has been part of a series I have been making since the beginning of the year called Into the Wild. Recording manmade and natural disasters, the ripping apart of communities. The losses that are felt can feel huge but then slowly begins the task of reparation. I have often written about the reparative gestures I make through paint, through embroidery. The humanity, that I hope to bring back to a traumatic, barren situation, I hope to at the same time bring back beauty, pathos, relevance and in some ways commemorate that which is lost.

The last year there were many reasons that I almost was these buildings. I was certainly ripped apart. I made a wrong decision about someone and nearly died for it. My work if you see it is not a portrayal of me but at the same time (and never consciously so) symbolically marks aspects of my own experiences, ones which I can certainly empathise with. It wasn’t for nothing that I was interested in devastated landscapes and wondered how humanity, how survival prevailed. How one could relive a life that looked like it could have beauty and hope within it.

Then of course, a further disaster struck by losing Core Gallery, which weakened the foundations again. Yet amongst those ashes, after the trauma of losing a studio and a community over night as so beautifully written about in Kate Murdoch’s blog

www.a-n.co.uk/p/1689794/

I realised that all those disasters, they had strengthened and defined my future could also be extremely positive. That I had freed myself from damaging people, from damaging places and that actually my community was all around me. Beyond the walls of our studios, those many artists, those many friends,who held me up. That, within my work, there was reparation, not just for me in its peaceful sanctity and pursuit, but in my experience it gives some beauty back to those who have lost sight of it.

I remember a friend at the time, as we left the exodus of the studio, telling me how this space I ( and so many others) had worked so hard at, that people wanted to be part of, had changed his life. I don’t repeat this out of arrogance (it was the most wonderful thing to hear in such a difficult time) , but because as a thank you, to some those people they have been invited to be part of Collectible, the launch show I am co-curating with anchor Annabel Tilley.http://www.zeitgeistartsprojects.com/exhibitions.html

The Zeitgeist ethos is of generosity. The art world I know isn’t about capitalism, about sensationalism, about money. But about Art , the passion for it, the dedication of the pursuit of making art, the glorious viewing of it, the artist led spaces, the artist focused organisations, the AIR Council. Zeitgeists. Tomorrow I move in to our new studios at ASC as ZeitgeistArtsProjects, and feel very lucky indeed.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Much excitement in Zeitgeist Art world. We had word from Phoebe Unwin , British Art Show Star that she would return to do a Show&Tell in 2012 which we are thrilled about.

Dates for Show and Tell are on our temporary website www.diyeducate.blogspot.com

Superstar Michaela Nettell is building a beautiful website and logo for us and we are getting ready to launch in February with an exhibition planned in April for Zeitgeist artists.

But, not only that…..in an unexpected turn of last week, Graham Crowley , eminent painter and mentor to me ( and many other artists) has decided to take a studio space in the Zeitgeist Project Space. How incredibly amazing is that?! Everytime I speak to Graham I am more enlightened about paint, painters, art. He is a walking encyclopedia of critical knowledge. He shall also be holding tutorials in our new space.

In the spirit of painting, I wrote an article for an arts magazine which is yet to be published ( with extracts from a blogger interview which I did for a-n) so am publishing it here and in advance of my exhibition opening on the 20^th Jan: EastwingX at the Courtauld Institute www.eastwingx.co.uk with Rachel Whiteread, Damian Hirst, Paula Rego, Tom Hunter and Howard Hodgkin amongst the 55 artists selected. 2012 looks pretty fabulous….

Material World

Painting is a medium artists feel they will never conquer.

Every time I begin work I go back into the cycle of questioning, exploring – embroiled and intrigued – doubting and persevering. I think it may be the same for every artist. Always trying to be freer, experimenting with techniques, breaking down rules we create for ourselves to seek out new ideas.

I began as a sleuthing painter, sneaking away from the textiles dept at RCA to learn about paint and to drive me forward from the limitations of craft, its politics and perceptions. I chose to no longer care about the hierarchy of mediums, instead, I chose the best way to express my concepts.

In the years after I graduated I realised that instead of being an outsider, what had happened in straddling two paths was that something emerged a little unique and that strengthened my voice: the fascination with utopia and dystopia melded between sensuality of oil and embroidery against vintage and claustrophobic prints of the 1900’s; balancing between realism and naivety, over-perfection and the meshing of paint and embroidery, the subtlety of colour, its softness and shine. Through creating a tension between ‘embellishments and depiction, sensuality and awkwardness’[1] people are drawn in to the intimacy of the surface and look closely at the artworks and the subjects within them.

The compulsion that society and the individual have to sometimes self-destruct, yet reinvent, is a constant. Sometimes through this destruction we can come to a better understanding of ourselves. To push ourselves: to survive and develop. That is the nature of being an artist.

As for painting, we love its mellifluous qualities, its challenges and ability to transform a surface, its physicality is endlessly seductive.

[1] Graham Crowley

• 
• 
• 

Emily Speed kicked off a very lovely round up of personal achievements of the year gone by a few years ago on a-n and a few of us followed suit. One can find it hard to talk about achievements but it seems a good time to take stock of all the good things and enter in the New Year feeling like you got the Boudicca back and remembering this stuff when the going gets tough ( which inevitably it does at times!).

Overall in 2011 there was great joy of learning all the time through the various avenues of art that I work in. Rock on 2012 and Happy New Year to you all.

Pros

My Art

10 wonderful exhibitions in 2011, including Deliverance at CoExist, The Charlie Dutton Crash Open Salon and Twisted at Phoenix Brighton. Proud to be part of.

http://www.coexist.org.uk/deliverance.html

Being a Selected artist on Rise Art and creating a special edition print http://www.riseart.com/user/rosalinddavis

Writing articles for a-n and artlicks about the value of the Arts and artists.

Taking part in the thrilling live debate on the Guardian careers blog on being a professional artists

http://careers.guardian.co.uk/careers-blog/profess…

Being part of the inspiring invigorating AIR council (www.a-n.co.uk/AIR) & making waves for empowering artists: representing AIR at several talks and conferences- debates on art education and the value of the arts. In addition Rachel Wilberforce, Jack Hutchinson and I have been developing a partnership with FUELRCA which will enable AIR members to benefit from the fantastic FuelRCA APD talks. Lucky AIR Members.

As part of AIR Jack and I also organised the first AIR Insight talks at Nottingham Surface gallery with Helen Jones. See the Youtube clip here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av3w0PMBGz8&feature…

DIY Educate

An amazing Show&Tell 2011 APD programme created with the wonderful Annabel Tilley with support from Elizabeth Murton with incredible artists speaking at our events: Phoebe Unwin, Freddie Robins, Delaine Le Bas amongst others. A radically accessible, dynamic art education alternative. http://coregallery.co.uk/feedback/

Core Gallery
www.coregallery.co.uk

2011 saw me programming 11 exhibitions with a wonderful revisit from Andrew Bryant and Nick Kaplony curating shows amongst others. We also had 3 open studios.

Curating Home with Annabel Tilley.‘ a beautiful, coherent, at times funny, often challenging show and a lot of what I’ve seen is still on my mind. Beautiful, emotional, haunting, and beautiful again’

http://coregallery.co.uk/current-exhibition/

Curating Extra-Ordinary with Jane Boyer , Marion Michell, Tom Butler and Alyson Helyer which was reviewed in White Hot Magazine

‘ well executed and thoughtful. Monstrosities Core Gallery would make an excellent starting point for just such an arty expedition in South London – especially if exhibitions of Extra-Ordinary calibre prove to be the norm’ http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/may-2011-extraordinary-core-gallery/2281

The Core Gallery Open again curated with the clever Jane Boyer was also delight, in particular developing so many new relationships with artists, including the rather wonderful Annabel Dover, EJ Major, Clare Mitten and Iain Andrews amngst others. A wonderful group of artists. See the catalogue with essays and contributions. http://coregallery.co.uk/2011-archive/

There was also the delights of contributing to curating The Salon Photo and Video Prize externally with Matt Roberts.

Other bits and bobs:

The ALISN conference for emerging arts organisations: inspiring as is the concept of the Sluice art fair.

http://alisn.org/

www.sluiceartfair.com

Market Projects projects! Fascinating research into the value and economics of the arts

http://www.marketproject.org.uk/

The Future:

2012 kicks off with an exciting exhibition at the East Wing X Courtauld Exhibition 2012-2013, Material Matters: 55 artists including Me, Rachel Whiteread, Paula Rego, Damien Hirst andTom Hunter.

http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/east_wing/

After the demise of Core Gallery evolving with talented Annabel Tilley to create future independent arts led organisation ZeitgeistArtProjects in New Cross and getting funding to run significant and dynamic DIY EDUCATE APD events in 2012 under ZAP,with seminars in partnership with Goldsmiths, officially launching in Spring. www.diyeducate.blogspot.com

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Its that festive period where everything pauses. Before Christmas Annabel and I started putting together the Show&Tell Programme 2012 and delighted to have speakers Susan Collis, Virgina Verran, Freddie Robins, Alex Pearl, Cathy Lomax, Karl England Ben Street, Amy Mckenny and Andrew Hewish. You can see more here and there is yet more to come!

http://diyeducate.blogspot.com/p/diy-educate-show-programme-2012.html

In addition , we got another piece of excellent news – that Lewisham Arts Services ( our local arts authority) were giving us a grant to hold 2 creative seminars for artists. originally the LAA had come to us, offering us a grant‘ because we are an important organisation in the borough, offering something no-one else is.’

However when we lost our building and it became clear that I wasn’t going to be able to keep the name Core Gallery either, we met with our arts officer and explained it all to her and my need to free myself of an unsustainable and uncertain future and create my own artist led organisation with Annabel. One which was solid, open, sustainable and ambitious . And with no trustees and our own bank account so all finances were under our control. The arts officer was very supportive.

But, of course, the original proposal had to be rewritten, (again and again and again ) plus we also had to find a building in that time or a partner for the seminar. As I previously mentioned there were a lot of meetings with various arts organisations in the borough and in the end we met one of the gatekeepers of Goldsmiths, who was impressed by what we had achieved at Core Gallery and how Annabel and I had founded created the ambitious Show&Tell Artists education programme and they offered us a space to house the talk, ticking some very important partnerships boxes and giving us a sense of solidarity and appreciation from one of the biggest Art schools in the world.

So, in the end, we got there. Even though over the 2 months at points we were crushingly depressed and exhausted by endless permutations and uncertainty as some doors closed on us, as we spent hours working out massively reduced budgets, we realised that some doors, some gates were opening up to us and the stronger we became.

Annabel, Kate Murdoch, Lisa Snook,Jack Hutchinson and Elizabeth Murton particularly buoyed me up, and looked after me when it all felt too much. Its amazing how people thanking you or taking you for a supportive bracing drink can motivate you to keep going and remember the bigger picture. Particularly as it was important to me that as many of us that could stick together in the future studio would be able to which meant heaps of other meetings, negotiations and phonecalls- all totally worth it when I think of our new future.

There was much kindness from others too. Touching emails and meetings over the 2 months came from artists and curators, who I talked to, who had either admired or benefited from Core Gallery and DIY Educate and believed strongly in its future. Now, to be ZeitgeistArtProjects

So now, 2012 looms, bright and shiny, full of freedom and choice. And (some) funding….

No soapboxes today. Zeitgeist is doing well and things are not as manic as they have been, so guess what, I have actually been able to paint.

And listening to things, this seemed particulary apt, that I feel about painting.

‘That special kind of excitement, the slightly mesmerised quite involuntary concentration when you make out the stirrings of a new poem in your mind. The outline, the mass, colour and clear form of it. The unique living reality of it. ‘

Ted Hughes

‘