Photographs taken by Andi Sapey
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Right click and save as to download the press release and exhibition information.
The private view is tomorrow (Monday 2nd November) from 6pm – 9pm
The exhibition runs from Tuesday 3rd November to Saturday 7th November, and is open from 10 am to 5pm, so please come down at some time if you can.
Sunday, 6 September 2009
Interview 8: Mathew Parkin
Mathew Parkin was born in 1987. He currently studies on Visual Studies. His work explores issues around memory and identity. He is one of the organizers and curators of the show. To see more of his work visit mathewparkin.co.uk
Hello Mathew. What made you want to gather a group of students together to create an exhibition?
I had been discussing it a lot with other people, discussion is really important as a core creative activity I think. I wanted to do an exhibition as I am really interested in curating and organization of shows, and STEW presents a wonderful chance to rent affordable and good gallery space. Also I think that sitting in art school making and not creating opportunities, or being involved with art, is very nieve. Early on me and Siobhan had decided we wanted it to be a group show with different courses involved and people from different backgrounds. There are interesting discussions about where the boundaries of what can be art are. I am also influenced by groups of artists in the past (it sounds cliche but the YBA's in particular) and how they have created group dynamics. I think it will be really exciting to be involved with the conception and creation of all the work by group crits with people involved.
What course are you currently studying?
Visual Studies.
How do you see the curation of the show? Is it good to be curating after previous experiences of other shows?
It is very exciting to be curating. I am really interested in curating. I have previously curated a show for Siobhan with Matthew and Isabel. I think the curation will be minimal, to try and let the work communicate with each other and the space it is in. I hope to be involved with the making of the work and the whole process, through having tribute group crits and such, so I don't want to just be curating work I have never seen when it arrives at the gallery. Good curation can be very important to making a show work, so hopefully the curation will work well. I think curation is hard, as it is difficult for it to be democratic, and I have been involved with shows where curation has been secondary to fitting all the work into the space.
Was the date of the exhibition important to you?
The reason for the dates of the show was more for practical reasons. Giving people who are students time to access workshops and make things in studios. It was a convenient time in the year for everyone. The fact it was on bonfire night was rather perfect. Bonfire night is a tribute to the punishment of someone who tried to instigate an act of terrorism really. It is traditionally a patriotic time that is about protecting the country. But it has become more a tribute to Guy Fawkes, and more about fireworks and bonfires then anything else. To me bonfire night just makes me remember one really beautiful bonfire when I was young, in the fields behind the estate I lived on. Most people form the estate where there, and I remember a huge cone of wood with a fire. Everyone was eating jacket potatoes and pie with mushy peas. It would be nice to do more with the date, like a bonfire behind the gallery or fireworks, but I'm not sure, we will have to wait and see.
What does the word tribute mean to you?
Tribute is a strange word. It can be thought of as to pay homage or respect. However it makes me think of memorials and death.
What is your work like?
I hate describing my own work. I would say that my work is sculpture. Sculpture with a conceptual basis, but still engaged with the play and process of sculpture. Also a very wide definition of sculpture that includes film, photography, text, installation, intervention, the actuality of space as well as an actual object. Skill isn't necessarily important to me. Generally my work is to do with identity, the uncanny and memory, but personal narratives are subdued. Recently I have become really interested in the domestic, space and spatial theory, also british social hosing of the 1950s to the 1970s, brutalism and ideas about architectural utopia. My work rarely contains the body, and when it does it is fragmented, however it normally references the body.
How does your work tend to develop?
I really love ideas, and that is how I start. I just tend to have lots of ideas and write them down. I have a book that is full of them. Due to time and money constrains I find the ones that I feel are most urgent at the time. I tend to take lots of reference images, and spend a lot of time looking for reference images on the internet. I tend to get to making quite quickly, as I have an urge to make, and get frustrated when I can't make for a long time. It is in making that the work can change, through accident or rereading the work. It is always trial and error for me.
What have you got planned for tribute?
I was initially thinking of playing with homages to other artists but it didn't end up appealing to me enough. I also thought a lot about the space and researched the building, but it didn't really give me enough. The work I am making is very much about space. The tributes are kind of abstracted and convoluted. I struggled to decide on work because I had lots of things I was thinking about that could apply, and still aren't completely convinced about the work I have in mind, so it feels like a bit of a risk. I am thinking about british realist cinema and social hosing, traces of previous use left on spaces, windows, porn and nostalgia.
What (if anything) do you hope to get out of this whole experience?
I am excited about doing it, and think curating and planing would be invaluable experience. I also think it will be good to get my work out into the world. I have been in exhibitions before, but not really to the full extent I would like. I have kind of been working for myself for the past year to work through old ideas and not really got the work out there or been particularly happy with this. It also gives me an opportunity to make work that I wouldn't necessarily make in the studio as it needs to be in its context.
If you could live with one piece of work, what would it be and why?
There is lots of work I would love to own, but it is a dodgy area. I think with most work I would probably want to permanently lend it to a public gallery. If I had to live with something I think it would be Untitled (North) 1993 by Felix Gonzalez-Torres. It is a certain amount of lights on wires. It is incredibly beautiful and subtle, but also can be emotive when thinking about personal narratives and the naming. I would never tire of seeing light.
Hello Mathew. What made you want to gather a group of students together to create an exhibition?
I had been discussing it a lot with other people, discussion is really important as a core creative activity I think. I wanted to do an exhibition as I am really interested in curating and organization of shows, and STEW presents a wonderful chance to rent affordable and good gallery space. Also I think that sitting in art school making and not creating opportunities, or being involved with art, is very nieve. Early on me and Siobhan had decided we wanted it to be a group show with different courses involved and people from different backgrounds. There are interesting discussions about where the boundaries of what can be art are. I am also influenced by groups of artists in the past (it sounds cliche but the YBA's in particular) and how they have created group dynamics. I think it will be really exciting to be involved with the conception and creation of all the work by group crits with people involved.
What course are you currently studying?
Visual Studies.
How do you see the curation of the show? Is it good to be curating after previous experiences of other shows?
It is very exciting to be curating. I am really interested in curating. I have previously curated a show for Siobhan with Matthew and Isabel. I think the curation will be minimal, to try and let the work communicate with each other and the space it is in. I hope to be involved with the making of the work and the whole process, through having tribute group crits and such, so I don't want to just be curating work I have never seen when it arrives at the gallery. Good curation can be very important to making a show work, so hopefully the curation will work well. I think curation is hard, as it is difficult for it to be democratic, and I have been involved with shows where curation has been secondary to fitting all the work into the space.
Was the date of the exhibition important to you?
The reason for the dates of the show was more for practical reasons. Giving people who are students time to access workshops and make things in studios. It was a convenient time in the year for everyone. The fact it was on bonfire night was rather perfect. Bonfire night is a tribute to the punishment of someone who tried to instigate an act of terrorism really. It is traditionally a patriotic time that is about protecting the country. But it has become more a tribute to Guy Fawkes, and more about fireworks and bonfires then anything else. To me bonfire night just makes me remember one really beautiful bonfire when I was young, in the fields behind the estate I lived on. Most people form the estate where there, and I remember a huge cone of wood with a fire. Everyone was eating jacket potatoes and pie with mushy peas. It would be nice to do more with the date, like a bonfire behind the gallery or fireworks, but I'm not sure, we will have to wait and see.
What does the word tribute mean to you?
Tribute is a strange word. It can be thought of as to pay homage or respect. However it makes me think of memorials and death.
What is your work like?
I hate describing my own work. I would say that my work is sculpture. Sculpture with a conceptual basis, but still engaged with the play and process of sculpture. Also a very wide definition of sculpture that includes film, photography, text, installation, intervention, the actuality of space as well as an actual object. Skill isn't necessarily important to me. Generally my work is to do with identity, the uncanny and memory, but personal narratives are subdued. Recently I have become really interested in the domestic, space and spatial theory, also british social hosing of the 1950s to the 1970s, brutalism and ideas about architectural utopia. My work rarely contains the body, and when it does it is fragmented, however it normally references the body.
How does your work tend to develop?
I really love ideas, and that is how I start. I just tend to have lots of ideas and write them down. I have a book that is full of them. Due to time and money constrains I find the ones that I feel are most urgent at the time. I tend to take lots of reference images, and spend a lot of time looking for reference images on the internet. I tend to get to making quite quickly, as I have an urge to make, and get frustrated when I can't make for a long time. It is in making that the work can change, through accident or rereading the work. It is always trial and error for me.
What have you got planned for tribute?
I was initially thinking of playing with homages to other artists but it didn't end up appealing to me enough. I also thought a lot about the space and researched the building, but it didn't really give me enough. The work I am making is very much about space. The tributes are kind of abstracted and convoluted. I struggled to decide on work because I had lots of things I was thinking about that could apply, and still aren't completely convinced about the work I have in mind, so it feels like a bit of a risk. I am thinking about british realist cinema and social hosing, traces of previous use left on spaces, windows, porn and nostalgia.
What (if anything) do you hope to get out of this whole experience?
I am excited about doing it, and think curating and planing would be invaluable experience. I also think it will be good to get my work out into the world. I have been in exhibitions before, but not really to the full extent I would like. I have kind of been working for myself for the past year to work through old ideas and not really got the work out there or been particularly happy with this. It also gives me an opportunity to make work that I wouldn't necessarily make in the studio as it needs to be in its context.
If you could live with one piece of work, what would it be and why?
There is lots of work I would love to own, but it is a dodgy area. I think with most work I would probably want to permanently lend it to a public gallery. If I had to live with something I think it would be Untitled (North) 1993 by Felix Gonzalez-Torres. It is a certain amount of lights on wires. It is incredibly beautiful and subtle, but also can be emotive when thinking about personal narratives and the naming. I would never tire of seeing light.
Saturday, 5 September 2009
Interview 7: Esther Marcia Lyons
Esther Marcia Lyons is currently studying Visuals Studies. She works with many themes and mediums, including installation, video, performance and photography. Although she has conceptual concerns she tends to approach work with a sense of play.
Hello Esther, How did you become involved with Tribute?
Hello. The idea of putting on a self-initiated exhibition involving students from various courses at the art school had been discussed earlier in the year and when Mathew and Siobhan put the plan into action I was more than happy to oblige!
What Course are you studying?
Visual Babes.
(Or alternative answer if previous is unsuitable):
I am continuing onto year two Visual Studies.
How do you feel about it?
Visual Studies is a very unique course with a very broad spectrum of people. Everyone has a very positive attitude on the course and is enthusiastic about working together. I think this is what makes it different from other courses and why I enjoy studying it although the course feels quite new to me and I am still settling into it.
How do you feel about Tribute? What kind of ideas are you thinking about?
I was happy with the theme Tribute because the resulting work could reflect the idea quite closely or could be taken far away from the obvious connotations of the word, allowing a lot of freedom within the project.
I have had several initial ideas for the project. I like the idea of creating a tribute to mundane everyday objects, setting up a museum dedicated to dish cloths or hair removal methods. I also like to physically involve audiences in my work and have thought about setting up an alternative karaoke machine.
Could you tell us more about your work?
I am still exploring a lot of ideas and processes and don’t always feel entirely confident with the themes of my work. I mainly focus on the status of the everyday object and also the manipulation of audiences. Some projects have been a lot more successful than others and I am discovering what works well for me and what doesn’t. I try not to determine how successful my work is by the grades I receive but by how much I have enjoyed working on a particular project and how much I have learnt.
A lot of your work seems to involve audience participation, is it important for the audience to interact, or is the implied interaction enough?
The importance of audience participation differs from project to project. However, I personally feel by physically involving audiences in work, it allows them to understand it better, forcing them to become aware of it and therefore take more away from it.
Could you tell us more about the alternative worlds that appear in your work? A lot of the time they seem to contain ordinary objects and this is what makes them spectacular, would you agree?
I like the idea of giving ordinary objects new life and forcing people to respond to them in ways they wouldn’t usually. One way of doing this is placing these ordinary objects in out-of-the-ordinary places, places they would not usually appear - a telephone in a public toilet for example. By doing this I am not only manipulating the qualities of the object but also transforming the nature of its surroundings. This causes the audience to react to both object and surroundings in a way they wouldn’t have done had they come across them separately, in their usual setting.
What is your working process?
I wouldn’t say I have a set working process but I often find I have to wait until I have an idea that really grabs me before I can start working on a particular project. If I force myself to produce work simply because I have a deadline, I won’t like the outcome.
If you could live with one piece of work, what would it be and why?
That’s a difficult question. It would probably be Plight by Joseph Buoys. I think the piano looks beautifully lonely in the padded, empty room and I would happily live in there with it.
Hello Esther, How did you become involved with Tribute?
Hello. The idea of putting on a self-initiated exhibition involving students from various courses at the art school had been discussed earlier in the year and when Mathew and Siobhan put the plan into action I was more than happy to oblige!
What Course are you studying?
Visual Babes.
(Or alternative answer if previous is unsuitable):
I am continuing onto year two Visual Studies.
How do you feel about it?
Visual Studies is a very unique course with a very broad spectrum of people. Everyone has a very positive attitude on the course and is enthusiastic about working together. I think this is what makes it different from other courses and why I enjoy studying it although the course feels quite new to me and I am still settling into it.
How do you feel about Tribute? What kind of ideas are you thinking about?
I was happy with the theme Tribute because the resulting work could reflect the idea quite closely or could be taken far away from the obvious connotations of the word, allowing a lot of freedom within the project.
I have had several initial ideas for the project. I like the idea of creating a tribute to mundane everyday objects, setting up a museum dedicated to dish cloths or hair removal methods. I also like to physically involve audiences in my work and have thought about setting up an alternative karaoke machine.
Could you tell us more about your work?
I am still exploring a lot of ideas and processes and don’t always feel entirely confident with the themes of my work. I mainly focus on the status of the everyday object and also the manipulation of audiences. Some projects have been a lot more successful than others and I am discovering what works well for me and what doesn’t. I try not to determine how successful my work is by the grades I receive but by how much I have enjoyed working on a particular project and how much I have learnt.
A lot of your work seems to involve audience participation, is it important for the audience to interact, or is the implied interaction enough?
The importance of audience participation differs from project to project. However, I personally feel by physically involving audiences in work, it allows them to understand it better, forcing them to become aware of it and therefore take more away from it.
Could you tell us more about the alternative worlds that appear in your work? A lot of the time they seem to contain ordinary objects and this is what makes them spectacular, would you agree?
I like the idea of giving ordinary objects new life and forcing people to respond to them in ways they wouldn’t usually. One way of doing this is placing these ordinary objects in out-of-the-ordinary places, places they would not usually appear - a telephone in a public toilet for example. By doing this I am not only manipulating the qualities of the object but also transforming the nature of its surroundings. This causes the audience to react to both object and surroundings in a way they wouldn’t have done had they come across them separately, in their usual setting.
What is your working process?
I wouldn’t say I have a set working process but I often find I have to wait until I have an idea that really grabs me before I can start working on a particular project. If I force myself to produce work simply because I have a deadline, I won’t like the outcome.
If you could live with one piece of work, what would it be and why?
That’s a difficult question. It would probably be Plight by Joseph Buoys. I think the piano looks beautifully lonely in the padded, empty room and I would happily live in there with it.
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