PPD Year 1

PPD 1

London as a resource: Alice Walton from Tate and Matt Carter from Lux

One of the most important factors in the life of an artist is money. Money funds our projects, money pays our bills and money means we are able to keep producing the work that we do. It has become clear that artists tend to have multiple jobs in order to keep doing what we love while being financially stable at the same time. For example, teaching, writing, commissioned work etc. Organisations which help to find paid work for artists include: ArtQuest, a-n/Air and the Paying Artists Guide.

Alice Walton from Tate

Alice previously graduated from Wimbledon College of Arts, and is now a practicing artist who works at Tate on the ‘schools and teachers programme’.

Alice’s artwork is made up of sculptural installations, often constructed from materials that she has gathered. These installations ‘support and re-present images that she sources from art books and magazines.’

‘She has presented solo exhibitions at both Tinetype and Five Years galleries, London.’

Alice Walton also works at Tate on their ‘Tate Learning’ programme. She explains that everyone at Tate works with practicing artists, which offers them support in many ways.

What the Tate Learning programme offers:

Artist led programme
Everyone takes away something different
Supports a space for collaborations, the outcome is unpredictable
Keeps artists interested in their own learning
Artists learn from one another

‘Nothing can be changed until it is faced.’

Matt Carter from LUX

Matt’s role at LUX is Head of Distribution.

‘LUX is an international arts agency for the support and promotion of artists’ moving image practice and the ideas that surround it, through distribution, exhibition, education, publishing and research. LUX represents the country’s only significant collection of artists’ film and video. The particular focus of LUX is visual arts-based moving image work, including experimental film, video art, installation art, performance art, personal documentary, essay films and animation.’

LUX was formed by a group of experimental film makers and artists, as they came together to realise that these kinds of artists did not have the same possibilities or opportunities that painters and more traditional artists had. The formation of LUX gave them the opportunity to create a new network and discuss ideas.

LUX has a huge video collection ranging from archives, preserved film and an active distribution collection. LUX also represents the artists and their work. To be represented you must ensure that you have available work and approach them to show your work. Artists and film makers do have to pay public screening fees, which include looking after the artists rights, publishing and image licensing. Around 5-10 new artists join LUX every year and there are currently over 1200 artists altogether which means that each artist has a different story to share and different perspectives on different topics etc, creating a very active archive.

A programme for students who have just left full-time education is also provided at LUX, giving young artists space to work and plenty of support and technical advice.

PPD 2

Professional Opportunities: Verity-Jane Keefe

In this lecture Verity spoke about her career and how she has been able to develop and manage various projects that she has led.

‘Verity-Jane Keefe is a visual artist working predominantly in the public realm to explore the complex relationship between people and place. She is interested in the role of the artist within urban regeneration and how experiential practice can touch upon and raise ambitions of existing and invisible communities. Verity works with moving image, text and installation.’

She said that as an artist you generally have 5 options when working on a project or seeking a project.

Option 1:

‘Apply for X in response to a brief, deliver Y, leading to subsequent commissioning of Z’

Conclusion: I win, the client gets continuity in process led work.

Her example of this was inviting shops to distrubte her magazines, as there were only 3 chain chops on Wood Street at the time. In return, she created a map on the side of a wall on the street to advertise these small and independent businesses.

Option 2:

‘Apply for X open brief and deliver Y, leading to funding for Z’

This is how Verity’s Transit Cinema was created. She was commissioned to turn a transit van into a cinema which locals were invited to watch.

Option 3:

‘Work for collaborative art and architecture practice, deliver projects X,Y and Z as lead artists framed within wider agenda of practice.

Conclusion: Short term, I win. Long term, non-sustainable, issues of autonomy.

The Big Art Project: Verity was commissioned by the council to create a ‘public art’. Their aim was to clean up Beckton Alp by removing any dangers and framing the alp as an icon. Verity and her team collected rubbish which represented life in that area, such as a burnt football. Elements such as cyanide were also found there, and even a USB stick which linked the project to a local school.

Option 4: ‘X is happening, can you come and do what you do, write a brief, budget and deliver Y?’

Short term, I win, I use Y as a test bed to inform wider practice and make good work.

The Mobile Museum: This project was funded by the Arts Council, however, £10,000 of funding was cut. Instead, a crowdfunding page was set up which helped gain back some of that funding. The Mobile Museum toured around London visiting poor housing estates, and ran workshops for residents so they could learn more about the area that they lived in. Sadly, the museum was destroyed. However, this made the museum more interesting and they incorporated this vandalism into the museum. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Option 5: ‘Self generated commissions: partnerships X with local authority Y with funders A-Z.’

Conclusion: I win and lose. There is no template. Anything and everything can and will go wrong.’

Demolition of important building in council estate area, using bits of rubble and found objects to show the area’s history. Overall, a lot of leg work.

PPD 3

Art and art criticism: David Barrett

David Barrett is the deputy editor of Art Monthly. Since 1994 he has critiqued art, writing articles for a variety of magazines such as: Frieze and Art + Text. ‘He has written catalogue essays for artists such as Angela de la Cruz, Tim Noble and Sue Webster and Cael Flyer. In 2003 he founded Royal Jelly Factory with Lucy Head, which publishes and distributes the New Art Up-Close series of books on, for example, Gavin Turk and Gary Hume.’

As an art critique, David Barrett has juggled many different freelance jobs since he left university, such as publishing books and writing for magazines. Currently, he is a visiting lecturer at Royal College which provides a fairly stable income aside from his freelance work. As a writer he strongly urges to take whatever you can get, especially since there was very little of an art market during the 1990s when David was first launching his career.

David Barrett came from an art making background but then found how much he enjoyed writing about art. The first magazine that he wrote for was Frieze, writing art reviews. Since David started freelance writing, many more art magazines have been created such as Turps Banana, a magazine written just by artists, Tate magazine and Parkett, exhibition in art form. He made it clear that all magazines have different goals they want to achieve. For example, Art Monthly has writings about art and was created as a 'stick it in your pocket' magazine for artists and visual art professionals.

Although criticism started off with a negative connotation, it is now seen as a way of understanding something and depends on culture, taste etc. ‘Someone who is in a privileged position in society who has the ability to judge things’ - Marxist perspective – a socialist idea of art history. Criticism should be subjective and not something that shows authority. It should be provisional and never definitive - 'This is one way of looking at it'. It is contingent and subject to external factors such as ‘relevant now rather than a few years ago’. The critic does not want to view work to enjoy it but to be convinced by it.

Criticism vs Theory - theory is an attempt at a neutral, systematic description and explanation of practice - abstracted ideas - neutrality allows it to be absorbed by the market, the writer may not even like it but can write amazing things about it. A critic never loses sight of the artwork - sense of what you can see of the work. Criticism is an attempt to provide a close critical analysis of the artwork and values judgement.

An Art Review Must:

•Describe - tell people what the artwork is - details a photo won't pick up

•Contextualise - what is the works context and why is that important?

•Interpret

•Judge

He claims that writing a review as an artist is good practice for looking at and judging your own work. ‘What is it? What does it mean? Why does it matter?’

Art Criticism is Not:

•Creative writing

•Reinterpretation of an artwork

•Conference poetry

•'Art Writing' - might be writing about art or the text is part of the artwork

Criticism is just one person’s knowledge. They only know certain things or maybe have privileged information and specific relevant information. Critics are subject to commercial pressures that may be unknown 'I will positively review you if you exhibit me' and social pressures such as friends tell you to write about something. An ideal reviewer is a decent writer, dependable, has knowledge of contemporary art, has awareness of art history, has diverse knowledge, is questioning, has critical intelligence to investigate work and is a good judge of art. If artists do not write, who defines current art? The process of understanding art is discursive, there are many interpretations, discussions etc.

WRITE ABOUT A SHOW, CHALLENGE YOURSELF, ACTIVE CRITICAL VIEWER, HOW CAN YOU BRING THIS BACK TO YOUR OWN ART PRACTICE?

You expose yourself so much as an artist, a critic might say the 'wrong' thing about your art. Is this the viewers fault? Or what can you do to change that impression? An example is when an artist wrote 'Never lend this man a pen' about a review of his work in Timeout magazine. The critic didn't have a pen and had to borrow one from artist. He then wrote a slating review about that artist.

At the end of the day, don't be flattened by a bad review, you can always write a response letter. Take all feedback on board but only act on a certain amount of feedback. Artist John Curran changed his work because of critics. His abstract paintings were being slated, so he started creating 'ridiculous' and 'absurd' paintings such as cartoons. It was a sort of ‘What do you think of this then?’ comeback and he became very successful because of this.

David recommends reading:

‘Raymond Williams: Keywords’ - helpful for essays and using new terms – 1976
How To Write Contemporary Art by Gilda Williams
Maria Walsh - Critique Fatigue - Art Monthly #400

Photography Work

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This was a paid opportunity for me to take photographs for the Costume Students’ Fashion Show. Although I would say I am fairly experienced with my own camera, I have never used camera accessories such as a flash gun, so I had to research how to use one prior to the event. It was also my first time having to take photographs under pressure, only having one shot.

The job went well, although I experienced a couple of problems while on the job. The first thing was that I realised how physically demanding it can be to be a paid photographer. I had to stand through two shows back to back taking photographs which was exhausting and gave me back ache. I also did not realise how many photos I would be taking, which ended up filling up my memory card only half way through the first show so I missed a lot of opportunities for photographs. Luckily, I was photographing both shows, so the photographs that I didn’t get in the first show, I managed to get in the second show.

This one-off job gave me a huge insight to the photography industry and I learnt many valuable lessons from this one experience alone. I need to be prepared with plenty of storage for photographs, make sure I know how to use all of the equipment I will be using, and make sure I have plenty of rest before a job as it is very physically demanding.

Illustration Work

Looking for a student to illustrate his cookery book, Chef Kardar Challenger approached UAL Wimbledon. I immediately saw this as a great opportunity to get my name out into the world, whether I was going to get paid for the job or not. On 20th March Kardar and I arranged to meet in Wimbledon to talk about this job. He told me the story about how he wanted to create a series of cookery books based on each of the Islands of the Caribbean as he believes that there is a huge gap in the market for such cookery books. After our first meeting I went away and drew up a few rough ideas of some Caribbean dishes. I researched different wildlife, flowers and other things which the Caribbean is notorious for which I then incorporated into the images.

We then met on the 19th April where I showed him my ideas and he gave me some feedback on which images he thought would look best in the cookery book. He then gave me a rough copy of the cookery book with all the recipes in so I could come up with some more images for him in a few weeks and start creating some more professional images. He also sent me some photographs of dishes that he liked from other cookery books and some images of things like food markets in the Caribbean so I had a good idea of what sort of images he was after.

This is the position him and I are in so far and we have many more meetings planned in order to get this cookery book published and start generating income. We are yet to formally discuss things to do with copyright and payment, however, he has said that he will pay me a percentage of the revenue from this book.

Researching an Arts Organisation

PhotoFusion

PhotoFusion is a photography gallery based Brixton. We chose to investigate this organisation as it is a relatively small and in my opinion an underrated organisation devoting themselves to photography.

‘Photofusion provides a diverse range of photographic services that continually respond to the revolution and evolution of lens-based imagery. With analogue, digital and moving image facilities, Photofusion delivers vital training, support and career progression to photographers of all abilities.

The centre’s facilities include digital suites, darkrooms, exhibition production services and picture library alongside a contemporary gallery which places an emphasis on showcasing emerging photographers, alongside new work by mid-career artists. The exhibition programme includes artist talks, panel discussions and occasional related masterclasses or workshops.

Alongside its professional development and training programmes, Photofusion delivers a range of crucial outreach engagement projects, working with socially and culturally marginalised young people, offering photographer-led creative programmes, skills-based accredited courses, bursaries and internships in collaboration with local organisations and a range of funding partners.

The continually expanding membership scheme, which has supported many award-winning photographers, now hosts regular, members-only events including practical demonstrations, critical feedback sessions, artist talks and discussions on establishing a photographic practice.

Originally founded as the Photo Co-op in 1979 in Wandsworth, South London, Photofusion has metamorphosed from a small collective of documentary photographers to becoming London’s largest independent photography resource centre, moving to new premises in the vibrant heart of Brixton in 1991 and receiving a National Lottery Award in 1995 for further expansion of premises. In 2018, Photofusion and 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning are working together to deliver an exciting programme of critical artistic development and engagement in Lambeth, building on past collaboration to form a new consortium as a new Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.’

On our first visit to the gallery we spoke with Executive Director Kim Shaw who agreed to a filmed interview with her on Tuesday 1st May. We decided to plan a series of questions about the business and how the business is run in return for us bringing exposure to the business by presenting the interview to students at Wimbledon College of Arts.

After interviewing Kim Shaw, she also gave us a tour around the gallery and the studios where they have many artists working on projects who are current members of PhotoFusion. She also explained to us that they have a discounted membership for current students and also offer support for students once they have graduated.

Overall we are glad that we chose PhotoFusion as our arts organisation to research. The whole team at PhotoFusion were extremely welcoming and deserve much more recognition than they currently receive.

Emails:

12/05/2018 Mail – a.hill0320171@arts.ac.uk

https://outlook.office.com/owa/ 1/2

Re: Interview

11:30 would be wonderful! see you then 😊

From: Kim Shaw <kim@kimshawphotography.com> Sent: 26 April 2018 11:10:42 To: Alice Hill Subject: Re: Interview

How about 11:30?

On 25 Apr 2018, at 14:54, Alice Hill <a.hill0320171@arts.ac.uk> wrote:

Hi Kim,

Tuesday would be wonderful for us. What me would you like us to arrive that aernoon? Thank you so much for agreeing to do this!

Alice (and the rest of the team!)

From: Kim Shaw <Kim@photofusion.org> Sent: 24 April 2018 13:35:54 To: Alice Hill Subject: Re: Interview

Hi, this week I'm free tomorrow morning (Wednesday) only. Next week I could do Tuesday afternoon or Friday. Kim

From: Alice Hill <a.hill0320171@arts.ac.uk> To: "kim@photofusion.org" <kim@photofusion.org> Sent: 4/20/2018 8:36 PM Subject: Interview

Dear Kim Shaw,

It was lovely to meet you yesterday. As we said, we're students from Wimbledon college of Art (part of UAL) and we'd love to do our project about Photofusion.

It would be wonderful if we could have a recorded interview, as we'd love to learn more about the space and how it works! Addionally, a tour behind the scenes would be great if this can possibly be arranged, as we'd love to document it all. We plan to present our research to fellow students at Wimbledon, who may not yet know of your organisaon.

Alice Hill Thu 26/04/2018 12:17 Sent Items To:Kim Shaw <kim@kimshawphotography.com>;

12/05/2018 Mail – a.hill0320171@arts.ac.uk

https://outlook.office.com/owa/ 2/2

We're free all of the next two weeks apart from on the Thursdays, please let us know when and if you are avilable as we are eager to get started!

We look forward to seeing you again,

Alice Hill, Hara Ailamaki, Lorena Neira Otero and Imogen Rendall. 😊 Where this email is unrelated to the business of University of the Arts London the opinions expressed in it are the opinions of the sender and do not necessarily constitute those of University of the Arts London. Where this email is unrelated to the business of University of the Arts London the opinions expressed in it are the opinions of the sender and do not necessarily constitute those of University of the Arts London.

These are the questions we came up with:

Firstly, how was the business created?
How was Photofusion first funded?
Does the gallery only exhibit photography?
How do you publicise the gallery and exhibitions?
Do you get a large number of photographers approaching you, and do you require a waiting list?
What are the costs for exhibiting in Photofusion?
How many people are employed at the gallery?
Are all the workers practicing artists?
Do the technicians overlap as working in admin?
Do you provide internships? Is it only for university/college graduates?
How are projects using darkrooms and other workshops accepted or chosen? Especially if someone has no experience. What’s the criteria?
How did you calculate the costs for services such as darkroom hire?
Do you approach organisations such as schools to use your gallery space?
What communities have you previously worked with?
Are community projects paid for by Photofusion?
Do you have an archive for each community project that occurs?
Since 1979, has there been a detrimental impact of the popularised transition from film to digital. And has there been a in influx in interest recently while people are interested in the ‘retro’?
To Photofusion, how important is the promotion of film photography processes?
Lastly, what advice would you give to someone just coming into the photography industry?