Anna Francis will be involved in a dialogue with Adam James, an artist working with sculpture, print, performance and photography.

THE CONVERSATION

AF: Just wondering – would you have time for a conversation? I was thinking about your practice and was hoping to have an exchange with you along those lines. Fancy it?

AJ: In a word…

*****

TALKING CITY is Anna Francis’ Longhouse Guest Editor project, for March 2010.

Click here to go to the project page

Anna Francis will be deliberating with Emily Speed, an artist working in sculpture, installation, drawing and artists’ books. Emily is on the shortlist for the Liverpool Art Prize 2010. The conversation will develop over the month – so be sure to check back periodically to see how it goes.

THE CONVERSATION

AF: Within your work you often use cheap and found materials and respond to some extent to surroundings. Then there seems to be the other things you do which are about talking about the value of the artist, recognition for this and activities which could be seen as activism, and encouraging activism in others (I hope you don’t mind that description.) How much do these two things inform each other, and is alot of your vocalism due to your experiences as a practitioner?

ES: I do respond to sites in my work and the last two years living in Liverpool amid much development has probably had quite a significant impact on my work. Also, despite my best attempts to work with more ‘proper’ materials, I keep going back to found things, especially packaging; I think it takes the preciousness out and lets you experiment without over thinking everything.
Looking at the ways artists can make a living and the value of arts has become an increasingly important part of what I do. I have always been suspicious of entry fees and badly-paid residencies and internships, but I had just accepted that this was the ways of the arts. Living in Liverpool has clarified a great deal about making a living as an artist for me, mainly because it’s fairly small and it has been easier for me to get involved here and gain some perspective on the art scene as a whole (as compared to London, where I was before). This has meant seeing how bad artists are -generally- at valuing what they do. I have also noticed that artists can be very accepting of conditions in the arts, as laid out by employers. I feel that they don’t think to question the way things are because they are constantly told they should grateful for doing what they love and are lucky to get work at all. My blog (on a-n) was born as a result of these observations, especially as I had been sucked into the same traps. Once you start looking at the problems facing artists, you begin to realise there are some deeply embedded issues because it has always been such an unregulated industry. I think I became more vocal about it because I never heard anyone talking about these things and it seemed that if artists all voiced their opinions it could be quite a powerful force for change. Often it’s not that artists are happy with their lot, they just haven’t thought that anything is wrong with their situation or had any expectations of making a proper living. I would like artists to be on a more level playing field (i.e. not so dependent on money to get ahead in the industry through voluntary work) and to get away from the old-fashioned image of artists having to suffer for their love of art.

I suppose this ‘activism’ (your words!) has had a fairly big impact on my own practice; I have become much better at valuing myself, my work and I am not afraid to ask for payment. I try not to apply for things I think are unfair or opportunities that are underpaid without other recompense. This all means a big shift in how my time is spent and make me much more efficient. I have also found that I am clearer about what I don’t want to be doing and this naturally leads me in the direction of things I do want!

Do you feel that artists in your area are talking about issues around making a living or that they have a strong sense of how to value their skills and knowledge?

AF: I really agree that the arts industries have been fairly unregulated, and that in some ways this has lead to artists not having a full understanding about our own value. It is something that we are talking about quite a bit recently in Stoke-on-Trent. There seems to be a lot of interest in ‘consulting artists and creative people’ on various things, and getting artists to ’share practice and ideas’ in the city. This has come from a recognition that there may be some worth in the role of art and culture in regenerating the city, and it seems like a sudden thing that our views and ideas are being sought out (just my perception perhaps?). It is a funny patch, in my opinion at the moment, because there still seems to be a misunderstanding about what we actually do, and what the value of that really is, so even though we may be very qualified, and have actually a lot of experience to offer, we are still to some extent expected to do things for free; and be grateful, as you say, for that. I think at the moment in Stoke-on-Trent there has not particularly been a recognition or full appreciation of the role of artists, and I do think it is us as artists that need to make sure we say, and keep saying that we are not just going to freely give our ideas (as this, in my mind, is our currency) and that if businesses, councils and other public realm professionals wish to draw on our (not insignificant) skills then these need to be remunerated – in one way or another. I think it would be really good, as a group to get together, and discuss this formally and perhaps create some sort of manifesto or something, because I don’t think that as an artistic community, we do have a strong sense of how to value our skills and knowledge at this time. It is something we are beginning to question – but I certainly feel it needs more attention.Do you have experience of instigating this sort of debate – or have any suggestions?

From my point of view, things look a little better on that score in Liverpool, is that just an outsiders perspective?

ES: It’s interesting reading the comments (thanks guys) and it seems these circumstances are easy to identify with. It can be astounding when you stop and think that sometimes everyone is getting paid but the artist/s. Like Rich says, opportunities can be worth it for other reasons; projects as loss leaders because they offer certain advantages, but you cannot make a living out of these. I think it is a mixture of people taking advantage (for example, big arts organisations using free labour because they can and perhaps their budgets are actually very tight) and misunderstandings. Anna, you mentioned the fact that artists are being consulted more frequently in Stoke-on-Trent these days, but these consultations may not be properly remunerated because those asking are not used to dealing with artists. Do you think this is because they just don’t know any better? At the start of these relationships I think its vital to give information about the way in which you work, how long things take and what your input is worth. These can be hard things to quantify, but if artists don’t tell people their costs, employers will carry on presuming there aren’t any.

The real difficulty here is that, in Liverpool for example, there are often too many artists for the (paid) work available.  So one person may speak up, but there are many more waiting behind who will work for free and why would anyone pay when they don’t have to?  This is where the discussion or manifesto you mentioned becomes especially important. Essentially, I think that boils down to having a union of sorts, which ensures some standards and educates artists about their own value. This would ideally stop people undercutting. Perhaps it doesn’t need to be a union; perhaps a formal agreement or manifesto is enough? This may also be something that is done well in localities and university education so that there is a shift in attitude among artists.

In terms of debate, I have found my blog on a-n the most effective tool so far. A local discussion is not something I have tried outside of my circle of friends and studio acquaintances but it will hopefully come up in the next Taxed event; a skill swap for artists (organised for artists with other artists based in Liverpool).  Sophie Hope has been involved in some interesting events addressing the issue including ‘Making a Living’ recently in London and Vienna. Likewise, the Carrotworkers’ Collective has just produced a guide to internships, although this largely applies to London. Perhaps these are things that can be replicated in Stoke-on-Trent by using the most appropriate parts?

As well as educating others about what artists do, I wonder if it might be equally important to educate artists about what they do too. What I mean by this is to try and cut down the learning process (Rich’s comments about applying for lots of things and working for free before he realised the situation fully certainly mirrors my own experience) by helping artists value their own work, skills and encouraging best practice. If we are self employed we are businesses after all  – so shouldn’t we act more like it? Do I practice what I preach? I’d like to, but I still have a long way to go in terms of pricing properly and managing the mix of paid and pro-bono work that I do  - but I have come a long way in the last year or two!

For the next Taxed skill swap, we have been looking at sharing practical knowledge. Participants have to give and receive a skill, which will hopefully make people realise they have something valuable to offer! We will also compile a list for an equipment pool among local studios and artists and try to help people keep in touch.  Would you add anything to that?

AF: We have just gone for and got some funding through to put on an event here in Stoke- because of this conversation – so it looks like we will be able to have the local dialogue you mention. I think it will be very interesting to see how that might work in generating some form of manifesto for artists in the city. I think though that to build things up through a blog is also a great approach – and yours is certainly reaching a wide audience, which is great. The other thought I had was to stage some sort of art strike – asking people not to make anything for a week – in protest at being undervalued – but I dont think we are in desperate measures just yet. Also, I feel that doing is always better than not doing.

I am also involved in a group called PPfC (Participatory Practitioners for Change) and am starting to organise a skill sharing event with other practitioners within that. The emphasis is on activity which leads to change in some way – and creating a space for exchange with other artists – so we can learn. There will be a conference/workshop day where participants are also practitioners/delegates, but each person delivering has to only do one slot, in order to give them a chance to learn something too.
I like the idea of Taxed- and the feeling of a supportive artistic community, where people can learn from each other rather than seeing each other as rivals. How did Taxed come about, how often do you meet, and have their been any tangible outcomes coming from it? I think this would be interesting just to look at the value (though perhaps obvious) of activity of this kind.

ES: Well done on the funding, I would be interested to see how the event turns out. It seems you might have an artistic community of a more manageable size to try this out; although Liverpool has a great community, it is still fairly disparate (and large). I agree that a strike wouldn’t work – there is no precedent for that and we would need a firm base of standards before standing up for them. Perhaps a ’say no to free labour’ approach instead?? I am thinking along the lines of the ‘Say no to strangers’ campaign from my primary school years now..

*****

TALKING CITY is Anna Francis’ Longhouse Guest Editor project, for March 2010.

Click here to go to the project page.

Anna Francis conversing with Rich White, Location-Specific Installation Artist.

THE CONVERSATION

AF: So, Rich, before we start – what does it mean ‘location-specific’ and how does that differ from site-specific? And then in practical terms perhaps lets think about your recent piece for the Market Estate Project – how did your location specific way of working turn out?

RW:  Site-specific is more general. A site-specific work is designed to be recreated in a number of different sites e.g. Antony Gormley’s Field series. Location-specific is a work created for a location. The genesis and execution of the work is heavily influenced by this location. ‘Crowd Control’ for the Market Estate Project was the result of researching the history of the location, plus my own feelings and impressions about the place. I discovered that the location had a long history of protests, marches, civil unrest and social gatherings. My response to this was ‘what do we always get, these days, whenever there is a march? Riot police.’ and decided to build a semi-abstract structure reminiscent of lines of sheild-wielding figures of authority.  Following this I sourced materials from the location (they came from the building site that was soon to engulf the estate) and devised building methods based on what I found. The result of this became a quite formibable set of heavily braced barriers.
This is the process I have been using for a number of years now. Each time a different work emerges. The one exception was ‘Capitalyst’ (2009) where I was specifically asked to recreate ‘Vigilance’ (2007) for a festival in Belfast. ‘Vigilance’ was location-specific – influenced by the submarine factory and the proximity of a great source of cardboard boxes. ‘Capitalyst’ was site-specific. The piece was built on-site and to fit that site, but it’s form and method were already decided, it wasn’t influenced by the location. You could argue that there are relevant relationships between sub building and the once-great ship building industry of Belfast but this felt a little tenuous.
‘Crowd Control’ could be recreated elsewhere but I don’t know if it’s impact would be same, and this what is important to me about location-specific work – I try to find something which resonates with the location. The form of the work should evoke something specific to the place.

AF: I can see that the idea of responding to the place’s history and specific identity is important to you. Did it feel wrong then when you worked on ‘Capitalyst’ – did it feel like cheating in some way, or was it less satisfactory?

RW: A little bit. It was still a challenge (which is also important). I had four days to construct the work and it was quite a complicated build due to the curved form crossing through three rooms. The result was satisfying – it produced a different experience to ‘Vigilance’ as people were allowed into the room to explore the work. But it felt a little like cheating. I think it’s still a strong piece of work though – just a little different than how I prefer to work.

AF: As was the case with the Market Estate Project a lot of the things you do only last for a short time, this must put a lot of pressure on documentation. What impact does this have on the making process?

RW: Documentation is always important with my work as it will be the only thing that remains. It doesn’t really have an impact on the making process though. Sometimes I document a little as I go, but I don’t work with this in mind.

I am aware that the finished work has to make a good photo – getting the next commission relies on previous work, so the documentation has to look convincing and show the work looking as strong as possible.
‘Displacement’ (2009) was quite a difficult piece to document as the work created a physical journey. Expressing this journey in two or three images was tricky. I did make a little walkthrough movie for the website though, which I think helps clarify what is happening in the still images.
My work often has two sides – a sort of front, or facade, and a rear were more complex or dynamic things are occurring (Crowd Control at the Market Estate being an example of this). I like to give the viewer something to explore, and having things happening around the back for them to find if they make the effort is a way of giving a reward for looking – I always think there is something satisfying about finding hidden details; I love that feeling of discovery. However, this can be hard to document or express through a single image, and many calls for submissions to shows ask for one image per work which makes it very hard to decide which view of a work to send.
To come back to your question: I make the work to be seen in the flesh – thinking about how the viewer will relate to it, how they might move around it – but keeping a view on how to document it. The work comes first, the photographs second.

AF: and how has the viewer reacted to your work in the past? I remember hearing you talk about the piece in the Greyfriars bus station, and the process of building your intervention. What sort of reactions have you had while making and beyond, and how important is that sort of feedback to you?

RW: Reactions are usually good. I try to make my work quite accessible – in my statement on my website I mention how my work ‘often takes a simple form or pattern of structure which is intended to resonate with the viewer’. The idea is that the form will provoke a response because it has the hint of a familiar function or recognisable image: eg the Sub hull in ‘Vigilance’ or the support structure in ‘Survivalist’ at Greyfriars bus station.

‘Survivalist’ worked particularly well because of the polarizing of opinions about the bus station itself. The bus station is under continued threat of demolition. Many people hate the building – it is a particularly strong example of Brutalist architecture. Yet for this reason many people also love it and want to preserve it. My work was a timber structure that appeared to grow out of an existing office unit in the area beneath the station concourse. The implication behind the structure was that it was a part of the building trying to save itself from demolition. Whilst installing the work (behind a hazard tape barrier and wearing a hi-vis jacket) people would ask what was happening. Sometimes I would tell them it was a sculpture, other times (especially when they asked ‘is the building falling down?’) I would tell them it was to help support the roof. Those that didn’t like the building thought that the idea of it trying to save itself with this little (compared to the building) structure was hilarious. Those that liked the building thought it was quite sweet that it was trying to save itself. Both of these reactions are excellent – I’d managed to make a work which pleased both sides.
I do try to aim for the reaction of a smile (the smile that comes with recognising and understanding) – I want the work to be pleasing – even better if it makes you laugh. As I mentioned before, I like that feeling of discovery, and I try to incorporate this into each work.
Reactions during the building of ‘Crowd Control’ were also amusing. After I’d got so far with the build people started to recognise what was happening – as soon as the blue boards went up the first thing people would ask is ‘is that the police?’ This kind of feedback just lets you know you’re on the right track, that you are getting the intended response. If people start to mention other things (or can’t figure out what’s going on at all) you can adjust the work – add or remove parts – and fine-tune the experience.

AF: I loved ‘Survivalist’ and was in the camp which found the idea of the building trying to rescue itself poignant, sad and futile. Something touching and humane about it.

It sounds then like the reaction from the viewer is quite important, and actually shapes your approach in some way, which is really interesting. Do the dialogues and narratives which happen and unfold sometimes feed into the work too?

RW: They do. Like I said earlier, if people are noticing certain things or mentioning associations that I wasn’t intending I have to change the work in order for it to communicate what I want. On the other hand, themes or references that people notice can add further layers to the work which, now that I am aware of them, I can work on. It’s part of trying to be aware of all the possibilities, messages, themes etc that the work is communicating. I remember back at college, in group crits where we would look at each other’s work and discuss it, we would find all kinds of meanings and associations in people’s work. Some did not like it when you miss-interpreted their work and would counter with ‘it’s not about that.’ I would argue that if other people see that meaning in your work then it is about that for them. It is the job of the artist to ensure that their work communicates exactly what they want it to communicate – and also what they do not.

This was around the time when my work was focused on the question of how art acquires value and meaning. I made a number of works that were deliberately ambiguous and whose purpose was to encourage the viewer to complete the work by going through the process of creating their own narrative for it. Many of these works took the form documentation eg. stills from a video recorded ‘performance’; the recording having been destroyed. I played with the idea of transferring the value of the ‘artwork’ to a secondary item – a book of documentation, the mould that was used to make an object. It all got quite conceptual and eventually I started to feel that I was losing sight of what I wanted to do as an artist. But from that time I have carried with me this discipline of trying to be aware of as many possible readings of my work as I can, and accepting that people will bring something of themselves to the work, and can make associations that are personal to them.
In my current work I try to utilise this by creating forms that are intended to resonate on a subconscious level – to make forms that perhaps seem familiar because they are a part of your everyday life, but here they are presented to you in a new or unexpected way. ‘Vigilance’, in Barrow-in-Furness, was first work where I really attempted this. Barrow is where they assemble the Vanguard class nuclear submarine (of which the Vigilance is one). For some reason the front section of the sub is built elsewhere in the country and transported by road on a huge rolling platform. This massive curved object would glide through the streets of Barrow and into the giant hanger that dominates the skyline. I thought that this was a particularly powerful image and decided that I would build this same curved shape. I felt that it would be a form known to the residents of Barrow – both from the transporter and because so many of the population work for BAe. Placing it in a room as if it were crashing through the ceiling was a comment on the impact of the industry on the town – even though this huge thing has landed on the building, it (the building) has somehow adapted itself to accommodate the shape of the sub. People’s responses to this were very positive. I found that the relationship between the people and the sub was quite relaxed. As I toured the market looking for cardboard boxes people asked what I was doing with it. When I told I was building a submarine they would laugh and make light-hearted jokes about how a cardboard sub would be better than the ones made in the hanger. This kind of reaction was used to full effect for ‘Survivalist’.
The dialogues and narratives continually feed into the work, it is through these interactions that the work develops, and also how I continue to learn about how people respond to the things that are presented to them.

AF: It seems like your practice takes you all over the country, and beyond. You seem to be moving about from one thing to the next all of the time, without much of a break in between things. How does that work – how you manage your time, and do you ever feel like just having a rest?

RW: It seems to go in spurts – particularly recently with the Market Estate Project and now Collusion in Liverpool (where I am as write this) with these falling within a week of each other. Before these my last two projects were back in September, and these also fell within about a week of each other for setting up. If I can commute from home I will (as I did with ‘Survivalist’ in Northampton, ‘Displacement’ in Brighton and The Market Estate Project, with was a short bicycle ride away just off Holloway Road in London). Otherwise I go and stay in a B&B or kip in kind folk’s spare rooms.

Do I seem that busy? It feels to me like there was a nice break in between these pairs of shows.
When I’m not installing my own work I mostly work for a sculptor called Andrew Sabin, and also do some occasional work for Laura Ford. Andrew makes quite large-scale public artworks. My work for him involves everything from making autoCAD drawings for presentations and fabrication, to actually helping to fabricate and install the work. We also did all the steelwork for his house development (a 3 story block with a huge studio/workshop on the ground floor) and now run a little sideline in steelwork for architects projects. As you can imagine, this has fed into my own work. Over the past few years I’ve gained an awful lot of experience of building and architectural methods, a lot of hands-on, on-the-job learning. As my work is quite architectural in appearance it has been quite useful to see how certain things are done – what goes on beneath the skin of a building.
And, yes, I do feel like having a rest sometimes. But not for too long.

AF: Maybe it is from an outsider’s perspective then, but yes, my perception was that you are usually extremely busy. So, like many artists, you have a ‘day job’ to keep things ticking along. It’s great that the ‘job work’ you do feeds in so well to your practice; that seems almost like the traditional German arts education system.

How do you normally get involved in the projects that you do? Do you respond to calls, or do you get asked to be involved in things; or is it a combination? And has that changed over time?

RW: It’s a combination. Early on it was always through responding to calls. Gradually I started to get asked to be involved, but it’s still mainly applying. I’ve had projects through being found via Axis and been asked by people who have seen my work in a previous show. It seems that the more I build up my portfolio with exhibited works the more positive response I get, as well. At the same time, though, I apply for less things – I’m more choosey. When I started out I would apply for anything and everything. It’s something you’ve touched on over on Emily Speed’s conversation, which I left quite a long reply to. She’s talking about how artists should value what they do more highly – not being afraid of asking for payment for their time. Something I totally agree with. As I said, when I started out I would apply for anything – I just wanted to show. Many of these things didn’t offer any money, for some you had to pay for the privilege. I think this has been taken advantage of. There are a lot of artists who can afford to work for free. I’m not really one of them. It feels like a lot of people expect artists to exhibit for free because the work they make is the product, which can be sold, thus providing income. My work doesn’t really fit that scheme. I work more like a builder, I suppose. I need paying for the time I spend installing. And there is no product at the end. There doesn’t really seem to be a system in place for this. It’s entirely down to the gallery/organiser how they choose to structure it; whether they pay artists a fee, or charge them rent for the space. You could argue that I should perhaps change my approach to become more business-like – making ‘products’ – but this just doesn’t really appeal to me. I have to let a lot of interesting projects pass by because there is no money in them. Of course there are always exceptions.

AF: I know what you mean, and I think a lot of artists working in the public realm are in a similar position. I have similar issues within my own work – where it might be performance based, or participatory. I know that my approach has been to just weigh things up, and think sometimes I might do things which are not paid (or sometimes which cost me money – like with the Beauty in the City project – the more successful it gets, the more it costs me!) but in the long term I might learn something really useful, make an important connection with someone or explore a new area of practice – and that is really important to me; it’s not all about the money, so I don’t think you need to change your approach – but we have to pay the rent!

I was interested in the piece of work you mentioned in a talk I saw you give, the one with the old lady in the walls. It seemed to be very different to your usual approach to materials and sculptural form; what can you put that down to?

RW: Sometimes there are long term benefits, yes – contacts, networking etc. And also getting a really good piece of work out of it. The success of my applications to calls relies on the strength of the proposal and the previous work.
The outcome of ‘Displacement’ was a little different to my usual pieces. For that one I followed the story of the work a little more literally because I felt that that approach was required to make it work. The narratives behind ‘Vigilance’ and ‘Survivalist’ were quite simple, and therefore lent themselves to a more abstract or formal approach. The story of Harriet Sylvester (see here: http://www.counterwork.co.uk/index.php/work/displacement/) was quite complex and, I felt, demanded a slightly more theatrical execution in order to reveal the narrative. The result was quite different but the approach was exactly the same: I visited the site, researched, revealed an interesting story/event about the space and responded to it via an architectural installation. The process is driven by the story that I reveal.
I try not to be too restricted with the style of the work, although I’m aware that I do have a bit of a thing for those unusual angles. It usually comes down to what materials I can find – and this is usually timber, boards and/or cardboard. I’m always on the lookout for interesting things to use though.

AF: In the piece you have just completed for Arena, Collusion, you collaborated with another artist. What was that like? How did you find it shaped or changed your approach, and what do you see the benefits of collaborative working as being?

RW:

It was a really good experience. It could have been terrible. I was working with an artist called Brychan Tudor, who I’d not met until a couple of months before the show, and we were put together by Jack Welsh of Arena, who’d never met either of us – he’d only seen our work. Some artists are very precious about their ideas and don’t want other people messing with their ‘vision’, and I suppose there was a chance that one of us could’ve been like that, or there could’ve been a clash of personalities – you never know. However, we all got on really well, we both remained open to ideas and, crucially I think, we also both knew when to press for our idea and when to acquiesce in a reasonable manner. We would listen to what the other wanted to do and then discuss the whys and wherefores. This communication was vital. We both had our areas of expertise – Brychan uses multiple slide projectors to create montages of space, and I build architectural modifications – and we let each other in to those processes.

The approach was similar (I think we both have quite similar approaches anyway) it was the co-ordinating of the approach that differed. When we first met up to look at the space we were both struck by the labyrinthine and security-conscious nature of the building. There are a number of ways to approach the gallery room all involving code-access locks and corridors. And then when you get to space itself it’s quite small (at least small compared to what we’re both usually given – I think this was one of Jack’s masterstrokes. Take two artists who normally use quite a lot of space and put them both in a small room). Brychan’s first thought was ‘let’s make it even smaller’ so I ran with that. Brychan had also taken lots of slides of the space earlier, before a large window had been boarded over. After finding out the building used to be a rope factory I began thinking about twisting the room. I made several autoCAD models where I sliced the room into sections and rotated each piece to see which bits of wall, ceiling and floor would end up where. I sent these to Brychan and Jack for comment and they would reply with suggestions and health and safety access issues respectively. We finally settled on a design where the rotation axis ran along the bottom and side of the length of the room. This allowed for maximum contraction of the space whilst avoiding any H&S issues.

The install was a game of two halves (although uneven in length). The first part was to build the adjusted walls and ceiling. This was my area and it was pretty much left to me to design how this would work, set out the dimensions etc. Brychan is not without skills, however, and we soon settled into a steady working rythym of measuring and cutting timbers and fixing them in position. After this we clad the framework in chipboard and MDF, filled various holes and gave it a few coats of paint. This makes it sound very simple but it wasn’t. This was a lot of work. Fortunately Brychan was very determined – he was the driving force behind us getting it done. When Jack and I were ready to call it a day Brychan would remind us that he needed a specific amount of time to set up the projectors, run through the slides and compose the image. We absolutely had to get the stucture built, filled, sanded and painted before the end of Wednesday so there was the best part of a day to install the projectors before the show opened on the Thursday. We set targets for the three day build which were monumental (or just mental). I got to Liverpool on the Sunday afternoon and set out lines on the floor, walls and ceiling that evening. Brychan, and the timber, arrived at midday on Monday and we worked until about 9pm. We got back at 9am on Tuesday and worked until 2.30am. We started again at about 9am on Wednesday and worked until 4am (we absolutely had to get paint on those walls). We started the final day, the second part of the install, at about 10am. Brychan started to set up projectors while I finished off a few details on the structure. After that I watched Brychan run through a few slides to get a handle on how it would work. We then both started to compose the image – choosing slides and finding relationships and forms that worked with the angled walls. By this point we were working completely in sync. We finished half an hour before the show was due to start at 6pm. We worked out that we did about 50 hours work in just over 3 days.

The benefits of this were that I got to see my work through anothers eyes. Because we were working together on the same piece different questions to those I would normally ask myself would come from Brychan. This is always invaluable – you can learn so much about you work by working through it with another. The other benefit was having someone else there who was as interested and committed to the project as you – it really helps you push yourself and get the best out of the work.

AF: It sounds like a really great working relationship – and its interesting that you have similar approaches in many ways, but work with different materials. This is going to be my last question, so I want to say thank you so much for such an open and enlightening discussion about your practice -  I have really enjoyed it. Last question is, do you see yourself looking for other collaborations based on the successes of this one, and if so, who or what sort of artist/other practitioner would you like to work with; and finally – what’s next for you?

RW: I would collaborate again, but I think it would have to be the right kind of project. I’m not sure I’d actively seek a collaborator but if, like Jack Welsh of Arena did, someone approached me with an interesting idea I’d definitely give it consideration. I’d perhaps like to work with an architect or structural engineer on something large-scale.

Next for me? I’ve got no exhibitions confirmed at the moment. I am part of, as you are too, Ellie Harrison’s Artists’ Lottery Syndicate, which is quite exciting. I’m also currently involved in the perpetual artist’s job of applying for things, filling in forms and sending out images and texts.

*****

TALKING CITY is Anna Francis’ Longhouse Guest Editor project, for March 2010.

Click here to go to the project page.

Through Investigation: Artist Led, Anna Francis will take a look at the various approaches to Artist Led Activity in the U.K. today.

Anna will put questions to practitioners and groups, to try to unpick the various approaches, and what the issues and concerns might be for artists operating spaces and activities in cities today. In particular the focus will be on how artist led activity may operate within, or outside of council led initiatives, and the benefits and drawbacks of working within these structures.

Investigation: AirSpace Gallery

Investigation: Blurb V Creative Central

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TALKING CITY is Anna Francis’ Longhouse Guest Editor project, for March 2010.

Click here to go to the project page.

Throughout the month long residency period Conversations will take place between Anna Francis and artists and other public realm professionals about working in the city and all sorts of things.

The conversations will develop naturally over time, so check back to see how things develop.

IN CONVERSATION with RICH WHITE

IN CONVERSATION with EMILY SPEED

IN CONVERSATION with ADAM JAMES

IN CONVERSATION with ANIA BAS

IN CONVERSATION with MONIKA VYKOUKAL

IN CONVERSATION with BROKEN CITY LAB

TALKING CITY is Anna Francis’ Longhouse Guest Editor project, for March 2010.

Click here to go to the project page.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7th 2010

There is Beauty in the City

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TUESDAY, APRIL 6th 2010

“In a Society becoming steadily more privatized with private homes, cars, computers, offices and shopping centers, the public component of our lives is disappearing. It is more and more important to make the cities inviting, so we can meet our fellow citizens face to face and experience directly through our senses. Public life in good quality public spaces is an important part of a democratic life and a full life.”

- Jan Gehl

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MONDAY, APRIL 5th 2010

“Certainly artists are only the forerunners of high-income, youngish, non-minority residents. But after the artists, a rising tide of high-rents and condominium conversions seems unstoppable.”

- Sharon Zukin

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SUNDAY, APRIL 4th 2010

“The economic function of public art is to increase the value of private property.”

- FREEE art collective.

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SATURDAY, APRIL 3rd 2010

“Regeneration schemes are about the remaking of the city in the cast of the bourgeoisie, about eradicating the ghosts and projecting holograms in their place.”

- Oldfield Ford

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FRIDAY, APRIL 2nd 2010

“The city as we imagine it, the soft city of illusion, myth, aspiration, nightmare, is as real, maybe more real, than the hard city one can locate on maps, in statistics, in monographs on urban sociology and demography and architecture.”

- Jonathan Raban

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THURSDAY, APRIL 1st 2010

All Public Art should be Site Specific.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31st 2010

In today’s trip around the Gorbals with Gerry Henaughen (one of the architects who worked on the 1990’s developments) Gerry mentioned that the earlier 1960’s development failed to recognise the way that ‘life happens in the street here – helped by the grid pattern.’  The 1960’s Masterplan ignored the lifeblood of the Gorbals – the life of the street, which lead to failure. The 1990’s competition for the development of a Masterplan was won by CZWG who proposed to reinstate the street grid pattern.That’s Progress!

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TUESDAY, MARCH 30TH 2010

“Our design process for the Hidden Gardens started with three questions:

What is paradise?

What is missing from this place?

What is specific to this place?

These questions opened our dialogue with the community and our attempt to create a space that would have a contemporary resonance. The Hidden Gardens celebrates the ‘given’ landscape alongside the cultural traditions of the people who live around it. The garden could not be anywhere else – it has developed very specifically in response to this site and this community.“

- The Hidden Gardens, Glasgow.

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MONDAY, MARCH 29th 2010

“For some time now, many parts of the world, particularly those that are governed by the imperatives of the global war against terrorism, have learnt to live with a state of emergency, a moderate intensity level of panic and anxiety that makes the predatory excesses of the scrutinizing eye seem banal by the mere fact of exhausting repetition. And so, we succumb. We do so not only at airports and border posts, but also at workplaces and public spaces in large cities the world over, to routine and random searches of our persons, to scans, registrations, surveillance and recordings of the traces of our actions, our encounters with others, our presences and transiences, our itineraries, purchases and decisions, our intimacies and our public acts, our utterances and our secrets, our habits and our desires – the minutiae of all our lives.”

- RAQS MEDIA COLLECTIVE

On Saturday we learned that Worcester City has invested in facial recognition technology.

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SUNDAY, MARCH 28th 2010

“We like the fast dual carriageways, the easy access motorways, the limitless parking lots. We like the control tower architecture, the absence of civic authority, the rapid turnover of friendships and the prosperity filtered through car and appliance purchases. We like roads that lead past airports, we like air-freight offices and rent-a-car forecourts, we like impulse buy holidays to anywhere takes out fancy. The triangle formed by the M3 and the M4, enclosing Heathrow and the River Thames, is our zone of possibility, far from the suffocating city politics and self-obsessions of the metropolis (transport, ugh, fares, rents, kerb-side vomit). We are the unenfranchised citizens of the shopping mall and the marina, the internet and cable TV. And we’re in no hurry for you to join us.”

- J. G. Ballard

SATURDAY, MARCH 27th 2010

Carrying out an audit of public art in Worcester today led us to question why councils can only imagine two options; 1. public art means large, heavy objects plonked about the place, or 2. (and seemingly and perhaps more depressingly) public art means artists prettifying fences, benches and pavements.

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FRIDAY, MARCH 26th 2010

“A city should open up, invite and include people, having different activities and possibilities and thereby ensuring multiplicity and diversity.”

- Gehl Architects.

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THURSDAY, MARCH 25TH 2010

“ I confront the city with my body; my legs measure the length of the arcade and the width of the square; my gaze unconsciously projects my body onto the façade of the cathedral, where it roams over the mouldings and contours, sensing the size of recesses and projections; my body weight meets the mass of the cathedral door, and my hand grasps the door pull as I enter the dark void behind. I experience myself in the city, and the city exists through my embodied experience. The city and my body supplement and define each other. I dwell in the city and the city dwells in me.”

- J. Pallasmaa (Thanks Celine)

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24TH 2010

“…the great cities of the earth…have become…loathsome centres of fornication and covetousness…”

I wonder what he’d have made of cities today? – John Ruskin (1880)

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TUESDAY, MARCH 23RD 2010

“Think now of a flower. ‘A rose does not know that it is a rose.’ Obviously, a city does not present itself in the same way as a flower, ignorant of its own body. It has, after all, been ‘composed’ by people, by well defined groups. Al the same, it has none of the intentional of an ‘art object.’

- Henri Lefebvre

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MONDAY, MARCH 22ND 2010

“Places are fragmentary and inward-turning histories, Pasts that others are not allowed to read, accumulated times that can be unfolded, but like stories held in reverse, remaining in an enigmatic state, symbolizations encysted in the pain or pleasure of the body. “I feel good here.” the well-being underexpressed in the language it appears in like a fleeting glimmer is a spatial practice.”

- Michel de Certeau

***** SUNDAY, MARCH 21ST 2010

There are many intersecting lines which carve the city into pieces; roads, trains, canals. Walking the canal you see the city as if  you are walking through its arteries – the walls of the vessels bursting open in places. I enjoy the halfway feeling, between urban and rural, that these canalside walks offer.

***** SATURDAY, MARCH 20TH 2010

“What makes up the collection of neighbourhoods that we call a city, how does a seemingly linear history actually unfold through creative examination, and what can be done to disrupt all of those things?”

- Justin A. Langlois.

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FRIDAY, MARCH 19TH 2010

“The street becomes a dwelling for the flâneur; he is as much at home among the facades of houses as a citizen is in his four walls. To him the shiny, enameled signs of businesses are at least as good a wall ornament as an oil painting is to the bourgeois in his salon. The walls are the desk against which he presses his notebooks; news-stands are his libraries and the terraces of cafés are the balconies from which he looks down on his household after his work is done.”

- Walter Benjamin (1938)

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THURSDAY, MARCH 18TH 2010

If you spend all your time slagging off the place you live, well, what does that say about you? You choose to live there!

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17TH 2010

“A city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a question, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again. “

- Margaret Mead

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TUESDAY, MARCH 16th 2010

“The city fosters art and is art; the city creates the theater and is the theater. It is in the city, the city as theater, that man’s more purposive activities are focused . . . The physical organization of the city may . . . through the deliberate efforts of art, politics, and education, make the drama more richly significant, as a stage-set, well-designed, intensifies and underlines the gestures of the actors and the action of the play.”

-  Lewis Mumford (1937)

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MONDAY, MARCH 15th 2010

“Instead of living in just one place, and trying in vain to gather yourself together there, why not have five or six rooms dotted about Paris? I’d go and sleep in Denfert, I’d write in the Place Voltaire, I’d listen to music in the Place Clichy, I’d make love at the Poterne des Peupliers, I’d eat in the Rue de la Tombe-Issoire, I’d read by the Parc Monceau etc.  Is that any more foolish, when all is said and done, than putting all the fyrniture shops in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, all the glassware shops in the Rue de Paradis, all the tailors in the Rue du Sentier, all the Jews in the Rue des Rosiers, all the students in the Latin Quarter, all the publishers in Saint-Sulpice, all the doctors in Harley Street, all the blacks in Harlem?” – Georges Perec

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SUNDAY, MARCH 14th 2010

“Cultural policy can be divisive. Culture-led regeneration is only representative of a wider constituency and wider culture of the city when it is developed alongside a social policy that stems from a vigorous and democratic political process. This demands a political system that has the confidence to take on and discuss the bigger and longer-term problems affecting the city”

- Hewitt and Jordan (2004)

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SATURDAY, MARCH 13TH 2010

“You Will All Be Situationists.”

- Henri Lefebvre

***** FRIDAY, MARCH 12th 2010

“Just as language has no longer anything in common with the thing it names, so the movements of most of the people who live in cities have lost their connection with the earth; they hang, as it were, in the air, hover in all directions, and find no place where they can settle.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 – 1926)

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THURSDAY, MARCH 11th 2010

“All great art is born of the metropolis”

- Ezra Pound (1885 – 1972)

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10th 2010

The Tesco development has created a psychological severance between my house and the city centre – I feel cut off…

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TUESDAY, MARCH 9th 2010

“The life of our city is rich in poetic and marvelous subjects. We are enveloped and steeped as though in an atmosphere of the marvelous; but we do not notice it.”

- Charles Baudelaire

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MONDAY, MARCH 8th 2010

“To look at the cross-section of any plan of a big city is to look at something like the section of a fibrous tumor.”

- Frank Lloyd Wright, (1867 – 1959)

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SUNDAY, MARCH 7th 2010

“…in city planning… you start with the people and have motor traffic and buildings as second priorities.”

- Jan Gehl, 2010

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TALKING CITY is Anna Francis’ Longhouse Guest Editor project, for March 2010. Click here to go to the project page.

ASK ANNA for all your arts and public realm agonies.

ASK ANNA offers advice and support for all your public realm questions and queries, ever wondered how to get that all elusive commission – or have a question about public art?  ASK ANNA will be consulting a team of professionals to get to the bottom of some of those difficult quandaries and concerns which arise from being an artist making work within the public realm.

The only silly question is the one you didn’t ask!

Concerned Artist Da Blade asks:

Dear Ask Anna;

Why is it that artists working in ‘regeneration’ contexts seem to get overloaded with other agenda’s and with tackling social issues and have to struggle to do what they were invited to do in the first place, engage with the people/place and make art?

A Concerned Artist

ASK ANNA REPLIES:

Dear Concerned Artist,

That is an excellent question. The phenomenon you are describing is a very pertinent issue for many artists working within public realm contexts. The value of art and artists in helping the regeneration of economies has begun to be recognised by councils and regeneration professionals. It has been recognised that artists are adept at building dialogues in difficult situations. This recognition, though positive, is leading to adverse side effects. Lazy councils, and social developers have in some situations ‘wheeled out the artists’ in a cynical attempt to draw attention away from the real problems – using the arts as a cheap, quick fix to social ills. This leads to a situation, where neither the artist, nor the public they have been commissioned to work with, benefit. Artists need to approach with extreme caution – and always check their moral compasses before subscribing to this sort of ill thought out scheme, even if it does mean turning down the commission.

The advice here is to look carefully at commissioners, their ethical codes, and what you are being asked to do, before accepting a brief. Often there is a misunderstanding about what artists do and do not do – be very clear about this from the and your worth from the start. Stick to your guns, even if this makes you unpopular with the developers; and be clear about who you are working for – the developer or the people.

Good luck!

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TALKING CITY is Anna Francis’ Longhouse Guest Editor project, for March 2010.

Click here to go to the project page.