This is a Stick Up is an ongoing project displaying artists’ and illustrators’ posters on permanent and free standing boards around Oxford City Centre. It’s organised by Launch Collaborative, an artist and curatorial collaborative based in Oxford.

Using public poster boards, the pasted-up artworks jostle for attention against various promotional material from the city’s cultural arena. The works are displayed for as long as they survive – until they are pasted over or soaked off by the rain.

Eager to learn more about the project and the people behind it, I decided to follow Phil Marston from Launch as he ‘installed’ the latest poster artworks by Lee Jackson.

JW: What was the motivation behind setting up This is a Stick Up?

PM: With no permanent exhibition space and no funding, Launch Collaborative set up This is a Stick Up as a means of continually having a project running. Utilising unusual and underused spaces throughout Oxford has been a long running interest for Launch and the use of the streets as an exhibiting space has always been something that has appealed to us ever since our first exhibition in Oxford, The Artpark Project in which 8 artists exhibited in a multistory car park.

JW: What approaches from artists do you think work best in the context?

PM: I think the most successful works are ones which directly relate to, or take into consideration their immediate surroundings. I think my personal favourite so far is the recent instalment by Lee Jackson, in which he utilises bold minimalist texts that are meant to trigger an image in the viewer’s eye of a simple but common natural scene. Jackson’s works are a way to introduce some aspects of the natural world into a suburban environment where nature can sometimes be overwhelmed and lost.

The works pasted up on boards around the city have to be able to hold their own graphically, as they visually compete with advertising for upcoming music and theatre events.  I also think that a sense of humour is important, to allow all viewers to engage with the work on some level.

JW: What is in the pipeline for Launch Collaborative, how do you see Launch evolving?

PM: Launch Collaborative is run voluntarily by three of us in our spare time so at the moment we organise and run around four or five projects a year. We are currently curating a solo exhibition by David Dixon in a ‘white cube’ gallery space at the end of July as well as collaborating with The Popular Music Research Unit at Oxford Brookes on a music zine and self publishing exhibition and related events later in the year. Also on the horizon is another invitation to collaborate with Modern Art Oxford on hosting some late night events and happenings in their newly configured gallery space.

Long term we would love to have our own exhibition space to allow us to schedule an exciting and intriguing programme of exhibitions providing a platform for creative exploration, showcasing some of the best contemporary art by early and mid-career artists –  in turn providing a much needed addition to the Oxford art scene.

JW: Do you have any advice for artists seeking to develop their work into more of a public realm practice?

PM: When organising and curating exhibitions in unusual and public spaces we select artist’s works based upon their relevance to, and impact on the exhibiting space. I think it’s important to visit the site that the proposed work is to be sited, as this will always dictate what will suit the space best.  My only other piece of advice would be not to change your practice in order to fit a brief. I think you should always look for opportunities that are relevant to your own work and interests as the resulting work is nearly always visually and theoretically more interesting.

Launch Collaborative is made up of Emily Alexander, Sarah Mayhew and Phil Marston. To find out more about This is a Stick Up and other projects go to: http://www.launchcollaborative.co.uk