Click on the link below for latest updates from current AIRetc… Neil Nodzak.

www.airetc.wordpress.com

Neil talks about his new work featured in new Talbot Rice Exhibition “Drawn Away Together” and what its like to be involved in crits again at contemporaryartetc…

AH

Video produced by the Edinburgh College Granton Learning Resources Video Production Unit.

Thanks to David McLachlan & Mike Chalmers

AH

Local is an exhibition by HND Contemporary Art Practice (CAP) students from the Granton Campus of the Edinburgh College. The artworks that can be seen in the exhibition at North Edinburgh Arts until February the 23^rd are the culmination of a project which was instigated in September 2012 by ourselves, Alan Holligan & Jennie Temple, course lecturers on HND CAP, with priceless support from Lynn McCabe and the North Edinburgh Social History Group.

The Contemporary Art Practice course has been running very successfully since 2007. The course provides a range of excellent opportunities for students to develop a broad understanding of artistic practice.  Alan and I had for some time been discussing how to develop a strong working connection between the CAP Course, the local community and surrounding areas of North Edinburgh. Beyond the college location, and the students who came to us who lived locally, we recognised that although we were part of a Community College (then Edinburgh’s Telford College: a stalwart of North Edinburgh for many years) we felt professional connection to our immediate surroundings could be stronger. We acknowledged that we bussed in and out of work every day, passing through the community in which our workplace was rooted, and also acknowledged that this was something we did not feel entirely comfortable about. As a result we started to discuss the possibility of a project for our HND 2^nd year students that we hoped would, at the very least, begin a dialogue with some our neighbours.

We initially approached a couple of local groups to see if they would be interested in meeting with us, and subsequently our students. We couldn’t have anticipated the warmth with which we were greeted and quite quickly we were able to establish links and visits with (the amazing) North Edinburgh Social History Group and North Edinburgh Arts (with whom we already had some links). These visits were incredibly informative and allowed us to immediately understand the local area more fully, and in a way that we had never before: An area steeped in history; an area that had once been rich farmland; an area that had been home to a post-war camp; an area that the Duke of Buccleuch had happily called home, and much, much more. The students were instantly engaged and brought a range of rich contributions to the discussions: amongst the group of 11 students the majority was similar to us; they did not know the area very well. However, there is one current student (and we have had several prior) who grew up in the area and who has been able to give a very subjective insight into his relationship with North Edinburgh, alongside a few other students with friends and relatives in the area.

After these initial meetings and an amazing guided mini-bus tour of the area, generously facilitated by members of the Social History Group, we set the students the project. They were to spend two weeks responding to the local area and draw on the information that they had received from the experts. We would then present the resulting artworks to the Social History Group at the College.

At this point, we were all very excited, but could not have anticipated just how successful and stimulating the project would be. The students worked exceptionally hard from the moment the project started and responded in meaningful, thoughtful and sensitive ways. In retrospect, we realised that the students’ sense of responsibility to the Social History Group and the residents of North Edinburgh meant that they approached the project with a strong sense of integrity and a determination to make artworks that did not patronise or misrepresent the (sometimes sensitive and personal) issues that had been discussed within the meetings. The provision of a very unambiguous context for the artwork allowed the students to work in a way that was fundamentally different to normal project work: they had an audience that they did not know very well, and they were making work which they would themselves present to their audience.

As the initial stage of the project drew to a conclusion, we arranged a date for some members of the Social History Group to come and lunch with us and to view the works. The students were understandably nervous and worried: What if they didn’t like what we had done? Quickly it became clear that there was no need for nerves and all of the artworks were exceptionally well received and prompted lively, important and some emotional discussion amongst everyone present. The success and positive reception of the artworks went far, far beyond our expectations and we all knew immediately that we had to take the project to its next logical step: to exhibit the works, beyond the walls of the college and within the local community. And that is where we are now. The exhibition is an exciting opportunity for the staff and students to continue to engage with our local area and we are privileged to be taking part in what we hope to be the first stage of a long and prosperous collaboration between the students and staff of the HND Contemporary Art Practice course and the local residents and communities of North Edinburgh.

Jennie Temple.

The exhibition will run until the 23^rd of February at North Edinburgh Arts, Tuesday-Friday 10am-8pm Sat 10am – 1pm, with a day of discussion and art-workshops to take place on Wednesday the 20^th February from 10am until 3pm. Places are free but limited and booking is essential. Please book a place by emailing admin@northedinburgharts.co.uk or call 0131 315 2515

Recruitment is currently taking place for HND Contemporary Art Practice Course at the Edinburgh College, Granton Campus. If you are interested please visit the College website for further information and online application.

www.edinburghcollege.ac.uk

North Edinburgh News Article 1

Malcolm Chisholm MSP opens LOCAL Exhibition

Images Courtesy of Alex Hetherington: Modern Edinburgh Film School

Modern Edinburgh Film School – a temporary participatory film school, combining themes of the sculptural screen, film and poetry, narrative and space, event as image, and acoustics and noise as form – is curated by the visual artist Alex Hetherington in association with Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.

It acts as a kind of prism, reflecting, connected and transparent surfaces – where one thing can be seen through another – on the activities, functions and architecture of the Sculpture Workshop’s

new building and outward to contexts, processes and activities externally, as satellite disparate engagements. It is informed by propositions and practices by a range of national and international artists demonstrating concerns between improvisational, meticulous and sensitively drawn associations in poetry, film, moving image, space and sculpture. It hopes to work as a season of projects, appearing and disappearing, being seen discreetly, at spaces and venues across the city in 2013.

Its propositions, which are elusive and allusive include a series of essays, of indicators of historical and contemporary activity, a slight curriculum: Edgar Schmitz, Anne Colvin, AA Bronson, Tom Marioni, Trisha Donnelly, Samantha Donnelly, Rachel Harrison, Martin Kippenberger, Harry Everett Smith, Marcel Broodthaers & Aurélien Froment and traits found in contributors, influencers and cameos such as Stephen Sutcliffe, Anthony Schrag, Anne Colvin, Lyndsay Mann, Hazel France, Sarah Forrest, Ute Aurand, Sarah Neely, Lauren Gault, Debi Banerjee, Benjamin Fallon, Zoë Fothergill,  Raydale Dower, and others.

The project, meanwhile is informed by the free school, and alternative learning approaches, inhabiting an arc of combined themes of the sculptural screen, film and poetry, narrative and space, event as image, and acoustics and noise as form. Education here becomes an obstacle, articulating thoughts on commitment, graduation, qualification and drifting attention, and the possibilities of promiscuous coincidences, synchronicity.  Meanwhile it contains two considerations of time, Modern and School, and the meanings of those in abrasion to a city with faint film vocabularies, traditions, establishment and authority and museums. In turn it contains thoughts on exhibitions, fictions and contrivances: outputs, alongside the essays are, transparent letter texts on black glass (solid film credits), zines and print, and a series of events and talks: Green Screen, Group Show, A Party for Young Artists, Edinburgh Homosexual, The Hand that Holds The Desert Down, A Library.

From the outset the School sought practitioners from different stages of their careers, including students in formal education, as well as those working at a professional level in contemporary art. After an open discussion on the work, and its ambitions, at Contemporary Art Practice at Edinburgh College and an open call, that followed  the conventions of applying for work in that professional setting: 4 images, statement and moving image samples,  two practitioners were identified to become part of the project, to attend works, and respond finally with a time-based submission for a portmanteau film for a screening at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop’s appearance at the Edinburgh Art Festival in August 2013.

All the applicants in this process responded to different aspects of the shaping of Modern Edinburgh Film School, some revealing questions on the political status of such an undertaking, others looking at the subject of the poetic and the sublime, how literature and words give potent expression to filmmaking, how the digital might inform the sculptural.

The two successful candidates are Shareen Sorour and Kaitlyn Walker-Stewart whose applications both alluded to the symmetries, echoes and architectures of film, poetry and sculpture, while containing experimental and diverse approaches to the screen, the performative, time, the object, surface and representation. While still very early stage visual art practitioners their portfolios contain intriguing enquiries.

Sharren Sarour: Outside: Inside; Still from Video.                 Kaitlyn Walker-Stewart: Barriers; Still from video

Modern Edinburgh Film School commences 15 March with a screening at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and a group show, Green Screen, co-curated with Embassy, followed there by performances and talks during March, and later a discussion on this collaboration at Edinburgh College of Art.

I would like to thank Alan Holligan, Jennie Temple and Colette Woods at Edinburgh College for their continued generous support of my practice in general and the work to be carried out for Modern Edinburgh Film School in particular.

Alex Hetherington, Edinburgh, February 2013.

http://airetc.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/here-today-and-back-tomorrow/

Here There; Exhibition by AIRetc… Paul Diamond at ESW. Click on Image for more details

In January the year began with the mixed emotions due to the departure after an extremely successful 4 months of Artist in Residence Paul Diamond who ended his time with us with a fantastic site specific project with students and an excellent exhibition of work developed and produced during the residency at Telford college. The exhibition at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop was very well received. Since completing the residency Paul has gone on to even better things but more of that later.

As January turned over to February the devastating news of Mike Kelleys untimely departure filtered through the studios promoting gasps of disbelief and sadness, we had so enjoyed his exhibition at Baltic during a field trip just a few months before. CAP student Charlie Wilkie-Sullivan who  was a particular admirer of Kelleys work wrote a piece for this blog in response to the news. http://contemporaryartetc.com/?s=mike+kelley

Spirits were soon lifted however with the arrival of our next AIR resident Natalie Wilson who began her occupation of ‘the studio next door’.

AIRetc… Natalie Wilson Setting in to studio. Click on Image for more details.

Natalie’s impact was immediate as she struck up conversations with students and staff, always inquisitive and helpful Natalie had a significant impact on the

course sharing her enthusiasm, knowledge and occasional frustration for all things digital.

Spring saw us embark on the annual CAP trip to a foreign city beginning with the letter B. So far we have only managed Berlin and Basel and until Berlin stops being; the centre off the european if not world contemporary art scene, almost, unbearably cool and wonderfully inexpensive it is doubtful we will revisit Basel or see Budapest, Barcelona, Boston, or Bogota  any time soon. Highlights of the trip included, finally getting more than one member of the CAP team on the trip and once again the Boros Bunker.

Diploma Exhibition: Image by and of Natalie Doyle.

Spring is always a tense time in the studios as both years are working on their Graded Units and expectant applicants are hammering away at the refresh button on the UCAS website as news of interviews and offers start to permeate the building. The stress although unavoidable, was misplaced however as 2012 will go down in the CAP history books as the most successful year ever as 100% of those applying got an unconditional offer for 1 of their top 2 choices. All applicants got places on degree courses in Glasgow, Edinburgh or Dundee. 1 applicant who already had a degree in a non art related subject was offered and is doing very well on a combined master course in Art & Philosophy in Dundee.

As the tension of anticipated futures subsided thoughts turned to the end of year exhibition. Unfortunately due to the transition between the old and new buildings it wasn’t possible to hold the CAP2 Diploma Show at our usual venue of the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. Instead the show opened at the Old Ambulance Depot in late May to excellent reviews and record attendances.

Natalie Wilson: Installation View of ‘Extract at ESW. Click on Image for more details.

The OA Depot is a great venue that has some really strong shows throughout the year, is affordable, well supported and we would certainly recommend to anyone looking for a mid sized exhibition space in the city.

Soon after the show however the disappointment that we couldn’t exhibit in what had become something of a spiritual second home faded as staff and studio reps were invited to the opening of the brand new Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and it was announced that after a 7 year informal partnership with the CAP course at Edinburgh’s Telford College the 2 organisations had signed a formal partnership agreement which would establish ESW as an Employability Centre for CAP students studying at Edinburgh College guaranteeing students full professional membership, supported access to the workshops facilities, exhibition and professional practice workshops and opportunities. This milestone deal with the course will last for 10 years! Not a bad way to end the 2011/12 academic session!

More good news followed as we attended the fantastic degree shows of many former CAPers throughout June.

CAP1 Growth Project Collaborative Construction & Exhibition at ESW . Click on Image for more Info

In July and August things took a slower pace but soon picked up again with the influx of a new CAP1 group who were madesuitably welcome by the CAP2 devised and executed induction week project! Billed as a tea party it turned into a something more akin to riot in a charity shop! Excellent!

It wasnt long before we were taking advantage of our new parnership with ESW as AIRetc… Natalie Wilson exhibited the work she had developed and produced during her residency with us. The show, only the second ever in the ESW Eduardo Paolozzi Project Space was beautiful and articulate. A very fitting outcome to very successful residency.

Talking of fitting outcomes, I did say we would come back to our previous AIRetc… Artist, Paul Diamond, who started work as the Graduate Studio Assistant at the University of Edinburgh’s world renowned School of Architecture in October.

Gregor Morrison; Development Detail. Click on Image for more Info.

October was also the month in which CAP1 started their 7 week project at ESW. After 7 years of working with successive CAP1 groups in the old ESW building, which wasnot without its charms, you can be assure it was an absolute pleasure to be in a building with floods of natural light and heating. The outcomes which were exhibited in a staff student collaborative exhibition and review by 2 of the CAP1 participants can be found in the post immediately below this one or by clicking HERE

The third and final AIRetc… Participant for 2012 Gregor Morrison arrived at the the start of October and has been vigorously carving, drawing and printing away in the studio next door ever since. His energy and enthusiasm for printmaking with the the FAD12 students has been infectious providing group and 1-1 support to a range of students. We hope to have news of an exhibition of Gregor’s work very soon.

If anyone is wondering why no mention has been made of the momentus October 1st event that was the merger of the 3 colleges into the newly formed Edinburgh College.

North Edinburgh History Group and CAP2 discussing the work produced for LOCAL. Click on Image for more info.

The truth is that other than the momentary consideration being given changing the name from CAPetc to CAPec the truth is that so far at least the course has been unaffected. Whether that remains the case or not, remains to be seen.

The final months of the the year were packed full of activity in and out of the studio particularly particularly for the CAP2 students who participated in an new LOCAL

project. The premise of the project was to engage with the Political, social and geographical history of the area local to the Granton Campus of the college and to produce artwork in response to the engagement and subsequent research. The, ongoing project involved meetings and presentations for and by the North Edinburgh Local History Group at the North Edinburgh Art centre in Muirhouse. News on the next phase of the LOCAL project will be announced very soon!

Rachael, Kirsty & Rhona at the opening of their exhibition ‘Crit’. Click on the image for more info!

Not satisfied with the with the already significant demands of Year 2 of the course the CAP2 group took it upon themselves to initiate an exhibition of their work entirely unsupported by the college or the staff. Having been inspired by the previous CAP2 group who graduated in June the show, entitled ‘Crit’, took place once again at the Old Ambulance Depot. The show was a genuine triumph and testimony to the groups talents and ambition.

So, thats about it really in terms of the high points of the 2012, there have been many,  indeed the only thing missing has been a wedding! Perhaps this year…………?

Alan Holligan, Edinburgh, Jan 2013

My personal experience of the ESW is a positively good one, ah really enjoyed the time spent practicing/learning in this fantastic space, I like very much the open feel it has. From our first visit there the staff made us feel very welcome, keen for us to feel at home there and we were given a right good informative introduction/tour of the

building and it’s ample facilities. I found the building itself fair impressive, well designed for multi-purpose practice, spacious both inside an out. Throughout the weeks we (HND CAP1) spent at the ESW I especially enjoyed the plaster work an assembling, dis-assembling and re-assembling the structure/installation for the exhibition. It was brilliant working together in this way, pulling together, liftin’ , shiftin’ ,learnin’ and finally bringing it all to it’s collective, considered an constructive conclusion… ‘GROWTH’ FANTASTICO!

I thought the way we were led and at times encouraged to lead ourselves through the process was most ambitious a bit risky even, though highly successful. Congrats to Alan an Jen on this score. I think the partnership works as an excellent means to introduce the students to a real working environment allowing us to explore and expand upon our ideas towards work an practice, giving us access an a great opportunity to make use of the building and it’s facilities, opens the door to the working world of it all. In short, a most encouraging, productive an exciting experience! Thanks very much!

Subie coleman

Upon the evening of the 13^th of November, both artists and curious laymen alike were affably welcomed with warmth of spirit (and wine to further warm the respective spirits of it’s guests) to admire and discuss the fruits of HND CAP1’s extended appointment at the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.

A coalescence of individually, incongruous forms captured the attention of all who ventured into the exhibition space. While the installation may at first have seemed merely a cumbersome mass-obnoxiously interrupting the sanctity of the capacious and incontestably peaceful, white room in which it was housed, with time, nigh every cynic was silenced as the exhibition’s charm unanimously took hold of almost all those present! It’s charm resided in it’s artistic continuity. Aesthetic trends appeared in the multifarious works of the students of CAP1. Amongst other discernible collective inclinations, circular forms seemed to hold precedence amongst many students’ work, hence circular forms were quite deliberately reflected in the construction of the exhibition environment. The stimulus point from which all students’ work was derived, was the theme of ‘growth’. Having been mindful of this, the spectator was made quite aware of the altogether animate nature of the installation-almost extending various limbs upwards, as if some mock collection of sprouting trees (the predominance of wood in the structure emphasised this notion of literal, organic growth). The structure and it’s constituent, individual sculptures groped horizontally as well, in such a manner as to suggest obstruction-perhaps even to intone that caution should be taken when entering the exhibition space; as the structure seemed to gesture pointedly towards the doors with it’s long, crooked, lower limbs (furthermore, close to the entrance, there stood a large, yellow, industrial gate-indicating perhaps that something arcane, if not at least guarded, lay within the room).

The college’s profitable affiliation with the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, granted the students (for the length of their 7 day tenure as guests of the establishment), access to a wealth of facilities and materials, as well as complimentary induction to the safe operating of specialist equipment. Everything offered to the students was greedily consumed-be it application of imparted knowledge from members of the workshop or license to materials alike. The works of the students’ were the result of a week’s worth of thorough artistic considerations. The first few exercises we undertook as a class comprised of an intensive inquest into a somewhat cannibalistic, homogenous method of production, whereby an initial drawing fueled a set of sculptures, that then fueled another few drawings to finally provide reference for a final sculpture. Naturally, our area of inquiry became gradually more focused, as we each and all, abstracted and in so doing, developed our own particular conceptual brand of growth. As the students became acquainted with the techniques inherently employed in the production of plaster casts, clay modelling and the cutting and joining of wood, the potential for a greater breadth of sculptural exploration came to be rather enticing. Despite liberal artistic boundaries, practical strictures remained. The finished installation was the result of just one day’s collaboration between students and lecturers. This reviewer will not indulge himself the writing of screeds upon screeds concerning thoughts and opinions on the individual works on display as not only were the works so incomparably diverse, they were all just as good as each other.

The evening was irrefutably successful. All whom attended left in raptures; speaking highly of the occasion-many making excited mention of the somewhat overshadowed developmental work of the students’ that proudly adorned the corridor and the stairwell that led to the main exhibition space! This reviewer presumes that he, alongside his classmates, will undoubtedly treasure the memory of the night for many a moon.

Josh Waterson

All images are courtesy of © Pascal Gadroy: All rights reserved: www.photosurfnature.com

NESHG & CAP_ETC first meeting at North Edinburgh Arts

LOCAL is a recently launched ongoing collaborative  project which seeks to establish community links between Contemporary Art students and staff from  Edinburgh College (Granton) and the local communities of North Edinburgh. The project was launched at North Edinburgh Art Centre in September when we met with the North Edinburgh Social History Group (NESHG). The group and local  Community Learning and Development worker Lynn McCabe, gave a fantastic presentation about the ares surrounding the Granton Campus from its time as land of gentry as part of  the Duke Buccleuch Estate, through the industrialisation of the forth ports, the relocation of the Leith Street slums through to the rent strikes and activism of the last 40 years. After a lively Q&A session which spilled over into lunchtime the group brought the history to life during a bus tour of the local area.

At the end of the tour students were given the task of developing artwork/s in response to the presentation the tour and their discussions.

This week the group; Roberta Blaikie, Brian Eddington, Anna Hutchison, Ian Moore, Brian Robertson and Lynn McCabe joined us at the Granton Campus for lunch followed by a presentation of the work the students had produced. The response from the group was overwhelmingly positive and the discussions were fantastic. Speaking on behalf of the group Lynn said;

“We were all blown away by the creativeness of the students work and the relevance of their art  to many of the issues which North Edinburgh has experienced over many years.  It was a really inspiring afternoon and great to see such a positive relationship flourish between the college and  the community”.

Everyone at ContemporaryArtETC is equally delighted with how the project is developing;

“The students have responded extremely well to the brief and we are very happy that everyone has resoponded so well to the project. This is only the first part of what we all hope will be a long, strong and creative relationship”. Alan Holligan Lecturer at ContemporaryArtETC

Images from the initial meeting and the presentation by the students are viewable below. LOCAL will continue and we hope the next stage will involve a public presentation of the work and workshops within the community.

AH

There is a tinge of sadness however as today was also our last chance to wish outgoing AIRetc… Natalie Wilson all the best of wishes as her wonderful show at the Bill Scott Sculpture Centre at ESW came to an end.

Hopefully Natalie will post up some images of the show before she signs off for the last time! Make sure you visit her website to keep up with what she’s up to!

http://www.nataliewilson.eu

Gregor Morrison graduated from the Masters in Contemporary Art course at Edinburgh College of Art in July 2012 having previously gained BAhons in Fine Art Printmaking at Grey’s School of Art in Aberdeen. Prior to his move to Aberdeen Gregor studied on the Btec Foundation course here at Telford. Gregor’s work is concerned with  found information and materials building layered prints and constructs to reinterpret old disused and abandoned information.

Gregor will be in residence from September 2012 – January 2013

Since Graduating from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in 2011 Neil Nodzak has been producing work in his studio at Tin Roof Studio’s and Gallery in Dundee. Neil was awarded the Tin Roof Internship which included a free studio, exhibition and seat on the organizations committee. Before turning up in the ‘City of Discovery’ not to mention the home of the ‘mince roll’ Neil studied at Telford on the HND and Foundation courses

Neil will be in residence from February 2103 – June 2013

The staff and students here are #cap_etc are delighted that the AIRetc… programme is continuing into next year and we really looking forward to having the 2 residents in the studio next door!

Lyndsey’s final project was developed from an interest in the illusionary aspects of high budget theme-park rides and an analysis of data gathered through a survey of the publics deep rooted personal fears. Her response was to produce an multi sensory immersive environment which gives the viewer a very authentic sense of being lost in the woods at night with a distant lightning storm approaching.

As well as designing these immersive environment, which she hopes to be publicly sited in museums, Lyndsey has also started her own print company called The Hunter Press. Specialising in event stationary and print The Hunter Press will be a fully operation print press studio using 3 newly restored Hiedelberg Windmill Presses.

lyndseyhunter.co.uk
lyndseyhunter.tumblr.com
thehunterpress.tumblr.co.uk
@h_lyndsey

The Art & Design Team are delighted to announce a call for applications for our 2012-13 Artist in Residence (AIRetc) programme.

Now in its 2nd year the highly successful Artist in Residence programme at Edinburgh’s Telford College (AIRetc…) is an innovative scheme which provides recently graduated / professional artist and designers who have previously studied at Edinburgh’s Telford College with the opportunity to develop their knowledge, skills and experience in Art & Design education while developing their creative practice in a dedicated studio space.

For more details and an application form please click on the links below:

For more details and an application form please visit: www.airetc.wordpress.com

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR APPLICATIONS FOR THE FOLLOWING PERIODS:

SEPT 2012 – JANUARY 2013 AND FEBRUARY 2013 – JUNE 2013 INCLUSIVE

THE APPLICATION DEADLINE OF 26TH JUNE 2012 IS APPLICABLE FOR BOTH RESIDENCY PERIODS

As always the show features a wide variety of artistic practice and concerns including ‘Raunch Culture’, social housing and environmental issues.

The show is open daily between 10am – 5pm until Sunday 27th May.

The second half of the day led us towards a set of video works influenced by Ben’s curatorial practice featuring work responding to network culture and digital interaction, exploring ways in which the contemporary artist re-appropriates new spaces of culture brought about by the virtual and digital world, regaining agency with which to speak about the new subjectivities emerging within it. More information available here: http://curatorial.theopenseas.org/

This latter part of the day also included works by CAP’s very own Alan Holligan from Ben’s curatorial project The Warehouse of Horrors: http://curatorial.theopenseas.org/?portfolio=warehouse-of-horrors

We caught up with Ben after the lectures to have a wee chat with him about his (career) so far, his curatorial practice, and what he’s up to at the moment:

So, how did it all start for you?

How did it all start?  Well, at Telford College - yes I came here!  Well, I mean I suppose I left school at 16, failed my highers.  I ended up doing art as default because… I’m lazy.  And then, I gradually realised that I was properly interested in it, so I did what was the equivalent of prep and then the HND Public Art.  It took three years instead of two.

Was that just the time it took then?

Well no – I failed in my second year! (laughs)

But Public Art wasn’t a particularly inspiring course was it, from what Alan said…?

No – it’s very, very different now to how it was then – now the course has been re-written, Contemporary Art Practice allows for a lot more development.

Yes, we’re lucky to have such energetic and engaged lecturers… and you didn’t go to art school after?

No.  I applied a number of times after Telford.  I think for two years I applied and then I got to the point where I was active in the Sculpture Workshop and other places and I realised I didn’t necessarily need to go to art school, so I didn’t apply that year and the years progressed and I just went oh well, that’s not happening.

That’s sort of encouraging.  You know that you feel maybe you didn’t really miss out on anything, and that you can make your own way – especially with looming fee rises etc.

No I mean I think, obviously it’s quite nice to go to art school.  A lot of my friends were there - I got the nice side without the bad side!

So was there something that sparked your career?  

Um…Career is quite a grand word for it.  Yeah, um, I don’t know I guess it’s just an interest.  I mean, like I said I failed the second year of the HND because I just didn’t care at the time, I wasn’t interested. But I readjusted.  I thought: ok now I need to do this properly.  I became interested in the theoretical side a lot more.  It was just because of an interest in that which led me to organise shows myself and then –

So you did your first shows independently?  Did you apply for funding…?

Oh, it’s only very recently that I’ve had funding for anything.  It’s always come out of my own pocket.   But working with, you know, young local artists and art students, which… is cheap.  It’s not something that pays a lot of money but…

So your first curatorial project… how did you initiate it?

Um, well I guess it was kind of working with a group of people who I knew about the arts…  Yeah so it was just about finding people around me and I was very fortunate in that I was living in a house that had a spare room: gut that out, paint it white and you have a gallery.  I think that, we could look back at it at that time and there was an emerging active artist-led scene in Edinburgh up to that point but it was never that visible. The Collective was there but it had been institutionalised years ago so I guess all that sparked me off a bit.

There are a lot more artist-led happenings now in Edinburgh aren’t here…

Yeah – there seems to be more and more, which can only be a good thing.

We were wondering about Alan: we want to know what influence he had on you…

Me and Alan didn’t get on for a long time because I wasn’t that committed for a while, but now we’re very good friends! Yeah it was kind of in my final year here that we found that we had lots of the same interests and yeah I think he’s very useful… in a grumpy way.

He’s very um, non-committal you don’t get a straight answer, it’s good…

Yeah it’s good because he makes you do the work – makes you answer your own question effectively.

Yeah, he’s good at that… I like to think of him as like a philosopher’s touchstone or something… So what are you doing at the moment?

At the moment I’m working on a project which is a non- public based, theoretical project.  There are seven of us who are meeting once a month for the next six month to discuss institutional practice within Scotland which is, which sounds like a dry topic but…  It’s through people who have worked within institutions of differing levels and we’ve tried to bring the group on one plane.  So that’s the main one.  I might be on another exhibition but there’s not really space for it.  This is the big thing that you come up against.  You get a certain position within the contemporary art world but that doesn’t necessarily equate to being able to do anything.  I think that maybe it’s specific to Scotland.  My friends in Europe have a bit more opportunity to get things going.  I think Scotland is a very artist-centred country which is good, in a sense, but –

Do you think it’s more difficult to self-organise here?

Yeah, like actually getting a space to do a show, getting funding together, as a curatorial project, rather than as an artist.  It’s still not easy to be an artist but there’s a lot more opportunity.  If you look at exhibitions across Edinburgh, you know, it’s always generally solo exhibitions.  You don’t see very many group exhibitions… I’m interested in doing group exhibitions, and pulling in wider ideas.

That’s interesting… this might be a bit of an annoying question but, we were wondering what you feel the ‘contemporary artist’ needs to be doing just now?

I think that… That’s a very difficult question.  I think if you want to go down one route and do the commercial artist thing you need to be chatty or produce work that looks like every other work you see.  Um…  I don’t like the question because it makes it seems like there is such a thing as the correct artist- which I don’t think there is.

That’s a good answer.  Why do you do what you do?

Um…  God knows!  I think because probably I’m curious.  I think of art as a source of knowledge production, rather than entertainment or any other conceived views of art.  And I think it’s about building my own knowledge and trying to share that knowledge and work with things that interest me.

(another equally difficult question we had noted down, but…) What about the role of a curator?

Well for me it’s about knowledge production and… just trying to work things through.  Yeah…well  I don’t like the idea of a job.  At a recent show I did I was described as an early career curator; I hate the idea of a career because it comes with the idea of a hierarchy and climbing the ladder and I’m not interested in that.  I want to be doing what I’m doing.  I understand the pragmatics that I have to earn some money at some point but at the moment I’m doing that through web design.

That seems like quite an interesting point: making artwork, curating and doing something quite different to that on the side to make money, so as not to have to give up part of your practice to do that.  Whereas if you were trying to make your living as an artist through funding or commissions or in the arts in general…

You have to do a commercial kind of thing.  Most of the artists I know just take up a job and don’t even think about trying to sell their work I do know a few people who sell work, but…

(pause)

Any regrets?

 Um… Oh, am I going to say the really trite thing?  I probably am, yeah.  Not really, no, because you learn from everything you do, and I try not to think back and regret things because, you know, it got me somewhere.

 That’s good to know. Thanks Ben, and thanks for a very interesting day!

 Ben Fallon, Kirsty Leonard and Claire Briegel

For more information on some of the artists mentioned above see links below:

Bruce Nauman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qml505hxp_c

Pipilotti Rist: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/video/2011/oct/05/artist-pipilotti-rist-eyeball-massage-video

Bill Viola: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-V7in9LObI | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szc8dWQf3zc

As well as a wealth of artist video and sound work here: http://www.ubu.com

During that time we have made 217 posts and had over 20o,000 hits. Regular readers will have enjoyed a number of innovative developments over the years including Art e-Facts, Art e-Maps, Student Gallery, Staff and Alumni pages  to name just a few.

To mark this milestone in our digital journey together ContemporaryArtETC.com is being ‘occupied’ by course participants both past and present.

The first of our occupiers are Claire Briegel and Kirsty Leonard currently in their 1st year of the course. Claire and Kirsty recently interviewed former HND student and current guest lecturer Benjamin Fallon after his lecture/presentation of Artists moving image work. The interview will be published very soon and followed by content exclusively written, developed or commissioned by Claire and Kirsty.

In the meantime, thank you to all our readers and contributors of the last 5 years!

Note: Future content and the views expressed are those of the individual author/s, interview/s, contributors concerned and are not neccesarily reflective of the blogs owners or its partners. If you have any concerns regarding content then please leave comments in the appropriate comments box.

I discovered Mike Kelley only a few months ago; I was working with teddy bears and was naturally drawn to his work, where he arranged stuffed toys into childlike, “teddy bear’s picnic” formations and created sculptures by fusing various toys together. I was attracted to the way he seemed to mess around with the objects, creating a sense of curios and play, yet the final result would often have a dark or serious meaning. With the stuffed bears in particular, he questioned the toys’ emotional value, which was the idea I was developing in my own work.

The next project I worked on saw me yet again looking to Kelley for inspiration. In October 2011, I visited the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead with my classmates to see the Turner Prize exhibition. However, most, if not all, of my peers were more awe-inspired by a work being shown on the floor above the Turner Prize show. Created by Mike Kelley and Michael Smith it was “The Voyage of Growth and Discovery”.

As we approached the room, I could hear the dull thuds of rave music. The doorway into the room was dark. I clocked a sign that read, “This exhibition may be unsuitable for young children”. I knew we were in for something good. As soon as I walked in, I was greeted with a whirlwind of lights, music and activity. A number of screens leered into the middle of the room, each one showing a video of Smith dressed in a baby outfit – his character, Baby IKKI – partaking in the Burning Man festival in Nevadaa. There was even a huge metal effigy of IKKI as the centerpiece of the exhibition. Kelley had built structures that reminded me of playground climbing frames and had attached various stuffed toys to them, the element that makes his work so distinctive. One of these structures was accessible, where visitors could roll around on a bed of teddies (the kids in the room had spent no time working this out). I could have spent hours in there, where all I felt was pure excitement.

I carried the experience I had into my next project, where my focus was carnival aesthetics and the link these rituals have with modern festivals. Throughout the project, I thought about how Kelley created an atmosphere – his use of lighting, music, imagery and decoration – to evoke emotions in an audience. I considered all of the things I had seen and heard and integrated them into my own work, as I shared an interest in combining Pagan celebration with modern culture. For that reason, I would say that the installation was my main artistic influence for the project, but it was also the most interesting and exciting installation I have ever seen. I enjoyed it so much, that I even bought the CD of the tracks played in the video shown.

No doubt I will continue to use my experience of being around Kelley’s work to influence the art I create. He inspired something fresh and exciting to be brought to contemporary art, a contribution that will be greatly missed. Personally, I have never felt so sad about someone I did not know personally passing away, because his work had a huge impact on me and will continue to for as long as I am making art.

Charlotte Wilkie-Sullivan is a Year 2 HND Contemporary Art Practice Student at Edinburgh’s Telford College

Reblogged from air ETC...:

Hi Everyone,

This exhibition is the culmination of four amazing months as Artist in Residence at Edinburgh's Telford College.

The exhibition runs fro Friday the 27th till Sunday the 29th of January, I hope everyone can make it.

the preview is Friday the 27th, 6pm till 8pm

The exhibition is open 11am till 6pm on Saturday and Sunday

thanks,

Paul.