"KEEP HIM TALKING"

APOLOGIES!

2011-10-11T15:02:00.006+01:00

Updates on all the below 'Forthcoming' events coming very soon.
I promise.

FORTHCOMING:

2011-03-28T19:35:00.019+01:00

I'll be doing several more 'Keep Him Talking' events in the coming months. Those currently planned include:

- A version of my 'What Just Happened?' abstracted artists talk on Tues 14th June at Spike Island, Bristol.

-Hosting a solo 'Late at Tate St Ives' on Fri June 24th 2011 for the summer display 'Martin Creed / Fischli and Weiss /Naum Gabo / Lucio Fontana / Anri Sala / Margaret Mellis / Agnes Martin / Roman Ondak'.

- My 'A Sort Of Open Secret' talk at Banner Repeater for the launch of issue #3 of SCHIZM magazine. 23rd September, 2011.

-Writing and delivering a new text 'An Apology' for The Happy Hippocrite 'Miniature Essay' event, part of Booksworks' exhibition 'Again A Time Machine' and Spike Island's 'Artist's Book and Zine Fair'. 8th October 2011.

-A new talk 'What It Isn't It Is (Isn't It?)' about artistic output aside from artworks. Delivered during a short residency with Backside at The Motorcycle Showroom, Bristol. 29th - 5th November, 2011

- A new version of my 'Immersive Vision Theatre' lecture in Plymouth University's old planetarium, 24th November, 2011. Part of the Constellation series of events accompanying the British Art Show 7.

- A new talk to art foundation students at Suffolk New College taking in work from when I was on foundation up to projects I'm currently working on. 20th January 2012.

I am also open to other invitations to talk or contribute, please feel free to get in contact if you have any ideas.

#16 'I THE GOD': INTERVIEW

2011-03-28T19:12:00.014+01:00

-Weds, 16th March (image courtesy 'I The God/ Hayden Kays)

I was invited to be the 104th participant in Hayden Kays' I The God creative person interview blog. You can read my answers here.

#15 PLYMOUTH HERALD: ANNOUNCEMENT

2011-03-28T18:51:00.009+01:00

-Fri 25th February, 2011
I placed an announcement in The Plymouth Herald newspaper on the last Friday of the exhibition, amongst the usual birthdays, marriages, deaths and messages of good luck. A copy of the advert was also placed in the Resource Area for this last weekend of the exhibition.

#14 'IMMERSIVE VISION THEATRE'

2011-02-24T19:14:00.000Z

-Fri 18th February, 7.30pm. IVT, Plymouth University

(Image courtesy tomparkes.co.uk)

A new performance lecture written specifically for the planetarium in the middle of the University campus.

Designed in the format of an hour long stand-up show - with accompanying surround sound and 180° projections from a variety of sources - it describes the difficulty of writing a lecture for a such a place, involving karaoke, astrology, a tornado, a tree, the mirror room in the Palace of Versaille and the known universe.

I have now begun a further residency with i-Dat, the research group who run the IVT and will reattempt this talk in September, as a 'Constellation' event during the fringe programme when the British Art Show 7 tours to the city.

#13 SALON SOUTH WEST: 'THE SMILE'

2011-02-24T17:30:00.002Z

- Thurs 17th February, 4:30pm, Wongles Tea Room, Plymouth

A live reading of 'The Smile' by J G Ballard from an original copy of issues 6 of Bananas, the short-lived literary newspaper where it was first published in 1976.

(All photos courtesy of Beth Richards)

'The Smile' is the first-person narrative of an unnamed man's growing attachment to a young woman he sees in an old antique shop. The story is in many ways untypical Ballard; domestic and romantic, sentimental even, albeit with a familiar sharp eye for the absurd and irrational and our creeping proximity to some kind of fatalistic collapse.

Wanting to choose an appropriate location for the reading we settled on somewhere on The Barbican, the historic cobbled marina area with it's faded popularity, overlooked back streets and idiosyncratic character.

(Above: Cover design of Issue #6 of Bananas)

This was my second public reading of 'The Smile'. The first was at Spike Island in Bristol, UK, as part of a 'White Out', a day of events around the exhibition 'Nanoq: Flat Out an Bluesome' by Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir and Mark Wilson where ten taxidermised polar bears from collections around the country were gathered into the exhibition space.

#12 'CONSTELLATION': ARTIST'S TOUR

2011-02-16T10:27:00.002Z

-Weds 19th Jan, 1pm, Plymouth Arts Centre. Free

(© PVAC)

At the invitation of PVAC (Plymouth Visual Arts Consortium) I gave a tour of my exhibition as the first event in 'Constallation', an events series leading up to the arrival of the British Art Show 7 in Plymouth in September 2011.
<-- more --!>
Leading a walk through discussion of the show I began by explaining how I had arrived in Plymouth, the nature of the residency and how the exhibition had come together. Spending about 30 mins in each gallery I described my ambitions and responses to each work and their position in the room, then we moved to the cafe for a complimentary afternoon tea and a relaxed conversation about each of our working practices.

#11 BBC RADIO DEVON BREAKFAST SHOW

2011-01-17T11:38:00.000Z

-Monday 17th Jan, BBC Studios, Plymouth. 7.40am

(© BBC Radio Devon)

I was invited into the studios for a live interview with Sparksy, the presenter of the BBC Radio Devon breakfast show.

We spoke on air for ten minutes about the new works I'd made in Plymouth, in particular 'Professional Nice Guy' were I enacted the Free Hugs campaign around the city centre, and my work 'Impersonating A Part Time PCSO'. The conversation was light hearted and enthusiastic and I tried to get across how each work played out and encourage people down to Plymouth Arts Centre to see it.

POSTCRIPT:
On January 21st I was called up again by BBC Radio Devon as it was apparently 'National Hugging Day' so they wanted me to talk about my experience on the Shep and Jo' drivetime show.

#10 ARTIST FILM CHOICE: 'Rashomon' & 'The Aristocrats'

2011-01-17T11:33:00.000Z

-Saturday 15th Jan, 2.30pm & 5.30pm PAC Cinema

Given the chance to programme films into the Arts Centre's 60 seat cinema I devised a double bill of two very different films concerned with a story repeated from multiple viewpoints.

Rashomon Kurosawa, 1950) famously unpicks the mechanics of cinema as three witnesses describe their conflicting viewpoints on a crime, The Aristocrats (Provensa, Jillette, 2005) is a documentary about a legendarily obscene old joke retold with elaborate variations by numerous american comedians.

Appropriately, for these two films about subjectivity and hearsay, I had never seem them. Only imaging for some time that they had a relevance to my work in the exhibition. Inbetween the two screenings I screened the only public viewing of the new 2010 segment of my 'The Ongoing Song ...' project. Made with Jeremy Millar - who I met in the galleries earlier in the year - we recorded it over Christmas and the resulting 5 second clip was shown immediately before 'The Aristicrats' title card appeared.

#9 FILM ACADEMY - 'CATFISH'

2011-01-13T21:38:00.000Z

-6pm, Weds 12th January 2011, Plymouth Arts Centre

An edition of the monthly film club after a screening of 'Catfish'(2010) focussing on the construction of illusions from found material, deliberatey scheduled during the installation week of my exhibition.

We discussed the impact of the film and it's emotive content, alngside how it might relate to what I was trying to do in the exhibition. I then presented a short selection of films collected from YouTube that I thought had a particular relevance to the idea of negotiating the internet to devise elaborate and engaging fictional narratives.

YouTube film selection:
'Hi Sally' - Tarantino's messages back to his editor filmed on the end of takes.
'Pardon Me' - Maxine Swaby's music video
'Re: Pardon Me' - A response to the original video
'Re:Re: Pardon Me' - 'The Tunnel of love goes on for ever'
'Re:Re:Re:Re: Pardon Me' - And on
...
'Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re: Pardon Me' - And on
'Press Conference' - Tom Waits announces his Glitter and Doom tour
Finale:
'The Elephant's Self Portrait'

#8 'EMPTY GALLERY INTERVIEW' Pt 2

2011-01-13T21:33:00.000Z

-6pm, Mon 5th January, 2011, Plymouth Arts Centre

The second of two 'Empty Gallery Interview' events during my residency. Devised by Claire Nichols, they are described as 'anticipatory dialogues' that foreground the artists relationship to the gallery space, before any work has been installed.

I chose to offer the hosting of the event to Plymouth artist run space Project Space 11, who led the conversation, asked the set EGI questions and invited responses from the audience as we roamed the three empty spaces and I tried to describe what I would be doing with them. As this was still by no means certain this was also an excercise for me to test out my ideas for the installation.

Recorded in stills and audio, both will be available here and on the EGI and PS11 websites soon.

#7 'WHAT JUST HAPPENED?' Explaining Myself to 10 Year Olds

2010-12-31T15:22:00.000Z

-26th Nov 2010, 2pm, Chaddlewood Primary School, Plymouth

(All photos by Michelle Moss at Plymouth Arts Centre)

I wanted to attempt my 'What Just Happened?' talk (where I display the titles of all the 50+ artworks I've made over the last ten years and ask audience to pick which ones I talk about - a format designed specifically for this residency and retrospective exhibition) to a group of under tens.

Caroline Mawdsley, the PAC education officer organised a visit Chaddlewood Primary to talk to two groups of thirty year 6 pupils. I arranged my titles in the corner of their sports hall, introduced myself and the rules of the game then asked who wanted to pick first.

The first group chose:
1: Top Secret UK Airbase From Memory (2004 - )
2: Hello Sebastian Did You Say A4? (2008)
3: Infinity Camera and Photograph of Infinity (2000)
4: Painted Nature (2006)
5: The Ongoing Song … (2008 - )
6: The Least Most (The Most Least?) (2009)
7: Escape From Your Estrange Wife And Family And Start Living In The Mountains (2005)

Then the second group chose:
1: Wall Painting (2004)
2: 0.001% (2009)
3: Brackets (2008)
4: Hello Sebastian Did You Say A4? (2008)
5: Top Secret UK Airbase From Memory (2004 - )
6: The Ongoing Song … (2008 - )
7: Business Card (2010)

As you can see, there were some duplication in their choices, and not necessarily titles I would have imagined they would be drawn too. It was also exciting to be regaling them with stories of tattooing, painting plants, and stealing secrets, whilst there teacher looked on.

I found myself explaining them as tests on my own conscience, that I wasn't suggesting they try this behaviour but that they should have the confidence to follow their ideas through and understand the responsibilities of their own decisions. Also that any of these activities can be thought of as artwork.

#6 'EMPLOYEE EXPECTATIONS' Professional Practice Talk

2010-12-31T15:10:00.000Z

-22nd Jan 2010, 2.30pm, PCAD, Tavistock Place, Plymouth

I was invited to give a talk in at Plymouth College of Art and Design as part of their 'Employee Expectations' series.

I based my talk around the self-initiated projects I had made when there was no other demand for my work, candidly discussing how I had found each opportunity and what benefit had been.

The talk was framed with a declaration of complete honesty, offering the audience of soon-to-be Arts graduates the chance to ask me anything about how I keep going, professionally, emotionall, fiancially and otherwise. Rather than using the usual PowerPoint I illustrated the talk using the various locations of my work on the internet.

#5 'WHAT JUST HAPPENED?' Plymouth College of Art and Design

2010-12-31T15:08:00.000Z

-18th Nov 2010, 4pm, Studio Theatre, PCAD, Plymouth

(Image: Rachel Dobbs)

I was invited to perform my 'What Just Happened?' talk (where I display the titles of all the 50+ artworks I've made over the last ten years and ask audience to pick which ones I talk about - a format designed specifically for this residency and retrospective exhibition) at Plymouth College of Art and Design.

Over the course of an hour we got through nine works, creating another new set list and route through my practice:

1: Popular Problems (2010)
2: Whittling Station Featuring Wetherspoons Complimentary Condiments (2004)
3: Painted Nature (2006)
4: Hello Sebastian Did You Say A4? (2008)
5: Untitled (Questioning Adults)
6: The Least Most (The Most Least?) (2009)
7: Infinity Camera and Photograph of Infinity (2000)
8: The Ongoing Song … (2008 - )
9: Kitemark and Candles (2005)

#4 'TOASTMASTERS' Public Speaking Club

2010-12-31T15:06:00.000Z

-16th Nov 2010, 7pm, Duke of Cornwall Hotel, Plymouth

(© Toastmasters International)

Toastmasters international are a global network of public speaking clubs. I found out that the Plymouth chapter had a meeting during one of my visits so was keen to attend.

(The venue; Meeting room, Duke of Cornwall Hotel, Plymouth)

Run in a ordered but relaxed manner each evening begins with formal welcome and a short introductory game where members and guests are invited to give a quick improvised comment. Next are a series of scripted short talks by members which are in turn evaluated by individual selected members based on certain criteria depending on their experience; perhaps their style, format or ability to improvise. In a neat twist, these evaluations are deliverd to the group and the evaluation itself is then evaluated; for fairness, observation, succinctness etc...

There are all manner of interesting formal habits to the format of the event. each time someone takes the floor the welcome the Toast Master, the members and guest in order. Each speaker is also applauded from the end of their speech until they take their seat.

#3 AGITPROP: 'A FIST FONT?'

2010-09-07T16:37:00.001+01:00

-11th - 28th Aug 2010, Project Space 11, Plymouth

(Composite image of grayscale, full colour and photocopied
reproductions of the 'A Fist Font?' poster, Click to enlarge)

My contribution to 'AGITPROP!' an exhibition organised by Project Space 11, a new artist run space based in Plymouth City Market. Artists were invited to design a contemporary agitprop style poster to be photocopied as an unlimited edition and pasted up all around the city.

As you may have worked out, the Fist Font was made by simply drawing around my own fist with a red marker pen then adding certain details onto the outlines to create the letter forms.

The 'AGITPROP!' Press Release:

‘Agitprop’ – noun,
Political (originally communist) propaganda, esp. in art or literature:
[as adj.] agitprop painters.
ORIGIN: 1930s, Russian, blend of agitatsiya ‘agitation’ and propaganda ‘propaganda.’

In these most political of times, Agitprop! strives to examine the future of contemporary art in society and invites artists to make work in response to this question. Referencing the saturation of the manufactured propaganda image, constantly produced and ubiquitous, Project Space 11 will present a rolling exhibition of black and white posters (both in the Project Space, and throughout the city) created by regional, national and international artists.

(Above: 'Agitprop' propaganda office. Courtesy Project Space 11. Click to enlarge)

(Above: 'Agitprop' campaign wall. Courtesy Project Space 11. Click to enlarge)

Project Space 11 will act as a temporary campaign office for the duration of the show: manufacturing propaganda multiples that visitors can distribute as they see fit.

While the aesthetic responses may refer to the design canon of Soviet and Maoist propaganda images, the connotations of the work refer to a broad range of pertinent issues. Some may be a reaction to institutional agendas, or artists’ responses to hierarchies within the visual arts ecology, others explore what art-propaganda is, or could be.

Agitprop! intends to examine censorship: something that is inherent in the selection and curation process of exhibitions and awards, in a wider sense, and essentially in the curatorial process of this project.

Artists include:

Rebecca Griffiths, Alex Higlett, Simon Bedwell, An Endless Supply, Ellie Harrison, Daryl Waller, Cordelia Cembrowicz, Ella Golt, Laurence Payot, David Sherry, Steven Paige, Jonathan Baron, Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG, Abigail Reynolds, Mark Pearson, Georgina Hounsome, James&Jones, S Mark Gubb, Low Profile, CMS Research Project, Guy Oliver, Shafiq Dad, Oliver Sutherland, Bruce Asbestos….and more to be confirmed.

#2 KEYNOTE: 'IMAGINE BEING HERE NOW (WHAT JUST HAPPENED?)'

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-16th July 2010, 6.30pm, Education Room, Plymouth Arts Centre

(click to enlarge)

The first in a series of public talks at Plymouth Arts Centre, 'Imagine Being Here Now (What Just Happened?)' was the Artist's Talk as cryptic participatory game. As an introduction to my working methods I collected together every finished artwork I had made over the last decade since the end of my Masters degree (52 it turns out) and devolved the selection process to the audience who had only the titles to go by.

(click to enlarge)

As each artwork was chosen by a different member of the audience - from the grid of titles set out on the wall on coloured cards - I would then call up the appropriate sequence of images in my 260 slide PowerPoint presentation. In the hour duration of the talk we managed to fit in nine different artworks, creating a unique setlist or route through my practice:

1: 'Step Test (with David Blandy - The Barefoot Lone Pilgrim' (2004)
2: 'Infinity Camera & Photograph of Infinity' (2000)
3: 'Blindfolded Sculpting' (2006)
4: 'Whittling Station featuring Wetherspoons Complimentary Condiments' (2004)
5: 'The Charter or Terms of Engagement' (2006)
6: 'Doctor's Note' (2005)
7: 'Billy Joel as Teaching Resource' (2005)
8: 'Escape From Your Estranged Wife and Start Living in the Mountains' (2005)
9: 'The Dad Directives' (2008)

The title 'Imagine Being Here Now' was a direct lift from a recent lecture by Lucy Lippard given at The Falmouth Convention , a four day conference focussing on time and place in art making. She began her keynote speech with the admission "'Imagine Being Here Now' is a title I offer up for advance publication when I have no idea yet what I’ll talk about". I enjoyed how this candid confession detached itself from whatever followed and became a riddle or motto for simultaneous engagement and detachment, mixed with a bit of professional resourcefulness.

As far as I can ascertain she has used the title at least three times in recent years, each time adding a more explanatory subtitle. For example ‘Imagine Being Here Now: Towards a Multicentred Exhibition Process” as the Falmouth lecture became, or “Imagine Being Here Now: Stories in the Landscape” at the Santa Fe Art institute in 2006, amongst others.

Likewise, my talk generated it's own subtitle: 'Imagine Being Here Now (What Just Happened?)', pointing at the retrospective nature of the contents and the sleight of hand involved in its coming into being.

#1 'THE EMPTY GALLERY INTERVIEWS - Pt.1'

2010-08-02T18:12:00.000+01:00

-21st April 2010, 6pm, Gallery 1,2,&3, Plymouth Arts Centre

(Click to enlarge)

I had recently heard about a project called 'The Empty Gallery Interviews' and was immediately taken with the idea. this is how they describe themselves:

"THE EMPTY GALLERY INTERVIEWS is a series of live conversations staged with exhibitors ahead of their exhibitions. Set inside empty galleries across London, art writers Claire Nichols and Altair Roelants stage informal interviews that make public the anticipatory dialogue that exists between the exhibitor and the exhibition space.

Talking with each artist about their upcoming show, the Interviews offer an insight into the methodology that informs the artist’s response to the gallery space; tracing their evolving relationship to the space in the lead up to installing the work. Putting into practice a vocal ordering of the visual, the Interviews consider what it might mean to perform or translate the artist’s response to the gallery site."

After attending one of the interviews I asked them if they would be interested in following the progression of my residency at Plymouth Arts Centre. Now working alone - as Altair has left the country - Claire agreed to stretch the format of the interviews over the course of my residency, giving me her list of usual questions to take to Plymouth for my first tour of the galleries.

The Empty Gallery Interviews questions:

1: HOW DID YOU START TO CONCEIVE OF THE SPACE IN RELATION TO YOUR UPCOMING EXHIBITION?

2: DO YOU THINK YOUR STUDIO SPACE (OR SITE OF MAKING) WILL TRANSLATE ONTO THE EXHIBITING SPACE?

3: IS THE WORK LIKELY TO EVOLVE IN CONSTRUCTION?

4: HOW HAVE YOU ENGENDERED THE VIEWER’S EXPERIENCE INSIDE THE WORK YOU ARE MAKING?

5: CAN THE WORK YOU ARE MAKING EXIST IN ANOTHER SPACE?

6: WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR YOU AS AN ARTIST OR A CURATOR OF VOCALISING YOUR IDEAS PUBLICLY WITHIN THE GALLERY, BEFORE THE WORK GOES ON DISPLAY?

Having not read them before I answered them with my initial reactions into an old tape dictaphone whilst meandering alone through the galleries on a quiet Wednesday evening.

We will follow this stage with our first public face to face interview in September as my ideas have progressed, possibly in London, then a final public interview in the empty galleries of Plymouth Arts Centre just prior to installation.