In the days where global economic recession is looming over our heads, whilst food is genetically modified and education is run like a business, it leaves many of us feeling somewhat disillusioned and disenchanted. Nothing is more true when it comes to choosing a career, or a path to follow and goals to set. To make the decision to become an official art student we are provided with a societal frown of ''what are you going to do with that?'' or, ''how are you going to make money?'' and, ''what exactly is it preparing you for?''
The latter is actually an interesting question because it encapsulates exactly what my practice led research is all about. How can art become more relevant? How can art students develop the best environment in which to become artists of consequence? This is an extravagant way of exploring and subverting urban and social environments; and experiencing and experimenting with the role of the student, the student artist and artistic proposals. Some examples of my work resonate with the potential of some living conditions and the state of freedom in the paradigm of the art world and the society of today. We know that it is important to scale-up our spaces in which we include ourselves, to consider and address our limitations (or lack of) and what we actually want to create and show for our existence as artists and ultimately, as human beings.
This proposal borrows from my earlier ideas of 'conceptual existential architecture'. A term in which I have coined for myself to discuss and examine the structure of an environment that the architecture of a space creates. Space could be interpreted as a gallery, or studio – to dialogue and even mental capacities. I am referring both to the architecture and its spatial discourses, but also a more humanist advocate of what is offered in terms of the actual word 'architecture'.
Architecture, of course, isn’t just an art and design of buildings, but also refers to the way a system is designed and how the components are connected with each other. In this instance we can think of elements that wouldn't necessarily be thought of as architecture such as the gallery curators, the artist statements, the website of the museum and artistic collective groups all the way through to the actual audience itself. This is where the conceptual-existentialist nature of the architecture comes in. By applying the Sartrean existentialist theory onto the art institution/world and its spaces, we may be able to delve more interestingly, and philosophically into the current capitalistic aesthetic undercurrents of the contemporary art world’s hyper-individualism that reflects on how relevant today’s art is. And ultimately what problems it produces for students alike but more importantly; the opportunities it can open.
“... 'EXISTENTIALISM' IS A DOCTRINE THAT MAKES HUMAN LIFE POSSIBLE AND ALSO AFFIRMS THAT EVERY TRUTH AND EVERY ACTION IMPLY AN ENVIRONMENT AND A HUMAN SUBJECTIVITY.” [1]
We can think of recent developments in the global economic crisis where the art world is forced to choose art that can be branded, or sold easily such as a painting. We can look to the recent bumper £111million Damien Hirst auction at Sotheby's in London that proves that the hunger for pickled tiger sharks and petrified butterflies is still strong, or that once again the brand trumps artistic labour and enthusiasm. This is nothing more than surplus value. But it’s not all doom and gloom.
This
shift in itself could mean that the art world and its spaces have the
opportunity to become more community based, creatively alternatively
and local helping produce the “glocal” affect of
networking which is what an artist ultimately has to gain to get
noticed and appreciated.
Utopian Protagonist Arkitekts is work engaged in the idea of the social value of architecture as a spectacle, the commodity that can create a certain deception.
“HOW ONE MANOEUVRES IN THE SYSTEMS, DETERMINES WHAT SIZE + KIND OF SPACE WE WORK AND LIVE IN” - GORDON MATTA CLARK. [2]
Interested in not exactly the situation itself but in the flow of communication in the spaces between, my practice seeks to enlighten the aggressive process of the displacement of the poor and working class residents of Sheffield in and around the city centre, in favour of luxury apartments that will attract the highly taxable professionals and businesses. It is important to note at this point, that this project could work for most UK cities, and indeed globally, but Sheffield is a hardcore representation.
My interventions are site specific, requiring a spatial engagement with the city and a historical context. Applying the ‘New York, New York [Las Vegas hotel]’ formula to Sheffield I am trying to clue into the exposure of the discontinuations in the systems that surround us, the gaps and the relationships among them. Furthermore, with the city becoming a commodity I am able to show how hard it is to separate the real from the hyper-real.
Importing loaded spaces and buildings into bleak environments, a conscious decision to explore the commodity and emphasise a promise, or rather the missing promise. The deconstruction and construction of history and the implication of the new sort of social space is created, if only in one moment. The politics of a site-specific practice helps to replace these false hoods of gentrification and regeneration, by replacing them with my own idealised topography of intrinsic and extrinsic space in which discourse and matter are categorically opposite.
PURE REPETITION, WERE IT TO CHANGE NEITHER THING NOR SIGN, CARRIES WITH IT AN UNLIMITED POWER OF PERVERSION AND SUBVERSION - ELLIPSIS, JACQUES DERRIDA [3]
The repetition of fly posters with the influences of graphic design, for branding purposes but, to merge in with the consumerism and fashion to mould into the everyday city commodity of a mainstream spectacle.
Becoming an interventionist artist, my work seeks to provoke a public debate about gentrification, regeneration, identity and the political economy of the 2000’s world, not just societal but also within the art world. Playing with conventions outside of the gallery setting, my audience are mere passers-by that are greeted with a patchwork of wheat-pasted posters extolling squatted buildings, and current construction sites, denouncing the free market policies and fake architecture companies building amazing looking buildings, and above all seeking to raise the consciousness of Sheffield residents who are unwittingly, or simply indifferently, contributing to the destabilization of one of the most brilliantly different architecture areas and culturally diverse working class area in Sheffield and indeed the UK. Consciously, I am trying to reach everyday working people and the non-art public, to address the negative impacts this business venture has.
Theorist Stephen Wright describes the interventionist as an ontological secret agent who is forced to don multiple identities: artist/activist, theorist/practitioner, participant/viewer, organizer/organized [4]. No doubt the interventionist curator will find such ontological fabrication indispensable.
Romancing with ‘the street’ as distribution site, standing before the increasingly delimited horizon of global capital I can think of nothing for an institutional venue, no matter how theoretically astute or politically committed they may be, to effectively show my work and help intervene within the broader social sphere. That is why it is out in the public sphere, and has a website – to manipulate new communications, the politics of numerous spaces and further this confusion with the real and fake emphasizing the ideas of “conceptual existential architecture”. And revealing alternative spaces where an artistic practice can be utilized to rock the foundations of an already existing status, providing the perfect backdrop of an example of an artistic practice with consequence.
In conclusion in creating a parody, we reveal the distortion of everyday and our foundations of a community. Both artistically and societal. We are reminded of course that,
SIMULATION IS MORE REAL THAN REALITY. REALITY IS AN OVER-RATED HIERARCHY - LES LEVINE [5]
Occasionally, when focused in activity, people can catch a glimpse of their potential – a taste of freedom, a release from habitual ideas. These moments of absorption and contentment can result in work that is fresh and vibrant.
I set up the StreetForm Organisation, which strives to create an environment in which people can experience more of these moments more frequently through the activity of contemporary arts. StreetForm is an independent and educational non-profits arts organisation, established in 2007, that is currently undergoing an application for Charitable Status.
It works solely because of the dedication of the community of voluntary artists, residents and students in Sheffield that strive to help local schools produce works of art that inspire the mind and open the heart of the audience. We help train individual artists to reach the highest standards of which they are capable, and provide access to a fine art experience for all the community. A large pool of experience, expertise and knowledge resides within the StreetForm organization which makes art more relevant. It covers a wide technical competence as well as an approach to art that aims to include its ethical, spiritual, intellectual and craft-based dimensions.
The most interesting element of StreetForm is the actual act of artists/students coming together. It suggests more than anything. Much recent writing about artist group activities employs some of the most impractical academic theory and language, an approach that belies the cooperative tradition that many groups attempt to engage within their daily practice. There is a sensitivity that emerges for those that learn to work and enjoy working in a group; and rely upon group work. It’s an action that shows a down to earth homage to groups before them that reveals itself through the very act of choosing to work with others.
The hyper-individualism, upon which so much of the artworld relies, is part of a capitalistic strategy used to produce money, sex, power and of course exclusivity with its middle class elitisms. StreetForm (and C.A.a.D) subscribe to an alternative that is more open, and non-exclusive , and strives to be honest about the human costs created as a result of the production of art, and about the existence of underlying power structures within all of our relationships. To be in a team, a trio, a collective or a collection is a very special act. To be in a team that wants to better the world, to make a positive difference, to use their own talents to help others and not just as a career boosting object is a rare phenomenon and should be celebrated, and taught and re-lived and be an inspiration to not just artists but all people.
It is exactly this flex of a conceptual existential environment that we create for ourselves, through our humanistic advocacy that through everyday dialogue, and engagement, art becomes on a plateau to be able to act in an everyday relevance, and give humanity a sigh of relief that some artists still want to help the world be a better place. And in a true cliché the importance lies in a want to make a positive contribution rather than making the idea of money, aka 'branding', more important. On the same platform lies another collaborative group called 'Contemporary Art as Dialogue' (CAaD). CAaD is also a group of art students. We are a critical study group of the conversational aesthetic in all Contemporary art, exemplified through our own projects, gallery exhibitions, art debates and other subject areas.
It’s an interesting Submission because we are able to use our own space to create both a foundation which supports each other, financially and academically (help with the bureaucracy of statement writings and such), whilst also helping stimulate a safe area where experimenting is encouraged. The idea of failure in art is a heavily discussed idea and is ultimately encouraged, but individually it can be quite daunting. In a group environment, the individual is radicalised and fear of failure is no longer an issue, but a thought which can be quite enduring. Because we are a collaborative group, our most recent project is to create a student art festival, which relates closely to the idea of a Biennial.
Using the idea of 'Accumulation' originally introduced by philosopher Giorgio Agamben. Our goal is to continue to conceptualise new possible situations, document these innovations, and make information available to everyone. A rarity in an exclusive world. But because of the 'conceptual existential' qualities to our group structure, we have the space and the time to progress, and as stated earlier – failure is a potential option but not necessarily a negative one. My groups and artwork further our relationship and relevance as artists through the city of Sheffield. Having worked at Postmasters Art Gallery (New York) over the summer of 2008, I was able to embrace a world that knows what elite is, and engage in a real creative class of people. I was given the key to how a world class commercial gallery in Chelsea operates. This experience meant that I could fundamentally map out the experience and bring the international art world everything I have learnt, and gained back to Sheffield to continue to reinvigorate this city that I am emotionally bound.
Conceptual existentialism can relate to other means of spaces such as Websites. The internet provides a huge backdrop and working platform for my research for all my works, from my art practice to projects such as CAaD and StreetForm. This form of hyper-individualism is the exact liberation that is needed to get away from the capitalistic aesthetic that can often suffocate an artists practice.
In conclusion, what does it mean to have a creative community that correlates to the support networks of illegal immigrants and online social networking? What we are left with a research area that seeks to engage everyone, and has the potential to do so. It is released from preconceived and pretentious ideals of what artists and art students can do with their talents, and is an example of how exactly the practice-led research can become one of the most practical and exciting.
Utopian Protagonist Arkitekts work has most recently been chosen for the 'Future Visions of History' art publication at the Liverpool Biennial 2008, funded by the Arts Council.
http://www.sarahsmizz.com
http://www.streetout.org
http://www.utopianprotagonist.co.uk
http://artdialogue.wordpress.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetform
[1] Existentialism is a Humanism, Sartre page 18. Yale University Press (24 Jul 2007).
[2] Gordon Matta Clark in Artforum magazine interview.
[3] “Ellipsis”, from the book Writing and Difference by Jacques Derrida, (University of Chicago Press, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, London and Henley: 1978), p 297.
[4] Stephen Wright, unpublished paper presented at the Townhouse Gallery, Cairo Egypt, December 13, 2005.
[5] Les Levine in a telephone interview. Conceptual Art; Theory, Myth and Practice – Michael Corris, Cambridge University Press; New title edition (15 Dec 2003).