Call 1: The Lift Gallery - Report

Call 1 – The Lift Gallery

The Artwork

Being on the curatorial team for Call 1 – the Lift Gallery was a valuable and rich experience, and became the focus of this call for me, as opposed to the work I submitted for the Gallery. I deliberately proposed a piece for this project that I knew I could work on both within the short timeframe, and while also being a part of the curatorial team. The piece revolved mainly around reading and research which made it something that I could work around other commitments.

The benefit of working in this way was that the research I carried out and the resulting work was so directly linked to my current artistic practice. I like the metaphor of seeing my working practice as a big box of things, or ingredients that I can choose an element from at any time to explore and play with. The ingredient that I chose for this piece was the fascination that I found with the moon during a recent project – The Big Walk – which I could further explore and expand upon; the method of presentation/medium i.e. wall-based montage seeming most appropriate for this area of exploration.

Curating

I found the task of curating the show as part of a team very different to how I had expected. I discovered that a lot of the work was in organisation and communicating with the artists and other curators as clearly as possible, a task that was not always easy.

As the member of the team who was sending t he majority of the emails – a job I was happy to do – I encountered several problems in communicating with other members of the group. I think several people felt that emails were impersonal and that they should have been addressed personally regarding issues/things that needed to be resolved, however, despite these issues, I still believe that emails are the most efficient and professional method of communication, and to try and track down everyone that I needed to speak to would be impractical and unnecessary, especially as we all keep different timetables.

I am aware that there were some issues that could have been resolved; particularly if there had been more time to work on this project, which unfortunately there wasn’t. For example, the decision to make flyers to advertise the private view was made 5 days before the private view, which included a weekend. We made the decision to design the flyer and get it out as soon as possible in order to best promote the event and the exhibition, which mean that it would have been impractical to involve other members of course, as a response was neither guaranteed, nor likely.
This decision led to me putting a note about one of the artist’s pieces – which was one of the few interactive/’live’ pieces in the show – on the flyer which she had not approved, and which left the artist feeling uninvolved and upset.

If the artist feels that her work has been misrepresented by the comment about her piece in the flyer then this is very serious, and a definite oversight on my part. Because of time constraints it just wasn’t feasible to run the flyer by her and expect a response in time to get it out by Monday morning, and this led to the flyer containing a comment that she hadn’t approved. In hindsight I understand that the correct decision in this situation would have been to make no comment about her work at all. In my desire not to offend the artist by leaving mention of their interactive piece out of the flyer, I made an error of judgement and advertised her piece in a way that I believed was appropriate based on the artist’s statement, and hearing them talk about their piece, which left the artist feeling, rightly so, angry about her work being misunderstood not only by myself, but by anybody who sees the promo.

The actual curating/arrangement of the show was an enjoyable, interpretive and intuitive process, which I think particularly worked well working as a group, because, despite some disagreements, it made discussion and compromise necessary and interesting. The space was very small, and an unusual area to work with, which again inspired compromise and prompted us to rethink and arrange work not only considering the pieces relationship to each other, but to the space, and coming up with some unconventional positioning. This process was an interesting comparison to the curating of The Big Walk show in the Lobby gallery; a different kind of show in terms of content, but the same in many ways; too much work, too little space; work of a very varied nature; awkward gallery space – stairs, doors etc... The results, despite a few to-be-expected hiccups, was satisfying, and for want of a better word, seemed to ‘click’.

I think that the issues we encountered after the fact of installing with regards to artists’ feelings towards the placement of their work is possibly an inevitable reality. It’s my belief that we were all considerate with the work, and personally asked each artist to attend the install at allotted times in order to discuss the placement of their work, but ultimately, decision making is the role of the curator.

It has been my intention throughout to conduct myself professionally, and efficiently. There has been repeated mention of the curatorial group not addressing other members of the group/discussing new information in person, however in order to work on this project as efficiently as possible, time has been of the essence, and it has simply not been possible to discuss projects/issues individually or in person. The students that have had issues with their work/equipment have been contacted my email and the curatorial team has devoted time to, and done their best to resolve any problems, and it’s my opinion that emailing has been the most appropriate format for this kind of communication, if not the most personal.

GCOP tutorial 29/03/2012

Tutorial w/Sally + Jason 29/03/2012

Jas: Have you got the essay?

Jess: I have, but only on paper.

Jas: I’ll read that while sally has a look at the artefact. What’s the title of it?

Jess: I have no idea yet.

Jas: This is great. So, you need a title. That’s the last bit that you need to worry about, it’s something that you can think about over Easter. This is great; what you’ve done is completely synthesised the relationship between that (artefact) and this (essay). Full of... although it’s about yourself, full of loads of supporting material that backs it up, which is a really good way of working. You’ve got your Harvard under control, which is great. You make a nice conclusion.
Okay, I might just think about this word... you say cagey?

Jess: Defensive, suspicious... stingy?

Jas: Because throughout this is actually really well written academically... cagey just doesn’t seem to fit. Fits on the everyday, but not on this.

Sal: I think there’s a language essence to it, which is good though. I know it’s hard to do it in an essay, isn’t it?

Jas: Oh no, this is wonderful.

Sal: I think words like cagey are interesting.

Jas: Okay, leave it in!

Sal: Oh no, I’m not disagreeing. In the context of the way you’re writing this, words like cagey have to be framed... we can allow it actually because there’s a language that you’re using... I’m just looking through, but the way in which you’re making your notes. There’s kind of an intentional way of critiquing that language, coming through it. Do you understand what I’m saying? And I think that’s quite interesting; it’s not accidental that you’re using that word. So, I think, it’s a little bit creative in that way. So it’s just the framing of it really, but it exists because it needs to.

Jas: I mean the writing is brilliant...

Sal: Because you’re not the only person who has diaried their life as an art practice. But the way that you’re critiquing the language as an art practice is inherent, through this. I think that’s interesting. I think you should celebrate that. This is great, these diagnostics there.

Jas: So this starts on...

Jess: About a month, maybe 5 weeks ago.

Jas: As an artefact this is lovely. Really, kind of, looking at, say, people like that... that notion of what Perec says, about documenting the little things. Until the plane falls out of the sky, you never notice the plane. So the idea that porridge makes you happy, you know? I love the materiality of it as well, the fact that bits come out. I would leave that in.

Jess: I think there is an aesthetic to it.

Jas: But the aesthetic is nothing without the academic material, and I think that’s really strong. What did you think of Sophie Calle when you looked at her?

Jess: I just think that she has such a sense of humour. I want to read more, but I didn’t get a chance; her book is always out! She’s very popular.

Jas: I don’t know if you ever saw the one she did on ‘exquisite pain’? It’s the one where she’s detailing the breakup of a relationship, but before and after. I think you need to look at that, I think you’ll love it. Not for this, just for yourself. You don’t need any more for this, you’re there. But yeah, that’s one you really want to check out, I think. Or the one that she did where she basically got an email dumping her.

Jess: And she shared it!

Jas: And that was brilliant, that kind of intimacy...

Sal: Jess if you’re asking questions; there’s a lot of questions in here... as long as you tackle them. I haven’t read down... but if you do in any piece of writing, if you do raise these concerns or niggles or issues; take them on. Or if it’s not going to be tackled right after, say ‘later’. Try and answer your own questions, because they’re really good questions.

Jas: It doesn’t need anything else really, does it?

Sal: The way that the writing is linked to the artefact is really solid. Just take them on.

Jess: Well I need to go back and polish and edit.

Jas: Don’t polish too much!

Sal: Don’t trim out the good bits.

So the things that I need to do to finish up my essay are:

Title it

Reword ‘cagey’. I’m not happy with this either. It came as part of a shorter segment that I wrote and pasted into the essay, and it doesn’t sit write. Reword and reconsider entire conclusion which was written very quickly.

Questions. I thought I had answered any question I posed, so if I have, I need to make it clearly that these are the point that I’m addressing, and if I haven’t, I need to go back and tackle them.
Add dates to references.

The Gower; Finding location

Big Adventure to the Gower; Decisions decisions

Kensa: This hasn’t been opened, I’ve been saving it. It’s been on my table, I keep going past it, ‘do I do I?’ but no, I’ll just wait.
So first thing is where? Isn’t it.

Didge: Wherefore art thou Gower?

Jess: I think probably the key is water isn’t it. And we need to be near enough to the sea that we can swim in it.

Didge: It’ll be interesting to see what we choose and how it looks.
Wow, look at the colours!

Jess: That is a good map.

Kensa: So that’s the main road... There’s a nature reserve there.

Jess: A nature reserve, and water, and a beach there!

Kensa: And a lifeguard station!
So what we have to be aware of also, is how busy... bank holiday weekend. There’ll be people.

Ew
Ew!
Quite.

Didge: It’s really beautiful isn’t it.

Kensa: They must be rivers.

Jess: Spidery... so that must be marshes mustn’t it?

Kensa: So it might be kind of...

Jess: Smelly...

Kensa: And muddy, sandy. Not beachy sand.

Jess: So what’s orange; is that beachy sand?

Kensa: That’s beach, yeah.

Didge: That’s where I’ve been before I think; only because we went surfing there.

Jess: What was it like there?

Didge: Lovely, it was absolutely beautiful. Sand dunes, there were lots of sand dunes.

Kensa: Is there a campsite there?

Jess: ‘Bracken, heath, or rough grass land.’

Kensa: Yeah, so you’ve got dunes. Is it big enough to be able to hide in, I wonder. Lose ourselves in. And woodlands.

Didge: I would say that because it’s a surfing beach, I don’t know how strict they are, but I should imagine that they are... there are people camping here because of the surf. And they probably have a look here for people that are camping... or they don’t! They just accept that it’s a surfing beach and can’t control it.

Kensa: There are lots of footpaths, aren’t here.

Didge: Is this like, rock?

Kensa: Must be. You’ve got woods here as well.

Jess: There are footpaths, but there’s not really anything at that point, is there?

Kensa: So that’s miles... oh right, so it’s not a massive area that we can explore. So it’s explorable before... we can kind of have a scout around.

Didge: I quite like the fact that here’s a wood here. I mean it’s not very wide...

Kensa: Woods would be good though, wouldn’t it?

Didge: What kind of land is that?

Kensa: Moorland? Mead Moor?

Jess: ‘Access land and woodland areas.’

Kensa: You’ve got all that as well, that’s ‘access land, boundary intent’. So it’s a mixture of... It’s open.

Jess: And it’s near the wotsit.

Kensa: So it’s not far, is it?

Jess: Near the beach, near a stream. And it’s not farming or anything, is it?

Kensa: No, I think it’s like, a bit like Dartmoor, don’t you?

Jess: Well that would be perfect, wouldn’t it?

Kensa: It would because I think this might be a bit public. We can get ourselves lost more. There is... oh, the Gower way.

Didge: Right, so this is it. Well, it looks like there’s a proper little walk there

Kensa: And there’s going to be lots of rivers, streams... There’s a well there, waterworks...
Oh that’s springs, aren’t they?

Jess: must be! It’s the start of those streams isn’t it? Well that would be perfect if we could be near a spring.

Kensa: And there are going to be places where we can park up.

Didge: This is a mountain, isn’t it? And it’s a... is it a Cairn on top? Is that a rock?

Kensa: A collection of rocks.

Didge: maybe we should head there... to the top of the mountain, pitch our tents!
Freeedommmm...

Jess: Well, I mean that area has got water. It’s a couple of miles from the sea which is kind of perfect. It looks like it’s not private land...

Kensa: but big enough to lose ourselves in.

Didge: Well that’s the aim, to lose ourselves.

Kensa: Park up somewhere.

Jess: Disappear.

Kensa: We’ll have to find our way back sometime... probably.
We need somewhere to park. There will be somewhere, we’ve got these little towns, they’ll have parking in them.

Jess: There are always lay-bys on those roads... I don’t know what the rules are surrounding them

Didge: Well there’s a telephone.

Jess: Useful.

Didge: I quite like the idea of heading towards the telephone.

Kensa: We’re going to come from up there, aren’t we? So that’s Swansea bay.

Didge: Is this Swansea down here?

Jess: Swansea is this sort of... collection. Which is where Dylan Thomas is from. And where Angela is from.

Kensa: look at this, Gower way or whatever it’s called. I wonder where it starts and finishes.

Didge: Oh my god, it goes all the way through Wales to... where? Where’s that?

Kensa: I don’t know, kitchen corner. So I wonder where it starts.

Didge: And what’s this; is this another surf bay?
I think the wind will be coming this way, won’t it?

Jess: So we’ll probably be quite sheltered.

Didge: If this is the place I was before it is quite sheltered... There are lots of sand dunes.
How do you pronounce that?

Jess: Llanelli? I hate Welsh.

Didge: You’re such a funny welsh person...

Jess: Only by blood!

Didge: ‘It’s just the blood!’

Kensa: ‘It’s only in my genetics!’
I’m interested to know where this goes...

Didge: What kind of pathway is it?

Kensa: ‘Recreational route’... Much like the coast path around Cornwall, it’s marked like that, isn’t it?

Jess: That must be what it is, like an official walk.

Kensa: So you reckon here? So we’re going to come from up there, and work our way probably down here, only the B road, and that goes right through... Or we can come down here and find something along this way.

Jess: Either way, it doesn’t look too difficult.

Kensa: Yeah, I mean there might be places along here where we can park.
So from here... Cillibion?
And that’s on the B4271.

Didge: B4272, A4118, A4216, A483, and then... Junction 47. Oh look, backwards!

Jess: So that’s how we get back to England!

Kensa: So which road is that one?

Jess: M4?

Kensa: I’m just seeing if the whole thing has got a name, like that one?

Jess: Cefn Bryn?
Gosh, well that was easy.

Kensa: So we can go anywhere there, we’ve got all these footpaths, all these places to find our way through and around./

Jess: We’ve got woodland, and we’ve got the beach.

Cefn Bryn ahoy!

Call 3

If there is a broader social context to my work then it is in my desire to communicate with others and invite them into the world that I see; a result of a general feeling of isolation and complete failure, or inability to communicate verbally. What I want is to share my fascinations and my observations of the world that I inhabit, and to, with my fellow human beings, work through the issues and confusions that I stumble upon with regards to belonging, geography, displacement, obsession, wandering, and what it means to inhabit a body, and a physical or psychical place. We can resolve these conflicts through experimentation, and through acknowledging and defining the struggles we encounter.

Some things that are interesting right now:

“My image of Iceland as a reflecting pool is the idea of using nature as a mirror and measure. It’s an understanding of oneself through a knowledge of what real, not imposed, limitations are. My experiences in the ice-and-ash desert interior of Iceland provided an especially accurate reflection. The desert is a mirror. It’s a self-contained environment. It gives nothing. What you take from the desert is who you are, more precisely... Inner geography is a plain knowledge of oneself, a kind of common sense gathered through repeated exposure to distilling experiences. Inner geography maps peace of mind in the world as it is and not as I imagine it.”
                                                -Roni Horn

“For dwelling-as-residing is not necessarily sedentary; not the literal absence of motion but finding a relatively stable place in the world is what matters in such dwelling. Such finding is possible even when in motion. The earth offers continual if sometimes uncomfortable accommodations as one moves across its surgace. If human beings may peregrinate in place, so they may also dwell stably even as they move from place to place.”
                                                -Edward S. Casey

Finding self

Where?
Why there?
What for?
How?

-The Gower
-Wilderness, escape, alien, empty, secluded, freedom.
Not Plymouth.
-Celebrate the present. Find a place that I understand/associate with. Break patterns. Rejuvenate – Bring inspiration back to the studio.
Understand self. Learn what I need.
-Explore landscape – Woods, water – Walk + move physical body. Photograph + collect the spectacular + significant.
Celebrate.

Be somewhere new with creative people.
Swim in the sea.
Walk miles and explore + discover
Leave Plymouth + college + money + people + everything behind.
Separate yourself from it.
Devote the weekend to using myself physically, mentally... Pushing myself.
Challenging.
Knowing what I love and need and replenishing myself with it.
A big ‘fuck you’ to all of this recording and rules and anxiety and shitness.
An end and beginning of something.
Big change.
Reality.                         

Calm and uncertain                 

Documentation
The work is happening elsewhere, out there, just for that weekend.
Impermanent, ephemeral.
Something made with the land. Made with body.
Record of an action.

Documentation can mean:
-Photographs
-Drawings
-Writing
-Video recording
-Sound recording
-An altered object (?)
-Collection (?)
-A Speech/presentation/combination of words/actions

From:	Jess Young
Sent:	02 April 2012 09:30:21
To:	Didge; Kensa

Hello ladies,

It was a long train journey yesterday, but I think I've decided the thing that I want to do for call3. It would be better if I could describe it to you both in person, because I'll need your help, but nonetheless...

As the Gower is a new place to me, without attachments, and it's exciting and we're planning it, and we're going to have a super time... It's all full of positive energy and hope... What I'd like to do early on the Sunday or Monday morning, is go down to the sea. I'd like one of you to write a list of words on my back in charcoal, of things that I would like to shed... Cleanse myself of. I feel that now is a time for me to sort things out... Clarify, renew. So I'll go naked into the sea with just these words and thoughts attached to me, and cleanse myself of them, wash them away, and come out refreshed and new and ready for the future... And I'd like this to be documented with photographs, which obviously one or both of you will need to do for me... What do you think? I can't think of two people that I'd rather have help me with this, as I feel you're the only ones who know enough about me and my work to really get my intent, and get it right. But only if you're happy to.

As soon as I thought of it, it seemed like such an important thing to do. A lot is changing, and I really feel like I'm beginning to have some clarity about what I want to do, and about who I am, but it's almost as if I need to clear the way...

My body is my vessel, and we're connected spiritually, so by removing my armour, and washing away all of these stagnating thoughts, physically, I will be psychically as well...

Love and warmth.

Jess

xx

Call 2: A Publication - Report

I have enjoyed the challenge of translating an element of my studio practice into this medium, and I feel for me, having it published and preserved this way has crystallised a part of my work at a key stage in its evolvement. Had this project been set at another time, I feel that my submission would have been a very different piece of work, and I would have liked to, had we had the time, have been able to consider more deeply how it’s possible to bring a wider visual communication of my work into this restrictive format. The book as a thing intrigues me, and this is a challenge that I intend to consider more thoroughly at an appropriate time. The unfortunate (but pleasantly challenging) reality of these short projects is that you have to be quick, you have to make something; there really isn’t time to ponder it or allow your work to develop and mutate as it would in the studio.

The issues with the book, namely the problem with the centre page, and bottom section of people’s work being cut off, and the issue with the quality of the A3 prints (which people have paid for), are all problems that couldn’t be fixed because of the extremely tight timeframe – obviously it was unavoidable in this instance because of the way the course has been written, but this has undeniably caused these issues. I would never want to organise a project this way, and I definitely would not respond to a call with such a tight schedule, or certainly not for a project of this nature.

I was, and still am unsure of the role of the publicity team. I think they put together a very useful and comprehensive website in plenty of time, but that was the only piece of publicity that I saw as I don’t have a Facebook (as many people don’t), and I do wonder how many people actually saw this website. Even as a member of the college, if I didn’t know it was happening, I wouldn’t have known it was happening. College email was only sent out the day before the launch. There was also been no mention either to us, or to the public/college of where the book will be available to purchase after the opening event, which I think it a vital piece of information.
It may have also been a good idea to have either a separate, or the same team working on the organisation of the opening event, as leading up to, and on the day, I was unsure of my role (or if I had one). There was a lot to do on the opening day that could have been taken care of in advance – e.g. food + drinks, printing legends, planning how the book was going to be sold, and a rota in advance for who would have to do this – I think the rota was a good idea.

I realise that a lot of these feelings probably reflect those of people not on the Curatorial team during Call 1. In terms of the curatorial module, it’s certainly a less valuable position not to be on any kind of team. The praxis element, particularly in Call 2, is so small, that without also working on curating/publicity, it’s difficult to take that much from the project. Obviously there was the task and consideration of how to translate your work into a publication format, but this has not been the focus of the project. Once completing this, I personally felt uninvolved (which wasn’t necessarily an issue, because it gave me the opportunity to work on my contextual studies), but it made for a very different experience to Call 1.

It’s not been an unpleasant experience working on the publication. It’s not really been an experience at all, as I don’t feel as though I’ve learnt very much except that I would never willingly put myself forward to be involved in a project that had so little time to execute it well – but I realised this while working on Call 1. It was disappointing how little involvement (none) any of us – including the publicity team – had in the actual production of the book. On the day of the launch, after it was requested, we were given a brief overview of the process, however as the book can be a vital form of communication or presentation for an artist, it would have been appreciated if this has been more the focus of this task- especially as each call is supposed to be directed at familiarising us with different methods of presenting our practices.

In terms of how I felt my work was represented in book form; the printing made my work a great deal greener - the colours to me are sort of ‘swampy’. I was aware that digital printing can and will alter colours, but after hearing about what a great job they’d done, opening up and seeing my work in green came as a bit of a surprise, and obviously if I’d known this would happen (Again a time issue, but if we’d had access to the dummy), then I could have countered this digitally, and the print would have been truer to my piece; this is only a little problem though. There is also the issue of having several mms cut from the bottom of the image – not as obvious with my piece as with some others, but I can see it’s there – despite them all being sized as specified.



Although the issues with my work have been relatively minor – my A3 print isn’t too bad, and my page in the publication could be worse – I understand that there are some people whose pieces have been seriously compromised, which is very disappointing, as for this brief we were required to hand the responsibility of how our work was to be rendered over to someone else. It's unfortunate that generally this project seemed to be dealt with hastily and artists' work handled insensitively, which is apparent in the final result.
That being said, however, we have all been given the opportunity to be published, and our work was celebrated at an off campus launch; a pleasant way to draw call 2 to a close.

Big Adventure to the Gower

‘The Big Adventure’ is the latest in a series of collaborative, offsite, art-orientated ventures, and will involve a weekend-long camping trip to the Welsh Gower; this is the first of the series to extend further than 24 hours. As a group we will be surviving in and exploring our surroundings, translating our individual practices into a form that encompasses the landscape we inhabit. 

Call 3: Sited/Off site

You are being asked to produce work that responds to a specific site or enables you to work off site.

A site can be: Physical or theoretical. Site specificity can relate to: The limits of site, fieldwork, action and public space and the cultural imperative.
                                                                Consider place and locality.

Does the work need an audience?
Consider Sophie Calle (1980) Suite Venitienne.

Your work should happen/occur during the week commencing 7^th of May.

You are responsible for producing appropriate documentation that may be used in a group exhibition in Studio 11 Lobby space entitled: “Call3”, subject to group consensus.

The documentation should be submitted by 12pm on Friday the 11^th of May, for group crit.

You should view “Call3” as an opportunity to work, alone, in a sited or offsite manner, bringing ONLY the documentation of this work/occurrence/happening back to the studio.