Publications

Read the Social space interviews in full along with Becky Shaw’s Introduction and Matters arising.

Introduction

Being commissioned to explore the practices of artists working in social space is a tall order. It has become a well-rehearsed convention to talk of artists working in the ‘social realm’, ‘in society’ or in ‘social space’. Even though the artists invited to respond to my questions are not intended to cover all positions, responses show that they may hold no more philosophies, positions or practices in common than would be found in a group of, say, ‘painters’.

Whilst some consider the social realm to be the ‘environment’ of their work, others query whether social means ‘community’ and political means ‘government’. There are others who claim their work ‘objectifies society’ or is ‘anti-social’. A number suggest their practice only appears social through its medium and in reality isn’t at all. Some describe the networks that validate the visual arts as their place of work, and others describe advertising, politics, finance and institutions as social spaces. Many state that the social realm is not particular people or a defined place but rather every aspect of life that human relationships have created, including the art world.

Finding this expansive position is not, of course, an accident. Amongst the selection were artists deliberately chosen who did not work in contexts sometimes casually defined as ‘social’, such as ‘the community’, but who, together with artists who do work in recognisably ‘social’ settings, make a significant contribution to the interrogation of what society or ‘the social’ may mean. It seems that the question is, then, not whether a practice is ‘social’ but whether, as Mark Hutchinson says, it is critical and self-reflective of contemporary social structures.

Some artists identify themselves as ‘outsiders’, so that negotiation of the distance between them and participants, collaborators or wider society, is part of their work’s content. Others see their work as an attempt to be critical of society in a way that is not re-absorbed into what they consider to be an ineffectual art world. At the same time some artists consider themselves to be ‘inside’, or part of powerful institutions. There are also those artists who see their role as creating visibility for people who are considered outsiders. Several talk about their work as a negotiation of ‘belonging’ for themselves or others.

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in artists making work outside galleries, directly engaging non-artists in making work, and taking the social as subject or modus operandi. For a short while ‘social practices’, ‘socially engaged art’, relational aesthetics’, ‘new-genre public art’ etc were the ‘new black’ affording marginal practices greater visibility, leading to a seeming homogenisation of practices, encompassing very different intentions and methods.

Government agencies and arts funders are accused of using the arts to ameliorate social problems when conventional politics have failed, raising questions about the impact this has on quality in the visual arts and the autonomy of artists. Whether the current situation has been government-led or whether the cultural strategies have been created in response to a contemporary society fixated upon the loss, or desire to reinvent, community, collectivity, cohesiveness and belonging is impossible to judge. Rather than unquestioningly delivering government objectives artists are in a position to explore and question issues of social cohesion and inclusion. It is valuable to begin to think now about the relationship between art and politics, what role the arts might fulfil in the strategies of successive governments and consider the impact that changes in policy may have on artists’ practices and artists’ lives.

Becky Shaw, artist investigating relationships between individuals and wider society; co-director of Static Gallery with architect Paul Sullivan www.static-ops.org

Ricardo Basbaum

How does your practice explore social space and will it continue to do so in the future?

In the early 1980s my work followed a path indicated by ‘communication strategies‘ – I wanted to move some steps away from art languages to search contact with a possible audiences in terms of a different kind of perception and involvement... and this led me to work with a sort of logo strategy, with some logo design that was displayed outdoors and indoors, with some conceptual flexibility that permitted me to touch several means and disciplines. Some years later (early 1990s), I came to a new visual/textual strategy that brought to me still more possibilities of working with different media, and at the same time also opened a wide conceptual range of thinking. From then on, certain traces of my work became more clear and were developed into more specific propositions, always focusing in one way or another on the spectator’s/participant’s body. What interests me are the links between the physical body and its affective and sensorial layers – the subjective space of the individual as something visible and physical, turned to the outside (and not deep inside, not the deep ego). That means bringing attention to the interface layers of relationship between people, looking for ways of keeping connections active between the subject and the other, the artwork/proposition and the participant. What is proposed is a kind of game that implies some transformation, although I don’t care if the becoming is actually reached or not – I leave to each one the responsibility for this extra step. One part of my practice is oriented towards group dynamics and I have been searching for the successive stages that should be implemented to bring a set of people together, feeling they belong to a group; ie to work on the creation of links between several subjects and making them perform as a collective body.

How do you choose the projects you undertake? What type of space do they happen in?

Most of the time I work under invitation and try to adapt the proposition to the given conditions – invitations that come from the lines of the art circuit, from educational workshops or from the alliances of friendship. The spaces can be either the art gallery and museum or the outside space of the city and the field; I would say, anywhere. For me, the most important is to perceive that the propositions produce a particular kind of space linked to the body and to subjectivity – the layers that mediate the body and the art object or structure; the changing interfaces and layers between each person in the group, during the group dynamics. As in any art proposition, the work produces its own spatial pattern, which is not the same as the architectonic physical space or the subjective personal space. Wherever the proposition is activated, it brings its own spatial lines, intervening into the surroundings’ inside and outside areas.

How would you describe your audience and how is your practice disseminated and validated?

The potential audience for my work is anyone: I like to have different reactions of whoever comes to interact with the pieces and structures. But of course the work functions as a kind of ‘filter’ and not everyone comes as close as they can. I consider that the works have several layers that can ‘capture’ diverse forms of interests from the audience, establishing different levels of involvement. Artworks make people talk and I intend that the propositions might produce discourse – the most articulated one would be the criticism; a complex discursive mediation. Through the development of my projects, I came to a kind of self-sufficient strategy that operates in direct contact with the audience: the objective is to ‘contaminate’ the participant with a kind of ‘virus’ that would then circulate into one’s body, producing the ‘becoming effect’. It’s necessary to produce an intensive experience as a sort of artificial memory. Therefore the work invests in a body relationship, using the other as its support, a means to be carried on and spread around.

Where are the networks for your practice (people, interfaces, occasions) and how important are they to your practice?

The work is spread around by those who have experienced it, in different levels. In terms of the dynamics of the contemporary art circuit I like to emphasise the importance of a ‘politics of friendship’, that creates an important allies’ network which functions – in its best sense – as a kind of collective process of thinking. There is here a subtle rhythmic dimension which requires a careful listening... it is impossible to force the reception of an artwork and then it is necessary to conduct it in its own timing; at the same time, when the intervention touches a sensitive tissue from the social sphere it can trigger a truly energetic charged process. The intensive processes produce networks, with strong bonds between the participants. It is not a matter of the number of people involved in the process, but the quality of the fluxes that might run in between – its rhythm and intensity. Through the development of the proposal, throughout the different series of works, some tools and devices are made clear, permitting the work to stand as a proper ‘structure’ outside of everybody, capable to move by itself.

Ricardo Basbaum, artist and writer based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; co-editor and co-founder of Item magazine, co-directed artist’s collective Agora (1999-2003). Works at the Art Institute of the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro and is currently undertaking PhD research at Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.

Chance projects

How does your practice explore social space and will it continue to do so in the future?

For some time now we have been working with museums and galleries on projects that directly intervene in how they function. This has enabled us to practice with the technologies these institutions use to designate objects and experiences as art – exhibitions, publications, education and development programmes, etc.

It seems an obvious thing to say, but technologies that reproduce the work of the work of art, are primarily constructed through social networks; so, we found ourselves working with the social transactions of art. More recently we have followed these networks as they mesh with other social spaces, of advertising, finance, politics and so on.

How do you choose the projects you undertake? What type of space do they happen in?

It’s a mixture of opportunities. Sometimes we are invited to work with art institutions and we accept if there is a possibility to research, explore and engage in how they function, and if they enable us to extend interests we are already developing.

But quite often we initiate projects, like using a commission from Tate Modern to work with the Bank of England. Although most recently we worked outside of the institutions of art, for two years we researched amateur film-makers active in Poland under socialism.

How would you describe your audience and how is your practice disseminated and validated?

There is no one audience, it’s multiple and therefore impossible to describe. Of course the professional audience of one’s peers is closest and – to some extent – the easiest to engage with, so I guess that’s where our practice is validated. And yet at the same time, there is something thrilling about showing at the Whitechapel Gallery in London and having 4,000 people a week see the exhibition.

Art galleries and museums are cultural institutions that have evolved to disseminate the experience of art, so we try and work with them to get access to their audiences. Although we have also produced books, we participate in opportunities like this one, we lecture and teach; dissemination and engagement across a whole range of social networks is important for us.

Where are the networks for your practice (people, interfaces, occasions) and how important are they to your practice?

The social, economic, aesthetic and political networks of art are what we practice with and through; and they tend to congregate (although not exclusively) in institutions. No one is outside of these networks, so for us they are vital part of our practice.

Chance projects, artists Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska www.chanceprojects.com

Sarah Cole

How does your practice explore social space and will it continue to do so in the future?

My work is situation specific, depending on where and/or with whom I am working. I am motivated by wanting to examine the areas of friction, pleasure, conceit and conformity that social spaces have to offer. How do we behave, why do we behave, and should we behave?

How do you choose the projects you undertake? What type of space do they happen in?

I mostly work to commission – working in complex social situations demands a well-structured support system and an emphasis on process, if there is to be a responsive, responsible and critically ambitious product. My process could be considered a form of psychosocial archaeology. Work is mostly presented in the space in which it is made with the people who helped to make it, such as in a prison, hospital, a launderette, a youth centre, schools, leisure centres, the toilets in a nightclub

How would you describe your audience and how is your practice disseminated and validated?

My audience is participant, collaborator, agitator, spectator, viewer, critic, subject, victim and conspirator. Each situation offers a new model of co-authorship, and makes me evaluate my own integrity as an artist and facilitator. The work is mostly disseminated through a public event or screening, a small (free) publication and via lectures, talks to other groups and students. I am not overly interested in the work’s validation within the artistic community – if it is able to stand up to scrutiny by a non-art going public then that is my intention and reward.

Where are the networks for your practice (people, interfaces, occasions) and how important are they to your practice?

Networks are essential but I have never negotiated them consciously or with deliberation. I meet people in a wide range of places, not necessarily within the conventional circuits of the art world, and the potential for collaboration may initially be sparked by something as simple as a shared sense of humour. Finding people with a similar ideological belief and artistic ambition is fundamentally important, as is ensuring that any commissioning organisation understands the co-dynamics between artistic practice and social need, so that one does not become subsumed by the other.

Sarah Cole, artist and lecturer in social context at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London.

This interview was published in November 2006 Good Practice publication Negotiating your practice.

Robin Deacon

How does your practice explore social space and will it continue to do so in the future?

I don’t think my work does in any meaningful way as my audiences are generally required to sit down and shut up for an hour or so. So along with my use of designated performance spaces, my work operates in a very undemocratic and anti-social way.

How do you choose the projects you undertake? What type of space do they happen in?

It should be an instinctive process, but sometimes the project chooses you ie when the framework of a project is over determined by the overarching vision of curators, organisers or funders. This can be in the form of given locations, themes or categorisations that are in place before the artist has stipulated anything.

How would you describe your audience and how is your practice disseminated and validated?

Relatively speaking, I would have to describe my audience as either being small or tiny, and that my practice is validated by a small clique (of which I am part). Step outside of this clique (ie friends and colleagues in London), and often you find any supposed reputation is ultimately meaningless.

Where are the networks for your practice (people, interfaces, occasions) and how important are they to your practice?

Again, the networks are highly specific and localised – it’s a kind of self-perpetuating cottage industry. This has advantages and disadvantages – but as time goes on, I seem to be experiencing a high level of déjà vu in terms of events, people and situations.

Robin Deacon, live artist www.robindeacon.com

Lorrice Douglas

How does your practice explore social space and will it continue to do so in the future?

History and the vernacular have always been inspirations to my practice. For example, whilst based at De Ateliers, Amsterdam in 2002 I began researching the origins of Swing Jazz dance, training alongside Dutch dancers and internationally. Since then I’ve been developing my own performative works whilst exploring vernacular Jazz dance (Lindy Hop, Charleston etc) from a cross-cultural and technical perspective.

For me, there’s a link between moving to a new location on a residency and learning to dance. Being the newcomer is undeniably challenging, introducing a new language or vocabulary. You become a catalyst for change both on a social and internal level.

How do you choose the projects you undertake? What type of space do they happen in?

I prefer opportunities which are non prescriptive. I like to respond to an environment in an intuitive way, having time and access to research before I define what the project actually is. Whether it be shed culture in The Black Country; (Shedology 2003-2004), rural location (PAGEANT, Grizedale 2001 and 2002) or heritage site (Peckover House 2005).

How would you describe your audience and how is your practice disseminated and validated?

The participants at the location I’m working from are a vital part of the audience. Then there’s also a wider audience who have no prior experience of the social space I’m working with. In terms of output, I favour the public talk, intervention, or publication.

Where are the networks for your practice (people, interfaces, occasions) and how important are they to your practice?

That depends on the project itself. From individuals linked by their shared interest (Shedology) or communities existing in the locations I work in. The networks grow and become more complex with my experiences. They are all important in terms of sharing information but these social spaces don’t lend themselves to easy categorisation!

Lorrice Douglas, artist currently researching early twentieth-century African American folk dance; Artsadmin Artist’s Bursary recipient; projects include Shedology ‘An exploloration into the secret life of sheds’ www.thepublic.com, Pageant www.grizedale.org www.transartists.nl

lorricedouglas@hotmail.com

Functionsuite

How does your practice explore social space and will it continue to do so in the future?

We are interested in working with patients, staff and visitors, exploring collaborative relationships in the development of new artwork, whilst responding to the physical and social situations within psychiatric and general hospital environments.

How do you choose the projects you undertake? What type of space do they happen in?

The projects emerge and grow around and with the people we meet in four hospitals in Edinburgh and Lothian. Functionsuite projects that went into production were selected on the nature of the collaborative process as well as the area of the hospital environment/community being explored.

How would you describe your audience and how is your practice disseminated and validated?

Our audience varies according to the projects but it is jointly healthcare and arts audience. Our practice is disseminated mainly through publications, newsletters, books and our website. Also there is a significant role for word of mouth dissemination throughout the hospitals. The project is validated through feedback from the participants, reviews from the art community, research projects from a social anthropologist and monitoring through the funding criteria.

Where are the networks for your practice (people, interfaces, occasions) and how important are they to your practice?

Many recent projects have been temporary, time-based events and happenings. Audience and participants can become indefinable through the development of events – such as the knitting bees in the gallery, the guests to a lunchtime discussion, the audience in the Cameo Cinema during the screening of the Crime of Uglyfication film – and have a live experience; are able to respond in person and directly to the main collaborators. These events also create an opportunity for art and healthcare communities to meet. We also do presentations at arts conferences and healthcare events, produce publications and a website.

Functionsuite, project in psychiatric and general hospitals in Edinburgh and Lothian, exploring artists’ role in collaboration and research. Lead artists are Anne Elliot and Kate Gray.
www.functionsuite.com

Hewitt and Jordan

How does your practice explore social space and will it continue to do so in the future?

Our recent work is concerned with exploring the functions of art in order to question why art so often reflects the dominant ideas of capital. And whether artists can create an interventionist response in order to address conventional instrumentality of avant-gardism ie can art counter this and effect change.

How do you choose the projects you undertake? What type of space do they happen in?

We are interested in how issues of ‘public-ness’ are described and discussed therefore we choose to work in contexts and within projects that enable us to develop our understanding of what this might mean. We consider whether a project is useful in relation to exploring our current preoccupations.

How would you describe your audience and how is your practice disseminated and validated?

It varies for each project, and the work is usually developed with a specific audience in mind, as we are interested in the process of art practice from production to reception. In our most recent work Three Functions (of public art) the primary audience were those people who construct what art and public art is or might be, even though the works do appear in the public realm.

Where are the networks for your practice (people, interfaces, occasions) and how important are they to your practice?

The most important networks for our practice are other artists. We are interested in criticism and conversations in order to further discuss and develop our works.

We always collaborate in some way or another with artists, curators etc. We recently read the accompanying exhibition catalogue for ‘There is Always an Alternative’ (curated by Dave Beech and Mark Hutchinson) and noticed something they had written in 1992 about collaboration – they say “collaboration is education” – it sounds simple, but we really sign up to that.

Hewitt and Jordan, artists Andrew Hewitt and Mel Jordan www.hewittandjordan.com

Lubaina Himid

If a social practice means that it relates to communities and a political practice is one that relates to policy or governments my practice has been, for twenty-five years, political though I always believed that the audience for the work was Black. Now twenty-five years later that seems more than a little confused and confusing. It is important that whatever communities strive to achieve for themselves, governments must be made to help maintain and sustain that development and creativity.

How does your practice explore social space and will it continue to do so in the future?

In the work I have always tried to explore the blurred territory between safety and danger. There is an underlying and constant desire to re-instate the invisible creative contribution of the other to its place at the centre and to try to understand the meaning of belonging. Current and future projects continue these efforts to strive for an understanding and a shift in the wider perception of these issues.

How do you choose the projects you undertake? What type of space do they happen in?

I continually investigate ideas and experiment with materials colours and patterns in the studio, then when I am asked by museums to do a project with them, their agenda has to fit mine. If it doesn’t I don’t work with them. Work usually happens and has happened in publicly funded galleries/museums in Britain: Tate, V&A, National Maritime Museum, Castlefield, Storey, CUBE, Hatton, Bowes, ICA, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, but also the Leprosy Museum in Bergen, Peg Alston gallery in New York and numerous university galleries across the USA.

How would you describe your audience and how is your practice disseminated and validated?

Audience: those people who are not afraid to confront real issues of abusive invisibility, those for whom the struggle to belong is a fight for survival and those people prepared to take the issues of inequality right to the heart of policy making and governance. My work is seen in free spaces and continues through the distribution of free publications.

Where are the networks for your practice (people, interfaces, occasions) and how important are they to your practice?

My networks stretch across immediate/national and international communities of artists but I have occasional strategic conversations with a national group of publicly funded programme and education curators, museum directors, funders and cultural academics. All of these people have been vital to my practice.

Lubaina Himid, artist, currently professor and leader of MA Archive Interventions at University of Central Lancashire.

Mark Hutchinson

How does your practice explore social space and will it continue to do so in the future?

The ‘social’ and ‘social space’ are distinct categories. Both are liable to remain abstractions unless it is borne in mind that society (amongst other things) is constituted by the relationships between people. As such, society is (and all things social are) layered, structured and differentiated. All art practice is constituted by the social: the material conditions of art practice are the relationships between people. And all space is social space: the product of human relationships. Art cannot help but be made in relation to the social and to social space. The question is whether (for any particular piece of art or art practice) this relation is explicit, critical and self-aware. This will continue to be the critical question as long as we continue to live in capitalist society, which masks its unfreedoms under the banner of freedom.

How do you choose the projects that you undertake?
Where do they happen?

I am committed to a political and self-reflexive understanding of what art might be and what it is to be an artist. Certain commitments follow from attempting a critical and political understanding of one’s own position. It would be odd, thereafter, to describe what I do as an artist in terms of making choices (although obviously at one level this is what one is doing). Opportunities to do things arise out of discursive and collaborative practice with others. You do what you can. Opportunities can be to write, to talk, to do things, to meet people, and so on. Types of space come with the particularities of any given situation. I take my task to be to enter into a critical and self-reflexive relationship with the totality of the relationships in a particular situation: to give priority to the spatial constitution of a particular situation over and against other aspects would seem to be to engage in a type of fetishism.

How would you describe your audience and how is your practice disseminated and validated?

In Lacanian psychoanalysis, the term ‘big other’ is used to describe any external power or authority to which the subject looks for the guarantee of meaning. This can be seen clearly enough in belief in religion, history, nationalism and various forms of fanaticism. However, it is much more pervasive than that; to invert the formula, to manage without the big other is to manage with nothing: without the reassurances of history, philosophy and so on. In art, the idea of the audience is often an instance of the big other: an attempt to find validation, authority and meaning. My practice is the search for collaborators rather than the search for an audience.

Where are the networks for your practice (people, interfaces, occasions) and how important are they to your practice?

The idea of a ‘network for a practice’ presumes a certain idea of practice. The idea of a network is used to describe the relationships between people. It presents these relationships in neutral, quasi-naturalistic terms; what it glosses over is the unequal nature of the relationships between people in our current society: how relationships are corrupted and distorted by capital. If the relationships between people can be characterised by such diverse things as interests, solidarity, collaboration, conflict, exploitation and class antagonism, for instance, then to impose the sanitised term ‘networks’ upon these embedded social relationships is to misrepresent and mystify the material conditions of art practice in particular, and society in general. There are no networks in my practice: there are collaborations, conversations and allies; and there are disagreements and enemies.

Mark Hutchinson, artist, London; co-editor (with Dave Beech) of The First Condition. Recent projects include solo exhibition at Studio Voltaire and a poster for ‘It’s the Only Life I Know’, a Hewitt and Jordan project for Insertspace.
www.tempcontemp.co.uk
www.thefirstcondition.com
www.insertspace.org.uk

Kelly Large

How does your practice explore social space and will it continue to do so in the future?

My practice engages with the social because on a really basic level it explores communication, particularly how an artist or an art work communicates in particular contexts. I’m interested in how meaning might be amplified, distorted or even lost during the process of transmission and reception between artist, artwork and audience. The work is also mediated through everyday technology such as FM radio. These forms already help construct the social (and private) domains we live in so by using them as environments for art making the work is automatically operating within a social framework.

How do you choose the projects you undertake?

The project has to enable me to explore my pre-occupations at that time. I am often attracted to projects that offer a particular context as a starting point (whether that be an actual geographical site or an idea) but it is important that these ‘boundaries’ are ones that enable ideas to be expanded rather than constricted.

How would you describe your audience and how is your practice disseminated and validated?

My audience includes my extended peer group and the people located in or connected up by the context that I operate in. Projects can take up to a year to complete therefore audiences encounter the work at different stages of development and in different forms that include lectures, conversations and publications. These forms are usually more far reaching than the actual ‘art work’ itself and create a longevity or permanence that the work itself doesn’t have.

Where are the networks for your practice (people, interfaces, occasions) and how important are they to your practice?

Although recently I have worked with sound and radio I position myself within visual art and socially engaged networks rather than sonic art or experimental music networks because it is the formers’ language that I communicate through. Therefore I use the same people, interfaces and occasions as everyone else!

Kelly Large, artist using range of distribution mechanisms including FM radio and publications to explore processes of transmission and reception; teaches at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design.
www.static-ops.org/projects.htm www.curatingdegreezero.org

Richard Layzell

How does your practice explore social space and will it continue to do so in the future?

I often work with people in a way that interweaves with everyday life. Sometimes I ‘work’, do a job, or seem to. Roles are intrinsic and flexible: the artist as consultant, cleaner, waiter, planner, facilitator. Some are almost invisible, global projects, others are about specific communities or architectural spaces. I find this zone of activity continually challenging and engaging and expect it to continue.

How do you choose the projects you undertake? What type of space do they happen in?

Most cultural organisations are now seeking a real connection with the people they’re living amongst. Increasingly local councils and other bodies are seeing the potential for partnership with artists. A social space can be almost anything outside a gallery. The parameters continue to dissolve. I’ve made works in/for industry (seeing companies as communities), a collective of artists in Stroud, the people of Milton Keynes and Maidenhead, retired people in Liverpool, passers by in Piotrkow Trybunalski (Poland), Skyros (Greece), Prague, San Francisco airport and for passing canoeists, etc.

How would you describe your audience and how is your practice disseminated and validated?

I used to think obsessively about audience. Like ‘art’ I’m not sure that the concept of ‘audience’ works for me any longer. I think it’s about developing a relationship with people, place and ideas, like a kind of social architect, a performer who’s not performing, a planner with soul, or a friendly face. I hope that my practice has generated some small shifts in perception and opened up possibilities for other artists. I’m a professional. I look like I know what I’m doing. To some extent the work validates itself through staking out its own domain. My area of the ResCen website (www.rescen.net) has also become a dissemination source.

Where are the networks for your practice (people, interfaces, occasions) and how important are they to your practice?

Last year I designed a three-day workshop on networks for DIY2 (a training programme for London artists), because I increasingly feel that analysing and building on your networks (rather than obsessive ‘networking’) is the most productive way to operate if you’re working outside the commercial gallery system. I explore individual networks, artist networks, organisational networks etc. There’s a networking theory that almost any connection, however remote or seemingly disconnected (eg dog walking) can bear fruit. It’s an attitudinal kind of thing. I’m also keen on calendar and local rituals like flower shows, raffles, free lunches, car washes, tea breaks and rush hours.

Richard Layzell, artist, London, working in wide range of contexts including architecture, museums, artist groups, and communities, www.thepublic.com, researching the creative process as a member of Rescen www.rescen.net

public works (Kathrin Böhm)

How does your practice explore social space and will it continue to do so in the future?

We’re interested in the conflict and negotiation between the informal nature/social networks of public space and the more formalised or institutional governing structures of those spaces.

As part of our projects we introduce mechanism (conceptual and physical ones) which allows us to understand and map the make up of a particular public space.

We often use one-to-one activities on site in order to provoke, discuss and test current issues relevant to the site and the project.

As an art/architecture collective our joint practice is and will be clearly situated within public realm issues, and all current and upcoming projects also aim to further explore and clarify our interest in the social/social space.

How do you choose the projects you undertake? What type of space do they happen in?

Most of our projects are by direct commissions, some self-initiated.

We always work in relation to a social space itself and to its governing structure.

The spaces vary from open public spaces, like a park, to the social spaces within cooperations, community spaces, etc.

How would you describe your audience and how is your practice disseminated and validated?

Our audience are, on the one side, the users of the space we work within, and on the other, the institutions that are involved in running and governing those spaces.

Our involvement on site normally manifests itself in a tangible outcome, that can be communicated further, ie with Park Products we developed a series of items that could be traded, or with Layout Gasworks we developed a catalogue of proposals that could be implemented.

Where are the networks for your practice (people, interfaces, occasions) and how important are they to your practice?

Our networks are widely spread by now, after six years of collaborating together in various constellations and across various countries. As part of the British Art Show 2005/06 we will map the existing and expanding networks of our practice alongside the touring show in order to explain the context we act within.

Our partners and contacts vary from local authorities, community groups, art space and initiatives and of course very many amazing individuals.

Those networks are not only important in order to initiate and develop new projects, but they’re an essential part of what our practice is about: about new and existing overlaps between different networks.

public works, collective founded by architects Sandra Denicke-Polcher, Torange Khonsari, Andreas Lang and artists Kathrin Böhm and Stefan Saffer, collaborating in different constellations since 1998.
www.publicworksgroup.net
www.myvillages.org

Rebecca Reid

How does your practice explore social space and will it continue to do so in the future?

My practice explores form and purpose in public speaking and public building. I understand the term ‘public building’ to include both civic architecture and social housing. I work with the presumption that both building and speech are active in creating social significance. My work typically takes the form of a performance or a postcard.

How do you choose the projects that you undertake?

I pursue projects that afford me the opportunity to learn more about form and purpose in public speaking and public building. I consider myself to be working in my own interest. I generally access public funds or monies from private funders with a social conscience, that is, those that share something of my interests.

How would you describe your audience and how is your practice disseminated and validated?

Those giving audience to my work include the creative practitioner, the arts professional and the person on the street. My practice is disseminated by word of mouth and increasingly by illustrated text.

Where are the networks for your practice (people, interfaces, occasions) and how important are they to your practice?

I maintain professional relationships with creative agencies and artist-led initiatives. At the present time, the most important of these are with Artsadmin in London, and Static in Liverpool. This year Artsadmin have provided me with an artist’s bursary in order to work with a choreographic mentor – Sharon Smith. Static (Architect Paul Sullivan and Artist Becky Shaw) provide a critical thinking space. A notable example of this is the ongoing RE:Format project organised in collaboration with Darkhorse Projects.

Rebecca Reid, artist based in the UK, Artsadmin Artist’s Bursary recipient

André Stitt

How does your practice explore social space and will it continue to do so in the future?

All my practice is viewed as an evaluation of intervention in the present moment. This moment has a context – that context derives as much from a sense of a collective history, place, and memory as from a personal subjective reality. As such there is a direct correlation between the private and public. This is made manifest by the means of production/process – the identification of all art [and life] being focused on process. This process is based on the experience of a means of articulation through performance [all art making as a form of performance]. Every action is a performance of consciousness.

It is part of a history that places emphasis on communication via untried ways of thinking and doing. As such all artistic practice confers a sense of responsibility, contextualised by the integration of spiritual, political and social issues.

The exploration of social space is integral to this practice. The artistic means of production/intervention are explored and utilised as appropriate to the issues and concerns embodied in the context.

This can range from performance art [derived from the visual arts] to time-based practices that are now firmly established as an interdisciplinary methodology in contemporary art practice.

How do you choose the projects you undertake? What type of space do they happen in?

As I see my artistic practice as a continuous time-based process – all work being inter-related – projects tend to present themselves. Conceptually one performance or set of interventions will lead procedurally to the next stage [or project]. Freedom of choice is implicit and work can be directed to challenging and perhaps difficult contexts. These contexts can be viewed as conceptual [or imaginary] spaces. This space is then given a physical reality by placing it in a territory.

For example in ‘The Bedford Project’ an invented urban mythology based upon research and consultation was placed in the context of Bedford [a town in England] to create a series of ‘live’ and imagined manifestations. The physical space of Bedford in which these works took place was then processed by the media, [ie the infamous ‘White Trash Curry Kick’] this created dissemination and discourse that inhabited a national and eventually global space.

How would you describe your audience and how is your practice disseminated and validated?

The audience is wherever the work finds itself. You come from the centre and return to the centre. The centre is wherever you are. No need to survive.

The work is validated by its existence and disseminated by the imagination of present observers.

Where are the networks for your practice (people, interfaces, occasions) and how important are they to your practice?

The French artist Robert Fillou introduced the term ‘The Eternal Network’ some decades ago. Networks are fundamental to life and the process of being and doing. The Eternal Network signifies the free flow of information, energy and creative effort.

Networks are fundamental to art/life practice; through networks we maintain freedom, autonomy and community.

The networks in which I function are broad and inclusive. These vary from local to global – they include performance art networks, discussion groups and internet user groups to local practical networks for teaching, learning and organisation of projects.

A practical example would be TRACE – a gallery space that exists in my house that invites artists to make time-based work in a deprived inner city area of Cardiff. Internationally renowned artists are invited to live and work in the domestic context and to produce work for the public.

The extensive knowledge acquired through active participation in global networks enables me and members of TRACE to access the concerns of art activity at an international and intercultural level.

This awareness, gleaned from meetings with artists, viewing work in different contexts, and collaborating with curators and funding bodies, provides an insight into contemporary artistic exploration.

Through TRACE, the domestic and private meets the public to create an interface that brings the international and global experience to a social space in the local community.

Extra notes

Performance art practice over the decades has often been predicated on the notion of meetings: contact and exchange. This process has lead to international networks of artists that form fluid amalgams and manoeuvres in and around existing art systems exemplified in dominant culture. Performance artworks often identified as time-based or ephemeral activities are always temporary and often influenced by the place and the time in which they occur. As such they draw our attention to the very nature and process of art making and the connection or exchange made in the moment of the encounter and its function as a social/communal activity.

RHWNT, literally meaning ‘Between’ in Welsh, is offered as a significant encounter between artists, writers and teachers from different cultural backgrounds. It is through contact and exchange that these practitioners have defined a collective affirmation of similarity. The unique identity of Wales and its language within the UK, the colonial legacy and contentious economies of exchange embedded in its history has a significant correlation with Quebec. Furthermore the formation of performance art collectives, art run centres and initiatives is the foundation of much of contemporary artistic culture in Cardiff and Quebec City.

André Stitt, live artist, making performances at major galleries, festivals, alternative sites throughout the world since 1976; founder of Trace in Cardiff www.andrestitt.com

Una Walker

How does your practice explore social space and will it continue to do so in the future?

My current work involves an in-depth examination of the political, financial and administrative circumstances in which visual art was produced and disseminated in Belfast over a forty-year period, from 1960-2000. This work evolved out of previous projects looking at brain-function and memory, and one element of the work is concerned with how this information has been conserved in private/public memory systems.

I am undertaking this phase of the work as part of a practice-led PhD but expect to continue working in this area for some time.

How do you choose the projects you undertake? What type of space do they happen in?

Projects have tended to originate in one of two patterns: either I originate the project and go looking for a suitable space, eg when I was interested in military architecture and sought out military buildings; or I respond to opportunities or invitations to participate in projects initiated by others. I’ve worked in a range of public locations from airports to cathedrals in addition to various art spaces. Recently I’ve also been making digital work which increases options and stretches notions of ‘space’.

How would you describe your audience and how is your practice disseminated and validated?

The main focus of my work has been site-specific installation which can present difficulties re both audience and dissemination. Some sites can attract new audiences but the primary audience who see the work in-situ is always limited. A wider, and I imagine a mainly art-world, audience would know my work through documentation. In the last few years I have been working with video, audio and databases that expand the audience who can encounter the original work. I have been participating in festivals in unlikely places. I find it very liberating to mail works off into the unknown and let it make its own case without any further intervention from me.

Where are the networks for your practice (people, interfaces, occasions) and how important are they to your practice?

One of the most important networks for me is the smallish group of artists with whom I can discuss ideas, not only about our own work but also about the structures within which it is made. Some of these people I see often but most are scattered around Europe and email is the main form of communication.

Belfast has overlapping networks – the studio-groups, artist-run organisations, galleries, etc. Many of these groups have built up connections and networks with similar organisations not only into the south of Ireland but across Europe, North America and beyond. This creates a sense of being part of a ‘community of interest‘, which is important in avoiding parochialism.

Una Walker, artist in Belfast, exhibited in Ireland, UK and internationally for over twenty years. Her main focus is site-specific installations for a variety of locations; undertaking PhD within Interface at University of Ulster.

Gareth Woollam

How does your practice explore social space and will it continue to do so in the future?

The dynamic of my practice is actually quite anti-social. It objectifies the social and attempts to address the isolation of the individual and the difficulties and mechanisms of connection with the larger group. So, it contends with the social but is not involved in the creation of social capital.

How do you choose the projects you undertake?

It’s not set in stone, I haven’t sat down and determined a definitive list of priorities, but I judge the pros and cons of each opportunity and whether one (sufficiently) outweighs the other. They’re all compromised, but if the ‘pure’ opportunity providing enough headspace, dialogue, money, with an interesting context in which to work and publish does exist, it would no doubt prove disappointing.

How would you describe your audience and how is your practice disseminated and validated?

The creation of dialogue is a concern (inter-audience dialogue as opposed to artist-audience). So an idealised audience would be receptive to that possibility. My dissemination and validation constantly develops against the prevalent model of ‘self-promotion’ (or ‘career by numbers’), whilst continuing to make opportunities.

Where are the networks for your practice (people, interfaces, occasions) and how important are they to your practice?

It is pieced together from fragments based on respect (not necessarily mutual), allegiance, interest, integrity, and is extended through better networkers than myself on my behalf. This network is integral to my practice in defining the success of my communication, but once again as a mechanism for feedback as opposed to self-promotion.

Gareth Woollam, artist, Liverpool, co-editor of Static Pamphlet; practice explores social space, utopia and cartography and is principally disseminated through ‘The College of the Six Days’ Work’. Part of Darkhorse Projects, with Elizabeth Kearney, that is primarily interested in pedagogic structures and contributions to artists’ practice outside institutional frameworks.

Matters arising

The social contract

While a significant number of artists describe their practice as developing from ‘happenstance’, many others regularly fulfil project and residency contracts. Andrea Fraser¹ points out that if artists are contracted to deliver defined outputs then they are obligated to satisfy them. However most artists interviewed here say that commissions are only acceptable if they suit their own interests. What then, is explicit and implicit in such contracts?

The idea of artists as ‘autonomous’ from society was undermined by 1960s artists and critical thinkers. Does the increase in contracted working mean artists’ autonomy again becomes an important issue?

Should, or could, artistic practice offer more autonomy than other professions?

By calling artistic practice a ‘profession’ are there consequences for artists’ autonomy or criticality? Is it a contradiction in terms to expect public funds to commission artistic autonomy?

Do artists and commissioners inevitably hold oppositional positions? Is it possible or desirable to create a mutuality between the imperatives of practice and wider social and political issues?

Whether art contributes to social change is widely debated. Rather than delivering social objectives, many artists ‘question’, ‘explore’ or directly ‘challenge’ them. Can this heighten or change the perceptions and expectations of funders and government agencies?

Charles Esche² recently wrote that the word ‘performance’ means both a theatrical act and to carry out, or attain a target. He called for a greater recognition of the impact of art on its own terms, rather than for its instrumentality. However, by drawing attention to these dual meanings Esche doesn’t close down the possibility that art remains influential.

Negotiating value

Although artists focus on their own interests (which may be political or social) rather than those of an external body, they must to some extent construct a sense of their own value or purpose. However, the continuity of their work (getting new projects, funding etc) depends on achieving some degree of value or recognition for their practice as determined by the wider world.

Can artists’ work be validated by different sectors at the same time? While funding for discrete projects is often available, how do artists finance the essential work ‘in between’? How much does the quality of contemporary art practice depend on artists’ unresourced endeavour? Is it desirable or realistic nowadays for artists to aspire to full-time artistic practice? What are the cultural conditions that will enable artists to maintain a continuous, rigorous practice in the future?

While some practices in a social sphere have arisen from rejection of traditional systems of recognition and visibility, does work that is project-by-project essentially serve an art market that needs rapid turnover, high productivity and novelty?

Working project-by-project demands a kind of availability and mobility for artists that cuts across notions of family and commitment to location. Can these precarious types of practices be sustained throughout an artist’s working life or will new forms naturally emerge as notable artists in this field mature and develop different expectations for social and family interaction? Does working from project-to-project heighten focus or fragment thought?

Critical networks

Mark Hutchinson points out that talking generally of networks may hide inequalities. Instead he describes specific relationships: “interests, solidarity, collaboration, conflict, exploitation and class antagonism”.

Some artists describe a careful strategic use of networks of influence to build the effectiveness of their practice. Rather than describing their networks as a circle or ‘professional’ layer of activity, many artists see ‘communities of interest’ as essential routes for developing, critiquing and disseminating practice.

For some artists, the artwork itself causes a network, building a kind of structure or space which did not exist before. Rebecca Reid calls this ‘public building’. For Chance Projects social networks, whether of artists or finance, are the subject of work rather than an additional layer. For André Stitt the medium of performance draws attention to how the work is made in the moment of encounter. It is apparent that many of the responses see the time and space of making and reception as inseparable. Steven Eastwood describes this as the “promise of transforming the everyday, not through spectacle, but through dialogism”.

Although we tend to regard networks as positive, can they also be claustrophobic, overly self-referential and hierarchical?

Is it desirable for public resourcing measures to directly enhance critical networks? Does resourcing critical networks run the danger of mediating in private and fluid relationships?

Do networks form as a dynamic response to the problems of validation and visibility in artists’ practice? If so, is it possible to address these issues directly, or is this what artists do anyway?

¹Andrea Fraser, How to Provide an Artistic Service: An Introduction, presented at The Depot, Vienna, October 1994 http://adaweb.walkerart.org/~dn/a/enfra/afraser1.html

² Charles Esche, Foreword, Afterall 9, 2004.

We welcome written contributions in response to the issues and questions raised in Social space, contact edit@a-n.co.uk

Becky Shaw

First published: Future forecast August 2005