Students

Richard Taylor talks to three recently founded artists’ groups about doing it ’DIY’, progress so far and what the future holds.

Striving and surviving in the do it yourself art world

After graduating in 2008 and 2009 from various practice-based courses the following three artist groups started up with similar intentions to build self-supporting structures and illuminate peer formations generated during study. Almost a year on Sixes & Sevens, a Nottingham-based collective, Rubric Journal, a two-person curated publication in Wales, and The Mutual, that started out as a foursome in Glasgow, have a lot to show for themselves. And as their largely self-funded endeavours expand from recent-graduate perseverance through to established practice, it's a good opportunity to take stock. These accounts could be from any self-motivated 2010 graduate in a year's time - so here's to ways forward in a difficult climate of funding cuts! DIY activity is as prominent as ever.

A foursome with tangible force, The Mutual and its history

"The group was formed to thwart post-graduate hopelessness creating opportunities for young artists and it is our egalitarian manifesto that sets us apart from art collectives... artists and their work are self-elected, not selected, recommended to projects by their desire to continue practicing art in Glasgow." Jen White, The Mutual, 2010.

The Mutual's opening phrase imbues a romantic definition of their collective goal, installed with a compass set by professional practice modules during their final year at Glasgow School of Art. Carrie Skinner, Juliet Fellow Smith, Jennifer White and Amy Birchard then accepted the task of giving two fingers to the economic downturn to make their own way in the world. Ambition is not however without financial equilibrium and almost a year on they're enrolled on  Cultural Enterprise Office's 'Starter for six' programme, to formulate their practice into a constitutional business with legal status, enabling them to seek greater opportunities and funding for their artists.

With ten months of putting together shows, attending symposiums, managing screenings and panel discussions under their tightly fastened expenditure-belts they're now looking for premises to forward their business and focus their plans. But how much further can they get by doing everything for free?

Carrie Skinner says: "The desolate prospect of isolation and unemployment served only to stiffen our resolve. We decided that if there were no hope after art school, we would have to make some..." And so they did, but how do they plan to co-exist as members come and go: how will their 'mutuality' and fair-gain ethos stand the test of time as projects get more consuming, ambitious and acknowledged?

Their answer to this is to form alliances and set up shop with other groups in the city. Another artists' collective IRONBBRATZ have secured new studios in the centre of Glasgow, and as The Mutual are set to put on their biggest curatorial project yet (at The Glue Factory, a venue used for Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art and Glasgow School of Art's MFA degree show) they're also ready to nestle in to new premises: a hidden tower to continue thwarting hopelessness in the land.

A curatorial structure embodying many-a-space, Sixes & Sevens and their particularities

Twelve graduates from Nottingham Trent University collected their disciplines and curatorial interests to form Sixes & Sevens in November 2009. Whilst avoiding regular 'artist group' definitions they exist as a holistic umbrella-collective, churning out projects in the form of events, screenings, publications and exhibitions.

One of the members, Dan Green has said: "there's a multiplicity in our approach to an event or show; each one should reflect the interests of a few members (we usually have three curators for each) ... as such the content and location of an event can be vastly different from others." In their method of madness there's a consolidation and encompassing of artist representation: something of time and effort being shared over the group in its entirety. But what is the group exactly? 

"Committee is such a horrible word but I suppose effectively we become a committee setting up committee's... I'm not sure that word defines it well enough, but the group makes many decisions, handing responsibility on to smaller groups. Perhaps it's more like a board of directors."

A board of directors, a committee or a collection of artist curators, Sixes & Sevens define themselves aside from definition. However, as they resist concretising themselves by seeking premises - opposite to The Mutual - - such a nomadic ambiguity in their practice is proving tantamount to recognisable diversity.

But what happens from now on and how can such a construct survive when members could well move on to other things, or to other cities? To Green working with a large number of people is both a blessing and a curse and he acknowledges any waves of change that could take the organisation separate ways. 

"There are plenty of people to bear the weight of organising or implementing... I think the group will get smaller over time for various reasons and that streamlining will make certain decision-making and administrative tasks easier, but paying for things much harder. We are quite open to people joining, as long as they buy into what we are..."

Sixes & Sevens has had an interesting turn of events that says 'to hell with current economic and political shifts - lets just make the most of the skills we have learned and carry on regardless'. Resourcefulness is key to succession in their programme, but this really can be exhausting. So are we set to see how far Sixes & Sevens can go before they form a smaller and perhaps more resolute collective?

Two people with an eye for self-publication, Rubric Journal and their curatorial printing theme

Liz Evans and Joe Fletcher devised Rubric Journal in February 2009 after both artists graduated from Fine Art Sculpture and Fine Art Painting at West Wales School of the Arts in 2008. Their work permeated into curatorial issues with a drive for criticality and alternative artist representation: aspects of supported contexts in contemporary discourse they felt were absent in their region. They set out as two but look to expand through collaboration, the opposite direction of Sixes & Sevens, so perhaps they'll meet The Mutual in the middle.

Co-editor Liz Evans explains: "Rubric was first conceived as an extension of aspects of our individual practices, which were concerned with the possibilities of writing and curation as methodologies."

Despite the high level of production they manage, any lack in foreknowledge of the self-publishing process was surpassed by the production of the journal as a form of curated space that would function differently from a gallery space - they're just learning on the job! So in response a lack of gallery contexts in which to show the work of their peers, they produced something that could effectively be disseminated across the UK for all manner of audiences to pick up read and see.

Production costs are manifest however and as much as they 'do it themselves', funding is a key component for the furthering of their work. And they have the need to feed their ideas, one such thing they do not lack in. Ideas as such they put forward and structure under given themes for each publication.

"The initial intention of producing the journal was to develop a publication, which explored the theoretical and practical extensions of a particular theme, the first issue distributed in Autumn 2009 of the journal worked with the theme nascent, and was produced with the concern of what it means to begin... an organic structure maintaining an anchor, or centre of discourse."

As issue three is yet to be released their conceptual approach to production leads them forward, maintaining a critical context through something that roughly four times a year has physical prominence and durability.

How long can self-funded projects last in the realm of DIY?

Established organisations have stood the test of time by evolving or adapting to cultural climate change. Others have run the course of their resolve and taken on other projects separately.  A few out there exist with their original ideologies of constitution

Rubric Journal, Sixes & Sevens and The Mutual have responded to their environments, dealing with where the climate falls short and working hard to continue their interests. It goes without saying their success so far comes down to well-worked networks and the maintenance of good solid mailing lists.

However, whether it be an office to make a business along with interns, a smaller but tighter group that's more manageable, or a larger manifesto through curatorial collaboration in print, all three, as they busy themselves in their own pockets of the UK, necessitate more money to carry on. You would do well to see how they strike the balance!

Interested in contributing to Rubric? Or perhaps submitting a curatorial intervention?
www.rubricjournal.org

The Mutual are looking for interns to join the fold so get in touch
www.agsamutual.org.uk

Ask about Sixes & Sevens and join their blog
sixessevens.blogspot.com

Links

The virtual funding model - does raising support and funding through social networks and online media offer an alternative to the Arts Council? Read on »

The incomes and outgoings of self-employment - something all three of these groups is grabbling with. Get the low down and avoid carnage when it comes to considering your activities after graduation. Subscribers read on »

Other links to practical guides »

First published: a-n.co.uk June 2010