Stephen Willats: surfing with the attractor. South London Gallery 1/6-15/7/12.
Mixed feelings about this show. Is it a rigid (male) structure, a system that isn’t really saying anything about the world today? Is it ‘socially engaged’?
He originally showed at SLG in 1998, interested in art institutions and how they operate in society. He set up models of ‘socially interactive practice’ that celebrated community, with public meetings in the local kicking and punching club, Baptist Church, Children’s centre etc. The meetings served to attract participants who would take part in workshops that involved a set walk in the local estate. Participants were given Super 8 cameras and were free to record anything they felt that had symbolic reference to the area. It seems that the process used to collect ‘data’ (and defining the framework) involved time and open negotiation, where participants were collaborating equally and using their own sense of meaning and language in creating the work. He encouraged people to create their own journeys and to engage in dialogue with visitors to the gallery: connecting the gallery and the outside context/community.
By contrast, for the current show he invited 14 artists (not local community) to create the work that is shown in the gallery. He defined two walks (Peckham Rye and Oxford Street) and each artist was given recording equipment and a brief or ‘data stream’ (eg facial expression, signs of order, space between people). The mosaic structure used to present the work looks similar to the show 14 years ago, but is this social engagement?
Thinking about my three words for the Summer of Love Project (hierarchy, equality and access) it scores pretty low. But I’m still curious and going along to the discussion on 19th July ‘From one thing into another’, which explores the influence of his work on a younger generation of artists.
