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On Saturday the 26th September I was involved in a charity event at the Three Tanner Bank, organised by a top man Nigel Divine, to raise funds for the refugee crisis. The day was a mixture of a ‘pop up’ art exhibition and live music. It was a terrific day and evening, but unfortunately I would assume like many of these events, attendance numbers were low even though it was spread all over social media!! (Charity fatigue, wrong choice of live music, austerity, other events on that day…who knows?) However, money was made and those that attended had a great time.

What intrigued me however, was the venue. The Three Tanner Bank is an old kipper smoke-house, found snuggled into the banks of the North Shields fish quay, that is being used for all sorts of ‘pop –up’ events. It is ‘rough and ready’ and has a real throw-back feel about it that reminded me of a bohemian 21st century version of punk/new wave venues in the late 70’s and early 80’s such as Spectro Arts, the Bridge Hotel, the Bunker, the Post Office, the Delby and Bambara’s. On the whole these places were free from ‘funding directives’ and ‘cultural outcomes’, and were mainly organised by individuals, bands and collectives to facilitate the playing of music outside the ‘mainstream’ (both live and recorded), and for some more of the entrepreneurial types, to make a few bob as well!  Sadly, as the entrepreneurs moved onto bigger and more profitable things, and Thatcher’s Britain took over these places and ideas, it all just seemed to just melt away, as I did in 1985 to find work in the south!!

So what am I trying to say? Is there a new wave of cult venues evolving? Maybe… Maybe I just moved away, grew older and missed everything in between, then suddenly found myself being asked to help in a great event in a venue that clawed back the memories of my youth.

For me, the event focused my ideas, especially after a post gig conversation with two artist friends who suggested that the integration of my video work, music and live performance suited my ideas and ‘soul’, much better than the closeted world of the galley system. The three-song performance video I put together for the event rekindled my enthusiasm to play live and to further explore these three creative elements of my work.  After the initial fear subsided and I got back into playing live again after so many years absence, I realised that the package I had put together (with a little fine tuning) would work.  The next step is to complete five more videos for the remaining remixed songs from my 2013 album CORRUPTION and organise my own ‘pop-up’ bohemian/punk event. As, after almost three years of trying to get people interested in my art, with very little success, I have come to the ultimate conclusion that no one else is going to do it for me. And why should they, I am an ‘outsider’ and I’ve never done ‘fitting in’ or ‘licking up’ too well.  So, wish me luck, if you have the love to do so.


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Last Friday I attended the second day of the ‘2-Day Conversation’ organised by the New Bridge Project in Newcastle for their 5th anniversary. (For those who do not know about this organisation it is an artist hub created by two graduate students in an empty office block in the centre of Newcastle consisting of artist studios, a bookshop, galleries etc.) My understanding is that this was organised as a forum to allow artists from the region, to discuss where art ‘is’ in the city and by that I mean what most people would pigeon hole the activity of ‘Fine Art’ in all its guises from film to painting, performance to sculpture and all that is glorious in between.  The day was nicely organised, but ultimately was far more relevant to those involved in the project and other organisations housed in the office complex, such as Vane and BD studios to mention just a couple, as it would be those that would be directly affected when the inevitable redevelopment of the area takes place. As I commented during the afternoon discussion, billionaire self-made men and women may fain interest in the ‘arts’, but it would be naïve to assume that anything else but the pursuit of capital is at the heart of their goals.

My first question is however… how many artists actually knew it was happening, never mind the rest of the public who might just be interested in this sort of event? I found out about it through a fellow artist, even though I am in contact with the NBP, as I am holding a self- financed exhibition there in December. Maybe I should look harder for these type of events, but it seems in the nature of this type of beast to create a somewhat insular and one might say elitist group of facilitators and participants. This  was confirmed by the members of the first ‘’conversation’ panel at the Baltic 39, which consisted of the ‘five white dukes’ (i.e. five white middle aged men similar to myself) drawn from the upper echelons of the  Baltic Mill, Newcastle University, Northumbria University and Newcastle City Council. All good fellows with minds and mouths in the right places, but not very representative.  However, that may well be said of the audience, but then, if invited one must attend.  The afternoon session held at the New Bridge Project gave way to a more eclectic and interesting group of white female and male speakers with the a poignant opening eulogy by a local writer/philosopher; all of which lead to a more creative debate.  (Side note.. loved the quote from James Joyce, but not everyone considers him  the bees knees of literature and social comment)

But I digress from the main theme I wish to tackle in this blog and that is that there was an awful lot of hot air about, well, ‘critical mass’ (I shall come to that later), culture, finance, buildings, billionaire oligarchs, inner city planning, but very little if any discussion about creation, the act of making and how to make this easier dare I say more democratic, or would that destroy the necessity of the ‘struggling artist’ image?

Throughout the day the diatribe about ‘culture’ was quite baffling.  The word was banded about like the carrot on the end of the stick to make the donkey walk forward in one direction (similar to the current all too popular boy band); a  direction driven by funding steams allocated from the Arts Council and other funding bodies involved with the arts. The dialogues all pointed  to the Graham Green ‘Our man in Havana’ approach, which if you know the story, concerns the creation of a wanted reality, for those who hold the purse strings, out of myth, with the underlying suggestion that within certain levels of the establishment the myth was all too readily known about. In return for jumping through the correct hoops and creating the wanted outcomes, (whether these are a myth or not), financial support would always allocated.  In my opinion this creates (as I suggested to the Lady for the Arts Council) a wholly undemocratic system where most of the artists in this country see very little of the 870 million pound budget. (x 4 if one includes capital made for subsidiary sources, which is very important of course in our capitalist system) Further, I would suggest that the general public who fund all this ‘activity and bureaucracy’ from their taxes and the purchase of lottery tickets (in my opinion a backdoor tax invented out of greed) access even less of this narrated culture…  A fellow artist next to me suggested that a better way to use the money would be to just give every artist (right across the arts) £5000 a year.  And why not, contrary to what many would believe as an uncontrolled hand-out, this alternative solution may well create quality work and a more radical and interesting arts ‘culture’.

The irony of all this, for me anyway, is that this funding of mainstream ‘culture’ gives the breathing space for the rise of sub, or underground cultures, which on the whole are far more interesting, creative, youthful and subversive. As a teenager during the 1970’s I engaged with two of these sub-cultures; one I like to call ‘agro-culture’ and the other, as perceived then by the ‘establishment’ the ‘anti-culture punk’. (Now maligned, mainstreamed and mainly misunderstood)

It could be argued that the 70’s agro culture grew out of the skinhead movement of the late sixties fuelled on a diet of  lovers rock ,  a love for Doctor Martin’s, stay-press trousers, braces and boredom on large council estates; oh and possibly football. I joined the periphery of this around 1974 as part of the Leam Lane Agro Boys, when the dress code had somewhat eased a bit and our ‘gang’ of boys and girls, who admittedly contained one of the hardest lads from Heworth Grange Comprehensive School, was more an assembly of oxford bags, star jumpers, brogues and pod shoes who were intent on under-age drinking and opportunistic mischief rather than hard core violence. (That’s not to say the odd affray with the Springwell Agro Boys and Windy Nook Agro Boys did not occur, but was always well controlled)

For me this sub-culture was the creative embryo of what graffiti artists now call  ‘Tags’ with each group proudly spraying an acronym of their name, for us LLAB, around the perimeter of their territory and, on mischievous forays  into rival gang territory,  anywhere you could get away with it.

A different branch of this ‘agro-culture’ was also very prevalent in Newcastle City Centre pub culture at the time, where fighting and glassing were an all too frequent occurrence throughout the 70’s and early 80’s. The town was awash with ‘meat –waggons’ that would harvest that nights crop of violent activity, deposit it into Pilgrim Street Cop-Shop, only to be patched up and bailed out the next day. (Excuse the agriculture metaphors).  This on the whole is now a faded black and white photograph, a heritage memory, the result, one could suggest, of the massive increase in the student population, the demise of football violence, but also the ever increasing multitude of large groups of visiting pissed ladies and gents dressed up to the nine pins and wanting to PARTY not fight. Apparently according to Guardian readers, Newcastle is now the leisure destination of PLC UK, if not the world. (I wasn’t aware Guardian readers visited Newcastle, but who would dare call a statistic a lie, eh?)

It could be argued that the neighbouring city of Sunderland may need to get into the PARTY before it bids for the City of Culture, as if reports can be believed, it still harbours (excuse the pun) a deep desire for this heritage ‘agro-culture’, I believe cleverly missed by the gracious Grayson Perry on her manicured cultural investigation tour of the UK. But hey, that might just tip the balance in its favour; one culture is as good as another you could argue, or is it? So good luck with the launch party on the 18th September, but I’d take your helmets just in case.

Finally, I could write an essay on the influence that the then, 1976 sub/anti – culture Punk movement had on the rest of my life, but I will refrain.  However, in the context of this blog, the influence this unfunded  ‘culture’ had on music, fashion, attitude, politics even art was in my opinion immense and still reverberates, especially in my life, nearly 40 years on. This movement was labelled subversive and a grave danger to ‘decent British values’…GREAT… where did it all go wrong? As the ‘decent British values’ are unfortunately still very much with us making the poor –poorer and the rich richer, in life and in Art.

PS. ‘Critical Mass’ –  God dam buzzwords and phrases that become all the rage for a blink of an eye are a pain in the posterior as far as I’m concerned and do little to add to any intellectual  or other conversations.  I always related ‘critical mass’ to the realm of nuclear physics not art, so I was baffled to hear it repeated over and over again during the day. I later found out that it also means …’the minimum size of amount of resources required to start and maintain a venture’. Then it all made complete sense…

 

 


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Not to coincide with ‘the role of art in music on 6 Music’ or Jeremy Deller’s musings on Warhol’s ‘Art Factory’, I released my new single Take the World this week.  This, like all the other musical output I have created, is released under the band name – Armchairanarchists and is available to listen to and download on all on line digital portals. (I have attached two links at the end of this blog) There endith the self-promotion!

I have been creating music in various forms for 35 years and you could say, what’s the point, who listens to it? Well, to quote Noel Gallagher (who incredibly was recently a guest on Desert Island Disc’s – read into that what you will) ‘If you can make music you should’. And so that is what I do but, what has changed in those 35 years, is the ability to create music to a high standard in your own home and release this work via the internet. What started 35 years ago as an angry post-punk 20 year old who could hardly put 5 chords together playing to tiny audiences in pubs, arts centres and colleges now at 55 has a world-wide audience.  I make no money, but through on-line radio over the last three years thousands of people all over the world have heard my music, some have even become fans!!! Madness!!!

So, the question in my last blog was ‘Is the creation of art enough?’ The answer to that is, yes. As, although my life has been pitted with disappointments I have always been at my happiest when I am creating (or drinking or just being with my beautiful patient wife), be it music, art, video, poetry, or just making or repairing things, even helping others to create through teaching. For me the synthesis of creative intellectual thought and practical making is a true joy and a challenge. And I must always remind myself that to have this opportunity, whether I have calved it out for myself or not, is a unbelievable privilege.

So all….Go forth and create!!!!

Link to single:

http://www.cdbaby.com/AlbumDetails.aspx?AlbumID=armchairanarchists3&_ga=1.251781705.1589986287.1440594518

Link to simple video for single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQtZylSnsjk


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The factors that allow art to be selected for competitions, art galleries and public spaces seem to be somewhat abstract and arbitrary, especially in my case (but probably many others as well).  As when fellow artists, artist models and members of the public view my work in the studio there is in general a bit of a loss for words when I explain the struggle to get the work shown or excepted anywhere.  This is of course the ‘struggling’ artist’s lot and we should no doubt be grateful to have the opportunity just to create work; as it is the creation of the work that is most important! Or is it? Whether age and a CV that shows an artist’s exhibition history with a huge gaping 18 year hole in it are factors, who knows; maybe the work is just not right at the moment, maybe I’m trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole and I just can’t see it. Whatever the case and whatever the truth I returned from holiday a week ago to find a raft of rejection e-mails.

However, whilst in Scotland we came across an Andy Goldsworthy public art piece in the Forresty Commission area at Cairnhead (north of Dumfries) and the hills surrounding. This work has links across the globe where, as I understand it, there are similar pieces in places where native Scots emigrated to. The work consists of a set of stone arches, the first emerging out of a renovated croft (picture attached). So, why bring this up? Most of the time this work is unseen, forgotten a work that needs to be found; it is not presented. I am not commenting on its merit, worth or its place as art, but it seems this type of work is more about the creation than the outcome or the acclaim, and it is this which I took from it.  A poem to finish this blog written outside the croft…enjoy and feel the history.

 

the silence in this stones

cries foul by which they speak

that line of lived souls whisper

such histories that none can hear.

 

red cracked sandstone arches false

freedom by which the valley calls

in centuries each effort lost down

in death, never thanked, profit taken.

 

then high (ho silver lining) did southern

uplands sing, by call of hawk, in

race of grass, through hissling trees,

but that’s all well now; good and gone.

 

Mark Carr 2015


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The little chinks of light that have appeared since project ‘Mark Carr as Artist’ began in 2012 have at times only just been enough to sustain this ‘living art form’.  So after the 20 watt bulb inclusion in a small group exhibition in north London, further rejections since have dimmed the light to barely a flicker.  As you can probably tell from these comments I have had a few dark days over the last month and contemplated ending project ‘Mark Carr as Artist’ once and for all. But then another idea or twenty pops into my head and off I go again on the roller coaster of creation and rejection.

So, as well as the on-going BLURRED project, which is heading for a ‘show down’ in December with a rather unusual rented  gallery space in Newcastle, two other projects, possibly even three are in the test tube being slowly brought to a simmering boil by an imaginary Bunsen burner…

Project 1 – Art as the Provocateur

Collaborating with a colleague, Martin Golan from the Biscuit Tin Studios, we hope to set in place a series of six ‘encounters’’ in the Biscuit Tin Gallery space from October 2015 to March 2016 ending in a FREE open art exhibition related to these.  Watch this and other social media spaces.

Project 2  –  Protest  ‘Living’ Art Work in support of Steven Gough (the naked rambler)

As an artist, long distance walker, but more importantly as a member of the human race, I do find it quite strange that people are ‘offended’ by the sight of a naked body in public, as there are far more horrific things to be offended by in this world than that.  Steven Gough has spent the best part of nine years incarcerated at her majesties’ pleasure without even going to trial. The vindictiveness and bloody-mindedness of our supposedly ‘fair’ society in all its guises from the justice system (what justice), the police, politicians and ’do gooders’ is beyond me; and for all of you who concern themselves with the cost to the taxpayer…over £300,000.

To support Mr Gough, I am hoping to create a replica of the The Long Man of Wilmington filled with naked bodies, taking homage from the work of Spencer Tunick.  I have contacted Steven and he has given his consent for the project.  The next phase is to contact Spencer Tunick and find a sympathetic landowner.

Project 3 – ‘Corruption’

The re-mixing and video performance of my 2013 album ‘Corruption’.

Wish me luck!!

PS.  Not going to get over to the Whitworth to see the Gerhard Richter and composer Arvo Pärt exhibition, looks and sounds stunning. Bugger!  Come on Baltic… BOOK IT!!!


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