Standpoint Futures Residency Programme

Anthony Schrag

An exhibition of work as part of Standpoint Futures Residency Programme

28 July 2011 12-8pm; artist’s talk and drinks at 6.30pm

29 July 2011 12-6pm

Focusing on the physical sensations of the body rather than intellect and/or ideas, Anthony Schrag’s practice falls within a grey area of artistic practice that combines performance, participatory events and socially engaged work.

For his final public presentation, Schrag presents the culmination of a project developed specifically for Standpoint and the surrounding area. The work explores the assumptions within social engagement agendas and public arts policy that advocate a utopian ideal where ‘everyone gets along’, and recognises that this is an impossibility. Instead Schrag suggests we embrace conflicts and divisions as a natural and positive part of culture and proposes a ‘good tension’ wherein alternative views and life experiences can exist side by side.

The works presented within the gallery space take the form of social research, remnant documentation and performative objects – all of which are being developed in conjunction with a social event engaging the residents of the surrounding Geffrye and Arden Housing Estates, taking place in Hoxton Community Gardens on July 23^rd. Along with this presentation of research, Schrag is interested in revisiting the white-cube gallery as a problematic context in which to present such forms of ephemeral material.

Recent projects include A Perfect Father’s Day?, Deveron Arts, Huntley, Scotland (Outcome of 3-month residency), 2011; Everything is going to be ok, TETEM Gallery, Holland, 2011; 3-month residency at ARE HOLLAND, Holland, 2011; 3-month residency at Deveron Arts, Aberdeenshire, 2011; 3-month residency at McColl Visual Arts Centre, North Carolina, USA, 2010; Roving residency with RSA Residencies for Scotland, 2010; Have you Found Any Yet? (Commissioned film Artlink/Faith in Older People, Edinburgh, 2010. Recent group exhibitions Up To Mischief, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, 2011; Venus + Demarco + Beuys, Craigcook Castle, Edinburgh, 2011; 9^th Helen Keller International Award, Sense Scotland, Glasgow, 2011; Midnight and the Mint, Pecha Kucha at Mint Museum of art and Design, North Carolina, USA, 2010; The 15 Project with Fahamu Peccou, Gantt Centre for African American Art, Charlotte, USA, 2010; RSA NEW WORKS, Residencies for Scotland at Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 2010. Website: http://www.anthonyschrag.com/ To access video documentation of works http://vimeo.com/user4785021

This special two-day presentation is part of Anthony Schrag’s participation in Standpoint Futures Development Residencies designed specifically for artists based outside of London. It will include a talk at 6.30pm by Anthony Schrag on Thursday 28th July, and an opportunity to meet and talk to the artist at any time during the two days.

The residency’s chief aims are to provide high quality, individualized opportunities to develop an artists practice and career, and to integrate London and the Regional UK art world to promote dialogue and interchange. Please see residency blog to keep up to date with the progress of each residency http://standpointfutures.tumblr.com/

Further information: Fiona MacDonald: 0207 739 4921 / [email protected]

Matilda Strang: [email protected]

Back in hot and sticky london after ricochetting off the stone monoliths of various UK cities like a wee pinball of energy, and its good to be back in the cool, calm and collected studio of Standpoint.

As I start the second part of my residency, I find I’m heading on a different direction than what I initially planned due to a change in priorities of some external bodies (such is life!) but am excited to get stuck into a new and what I think will be more fulfilling project, looking at the local community of Hoxton and the various estates around the gallery and how to engage with them.

While researching some new ideas, i came across what I had written on my “Research” period in February: “….within this ‘public realm’ work must acknowledge that we do not have to cross every border nor forge every divide. Sometimes, people and communities don’t get along. Not everyone likes everyone else. To paraphrase Claire Bishop (quoting Laclau and Mouffe in Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics) – “a democratic society is one in which relations of conflict are sustained, not erased”. And she further clarifies using the words of Rosalyn Deutsche: “Conflict, division, and instability, then, do not ruin the democratic public sphere; they are conditions of its existence.” By this she means that the utopian ideal where ‘everyone gets along’ is an impossibility, and instead we must embrace these conflicts and divisions as a natural and positive part of culture. They allow different viewpoints, different histories, different perspectives – and these must be nurtured as a natural extension of a functioning societal framework. To erase ‘Conflict, division, and instability’ (I call it ‘risk’) is contrary to the very nature of democracy, and to attempt to do that touches on the difficult praxis as “socially engaged artworks as social engineering.’ Perhaps I’ve been reading too much theory, but it is important we recognise this….

And while I have (thankfully) stopped reading all that theory, it reminded me that I think all too often, we get bogged down in ignoring tensions, and use art to make “the world a better place” rather than acknowledging that sometimes, the world is just fine without our meddling, arty fingers knotting things up. The question is, then, how to explore those tensions in a positive and productive way? It left me in mind of a tug-of-war competition wherein it is within the tension of competition that structure is formed; it cannot exist without people straining against and away from each other, but who are tied to the same rope: a sort of quantum entanglement of groups and individuals. And if we are all ‘connected’ – or, to use a less hippie-ish turn of phrase – if we all are entangled and indeed it is the tensions of entanglement that actually forms the structure of culture and community around us, how can we reveal that?

So, that’s what I’m wrestling with right now. or “tugging” at…

As they say: watch this space…..

Anthony Schrag begins his residency at Standpoint

Anthony’s residency began on Monday and will last until 29th July, with his public presentation of work taking place on 28th and 29th July, 2011.

Working primarily with the physical presence and participation of people, Anthony Schrag explores the phenomenological. Focusing on the physical sensations of the boy rather than intellect and/or ideas, the work takes the form of solo and collaborative performances, interactive installations, publications, interventions and sculptures, as well as a variety of other strategies depending on the specific context.

Following on from his two-week research visit at Standpoint in February, Anthony will explore the relation between ‘process-based’ work and the expectations of what art can (or should) do. Anthony will also be re-visiting the relationship between his socially engaged practice and the opportunities afforded by a conventional gallery presentation.

ts Beall began her residecny at Standpoint on 16th May, with her public presentation of work taking place on 16th – 17th June which included an artist talk. Plese see below for further details.

t s Beall – final residency presentation Thurs 17 – Fri 18 June

t s Beall – endless invasion and other works in progress as part of Standpoint Futures Residency Program

16 – 17 June 2011, 12 – 6pm

Artist talk and drinks 16 June, 6.30pm

Through the lense of modern reconnaissance imagery, t s Beall explores the notion of omnipotent vision and panoramic landscape structures as idealised, impossible constructions of vision and place. This ‘impossibility of vision’ is at the heart of Beall’s practice.

Referencing the content and aesthetic of historic panoramas and other landscapes and battle scenes as portrayed by nineteenth-century painters and photographers, Beall draws parallels with landscape imagery captured by contemporary surveilance technology. In both scenarios, Beall is concerned with the illusory effect.

She often constructs expansive works where the viewer is encouraged to physically engage with the space inhabited by the structures and screens she builds. While historical panoramas were shown in pupose built structures to heighten the illusion of space, for Standpoint the artist has chosen to fracture the moving image, reflecting our disjointed relationship to the images of war and reconnassaince that surround us. With this physical experimentation, Beall explores how digital media shifts our notions of place ­– how landscape is both imaged and imagined by modern technology.

For her final public presenation of work at Standpoint, the artist will show several works in progress, including studio presentations of exploserama and endless invasion. Exploserama is a cyclorama of never-ending explosions using found footage culled from online sources. endless invasion is a poetic presentation of paratrooper training exercises.

Recent solo exhibitions include Here Be Dragons, Colby Museum, Maine, (Catalogue) 2008/9; Untitled Horses in collaboration with composer Mary Bellamy, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, 2007; Light Blind in collaboration with composer Mary Bellamy, Brooklyn Fireproof Gallery, New York, 2006. Recent group exhibitions include A Stone’s Throw Away (Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art), Glasgow, 2010; COMPOUND, dewalab, Belfast, 2009; gleDinBow (Edinburgh Arts Festival), Travelling Gallery, Edinburgh, 2008.

This special two-day presentation is part of t s Beall’s participation in the Standpoint Futures Development Residencies programme specifically for artists based outside of London. It will include a talk at 6.30 by t s Beall on Thursday 16^th June, and an opportunity to meet and talk to t s Beall at any time during the 2 days between Thurs 16^th – Fri 17^th June.

See http://www.tsbeall.com and http://visiontracking.tumblr.com/ for information on ts Beall’s practice.

Simon Liddiment – An exhibition of work as part of Standpoint Futures Residency Program 2011

27 April 2011 12-8pm; artist’s talk and drinks at 6.30pm, 28 April 2011 12-6pm

Simon Liddiment’s practice is located somewhere in the transforming relationship between words and objects, in the visual and verbal slippages that occur between what may be spoken or written and the physical stuff of the world.

Locating and containing appropriate forms in response to particular observations, medium and format are defined by each individual concept, with his practice ranging from handcrafted objects to works appropriating a readymade aesthetic. The work is epigrammatic in the best sense – concise, paradoxical and witty – revealing an engagement with what could be either unstable or obdurate material – an everyday word that does not quite settle down, a choice of material so ordinary as to be almost hallucinogenic. (Who would think of making a work with language and a tea towel?)

As part of his residency so far, Liddiment has chosen to work with print, extending his interest in visual / verbal language relationships through the use of the litho facilities and expertise available at Standpoint.

Current exhibitions A Skvader Works from Norwich Castle’s collection and contemporary artists selected by Alex Sainsbury and Lawrence Leaman, a Contemporary Art Society centenary project, Norwich Castle Musuem and Art Gallery, December 2010 – June 2011. Recent exhibitions include Logo, 1×1 tábla billboard, Budapest, Hungary, October – November 2010, EAST goes East, Bunkier Sztuki and EASTinternational, Krakow Poland 10 September – 3 October 2010, SUSAK expo 2010 Susak, Croatia, August 2010, What a relief, Flowers East, London, July 2010, PRESS, RED Gallery, Rivington Street, London, May 2010, Presents, Wysing Arts, Cambridge, April 2010.

This special two-day presentation is part of Simons’s participation in the Standpoint Futures Development Residencies for Regional Artists program. It will include a talk at 6.30 by the artist on Wednesday 27th April, and an opportunity to meet and talk to Simon at any time during the 2 days.

The residency’s chief aims are to provide high quality, individualized opportunities to develop an artist’s practice and career, and to integrate London and the Regional UK art world to promote dialogue and interchange. Please see residency blog to keep up to date with the progress of each residency http://standpointfutures.tumblr.com/ Further information: Fiona MacDonald: 0207 739 4921 / [email protected] Matilda Strang: [email protected]