Trading Station

Thanks to Artist Talking for featuring this blog in their highlights this month, it’s good to feel as though I’m not just shouting into an empty room.

The building of relationships and understanding between all of the artists and the cities has been a great part of the project, and given the news in the past week, it would be remiss not to mention the protests in Istanbul. My short time working in the city, with artists based there has made me more tuned into these events. I’ve been picturing the spaces that are being mentioned and following things as they develop. Maybe this will develop into something else in future.

Conclusion

During our 2012 project, riPOSTe, all members of POST experienced significant family-life events which impacted on their capacity to manage the logistical side and contribute to artistic aspects of the project. During TRADING STATION, once again, life has dealt high and low points to each of the artists involved. These prominent life events take time and energy that would otherwise be used to develop personal and collaborative practice. If we had stuck to the model used in riPOSTe, we can realistically say that TRADING STATION would not have progressed past a single exhibition at Curve Gallery in Liverpool and the relationships, working practices and outcomes that have emerged from the project would not have happened.

The success of TRADING STATION for the artists involved has not been it’s critical acclaim or economic value, it has been the total reward of the experience which should be fully and consciously embraced to understand success; the way that TRADING STATION has adopted a flexible approach to presentation of artworks and exchange of people, developed use of virtual platforms for communication, afforded periods of reflection and the space for both collaborative and individual voices, meaning that members of POST have been able to continue to be a part of the project throughout the turbulence of life. The TRADING STATION model developed a more relaxed exchange programme, responsive to the artists’ life commitments, enabling high quality artwork and sustainable relationships to develop, which will positively affect the practices of all of the artists involved into the future.

Sustainability of international female artist led exchange part 4

· Development and sustainability of relationships. Having less of a focus on exchange of objects and more of a focus on the exchange of conversation and ideas has provided a more stable basis to produce individual works and collaborative output. Amanda Oliphant comments:

“A loose conversation, an email or tweet that links you to a stranger but where you find there are common grounds to explore. This is what I am taking further.”

The formation of open, two way relationships between us and the Turkish Artists and a deeper understanding of how individuals within POST work has helped us to be more resilient when faced with challenges. Contact with artists Gülçin Aksoy, Nancy Atakan and POST artists has been open and flowing, whilst communication with the group Atılkunst has been less direct and beneficial, with some of the artists in POST having never met the Atılkunst artists. This has felt like a lost opportunity, but the flexible form of the project has meant that this more limited communication has not provided a stress-point. The relationships developed between POST, Nancy Atakan & Gülçin Aksoy have been quality ones, that have continued in the longer period between newspaper publications without being forced and will hopefully lead to longer-term outcomes as individual and collective practices develop in future.

By developing our understanding of each other through a more gentle process of making newspapers and sharing conversations, we have been able to work better together as we come to understand our different approaches to our individual practices.

As our relationships (both within POST and with our partners) have developed, so has an adaptive flexible process for the artists involved. All of the artists involved felt as though they belonged to the project, being able to guide it’s direction, but felt that there was permission from the rest of the group to invest their efforts elsewhere when life events intervened. Cecilia Kinnear notes:

“Personally to belong to a project but then have the permission and understanding to step back when needed , yet remain included was a significant reward for me. Having witnessed from the side-lines many art or other projects fall due to rigidity and relationship breakdowns – has left made me proud and honoured to be a part of TRADING STATION.”

· Legacy work. Given the less object and exhibition focus of the project, artistic outcomes have been works that can be used in a different way in the future. Many of the works produced are in the form of video works, limited editions or printed material (posters & newspapers). These works have adapted to the ethos of the exchange, and offer each of the artists an opportunity to sustain that work in new locations into the future.

This has been considered in regards to the four newspaper publications, which are being collated into a limited edition collection to be distributed in Liverpool and beyond during Liverpool Art month. This will see TRADING STATION presented within a critical framework offering an overview of the project that can be shared with our professional contacts.

Sustainability of international female artist led exchange part 3

· Who is it for? By and large, an exhibition is staged for the audience who visits it. It is generally a one-way process, providing little space for artists to show a process, or a work in progress. During the production of a newspaper we have reflected on who our exchange is for. We have found that there is a juxtaposition between using the papers as a vehicle for us to communicate, and the newspaper as a product that is read by an audience. Because the newspaper is a ‘throwaway’ format, there feels like there has been space to make mistakes and try things out.; space to show finished work alongside emerging ideas; space to collaborate; space for individuals; space for a true exchange to occur. Yet there has also been content for an audience to consume; products (newspapers, artwork) that exist in a real place, meeting a public expectation of how art manifests itself.

· The collective voice alongside the individual voice. In 2010 riPOSTe brought up some issues over ownership of the project – who curates the exhibition, how is the project contextualised? This issue emerged again throughout TRADING STATION as each artist wishes to develop their own personal research through an exchange project such as this, whilst being part of the collective experience. The exhibition process does not provide the artists involved in TRADING STATION with the right space to develop a collective voice, as there is the expectation that a piece of work will be created and exhibited.

The use of a newspaper provided space for individual artworks within separate pages, and also provided space for a collaborative voice – whether through the feel of the publication or through a series of pages produced collaboratively. The use of a number of publications also allowed us to experiment with the ‘voice’ of the publication by transferring part of the creative process to our Turkish partners. In doing this we have experienced the way that artists Nancy Atakan and Gülçin Aksoy collaborate, learning how they are able to combine the visual and political in a form that has a single artistic voice. We have incorporated elements of this way of working into the later editions of the newspaper publication, attempting to give each edition a different feel, and to explore wider concerns around international artistic exchange. Both Robyn and Claire have noted how collaborative creation can ‘add to’ their individual practice but essentially it creates a different artefact to something they would each produce individually. Susan Meyerhoff Sharples comments:

“During this project I have learnt that by offering our Turkish partners the opportunity to participate in the development and decision making of all aspects of the project, ie: theme, format and content of the 4 publications and our exhibition during the Liverpool Biennial, our relationships are stronger and therefore more sustainable.”

With just the one delivery mechanism of a group exhibition, artistic output was limited. With an exchange of ideas, conversation, images, texts across a range of media (exhibition, publication, residency, discussion, virtual contact), we have found that there is more room for individual responses with greater depth and the emergence of a collaborative response to the exchange process.

Sustainability of international female artist led exchange part 2

· Using virtual methods to keep in touch. Over the course of the project we have experimented with a breadth of communication platforms including email, tumblr, twitter, facebook, SMS message, skype, creating a newspaper. We have realised that different communication methods work best for different people, and are trying to use those methods to best effect on a person by person basis. This has had it’s ups and downs, as in some cases the changing format and more organic and flexible structure leads to break downs in communication. Also, time zones, limited access to technology, and cultural differences have contributed to difficulties in communication. On other occasions suitable channels have been found such as SMS messaging, twitter and skype which have allowed communication between countries where it might otherwise have been difficult. We identify that frequent, clear communication is essential to keep everyone with a full, clear view of the developing project although this is not always easy within a developing project structure.

As the project has progressed, relationships have developed to a stage where direct communication, mostly by email took over. However this only worked following an initial period establishing methods of sharing ideas, using the varied methods described above. This is not only particular to our communication with the artists in Istanbul, we have identified that we can use these virtual methods of communication more effectively within the UK. As POST does not have a permanent base, and it is sometimes difficult to meet altogether, we have implemented the lessons learnt about communicating across countries to communicating from one end of Merseyside to another.

· Opportunity for reflection. The process of working together on five separate occasions (4 newspapers and 1 exhibition) plus times of exchange between the countries has built into the project key points where we can reflect on how we are working together logistically and how we are working artistically. This has produced more dynamic responses within this more open framework. We have been able to share working methods, artworks produced and critical ideas behind the work. Combining residency and newspaper production periods this amounts to 15 weeks when exchange and conversation has been actively occurring. This period of time is longer than would have been afforded by exhibitions only, and has produced a deeper, more dynamic exchange experience for those involved.

We are surrounded by a culture where ‘product is king’, where we continually make sense of our place in the world through what we consume to evaluate success. The ways of working that POST has adopted in TRADING STATION has provided a place to meditate on these at times uncomfortable tensions that are part of life. Rather than challenging the status quo, we have been trying to work within it. For example, Tumblr and the newspapers helped uncover the different reading materials, films or radio programmes which individuals were consuming in their culture, with the thought process behind our work being revealed by viewing each others research and thinking during the year. Cecilia notes how the process worked for her:

“having a kind of collective ‘dropbox’ made up of different media, particularly helped me understand in a much more tangible way, the practice and ways of working of my fellow POST members, as well as providing opportunities for cross pollination in my thinking when not together in person.”