Art has left the Building
Re:Call Interview
1) When were you at Bournville School of
Art?
Between 2006 and 2009
2) What course did you study here?
Visual Arts by Negotiated Study
3) Who were your tutors?
Sean O’Keeffe at level 4 and 5 and Ruth Claxton
at level 6.
4) What area did you specialize in?
I was never a specialist at anything in
particular in terms of media and processes; however my ideas and thoughts began
to focus loosely around Psychogeography communication and the perception of
space.
5) What memories do you have of your
first day at Bournville School of Art?
Believe it or not I can’t remember my
first day; but I do remember locking my keys in the boot of my car before being
interviewed by Kevin Harley and Bob Jardine. Luckily the security guard at
Matthew Boulton College was also a car repossession officer, he managed to get
in easily… and I could pick up my friend Dan Auluk who was depending on me for
a lift for his interview!
6) What memories do you have of your
final show at Bournville School of Art?
It was exciting and nerve wracking at
the same time. I also felt proud that I was part of a show that had some really
strong work with people that were as dedicated as I was. My show was complex
with lots of old equipment that could go wrong. It was hard to get it to work
as I wanted. At one point the T.V. sets (there were 17 of them in operation)
had to be switched off as a heat haze and a burning smell had been reported to building
services. I had to get a fan to cool things down.
7) What piece did you do for your final
show at Bournville and could you describe it?
The piece was entitled Life by Proxy. Initially I set out to
interview as many people as I could in order to find out what life was like on my
street and from this make some kind of soundscape. Eventually it was became a
representation of the street where I lived and the people in it. The
installation was arranged like brickwork into a circular tower of 46 televisions
stacked five high; number 47 sat on a chair showing an eye level cctv style
image of the street being ‘overlooked’ by the others; and at the same time in
direct confrontation, metaphysically aware of each other. Not all of the T.Vs
were switched on; some were ‘speaking’ and others were switched on but unable
to find a channel, constantly searching and never settling on a channel; most
were switched off. During my investigations I discovered that complaints were being
made against me in the direction of a person on the street who was deemed as
the ‘correct channel’; this demonstrated the level of paranoia experienced by
some of the individuals that I tried to communicate with. Being an artist
didn’t automatically grant me access to all areas; I ended up with 12
participants. Initially I didn’t think that this would be enough, but it proved
to be the making of the work. In any case I hadn’t got any big ideas in regards
to socially engaged practice.
8) Could you give just five words to describe
your experience at Bournville School of Art?
Developmental, stretching, frustrating,
positive, transcendental.
9) Could you indicate what creative
activity you have done since your time at Bournville?
I basically followed my professional practice
plan. I continued to exhibit regularly and completed a Post Compulsory PGCE and
I taught BTEC foundation fine art last year at Bournville. My work is still as
diverse as ever in terms of media in response to my research.
10) Could you describe your current
creative practice/ideas/work?
I have learnt to recycle my work and
continually question what I make. I made 2 pieces of work entitled ‘Portal’ and
‘Beacon’ in 2006 prior to my degree; positioning myself in terms of what these
objects are and where they are situated has led to a raft of ideas in terms of
online and offline looking and searching, communication, travel and the
awareness of space in relation to this.
11) Could you say a little about the
work you have chosen to include in the Re:Call exhibition?
Yet again I have recycled Portal and
Beacon and their relationship to each other. The piece is entitled ‘Lets Talk.’
I find it interesting that although they are many years apart in terms of how
they operate technologically, they both have to occupy the same space in order
to metaphysically ‘see’ the world. I had a romantic idea that if they could
communicate this is the way they would wish to do so.
12) What are you working on at the
moment?
I’m currently working on a collaged map,
it’s going to be a bit of a task. Small scale work on a large scale.
13) What are your creative plans for the
future?
I plan to keep doing what I enjoy and
striving for improvements. I feel really focused on my practice.
14) Is there anything else you would
like to add?
I don’t tend to look at other artists
and think “I wish I could do that”; but I do look at my own work and think “I
wish I could do that better”.