Art has
left the Building
Re:Call
Interview
1) When were you at Bournville School of
Art?
1996-7
2) What course did you study here?
Portfolio
Foundation: 2 years, part-time
(First year was off-site in Sparkhill)
3) Who were your tutors?
Ted
and Bob Jardine were my main tutors.
(Linda
Matti set up the Portfolio course)
4) What area did you specialize in?
Fine
Art Photography
5) What memories do you have of your
first day at Bournville School of Art?
I
loved it.
6) What memories do you have of your
final show at Bournville School of Art?
5
of us independently set up our final show at the Custard Factory, “THRU”
We
hired the space and prepped it, selecting works and invited everyone down for
the PV. It was a real turning point for me in terms of collaborating and
setting up artist-led stuff. I worked with 4 female Norwegian students, 2 of
whom I’m still in touch with now - I’m going to Norway next month.
7) What piece did you do for your final
show at Bournville and could you describe it?
3
series’ of large-scale, hand printed photographs.
8) Could you give just five words to
describe your experience at Bournville School of Art?
Spent
most of my time in the Darkroom
9) Could you indicate what creative
activity you have done since your time at Bournville?
Worked
in Video, film and TV production for 6 years, and taught creative video
workshops in Birmingham schools/community centres etc.
Started
to make my own work again, and completed my MA in 2009, at Dartington College
of Arts, Devon (which has since been closed down)
Teaching
Fine Art/Media: Falmouth University, Plymouth College of Art, and one year at
Bournville with Sean O’Keefe and Steve Bulcock in 2006/7.
Now
have a studio at Spike Island, Bristol (since 2010)
Practice-based
PhD candidate in Experimental Media (2015)
10) Could you describe your current
creative practice/ideas/work?
My
practice explores the poetics of media technologies; their capacity to infuse the
senses and visualise patterns of thought and physical sensation - especially
those at the edge of articulation, on the periphery of vision, behind closed
eyes.
11) Could you say a little about the
work you have chosen to include in the Re:Call exhibition?
Afterglow
(2007) is a collage of digital and VHS video, super 8mm film,
medical ultrasound and an electro-acoustic composition - made in collaboration with sound artist Helena Gough.
I wanted to address perspectives and
power relations that were embodied in certain technology and media and also I
became a little obsessed with this structure of Spaghetti Junction – as a kind
of monolith, as a body, and a site of fertile leakage in the city. So Spaghetti
Junction becomes this metaphor, explored and probed by different lenses…
Afterglow was a very intuitive collaborative
process – we simply passed film and audio materials back and forth to each
other, building these layers of sound and image that then started to fuse
together into a kind of structure.
Supported
by VIVID, Birmingham Centre for Media Arts
12) What are you working on at the
moment?
A
series of works that explore scale and space, through microscopy, satellite
imagery and 3D print.
13) What are your creative plans for the
future?
My
PhD gives me the opportunity to explore and develop new work over the next 18
months. I’m very fortunate as I received funding from AHRC to complete it over
3 years.
14) Is there anything else you would
like to add?
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