Art has left the Building
Re:Call Interview
1)
When were you at Bournville School of Art?
2009 - 2012
2)
What course did you study here?
Art and Design (graduated as Visual Arts by
Negotiated Studies)
3)
Who were your tutors?
Ruth Claxton
Ian Evans
Steve Bulcock
Steve Perkins
Jo Newman
Cathy Wade
Sean O'Keeffe
Demitrios Kargotis
Manuela Antonio
Kelly Large
Stuart Whipps
4)
What area did you specialize in?
I didn't, I allowed my research to lead
what the most appropriate work will be
5)
What memories do you have of your first day at Bournville School of Art?
Upsetting the photography technician Graham
Bradbury by using his room without
permission and moving tables and chairs
around
6)
What memories do you have of your final show at Bournville School of Art?
Bit of a blur, no specific memories
7)
What piece did you do for your final show at Bournville and could you describe
it?
I had three pieces in the show:
1)
Palimpsest,
A slide show of the empty (blank) pages that separated the proposed
redevelopment plans of Birmingham post war
2)
BmF Re-code, A slide show of a deconstructed version of Buckminster Fuller's
Dimaxion globe
3)
A passage from
a Lewis Carroll story Sylvie
and Bruno Concluded
8)
Could you give just five words to describe your experience at Bournville School
of Art?
Enlightening, Liberating, Informative,
Challenging and Rewarding
I have continued with my curatorial and personal
practice(s). I have been awarded a Grant for the Arts by Arts Council to grow
my curatorial project VINYL as well as making new work for the Library of
Birmingham project: Reference Works. The Library project will result in a
publication and a show whereas the curatorial project will produce several
events over the spring and summer months of 2013.
10)
Could you describe your current creative practice/ideas/work?
Ever evolving, see question 9
11)
Could you say a little about the work you have chosen to include in the Re:Call
exhibition?
Hidden Structures
I have created a new piece for the exhibition based
on the cage-like structure that encases the bells of the Carillon atop of the
primary school next to Ruskin Hall. The school and Ruskin Hall was designed by
the architect, W. A. Harvey and was completed in the 1905. This interested me
because of where it was situated, in Bournville, a village designed to be the
ideal worker's environment. This socialist ideal reminded me of the revolution
in Russia that started in the same year as completion of these buildings. The
predominant art form in Russia at the time was Constructivism and so it was
that I chose to use the cage like structure as the ground for some
Constructivist inspired motifs. The choice of poster paint was based on seeing
the European contemporary to Constructivism: De Stijl in real life. I was
struck by how crudely they were painted and assuming that the Constructivists
would have access to the same materials and techniques I painted the structure
as such.
Important point to note about the work is the fact
that it shows two sides of the cage. This comes from the physical restriction
of viewing the Carillon in real life, the viewer can only ever observe two of
the four sides at any one time. Importantly it also alludes to the hidden
structure that is the Bournville Trust, the body that keeps the area in check
by strict management. The worker's utopia exists through the implementation of
rules and regulations.
12)
What are you working on at the moment?
See question 9
13)
What are your creative plans for the future?
To keep practicing and developing
To do an MA
14)
Is there anything else you would like to add?