Art has left the Building
Re:Call Interview
1) When were you at Bournville School of
Art?
I studied a full time degree, graduating
in 2005
2) What course did you study here?
BA Hons Art & Design by Negotiated
Study
3) Who were your tutors?
Kevin Harley, Alf Pendleton, Bob Jardine
amongst others
4) What area did you specialize in?
Intervention, installation, sound
5) What memories do you have of your
first day at Bournville School of Art?
Wondering where all the people were, baked
potatoes and pepper sachets.
6) What memories do you have of your
final show at Bournville School of Art?
Relief and achievement. Excitement and
fear.
7) What piece did you do for your final
show at Bournville and could you describe it?
Exploring psychological shifts in
awareness, with a particular interest in film sets, I devised a vacated
scenario in the gatehouse and a sound intervention in the Courtyard. Dislocated
ringing from unseen telephones bellowed out in the courtyard, whilst in the gatehouse
an off the hook telephone spewed out a dial tone punctured with fractured
interference and a suggestion of intrusion. The piece was titled ‘Phone Rings’ and it went on to be shown
in the Midwest graduate showcase that year. Michelle Cotton from S1 artspace
wrote this about the piece:
‘In the darkness there's a low sound. A pool of yellow
light on a desk shows a typewriter, a stack of paper and an old phone, receiver
off the hook and broadcasting an unbroken dial tone. The typescript reads
ominously ''phone rings...''. Is the narrative fragment in Emily Warner's
installation begining or end? Are we being invited to imagine what drama
follows or peice together a story of something that has already taken place?’
8) Could you give just five words to describe
your experience at Bournville School of Art?
Fundamental / Relationships / Liberating
/ Forging / Directional
Since graduating I have worked as a
creative facilitator within an educational context and developed working
relationships with a group of artists as the Hive collective making and showcasing work whenever possible. I blog about things here and archive stuff here.
10) Could you describe your current
creative practice/ideas/work?
I am currently developing a body of work
created throughout a yearlong collaborative project called Chain Reaction. With an interest in gesture, motive, shift and change I am now exploring ways in which we interact and respond to
our surroundings, and the parallels that exist between our ways of being and
the external environment. I am exploring the medium of film as an output to
work with and revisiting my interest in the use of sound and audio.
11) Could you say a little about the
work you have chosen to include in the Re:Call exhibition?
I have presented a film sketch I created
during the Chain Reaction project.
Re:Call has provided an ideal framework for me to reconnect with this
particular enquiry which engages the changing light of a traffic signal in a
metaphorical sense. In line with the time frame within which the art faculty
has operated at Bournville I have presented a loop of film timed at 11min
11sec. I’m particularly interested in
how this relates to my focus on shift and change, comings and goings – a
vacated street saturated with the cycle of shifting illuminated instructions. I
have given the piece a working title of ‘Untitled
Agenda’ and have utilised a blank reel out of date office paper as a
backdrop for the projection. I am excited about the fact that the film, the
paper and the frame structure will generate new narratives once in situ, and
work in dialogue with Rebecca Gamble’s work (we studied our BA together at
Bournville).
12) What are you working on at the moment?
I am currently collating the collective
work I have been engaged in with Hive
and seeking opportunities to showcase our practice on a wider scale. I have
also instated a change of direction within my current professional activity in
order to focus more deeply on my personal practice and forge opportunities in
new directions. So currently happily lost in the present.
13) What are your creative plans for the
future?
I
am starting to devise projects that will place creative activity and output in
new contexts, and explore the relationship between art and leisure. I am
searching out residency opportunities and continuing to produce new work in
line with my current enquiries.
14) Is there anything else you would
like to add?
It’s a wonderful coincidence that at a
time when I have pressed the ‘reset’ button on my motion, I have found myself
back where I started - reconnecting with the foundations that put me in the
creative position I am now. The short story featured here
by Jonathan Nolan, heavily influenced my Chain
Reaction research. It wasn’t until recently that I realised it was also the
basis for the film Memento which
directly informed my degree work ‘Phone
Rings’. I have been revisiting a lot of my early processes, references and
concepts during recent projects, and it has reiterated the significance of the
arts education I received at Bournville. I am grateful to have been invited to
be a part of this project and the reflection it has afforded on my practice.