DOCSLIB.ORG

Artists Newsletter #1 the 1980S

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Artists Newsletter #1 the 1980S Supporting Visual Artists since 1980 Black Hole Club Artists from the Birmingham-based development programme unearth the past, probe the present, and look to the future Artist Interviews Q&As with Sunil Gupta, Keith Piper, and Lis Rhodes artists newsletter ISSUE 1/4 ALL WE EVER WANTED WAS EVERYTHING this is non-binding. Responsibility for success is ultimately the responsibility for success is ultimately the responsibility this is non-binding. Responsibility may be achieved by trying of the individual. Better results harder. * Are you still failing? Try smiling! aving forged our own path What does Ambience Factory do? failure and anxiety. Our through sheer positivity, we We founded Ambience Factory motivational speaking combats H are leading a generation of after noticing a gap in the market common excuses and self-pity. creatives through our life-changing for goal-oriented practitioners Take these examples: ‘SELLOUT IN 7-STEPS’ programme. who could compete in the global Setting out on an art ‘career’ can be market. We reorientate success You say, “I’m stressed.” daunting, but our new programme for artists from introspective We say, “You’re excited.” is swapping paintbrushes for feelings, purpose and achievement, You say, “I’m a woman.” ballpoint pens so you can stop to entrepreneurial business We say, “Do you want kids, signing on the dole, and start strategies to ensure they can or a career?” signing contracts instead! deliver the goods! You say, “I’m poor.” We are Sophie Bullock and We also operate at the strategic We say, “Get a loan.” Sophie Huckfield, founders of institutional level, ensuring Ambience Factory. We always structural barriers and a These excuses are simply knew we were destined for competitive environment is at the imagined barriers that hold you commercial success after our heart of all creative culture. This back from reaching your potential. productivity-enhancing workout model minimises the pool of talent And since our environment is routine, “Drop and give me 20… for ease of job selection, and impossible to change, change £MILLION” and our show-stopping produces adaptable and resilient must come from within you. motivational speaking tour, “The artists ready to fit into the mould of corporate takeover – of your mind”. the institution’s choice. Simple! THINK your way to SUCCESS! Now, we are pioneering the What do artists get if they transition to market-led art How do we do it? SELLOUT in 7 STEPS? practices for struggling artists. Read We believe in the power of The holy trifecta: on to see how you could uncover readjusting personal experiences Success. Fame. Fortune. your full economic value. and taking full responsibility for That’s a guarantee* Join us. Photo: © Krakenimages.com / Shutterstock There is no better time to be you, but better.™ Introducing Artists Newsletter #1: The 1980s Black Hole Club, Press On and Play, 2019. Photo: Cathy Wade. Guest Editor: Black Hole Club exchange, we wanted to build a future. Yet, time also For Black Hole Club, returning to the cultural landscape loops backwards. Our activities in the 21st century of the 1980s for this anniversary issue prompted many are founded on the networks and projects that have questions. The most pertinent of which was the realisation been distributed by Artists Newsletter. That a-n’s work that our activities were not to be framed by nostalgia. continues is something for us all to celebrate. We were split between wanting to connect with Julie Lomax, a-n CEO a time that is now historical, or for those of us who In the first ever Artists Newsletter, published in experienced it, articulating memories that felt visceral September 1980, a-n founder Richard Padwick and still present. We found echoes – conversations described the publication’s role as ‘the support of the that are still needed to create equity and access. We visual artist – fine artists, printmaker, photographer, also recognised surprising elements – for all of the craftsperson’. It’s a simple mission statement that has claims about digital technologies being millennial, we remained at the heart of the organisation ever since, found a staggering amount of resources and practices guiding a-n through four decades of political, cultural, connected to computing. and technological changes. The work we undertook is informed by our collectivity, Importantly, what was also made clear in that first knowing that we are better working together than editorial was that Artist Newsletter would be ‘an open- apart. In this year of isolation, sociability and line communication shared by all interested parties’. artists newsletter 3 Introduction Cover and pages from launch edition of Artists Newsletter, September 1980. Padwick continued: ‘It has not the resources nor the have been featured by a-n over its lifetime. These have wish to be a one-way information service. It will be a been conducted by Louisa Buck. Black Hole Club have clearing house for practical information and a means of chosen to include two of those interviews – Gupta raising issues significant to visual artists.’ and Rhodes – in this publication, with Piper also represented in a specially commissioned interview It’s in this spirit that a-n’s new series of four, quarterly by Birmingham artist De’Anne Crooks. (Online at guest-edited Artists Newsletter digital publications www.a-n.co.uk/an40 you’ll find more interviews has been conceived. Presented as part of our 40th with artists from the 1980s a-n archive, including Anne anniversary celebrations and the result of an open call to Bean, Chila Burman, Antony Gormley, Mona Hatoum, a-n members, each one marks a different decade of a-n’s Richard Wilson, Magdalene Odundo and Brian Catling.) existence and will be guided by a different editor/editors. The first sees Birmingham’s Black Hole Club taking on Elsewhere, Black Hole Club artists reference, reflect the editorship as we begin, of course, in the 1980s. and explore the 1980s through the lens of their own contemporary practice. From the witty satire of That formative decade was a time of Thatcherism and Ambience Factory’s ’80s-themed ‘motivational’ adverts the GLC, the Miners’ Strike, New Romantics, Goths and to Emily Scarrott’s letter responding to an artist’s a-n Acid House. A period, too, of LGBTQ+ rights campaigns classified from 1981, here the past, present and future and opposition to Clause 28; of CND and the Women’s mingles and aligns. Peace Camp at Greenham Common; of urban riots against institutional racism and unemployment. It As an art student in the 1980s these were mine was also a time of the Blk Art Group, and of artists as well as a-n’s formative years. It has been a pleasure emerging or establishing a practice – artists including to revisit this time through Black Hole Club’s editorial Sunil Gupta, Lis Rhodes and Keith Piper, the latter eye. a founding member of the Blk Art Group and now a member of a-n’s Board. a-n continues to be the sum of its members voices, and as we celebrate 40 years of supporting visual artists, Gupta, Rhodes and Piper are all interviewed for ‘40 it’s now more important than ever to join a-n and add Years, 40 Artists’ our series of Q&As with artists who your voice www.a-n.co.uk/join/ 4 artists newsletter Contents 1&36 12-14 Black Hole Club 40 Years 40 Artists: Wraparound cover, All We Ever Sunil Gupta Wanted Was Everything…, citing To celebrate 40 years of supporting lyrics from the 1982 Bauhaus visual artists, a-n commissioned song of the same name, as quoted Louisa Buck to conduct on Genius in November 2020. 40 interviews with artists, all Designed by Keith Dodds. of which will be published at www.a-n.co.uk/an40. Here, Sunil Gupta recalls starting out as a photographer in the 1980s. 15-17, 20 Larissa Shaw, Cathy Wade, 27-29 Suzi Osborn 40 Years 40 Artists: Lis Rhodes In Art Workers between Self- Lis Rhodes recalls her time as Organising and Resistance: A Short a radical artist filmmaker in the Politics of Disidentification, three early 1980s. In conversation with artists based at Minerva Works, Louisa Buck. Birmingham explore collective responses to artistic isolation. this is non-binding. Responsibility for success is ultimately the responsibility for success is ultimately the responsibility this is non-binding. Responsibility may be achieved by trying of the individual. Better results harder. * 30 Classified 21-26 1980s artist in cultural wilderness 2, 18-19, 35 De’Anne Crooks in seeks contact with others. Ambience Factory in the ‘80s Conversation with Keith Piper Are you stillAmbience failing? Factory – artists Sophie Emerging in the early 1980s as part 30-31 Bullock and Sophie Huckfield – give of the Blk Art Group, Keith Piper Letter their satirical organisation a 1980s is a key figure in the development A letter from the future responds to makeoverTry for A-N x smiling!AF: Are you still of Black British art. For 40 Years an ad from the past, reaching out failing? Try smiling! With design by On and The Need of Art to Rally, across space, time and isolation – aving forged our own path What doesKeith Ambience Dodds. Factory do? failure and anxiety.Birmingham-based Our artist De’Anne through sheer positivity, we We founded Ambience Factory motivational speaking combats Dear William by Emily Scarrot. Crooks finds links to her own H are leading a generation of after noticing a gap in the market common excuses and self-pity. creatives through our life-changing for goal-oriented6-11 practitioners Take these examples:practice. ‘SELLOUT IN 7-STEPS’ programme. who could compete in the global 32-33 …kruse Goes Back Setting out on an art ‘career’ can be market.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Gallery Guide Is Printed on Recycled Paper
    THE PLACE IS HERE 22 JUN – 10 SEP 2017 MAIN & FIRST FLOOR GALLERIES ADMISSION FREE EXHIBITION GUIDE THE PLACE IS HERE LIST OF WORKS 22 JUN – 10 SEP 2017 MAIN GALLERY The starting-point for The Place is Here is the 1980s: For many of the artists, montage allowed for identities, 1. Chila Kumari Burman blends word and image, Sari Red addresses the threat a pivotal decade for British culture and politics. Spanning histories and narratives to be dismantled and reconfigured From The Riot Series, 1982 of violence and abuse Asian women faced in 1980s Britain. painting, sculpture, photography, film and archives, according to new terms. This is visible across a range of Lithograph and photo etching on Somerset paper Sari Red refers to the blood spilt in this and other racist the exhibition brings together works by 25 artists and works, through what art historian Kobena Mercer has 78 × 190 × 3.5cm attacks as well as the red of the sari, a symbol of intimacy collectives across two venues: the South London Gallery described as ‘formal and aesthetic strategies of hybridity’. between Asian women. Militant Women, 1982 and Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art. The questions The Place is Here is itself conceived of as a kind of montage: Lithograph and photo etching on Somerset paper it raises about identity, representation and the purpose of different voices and bodies are assembled to present a 78 × 190 × 3.5cm 4. Gavin Jantjes culture remain vital today. portrait of a period that is not tightly defined, finalised or A South African Colouring Book, 1974–75 pinned down.
    [Show full text]
  • Donald Rodney (1961-1998) Self-Portrait ‘Black Men Public Enemy’ 1990
    Donald Rodney (1961-1998) Self-Portrait ‘Black Men Public Enemy’ 1990 Medium: Lightboxes with Duratran prints Size: 5 parts, total, 190.5 x 121.9cm Collection: Arts Council ACC7/1990 1. Art historical terms and concepts Subject Matter Traditionally portraits depicted named individuals for purposes of commemoration and/or propaganda. In the past black figures were rarely portrayed in Western art unless within group portraits where they were often used as a visual and social foil to the main subject. Rodney adopted the portrait to explore issues around black masculine identity - in this case the stereotype of young black men as a ‘public enemy’. The title ‘Black Men Public Enemy’ comes from the writings of cultural theorist Stuart Hall about media representations of young black men as an ‘icon of danger’, a metaphor for all the ills of society. Rodney said of this Art History in Schools CIO | Registered Charity No. 1164651 | www.arthistoryinschools.org.uk work: “I’ve been working for some time on a series…about a black male image, both in the media and black self-perception. I wanted to make a self-portrait [though] I didn’t want to produce a picture with an image of myself in it. It would be far too heroic considering the subject matter. I wanted generic black men, a group of faces that represented in a stereotypical way black man as ‘the other’, a black man as the enemy within the body politic” (1991). Rodney is asking the question: ‘Is this what people see when they see me?’ He has created a kind of ‘everyman’ for every black man, a heterogeneous identity.
    [Show full text]
  • Re-Recordings | List of Materials ------9 1) Selection of Material from the Recordings Project Archive, Policy 6 Documents and Art Documentation (ACAA)
    Re-Recordings | List of Materials --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9 1) Selection of material from the Recordings Project Archive, policy 6 documents and art documentation (ACAA) Recordings: a Select Bibliography of Contemporary African, Afro-Caribbean and Asian 5 British Art. London: INiva, 1996. Race, Sex and Class 5. Multi-Ethnic Education in further, Higher and Community Education, 1983 8 Box of Recordings Research Project and Drafts. Chelsea College of Art & Design Library Archive. Anti-Racist Film Programme. London, GLC, March/April 1985. London GLC/ London 3 Against Racism. 1985. The Arts and Ethnic Minorities: Action Plan. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1986 4 Ward, Liz. St.Martin’s School of Art Library: Collection Development, ILEA Muti-Ethnic 1 Review,Winter/Spring 1985 Chambers, Eddie. Blk Art Group Proposal to Art Colleges, 1983 Black Art in Britain: A bibliography of material held in the Library, Chelsea School of Art, 1986 Asian and Afro-Caribbean British art: a Bibliography of Material Held in the Library, 2 Chelsea College of Art & Design,1989. Art Libraries Journal, The Documentation of Black Artists, v.8, no.4 (Winter 1983) Black Arts in London no.50, 4-17 March 1986 7 African and Asian Visual Artists Archive (Flyer and cards) [Bristol],1990. Arts Council Arts & Ethnic Minorities Action Plan. London, February, 1996 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Artists’ multiples, artists’ books, ephemera and video Araeen, Rasheed. The Golden Verses: a Billboard Artwork… Artangel Trust, 1990 Chambers, Eddie. Breaking that Bondage: Plotting that Course. London: Black Art Gallery, 1984 Us and ‘Dem, The Storey Institute , Leicester, 1994. Postcard/Virginia Nimarkoh, 1993. Artist Book. The Image Employed, the use of narrative in Black art.
    [Show full text]
  • Re Imaging Donald Rodney
    Re imaging Donald Rodney 1 Introduction Reimaging Donald Rodney explores the work of Black British artist Donald Rodney (1961 – 1998). It is the first UK exhibition to examine Rodney’s digital practice, and through new commissions expands on the potential of Rodney’s archive as a resource for challenging our conceptions of cultural, physical and social identity. Donald Rodney was considered to be He developed his artistic skills during one the most significant artists of his prolonged periods of hospitalisation, generation. Mark Sealy, Director of resulting in him regularly missing Autography ABP stated in an online school, due to his sickle cell condition. interview with TATE Britain for their After taking an arts foundation collection of Rodney’s work; course at Bournville School of Art in Birmingham he went on to Nottingham “[Along] with Donald, Keith Piper, Eddie Trent, where he met Keith Piper and Chambers and people like Sonia Boyce, Eddie Chambers. Chambers and Piper Lubaina Himid. Those characters in my espoused the notion of Black Art/Black view are really quite seminal in terms of Power, which derived largely from beginning to create an articulate voice… the USA through black writers and he was really interested in working with activists like Ron Karenga. Becoming Exhibition new media and new technologies. One a prominent member of the Blk Arts of the great tragedies is that he was Group, RRodney highlighted the Reimaging Donald Rodney aims to The new works developed for the becoming very articulate within this sociopolitical condition of Britain in Donald Rodney, from encapsulate the digital embodiment exhibition include doublethink (2015), space around the end of his career”.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Curriculum Vitae EDDIE CHAMBERS
    Curriculum vitae EDDIE CHAMBERS www.eddiechambers.com African Art/African American Art/African Diaspora art history, Field Editor, caa.reviews, (http://www.caareviews.org / http://www.caareviews.org/reviews/2969#.VxlZGaX_R94) appointed August 2014, now serving a second three-year term Member of the editorial board of caa.reviews for a four-year term, from July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2022. Art Monthly Foundation Honorary Patron, (together with Liam Gillick, Hans Haacke, Alfredo Jaar, and Martha Rosler) Appointed June 2018 The University of Texas at Austin Department of Art and Art History 2301 San Jacinto Blvd. Stop D1300 Austin, Texas 78712-1421 EDUCATION Historical and Cultural Studies Department, Goldsmiths College, University of London, (Supervisor, Professor Sarat Maharaj, Internal Examiner, Dr. Carol McKay, External Examiner, Professor Stuart Hall) Black Visual Arts Activity in England 1981-1986: Press and Public Responses, PhD awarded March 31, 1998 Sunderland Polytechnic, Faculty of Art and Design, Fine Art Department, 1980 - 1983. BA (Hons.) Fine Art, 2:1 UT-AUSTIN APPOINTMENT Assistant Professor, Art History, January 2010 – August 2013 Associate Professor, Art History, September 2013 – August 2016 Professor, Art History, September 2016 onwards Inaugural Curatorial Fellow at the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, Fall Semester 2013/Spring Semester 2014 Assistant Chair, Art History Division, Fall 2015 – Summer 2017, two-year term OTHER TEACHING Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. Visiting Professor, Art History department, spring semester 2008, and spring semester and fall semester 2009. 1 Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. Visiting Professor, Art History department, spring semester and fall semester, 2005 and fall semester 2006.
    [Show full text]
  • Black Art, Black Power: Responses to Soul of a Nation
    Black Art, Black Power: Responses to Soul of a Nation Friday 13 October 2017 Starr Cinema, Tate Modern Programme 10.30 Welcome: Richard Martin (Tate) Californian Scenes 10.40 Kellie Jones (Columbia University), ‘South of Pico’ 11.00 Sampada Aranke (School of the Art Institute of Chicago), ‘Death’s Futurity’ 11.20 Discussion, chaired by Zoe Whitley (Tate) 11.50 Break; refreshments in Starr Foyer From Chicago and Washington to Lagos 12.20 Margo Natalie Crawford (University of Pennsylvania), ‘Black Public Interiority, Chicago-Style’ 12.40 Tuliza Fleming (National Museum of African American History and Culture), ‘Jeff Donaldson, FESTAC, and the Washington, D.C., Delegation’ 13.00 Discussion, chaired by Daniel Matlin (King’s College London) 13.30 Lunch New York Photography 14.30 Sherry Turner DeCarava (art historian) and Mark Godfrey (Tate) British Contexts: The Black Arts Movement and Beyond 15.10 Lubaina Himid (artist) and Marlene Smith (artist and curator), chaired by Melanie Keen (Iniva) 16.20 Break; refreshments in Starr Foyer Art in the Age of Black Lives Matter 16.50 Introduction: Mark Godfrey and Zoe Whitley 17.00 Barby Asante (artist), Kevin Beasley (artist) and Luke Willis Thompson (artist), chaired by Elvira Dyangani Ose (Creative Time and Goldsmiths, University of London) 18.00 Close; reception in Starr Foyer Biographies Sampada Aranke (PhD, Performance Studies) is an Assistant Professor in the Art History, Theory, and Criticism Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her research interests include performance theories of embodiment, visual culture, and black cultural and aesthetic theory. Her work has been published in e-flux , Artforum , Art Journal , Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies , and Trans-Scripts: An Interdisciplinary Online Journal in the Humanities and Social Sciences at UC Irvine.
    [Show full text]
  • Open Call for Creative Proposals
    Open Call for Creative Proposals Open Call for proposals for the Birmingham 2022 Cultural Festival: NATURE, TRAMS and BLACK ART 1 BACKGROUND In 2022 we welcome the world to Birmingham and the West Midlands region with a global sporting event like no other, as we host the Birmingham 22 Commonwealth Games. From March to September 2022, a 6-month arts festival will encapsulate and explore the spirit of the Games, and finally give Birmingham its moment in the spotlight. It will reach artists and audiences across the West Midlands region. The festival will aim to double the reach of the sporting events of the Games themselves - engaging at least 2.5million audiences and participants. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Our vision: To present an ambitious arts festival that will harness a once in a lifetime opportunity to positively disrupt the region’s cultural sector and inspire lasting change. Collaborative and original work by artists and communities will connect people, time and place, as we host the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Audacious, playful and inclusive, over 6 months it will entertain, engage and embrace at least 2.5million people, setting Birmingham and the West Midlands in a new creative light. __________________________________________________________________________ Our approach is focused on creativity, collaboration and Commonwealth, always seeking equity in artistic partnerships. Three simple curatorial lines invite and embolden artists to make artworks
    [Show full text]
  • Keith Piper Special Relationships - Debates About Black Art in America Influenced a Later Generation of Black British Artist’, Apollo, October 2017
    H A L E s APOLLO THE INTER NAT IONA L ART MAGAZINE FRANK BOWLING Keith Piper Special Relationships - Debates about black art in America influenced a later generation of black British artist’, Apollo, October 2017 EXHIBITIONS Special relationships Debatesabout black art in America influenceda later generationof black British artists, writes Keith Piper (the focus of a recent displa y, 'The Place is embed their practi ce as a too l of actu al stru g­ Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age Her e', at the South Londo n Gallery) , Bowling gle, encoding th e politica l ideo logy of th e of Black Power provided a tangible link between two histori­ Black Panther Party into graphic form for the 12 J uly- 22 October ca l moments. His attenda n ce at t he Fir st Party newspaper from 1967 onwards (Fig. 3). A Tate Modern, London National Black Art Convention, held in Wolver­ similar set of political alignments informs Dan hampton in 1982, put him int o contact with C. Chandler' s restru cturin g ofF red Hampton's Cata logue by Zoe Whitley and Mark the BLKArt Group, whose membe rs includ ed bullet-ridd led door as a gallery-based assem­ Godfrey myse lf, Marle ne Smith , Eddie Chambers , blage of fou nd and pa int ed objects . For Betye ISBN 9781849764636 (paperback ), £29 .99 Claudette Johnson, and Dona ld Rodne y, as Saar, assemblage is a crea tive strate gy in her (Tate Publishing) well as young UK-based artists such as Son ia subvers ive remodelling of the mammy figure Boyce, Lubaina Himid , and Rash eedAraeen.
    [Show full text]
  • Hyper-Possible Announces Full Artist List and Commissions
    PRESS RELEASE COVENTRY BIENNIAL: HYPER-POSSIBLE ANNOUNCES FULL ARTIST LIST AND COMMISSIONS ● The third Coventry Biennial HYPER-POSSIBLE will open in October 2021 as part of the Coventry UK City of Culture ● Centred around three historical art movements from the West Midlands, HYPER- POSSIBLE will feature a range of international artists, with one-third hailing from Coventry and Warwickshire ● New commissions address global and local concerns covering diverse topics from climate change to homelessness, involving communities in Coventry and beyond ● Biennial venues include Coventry Cathedral, Herbert Art Gallery & Museum and a new gallery for the city located above HMV Empire Coventry Dates: 8 October 2021 – 23 January 2022 Press preview: 5 October 2021 Today (15 April 2021) the third Coventry Biennial has announced the full list of participating artists as well as details of new commissions on display across Coventry and Warwickshire from 8 October 2021 until 23 January 2022. Referencing the radical nature of Coventry’s history whilst also signifying a positive way forward out of the pandemic, the Biennial will be titled HYPER-POSSIBLE and is a key visual arts event as part of Coventry UK City of Culture. HYPER-POSSIBLE will see more than 50 artists exhibiting in seven locations across Coventry and Warwickshire, including Coventry Cathedral, Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Leamington Art Gallery & Museum, Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, The Old Grammar School and a new gallery for the city, located above HMV Empire Coventry. The artists taking
    [Show full text]
  • Claudette-Johnson-Exhibition-Notes
    Upper Gallery 7. Figure in raw umber, 2018 12. Afterbirth, 1990 Piper Gallery 1. Standing Figure, 2017 Pastels on paper Pastel on paper 16. Reclining Figure, 2017 21. Untitled (with wool and leather), 1982 Acrylic paint, pastel and masking tape on paper Tate: Purchased 2019 Courtesy the artist and Hollybush Pastel and gouache paint on paper Pastel, gouache paint, silver paper, Rugby Art Gallery and Museum Gardens, London Halamish Collection, London leather and wool ‘Although I don’t believe that there is an Courtesy the artist and Hollybush essential truth that artists can convey through This work was included in Johnson’s important 2. Untitled (Yellow Blocks), 2019 1 7. And I Have My Own Business In This Gardens, London representation, I do believe that the fiction of 1992 solo exhibition at The Black-Art Gallery in Pastel and gouache paint on paper Skin, 1982 “blackness” that is the legacy of colonialism Finsbury Park, London, then led by Marlene Courtesy the artist and Hollybush Pastel and gouache paint on paper 22. Standing Figure with African Masks, 2018 can be interrupted by an encounter with the Smith, entitled In This Skin: Drawings by Gardens, London Museums Sheffield Pastel, gouache paint and ground on paper stories that we have to tell about ourselves.’ Claudette Johnson. A young Steve McQueen Tate: Purchased using funds provided by the ‘I wanted to look at how women occupy space. ‘Pushing the pastels around on oversized – Claudette Johnson reviewed the show, describing the works as 2018 Frieze Tate Fund supported by Endeavor I’d made a series of semi-abstract works sheets forces me to build the forms in a ‘overwhelmingly arresting.
    [Show full text]
  • Sonia Boyce Reader
    Sonia Boyce Reader Contents 2 Bio 3 Sonia Boyce - Gathering a History of Black Women 4 The Black British Arts Movement 7-12 Artist Interviews - various sources 13 Recent Work in Pictures 1 Sonia Boyce MBE is a British Afro-Caribbean artist and educator who lives and works in London. She went to art school aged 15, making large pastel drawings and photographic collages, exploring issues of race and gender in the media and everyday life. Since then, her practice has expanded to incorporate a wider variety of media, including performance, film, installation and sound - but her true medium is people. In 2007 Boyce was awarded an MBE for services to the arts, and in 2016 was elected a Royal Academician. Boyce is Professor of Black Art and Design at the University of the Arts London. “In the broadest sense, my research interests lie in art as a social practice and the critical and contextual debates that arise from this burgeoning field. Since the 1990s my own art practice has relied on working with other people in collaborative and participatory situations, often demanding of those collaborators spontaneity and unrehearsed performative actions. Working across media, mainly drawing, print, photography, video and sound, I recoup the remains of these performative gestures – the leftovers, the documentation – to make the art works, which are often concerned with the relationship between sound and memory, the dynamics of space, and incorporating the spectator.” - Sonia Boyce, University of the Arts London At age 23, her 1985 painting Missionary Position II was the first artwork by a black artist 2 acquired by the Tate collection – and only the 5th work by a female artist in the collection.
    [Show full text]
  • Anchovy – AH – a Posthumous Conversation About Black
    Artist Donald Rodney was a leading figure in Britain’s BLK Art group of the 1980s. Here, Donald’s artist friend Amanda Holiday, who set up a black artist student group at that time, imagines a conversation with him about black Turner Prize winners and nominees. A Posthumous Conversation about Black Art Amanda Holiday: Donald I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to me today. Donald Rodney: [coughs] Well this is an atypical scenario but typical Amanda Holiday but carry on… AH: Ok introductions first: ‘Donald Rodney who died prematurely in 1998 was a key figure in Black British political art in the 1980s.’ DR: Thank you. What year are we in now? AH: 2018. DR: Yo! AH: You may remember a conversation we once had, when you were in hospital once… DR: King’s. AH: King’s yes. It was a lament. You wondered whether we would ever live to see a black Turner Prize winner. DR: I remember that. I did not. AH: There was of course Anish Kapoor in 1991. 26 | A POSTHUMOUS CONVERSATION ABOUT BLACK ART | AMANDA HOLIDAY DR: He’s not black. AH: [laughter]. How did I know you would say that? He may not self-define as such – but we’re not going to get bogged down here. DR: Anish Kapoor is a wonderful and brilliant artist but the pigment he’s concerned with is not skin. His art is not into all this ‘hoo haa’ [laughter]. Not black politics. He’s about the market. AH: We’ll come back to that – wait till I tell you about Vantablack.I DR: Who’s she? AH: [laughter] Vantablack – the absolute blackest black pigment ever.
    [Show full text]