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Artists’ profiles

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Edited Edith Marie Pasquier
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Cover:
Vineta Kaulaca,
Painting installation (detail),
oil on canvas, 2004.

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2 a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES

 a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES

Conversation with the artist

Edith Marie Pasquier introduces her selection
of Artists’ profiles.

Contents
“I can however transcend the rational creatively. I made a series of thirteen
drawings in late summer 2004, during the two weeks after my final
diagnosis. Shock and feverish consideration of the implications meant that
I could not sleep, and I made a drawing each night, sometimes in the hours
of darkness, sometimes at dawn in a physical state of fatigued insomnia
Conversation with the artist 3
and slight hallucination. The flower-like drawings are images of organic
growth and blooming. On the fourteenth night my normal sleep pattern
Douglas Gordon 5 returned and the series ended.”

Zarina Bhimji 6 This moving extract from Ian Breakwell’s last diary speaks to us of how the link
between creator and recipient is so important within any dialogue around art
and artist. The artist provides a creative blur between the diary or the story as
Dorothy Cross 8 confidences and intimacies are written with an ironic detachment and the
reader is left to imagine the motives of the writer. When walking around the
Samantha Clark 9 exhibition, Diagnosis at the Anthony Reynolds Gallery in April of this year,
Ian Breakwell had all too recently passed away, but each work, each list of
Simon Faithfull 10 words communicated a story, a journey revealing the nobility of the artist, his
sardonic humour and the fragility of our existence. In reading artists’ stories
Hayley Newman 12 perhaps we too are involved within micro conversations that may offer insight
or allow us to simply observe some passage chosen by the artist. To quote
David Clarke and Simone ten Hompel 13 Breakwell again, “You get a mirror image of the person behind the diary based
on what he chooses to comment on.”
Artist stories seemingly hold a beginning, middle and an end. Some stories
Vanda Playford 14 are brief, a few hundred words and others longer, but even 2,000 words barely
summarises a journey of twenty years. Caught up in the brevity of it all, you
Kevin Reid 15 look for a peg to hang the whole lot on. A quick moment of satisfaction. With
no great realisation, or truth, are we disappointed? Is this what we still expect
Richard Wentworth 16 from artists and consequently art? Or are we unavoidably voyeurs to their
success and failure. The artist stories that follow do not fulfil some didactic
Damien Robinson 17 quest or manifesto, rather they re-present a keen meander through a-n’s
archive. At times this took place in Los Angeles or London, at varying times
Joshua Sofaer 18 of day and night and within different contexts. The voices of the artists who
remained long enough to generate a feeling of familiarity, or relevance were
selected for this collection. There is no immediate logic to the choice and no
Katie Pratt 20 hierarchy assumed in the process, only the variety of work detailed
demonstrates art means many things.
Vineta Kaulaca 21
Final thoughts
Yinka Shonibare 22 Contrary to my original premise I’ll start with a final thought, an end of sorts.
An end which is feared, imagined, realised or not. Failure.
Dan Willson 24 “So, Smith’s vision of European art was seen through crappy reproductions.
There is an endearing innocence to that – a bit like mishearing someone’s
words down a bad telephone line. Culture is always about Chinese Whispers,
full of poor translations. I like the possibility for misinterpretation.”
Richard Wentworth on Sculptor David Smith (1906-1965)
Richard Wentworth’s observations are interesting. The act of failure or the
failed act of art making is promising and productive. “Artists should
understand that life is made of little dances. It’s is not made of sending your
slides with a pleading covering letter…”. Douglas Gordon too, couches, his
successes and failures in the same bag, all jumbled up, even time spent in the
studio is “doing what you are not supposed to be doing”.
Why do artist’s flawed strategies and small failures attract us. Are they
more authentic, more honest, more endearing? Vitality and failure are strange
partners, but partners nevertheless as Annika Strom posits: “I guess it’s more
interesting because it creates questions instead of just answering a question,
a question only made by the artist… and it shows that the artist is fragile.
It presents the fragile parts of us all”. Culturally, it pinpoints the possibility
of failure lurking underneath the familiar systems and codes. By witnessing
others and our own failures, we experience the frustration of trying to live up
to a pre-existing model or expectations for art.
Failure is often the hidden shadow, the litmus test of action and inaction.
The moment of turning away. This is the dark subtext that is so often within
the “success” story. But is it? Douglas Gordon’s escape to Germany after the
hostility faced when he won the Turner prize in 1996 documents the paradox.
“I went to Hanover for six months and then Berlin for six. My German wasn't
that good, but the fact of not having immediate access to everything, the
estrangement, was fantastic. I had been working a lot with text, so I think it
made me more aware of the differences of inflexion in language.” The move
proved beneficial for his work. Importantly, failure questions what drives

3
Conversation with the artist
the artist. Why can’t I finish this painting? Why am
I driving myself so hard? Can I fail? Is there an
interest in learning how all things have an ending?
Beginnings
“It took me years of being an artist to think of
myself as an artist. For the first ten years that I
was an artist I kept wondering what I was going
to do in life. And then all the other activities
I tried were kind of calamitous. The only thing
I was good at and the only thing that ever made
me any money was drawing.” William Kentridge
A striking feature of many of the stories are the
beginnings. Some are long and protracted, others
urgent and obsessive. Beginnings that start again
and again. Vanda Playford’s continual dialogue
with two professions that of doctor and artist is
carefully documented. Dorothy Cross’s hesitations.
Yinka Shonibare’s eager misguided approaches.
Among those stories that reveal the false starts,
there are those who leave us guessing. Simon
Faithfull and Damien Robinson come to mind,
immersed in the here and now, we as readers are
asked to imagine where they have come from.
“The most dangerous thing that we can do to
ourselves is to carelessly accept a label that is
offered to us by a not always generous society
that seeks to reduce us to little more than one
single component of our rich and complex selves.”
Caryl Phillips in Necessary Journeys, speaks of his
beginnings as a writer and his need to see beyond
“an outer garment”. The all too easy stereotype of
the artist working in the European tradition brings
to mind an ego-driven individualist, however, the
considered and sometimes tense relationship
between individual actualisation and the collective
is manifested in many of the stories gathered.
It seems that contemporary culture is insistent
for rapid and drastic change. Because artists are
uniquely capable of both initiating and adapting
to change, art forms are evolving all around us.
Many of the artists featured have attempted to
construct their ‘selves’ without relying on the
perspective of the first person singular.
“I don’t know where pictures originate, they are
just there at some moment. Of course, I know
when they are set off by something I’ve seen,
but even when I am seeing what later becomes a
picture, I am not sure I am seeing a picture or I
am just seeing something happen and I am not
photographing it.” Jeff Wall
4 a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES
continued
Mischief in the middle
For the record, middles are never easy. After the beginning, what next? Artists
are not silent participants in the discourses about the visual arts. Surely it is
the innovation and vision of artists that leads dialogue. The artist stories in
this collection offer no simple answers or resolutions but like all engaging
works of art they present a space for the interaction and exchange of ideas.
“You don’t have to have a gallery to be an artist whose work is respected.
You can do art in many ways, and you can be an artist anywhere.”
Jan Harrison
The artist Susan Hiller describes that productively ambiguous space between
the artwork and the audience as a “fruitful incoherence”, the space between the
intention of the artist and the interpretation of the viewer. Over the din of
competing polyphonic narrations, the artists comment on the issues arising
from their practice that are of concern to both audience and maker.
Contradictions abound as works circulate endlessly around an expanding
global site. The trope of any artistic identity is blurred and the edge between
the real and the fake becomes unclear.
“I feel that being an artist is about faith, you are always delving into the
darkness in pursuit of newness”. Dorothy Cross
At times it now appears as if one has arrived in a dark and floating art world,
where everything has come loose from its moorings, and one is again forced
to trust intuition and instinct, more than the residues of knowledge that have
mapped the art’s journey so far. The artists in this collection have often found
themselves in an unknown space driven by the desire to get a different tack on
the here and now. Katie Pratt, Hayley Newman, Zarina Bhimji all attempt to
open a blank page for a new visual inscription. The challenge for contemporary
art across the artforms is that it offers an adventure into the beyond.
“As a student I tried to develop everything so fast, because I always felt like
I’m late for everything. In the beginning it was good, but it doesn’t finish
good. As an artist you need to be as calm as you can be.” Arnaldo Morales
The role of circulating dialogues is that it opens ways of seeing and ways of
making art, shaped by cultural crossing, the work cannot be reduced to closed
self-referential conversations with a few. Joshua Sofaer, Dan Willson, Jean Grant
and Kevin Reid search for such new sites.
“Art should not be born from a pressure of becoming successful but
something deeper. This is always a danger and the cause for mediocrity
in art. If a great idea or art is born, everyone will come to it sooner or later.
This is a fact.” Shirin Neshat
This fusion of artist stories and thinking hopefully bring a sense in which
new experiences can be revealed through finding and looking. In a world
overwhelmed by images, the works of artists calls for viewers to become
conscientious and willing to participate in different thinking strategies, asking
that one remains open-minded as artist and viewer. All artists confront us with
problems and dynamics of translation; the translation of the visual image into
meaningful thought.
“Look for what it is that is important to you, something that you need to
make other people think about. Always ask ourselves if what we are doing
is really necessary.” Rirkrit Tiravanija
Edith Marie Pasquier is an interdisciplinary artist and writer. She is a recipient of a
2006 London Artist’s Film and Video Award and will be attending the Royal College
of Art (Photography) MA programme in October 2006. Currently, she has two films
in production I Love America and America Loves Me and 13 Ways of Looking at a
Blackbird, which will be screened at venues in 2007.
Acknowledgements
Artists’quotes within this article are from a variety of sources including:
a-n Magazine; www.a-n.co.uk; Luxonline (www.luxonline.org.uk); The Guardian
(various editions 2005); Wasafari (Summer 2006 edition); Tate etc (Summer and
Spring 2005 editions); A Fruitful Incoherence: dialogues with artists on
internationalism, Gavin Jantjes (ed.) in association with Rohini Malik, Steve Bury,
and Gilane Tawadros, inIVA, 1998; Making Contemporary Art: How Today's Artists
Think and Work, Linda Weintraub, Thames & Hudson, 2003.
I gratefully acknowledge the artists and writers quoted throughout the article.

Douglas Gordon
Douglas Gordon is a very, very difficult man to
track down. But with a retrospective coming up at
the Hayward Gallery I persisted and finally traced
him to his ‘studio’ in New York – in fact his baby’s
bedroom – and found that, for a man so elusive,
Gordon has retained an admirable grasp of his
roots in Glasgow and an enduring memory of his
years struggling to make it happen.
Born in Glasgow in 1966, he first trained at the
city’s School of Art. Following that, he went to the
Slade with the intention of studying performance
under Stuart Brisley, Bruce MacLean and Susan
Hiller; not an easy decision for a Glaswegian to
take. “When I finished my undergraduate degree
here, it was almost like a moral ethical problem to
decide whether to go to London or not – it was
considered a sell-out to go there. None of my peers
went; they would go to Belfast or stay in Glasgow.”
But when Gordon arrived at the Slade in 1988,
he felt, in some sense, that he had come to the
“wrong place at the wrong time” – this was the
period when Goldsmith’s star was in the
ascendant. Moreover, as soon as he arrived, he
gave up performance. “I just stopped because the
climate in London didn’t seem to be interested
enough in that kind of thing. So I put myself in the
darkroom and learnt how to print a photograph.
I went to the cinema, to the British Library and I
actually got threatened with expulsion for not
turning up enough.”
If those two years were mixed, the next two
were more fruitful. He returned to Glasgow and
took up a position on the committee of
Transmission Gallery. “Getting involved with
Transmission was probably more important than
doing a postgraduate degree,” he says, “I think a
lot of artists coming out of art school don’t really
understand what it’s like to be on the other side
of the fence. You see, Transmission was very
egalitarian, you would never organise yourself a
solo show, so you spent time mopping floors,
painting walls and doing the administration,
applying for grants and so on.”
Douglas Gordon, Tattoo (for
reflection), C-print, 1997.
Courtesy: the artist and Lisson
Gallery, London.
Douglas Gordon, The artist, 2001.
a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES
Things started to take off for Gordon when he
was included in the Barclays’ Young Artist Award
in 1991. His wall piece, Above all else, emblazoned
the words ‘We are evil’ on the cupola of the
Serpentine. Then in 1993 he had his first solo
exhibition at Transmission Gallery, and showed
24 hour Psycho. On the strength of these shows,
Lisson Gallery awarded Gordon a solo exhibition
in London in 1994.
Not long after, in 1996, he won the Turner
Prize, but far from exulting in his triumph, Gordon
was soon looking forward to escaping on the
DAAD-Stipendium, awarded to him in 1997. “I won
the Turner Prize with the knowledge that I was
going to get this DAAD thing and could get out of
the country,” he says. “It felt a wee bit hostile, to
be frank. A lot of people felt it was Gary Hume’s
year. It’s all ancient history now, but at the time it
was just nice not to be in the UK.”
Gordon’s escape to Germany also proved very
beneficial for his work. “I went to Hanover for six
months and then Berlin for six. My German wasn’t
that good, but the fact of not having immediate
access to everything, the estrangement, was
fantastic. I had been working a lot with text, so I
think it made me more aware of the differences of
inflexion in language.”
For all the acclaim and awards Gordon has won
throughout his career, contrary to what one might
expect, success and financial security haven’t led
him to produce a great deal more work. He says he
made more as a student and doesn’t exhibit as
frequently as he used to. However, one shouldn’t
take the fact that his New York studio has been
converted into his baby’s bedroom as a sign of
idleness; Gordon’s background never infused him
with any zest for getting into the studio. “Most of us
in Glasgow would only make work when there was
something to be made... when you had something to
make it for. It was something that came out of the
Environmental Art Department, I suppose. There
wasn’t this idea of going into the studio and mulling
things over and waiting for divine inspiration... If
people stopped asking me to have shows, I don’t
know how much work I would make.”
Studio practice for him is something more –
how shall we put it – contemplative. “I spend the
day watching a lot of television, going to the
cinema, and reading books. Some of that is
directly to do with research, but the other reason
is that, as I’ve always said, great film, TV, books,
are all really an alibi to be able to use time doing
what you’re not supposed to be doing.”
And if that isn’t the fruit of success, I don’t
know what is.
Morgan Falconer is a journalist.
First published: as ‘Movie maker’ a-n Magazine
November 2002
UPDATE:
Douglas Gordon’s work was included in the Tate
Triennial 2006, and recent solo exhibitions include
‘What you want me to say… I am already dead’,
Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona; Spain and ‘Douglas
Gordon: Timeline’, Museum of Modern Art, New
York; USA. He lives in Glasgow and New York and is
represented by Gagosian Gallery.
DOUGLAS GORDON 5
Zarina Bhimji

Background Boost of confidence

Zarina Bhimji was born in Uganda, and came to
England in 1974. She studied in London at
Goldsmiths College and Slade School of Fine Art.
She has been exhibiting since 1986, and has had
solo shows at the IKON Gallery, Birmingham and
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. Work is in various
collections including the Victoria and Albert
Museum, Arts Council of England and Leicester
Museum and Art Gallery.
Until recently Bhimji worked in the areas of
photography and installation. She presented her
first film in 2002 which was commissioned,
produced by, and premiered at ‘Documenta 11’,
Kassel Germany. The film Out of Blue marked a
turning point, and took the best of four years to
make from conception to completion.
Whilst working on the film, Bhimji was also
researching other ideas including a Year of the
Artist-funded residency to explore the subject of
Malaria (the research also received a SciArt Award
and London Arts Board funding), and a film idea
about an earthquake in India.
In order for Bhimji to embrace these new ways
of working she needed to find ways of clearing her
life of many pressures. The bursaries, awards,
grants and prizes she received from 1999 to 2002
were instrumental in helping her realise her first,
critically-acclaimed film, that had its UK premiere
in the ‘Art Now’ programme at Tate Britain in
March 2003.
Her works are lamentations, expressing loss,
grief, separation, and emotional and social upheavals.
The subject matter of her work may be harsh, but
it is treated with an enigmatic poetic beauty,
hinting at a transformation of the self and society.
Artist’s bursary
Bhimji felt that the pressure of having to produce,
and working to the constraints of commissions,
was having a profound effect on both her work and
her role as an artist – she felt she was working to
other people’s agendas rather than her own.
Furthermore a permanent 0.5 teaching post at
London College of Printing was stifling her practice
and her general well-being.
Bhimji submitted her research idea on Uganda
to Artsadmin in 1998: “It was on 9 August 1972
that Asians were expelled from Uganda by Idi
Amin. Two years later in 1974 my sister and I had
to suddenly flee leaving behind everything except
two dresses and a cardigan. During the civil war in
Uganda we had stayed indoors with curtains
closed. I witnessed violence, shooting and death by
Amin’s military. We arrived in England not speaking
any English.”
Her application to Artsadmin was successful
because of the quality of her ideas and concept,
and also because she was at a critical juncture of
development, needing time to explore these ideas
for her first film.
The professional views of her referees, Sarat
Maharaj of Goldsmiths College and Gilane
Tawadros, Director of inIVA, also contributed to
the selection process, as well as the striking
photographic installations that she had produced
in the past. Bhimji also writes exquisitely about
her work and ideas – there is a poetic quality to
her proposals.
The £4000 Artsadmin Bursary was timely. Bhimji
wanted to learn more about the use of sound in
her work, and to expand her knowledge on film-
making. The bursary enabled her to attend a major
conference on sound organised by the National
School of Sound.
She also discovered the new wave of films
emerging from Iran – the work of directors such
as Abbas Kiarostami, whose minimal elegance
captivated her. The bursary gave her time to read
books on Africa and the Middle East: “I wrote to the
publishers I B Taurus and told them that I was a
reviewer and they sent me lots of review copies!”
The Artsadmin Bursary enabled her to join
The London Library, an independent subscription
library serving the needs of scholars by lending
books for use at home. Located in St James’ Square
in central London, the library contains about a
million books in all European languages and
subjects range across the humanities, with
particular emphasis on literature, history and
related subjects. This gave Bhimji access to books
that were crucial to her research for the work.
Hamlyn award
Bhimji was nominated for the Paul Hamlyn
Foundation award by Isaac Julien in 1999. The
Artsadmin Bursary gave her access to advice, and
she sent drafts of her Hamlyn application to the
artists’ advisor for feedback and dialogue.
In 1999 Bhimji received an award of £30,000
spread over three years. She speaks lyrically about Zarina Bhimji, Out of Blue,
how the award opened new doors for her: “It gave (still), 2002. Commissioned and
co-produced by Zarina Bhimji
me a quiet confidence to trust what I was doing. I and Documenta 11.
had time to watch natural light, the light in spring
time. I found a rhythm through natural light and
I changed my diet. I needed to find my strength.
I discovered that my environment is important to
me, so I moved out of my studio and started to
explore buying one.” This proved too expensive, so
she renovated her flat and set up her studio in her
living room. Zarina Bhimji, Out of Blue.

6 a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES

 a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES

Simply put, the Hamlyn Award bought her

freedom. She didn’t feel pressured into guest
lecturing at art schools, and gave her time to rest,
and do things like go to Wales and walk in the
mountains, “I learned the art of walking”.
The only thing the Hamlyn Foundation
expected from her was a short report at the end of
the year “and even if you didn’t write the report
the cheque would still come in the post!” For
Bhimji, each time she embarked on developing and
making new work, she had to reinvent herself.
The award helped her significantly in this process.

Turning points
Giving up a permanent 0.5 teaching post was a
big risk as it meant giving up a regular salary and
holiday pay. She learned a lot about film producers
and film-making. Uganda was also a burning
subject: “I felt lonely about what happened in
Uganda. Watching Iranian cinema helped me find
a way of depicting exile and illiteracy – it taught
me how to think of these subjects and how to
communicate them through a visual medium.
I also got into sound in a big way.”
A key turning point for Bhimji was when she
met Sarat Maharaj when she was a student at
Goldsmiths. Sarat has been like an inspiration for
Bhimji. He is Professor in History of Art at
Goldsmiths College, University of London,
Research Project Fellow at Jan Van Eyck Akademi,
Maastricht, Netherlands and Rudolf Arnheim
Professor at Humboldt University, Berlin.
Documenta
‘Documenta’ is the world’s biggest exhibition of
contemporary art – in 2002 it attracted over
630,000 visitors. Okwui Enwezor, Artistic Director
of ‘Documenta 11’, believed in Bhimji and trusted
her vision: “I couldn’t have made that film without
Okwui and Sarat. I tried to speak to Western
curators but they didn’t understand what was
involved. With Sarat and Okwui I could openly
chat to them and show them an unsolved idea or
picture and receive honesty with a sense of
understanding, without the colonial baggage.
They understood that it was a special project.”
Bhimji would like to continue working with
Sarat Maharaj, and to continue making work that
challenges her and that is beautiful. The film
Out of Blue was a success. Adrian Searle in The
Guardian said: “Pain is evidence, and evident, in
Zarina Bhimji’s return to Uganda, from which her
family were kicked out, along with the rest of the
Asian community, in the mid-1970s. The exquisite
filming is at odds with the wretchedness of what
she depicts: Idi Amin’s cells, the wrecked colonial
villas, the ruins of Entebbe airport, and the fact
that Bhimji is returning to the land of a lost
childhood.”
The ‘Documenta’ commission was another
turning point for her, and has brought her work to
the attention of major public and commercial
galleries and to collectors in Europe and the USA.
Future
In October 2002, Bhimji became artist-in-residence
at DAAD, Berlin. She recently completed her
research for her next piece on malaria which
started when she was artist-in-residence at the
Zarina Bhimji, Work in National Institute for Medical Research, London in
progress. 2000 (part of the Year of the Artist scheme), and
she received a SciArt award and research and
development funding from London Arts Board’s
Combined Arts fund. She is currently researching
an idea which will take her to India.
She also wants to build a team of people whom
she can call upon for support, help and
professional services: “For example, where can I
find a lawyer to talk to about land rights”. The film
meant no longer working alone in the studio but
with a team. She has developed a network of
people with whom she can talk to and potentially
work with. As an artist making her first public film,
she says: “I wanted the film to be simple, but some
film producers had a formulaic way of working,
had too many rules.”
Manick Govinda is Head of Artists’ Advisory Services
at Artsadmin, a member of a-n’s Board of Directors,
and a talent scout for NESTA’s Insight Out Programme.
First published: a-n.co.uk April 2003.
UPDATE:
Zarina Bhimji’s recent solo exhibition at Haunch
of Venison, London, included large-format colour
photographs made in Uganda that rather than
address a specific political and historical situation,
are an intuitive response influenced by the ‘emotional
cargo’ the artist brought to the sites. The carefully
selected everyday objects and spaces with their
traces of human presence evoke universal feelings of
grief, love, vulnerability, spirituality and loss, and the
prevalence of violence.
Bhimji’s work is included in ‘British Art Show 6’,
Hayward Gallery Touring, and Biennale of Sydney
2006, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney,
Australia.

ZARINA BHIMJI 7
Dorothy Cross
Dorothy Cross has always played against certainty
and the institution – images of her family bible
with a hole neatly bored through its centre are
testament to this. It is clear that for her, part of
being an artist is creating her own authority and
many of her actions over the past twenty years
have been based on a strong faith in her practice.
She came to prominence in the early 1990s
with her distinctive series of sculptures,
combining cowhides and udders with domestic
objects. The result was a disturbing, sometimes
amusing, but essentially fascinating body of work,
rich with mythological and psychoanalytical
associations. Virgin shroud, a cowhide lined with
her grandmother’s wedding train with teats
positioned at the head, is now in Tate Modern’s
permanent collection.
Cross has since made a conscious decision to
stop making ‘udder pieces’, aware that with such
distinctive work it is easy to fall into the trap of
becoming ‘an art product’. Her most recent work
takes the form of a film centred around the story
of Victorian amateur zoologist Maude Delap, who
carried out obsessive studies of jellyfish on a small
island off the south west coast of Ireland; a project
for which Cross and her brother, a zoologist, won a
Sciart production award. The project has already
yielded many satisfying results, becoming part of
the Public Art Development Trust’s Fourth Wall
project at the National Theatre, and affording her
the opportunity to reacquaint herself with scuba
diving. “I was diving in a beautiful lake on an atoll
in the Pacific Ocean with jellyfish that don’t sting
swimming through my hair and I thought to myself
– it is so fantastic to be an artist.”
Cross started off on a Jewellery and 3D Design
BA at Leicester Polytechnic, which she says was an
accident; her foundation course in Ireland having
made no distinction between fine art, craft and
design. In a change of direction she was accepted
onto an MFA course at the San Francisco Institute,
California. To raise funds for her tuition fees she
wrote to fifty Irish companies asking for
sponsorship. “I really believed that people would
want to support the arts. Of course I got about
three replies, all of them rejections.” After
managing to scrape together enough funds for her
first term she received the phone call she was
waiting for: “It was a complete stranger from one
of the companies I’d written to. A secretary had
apparently put my letter in a drawer and he’d just
found it; he offered to fund my entire course.”
Talking about how her career has developed,
other similar stories emerge. The common threads
are that she has retained faith in herself as an
artist, believes her ideas are achievable and puts
all her energy into trying to make them happen.
Returning to Ireland in the early 1980s she
moved to Dublin to find that very little
contemporary art was being produced. However
working in this relative vacuum seemed to suit her.
“At that time there was no market for contemporary
art in Dublin, there were no trends or fashions to
follow, you were removed from all that and able to
find your own way.” During this time she made
sculptures in her basement flat, made a little
money from teaching and bizarrely, by making
illustrations of birds for wildlife information
boards. “I couldn’t bear to take a job unrelated to
8 a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES
art just for the money, you end up putting too
much time and energy into it which sucks energy
away from your art, I always believed that when I
got close to the breadline something would turn up
and it usually did.”
She entered open exhibitions and began to
build up a background of shows. The turning point
came in 1988 when she was offered a solo show at
the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, a
show which subsequently provided the opportunity
for further solo shows at ICA Philadelphia and
Camden Arts Centre. In the meantime she was Dorothy Cross, Eyemaker, still
represented by Kerlin Gallery in Dublin and Frith from DVD, edition 1 of 4, 22
mins, 2000. With special thanks
Street Gallery in London. In 1999 she created the to Mr J Haas, Ocularist, London
amazingly successful public artwork Ghost ship and Belinda Parsons.
that created its own mythology even though it
existed for just three weeks in Dublin’s harbour.
“I would never normally put in a proposal for a
public art project, but the idea was so simple and
I think that’s why it won.” The amount of people
going to see the piece caused traffic jams.
Cross continues to push her work in new
directions. Later this year she will be staging an
opera, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater inside a cave on the
small Irish island of Valentia.
“I feel that being an artist is about faith, you are Dorothy Cross, Bible, wooden
always delving into the darkness in pursuit of lap desk, bible, 1995.
newness.”
Rosemary Shirley
First published: as ‘Keeping the faith’ a-n Magazine
January 2003.
UPDATE:
Four years ago due to the exorbitant expansion of
Dublin I lost my studio lease and moved to the far
west coast of Ireland. Since then works have largely
begun due to things found on the shore: a perfect
gannet, dead whales, a sheep that died with her head
in a lobster pot. These elements were part of a show
held at Frith Street gallery last year entitled ‘L’Air’.
I am presently preparing for a trip to work on the
island of New Ireland, off Papua New Guinea, filming
Shark Callers. Shark Callers are fishermen who go out Dorothy Cross, Virgin Shroud,
cow skin, satin and dummy,
in dug-out canoes and fish for shark, luring them to
200x50x85cm, 1993.
the surface with the sound of rattles and signaling
success by blowing the conch shell. This ancient
tradition is tied into ancestral respect and spiritual
belief and only exists in a tiny village on the west
coast of New Ireland.
In February 2007 I have a show at the Kerlin
Gallery in Dublin.
Dorothy Cross and Tom
Cross, Come into the garden
Maude. The first in a three-part
work on the theme of the
Jellyfish, Medusae, created by
Cross in collaboration with her
brother the zoologist Professor
Tom Cross, for which they
received a sciart production
award.
 a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES

Samantha Clark

Last year I did a residency at the IAAB, an

international artists exchange programme in Basel,
Switzerland. I took my interest in Alpine
Romanticism a bit literally by coming down with
pneumonia and spending most of the time weakly
convalescing instead of tramping about the Alps
having elevated thoughts about the Sublime. When
I got out of hospital I filled a room with clouds so
I could pretend to walk among them without
having to climb a mountain. Then I filled the place
with a gently lapping ocean swell of plastic
dustsheet so, like Friedrich’s monk, I could stare
dreamily at the horizon, from my convalescent
bed. This year, thankfully back to health, I’ve been
artist-in-residence at Wysing Arts, Cambridgeshire,
where instead of collaborating with some high-
flying scientist as intended, I’ve been thinking
about something scientists pretended into
existence – the Subtle Ether.
“We know whence comes our belief in the ether.
If it takes several years for light to arrive to us
from a removed star, it is no longer upon the
star nor is it upon the earth; it must be
sustained somewhere, and supported, so to Samantha Clark, Cloud UPDATE:
speak, by some material.” Poincaré, 1900 Chamber, polyfibre filling, Right now I am working with Mark Beever of BookLab
nylon thread, variable, 2004.
on a publication and DVD of ‘The Subtle Ether’, which
It’s the stuff between things, explaining effects at a
brings together the work produced over the course
distance, what the light from distant stars travels
of these two residencies. Working on the publication
through to get to us and tell us we might not be
has highlighted to me the curatorial nature of much
alone. It seems that scientists know a good
of my practice. This often involves putting things
metaphor as well as anyone.
together which resonate in some way to provoke
We seem to forget that science is actually about
emotional or thoughtful responses, and is more
nature and about ourselves. Just like a Friedrich
about finding and observing than about making or
landscape. It’s about observing natural
originating. The publication so far comprises images
phenomena, even if they are dancing electrons
created by mathematicians and astrophysicists as
inside a molecule, or the ‘dark matter’ hidden in
well as my own, alongside sound samples and video
the spaces between stars, rather than a thunderous
works, the music of Bach, the poetry of Wordsworth,
waterfall. It’s also poetic. Ideas and formulae can
text by myself and by Francis McKee, and quotes
be described as ‘elegant’. A fleeting moment of
from scientists like Heisenberg and Fritjof Capra. I
understanding fractal geometry gives a tingle of
will be bringing these elements together for a solo
wonder similar to that of viewing a particularly
exhibition at CAST gallery, Hobart, Tasmania in 2007.
fine sunset. You get the feeling William Blake
So far, individual elements have been shown in
would have understood Chaos Theory more
screenings and group exhibitions. A video work
instinctively than Newton. Science doesn’t inhabit
Reach features in ‘Into the Light of Things’ at Angel
a different territory from art. Just as visible light is
Row Gallery, 8 July to 2 September in Nottingham,
part of the same spectrum of electromagnetic
Fingering was screened as part of the Projektor
radiation as radio signals, art and science are just
programme at Café Gallery Projects, London in July
part of the same spectrum of observing, looking
and Levitation was shown on the Big Screen Liverpool
for patterns, connections and points of
as part of the BBC 37 Seconds programme. Cloud
intersection. And the other common denominator
Chamber was installed at ArtFutures Scotland, during
is that whatever it is you’re observing, it’s really
Glasgow Art Fair and a development of this work,
about yourself and the tools you use; the eye and
Sweet Melancholy, involving large amounts of white
the mind behind it, the scale at which you operate.
candy floss, was installed as ESW for the exhibition
I usually make installations and video works.
‘Magazine’ during Edinburgh Art Festival
Mostly I’m trying to create a state of waiting and
in August.
watching, offering a quiet space between things,
where meaning can evolve suggestively through
www.samanthaclark.net www.book-lab.co.uk
relationships between sound, image, object,
www.wysingarts.org www.iaab.ch
movement. This is why something like Subtle Ether
www.edinburghsculpture.org www.castgallery.org
is so interesting. It lies in those gaps. I worry about
www.37seconds.co.uk
being pedantic and po-faced. Then I worry about
being vague and flippant. I’m trying to balance it
all somewhere in the gap between.

First published: a-n Magazine September 2005.

SAMANTHA CLARK 9
Simon Faithfull
Simon Faithfull’s work oscillates between the micro
and macroscopic. His film 30Km, commissioned
by the Film and Video Umbrella in 2003 and
shown at Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, and Pump
House Gallery, London, perhaps best captures the
spirit of his work. The circular projection begins
with a close up of Faithfull’s face, arms
outstretched towards the lens as he gets the camera
ready. He lets go of the equipment and we, the
viewers, float away quickly. The round image that
we see rotates to create a dizzy snapshot view of
earth, with the artist a mere dot in the frame –
eventually the film ends with brief glimpses of the
curve of the earth against black space. Faithfull
used a weather balloon, satellite navigation and
microwave transmitter to send the image back to
earth. The camera and balloon were lost. What
remains, back on terra firma, is a record of the
artist and field disappearing into the distance at
an alarming rate, in a rhythmic rotation that is
hypnotic and quite dizzily disconcerting.
Digital media
Faithfull has used digital media for some time.
In 1998 he co-founded the digital arts organisation
e-2 which uses the internet as a platform for
specially commissioned work. It facilitates artists
who do not necessarily use digital technology to
create new work. Tomoko Takahashi’s word perhect
was jointly commissioned by e-2 and Chisenhale in
2000, and was one of the works for which she was
nominated for the Turner Prize. Other artists who
have worked with e-2 include Anna Best, Susan
Collins, Brighid Lowe and Geraint Evans. Faithfull’s
use of technology and new media does not get
bogged down in technical complications. He uses it
as a means to an end. Since 1997 he has been
making digital line drawings – a type of hybrid fine
art and digital practice. He has produced an on-
going series of drawings that are made simply by
using a desktop computer and mouse. More recent
works have utilized a Palm-Pilot hand-held
computer that allows a type of direct observational
sketching that harks back to pocket sketchbook
and pencil. The first project to use this device was
Lea Navigation which follows the River Lea from its
mouth at the Thames in East London to its source
near a tower block in Luton.
Residencies
Faithfull has worked on a number of national and
international residencies over the last decade. He
co-founded Braziers International Residency
Programme in 1995. Although Faithfull values
facilitating and working with other artists to enable
them to make new work – both in e-2 and Braziers –
he is no longer directly involved in these
organisations. His primary focus is the development
of his own practice. In 2002 he was selected to
undertake a two-month residency at Artsway in the
New Forest, Hampshire. This timeout period allowed
Faithfull to immerse himself in his work. Unlike some
artists who live off-site during this programme,
Faithfull requested a live-work space at Artsway so
that he could create a routine: “I’d get up in the
morning and go mountain-biking in the woods with
my dog… Then come back to the studio and make
art.” The time at Artsway did not provoke a site-
specific response to make work. Instead Faithfull
10 a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES
developed his knowledge and skills in making a
DVD film with Artsway’s digital technology support.
During this time he made Orbital no.1 an ovular
screen projection split into three rings with looped
film footage from a journey around the M25, north
and south London circular road, and the circle line.
Faithfull has made more site responsive work on his
international residencies initiated by the
organisation Triangle to Namibia in 1997 and the
World Trade Center, New York in 2000. Triangle was Simon Faithfull, Antarctica
already familiar with Faithfull’s work through his Dispatches, installation shot
from exhibition at CCA Glasgow,
connection with Braziers and invited him to apply to 2004/5.
their residency programme. For both these
residencies, he produced work that formed a visual
diary about his responses to these unfamiliar, exotic
locations. World Trade was a diary series of digital
line drawings that he emailed each day from New
York to a group of contacts. At the end of each
dispatch the recipients were asked if they wanted to
continue receiving diary entries, and if they wanted
to add more addresses to the list. The result was a
snowball effect that created a steadily increasing
audience network. In this way, Faithfull shows an
integral understanding, and interest, in ways that
information and ideas are transmitted. Through the
use and expansion of word of mouth networks he Simon Faithfull, Orbital no. 1,
allows an organic and genuine interest in his work 2002.
to emerge. However, Faithfull is also proactive in the
development of his professional practice. The
snowball effect is, as many artists acknowledge, an
extremely successful and long lasting means of
building an audience and attracting new
opportunities, but Faithfull continues to
complement it by dedicated applications to new
projects and places. Whilst a residency can provide
a period of deeper analysis, as well as support for
an artist, it can also provide a challenge to current
ways of working, as well as exposure to new stimuli.
Faithfull’s most recent residency on the Arts Council
England (ACE) International Artists Fellowships Simon Faithfull, Halley
Programme ‘Artists and Writers’ in Antarctica Research Station, 12.05am, 2004.
provided such a challenge.
Fellowship to Antarctica
‘Artists and Writers’ in Antarctica is a scheme that
is jointly run by ACE and the British Antarctic
Survey (BAS). According to ACE, the fellowship’s
key concern is “to raise awareness and
understanding of the extensive scientific research
[BAS] undertakes in Antarctica”. To this end, the
fellowship scheme’s aim is for artists to focus on
creating tangible ‘outputs’ rather than purely a
period of time for contemplation and exploration.
ACE supports the artist’s travel costs and provides
a Fellowship grant while BAS provides the logistics
of the artist’s travel and support in Antarctica.
Project proposal
In 2003 Simon Faithfull applied to the Artists in
Antarctica Fellowship scheme. The first year he was
short-listed but not selected. The rejection stated
the application had ‘considerable merit’ and so after
seeking advice he re-submitted his application with Simon Faithfull, LOST, 2006.
a covering letter the following year. He proposed to
send a Palm-Pilot drawing each day of the journey
to and from Antarctica. The drawings would appear
daily on designated web pages which would also
show a map of his progress by air and sea to
Antarctica, and later a series of text diary pages.

In addition to the internet platform, the drawings would be emailed directly to
individuals who wished to receive them, as well as shown in art galleries around
Britain. His proposal was accepted. Whilst ACE supported Faithfull’s trip, he was
responsible for organising the public platforms for the work. The Antarctic
project allowed him to pull together many strands of support and contact that
he had built up over the years to create a diffuse nationwide project. Faithfull
had been in conversation with Francis McKee at The Centre for Contemporary
Art (CCA), Glasgow for sometime about undertaking a digital commission there.
They agreed that it seemed to be a good opportunity to show the digital work of
the Antarctica project at the CCA throughout the period of his journey. The digital
daily drawings were projected in the gallery as well as etched onto perspex to
create an ever-growing installation Artsway in Hampshire also played a key role
in supporting the public aspect of the project. Faithfull has continued a
relationship with Artsway since his residency there in 2002. They operate a
scheme with a small number of artists called Intimacy which aims to maintain
links and support with selected artists over a sustained period of time.
They hosted Dispatches on-screen in the gallery and encouraged Faithfull to
approach the Southampton City Art Gallery about showing the drawings
concurrently. The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), London, who had
commissioned an exhibition of his work, Hard Drive, earlier in the year in the
digital studio, also agreed to show the digital drawings. After an intensive
period of putting in place the structure for his work back in Britain, Faithfull
set off for Antarctica on 22 November 2004.
Practicalities
Simon Faithfull’s journey to Antarctica was made by air to the Falkland Islands
via Ascension Island. At the Falklands he joined the ice-strengthened ship RSS
Ernest Shackleton which made its way through sea-ice for one month to its
destination the Halley Research Station, perched on stilts on the ice cliffs of the
Antarctic. Before setting off Faithfull imagined that his time on ship would allow
a period of reading, reflecting and looking. He remarked that “in actual fact, it
was really hectic for the whole journey. The thought of empty screens back in
Britain meant that I had to make the drawings come what may. They didn’t
always work as drawings, so most days I made several dud sketches before
succeeding. These then had to be uploaded onto the website, prepared and sent
to the sign writers in Glasgow (who were etching the perspex drawings that
would go on display at the CCA) as well as updating the map, writing text etc. etc.
In the end I barely read one book the whole time I was away.” Despite there being
little personal space aboard ship (every available space was crammed with
supplies to take to the Research Station), Faithfull fulfilled his daily dispatches,
and shot a series of films from his porthole window. He comments that “I walked
into my cabin and there was a readymade circular ‘Simon Faithfull’ film playing”.
Faithfull found the relationship with the crew and BAS organisation challenging.
He was the first artist to go to the Halley Research Station and they were not very
clear as to his role on the trip. The Base Commander of Halley Research Station
made it clear that Faithfull’s project was secondary to the work of unloading the
ship. Therefore, he was expected to work twelve-hour shifts along with his
shipmates when they arrived at the Halley Station. Unlike the rest of party
Faithfull was travelling back with the ship and so would only be on Antarctic soil
– or ice – for six days. Faithfull remarked that “it was very difficult, as I was afraid
that I had journeyed all this way and when I arrived in Antarctica I wouldn’t have
any time to spend making or thinking about work. Luckily, however, because of
twenty-four-hour daylight and the adrenaline of being in this incredible place,
I was able to just work through the ‘night’ when I was supposed be sleeping.
My immediate work mates also took pity on me and allowed me to skive a little.”
Despite these difficulties, Faithfull managed to continue to make and send his
Palm-Pilot drawings. He also made a photographic work Halley Research Station,
12.05am which was sent to the Pump House Station in Battersea, London as part
of the group exhibition ‘White Station’. Faithfull certainly fulfilled ACE’s remit to
create outputs from the Fellowship, but this was largely through his own
initiative, perseverance and hard work.
New inspirations
It appears that there are several outcomes from living and working in a new
environment. In Simon Faithfull’s Antarctica Fellowship, the most obvious is
the physical relation to an extremely different place: “The untouched snow
(unbearable to look at without goggles) was alive with crystal fireflies of light
but for all my clown-walking in huge moon-boots, the shimmering building
ahead only grew a tiny amount – floating through infinity white. An evil angel
was playing with me – blowing the building away across the featureless plain of
white. If your eyes tell your brain things that don’t make sense, your brain tries
to fill in” (Simon Faithfull diary entry 24 December 2004). However, perhaps
the more challenging, and potentially exciting outcome, is the shift that this
fellowship might offer to the artist’s current and past practice. The long trip by
boat out to Antarctica allowed Faithfull to settle into his Dispatches project.
Each day a spidery black pixelated line would slowly appear as the image
downloaded on glowing white computer screens across the world. The simple
images had gone through layers of selection and simplification: first through
a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES
Faithfull’s own seeing and thought process; then
the marks made on his Palm-Pilot screen; the
digital information coded, de-coded and re-coded
across digital networks; finally seen by the viewer.
Although this work is different in subject matter, it
is, by its nature, similar to his other digital
drawing series. The fact that Faithfull only had a
limited number of hours once he reached this
strange continent undoubtedly meant that he
experienced a slightly desperate sense in trying to
gather and see as much material as possible. There
was little time for over-conscious selection and
experimentation. Now that the artist is back, living
and working in a familiar environment, he can
reflect on the raw material that he has, and the way
that he might work with it. Faithfull has a large
amount of footage from a far and distant place that
few people will ever experience at first hand, but
he is conscious that he does not want his work to
rely on the exoticness of strange icescapes. Many
artists who have been on residencies reflect that
the impact of a new experience in an unfamiliar
environment is not necessarily seen immediately
in their work. It takes time for the distillation of
material and ideas to manifest themselves in the
artist’s practice. The ripples from Faithfull’s
Antarctic journey will no doubt impact his practice
for some time to come, both in terms of his art
work and professional practice. He is already
getting offers for his next international residency.
Jane Watt is an artist and researcher based in London.
www.antarctica.ac.uk/News_and_Information/Artists_
and_Writers/further _details.html
www.simonfaithfull.org/antarctica
First published: a-n.co.uk April 2005.
UPDATE:
The things that have happened since the profile are:
1. The Iceblink shows earlier this year at Stills
(Edinburgh), Cell (London) and Parker's Box (New
York). These all happened simultaneously and
presented the video work from Antarctica that hadn't
been seen until this point (as well as the drawings,
diaries and a photograph). Alongside this I also gave
a performance/lecture in each of these cities that
used the video and drawings to tell strange tales of
Antarctic politics, madcapped exploration and
apocalyptic science – this lecture also formed the
basis of the Bookworks book that came out to
accompany the exhibition.
2. 12 Postcards from Berlin – a drawing project
emailing out animations from a circular journey
around Berlin. The drawings also appeared live as
physical etchings in Gimpel Fils gallery and one has
now become a large wall drawing in the exhibition
‘Anstoss Berlin’ in Haus Am Waldsee, Berlin.
3. Lost – commissioned by Whitstable Biennale Lost is
a sculpture made with the ghosts of absent objects –
an inventory of missing things. A simple but
extensive inventory, Lost is a book that catalogues all
the objects that I have lost and tells the strange stories
of their individual departures. In June 2006, Lost was
deliberately left around the town of Whitstable,
on the south-east coast of England. The publication
appeared each day on benches, in pubs, by the
seashore and on the various forms of public
transport that were leaving the area (trains, planes
and buses). The 500 copies of Lost distributed were
individually numbered and finders were encouraged
to record their discovery on a website before
releasing the book back into the world.
www.simonfaithfull.org
SIMON FATHFULL 11
Hayley Newman

Nature of performance Hayley Newman, Daily Hayley,

2001. Photo: Hiroaki Enoki.
As Newman points out, the history of performance Courtesy: Matt’s Gallery.
art is impossible to comprehend in its entirety;
documentation is not exhaustive, there are few
books on the subject and many art magazines
have difficulty accommodating the comparatively
fleeting nature of an event in contrast to a six-
week exhibition.
Similarly, due to this time-sensitivity, Newman
has never found gallery representation particularly
relevant. The financial needs of her work suit
commissioned projects rather than the ongoing
influx of funds through selling.

Education
After completing a BA at Middlesex University and a
MA at the Slade, Newman won a DAAD scholarship
to Germany, choosing Marina Abramovic’s class in
Hamburg.
At this time, Newman talks of a split between
the theatre-based performance of Britain and
European roots in the avant-garde. She was more
interested in investigating non object-based art
than the black-box theatrical productions that were
prevalent in Britain.
The yBas were still in the ascendancy and the
structure of the art world was, although infiltrated
by artist-run spaces, still very much a commercial
conceit. Newman’s work, eliciting no art object as
A microphone passed between the two mouths,
such, was not commodity-based and therefore hard
amplifying the movement of the unseen tongues.
to place in this economic structure.
Later, in 1999, the method became more
In Germany, Newman developed the
technologically complex in Soundgaze. Two sets of
performance Microphone Skirt (1995), in which she
electronic weighing scales rigged to a computer
danced in a mini-skirt made of twenty hi-ball
would, when loaded with an object of a particular
microphones, her physical movement transforming
weight, trigger one of 400 sound samples. The piece
into audio as she gyrated. This transference of one
was a sort of free-form improvisation that was
form of energy to another is a recurring motif in
performed in many venues around Britain and
Newman’s work.
Germany, including Beck’s Futures at the ICA in 2000.
The previous year, in London, she performed a
kiss with a partner on the balcony of Nosepaint
PhD
(which later became Beaconsfield) at midnight.
After the year-long scholarship in Germany,
Newman returned to London, signed on and tried
Hayley Newman,
Performancemania, peformance to continue making work with no budget or
image, 1994-1998. facilities.
Eventually, a six-year PhD at Leeds University
gave her the freedom to research the history of
performance as well as develop her own work,
both in terms of practice and theory.
Out of this came Connotations – Performance
Images (1998), a series of imagined performances
represented by photographs and accompanying
texts. Crying Glasses (An Aid to Melancholia) shows
the artist wearing a pair of dark glasses that are
supposedly rigged up to a water pump in her
jacket pocket.
The text claims that the artist wore the glasses
whenever on public transport but, in reality, the
scene was staged just once for the photographer,
and the glasses were not at all mechanised – the
wet cheeks were simply smeared with glycerine.
These staged performances are at times
hilarious, perverse or grave, but always seem
completely plausible. Newman acknowledges that
an understanding of the political, conceptual and
historical position of each proposal enabled her to
place them credibly. She even changed her
hairstyle and clothing so that the photographs
wouldn’t appear anachronistic to the fictional
dates she had given them.

12 a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES


This conversion of the non-existent event to
neat commodity of text and photo is a distinctly
wry comment on the status of performance art in
history and the contemporary art market and,
predictably, it was from this series that Newman
sold her first piece of work.
Non-commercial practice
As Newman’s career and reputation has built up,
she tends to be approached by organisations to
develop and realise new projects. A relationship
with an art organisation rather than a commercial
gallery requires ideas to have a distinct end point
and timing tends to be quite rigid.
This generally means that the self-initiation of
a vague half-idea, which is many artists’ idea of
studio practice, is not often possible. Newman
finds, though, that to incorporate proposal writing
into her practice is very useful, as it is often the
point at which she sharpens up an idea or works
out ideologies.
Self-administration
Without the support structure of a gallery,
administration could become overwhelming,
but the independent artist has to keep abreast of
paperwork, tax and correspondence as any other
freelancer must. Newman tackles this by keeping
everything on disk, from CV and biography to
images and reviews.
To cut down on time spent waiting for people
to reply to correspondence, email offers a solution
that does not intrude into the day’s work. Instead
of spending, say, two days a week in an
administrative capacity, the freedom permitted by
mobile phones and email means that admin
becomes something that ticks over in the
background.
Although, as most people, Newman would
prefer to have someone else to negotiate contracts
and fees for her, she finds that on the whole,
working independently keeps things simple and
controllable within the complex structure of her
fluid practice.
Sally O’Reilly is a writer, lecturer and co-editor of
‘Implicasphere’. She also organises performance-based
events.
First published: a-n.co.uk April 2003.
UPDATE:
I still have a part-time contract at Chelsea College of
Art and Design, where I now look after graduate
students.
I am trying to spend more time making my own
work. I’ve just finished working on a commission
called MKVH (Milton Keynes Vertical Horizontal) at
Milton Keynes Gallery, for which we are currently
putting together a book that documents this project.
I’m also working on a large scale commission for
Commissions East.
Matt’s Gallery are now representing me. This suits
me, and means I can get on with what I want in my
own time. Matt’s Gallery offers me support with
contracts, loaning work, applications and generally
helping me with what are sometimes quite
complicated decisions regarding the direction of my
work and what I want to be doing.
a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES
David Clarke and
Simone ten Hompel
It has been a phenomenal time for us. As London-
based fine metalworkers, we applied for the
prestigious Jerwood Applied Arts Prize 2005:
Metal, and we both made the short list.
However, it was little known at the time that we
also shared a workshop, and to make things even
more interesting, physically faced each other
through this competition on a day-to-day basis.
What followed was an intense eight-week period of
making, seven days a week, almost fourteen hours
a day.
Prior to our applications to the Jerwood we
agreed that friendship and the working
environment would remain solid regardless of the
result. One of us had to deal with not winning,
whilst the other (ten Hompel) walked away with the David Clarke, You Bermondsey
£30,000 prize and is still coming to terms with Beauty, precious white metal and
fake Chinese cherries.
winning. Photo: Sussie Ahlburg.
What we have learnt and now discuss over cups
of tea, or the occasional glass of whiskey, is
ownership of our own actions: that it can involve
so much more than simply making an object and
putting it out into a gallery space. It is about
formulating a vision for your own practice and
then questioning and testing this vision.
‘COLLECT’ at the V&A in February 2006 will
see us both working for two different European
galleries, primarily to sell. This is an ideal time to
come out of our private workspace in order to
engage, educate and most of all enthuse the
audience with the work. It is about making
opportunities happen and capitalising on the first
hand comments and direct contact with potential
clients.
We have also asked ourselves; who has the
capability to embrace challenging exhibitions? Simone ten Hompel, And Then
And we both conclude that this is yet another vital She Remembers, precious white
metal and rock crystal, 2005.
issue to negotiate directly with galleries. We have Photo: Sussie Ahlburg.
independently had separate proposals accepted by
prominent London venues for 2006 and 2007, thus
offering the discipline of silver and fine metalwork
the potential to raise its profile through selling
work that is as exciting to make as it is to own,
placing it in new markets with new audiences.
First published: a-n Magazine February 2006.
UPDATE:
Simone’s solo exhibition, ‘Everyday’, is about to open
at Flow Gallery, London. David has applied to a
leading tea company for funding for a new show that
will explore the rituals of consumption. Developing
this idea, they have recently had a wood burning
stove fitted into their workshop, so that visitors may
have a meal at their table, allowing them to touch
and utilise their work. They are keen for the space to
transcend the boundaries of the workshop, and
contrast with the ‘hands-off’ nature of the traditional
gallery space.
DAVID CLARKE AND SIMONE TEN HOMPEL 13
Vanda Playford
Vanda Playford was born in 1957 in Leeds. She first
studied medicine and worked as a general
practitioner in inner-city London for over twenty
years. Playford started working as an artist in
photography in 1995 having completed an MA in
Photographic Studies at Derby University. More
recently she has turned to video.
Previous photographic practice centred around
a critique of the nuclear family, including her
project The Model Family (1995) and The Presence
of the Past. Other photographic work sought to
develop a practice of portraiture in relation to
performance as seen in her series Pink Personals
(1999). Her work has been shown in the UK, Europe
and the US, and is in number of private collections.
Changing direction
In 1999, Playford began an MPhil programme at the
Royal College of Art (RCA), taking a sabbatical from
her work as a doctor. This was funded by an award
from the Department of Health allowing a one-year
break with pay.
For the following two years she self-funded her
studies part time, while continuing to work in a
group practice in London’s East End. This was a
difficult period for Playford as she balanced her
medical work and her artistic research, and she
became determined to find a means to study full
time.
Application
In 2002, Playford successfully applied to the AHRB
Competition C while in the process of transferring
from MPhil to PhD. She was awarded course fees
and maintenance grant for two years – £10,000 per
annum maintenance inclusive of London weighting.
The application process itself was slow and
laborious, as it involved writing and rewriting her
research objectives in consultation with her
supervisor and the Department of Photography at
the Royal College. There were times where she
almost resented this process, but feels that for an
application to be successful, it needs detailed
presentation of the applicant’s goals in relation to
potential outcomes.
PhD structure
At the RCA, the Fine Art PhD programme is
composed of two components of 50% each, one a
written thesis and the other composed of art
practice. This gives a larger proportion to the
written element than many other universities, and
clear division into two portions is not typical of
practice-based research programmes.
Playford’s theoretical research explores the
concept of the symptom, the symptom as part of
medical history and how this might relate to the
body and representations of the body. This connects
to her experience and practice as a GP by re-
situating the diagnostic and narrative actions in an
artistic context. Her studio work using photography
and video examines ritual and narrative in relation
to medical practice and the body.
Institutional resources
Being part of an institution, and one as highly
regarded as the RCA, provides Playford with a
network of support, both practical and academic.
Teaching staff are open to questioning, and link
14 a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES
her to experts and researchers. Access to other
institutions and resources can be easily arranged.
Playford’s practical and theoretical research for
the PhD, her making and writing, exist with a
certain degree of independence from each other.
There are days or weeks when she is doing mainly
one or the other. At the same time, the ideas being
explored affect choices in the making of her video
and photographic works.
Developing career
Playford’s embarking on a programme of Vanda Playford, Case 1,
structured academic research coincided with a Theatre 4, digital video still,
2002.
reconsideration of her career, and has become a
catalyst in committing herself to her art practice.
The AHRB award allows Playford now “to be an
artist”, meaning she can commit to her practice full
time. This change brings with it some anxieties, as
she lets go of medicine, after two-and-a-half
decades of working in the field. But it is not a
complete letting go, as the practical experience as
a GP feeds into her research, and the outcome of
that research impacts on the field of doctor-patient
communication.
Changing roles
The theoretical research on the symptom, which
Playford is engaged in at RCA, has led to a Vanda Playford, Expedient
‘loosening’ of her work as a doctor. In her evacuation.
examination of patients, she now feels she is
“reading symptoms as metaphors”.
Her looser approach draws on developments in
narrative-based medicine. This movement with a
basis in social-anthropology and psychoanalysis
emphasises storytelling, and listening to and
crediting the patient’s story, over more traditional
evidence-based medical approaches: “I am
interested in breaking away from the mind-body
split inherent in the teachings of western medical
practice”.
Combinations
The two components of the PhD, the written and
practice elements, create different demands, and
also require different approaches. Research
questions addressed in the theoretical component
need to be presented at the outset. Students need
to demonstrate their research skills, and present a
methodology for this research. As an academic
piece of work, the written component needs to
make an original contribution to knowledge.
Of the relationship between academic and
practical elements, Playford says: “In both your
practice and writing as a student, you are expected
to show a critical reflection on the two distinct
practices”. In the process of research the student
will demonstrate how their questions address the
existing body of academic knowledge, and how in Vanda Playford, Was I clean
the course of their investigations these questions enough?.
will evolve.
Speaking of the half-and-half PhD model,
Playford describes how the usual expectations of
the fine art student, or practising artist begin to
affect the writing part of the PhD: “In your studio
practice you are expected to be in the work, and in
your writing they expect you to be present also”. In
some ways this conflicts with a more traditional
model of detachment or objectivity on the part of
the academic researcher.

As artists begin to engage in this type of
research, they bring approaches from their studio
practice. Playford says of her creative work, “I am
expected to come into the frame”. In her practice
as a GP the convention is for the doctor to remain
apart, in an objective or detached manner similar
to the academic researcher. The challenge for
Playford is to break that taboo and to be engaged
both as a doctor and as a researcher.
Future objectives
In her most recent work, Playford takes live
recordings of consultations between herself and
volunteer patients and re-works them into
narratives for actors to use in filmed re-
enactments. The process takes the narratives away
from a biomedical context into a performative
arena and opens up a context for thinking of the
body both in relation to the social, and in relation
to storytelling. Playford hopes that she will be able
to present the PhD research to other GPs when
completed. She explains that, “while any such end
use was not the motivation for my initial
investigation, having found that the experience
was beneficial to my practice as a doctor, I feel that
I should share this”.
Mark Leahy is a writer, teacher and curator who
works with text, objects and performance. Since
September 2005 he has been Director of Writing at
Dartington College of Arts, England.
First published: a-n.co.uk April 2003.
UPDATE:
Vanda Playford completed her PhD Re-configuring the
Consultation: Ritual and Story Telling in General
Practice at the Royal College of Art in 2005. Her two-
screen work I am trained in how to care about your
feelings, 2005, relates to a surgical operation of an
elderly woman, Joyce, who has a blockage of her
intestines. The two screens contrast how a patient is
treated according to when they are conscious and
under anaesthetic – in an overly child like fashion
whilst awake and seemingly in a brutal manner once
unconscious. She is represented by Foxy Production,
New York, USA.
a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES
Kevin Reid
Five years ago I had no choice but to shake my inbred cynicism, learn social
skills and become a hairy artisan. Masks of lycra were worn, BMX’s bought,
humiliation rituals undertaken, dog suits made, fine wines over-consumed and
accent diluted to a big Sean nice-shitty.
I have been a lonely cock, a gang banger, a gallery hair dresser, a spandex
spud punnered rocker and an ass-waxed cowboy chauffeur.
Crimson tide nuclear-fuelled compartments, stoked with middle-aged
eccentrics have become clean as the ghostly halls of art establishments, as I
switch from grease monkey to art flunky.
In August 2004 I gathered together a crack squad of creative bampots and
set about seeing what we could do to the gigantic Spike Island in Bristol.
Allowed to stay in the gallery 24/7 for a week, 1,000 yards of CLS and 150
OSB boards were transformed into a fully-functioning utopian modular
community with sleeping quarters.
There was an event weekend. Deejays played from the Nelson WWII watch
tower, bands performed on the mini stage, ale was served from a pick up truck,
a cinema showed transvestites, flame-throwing children and hairy beasts and a
couple celebrated there fortieth wedding anniversary.
Most recently I travelled the USA highways with the Prairie Oysters, a self-
proclaimed darts team Bon Jovi, armed with weapons of mass seduction (high
powered traditional food launchers).
Britain’s hardest inmate Charles Bronson became our fitness guru battering
our puny sun-hidden bodies into supple, strong hooligans through his solitary
fitness book.
We carved our way from Memphis to New York hooking up with ex-pro
basketball-cum-southern-songwriter Justice along the way, and finally shot our
righteous load at handmade targets in the PS1 gallery, Queens NY.
I’m currently planning to drive a harmonium around British battle sites
singing and running my way from South to North.
First published: a-n Magazine March 2005.
UPDATE:
I’m currently sitting in the land of the staturally elite, Amsterdam. Doing the SAC
residency. The past year and a half’s art splurges have taken me from Glasgow to
Memphis again, this time to leave 2 coffins draped with burial flags. These cotton
crests were all that was left after ROGER & REID toured the UK battle sites in our
wee van and played tunes to the dead. Graeme and Abs couldnae make it to Memfi
as Wee G’s a crim to the OO-S-A government, like Hannibal! Then Glasgow for a bit,
built a utility music research monkey head, worked with women at Goma built a
non-violence booth with them and used it, then a lot of fishing. Then Amsterdam!
Cold. Windy. Biking. Lots of ijk! 24-hour 30,000 feet trauma. Sun! ‘GANGHUT’ vs OZ
delirious, sweaty, Big Joe, the colonel, 1kilo of kangaroo, barbi's, $5! You’re in my
heart! You need back up. You got it! Then back to Amsterdam. Finally leave
Glasgow. I’m a Fifer! Summer sees up to SSW Edinburgh then Lumsden double
‘GHUT’ whammy! Bosch! ‘GHUT’ the book. Possible Harry Butler comeback! Graphic
novel wi’ Kelty undertones fae Charlie. Bad Pussy Lightning’s first ep! Jeesch!
I thought I was feeling a wee bit bored, back to the piano.
Toot Ziens.
REIDYJK
Kevin Reid, Prairie Oysters
performing at Al Scots farm,
Coldwater, Memphis.
Photo: Peter Dibin.
Publicity shot of the spud rock
group the Prairie Oysters, Reid
was part of while on the road
from Memphis to New York from
September to December 2004.
KEVIN REID 15
Richard Wentworth

“Career? I don’t use the word career. I am amazed
now artists have one.” Richard Wentworth appears
as unassuming as the seemingly insignificant
objects that inhabit his photographs. Although he
has enriched our cultural landscape as a leading
figure within New British Sculpture and as an
observer of the irreverent components of our
urban environment, he refuses to think in terms of
a CV. “Who wants to be a passport?”
“When I was at school, it became obvious that
everything I did had something to do with art.”
After Hornsey School of Art he joined the Royal
College of Art looking for a greater complexity.
During the summer of Sgt. Pepper, 1967, he worked
for Henry Moore. “I was a cog in a wheel. I could see
how a certain kind of art could be a certain kind of
business. Moore ran quite an enterprise. I learned a
lot and one of the pieces I made is in the Tate.”
After his MA, Wentworth rented a studio, an old
church near Southwark Park, for one pound a week.
“It was an incredibly important moment, the
beginning of a sort of reality. A year of doing all
the clichés, painting and decorating houses, all the
odd jobs.” Soon he was offered a teaching job at
Goldsmiths. For over fifteen years he evolved
within this stimulating space. For Wentworth, “art
in the 1970s was without the illusion of commerce.
You could invent ways of working and it was
undoubtedly much easier to survive. London was
not an expensive city then. Part-time teaching gave
you an adequate framework to play”.
Wentworth’s first opportunities to exhibit came
through recommendations by other artists. “It is
usually artists who suggest other artists. Everybody
knows that this is ultimately the most animated
critical space, which both helps and induces you to
work.” In the early 1980s, Nicholas Logsdail of
Lisson Gallery began to represent him. “It was like a
little dance. It always is a little dance. Artists
should understand that life is made of dances. It’s
not made of sending your slides in with a pleading
letter. Even though he has never felt censured by a
gallery, he would recommend developing direct
contacts. Now that there are so many more art
structures, perhaps you have to work more broadly,
even harder. There is also debate which says the
commercial gallery is out of date.”
At the Lisson, he met Karsten Schubert, then
freshly arrived in London and working as an intern;
he breathed a “bourgeois intellectual curiosity from
mainland Europe”. Wentworth enjoyed Schubert’s
frank openness: “Creative friendships are the most
valuable things you can have.” Over the following
years, Wentworth became friends with the Swiss
curator, Hans-Ulrich Obrist. He was soon invited to
partake in Obrist’s first exhibition, in his St Gallen
kitchen. “An unknown kitchen in an unknown town,
but a hunch that Obrist could make it work.
Although one way of being a successful artist is to
carefully police everything you do, you should also
play some wild cards.”
In the 1970s, his discovery of Walker Evans
was a major influence on his thought processes.
“A lot of photographs I was taking I didn’t
understand. Walker Evans’ work helped confirm
what they were. Sometimes you need a little hand,
which comes out of the wall and squeezes you.”
In 1998, Wentworth curated ‘Thinking Aloud’ in
collaboration with the Hayward Gallery showing
artists such as Francis Alÿs, Ceal Floyer, Walker
Evans mixed up with eclectic objects mostly
borrowed from the Imperial War Museum.
“‘Thinking Aloud’ had the same level of arbitrary
content as the street has. It was a success because
people really enjoyed that arbitrariness.” He
achieved his primary artistic intention: recreating
the street’s power structures within a gallery space.
With An Area of Outstanding Unnatural Beauty, his
latest project, commissioned by Artangel, Richard Wentworth, New York,
Wentworth explored further the path laid out by colour photograph mounted on
glass, 2000.
‘Thinking Aloud’. The visitors had to negotiate
their way around tennis tables as they would to
navigate around London.
They could stay and play a game – the space
was theirs. “The underlying subject matter was
essentially theatrical, just like being a participant
in a city.”
Wentworth insists on the necessity to look
abroad. “In the UK, there is a lack of comparative
thinking which leads to the belief that there is a
ready-made art scene.” A trip to Kosovo
immediately succeeded the Artangel commission. Richard Wentworth, San
Francisco, colour photograph
After any intensive working period, he needs some mounted on glass, 2001.
breathing space; time to think. “Everyone is aware
of power structures and what their relationship to
them might be. You know that from a code as
simple as crossing the road. There is a fast bit that
has got cars in it that would kill you and a
pavement that is less dangerous. Which one is
more interesting?”
Stéphanie Delcroix works as a freelance writer and
arts manager.
First published: as ‘Crossing the road’ a-n Magazine
March 2003.
UPDATE:
Richard Wentworth’s recent solo shows include Tate
Liverpool, 2005, Lisson Gallery, London, 2005 and
‘Glad that things don’t talk’, Irish Museum of Modern
Art, Dublin, 2003.
Richard Wentworth, An Area of Outstanding Unnatural Beauty, 2002. Courtesy: Artangel.

16 a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES

 a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES

Damien Robinson

When I moved to the Essex coast from London in

1999, I began experimenting with digital
techniques while I was refurbishing my studio.
This resulted in a change of direction in my
practice from print-based 3D work to using media
in which I had no formal training. I discovered that
using new technologies – with information
displayed visually – meant I could work with
previously inaccessible media, particularly sound.
Although I'm deaf, my interest in sound stems
from a different perceptual stance, rather than being
therapeutic or compensatory. For example, the x-
space commission for inIVA – Aerial, 2002 – allowed
me to investigate a speech phenomenon: that most
voice power is contained in lower frequency sounds,
yet information content exists mainly in higher
frequencies. The work explores spoken sound
structure (rather than meaning) by cutting the
sounds into fixed-frequency ranges, distorting the
clips across what can be heard and what can be
understood, and connecting these changes to
atmospheric pressure and cloud formation.
I'm also working with the relationship between
sound and vibration which I think of as 'hear-
sound' and 'feel-sound' respectively. Research in Damien Robinson, Aerial, Songbird can be seen at www.pva.org.uk
the USA has demonstrated that deaf people use the (screenshot), digital animation and Aerial at www.iniva.org/xspaceprojects/robinson
and sound, 2002.
area of the brain normally dedicated to sound
processing to experience vibrations. Last year I was inIVA's digital archive is an educational resource and
looking for an environment where I could living archive documenting the work of artists from
experiment with this concept, and saw an article different cultural backgrounds,
about PVA Medialab's LabCulture programme in a-n www.iniva.org/archive/index
Magazine, which led to the development of
Songbird. This is an experimental work in progress First published: a-n Magazine October 2003.
using birdsong adapted both in pitch and speed.
Sounds can be experienced by touch as well as – UPDATE:
or instead of – being heard. Many recordings I Since this article was published, an installation
researched were made in the 1950s and 60s, and version of Songbird has been exhibited at
these sound 'memories' plus the concept of sound Peterborough Digital Arts as part of ‘Re:Thinking
production engendering loss – of wildlife habitat Time’, I was part of the ‘Being Here’
and of airspace unpolluted by human sound – inclusion/regeneration artists team between 2004-
created a parallel to the convention that deafness 06, and I’m currently completing a sound and
constitutes loss. This year has been focused on vibration based installation (a percent for art
more reflective aspects of my practice with the commission) in the Forest of Dean. My practice is
support of an ArtsAdmin Artists' Bursary. The now focusing on ‘feel-sound’/vibration, developing
award also triggered match funding to pay for systems for capturing field recordings using vibration
increased interpreter support, helping me avoid (as opposed to manipulating pre-recorded sounds)
potential cashflow problems. and I’ve made contact with local artists also using
I've maintained contact with organisations I've exploratory techniques; I’m a core member of the
worked with previously and these kind of ongoing Mediashed, the first ‘free-media’ space in eastern
dialogues can place your work within a broader England, which replaces money with imagination by
context. As a former ACME studios tenant I've been using public domain software and waste electronics,
able to contribute to studio development ideas working with fellow member Stuart Bowditch on
through advisory work with their Design Working AWSoM (Ambient Weather Sound Machine).
Party. Information about my work will shortly be
added to inIVA's digital archive, which documents www.mediashed.org
work initiated over the last nine years. A short
residency at PVA Medialab will provide time to
investigate how Songbird – currently web-based –
might be developed, and discussions with their
associate curator, Ele Carpenter, have triggered
potential new directions. Through these
opportunities I've also had more contact with other
artists and learned how they sustain their practice,
particularly when they have a 'work/work balance'
of more than one job, or are both employed and
self-employed. Diversities of survival strategy are
as extensive as diversity of practice.

DAMIEN ROBINSON 17
Joshua Sofaer

There are probably only two people in the world Joshua Sofaer, What is Live Art?,
video, 2002. Photo: Manuel
named Joshua Sofaer. One lives in America, a Vason.
messianic missionary for Jews for Jesus. The other
is a London-based artist who proselytises for the
cause of ‘live art’. Not surprisingly the two, though
very different, are distant relations.
The two men met recently in New York and
interviewed each other, sparked by the artist’s
increasing interest in autography, the discipline of
writing about and around the past and future self,
without the reliance on linearity and recorded
history which can make autobiography a dubious
practice.
As far as biography goes, Sofaer is concise with
the facts – he is thirty, was born in Cambridge,
grew up in Edinburgh then studied drama and
English at Bristol University. He decided against an
acting career and took a Fine Art MA at Central St
Martin’s. He is now doing a PhD in Performance
Writing, which takes in aspects of philosophy,
sociology and cultural studies.

Work
The question about the distinction between
‘performance art’ and ‘live art’ is answered by his
new project, a forthright five minute ‘infotainment’
called What is Live Art? ‘Performance art’, he
explains, is primarily an American term, describing
work “from a more theatrical background, whereas
those who call themselves ‘live artists’ come from a
fine art background. The term tends to be more
expansive in terms of what it constitutes and what
is allowed, so I call myself a live artist”.
Although his work doesn’t seem too concerned and he has often since shed his clothes for his art:
with text – a recent project was the bookshop “I’m trying to keep them on now!” he says. “In the
launch of his brick-sized biography, complete with early work, I performed live more – now I’m trying
a talk by his ‘biographer’, a book that turned out to to engineer events instead – but my ‘rite of
be full of blank pages – he says: “Increasingly, it’s passage’ seemed to be around my body, making it
about language, but it’s maybe not about writing, visible, dealing with issues to do with masculinity”.
not about literature”. His latest film is the third in a series of ‘bare-
So does live art blur the distinction between buttocked lectures’ (the previous one dealt with
artist and artiste? “It depends on the context: a lot the subject of embarrassment), where the
of the work refers to the immediate presence of seriousness of his text is offset by the fact that he
the audience, of confronting them... particularly if delivers this in an immaculate suit with a red-
you are not constrained by character or script”. trimmed gap cut out of the backside. “It’s a certain
His view is that repetition of live art is not kind of provocation, thinking through the body
important, and less fulfilling, therefore the effort and language.”
needed for a short piece performed in a cabaret or The film (with Sofaer standing on Oxford
club setting is not worthwhile, and certain things Street) is aimed at educating curators and colleges
(he cringes at the memory of a doomed talk on and begins thus:
postmodernism to a club audience) won’t work in
What is live art? Well, at its most fundamental,
those environments.
live art is when an artist chooses to make work
Nevertheless, in his work to date, Sofaer has
directly in front of the audience in space and
often made use of interests and circumstances
time. So instead of making an object, or an
beyond his art skills to invest his work with
environment (a painting for example) and
originality – for instance, a project based around
leaving it for the audience to encounter in their
his powerlifting training schedule (he went on to
own time, live art comes into being at the actual
win gold!), another following the process of a
moment of encounter between artist and
dangerous operation on swollen brain tissue which
spectator. Or at least even if they are not
served as a metaphor for narcissism, and a third
physically present, the artist sets up a situation
where his sister’s archaeological skills were used to
in which the audience experience the work in a
investigate their early lives.
particular space and time, and the notion of
‘presence’ is key to the concerns of the work.
Development
What about the physical nature of his work? Earlier The piece goes on to point out that many artists
pieces often focus on the body and sexuality. now “seek more public and specific sites to make
Artistic Tendencies, the 1996 piece which brought their work... for some, this has been a reaction to
him to wider notice, combined stilt-walking, the commercial art market, where objects become
cabaret singing, academic lecture and striptease, discrete commodities which are bought as

18 a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES

 a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES

investments, accrue value, and are sold on.

They choose to reject this commodity fetishism by
creating work which vanishes once it has been
made...”. http://www.joshuasofaer.com/wor02.php

Recent work
Does the audience for live art tend to rely too much
on other artists? Sofaer explains: “I have been
purposefully taking the work to a place where there
is no art audience, or doing a piece which involves
people in a different way”. An example of this was
Scavengers, a stylish revamp of the scavenger hunt
idea, where teams competed for a £1000 prize to
solve 100 clues, gather objects from around
London, everything from a fried egg to a
sandcastle, which then formed a one-day exhibit.
Another recent success was The Crystal Ball at
the ICA in Summer 2002 “an event that forecast the
lives of the audience. Presented as a sequence of
one-to-one interactions, participants had their Joshua Sofaer, What is Live Art?, In the meantime, Sofaer will keep crusading for
destiny revealed through professional video, 2002. Photo: Manuel
live art: “It’s still not listed as a separate genre.
Vason.
consultations”. Interactions between audience and It gets little recognition in the art or theatre press,
experts in fortune telling, finance and psychology and much of the coverage is salacious criticism
were shadowed by seven glamorous dancers. How about the explicitness of the performance or about
important is the one-off nature of such events? He public funding”.
mentions his dislike of touring and repeating things, It is also, he points out, one of the rare areas of
but he would consider repeating The Crystal Ball. the art world where humour really makes its mark:
“Humour is seen as lowbrow within visual culture
Live art funding and that is such a mistake. It’s incredibly powerful
If live art is an expensive business: are some projects and political”. With his refusal to fall victim to Fear
not feasible due to funding problems? “If there was of Fun, his eye for an event, and his ability to mix
no money, the work would be different. I decided I academic rigour with the capriciousness of popular
would no longer do work for free. I either work to culture, he makes the perfect live art missionary.
commission or I apply for funding”.
Who commissions him? “Festivals, gallery Roddy Lumsden has published four collections of
curators or organisations like Duckie, a club which poetry, most recently Mischief Night: New & Selected
is also an experimental theatre”. Sometimes, he Poems, as well as books on popular music and
applies more than once before funding comes curious words. He works as a quiz and puzzle writer
through. Regular work outside the art world means for BBC MindGames magazine.
he does less teaching and is now lucky enough to
be able to turn down less interesting work. First published: a-n.co.uk April 2003.

Practice mix UPDATE 2006:

For the past year, Sofaer has been co-director of Four years have passed since Roddy and I talked.
Spread the Word, a literature development I am now 34! I completed my PhD in 2005 and use
organisation based in South and West London that the title ‘Dr’ to impress upon utilities companies the
arranges live events, workshops, educational and urgency of my billing requests. I left my part-time job
cross-arts projects in all literary disciplines. as Co-Director of Spread the Word Literature
Development Agency in autumn 2004 to take up a
“Part of the remit was to spice up and think of
Research Fellowship at ResCen, Centre for Research
creative ways to run workshops. It’s quite grass
into Creation in the Performing Arts, an artist-led
roots what we do – we want to give access to
research centre at Middlesex University. This position
literature development to people who have been
enables me to continue to develop my own work,
denied it. We are interested in artistic
alongside the concerns of the centre, in a supportive
experimenting, thinking about the boundaries
environment. The scavenger hunt which Roddy
of what constitutes literature.”
mentions became Tate Scavengers which showed to
Future critical success in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern in
So what comes next? He hopes to arrange three July 2005. It will become SFMOMA Scavengers at the
large-scale public art events in London which are San Francisco Museum of Modern Art this September.
broadly influenced by reality TV. He also plans to Other projects currently underway include
expand the textual and sound elements of his Performance and (his) Everyday Life an artist book
performance and is working with interviews he has commissioned by Kunstbank in Belgium. I am also
done with acquaintances who, like him, have currently working on World in One City an audio tour
recently turned thirty. piece using ‘Acoustiguide’ technology for the
There will also be short performances, based on Liverpool Biennial, in which my pre-recorded
consumerism and advertising, as part of a group performance will guide visitors round the public
show starting at the V&A with ‘theatrical live artists’, works, in the ‘fake’ language of the artist showing.
Robin Deacon, Marcia Farquhar, Gary Stevens and
Ursula Martinez. www.joshuasofaer.com

JOSHUA SOFAER 19
Katie Pratt
Katie Pratt studied painting at Winchester School of Art. After graduating with
an MA from the Royal College of Art (RCA) she was included in New
Contemporaries (1999). She joined the Houldsworth Gallery in Cork Street in
2001, and that year won the Jerwood Painting Prize.
Exhibitions include ‘Pell mell’ at Houldsworth and ‘Approaching Content’ at
the Crafts Council both in London. She has a show in preparation at Foundation
Contemporaine, Sierra, Switzerland and a residency in Los Angeles in the
summer of 2003.
Winning
Winning the Jerwood Painting Prize provided a momentary relief from financial
pressures. As she received more teaching offers, she could resign from her
part-time job in administration that she had since college. She was also offered
an AHRB Research fellowship at Southampton University in Winchester, which
she believes would not have happened had she not won the prize.
Observation
Pratt begins her large abstract paintings with a random act of paint. She then
proceeds by creating a system of regulatory rules around these initial marks:
“I use observations as a starting point and as a structure for the subject
matter. I look carefully for anything that is regular and I noticed these
downward strokes [she points to a canvas behind me] so at the moment I am
putting a pale green square line wherever there is a 180 degree vertical.
Whenever there is one directly opposite it I will put a horizontal line.”
Mediation
The system of rules that Pratt develops serve to mediate and regulate the
image. There is a reciprocal relationship between the chaotic and the ordered
and the artist is interested in the decision-making process and relation
between intuition and concept. Pratt points out:
“The systems masquerade as being conclusive, but if a system has run its
course or there is still some visual unrest, I can always make another
system. If I want something to grow over the left corner of the painting I try
to work out how to develop a system that will make it go in that direction.
I set it up so that it will grow and also so that it can be stopped. In a sense
I systematise my intuition and channel it through these systems.”
Pratt’s starting point of a random act of paint sets up the overall structure.
When in place, it can not be changed. She has talked about how to home in on a
problem and resolve it:
“One way of seeing it is to claim the problem and then instead of it being a
problem you get the occurrence of a problem which can be quite regular and
a pattern emerges through the back door.”
Katie Pratt, Rot-Weiler, oil on
canvas, 200x180cm, 2002.
20 a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES
Gestures
In the catalogue for ‘Pell mell’ Sally O’Reilly wrote
that her work: “destroys the possibility of pure
formalism and sidelines the Expressionists call for
raw communication through gesture”. How does
she view her work in relation to these historical
categories of painting?
“It is about critiquing traditional readings of
abstract painting. People tend to read throwing
of paint as an extreme expression, but actually
it is just a gesture, as the dotted line is just a
gesture. In my work the controlled dotted line is
probably more expressive. You can’t make
something so minimal that there is no sense of
individuality in it. People were trying to do that
in the 1960s but it didn’t really work. I use the
systems as a strategy for making something that
I couldn’t invent. I do not know what it will look
like until it is finished, but then of course you
may end up with something that looks terrible.”
Beauty
What role does beauty play in her work?
“I certainly don’t strive for beauty. It is kind of a
by-product. If I set out to make beautiful things
I couldn’t do it. I make localised colour
decisions that can be perceived as beautiful but
I can’t do more than that.”
Nina Madden is a writer based in London.
First published: a-n.co.uk April 2003.
UPDATE:
Katie Pratt lives and works in London. She is
represented by Kontainer Gallery, Los Angeles.
She completed an AHRC Research Fellowship at
Southampton University in 2005 and is Senior
Lecturer in Painting at Wimbledon College of Art.
Recent exhibitions include ‘Patrick Heron, Jonathan
Lasker, Katie Pratt’ which was at the John Hansard
Gallery Southampton, earlier this year. She was
included in ‘Landscape Confection’, curated by Helen
Molesworth at the Wexner Center for the Arts,
Columbus Ohio and touring to the Contemporary
Arts Museum, Houston, Texas and the Orange County
Museum, Newport Beach, California. Since 2003, her
work has also been exhibited in Reykjavik, Venice,
Los Angeles and London. She will be participating in
‘Drawing’ at Artspace, Southwell in September and
will be showing new work at Kontainer Gallery in
2007.

Katie Pratt, Purling, oil on
canvas, 145x100cm, 2002.
Katie Pratt, Marienstadt, oil on
canvas, 35.5x27.7cm, 2002.
Katie Pratt, Skellington, oil on
canvas, 200x170cm, 2002.
a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES
Vineta Kaulaca
My work is mostly about perception: the way we
look at the world, building up an image of the
whole from different fragments. Fragments based
on our emotional relationships to, and intellectual
experiences of, an image. We rely, unawares, on the
role of time and distance in this process of seeing.
I am particularly interested in applying, to other
media, my findings as a painter; I am interested in
the synergy between drawing, photography,
cinematography and installation.
Taking photos is a way of taking notes; it marks
a point of reference for further exploration by
other means. I use photos – capturing the
elusiveness of a look and indicating pauses – to
document the trajectory of the observing eye, cast
around, meeting the world. My work aims to
illustrate the ambiguity and relativity of
perception.
One of the most important areas for me in
painting – a very time-consuming process in itself
– is the simultaneous presence of reality and
imagination, which allows the painting to be
viewed as record or repository of time. Painting
examines the ordinary act of looking, extended
through close scrutiny and yielding a process
somewhere between aligning memory and evoking
presence. Time acts differently in photography,
every photograph contains information of that- Vineta Kaulaca, Painting installation (detail), oil on canvas, 2004.
which-has-been.
A new constituent of my work is travel.
Looking, as the first step of communication, helps UPDATE:
to define one’s location. I view travel as an Recently, I've taken part in various art projects in
experience of seeing and expanding knowledge, Latvia as well as abroad. My last solo exhibition,
dependent on individual viewpoint and cultural 'Distance', took place in the Gallery of the Artists
context. The distance and the time offered by the Union of Latvia in Riga. I have also recently
residencies and workshops that I have recently participated in a number of exhibitions, residences
been involved in are preconditions as well as key and workshops in Los Angeles, New York,
turning points in my practice. Leaving home, one Oxfordshire, Portsmouth and Dublin, working in
sets a distance from the past, which later photography, installation and painting.
contributes to lessons about gaining freedom, My work involves comparing the different
discovering one’s identity and playing with it in perceptions of time bound to the specific spaces.
new contexts. Travel has also forged a new Also my interest in the flow of time will be examined
perspective on my experiences and helped to in the forthcoming solo exhibition at Maksla XO
evaluate the knowledge I’ve gained, contributing to Gallery, Riga in October 2006.
my growth as a person. My work will be showing in 'Shimmer', an
My personal artistic background has been international exhibition at TransCultural Exchange,
shaped by the travel of my country through major Boston and 'Visions& Reality', the exhibition
historical stages. My experience has been richly featuring contemporary painting from Latvia, at
fermented through studies in the US and Germany. Pulchri Studio, Hague in November 2006, as well as
It has helped me to put a perspective on art in the show 'Stupor Mundi/Wonder of the World' at
processes at home. Being involved in art projects APT Gallery, London at the beginning of 2007.
and forums in the UK has laid new foundations for I am very pleased to be involved in the
communicating with art in its greatest diversity. international network initiated by Braziers
International Artists' Workshop supported by Arts
Vineta Kaulaca is an artist based in Riga, Latvia. Council England as this year it will bring British
artists to Riga in order to do their residency at Art
First published: a-n Magazine February 2005. Home and E-T-T project space. Cultural exchange
and dialogue are proving to be basis for building a
permanent bridge among various art circles.
VINETA KAULACA 21
Yinka Shonibare
Yinka Shonibare’s exuberant sculptural installations,
paintings and photographs appropriate their form
from contemporary and traditional quintessentially
British imagery – a Hogarth painting or a hunting
scene. He ‘dresses’ these forms in African print,
Dutch wax cotton fabric, which, despite its name,
is neither African nor Dutch but is produced in
Indonesia and shipped to the UK. These
contradictions and complexities constantly run
through Shonibare’s work, which explores issues of
identity and territory through references to art
history, modernity, status and style.
Shonibare graduated with an MA from
Goldsmiths College in 1991, and since that time has
forged links with arts organisations that have
enabled him to support his creative practice and to
build networks.
“My first priority was to get a part-time job… I
worked as an arts development officer before I
was finally able to find a job that I actually loved
doing. I worked for Shape, an organisation which
makes the arts accessible to disabled, homeless
and imprisoned people... by developing projects
across the arts in day centres, schools, etc.”
He began exhibiting whilst still a student, in shows
such as ‘Interrogating Identity’ which toured the USA.
In 1992, he was selected for the Barclay’s Bank young
artist award at the Serpentine Gallery, London.
“I thought galleries would be fighting for my
attention and absolutely nothing happened. I was
shocked – depressed. I sent slides to two well-
known London galleries and it was a case of
“don’t ring us, we’ll ring you”. My slides were
returned and it was back to square one. I was
22 a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES
approached by Stephen Friedman Gallery five
years later after I had stopped being so desperate
for a gallery...”
Ten years on from graduation, Shonibare has shown
internationally in a combination of public and
private spaces. It was at the National Touring
Exhibition ‘Imagined Communities’ in 1997, where
he was first approached by Stephen Friedman.
A large solo exhibition, ‘Dressing Down’, toured
through the UK and Europe and recently, his Dorian
Gray project, a series of photographic tableaux, was
installed in a warehouse space in Vauxhall, London.
Some of Shonibare’s seminal works came at the
start of his career, demonstrating the importance Yinka Shonibare, Victorian
Philanthropist’s Parlour,
and excitement generated by being uncompromising
eproduction furniture, fire
rather than focusing on financial success. “I would screen, carpets, props, Dutch
say that my most successful exhibition was my MA wax printed cotton textile, 1996-
7. Courtesy: Stephen Friedman
final year show at Goldsmiths college, the show got Gallery, London.
me nominated for the Barclay’s young artist award. Commissioned by London
I received £1,500, it was my first taste of press Printworks
attention and success – Brian Sewell thought the
show was terrible, and said that hanging was too
good for us! I loved such attention, such emotion –
I became addicted immediately!”
As his ideas became more ambitious, Shonibare
began to work collaboratively: “I do have a physical
disability and I was determined that the scope of
my creativity should not be restricted purely by
my physicality. It would be like an architect
choosing to build only what could be physically
built by hand. The process evolved gradually over
a number of shows, but I would say that my first
significant collaborative project was my Victorian
room which was done in collaboration with London
Printworks.” Other collaborative partners have
Yinka Shonibare, Dorian Gray,
11 black & white resin prints, 1
digital lambda print,
each122x152.5cm.
Courtesy: Stephen Friedman
Gallery, London.
Edition 1 of 5

included inIVA, who commissioned Diary of a
Victorian Dandy, a suite of staged photographs for
the London Underground where Shonibare dressed
himself as a Victorian dandy positioned as the
commanding, central figure surrounded by white
people in admiring poses.
“Usually I begin with a basic idea which is always
fundamentally linked to personal politics and
then I do further research either in a museum,
library, magazine or on the internet. I prepare a
proposal in which the project is explained and
budgeted. Since the ideas come before technical
production, the next stage is to hold a design
meeting with the various participants to discuss
the idea and to agree a timetable for production.”
Shonibare presents objects and staged settings
that explore similarities between the design
process and the production of fine art. He takes
influences from a huge range of artists, writers,
musicians, theoristsand public figures, from Cindy
Sherman to Roland Barthes, and from Fela Kuti to
King Sunny Ade.
He is currently showing in Venice and
The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, and is
working on projects at the Anderson Museum in
Rome, the Philadelphia Fabric Workshop and a
a-n COLLECTIONS: ARTISTS’ PROFILES
show at Art Pace in San Antonio, Texas. “When I
was starting out I was a real ‘tart’; I would show
with anyone. I find I am a bit more selective these
days – this is generally true in other areas of my
life too. It is a good position to be in!”
Lucy Wilson is an arts publicist at Theresa Simon &
Partners www.theresasimon.com
First published: as ‘Fine and Dandy’ a-n Magazine
October 2001.
UPDATE:
Yinka Shonibare was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in
2004 for his exhibition ‘Double Dutch’ at the Museum
Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam and for his solo
show of paintings, ‘Play With Me’, at the Stephen
Friedman Gallery, London. For his recent show at
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York,
USA, ’Yinka Shonibare Selects: Works from the
Permanent Collection’ he created an installation from
the museums permanent collections that addressed
themes of transportation, imperialism, tourism, and
cultural exchange. He was made an MBE in 2005.
23
Dan Willson (comic strip), A fake’s progress. First published: a-n Magazine August 2005. See his Update p.23