Public Programme Blog

Today at 10:27 PM

In Profile: Derek Boshier From Doris to Chemical Cowboys

After the festive break we got the new term on track with Los Angeles-based, British pop artist Derek Boshier, who gave a rare talk in London on Wed 18 January 2012, which delved into his most recent projects, alongside the concepts and history of his earlier work.

His artist's talk was followed by a chat with writer and pop culture commentator Paul Gorman that explored Boshier's relationship to popular culture and an unmissable opportunity to see a screening of ‘Reel,’ on the big screen, which was originally shot by Boshier on 16mm in 1973.

Get the lowdown on this lively and fascinating talk for yourself!

More info on Boshier...

Boshier is renowned for his contribution to the British Pop Art movement in the 1960’s, emerging alongside fellow Royal College of Art students David Hockney, Allen Jones, and R.B. Kitaj. In a career that has seen him create album designs for David Bowie, illustrate a songbook for The Clash, and feature in Ken Russell’s documentary, ‘Pop goes the easel,’ Boshier has continually defied classification working across many different media. From painting, drawing, photography, film, and installation, to graphic arts, his work deals with the decimation of popular culture. Spanning mundane personal matters to military conflicts reported in the news, he satirises and confronts the cultural, social and political changes around him.

Recent projects include ‘Drawings from Films’ (2009-ongoing), a series of ink drawings that re-imagine and re-organise the film image, featuring Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, George Lucas’ Star Wars, and Matteo Garonne’s Gommorah. The anti-war installation, ‘99 Cent War’ (2004) an indictment of the Gulf War, as well as an ongoing series of ink drawings made on found photographs entitled, ‘Extreme Makeover’ (2008).

To hear about upcoming talks in the series, sign-up to the Public Programme mailing list via: info@chelseaspace.org

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Today at 10:25 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

Looking Back: David Tremlett Drawing for Free Thinking

It's been a busy few months for the Public Programme and as we are just about to announce our forthcoming events programme for Spring/Summer 2012, now is a greater time than any to take a look back at some of the past artist's talks we've held through the end of 2011 to early 2012. Kicking-off with the David Tremlett artist's talk and in-conversation event that we presented alongside UAL Centre for Drawing and CCW Graduate School back in November 2011.

Drawing for Free Thinking saw Tremlett talk candidly about his practice, focussing on his recent and major site-related work for Tate Britain, as well as his previous projects. We were also very pleased to welcome Andrew Wilson (Tate Curator of Modern and Contemporary British Art) and Professor Stephen Farthing (Rootstein Hopkins Chair of Drawing for the University of the Arts) for an in-conversation providing a really open and accessible insight into the various aspects of Tremlett's practice.

The event also featured the premiere screening of a new film by Professor Stephen Farthing and Ed Webb-Ingall documenting the installation of Tremlett's wall drawing for Tate Britian. For those who missed the event and screening here's the full-length documentary online! We're definitely going to be watching it again...

Drawing for Free Thinking is a major new wall drawing inspired by the long tradition of twentieth-century constructivism and by Tremlett's involvement in conceptual art in the 1970s and is installed at Tate Britain until 31 December 2016.

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August 25, 2011 12:58 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

Leave Those Kids Alone! Images

Some images from the event, 'Leave Those Kids Alone! Teaching, Learning and Resistance Through Art,' which took place at The Showroom on Saturday 2nd July 2011.

Artists Mirza & Butler constituted a reading circle, inspired by their 'Museum of Non-participation' project. The chosen text was Peter Weiss' 'Aesthetics of Resistance.'

The Free University of Liverpool performative approach involved a game in which they gave themselves one minute to answer a question about the FUL, posed by a workshop participants. We discovered that a minute is no time at all!

FLAG gave a presentation on their objectives, philosophy and activities to date. They also made some lovely cakes..

With thanks to The Showroom for being such generous hosts.

All images courtesy of Hannah Clayden (FLAG.)

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June 15, 2011 4:26 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

Leave Those Kids Alone! Teaching, learning and resistance through art

Image: Billy Tang

‘Leave Those Kids alone! Teaching, learning and resistance through art.’

A Chelsea Programme event at TheShowroom, Saturday 2nd July, 1 – 5pm.

The Showroom, 63 Penfold Street, London NW8

Chelsea Programme, in partnership with The Showroom, presents an afternoon of workshops, discussions and presentations that aims to interpret, critique and reflect on connections between education, art practice and the contemporary political sphere.

This event aims to create a space for engaged, critical discussion around the idea of the educational turn, radical or alternative pedagogy, the role of the arts institution in supporting (or stifling) dissent, with particular reference to the recent protests and ongoing ideological attack on education as a right, not a privilege.

‘Leave those kids alone!’ features conversation and presentations led by Mirza & Butler, The Free University of Liverpool and a workshop led by FLAG artists group.

We aim to create an open space, with full participation by attendees and participants. Refreshments will be provided.

This event is FREE. To book a place, please contact s.dyer@chelsea.arts.ac.uk with ‘Leave those kids alone!’ as the subject heading.

For further information, and speaker biographies, please visit see below.

‘Leave those kids alone! Teaching, learning and resistance through art’ is part of a series of events and projects Chelsea Programme has supported during 2010 – 11, utilising and critiquing the art academy as a space for dissent and discussion and for creating alternative visions of society. This includes If Not, Then What?curated by Cecilia Wee and the Imagining Commoniversity workshop run by Hackitectura.net as part of the Transeuropa Festival.

BIOGRAPHIES / INFORMATION

Mirza and Butler

The ‘educational turn’, ‘radical or alternative pedagogy’ plays a central role in our practice as a way of unpacking terms in order to be able to both understand them, and fully inhabit them. To practice this we have set in motion a number of parallel processes. One of these is our founding of a reading group “The Aesthetics of Resistance” sited at Bishopsgate Library which holds a world-renowned collection on Labour movements, freethought, co-operative movements and collections on 20th Century radicalism. In this book “The Aesthetics of Resistance” by Peter Weiss, working class students seek ways to express their hatred for the Nazi regime. They meet in museums and galleries, and in their discussions they explore the affinity between political resistance and art. Weiss suggests that meaning lies in embracing resistance, no matter how intense the oppression, and that we must look to art for new models of political action and social understanding. We intend to present this project as a frame in which to talk about our contemporary participation in forms of direct action as practice knowledge, where the body acquires knowledge.

We are also part of a collective ‘The Precarious Workers Brigade’ and we are involved with a growing community of artists, cultural workers and educators who are seeking to open new platforms for Free Speech on Precarity and to fight the unprecedented economic cuts across the public sector. This has led to our participation in a number of interventions, workshops on the Theatre of the Oppressed and a recent Participatory People’s Tribunal on ‘Precarity’ held at the ICA. In this way we are working within networks that shift across critical thought and direct action.

In our practice we site these languages of resistance within "The Museum of non Participation"which is itself a provocative concept that talks about both the boundaries of art institutions and the sets of social relations of an artistic practice. This is this work’s political agency, and as artists we are engaged with what we describe as a process of de-colonisation, focusing criticality not only on the institution of art but also towards wider social and political realms of cultural hegemony. Thus as part of our fictional museum we have been thinking through 'What a collection could be' for the Museum of Non Participation’. A museum interested in the archiving and production of gesture and action, image/objects - a collecting of people around an action so that both the action and the gesture are what the museum collects. This is manifesting itself as a body of work “On collections and collectivity” and we are working on how social relations might be "evidenced" or represented, argued or proposed. How does one collect representational structures? What is the relationship of "non" to a collection and to the imagination? How can we think about non participation and the art object? or non participation and the object of art?

www.mirza-butler.net

www.no-w-here.org.uk

Free University of Liverpool

The Free University of Liverpool is run by a collective of artists and activists (aka The Committee) devoted to the idea and practice of a free education for anyone who wants or needs it.

http://thefreeuniversityofliverpool.wordpress.com/

‘Higher Education is a right for all not a privilege for the few. It is on this basis the Free University of Liverpool is committed to FREE education for any student who wants to study with us. At the Free University of Liverpool we believe that critical thought and action are at the heart of changing the world we live in. With this in mind we support, teach about and practice cultural activism. We believe in the strength of intervention, in the necessity of interruption and the efficacy of interference in the powers that seek to privatise and instrumentalise education. The current cuts the ConDems announced are promising to ruin civil society in the UK. This is the last straw! We will not sit here and take it anymore. We will rise up and educate each other and ourselves to FIGHT BACK!’

(From the Mission Statement of the Free University of Liverpool)

FLAG

FLAG is a project exploring and exploding the ‘educational turn’ through events and actions moving in and out of the art school.Launched during a three day exhibition/symposium/live magazine in 2010, FLAG re-turned an exploration of art and pedagogy to the educational site, Chelsea College of Art and Design, as a venture between participants in dialogue with each other and the institution. FLAG aims to critically build on the ‘educational turn’ as it is found in the contemporary art world, bringing this enquiry back into the discursive arena and physical space of the art school - exploring how art students and others can claim and investigate forms of pedagogic engagement as part of their practice. FLAG has since participated in ‘PARADE – Critical modes of assembly and forms of address’ on the Rootstein Hopkins Parade Ground with SALTbox, and in Department 21’s MA Degree Show at the RCA, and will be taking part in the forthcoming ‘Reflections on the Art School’ at Tate Britain in July.

For the ‘Leave those kids alone!’ event FLAG will be represented by

Kiki Claxton

Hannah Clayden

Mario D’Agostino

Katrine Hjelde

Synopsis for FLAG presentation/workshop/discussion

'It is better to do nothing than to contribute to the invention of formal ways of rendering visible that which Empire already recognises as existent.' Alain Badiou - 15 Theses on Contemporary Art (#15)

For the Showroom event FLAG will conduct a workshop involving all participants and presenters, based around three topics/questions:

1. Why is the discourse around pedagogy -which has arisen from the Educational Turn - being ignored 'officially'(within HE policy), particularly in light of current challenges to education, post Bologna? What can be done to change this?

2. How can ‘group practices’ emerging out of the educational turn maintain non-hierarchal structures and work horizontally inside and outside the academy?

3. Whilst FLAG are interested in creating alternatives to institutionally-justified, pedagogic models, it has nevertheless received funding from Chelsea College of Art and Design. How can artists groups / arts practitioners best handle the potential conflict of interest that arise from being in receipt of institutional funding?Can we build transparency into the model, or are we doomed to be a co-opted into the institutional structures we aim to critique?

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February 22, 2011 5:02 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

Imagining Commoniversity

Imagining Commoniveristy workshop - Monday 28th - Wedneday 30th March 2011

Imagining Commoniversity, a workshop led by Hackitectura.net, will take place within the context of the ongoing project Visualizing Transnationalism.

The workshop takes as a starting point the assumption of the University as a Common, to engage with the recent student-led protests in the UK as well as the protests experienced in mainland Europe. As a temporary laboratory, the workshop will connect and collaborate with the existing European group "Commoniversity" who met at Universidad Libre de La Rimalla in Barcelona last November.

Hackitectura.net, will direct the research and together with the participants try to imagine what a common University in Europe could look like, how it could work and what its role in society could be. Through mapping strategies, open collective discussions and the implementation of new media technologies, Hackitectura.net will build on the experience and tradition of British groups such as Archigram, to sketch and design the ‘vision’ of a utopian Common University of the future.

The workshop will be open to a registered audience (max 20 people) with an interest in education/university, new media technologies, activism, mapping techniques, art and architecture.

WORKSHOP INFO

Hackitectura.net (represented by Pablo de Soto and Alejandro González) coordinated by Emanuele Guidi and Lorenzo Sandoval will follow different approaches during the workshop:

·Presenting the philosophy and the research behind the practice of Hackitectura.net. Looking at the experiences of avant-garde free-universities and utopian architects as Archigram. Presenting the history and current state of the art citizen cartography and data visualization.
·Mapping contemporary practices and initiatives emerging recently in Europe.
·A more local focus on the London and UK situation, the actual crisis and the protest movements so as to start a critical reflection on themes, priorities and urgencies that should characterize the University.
·The methodoloy of the workshop will include the use of n-1, an autonomus and distributed digital social network set up by the hacker and free software movement as a tool for activists to organize and improve knowledge production.
·One or more images will be produced in forms of maps and/or plan to research a possible representation of a common university. Augmented reality, through Quick Recognition Codes (Qr codes) will be employed as tool to open a dialogue between a more classical form of map/plan/drawing with the resources available in the internet space.
·One or more posters will be printed as in the following weeks as final result of the workshop and will be presented together with other posters produced within the context of Visualizing Transnationalism. The posters will be displayed in different cities taking part in the Transeuropa Festival both in form of ‘take-away’ installation and hung in various public spaces and festival venues.
·A presentation of the workshops findings will take place during the Transeuropa festival in London and possibly a second city (to be confirmed).

HOW TO APPLY

There are 20 places available for this workshop, including 7 spaces for UAL students / staff.

To apply, please send a CV and short (no more than 200 words) statement (with 'Imagining Commoniversity' as the subject heading) on why you would like to take part to s.dyer@chelsea.arts.ac.uk by Sunday 20th March 2011. Successful applicants will be notified by Tuesday 22nd March 2011.

NOTES AND QUERIES

Please note: this is a 3-day workshop.

Queries can be addressed to s.dyer@chelsea.arts.ac.uk

Part of Transeuropa Festival 2011 http://www.euroalter.com/festival/

Student Protest - Hackitectura Lab - Mapping the Commons http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQKejOQ0xkU

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February 8, 2011 5:37 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

If Not, Then What/ website live!

The If Not, Then What? website is now live - http://www.ifnothenwhat.co.uk/

The website will be updated in the coming weeks, and throughout the duration of the project.

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January 26, 2011 2:23 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

A Call to Arms!

A call to arms!

Art group Charlesworth, Lewandowski & Mann are looking for collaborators to assist with the planning, production and build of a large-scale public artwork.

As part of the Chelsea Programme project ‘If Not, Then What?’ (curated by Cecilia Wee), CL&M will be producing a temporary pavilion come battlement which will occupy the Rootstein Hopkins Parade Ground at Chelsea College of Art & Design from 1-13 March 2011. The structure will be the headquarters and centrepiece for a range of workshops, discussions, direct actions and other forms of resistance against the political and social upheaval that exists in Britain today.

This would be an excellent opportunity to experience a live build from early planning stages to its final execution along with opportunities for creative input into the process.

As well as enthusiasm and an interest in inputting into a live creative project, applicants should have a good working knowledge or willingness to learn basic structural woodwork and other construction techniques as well as a host of other manual and creative activities. The project will involve designing and fabricating structure for the RHPG and will involve working independently and in groups.

The construction will be taking place over a 3 day period (1-3 March 2011).

We would ideally like each helper to participate for 3 half days or more during the construction period, as well as attending a brief evening introduction session on Monday 21st Feb, from 5 - 7pm..

If you are interested in being involved, send a short statement of interest including information about your skills and experience to clandmeu@gmail.com by Friday 4th February.

For more information about If Not, Then What? visit http://cltad.arts.ac.uk/users/chelseaprogblog/

For more information about Charlesworth, Lewandowski & Mann visit www.clandm.eu

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December 7, 2010 3:57 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

If Not, Then What? on Twitter!

Curator and writer Cecilia Wee has set up a Twitter hashtag for If Not, Then What?

Follow the project via twitter - @ifnotthenwhat

Disclaimer - This twitter field is written by Cecilia Wee, and it's contents reflect her views. It is not the official twitter feed of Chelsea Programme or Chelsea College of Art & Design

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December 7, 2010 3:53 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

UPDATED: If Not, Then What? Workshop Opportunity - Call for Applications

Do you believe that you, your neighbours and peers have much more positive, enlightening and just visions of British society than David Cameron and Nick Clegg? Could you turn these ideas into reality and help others to do the same?

The project If Not, Then What? invites proposals from artists to develop and trial new visions of society with students from University of the Arts London colleges and members of the public, through a series of creative workshops. Leading participants through a process of 'imaging' a different kind of society, the workshops will create works to be presented in public spaces, including a structure specially built by artists Charlesworth, Lewandowski & Mann, which will be sited at the Rootstein Hopkins Parade Ground at Chelsea College of Art & Design from 1-12 March 2011.

A Chelsea Programme project, organised in partnership with writer/curator Cecilia Wee, If Not, Then What? examines current platforms for democratic participation to explore how art and creative practice can create change in politics beyond the polling booth. The project will explore, develop and critique various forms of collective and local political engagement – considering itself a temporary creative think-tank for arts involvement with politics. Working within and beyond the arts and cultural sector, the project is inspired by the Coalition of Resistance (network of organisations spearheaded by Tony Benn who oppose the forthcoming public sector cuts http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk) and ongoing student-led protests.

In addition to a series of workshops by leading British artists engaging with politics, the project will also include commissioned performances, discussions and a series of programmes on London’s art radio station Resonance FM.

If Not, Then What? welcomes workshop proposals from artists working with disciplines including performance, movement, sound, visual art, moving image, and text.

The aim of the workshops is to encourage participants to imagine alternative visions of the future and to produce artworks that encapsulate and express these visions. At least one of the workshops will be focused on producing performative work that can involve a wider public.

We are looking for artists with an inventive approach, excellent communication skills, confident in working independently under a broad artistic brief - someone who do not shy away from controversy. Previous experience of similar work is desirable, although not essential.

Artists will be selected through an open application process - each selected submission will receive a fee of £200 for the delivery of one half-day workshop.

Chelsea Programme will support the selected artists in the facilitation of the workshops, including practical, marketing and logistical support.

If you have further questions, please email s.dyer@chelsea.arts.ac.uk

Applications should be emailed to the address above by Monday 10th January 2011 with the following:
- CV and artist statement
- Website link or up to five images of supporting material (or texts as appropriate)
- Proposal (up to 400 words)

- Please do not send large attachments – use online file sharing services for files totaling more than 5MB

Shortlisted artists will be invited to an interview in London (or telephone meeting) on Monday 17th January 2011.

Image: The Grosse Society (counterproductions 2010)

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October 9, 2009 2:26 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

Borderline website now live!

The Borderline website is now live - http://www.borderlineproject.org.uk/

The site features information about forthcoming Borderline projects, as well as a specially commissioned essay from Manick Govinda on the current relationship between artistic production and borders.

It also includes comment facilities, so log in and have your say!

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September 16, 2009 12:42 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

Borderline season - The 28th State symposium at Tate Britain

Chelsea Programme, in partnership with Tate Britain, is running a one-day symposium as part of the Borderline project, on Saturday 24th October 2009.

'The 28th State: European Borders in an Age of Anxiety' questions how artists and curators in Europe are currently engaging with ideas around borders, nationhood, social organisation and collaboration. What is role of art within this context, particularly in relation to the current state of European politics and increasing social unease within many rapidly changing populations?

Invited international participants include keynotes Shaheen Merali and Elvira Dyangani as well as Margareta Kern, Emilia Telese, European Alternatives, Metahaven and Paula Roush, Ines Amado and Lucia Marques. The event will be chaired by Dr Raimi Gbadamosi.

Further information, including full speaker biogs and abstracts, will be available via the forthcoming borderline website.

Full price tickets cost £25, concessions £15.

For booking information, please contact Tate Britain via 020 7887 8888 or http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/eventseducation/symposia/19662.htm

This symposium is funded by Arts Council England and Chelsea Programme, with support from City Inn Westminster.

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September 8, 2009 3:01 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

Borderline season - Black Pig City

Chelsea Programme's forthcoming season aims to engage with the concept of borders, within a European context, through contemporary art and design practice.

We have commissioned Italian artists collective Black Pig City to create a project for the Parade Ground at Chelsea, which will be launched on 16th October 2009. We will also launch a borderline website in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for further information....

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September 24, 2009 12:49 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

Opportunity - Black Pig City Masonic Circus

Chelsea Programme have commissioned Italian artist collective Black Pig City to produce an installation for the Parade Ground in October 2009.

As part of their project BPC would like to work with a group of UAL students on a secret workshop. Applicants must be available on a flexible, part time basis between 6th – 16th October.

This is a unique opportunity to work with a group of emerging international artists on their first major UK commission. Deadline for applications – 30th September.

Chelsea Programme have commissioned Italian artist collective Black Pig City to produce an installation for the Parade Ground in October 2009.

As part of their project BPC would like to work with a group of UAL students on a secret workshop. Applicants must be available on a flexible, part time basis between 6th – 16th October.

This is a unique opportunity to work with a group of emerging international artists on their first major UK commission. Deadline for applications – 30th September.

For information on how to apply to take part in the workshop, please visit Black Pig City.

For further information on the workshop, please open document below.

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August 20, 2009 3:17 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

Chelsea Programme Website Opportunity

Chelsea Programme Website Brief

Chelsea Programme – the public programmes project at Chelsea College of Art & Design – would like to recruit a former or current UAL student to design and develop a website for our forthcoming ‘Borderline’ season.

'Borderline' consists of two of artists commissions for the Parade Ground a Chelsea, a conference at Tate Britain in October and a series of artist-led screenings all exploring issues around borders and nationhood in contemporary Europe.

Website details

We envisage creating a website that is relatively simple, and easily update-able by the Chelsea Programme Co-ordinator. At this stage, we would like the site to contain the following capabilities:

·Text / image based (information on projects, conference timetable etc.)

·Contain podcasts / sound files

·Comment facility – allowing people to comment on information on the site

The web designer will work with the Chelsea Programme co-ordinator on the visual identity for the site.

We will offer:

·A competitive fee, in relation to workload / experience

·Full credits for the designer on the website (including a link to your own site if applicable)

·Free conference ticket, if desired (worth £25 / £15)

·A chance to build your portfolio

This is an international project, funded by Arts Council England, and supported by Tate Britain and City Inn Westminster.

This project should not take up more than 2/3 days work (and is likely to be less). We will need to have the website up and running by Monday 21st September 2009. This opportunity is probably most suitable for a recent graduate or current student.

Please send brief expressions of interest to Sonya Dyer, including links to any other website you have designed, by 31st August 2009 via s.dyer@chelsea.arts.ac.uk

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June 5, 2009 4:25 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

Summer Break, Future Events

There are no further Chelsea Programme events planned for the summer, but we'll be back in the Autumn with a major new project focusing on how artists and curators in Europe are engaging with the idea of borders.

This project will consist of two Parade Ground commissions, a conference in partnership with Tate Britain and a series of artist- led screenings and discussions. We will be working with artists including Black Pig City (Italy), Paula Rousch and Ines Amado (Portugal) as well as a range of international artists and curators for the conference.

They'll also be opportunites for Chelsea students to work directly with our commissioned artists.

Further information will be added to this site in late summer. In the meantime, we hope you have a great summer, and look forward to seeing you in the Autumn.

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June 5, 2009 4:26 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

Chelsea Conversations Images

A selection of images from our recent series of 'Chelsea Conversations' events..

The Art of Protest, 5th May 2009
Guyan Porter (presenting), Yara El-Sherbini
Yara El-Sherbini (presenting)
Guyan Porter, Mark McGowan (presenting), Yara El-Sherbini

Left is Right? 12th May 2009

Claire Fox and Emma Ridgeway
Claire Fox and Emma Ridgeway
*Unfortunately, Matthew Collins was unable to join us*

What is engagement? Contesting 'socially engaged practice.'
Ana Laura Lopez de la Torre
Dave Beech
Sophie Hope

All photographs taken by Joanna Wodzicka (Chelsea student).

Chelsea Programme is working towards making the talks availiable via this blog, either in the form of transcripts or through podcasting edited excerpts. Join our mailing list to be informed of when they are available - contact s.dyer@chelsea.arts.ac.uk (with 'Mailing List' as the subject heading.)

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May 1, 2009 4:40 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

Chelsea Conversations - Events

PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS - *ALL EVENTS ARE NOW FULLY BOOKED*

The Art of Protest (5th May)

A discussion with three artists who, in different ways, are engaged with practice – based activism, or adopt what might be called ‘activist stances’ within their work.

Mark McGowan (artist), Yara El-Sherbini (artist), Guyan Porter (artist)

Left is Right?(12th May)

Are the arts intrinsically ‘progressive’? Is there a ‘left’ consensus in the arts? If so, how do we explain the ‘art market’ and reliance on ‘free labour’? What do terms like ‘left,’ ‘right’ and 'progressive' mean now anyway for politically engaged art / artists?

Claire Fox (Institute of Ideas), Emma Ridgeway (curator, RSA) and Matthew Collings (critic / broadcaster)

What is Engagement?Contesting ‘socially engaged practice.’ (26th May)

‘Socially engaged’ and ‘participatory’ practices are increasingly attracting public subsidy and support, with some artists naturally seeing this form of practice as a positive way of engaging with ‘communities’ and others as a form of cheap social work. Three leading cultural practitioners discuss..

Ana Laura Lopez de la Torre (artist), Sophie Hope (curator), Dave Beech (artist and writer)

All discussions are free and take place in the Banqueting Hall @ Chelsea College of Art & Design, between 6 – 7.30pm.

*ALL EVENTS ARE NOW FULLY BOOKED*

To join the mailing list, please contact s.dyer@chelsea.arts.ac.uk

Please mention any additional requirements (wheelchair access, BSL etc.) if applicable.

BIOGS:

Yara El-Sherbini

Yara El-Sherbini (London) utilises humour to playfully explore art and life. Her practice straddles between live art, video and installation, using recognizable formats within contemporary popular culture (board games, game shows, pub quizzes, and auctions) to explore ideas around what art is, can be and who it involves.

Her work has recently been shown at Modern Art Oxford (Oxford), Gallery 111 (London) Delfina Foundation (London), BAC! International Festival of Contemporary Art (Barcelona), Fringe Festival (Melbourne), National Portrait Gallery (London), IKON gallery (Birmingham), Khoj Live 08 (Delhi), Art Dubai (Dubai), Centre d'Art Contemporain (Geneva), ARCO (Madrid), and Palazzo Papesse (Siena).
www.yaralesherbini.com

Guyan Porter

Guyan Porter is an artist and writer based in Glasgow.

Guyan organises, exhibits in and curates artist-led projects, multi media arts events, and temporary public art projects internationally. In 1998 he carried out a Residency in Russia, going on to South Africa, and has travelled extensively ever since.

His practice involves sculpture, installation, political dialogue, text and events combining live art, music and visuals, as well as performance in strange places.

As a writer he has covered the subjects of art, culture, politics, and religion, publishing articles and essays, while writing a book on the history of mind.

He was a founder member and first President of the Scottish Artist Union.

Mark McGowan

Mark McGowan is a London-based artist.

Claire Fox

Claire Fox is the director of the Institute of Ideas (IoI), which she established to create a public space where ideas can be contested without constraint.

She is also a passionate supporter of the arts, and strongly believes that they should be valued for their own sake. She argues that efforts to dilute the arts for the benefit of 'the socially excluded' are patronising rather than democratic. Claire features in the Telegraph's list of Britain's 100 most influential people on the Left.

Emma Ridgeway

Emma Ridgway is curator and producer at the Arts and Ecology Centre, Royal Society of Arts; she was previously at Serpentine Gallery, London. She edited the book Experiment Marathon (Serpentine Gallery and Reykjavik Art Museum, 2009) and curated Beings and Doings at the British Council (New Delhi, 2007) following her research into humour as form of aesthetics. She is currently researching engagements with ethics and ecology through the arts.

Matthew Collings

Dave Beech

Dave Beech is an artist and member of art the collective Freee, He writes regularly for publications including ‘Autonomy v Barbarism’ (Art Monthly) and ‘The Freee Manifesto for a Counter-Hegemonic Art’.

His work has been exhibited widely across Europe and the USA, including Tate Modern (in Century City). He contributed to the Matthew Higgs Bookworks project "Seven Wonders of the World", Kenny Schachters conTEMPorary Gallery, New York, as well as Gavin Wades "STRIKE" exhibition. His most recent exhibitions include text works for John Russells publication, "Frozen Tears", "strolling into history" for Artranspennine03 and he has recorded 19 songs for "Radio Radio" at International 3.

He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art & Design.

Sophie Hope

Sophie Hope's work inspects the uncertain relationships between art and society. This involves establishing how to declare her politics through her practice; rethinking what it means to be paid to be critical and devising tactics to challenge notions of authorship. Since co-founding the curatorial partnership B+B in 2000, Sophie has gone on to pursue her independent practice, with recent projects taking place in a Dutch new town, south London housing estate and Austrian cultural embassy. Sophie also writes, teaches and facilitates workshops, dealing with issues of public art, the politics of socially engaged art and curating as critical practice.

www.welcomebb.org.uk

Ana Laura López de la Torre

Ana Laura López de la Torre (b. Uruguay 1969) is an artist and writer based in London since 1995. Using the overlooked and the underrated as a starting point, her work creates visible and unexpected connections between things, people and places. Often acting as a catalyser and involving disparate constituencies with common interests but conflicting agendas, Ana Laura’s work explores the meaning of the local as a critical context for artistic production.

Ana Laura is the current holder of the Southwark Studio Residency, awarded by ACME Studios, the South London Gallery and Southwark Council. Forthcoming presentations include group exhibition at the Stephen Lawrence Gallery, a public art commission to launch the new Peckham Space gallery, in collaboration with South City Radio, and a solo exhibition at Gasworks Gallery.

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April 16, 2009 12:09 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

Chelsea Conversations - Spring / Summer 2009

Chelsea Conversations is back for a new season of lively discussion and heated debate. This season's focus is on exploring intersections between art and politics.

FORUM

The Art & Politics season begins with an ongoing online discussion on Art in the Recession. Artists, designers, curators and other cultural practitioners are invited to kick start the discussion, so pitch in and have your say.

‘What can the arts sector expect to happen during the recession? Does it mark the beginning of the end for public funding of the arts? Or should government see the recession as an opportunity to reconfirm the importance of art and artists, in the manner of Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administrations ‘Federal Project Number 1’? What strategies should cultural practitioners and institutions adopt to support themselves and each other during this time? What effect will the downturn have on you?

This discussion will run throughout the duration of the talks and beyond. Add comment, links, thoughts to take part in this collective conversation...

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January 28, 2009 3:02 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

Bill Fontana - Speeds of Time

Millbank Entrance, Tate Britain

3rdSeptember - 5th October 2008

Prof. Linda Drew introducing Bill Fontana

Bill Fontana speaking at the launch of 'Speeds of Time.'

Speeds of Time was a real-time sculptural sound map derived from the sounds of Big Ben. A network of microphones started at the House of Commons from the bell tower itself, spreading out to rooftops and terraces around and beyond Parliament Square. As it did so, Speeds of Time traced the contours of the temporal deformation of the bells. Some of the microphone locations included Westminster Abbey, the Treasury Building and the Horse Guards Clock at Whitehall.

This version of Speeds of Time was developed from an earlier version that was originally commissioned by the Works of Art Committee of the House of Commons in 2004, and had focused on the Great Clock. As a live sound sculpture, sensors and microphones were mounted on the 'Great Clock' and near the bell so that each tick and chime was repeated seven times, and relayed across eight speakers, moving from one to another and raising the question 'which one is real?'. This older version can be heard on Bill Fontana's website.

Speeds of Time was originally commissioned for the Parade Ground at Chelsea College of Art & Design. Due to difficulties in obtaining planning permission, Chelsea Programme worked with Tate Britain and the artist to realise this project in a new location - the Millbank Entrance of Tate Britain.

With thanks to Arts Council England, Meyer Sound Labs, BBC Radio 4, Autograph Sound Recording, Haunch of Venison and City Inn Westminster.

Speeds of Time was commissioned by Chelsea Programme, Chelsea College of Art and Design and organised in collaboration with Tate Britain.

https://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/billfontana/default.shtm

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January 28, 2009 3:02 PM

by ChelseaProgBlog

Candyfloss Parade

Jo Bruton / Subjectivities and Feminisms research group

July 2008

Artist and Chelsea lecturer Jo Bruton organised a series of cheerleading performances, followed by a screening of work from various members of the Subjectivities and Feminisms research group. The evening was capped by a screening of the seminal cheerleading movie 'Bring it On!'

Supported by the Chelsea Programme and Westminster Arts.

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