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Back to Basics

27/2/2014

This month I was really looking forward to the opportunity for a freer session for a change, less constrained by attending to the specifics of the latest collaborative project, which we completed last month. I wasn’t disappointed! Though I have enjoyed the collaborations, both participating in them and being part of the discussions they generated, it was really refreshing to get ‘back to the roots’ of the group and just spend a couple of hours sharing and talking about recent work and ideas. It was good to see Colin Binns again, who fresh from a drawing session with Manchester Urban Sketchers, brought his sketchbook along.
The sketching meetings occur every three to four weeks and are connected with a worldwide network of similar groups aiming to connect and share places. They fix a location for an afternoon and get together to spend time drawing in the urban environment, sharing and discussing the outcomes at the end. Today the group met at the Manchester Museum, where many people focussed on drawing objects and artefacts, however Colin found he was looking out of the museum to the street scenes and other local buildings. He felt this was related to his architectural background and connecting back to previous practice, instead of some of his more recent painting work. When Colin had mentioned to me what he was doing in the afternoon, I decided to bring along my own recent sketches from the museum. It was interesting to compare styles and approaches, especially as we had both had very different purposes for the drawings.

Resident CRITter Kevin Linnane and Dave Wilkinson, who has been on our mailing list for some time now but for whom this was a first meeting, were especially interested as photographers in the relationship between sketching and accuracy (or lack) of detail. This led us on to a discussion about the role of the visual arts in interpreting and depicting reality as well as the artist’s decisions in emphasising certain features. It was agreed that though this might be less apparent in photography, the expressive is still present, especially when considering that the photograph is not the subject (think Magritte’s Treachery of Images). We discussed how this is sometimes achieved in post-production in photography as opposed to directly during the sketching process, which led us on to the comparative immediacy of film and digital photography, planning images and editing en situ as well as back in the studio.
Colin identified that his drawings are a method of investigating how to develop a balance between an architecturally accurate drawing style and his abstract paintings. Comparing his drawings with my own sketchbook work (completed partly as a demonstration to students and partly as ongoing research development), we agreed that though the outcomes are very different in style and approach, they exist for essentially the same reason. Colin will be using his sketches in moving towards mixed media work involving silkscreen.

As we had been looking at my sketchbook as a playground for new ideas, it was natural then to turn the discussion to my own recent, if unexpected, developments. Last week, I was delighted to hang the Peaceful Places prints at the Earth Café and I shared the selected prints with the group. I explained that as much of my work recently has been focussed on participatory events displayed (mostly) in online galleries, I had almost forgotten just how enjoyable it can be to get work out physically into a public display and that in the short time I was in the café hanging the work, I received very positive feedback which had been refreshingly welcome. This changed my thoughts around the project too; though the Peaceful Places series has been something of a tangent from my recent practice, I have enjoyed working with the images so much that I had already begun to consider making some paintings from them, and having experienced this response at the café I had been motivated to start a new piece.
The painting is a reasonably direct representation of a lotus in a Japanese Buddhist temple and I have been exploring the ‘peace’ theme further through the application of paint by employing calm, soft, almost meditative brushstrokes. I went on however, to question my motivations for this work, worrying that it was bordering on the therapeutic and explaining that I felt self-indulgent in producing it largely for personal pleasure. Though I feel strongly that I don’t want to put this new ‘tangent’ down and am enjoying making for makings sake, I also find myself questioning the purpose of it, uncertain of what it could be achieving in a wider context. Having said that, I am not able to explain why this matters and fully appreciate that the purpose of visual art is not easy to qualify, nor is it always appropriate to do so. Despite this, I seem to be challenged in applying this to my own practice. Kevin suggested that this may be partly due to education though I suspect a lot of it has to do with my wider aspirations and self-expectations as well as it being quite a shift from my other recent work.

Kevin also commented that he noticed a similarity between my recent ‘discovery’ of a new element of work within an existing theme (funnily enough, also concerned with the concept of place) and his own recognition of a previously unarticulated key thread in his work. The group all felt that there were examples present in our work of deviations occurring before we returned to a core subject. Kevin described this as being part of a process of finding out what it is you do, a recognition of things clicking into place, feeling right and thinking ‘I can just get on and do it now’.
He has recently been looking at issues relating to place and space but after looking back through some older projects has realised an ongoing interest in rituals. This is especially apparent in two projects he shared with us exploring acts of pilgrimage and performance . He is now working collaboratively on a series of photos of pillboxes in Bury St Edmonds and is currently working out the relationship between the new and old work. The pillboxes are positioned in defensive lines along the railway and I commented that this seemed to relate back to Kevin’s previous interest in ley lines while it was also noted that there were links to military rituals. Kevin hopes to open the work up following this rediscovered direction and plans to look at military bands.

Dave also discussed the recognition of key themes in relation to his own portfolio of work. Though he has been taking photos for years he is now starting to wonder what to do with them all! He showed us a range of images, most, if not all of which could be broadly categorised under many themes; Architectural, Sports, Nature, Travel, Astronomy, Landscape and Music Performance to name but a few possible headings! Despite these, Dave said he had not actually sorted through them all, which came as something of a surprise to me at least. He voiced some uncertainties around his work; having listened to other members in the group talking about projects and themes, yet the rest of us agreed that despite some apparent fragmentation, the key theme was in recording his visual experiences of the world.

Kevin made the very practical suggestion of sorting them into categories and looking at selling them through picture libraries, stating that as a photographers Dave has a very commercial eye. I thought it might be quite interesting to physicalising some of the images by printing them and seeing where that might develop and also suggested the possibility of setting a mini-project of something like a photo-diary, if this was a direction he felt motivated to follow.
Dave went on to say that he had recently recognised something of an ongoing theme in his more abstract compositions and that he was primarily interested in shape and colour, with much of his recent work containing botanical references, employing macro work, saturated colour and use of the vignette device. Kevin underlined the importance of such basic principles in photography and that a photograph isn’t always about the subject. The group felt that Dave was in the middle of his own learning journey and that certainly seemed to be a common theme tonight!

In summary, February 2014 wasn't our biggest gathering, especially with the notable absence of a few familiar faces but the content of the discussion more than made up for this and it definitely felt good to get back to the CRITgroup roots in an open and meandering discussion inspired by the new work of those involved! I am certainly looking forward to seconds in March!

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Crafting by Committee Conclusion

29/1/2014

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In November, we agreed to postpone the Crafting by Committee conclusion until January as some people had other commitments in December. The group was excited then to start the New Year by sharing their final outcomes for the Crafting by Committee project.

There was a varied response with each contributor demonstrating an identifiable departure from their usual practises and genuine responses to both rounds of committee feedback. The group reflected that the experience made people reconsider their approaches, and that the idea of the committee was a good one. There were varying levels of willingness to accept committee feedback however, and some felt uncomfortable about the instructions they received. Despite this, it was agreed that it had been positive to encourage each other to do something different within our practices. Some felt the main outcome was that it reinforced and highlighted what we already do, while for others it has encouraged development and more change in direction. Everyone found it to be an interesting exercise and agreed that it resulted in a variation on existing practices more than specific deviations from disciplines. One analogy was that it was more like adding a new flavour than a using an entirely new recipe. You can find details of the individual outcomes and further discussion on each by visiting the final stage project page.

This month we were also pleased to welcome photographer Jim in his first visit to CRITgroup. With a background in the building trade, he has also been active for the last 15 years in his side line of professional photography, focussing particularly on documenting performances. He is now hoping to extend into other areas and has an interest in 3D modelling and rapid prototyping.

Next month we will meet for an informal CRITsession and everyone is invited to bring some work. We will also make time to reflect further on the Crafting by Committee project, as well as discussing the possibility of a third research project.

James Sharp

DaDa Manchester 1
Things kick as the city decks its halls
Bright red decorations stretch out
Manchester's main streets
Square plays Dancers performing
Quarter's Contemporary Art

Kevin Linanne

Christine Wilcox-Baker

Annabeth Orton

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A Second CRITmas

19/12/2013

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I started off by sharing some of my own recent developments; firstly, some new contributions to the This Place Is project from Dalian. I had left some booklets with the staff and students of English First School where I ran PlaceMaking workshops in the summer and was delighted to receive some contributions through the post last month. With some specific reflections on Dalian itself as well as few references to other places in China, they certainly make for interesting reading. I especially enjoyed contrasting them with my own This Place Is Dalian booklet that I completed shortly after my return to the UK.

Not quite a silent night but certainly a peaceful one; we had a small meeting this evening, three familiar faces and a very welcome new guest! All the more mince pies for us!

We had already agreed to postpone the Crafting by Committee conclusion until January as some people had other commitments in a very busy month anyway. As such, it was really rather pleasant to ‘kick’ back on what was also CRITgroups second birthday and reacquaint ourselves with the underlying purpose of the meetings; discussing our work!

The other outcome from my summer was unexpected but none the less worthy of being shared; upon getting home, I realised how many of the photographs I had taken during my travels had still been concerned with place, although in a slightly different and less urban context. I collated a select series of these into a book titled Peaceful Places and brought along a copy for the group to see. The work will be on display at the Manchester Buddhist Centre’s Earth Café in February 2014. Whilst it was good to share the work itself, I think people also found it interesting to assess the quality of the self-published book. We briefly discussed using companies that allow you to compose and order such publications and their potential applications for things such as exhibition catalogues as well as portfolio books.

We were then delighted to view work by our new visitor; Colin Binns. With a background in architecture, Colin currently works from his studio in Preston and is currently engaged with developing abstract mixed media work based on an exploration of the Bridgewater Canal for an exhibition at the Bank Quay Gallery, Warrington in November 2014. Colin starts with photographic references and develops these through drawing and print media into a series of canvases. He also shared some older work with us, much of which had references to specific cities. Of particular interest was a series completed as a portrait of Blackpool, in which Colin had associated different areas in the region with the concept of Chakras. These had particularly influenced the colours used and environmental features represented in the work. Those of you who have often attended meetings, or kept a close eye on the blogs will remember the work of regular attendee, Kevin Linnane whose work has also been inspired by the canal networks in Manchester. Colin and Kevin found they had still more in common with an interest in the application of dowsing techniques to respond to the environment that inspires their work.

Having had a good chat about the project work shared (as well as our fill of Christmas cake and mince pies!) all that remained was to wish each other a merry, yet peaceful festive season as we wrapped up the last meeting of 2013.

We’re back on the 29th of January 2014 to conclude Crafting By Committee and get the new year off to a creative start!

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Committee Responses

27/11/2013

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Renate Wendel; Portrait of Rhapsody in Blue

Tonight was the midpoint of this much shorter phase of the collaborative project, at which artists returned to show the group their proposed work in progress, with reference to the committee instructions.

Interestingly, a couple of collaborators felt that the instructions had either allowed or directly caused them to go back to historic ways of working that they had not necessarily expected to revisit. In contrast however, some felt a genuine challenge resulting in a ‘great learning curve’ that they said moved them out of their comfort zone. The committee tried to push this challenge still further by reviewing the presented work and revising or in some cases simply ‘tweaking’, the instructions to result in an amended development. Some of those in attendance clearly found it more challenging than others to receive these instructions and it will be interesting to see the final results of this creative discomfort, perhaps more so than from those who seemed less phased by the challenge!

James Sharp; Scrap Book

We had originally intended to complete the project at the December meeting on the 18th, however as this is actually only three weeks away in what is for many a very busy month (some people are unable to make it along and would be presenting in January anyway) we have agreed to defer until the New Year. This will give everyone a little longer to reflect on and respond to the new instructions as well as giving those who can make it a good excuse to get stuck into the mince pies!

Because of this decision and as we’d spent quite a bit longer talking about the submissions than expected, we didn't really get onto any further critique; we agreed to save the other things people had brought until December. Lots to look forward to for the last little bit of 2013 as the second year of CRITgroup draws to a close!

Annabeth Orton; Cupcake Karma

You can find details of the Crafting by Committee project with the artists Initial Proposals and their Responses to as well as the Revised Instructions of the committee on the project pages of this site.

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Crafting by Committee

30/10/2013

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After warmly welcoming two new faces to the group this month, we set about kicking off our second collaborative project; Crafting by Committee. There were six initial proposals submitted (two remote) and whilst I personally found it quite straight forward to dictate procedures for carrying out projects that would challenge the artist (must be that teaching instinct kicking in!) I felt one of the hardest things was listening to the discussion about my proposal without asking questions or feeling the need to clarify intentions that I thought may have been misunderstood. Surprisingly, I didn't find it difficult at all to accept the conditions applied to my proposal but I did find I wanted to ask for more clarification than might have been appropriate. I actually thought that everyone who was present for the committee discussion of their proposals did very well in biting their tongues and taking the feedback without query as the process could easily have caused some debate. Thankfully, that wasn't the purpose of the session tonight, though I am sure there will be plenty of time for that in future meetings! The committee’s decisions and feedback on the proposals can now be found on the second project page.

By the time we had discussed all the proposals and decided on feedback (as well as agreeing the format for the next stage; progress to be presented in November with final outcomes submitted at the Christmas Meeting on December 18th), We enjoyed some time to chat about the creative projects of some of those attending. Christine asked for some thoughts on how best to go about selling prints and drawings that she has stored at home. Suggestions from the group included online sales, running an open house event, attending craft fairs and even initiating a ‘lucky dip’ project (probably online). This last suggestion was inspired by conversation around the fact that there was not one single style or process represented in the work and that it might be more appropriate to categorise or selectively ‘brand’ differently grouped pieces in order to target different audiences more effectively. The ‘lucky dip’ suggestion centred on the idea that people on a budget would still like to own a piece of original art and that they could submit a budgeted amount, receiving a corresponding piece of work at random. We also talked briefly about different websites that might be utilised including Ebay and Etsy, as well as debating how useful a social media presence really is in increasing online sales.

Without wanting to put them too much on the spot, we then heard from our guests Melanie and Matt, who had both popped along on the off chance that they might find something interesting! Melanie joined us primarily in a research mission as a creative project manager who is involved in a new business incubation project in Inverness. The project aims to get creative and non-creative businesses and freelancers interacting to encourage innovation and ideas based cross pollination. Matt then introduced himself as a freelance illustrator who has recently moved to Manchester. He shared his portfolio with us and talked about recent projects he has completed for the Royal Navy and a London based brewery. Having sometimes struggled to make time for illustration alongside paying the bills (though a recent job painting Disney princesses onto bouncy castles fired a few CRITgroup imaginations!), He described his new routine in which he sets aside 4 hours a day for illustration. Group members suggested places he may find opportunities and support in Manchester including Creative Industries Trafford, Castlefield Gallery, Islington Mill and some smaller local galleries and venues.

We also had remote updates to share from a couple of absent friends; James could not be in Manchester as he told us he is busy preparing for the Fall Fair at the Robert Crown Center, Evanston in Chicago on Saturday! Renate, though a bit more local, has been equally busy with preparations for the opening of Oldham Symphony Orchestra's Golden Jubilee Exhibition at Gallery Oldham. The exhibition celebrates the orchestra's history and place in the community and reflects on the work of the orchestra's late leader Anne Heeks. Renate will be exhibiting the portrait In Memoriam Anne Heeks as a personal contribution. The exhibition runs until 4th January 2014

After stuffing ourselves on the promised pre-hallow e’en treats (and mercifully avoiding too many tricks), we melted off into the Northern Quarter night to begin brewing up our responses to the Crafting by Committee feedback.

Check back or join us at MadLab next month to find out what we’ve pulled from the CRITgroup Cauldron!

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UK PlaceMaking and Collaborative Planning

26/9/2013

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This month we broke slightly with tradition and I stepped out of the organiser role to give a talk on my own recent practice. This work, which was exhibited at the Chinese Arts Centre earlier this month, looked at developing recent PlaceMaking project work by engaging with Chinese Nationals both visiting the UK and as residents in China. Christine kindly agreed to take a few notes on my presentation (I can multi-task but probably not write an unbiased account of my own talk!). Her thoughts follow below.

Annabeth gave us a very interesting and informative presentation about her experiences this summer in China as part of her travels. The quote “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” from T S Eliot resonated with her experiences as you will see below. In the tradition of the artist collector, on their Grand Tour, Annabeth set out to gain experience, inspiration and artefacts to further inform her current practice. Her tour took in a variety of friends, locations and new contacts and participants – many of them new to ‘art’. Having already run a series of workshops in the UK (around Greater Manchester, York and London) she had pre-organised a series of workshops in China in order to be able to compare and contrast the responses of those taking part, from schoolchildren to the curious ‘grown up kids’.

Her recent current practice has been focused on interaction with people and city spaces and looks at creating improved relationships between the two. Much of her work is workshop based and outcomes are photographed by her in order to make a series of documented pieces. Looking at differences between the two cultures and identifying things about the UK have been key to the investigations she has made during her trip.

Working with a set of pre-made templates Annabeth asked three research questions:

* I remember
* I hope to see
* This place is

Participants, most of whom were not from any kind of ‘art’ background, were invited to write responses to these questions on transparent acrylic boards - contained in frames with the questions at the top of them – one set in English, the other in Chinese. She was pleasantly surprised in both countries that people were very willing to join in and nobody made any of the ‘what is art’ type comments that she had anticipated. Annabeth photographed each written response being held aloft in front of a location that would give the viewer a clue to which country they were in. The photographs have now been made into an on-line gallery and have also been exhibited at Manchester’s Chinese Arts Centre.

I could write for days about the information gleaned but in order to be succinct I will try to summarise below - you can of course find out more information here (on Annabeth’s website). Annabeth’s findings surprised her as there were more similarities than the differences she expected – however although the content may be similar the Chinese responses seemed to show much more love of their city and civic pride than the English ones and were also more evident of a communal and sharing society. This can mean everyone is more included but the downside is that there are a lot of things taught that very much continue traditions and the perfection of ‘craft’ but don’t necessarily allow for so much self-expression.

Even having worked with interpreters in China she found that she wasn’t able to fully get the ‘background chat’ and ideas inspired by her workshops so couldn’t know as much about the participants as she could in the UK. That said she did feel that the Chinese perspectives seemed more responsive which contrasted with more factual statements in the UK.

During her trip Annabeth felt that as her visit was very ‘managed’ there was an inevitability that she would only see what her hosts wanted her to see. With this in mind on a number of occasions she ‘deliberately got herself lost’ in order to see a bit more reality. Finding these forays ‘interestingly scary’ at times, she saw first-hand the stark contrasts between poverty and privilege. She also had her own personal voyage of discovery about who she is and what home is.

Realising that there’s a lot each culture can learn from the other in many ways, including educational methods of art training, Annabeth now believes there may be opportunities on a global scale to find ways to work together. She is planning to use the internet to move forward with her current galleries, potentially including a ‘virtual exchange’ and is also looking at the possibility of a residency in China.

I should like to thank Christine for her time in composing this passage; it's always fascinating to read about your work from an alternative perspective!

Later in the meeting, we also discussed our plans for beginning the new collaborative project next month. Crafting by Committee will be a shorter, three session project taking us up to the end of the year in which each collaborator will produce a brief project proposal, situated within their current practice. The rest of the group will then act as a panel who will, upon hearing the proposal, specify particular criteria for how the project must progress. The practitioner must then follow these instructions precisely and return to the panel in November with the outcome. The hope is that we can then use these pieces to reflect upon how decision making within different practices can impact upon outcomes but also be an intrinsic part of the creative process. Again, these will be research pieces, starting points for potential development and pieces of work in their own right. As some members cannot be present on one or more of the meetings, we agreed that everyone would submit their proposal in a brief written format a fortnight ahead of the next meeting. This will allows some time to preview the proposals and have a think before forming our committee! Again, as a research project and with so many different practices in the group, the outcomes of this are naturally unknown but one thing is certain; it will be an interesting couple of months finding them out!

I can’t quite believe how quickly the last year has gone and already we are moving towards CRITgroup’s second birthday! It feels as though we have already achieved a lot with the successful conclusion and exhibition of Creative Whispers so I’m very excited about the plans for the next couple of months. Our next meeting is on October 30th and if you would like to become involved, feel free to come along, or drop us a message for more information using the contact form on the home page.

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CRITsummer

28/8/2013

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We have had a quiet couple of months at CRITgroup as people take time out to make the most of the summer, both in creative and other senses.

I have had an especially exciting time of it, though I don’t want to give too much away as I shall be giving a talk on my recent PlaceMaking project work in China at the next CRITgroup on September 25th. While you can see this work on my website, it will also be briefly on display at the Chinese Arts Centre from the 10th to the 14th of September with a late night opening on Thursday the 12th; CRITgroup members are of course warmly invited to the opening!

One project I will share that I have also added to over the summer is This Place Is. A public project launched last year, it aims to build up a physical record of personal responses to a variety of places, starting from the UK and hopefully including places all over the world. I was in a good position to increase the global reach over the last couple of months and you can see my own use of the project booklets by visiting the This Place Is Summer 2013 gallery.

Christine Wilcox-Baker has been getting political with a public art exhibition designed to raise public awareness and support for Asian Elephant conservation. ‘Elephant Parade’ is coming to Manchester before stomping off all over the country and arriving in London next summer. Christine has designed and painted one of the elephant sculptures titled ‘Stop the traffic’ that is the size of a real baby elephant! You can see it, at the Trafford Centre until the 12th of September.

James Sharp has also been keeping busy attending crafts fairs and running workshops. You can find details of his activities in textiles, artists’ books and journal keeping on his blog.

As mentioned, the next CRITgroup will be on September 25th, when I shall be transporting you overseas with an investigation into Chinese approaches to public spaces. In October, we will be getting back up and running with our second collaborative project; Crafting by Committee.

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A Summer Lull

26/6/2013

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It seems Summer is well and truly underway (despite the weather!) with many people on holiday (or conversely being so creative they were too busy to make it!) I do however; have a couple of recent updates of my own that I shall share before including news from a few of our other regular attendees.

On the 15th of June, I was delighted to take the PlaceMaking and This Place Is workshops that I have been developing along to the Magpie Thunder Bureau Pop Up as part of the Barnaby Festival. In the morning, we took the PlaceMaking boards on to the streets of Macclesfield and gathered some thoughts on local perspectives, especially in light of the recent approval of some major town centre redevelopments. This took a slightly new approach to previous sessions and rather than working as part of an existing workshop group, we approached Saturday shoppers and arts trail visitors. We got some interesting conversations going too, once we had persuaded people that we weren't trying to sell them anything! In the afternoon, I ran a This Place Is demo session back at the Pop Up Shop and rather than asking for completed booklets there and then, they were made available for the duration of the festival for visitors to take away and return at their leisure. If you are interested in participating yourself, you can request a booklet online and find the return address on the project page.

On a bit of a tangent, I additionally have four paintings on display until August 11th at Nexus Art Café as part of their Happiness exhibition, along with Renate Wendel who also has work in the Malgras|Naudet Summer Show (until the 28th). Renate has been working on some still-life drawing & sketching and is currently in the initial stages of venturing into portraiture by revisiting the theme of music & musicians, a recurring strand in her work. Although she is experienced in life-drawing, drawing and painting portraits is a new venture and she is experimenting with drawing on old photographs, both studio portraits and live rehearsal/concert shots, and is beginning to explore them further through drawing, painting & collage.

Christine Wilcox-Baker will also soon have some more updates for us on her contribution to the Elephant Parade and has shared these photographs of a recent public art project she has worked on.

James Sharp continues to develop his range of textile coverings for notebooks and has started using some new tweeds from his re-upholsterer. James finds they make excellent slip covers for various books because they feel good as well as being pleasant to work with. James has also kindly offered a 20% discount on his workshop fees to anyone affiliated with CRITgroup. You can find more information about these and links to make bookings or contact James on his website.

The next CRITgroup will be on July 31st and I shall be handing over to Christine for the update as I shall be in China! I very much hope to have a lot more to say about this in my talk scheduled for the September meeting!

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CRITshow; May 2013

25/5/2013

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James Sharp's Textile Poster

The CRITshow event was the culmination of the Creative Whispers group project, in which each collaborator began by producing an item intended to represent their practice. These were brought along to each meeting (beginning December 2013) and passed on to a new artist. The task was to respond to each piece and bring it back the following month. The pattern repeated for 5 responses, with the intention being to discuss and review the outcomes in order to research the characteristics of practice and the effect of labelling work as the product of a particular discipline, though we also knew we would have some interesting pieces in their own right. The final responses were shared at our last meeting and some of those can be seen here. Creative Whispers was the first time we have either collaborated or shown work in what I am now coming to think of as more than just a networking group but actually something beginning to approach an arts collective. I normally try and keep my blog posts as neutral as possible out of respect for the fact that my views are not shared by everyone who attends our meetings. As the CRITshow day was much longer than our usual 2 hour slot however; I couldn’t possibly record enough notes to give everyone’s views an equal airing so in this instance I feel at liberty to make this a more personal reflection.

Preparing the Space

We had the morning set aside for a group curatorial activity, which is actually a very grand and ‘arty’ way of saying we all put our work up. I was very surprised how smoothly this went. My experience of hanging shows is that this can be quite a stressful experience and I have witnessed many a bitter falling out over something as apparently trivial as a 1 cm difference in hanging height on a wall. I think this was largely a result of the fact that the work we were showing had itself been collaborative and any sense of ownership was subsequently diluted. That the project had been by nature experimental also reduced the tendency for people to become precious about little things like how straight pictures might be or whether there were fingerprints on the walls! We did not take a structured approach to how the work was hung, despite having discussed some possible groupings in the meeting last Wednesday. In fact it turned into a very fluid and organic process and watching it all get hung put me in mind of a busy public square. People moved at various speeds and directions all with separate tasks and concerns yet rarely (!) collided and despite this apparent separation of purpose, still came together under the umbrella of one place, one moment and of course in our case one ultimate goal. I found it a real treat to sit back for a while and watch it all come together. Though the concept of CRITgroup was initially ‘mine’ and I have been facilitating the organisation of meetings, write-ups and project collation for the past 18 months, I do not usually find it appropriate to reflect on it as any kind of personal achievement as I feel this would undermine the intention of it being a truly equal, shared experience. During the hanging however, I did come to realise that these artists would not all now be coming together in such an harmonious fashion, nor indeed would any of the work exist, had I not undertaken these administrational efforts.

Hanging and Threading

Once the work had been displayed we set about realising our planned method of demonstrating the links between each response. During discussion of how to illustrate the progression of the pieces, the word ‘thread’ kept being used to describe this and it wasn’t a huge leap to see how thread might be physically utilised. As we had not placed the work in any sequence beyond aesthetic or practical considerations, this naturally became very chaotic as we used coloured wool to trace a line in space from each starting point to the subsequent response. Personally, I feel this was especially effective as it not only illustrated the sequence but also reflected an unintended networking of responses which evolved as each outcome was received and responded to in the context of those that had come before it. Some also felt (including myself, though I know not everyone did) that it became increasingly difficult not to be at least a little influenced by all the other outcomes, as well as the one on which you were supposed to be focussing and that the pieces all became somehow linked, even tangled, in one another seemed to me rather an appropriate representation of this.

An Urban Forage

We had agreed that after lunch we would produce further responses to the work in direct collaboration (as opposed to the rest of the responses that might really be viewed as only conceptual collaborations; shared and discussed but taken away and physically worked on individually), however it actually became a very much more reflective session with everyone content to simply spend some time digesting the fruits of our labours and enjoying the opportunity to engage in conversation about things outside of art, getting to know one another a little more deeply. This time also allowed us freedom to engage with members of the public who came in to see the work and I really don’t think this would have happened so productively if we had all been hooked into making. Having said this, we did eventually break into three smaller groups. Interestingly, these seemed to be formed by natural homologies in either our practices or our ideas, which seems to cement the importance of discipline or concept as a source of commonality. Irena and Kevin for example (see Irena's video below) , took random photographs from fixed points of passers-by in what they described as a visual Flâneur (a stroll or meander). Not only did the photographers default to taking photographs, their recent contributions to Creative Whispers have both included elements of voyeurism in response to public spaces. Equally, that Christine, Renate and I decided to embark upon a ‘walk-shop’, which we christened ‘Urban Forage’; a scavenger hunt about the Northern Quarter in search of wild (actually in many cases not so wild) food plants, was a clear continuation of elements of each of our recent contributions as well as our wider practices. Shirley and David went on an exploratory mission into the city and their work too has many similarities in representing urban aesthetics through the appreciation of light and reflection. These groupings formed very naturally, and it was both productive and enjoyable for them to have done so, however I do wonder if we might have derived more in terms of research from a deliberate attempt to ‘mix up’ our disciplines a little more. Maybe that will come out of our future work.

Walking on Sunshine
"After a day of documenting the Creative Whispers event, I turned my camera and attention to the space outside of the MadLab. Positioning myself by the door I documented the activity going on directly in front of the open door. The images work as still images, but I wanted to make them into moving images, I wanted to capture an extended moment of this day. The film documents the sunshine, people enjoying the sunshine and the essence of the Northern Quarter of Manchester." Irena Siwiak Atamewan

Architectural Collaboration
"These photographs of buildings around the Northern Quarter of Manchester are part of our initial research and also starting points for a new collaborative project that we intend to develop. Having both just completed our respective courses we now want to work collaboratively, linking both of our individual approaches to develop art works using paint, photographs, glass, metal, acetate and perspex." David and Shirley Hammond

Discussing the Work...

Upon returning to MadLab we ended the day with a reflective and analytical discussion, to which we also welcomed two new faces who have not been involved in the project. I found it useful and informative to have input from people who had not been ‘embroiled’ in the project.

The first key point covered was primarily that everyone felt participation in collaborating had been very much a positive experience, even described as an ‘antidote’ to working as a solitary artist. It was identified that the continuous changes every month kept work and individuals developing, and also moved it outside of the usual creative experience. Most of us felt that not producing the work with the intention of it being viewed by an audience outside of our circle was a good thing as it freed us up to make mistakes, allowed risk taking and encouraged individuals to step out of their comfort zone. It was also noted that the ‘peer pressure’ or obligation to complete work for each meeting in order to not let each other down helped to not only motivate but also facilitate new ideas. On the flip side, the social tendency towards ‘politeness’ resulted in many people (though not everyone) making choices to avoid potentially upsetting each other (especially when it came to ‘destroying’ work) so it might be that this is an area of risk taking that was under-explored. The reluctance to deconstruct another’s work was an interesting instinct and there was a debate around whether this came from moral or political reservations in relation to the destruction or preservation of art which has often been used as a vehicle for expression in more oppressive situations.

(...and analysing the cakes!)

Reflections on the difference between ‘art’ and ‘craft’, along with their perceived hierarchies then became the dominant topic. One suggestion was that ‘craft’ is very much more defined from the outset with a prescribed outcome that will be either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ on a technical level, while ‘art’ tends to allow the outcome to be very much more formed or influenced by serendipitous changes that occur during making. It was discussed that if this can be accepted as a distinction then the ‘art’ approach tended to embody a more modern perspective, while the ‘craft’ was more closely linked to traditional values. We also discussed situations where the ‘artist’ passes an idea on to a ‘crafter’ to be physically realised and I personally think this is also an important distinction where ‘art’ tends to be more concerned with ideas and concepts to be communicated where ‘craft’ idealises physical outcomes that can be identified as having a specific purpose. We questioned how valuable these semantics are to us under the even broader categorisation of ‘creatives’. It was generally felt that these questions underpin important current debates in the wider financial climate with regards to applications for arts funding as well as proposed changes to arts education. If work can be sold, it is commoditised; however it is also self-justifying, where publically funded art is often seen as a ‘past time’. Though arguments that the arts satisfy a deeper, emotional or social human need may themselves be justifiable, they will always take a back seat to physical needs, especially in times of for example, rising food and energy bills. As a teacher, this definitely put me in mind of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs! We discussed the perception that many modern art forms have had the requirement for practical skill removed, especially in areas where it is either more conceptually driven or specifically intended to demonstrate that ‘anyone can be an artist’. This led us back to discuss recent discomfort with the notion that an artist does not always physically make their own work, though we also recognised a long tradition of this. We discussed how important the process is to the outcome, and while we accepted that this is not a black and white distinction but something that depends on the work, some comments comparing visual arts to performance based disciplines suggested that in fact it was the outcome more often than not that embodied a majority of the value ascribed to it by the audience. This developed into a discussion of artists’ statements and while many felt them to be an unnecessary intrusion into the relationship between the work and the viewer, some equally noted that being informed about a piece of work could actually allow an audience to get more out of it. It was generally agreed however, that ‘lazy’ or poorly written statements, especially those that were self-aggrandising or that use unnecessarily inaccessible language did more harm than good.

Welcoming Visitors

I am very happy to report that he day finally concluded with a discussion of plans for the next stage of collaborative working. Titled ‘Crafting by Committee’, the project will run over the three sessions at the end of the year, starting in October. Participating artists will submit proposals for projects which will be discussed by others forming representative ‘panels’. The panels will then feed back to the submitting artist with clear instructions for how their proposal should be realised. There will be one further meeting (November) for review of project development in a similar format before submission of final products or outcomes in December. We will then look into the differences between the initial proposal and the realisation of the project at completion stage, analysing how any contrasts between disciplinary approaches might have impacted upon this and how it affects our investigations into practice and discipline.

A Round of Applause?

To summarise; it was a long but relaxed and very enjoyable day and I feel we all benefited from the opportunity to spend more time together than usual. Seeing the work we have produced all in one space was an important conclusion to a project that we each drew different creative sustenance from and the variety of outcomes, ranging from those that were unapologetically self-indulgent to those attempting to flush out opportunities for debate, from the purely aesthetic to the entirely conceptual, were all drawn together under the common seizure of a chance to push personal boundaries. That the work became a catalyst for discussion of the wider state of arts from a socio-political perspective as well as a creative one, validated the project in a contemporary and research based context, and that each participant is demonstrably keen to be involved in the next phase must be the clearest indication of all that we have not only facilitated a meaningful discussion between different practitioners but also motivated productivity. I am therefore very satisfied at the end of this important development that CRITgroup can be seen as continuing to healthily achieve its two primary aims.

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The Final Whisper!

22/5/2013

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An exciting May meeting saw us sharing our final responses to the Creative Whispers project and it was fascinating to see the number of ‘threads’ that felt as though they had come, at least to some degree, to a conclusion in a full circle. There was some discussion that it had been challenging not to be influenced by the breadth of responses as well as the piece that was supposed to be the focus and many questioned the role of the subconscious in this. Being made aware of something, whether that be a material or conceptual approach may influence a practitioner unintentionally but are we always really aware of what we are aware of? Can we avoid our work being influenced by these things, whether that be through an attraction or an aversion to them and what does this imply for our work? Aside from an exploration of our relationships with spaces (domestic, urban and rural) which really did seem to underpin a vast majority of the work, one key question that seemed to come up in relation specifically to the collaborative element was that contrast between destruction and preservation; is it acceptable to destroy in order to develop or should we aim to preserve wherever possible?

I shall skip over these issues in written form as briefly as we did at the meeting; we swiftly moved on to the nuts and bolts of planning the CRITshow on Saturday and it is at this event that we intend to really dig deep into the questions that have arisen from the project. On Saturday morning (you can join us from 10am); we will be sorting and displaying all the outcomes in one more or less logical form or another! Some talk has involved use of physical threads to illustrate the paths of response, while the likely display has also been described as something of a Venn diagram! We will then spend the afternoon in small groups responding further to the outcomes and indeed the entire project in a practical fashion, so there will even be a further series of collaborative outcomes! We will conclude with a discussion of both the project and the day and a bit more analysis of some of the previously mentioned observations along with anything else that crops up!

A very exciting development for CRITgroup and as far as I am concerned, the 25th of May can really not come soon enough!

Next month we will meet on Wednesday June 26th and there will probably be a ‘reflective debriefing’ on the May event in terms of what we have learned from the organisation of it but also how we want to move forward into phase 2 of our collaborative research project. If you are interested in getting involved, I highly recommend coming along to that meeting, even if you can’t make it on Saturday the 25th!

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CRITgroup

_Creative Reflection and Investigation Talk Group is an informal network for local artists and designers. The group meets every other month aiming to facilitate a pooling of professional skills and knowledge to provide motivation, support and social contact for those pursuing a creative (visual) practice in Manchester.

CRITgroup is an initiative organised and managed by Glittermouse.