3rd March – 9th September 2012, ALLOTMENT, mac birmingham, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham Openings :: Saturday 3rd March 2012/ Saturday 28th April 2012/ Saturday 23rd June 2012 and Saturday 8th September 2012 The MA Contemporary Curatorial Practice course, Birmingham City University is participating in ALLOTMENT, at mac birmingham. ALLOTMENT is an innovative programme hosting ten curated plots and tended by independent curators, artists and creative groups. http://10plots.tumblr.com/
The Museum of [
] Objects is a curatorial strategy aimed at generating a new art collection for a limited period of time.
Each of the artists participating in Museum, have been invited to submit an object, text, video, performance, or other outcome which will be displayed on a particular week within ALLOTMENT’s time frame, starting in March and running until the beginning of September. The artists selected for Museum are based on subjective rationales and choices, related to the collective curatorial group. The process will entail the display of a singular work each week with an accompanying descriptive text written by the artist. The curator is removed from the process of interpreting the work, promoting the artists as definer, of their own contribution. At key points throughout the coming months, the collection as it exists at that time will be displayed in its entirety; with the final culmination of work being realised for the metaphorical harvest period of September. The Museum of [ ] Objects, engages with museum display strategies that both emphasise the individual work over the collection and at particular times and in specific sites the collection takes precedence over the individual components. The artworks within the collection may at times, be loaned to other plot-holders, in an attempt to infiltrate and establish the collection within another curatorial context. The artists – weeks 1 -7 include, Chris Clinton, Matt Webb, Rosemary Terry, Michael Bold, Matt Westbrook, Jonathan Kelham and Elena Cassidy-Smith.
The artists – week 8 – 27 will be announced shortly The collection will also exist as an on-line catalogue. http://bcumacurating.tumblr.com
The Museum of [
] Objects is curated by Mona Casey and Sonya-Russell-Saunders.
Mona Casey is Course Director of MA Contemporary Curatorial Practice and a lecturer on the BA and MA Fine Art courses at Birmingham City University. Mona Casey exhibits nationally and internationally and works collaboratively and independently. She was co-founder and curator of COLONY an artist run space based in Birmingham, UK, and now co-ordinates SLICE, (www.sliceprojects.org), a nomadic project which disseminates its work through various means including exhibition, publication and on-line formats. Her research interests include investigating different strategies of exhibition making within curatorial practice and the place of University art galleries within the academic environment and the greater arts ecology. She is currently directing the programming of ARTicle gallery at The School of Art. (www.articlegallery.org) Sonya Russell – Saunders is currently on her second year of the MA CCP course. Her curatorial practice to-date is diverse, ranging from an exhibition in an empty shop as a commentary on the recession to a Victorian Cabinet and a contemporary art and music festival. She is currently an intern with Companis and is co-founder of The Wig, an experimental art group and exhibition space in Birmingham, which she is developing. Future projects include an experimental i-ching research and development project with Strange Ways and embarking on the MA Final project that is concerned around behaviours and a phenomenological experience of art events. ( http://sonyarussellsaunders.tumblr.com)
The Museum of [ Saunders.
] Objects is curated by Mona Casey and Sonya-Russell-
The MA Contemporary Curatorial Practice course is a one-year full time and twoyear part-time course at the School of Art, Birmingham City University. As part of the Allotment initiative, the MA course including Mona Casey and Sonya RussellSaunders will present The Museum of [ ] Objects.
Mona Casey is Course Director of MA Contemporary Curatorial Practice and a lecturer on the BA and MA Fine Art courses at Birmingham City University. Mona Casey exhibits nationally and internationally and works collaboratively and independently. She was co-founder and curator of COLONY an artist run space based in Birmingham, UK, and now co-ordinates SLICE, (www.sliceprojects.org), a nomadic project which disseminates its work through various means including exhibition, publication and on-line formats. Her research interests include investigating different strategies of exhibition making within curatorial practice and the place of art school galleries within the academic environment and the greater arts ecology. She is currently directing the programming of ARTicle gallery at The School of Art. (www.articlegallery.org)
Sonya Russell – Saunders is currently on her second year of the MA CCP course. Her curatorial practice to-date is diverse, ranging from an exhibition in an empty shop as a commentary on the recession to a Victorian Cabinet and a contemporary art and music festival. She is currently an intern with Companis and is co-founder of The Wig, an experimental art group and exhibition space in Birmingham, which she is developing. Future projects include an experimental i-ching research and development project with Strange Ways and embarking on the MA Final project that is concerned around human behaviours and a psychological experience of art events. (sonyarussellsaunders.tumblr.com)
http://bcumacurating.tumblr.com
From Left to Right Pine Beading, Silly String 183x30cms Manifest1 of ‘A smile that makes a curved line look straight’ 2012 1. Consistently examine and respond to situations and materials whilst maintaining a loose order of creating. 2. To create work that is both cerebral and spontaneous, constantly transformed or reinvented, providing the opportunity to utilise various compositional strategies. 3. Work against the necessity of meaning when making art, preferring a more contingent and in some cases temporal state of affairs. 4. Show reverence to the impoverished or quotidian, displaying the influence of Arte Povera and Post Minimal art practice in the use of materials. 5. Use of simple materials that result in a striking physical presence yet maintaining a sense of transience and temporality. 6. Embrace the incongruity of materials in choreographing elements both physically and conceptually. 7. Question form and function when engaging with display of art object. How the work is framed both physically and conceptually. 8. A strategy; not to conform but to pervert, parody or satirise classical relationships. 9. To create a paradoxical model; a deliberately amateurish production, countering the idea of collectability. 10. Play on the relationship between the real world and the imagined. A winding thread of allusions to art historical precedents and fictional inventions. 11. Attention to odd details and the ultimately trivial. 12. Ignore barriers and permit contradictions – Art to create a counter world.
http://chrisclintonartist.blogspot.co.uk/
Botanatomica Wood, Bronze, Wax
These objects are part of a current body of work generically entitled Botanatomica, consisting of small-scale sculptures in wood, bronze and wax which explore resemblances between microscopic forms in human anatomy and those in other nature, particularly plants. A ‘museum’ context is deliberately referenced to suggest pieces from a ‘collection’, and titled according to an invented taxonomy to question the status and even species of the objects presented. The thinking behind Botanatomica is that if these formal correspondences between human and plant anatomy exist, it’s evidence of our ancestry in nature and our dependence on it. By enlarging the scale of these microscopic structures buried within our bodies I hope to draw attention to these commonalities and increase our sense of connection with the rest of nature.
Rosemary Terry, 2012
Botanatomica Fimbriae fraxini Glomerulus aeneus Alveoli aenei
http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=2472
Question 2012 digital prints, ink and pen on paper
The surreal world of Cartesia is not an entirely fictional environment. It is exists as a representation of a possible future dystopian society. Its landscape is a dangerous playground where various philosophical, theoretical and other issues are dealt with both implicitly and explicitly. The narratives within Cartesia are ambiguous and open to interpretation. Its protagonist is depicted as a traveller on an imaginary voyage whose journey is one of solitude. He is a curious individual who seeks answers from the unfamiliar realm around him. Rarely, if ever does he succeed in his quest Cartesia exists as two worlds, the first is that which is presented to the reader in book form, it is a self-aware entity which is visibly constructed and deconstructed upon the page. The second is that world which has been created and governed by Cartesia’s inhabitants. Here the mutated creatures are responsible for the narrative structure and the upkeep of the world they reside in. Cartesia’s narratives are always fragmented. This discontinuity both in narrative sequence and the physical whereabouts of the Protagonist induces a sense of having arrived somewhere different within the story. Time and space have shifted and the observer of these events must make a connection between these segregated moments as they do in their daily lives. Our perceptions of reality are constructed of mere fragments which we bring together to construct a coherent whole. Because of this ambiguity Cartesia can have no set meaning. Its narrative structure remains uncertain and any meanings found within the drawing are those of the viewer and not of Cartesia’s creators.
http://www.webbart.co.uk/
3600 I do things without thinking and I think about things without doing
http://www.michaelbold.com/
My hand in yours, my dear friend (study for I K Bonset) (Detail) Matt Westbrook’s work often uses imagery specific to early 20th century tool and engineering catalogues as a means to explore themes of craftsmanship and cultural history. For the work in the Museum of [ ] Objects Westbrook has selected two illustrations from a 1912 tool catalogue and arranged them on a tiled background reminiscent of a De Stijl inspired interior. The title of the work and the manifesto Westbrook has rewritten on top of the tiles, refers to the work of Dutch artist Theo Van Doesburg (1883-1931) who, whilst better known for starting De Stijl (i), had also participated publicly and anonymously in the Dada movement by using the pseudonym I K Bonset (ii), to publish poetry and writing that explored a Dadaist sensibility. The multiple identities of Van Doesburg intrigues Westbrook and set amidst this context his collages allude to two defining aspects of Van Doesburg’s thinking at the time; that of the cutting out and collage techniques reminiscent of the Dadaists and the more aesthetically refined, elementary principles of art production associated with De Stijl. Van Doesburg was interested in connecting Europe’s avant-garde movements and saw publications as being key to generating ideas and discourse between artists based in a variety of cities. As well as editing De Stijl, Van Doesburg also published ‘Mecano’, a self-consciously Dadaist publication which promoted Dada art and thinking to a Netherland’s audience after World War One. ‘Manifesto I K B’ which Westbrook has re-written in permanent marker (the graffiti tagger’s tool of choice) on top of the tiles here, first appeared in an edition of Mecano in 1921. Van Doesburg was interested in how the printed page could be used to make a literary, visual transcription of sound effects and be a written record of the performed poetry that characterised Dada performances and gatherings. It has been suggested that it was Van Doesburg’s angular typesetting and use of diagonal arrangements (iii) within Mecano that preceded his commitment to the diagonal in his other more abstract work related to De Stijl. Keen to ingratiate himself in the European avant-garde (iv) Van Doesburg organised a conference between Dada and Constructivist artists in Weimar in 1922. Attended by artists such as Hans Arp, El Lissitsky and Lazlo Moholy-Nagy the conference however failed to find common ground between these two artistic movements and is now instead seen to herald what some historians believe to be the beginning of the demise of Dada as the foremost ideology within European artists thinking. Fractures between individuals and the rise of Surrealism would emerge from this date onwards, and it was here also that Van Doesburg’s true identity as I K Bonset was revealed.
Van Doesburg’s use of an alter ego though had proved to be an effective way for him to develop his own creative process, interact with other art movements and create a varied artistic identity. With a contemporary hindsight Westbrook could be seen to be alluding to the prescience of Van Doesburg’s approach by re-presenting his manifesto amidst an amalgamation of contemporary materials (tiles, permanent marker) that we now can perhaps subtly associate with the legacy of the Dada and De Stijl ideologies.
Matt Westbrook, born 1977, Portsmouth. Lives and Works in Birmingham, is a director and founding member of Grand Union artist studios and project space and will be an artist in residence at the New Art Gallery Walsall, as part of the Group occupation residency programme organised by Eastside Projects. He is also co-editor of BAZ, a semi satirical ‘think tank’ sporadically documenting the Birmingham Art World.
www.mattwestbrook.co.uk www.grand-union.org.uk www.birminghamartzine.com
Notes; i.De Stijl (translated from the Dutch: ‘The Style’) was a publication and art movement started by Van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian in 1917 which sought a geometric, abstract art aligned to the principles of Neo Plasticism that Van Doesburg would go on to establish. ii.A possible derivation of the Dutch ‘Ik ben zot’ (I am foolish) iii.Hinted upon in the hand written Manifesto IKB. iv.An example of this desire could be Manifesto IKB’s translation in to French; perhaps an attempt to engage the attention of Paris based Dada artists and writers such as Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia and Tristan Tsara.
Bookcase â–Ą1. [Stezaker] 2011 From Bookcase Series Inkjet Print on Offenbach Bible Paper A4
The production of a series of front facing bookcases began whilst considering the origin and influence upon how individuals intentionally construct a portrayal of a romanticised Englishness [see: www.jkelham.com - Leaders Of Men] and connotations associated with such imagery: collection, knowledge, history, containment, status, organisation and documentation. The production of this series of works highlights both the individuality and uniformity of the bookcase as a symbol of the construction.
http://jkelham.com/
Pieces of Silver 2 Thaumatropes Pieces of Silver 2 is new film work which is the realisation of static untitled objects that were made for the alternative cinema experience ‘Kirkland’s New Empire Bioscope’ in 2011. These 21st century thaumatropes bring together persistence of vision trickery, silent film inter-titles and seminal phrases from modern cinema. Horror, humour, thrills, spills and ambiguity all seek to entertain, amuse and beguile from the early days of the moving image when audiences experienced the wonder of seeing ‘other worlds’ open up to them on a brightly lit screen from the darkness of the auditorium. The curators of The Museum of [ ] Objects have chosen to display these intriguing thaumatropes as fine art objects, theatrical props and archival evidence, leaving the visitor to experience the film at http://bcumacurating.tumblr.com or by scanning the QR code located above. Elena is a visual artist who occasionally uses live art and performance in her work, and often works in site contextual or site responsive situations. Her work is concerned with the domestic domain, sense of identity/place and aspects of consumerism. She sets up humorous or subtle paradoxes in the everyday and mundane and seeks to create playful interventions in unexpected places. Elena is founding member of West Midland collective, Strange Ways, along with fellow artists Helen Grundy and Harmeet Chagger-Khan. They joined together with the aim to make work that is an experimental blend of participatory art and contemporary fine art practice, to make and show work in unusual spaces and to create projects that attract new audiences. Elena co-manages Kirkland’s New Empire Bioscope, is chair of Wolverhampton Contemporary Art Forum, festival co-ordinator for Junction Wolverhampton and steering group member of Turning Point West Midlands. Elena has her first internationally residency in Iceland in November 2012.
www.elenacassidy-smith.web.officelive.com www.kirklandsnewempirebioscope.weebly.com www.onedayresidency.wordpress.com
http://vimeo.com/39848342
http://bcumacurating.tumblr.com
Group Show – (Artists - weeks 1 – 7) – Sun 15th – Mon 30th April
Chris Clinton, Rosemary Terry, Matt Webb, Michael Bold, Matt Westbrook, Jonathan Kelham and Elena Cassidy-Smith PV Opening: Saturday 28th April 2012/ Time – 5 – 7 PM/ mac Birmingham mac Birmingham, Cannon-Hill Park, Birmingham, B12 9QH – Opening Hours: Mon – Sun – 10AM – 10PM ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Museum of [ ited period of time.
] Object’s is a curatorial strategy aimed at generating a new art collection for a lim-
Each of the artists participating in Museum, have been invited to submit an object, text, video, performance, or other outcome which will be displayed on a particular week within the ALLOTMENT’s time frame, starting in March and running until the beginning of September. The artists selected for Museum are based on subjective rationales and choices, related to the collective curatorial group. The process will entail the display of a singular work each week with an accompanying descriptive text written by the artist. The curator is removed from the process of interpreting the work, promoting the artists as definer, of their own contribution. At key points throughout the coming months, the collection as it exists at that time will be displayed in its entirety; with the final culmination of work being realised for the metaphorical harvest period of September. The Museum of [ ] Object’s, engages with museum display strategies that both emphasise the individual work over the collection and at particular times and in specific sites the collection takes precedence over the individual components. The artworks within the collection may at times, be loaned to other plotholders, in an attempt to infiltrate and establish the collection within another curatorial context. The collection will also exist as an on-line catalogue. http://BCUMACurating.tumblr.com
3rd March – 9th September 2012, ALLOTMENT, mac Birmingham The MA Contemporary Curatorial Practice course, Birmingham City University is participating in ALLOTMENT, at mac, birmingham. ALLOTMENT is an innovative programme hosting ten curated plots and tended by independent curators, artists and creative groups. http://10plots.tumblr.com/ The Museum of [
] Objects is curated by Mona Casey and Sonya-Russell-Saunders.
The Artists – (weeks 10 – 16) are – Paul Newman, Phil Thomson, Mona Casey, Grace Williams, Lisa Roffey, Adam Burton and Sara Dobson ______________________________________________________________________________________ Images – Left to Right : Matt Westbrook, Elena Cassidy Smith and Matt Webb