tangent 02

an independently produced art-zine

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Issue.02 August 2005

She’s gone off on another

tangent

It’s purpose? To inform and amuse in bite-size chunks. Quick ‘n Dirty, Black ‘n White, each issue contains features on artists and arts listings in the South London area and beyond.

The plan is to publish 6 - 8 times a year.

Contributions welcome in the form of text/images/drawings.

To get the skinny on how to supply artwork contact: Karen D’Amico via email: tangent.mail@mac.com

PDFs can be downloaded from the website: www.tangent.org.uk Printed copies can be collected at the following locations: The South London Gallery Space Station 65 Studio Voltaire Transition Gallery

all content © karen d’amico 2005 unless otherwise noted. all contributions fully credited

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creating a small, independent art ‘zine.

inside

connect

[event] The Annual Grouup Photograph

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[react] Soundbite Culture Artist for Sale [reflect] Thoughts on a Grey Day

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[inform] Arts Listings

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[observe] ‘Room’ at Transition Gallery Kutlug Atamam’s ‘Kuba’ Martha Rosler at the ICA

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connect: Ann-Marie LeQuesne

Assemble Weblinks www.theannualgroupphotograph.com

Ann-Marie LeQuesne’s work has been described as ‘social and collaborative’.

Simply put, she asks people to pose for and participate in group photographs in various locations, ranging from Arsenal Football Stadium to Battersea Power Station. The results produce a series of images which, among other things, reflect an interesting dynamic between group identity and individuality.

One of the best bits about Ann-Marie’s events is that they are fun. You get to go do something fairly off the wall with a large group of people, like assemble round the furniture displays in the Tottenham Hale IKEA store, for instance, pretending to raise a toast, or line up on the escalators and wave en mass, whilst other shoppers walk by and either smile or scratch their heads in confusion. These events seem to bring out the best in people, be they participants or observers, and it’s interesting to consider where that boundary lies.

Here We Are With Everyone Else, The 6th Annual Group Photograph, The Zoology Department, The Natural History Museum, 2003, by Ann-Marie LeQuesne

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Now in it’s 8th year, her project, The Annual Group Photograph has become a sort of institution of its own, developing a following involving all sorts of people, some of whom have participated from its inception back in November of 1997. So it was fitting, then, for the 2005 event to be staged at IKEA, with the theme ‘family photographs’ in mind. Having participated in the event, I can confirm that it felt very much like that, with people from previous events linking up, having a chat and catching up, much like any large family event.

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asked & answered Ann-Marie LeQuesne

when did you first know you wanted to be an artist?

It wasn’t when I was 3! I probably got seriously interested in the idea when I was at college. what inspires you?

Other people with obsessions. what was your first big break?

Doing the Shoot exhibition at Gasworks Gallery. A lot of things seemed to follow on from that show.

worst mistake in terms of your work?

Not following through on ideas--leaving them half resolved. best bit about being an artist?

The freedom to invent. worst bit about being an artist?

The permanent worry about money.

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smartest thing you ever did in terms of your work?

I began to let go and allow things to happen.

Hi Mum!; The 4th Annual Group Photograph, Battersea Power Station, 2001, by Ann-Marie LeQuesne

what shows have you seen recently?

Open Systems at Tate Modern; ditto Frida Kahlo; Colour show at the Barbican; Amikam Toren and John Frankland at Matts; Rirkrit Tiravanija; Pettastic; Tacuinum Sanitatis at Sam Fogg; The Factory of Found Clothes at White Space Gallery.

Five; The 5th Annual Group Photograph, Arsenal Football Stadium, 2002,

by Ann-Marie LeQuesne

Ann-Marie will present ‘Enclose’, a performance refrencing nomadic living in 2006.

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connect: Delaine

Le Bas Room

Weblinks www.transitiongallery.co.uk

Of particular interest were the Binliner Dolls, constructed from plastic binbags, each with cherub-like faces peeking out from their dark, somewhat sinister hoods. Signifiers of the all-too-typical perception that Travelers and Gypsies are throwaway people, easily dismissed and ignored, the dolls also have an endearing, somewhat disarming quality about them; a nice juxtaposition, putting a face to a stereotype, as it were.

The scrapbooks were another thing I really liked.

The notebooks of varying sizes were stuffed to overflowing, so much so that some had to be tied shut in order to contain what was inside. Heaving with images, text, quirky drawings, pieces of material and bits from newspapers and magazines attached in a chaotic yet rhythmic way, they became objects in their own right.

On a purely aestetic level, for me, Room works as a sort of Eye Candy for the Soul. On a critical level, questions are being asked, sometimes quite pointedly, and stereotypes eroded. Certainly nothing to be dismissed easily.

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Delaine Le Bas’s installation, Room is a proliferation of belongings; items, remnants, kitsch objects and scraps, all of which seem to fill the space to overflowing. From paintings to miniature toys to scrapbooks bursting with keepsakes, it is a treasure trove of objects, both constructed and collected. Considered by some to be an ‘outsider artist’ in that her work does not sit comfortably in your basic mainstream gallery space, Delaine’s concerns are timely, relevant and reflective of today’s world. Notions of ‘home’, identity, exclusion and ‘the other’ are explored in her many assemblages, and reflections on her Romany heritage are alluded to and commented upon.

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connect: Kutlug

Atamam Kuba

Weblinks www.kuba.org.uk www.artangel.org.uk

Turkish artist Kutlug Ataman, in conjunction with Artangel, has created Kuba, probably the most amazing video installation I’ve ever experienced. It is deeply touching, compelling, powerful. It offers the viewer a rare glimpse of the Kuba community in Istanbul, and with it the opportunity to look with fresh eyes at a segment of humanity that is, for the most part, dismissed, ostracized or ignored. ▲

▲ Whether or not the stories being told are true or fantasy ceases to matter; what you come away with is a feeling of having connected on a very intimate level with those you would most likely never meet in your own life; their hopes and their despair, their everyday experiences. From this, one of the most striking aspects within each narrative was that element of hope and optimism in spite of everything, against all the odds, flickering tenatively, but present nonetheless.

In these days of soundbites and throwaway terms used to describe the disinfranchised, their re-humanising in Atamam’s work indeed becomes a triumph.

Kuba is now on the move, the work having been disbursed throught the city in a diasporic manner, to be re-housed in various locations.

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connect: Martha

Rosler

London Garage Sale Weblinks www.ica.org.uk www.home.earthlink.net/~navva/

A timely show, this, in the midst of Live8, G-8, the hoo haa about the so-called Celebrity Artist’s parties at the Venice Biennale and the Shop Til You Drop consumer culture we all, like it or not, inhabit and indulge in, to some degree. What I liked best about this show was the fact that Rosler placed the element

of the viewer (or, should I say, consumer.) More than just commenting on consumer culture, art as a commodity, or feminist notions of domesticity and how we define ‘value’, it was a challenge of sorts to our own sensabilities in terms of those issues. Where are the demarcation lines between commodification and art, between being the voyeur and the participant, between the need to posses, for our own perceived need or desire for the object and the need to possess just because someone famous has previously possessed something? The best bit, by far, was the fact that all proceeds from the ‘jumble sale’ were donated to charity. True to form, she put her money where her mouth was, as the saying goes. Impressive.

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of responsibiity - and choice - squarely in the lap 8

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SoundBite Culture

thought terminating cliche´s de jour WMDs Insurgents The War On Terror Soft Targets

Casualties Friendly Fire Theatre of Operations Assylum Seeker Global Warming Embedded Journalism Axis of Evil Detainee Regime Change

The term was popularized by Robert Lifton in his book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism.

The thought terminating cliché is related to the opaque pigeonhole, or closed category, which also does not permit analysis.

In George Orwell’s novel Nineteen EightyFour the fictional constructed language Newspeak is designed to reduce language entirely to a set of thought-terminating clichés.”

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Thought-terminating cliche´.

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Collateral Damage

“A thought terminating cliché is a commonly-used phrase, sometimes passing as folk wisdom, used to quell cognitive dissonance, especially in cases where the person experiencing the cognitive dissonance might resolve it by reaching a thought-provoking epiphany.

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Are words becoming weapons of mass distraction? What does the term insurgent actually mean? More importantly, what does it mean to us when we hear it or read it, which these days, even before the unspeakably horrible bombings of 7th of July, seems to be quite a lot? It’s in the news all the time - a new ‘buzz word’ for the war in Iraq. Is it a softer, less threatening, ‘replacement’ type of term, similar to ‘WMDs’, whose abbreviation and over-use quickly lost any impact and meaning?

An example: upon hearing the term ‘WMD’, do you think: (a) shrapnel flying, bombs going off and lots of people being maimed / killed / lives destroyed (b) another mind numbing speech by Jack Straw attempting to justify the war in Iraq or (c) not a lot, really.

Another example: A recent article in the Guardian, written on the eve of Bush’s speech to once again

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attempt to rally the world’s waning support for the war in Iraq, used the term ‘insurgent’ 11 times. On telly, it seems to me that the media increasingly portrays the news as if it were a trailer for the next Hollywood Blockbuster, complete with with eyecatching graphics and catchy taglines. Are we distracted from the reality of what’s happening by the plethora of language that’s repeatedly used, to the point where we no longer think about or care what’s being said? Are we bored with thinking about the war - or should I say, wars?

The events of 7 July notwithstanding, what happens when the lexicon of language begins to cause words and phrases to become meaningless?

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Celebrity culture is nothing new but it seems to me that celebrity artists are

the new black. The Great and the Good of the London Art World are suddenly must-haves on every socialite’s guest list, the Rock Stars of Art. We read more about what parties they attend than what show they’re in. We see photos of them schmoozing with fashionistas in the pages of Hello! and ES Magazine. We hear chatter about the woes of being in the 40% tax bracket rather than what the work is about. What I wanna know is, where the hell’s the art? Or, more pointedly, is being a celebrity the art?

I’ve thought about this notion of ‘artist as celebrity’ off and on for a good long while and whilst reading a review in the Observer of the Venice Biennale recently, it raised the issue again. The Venice Biennale is the piece de resistance, the cremé´de la creme´. Along with Documenta, it could be said that it’s the contemporary art world’s Nobel Peace Prize, it’s Oscar, the ultimate benchmark of respect by one’s peers. It’s an international showcase of work for the work’s sake.

Cause for celebration? Most definitely. But I’d like it better if the mainstream media gave a few more column inches to what was being celebrated, in addition to all the party coverage.

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The Observer review was, for the most part, a critique of the parties, with a lot of celebrity photos - artists and otherwise. Reading it was more like reading the social pages of Tattler (Tattler!! Just think about that for a minute.) than reading a review of arguably one of the most important shows in the world. Oh, the parties! Look, there’s Tracey with a Rolling Stone! What’s she wearing? Westwood again? What’s that she said about the highlight of her visit being that she was flown in on a private jet? Finally, at the end of the review (3 full pages, mind) the show a great success: Yaaa, the show’s great, fab, stupendous! Not to be missed! The review, to me, furthered the myth of artists as substance abusing, irrational, self-obsessed egotists. Ok, perhaps that isn’t a myth, not totally, anyway. But still.

Now I’m not one to slag off parties - I like PVs as much as the next person and hey, there’s nothing at all wrong with throwing a doozie if you have the means, nor is there anything wrong with enjoying said doozie. A good piss up is always fun, and one filled with interesting people all the better. The world should definitely have more parties! What I struggle with is the mainstream media’s representation of the art world elite’, portraying them as one-dimensional, non-stop-party-going, photo-op-seeking media sluts. I just cannot believe that’s entirely accurate. And, if the mainstream media is to be believed (stop laughing) is this what we are aspiring towards - being snapped sipping champers with Jade Jagger and Paris Hilton and appearing on the pages of Hello!? Perhaps I’m naive but I believe this sort of portrayal is a fiction and that artists such as Gilbert & George, Grayson Perry and Tracey Emin, whilst perhaps cultivating an over-thetop persona to some degree, (hey, why not live your myth?) are actually pretty serious about their work when it gets right down to it. Party on, but have a look at the work too.

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there’s a mention of the art, which boiled down to two paragraphs proclaiming 13

reflectreflectreflectreflectreflectThoughts

on a Grey Day

A million years ago, back in the early ‘70’s, I went to see Stephen Stills at the Berkley Community Theatre in California. It was my first ‘proper’ gig, and marked the beginning of many Crosby Stills & Nash gigs over the next several years, in their various incarnations, with and without Young. Much of the music of that era was ‘Love Peace Dove’, full of anti war anthems and exhortations to the Powers That Be to stop and consider what they were doing. Like any self-respecting middleI knew all the words to all the songs by all the bands and believed in their message fervently. Post FlowerPower and Pre-Punk, I was convinced that the collective voice could somehow make a difference, if only those fuckwits in the White House would listen. I saw CS&N again recently at the Hammersmith Apollo; a nostalgic, warm and whimsical evening. Watching these geezers up there having such a good time, bantering with each other and the audience, singing songs written over 30 years ago about another war in another time, I couldn’t help thinking, we could somehow make a difference if only those fuckwits in the White House and, well, everywhere really, would listen.

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class-wannabe-hippie,

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catch: Arts

Listings

galleries, weblinks, etc.

Publications

[an] magazine Arty Magazine Leisure Centre Publish and Be Damned Artangel Artinliverpool Artquest Art South Central Eyebeam Happy Famous Artists Re-Title Rhizome Stand Assembly The Caravan Gallery Theory.Org Zeke’s Gallery

www.artangel.org.uk www.artinliverpool.com.blog www.artquest.org.uk www.artsouthcentral.org.uk www.eyebeam.org www.happyfamousartists.blogspot.com www.re-title.com www.rhizome.org www.standassembly.org www.thecaravangallery.co.uk www.theory.org www.zekesgallery.blogspot.com

Galleries / Studios / Resources 198 Gallery (SE24) Brixton Art Gallery (SW9) Cafe’ Gallery Projects (SE16) Candid Arts Trust (EC1) Clapham Art Gallery (SW4) Gasworks (SE11) Hames Levack (W1) Hayward Gallery (SE1) inIVA (EC2) ICA (SW1) Photographers Gallery (WC2) Photofusion (SW9) South London Gallery (SE5) Space Station 65 (SE22) Space Studios (E8) Studio Voltaire (SW4) Tate Modern (SE1) Transition Gallery (E9)

www.198gallery.co.uk www.brixtonartgallery.co.uk www.cafegalleryprojects.com www.candidarts.com www.claphamartgallery.com www.gasworks.org.uk www.hameslevack.com www.hayward.org.uk www.iniva.org www.ica.org.uk www.photonet.org.uk www.photofusion.org www.southlondongallery.org www.spacestationsixtyfive.com www.spacestudios.org.uk www.studiovoltaire.org www.tate.org.uk www.transitiongallery.co.uk

020 7978 8309 020 7733 6957 020 7237 1230 020 7837 4237 020 7720 0955 020 7582 6848 020 7493 7775 020 7921 0813 020 7729 9616 020 7930 3647 020 7831 1772 020 7738 5774 020 7703 6120 020 8693 5995 020 8525 4330 020 7622 1294 020 7887 8000 020 8533 7843

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Weblinks

www.a-n.co.uk www.artymagazine.com www.leisurecentre.org.uk www.publishandbedamned.org

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Tangent

is an independently produced Art-Zine created by artist Karen D’Amico. At present the publication is free and is published 6 - 8 times per year.

For further information visit the website at tangent.org.uk or email tangent.mail@mac.com

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Issue 3 ‘low tech’ will be out in October