an independently produced art-zine
Issue.03 October 2005
She’s gone off on another
tangent
creating a small, independent art ‘zine.
tangent is a bi-monthly publication produced with the intention of informing and amusing in bite-size chunks. Quick ‘n Dirty, Black ‘n White, each issue contains contributions by and features on artists as well as arts listings in the South London area and beyond. To get the skinny on how to submit writing and/or artwork contact: Karen D’Amico via email: tangent.mail@mac.com Printed copies can be collected at the following locations: House Gallery The South London Gallery Space Station 65 Studio Voltaire Transition Gallery PDFs available on the website:
www.tangent.org.uk all content © karen d’amico 2005 unless otherwise noted. all other contributions fully credited
Lo-Tech - approaches to making work - materials utilised - reasons for - etc.
inside
(in no particular order)
[observe] Lauren Beven Carol Es Daryl Waller Rachael House David Shillinglaw Amanda Dumas Kevin Osmond Tom Sachs Sarah Doyle [project] Travellers Secret Box Project [reflect] Thoughts on a Grey Day
Plum Flower (date unknown) Iron sculpture; Ding-E
www.laurenbeven.com www.esart.com www.winterdrawings.com www.peckhampet-tastic.com www.dodyboy.co.uk www.amandadumas.com www.kevinosmond.co.uk www.tomsachs.org www.purestarproducts.co.uk www.travellerssecretbox.dk// www.karendamico.blogspot.com
[inform] Arts Listings
outside
front over image
‘Champagne Army’ 2005 Assemblage; champagne corks Karen D’Amico
back cover image
‘Luck of the Draw I’ 2005 Playing cards, map fragments; Karen D’Amico
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Loren Beven ‘RAZZLE DAZZLE’ – work in progress ‘the primary object of [Dazzle],’ explained Wilkinson back in 1919, ‘was not so much to cause the enemy to miss his shot...but to mislead him’. The familiar object transformed through unexpected redecoration surprises the viewer and challenges a reassessment of the object and its associations. To camouflage is to disguise or deceive. Modern fighter jets now have hi-tech electronic camouflage rather painted patterns. These glitter planes, in the spirit of Dazzle, sparkle alluringly like mirror balls, light shimmering on the surface, captivating. But flakes fall off into the black night, like dandruff caught in ultra violet light, to reveal their shady identity. Other planes are painted black and start to loose their form under endless layers of paint, morphing as the paint slides and collects in drifts. The form disfigures as if caught on film breaking the speed/sound barrier. Some are further dipped in an array of deep and glossy candy colours, like hard boiled sweets. Recamouflaging models of the hardware of hi-tech warfare with alluringly glittery and sugary sweet veneers suggests that the spectator is unwittingly implicated in bloody and armed conflicts.
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Rachael House
zine mainstream journalism, to art monthly. Good luck to I’m just not interested.
Zines save lives. Well, some of them do. Some people maybe do a in order to make it into write for the nme, or even them. That’s dandy, but
What I love about zines, what makes me want to get out my pens, scalpel, cutting mat and pritt stick, is the passion. When I produced small press comics on a (not very) regular basis I received letters and zines from around the world. From people united in the belief that we all had something worth saying. We traded zines and I learnt tips on how to soap stamps in order for them to be reusable. I made friends and became part of a community of creative misfits, drawn to the immediacy and lack of censorship in the making of a cut & paste photocopied zine. My most valued possession was my long-armed stapler. My friend Claire is part of a knitting group. I asked her recently what she thought about knitting becoming so fashionable in art galleries. Her reservation was that knitting may be seen as a fleeting fashion. It’s great to see it taken seriously, but the people that have been doing it for a long time are not acknowledged. For Claire, the knitting groups are about building communities. Making zines is not an exclusive club. We can all do it. Some of us do it who call ourselves ‘artists’. There’s no hierarchy though. Football fanzines, local history zines, music zines etc., they are all special, all important.
Never forget that the word ‘amateur’ has it’s roots in ‘love’. Further reading for stuff with love in itCelebrity fancy dress potato competition: www.starchygallery.co.uk Ladyfest Brighton, October 2005: www.ladyfestbrighton.co.uk Duckie ‘drinking dancing shagging and the arts’ www.duckie.co.uk DIY: the rise of lo-fi culture by Amy Spencer Marion Boyers Publishers, 2005 £9.95
rachael house
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Daryl Waller
asked & answered Daryl Waller
when did you first know you wanted to be an artist? I never wanted to be an artist, I don’t think its something you suddenly become one day when the tax return lands on your doormat, I think its something you are already in some way…If I was working in Tesco’s full time stacking shelves I would still be an artist. For me it more a state of mind, lifestyle and a way of being that only follows a few simple rules, here are a few: - Do what the hell you please - Strive for freedom - Ignore people who put you down what inspires you? Mostly Music, Lou Barlow (sebadoh), J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr), Sonic Youth plus hundred of others. Life+death+music+love+people=ART. You did an MA at the Royal College in illustration but your work is definitely contemporary. Do you find the term ‘illustrator’ to be a hindrance at all? I come from an illustration background partly because it felt most comfortable at the time. When I started college I didn’t know what I was doing really, I didn’t know how to harness all this power and energy that is in me…I was all over the place. I wonder what effect going through a fine art education might have had on me and my work but I don’t feel like I’ve made any mistakes, every choice I’ve made has turned out well. I view artists and illustrators as being equal; I think that these two disciplines should intertwine over and over. what is your favourite drawing implement? I don’t really believe in favourites, I just like to make marks with whatever feels most comfortable at the time. Any heroes or villains? I’m not really sure what a hero is, or what it means…The reasons I like people are often because I like there style, grace, attitude, what they say and how they say it. I’m normally let down by those people when they go and do or say something that I disrespect. J Mascis and Lou Barlow from the bands Dinosaur Jr and Sebadoh have never let me down, I truly believe that they never will either. Can you remember your first drawing? I can remember my parents taping blank wallpaper to our large kitchen table and drawing a line to spit it in half, half each for me and my brother… this was very important to me because it taught me to not be precious with my drawings because my brother and I would swap sides, interact with each others’ pictures in a game playing kind of way. But since then, because my parents have kept every scrap we ever drew, I have studied all my old painting and drawings from all my childhood. Smartest thing you ever did in terms of your work? No idea. Worst mistake in terms of your work? I’ve made more than I can remember and I love them all. Best bit about being an artist? Freedom. Worst bit about being an artist? Nothing. What shows have you seen recently? I’m probably a little lazy when it comes to that…but the last one was Freda Carlo at the Tate Modern, it was alright… I’d rather go see a live band though. Music first, than art. Anything to add? 22 + 12 = 35
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Travellers Secret Box
Originated and conceived by Danish artist Lars Vilhelmsen, Travellers Secret Box was first set in motion in May of 2004. Lars’ continuing investigations into the synthesis of life and art have now generated a project involving artists from all over Europe, including Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany and now the UK; each in their own way questioning and responding to the invisible divisions which persist between art and the existent, cultural identity and location, cultural practices and custom, and notions of travel. The project, in the simplest terms, comprises the giving of an object (the ‘box’) to an artist for a period of time, asking them to consider it, interact with it on some level, and make a response, both visually and in words. Explorations thus far have sought to apprehend and make sense of a tangible, more visible coherence between the everyday, ‘existent’ and ‘art’ i n terms of things that are not normally perceived as art, but for their context can be seen as such. Using the ‘travellers secret box’ as the mediating object, the resulting work has been brought to life as an ongoing, web-based initiative, with images and text from each of the contributing artists so far involved represented on the TSB website. The ‘box’ is a galvanized zinc object w h i c h measures 12.5cm wide by 31cm long by 37.5cm deep and weighs about 5 kilos. It’s awkward, cumbersome physicality presents both a form of resistance and a sort of intervention. Locating itself in spaces where its seemingly useless presence challenges the artist, and eventually, the viewer, to reflect and consider its existence and purpose, the object becomes both signifyer and signified.
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TSB on the Tracks 2005 pen and ink drawing Daniel Wallis
Doppleganger 2005 cardboard reproduction made to scale Ivan Pope
Melancholy 2005 slide projection onto the object; digital print Karen D’Amico
(Travellers Secret Box (contʼd.)
In this sense, the box acts as a form of gesture to the artist, whose work, in turn, presents its own terms of representation and form of presence, defining and presenting a particular narrative or identity for the viewer. Each artists’ response is unique, each interpretation becomes a decodable gesture offered back to the viewer.
It is, in a very real sense, a companion of sorts, a fellow traveller for a set period of time, with the resulting interaction between artist and object culminating in work that reflects that relationship. How does this object align itself for scrutiny? Is it a representation of nomadism, remoteness or outsideness, where attachment to institutional discourses, such as notions of home, cultural identity and belonging are questioned? Is it perceived as excess baggage, a burden of sorts, taking on the role of an uncomfortable nuisance or inconvenience, much like the refugee or asylum seeker as portrayed in today’s media? Is it a a fellow tourist on a pleasurable journey, echoing the need for adventure, wanderlust and perceived, hoped-for happiness? Or is it something whose existence serves as a sort of container, holding the
August in Birmingham 2005 from the Wish You Were Here Postcard Intervention Series; Postcard, digital photograph Karen D’Amico
residue of an event or experience within it? The box itself remains itinerant, of no fixed address, forever travelling from one location to the next, from city to city, country to country, its final destination uncertain and impossible to know. The UK contribution to this project involves 12 artists and hopes to add a new dimension in the form of a touring exhibition in late 2006 / 2007. For further information contact Karen D’Amico, UK Project Co-ordinator via email at fluidthought@mac.com
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David Shillinglaw
detail from “A diagram
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to show almost everything at once”
Diagram to show almost everything at once Painting / Drawing; 10m (w) x 1.5m (h) David Shillinglaw, 2005
for information on David’s solo show, ‘Atlas’ at The Foundry in October email.dodieboy@hotmail.com
daryl waller
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Carol Es
Cocoon, 2005 oil, acrylic, pins, fabric and pencil on wood, 14” x 11”; Carol Es
“I’ve always been ambitions but have relied on allowing something else entirely to guide my hand in art. I think trying to define what that element is exactly would mess up the universe as I know it, because it’s about having a quiet faith in myself where external validatin and finite truth is kinda like the Devil.” excerpt from I-SELF, Limited Edition Handmade Book, 2005; Carol Es
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Amanda Dumas
Some onlookers to Amanda Dumas– Hernandez’ “Plastic Bottle Chandelier” Installation will inherently take it at face value, believing that it is an outrageous display of fine crystal. At closer examination all is not so crystal clear. Expiration dates imprinted on the plastic bottles that make Plastic Bottle Chandelier, 2005; up the chandelier Plastic bottkes, wire, electric lights; Amanda Dumas-Hernandez indirectly tell us that beauty and everything we consume is marked to expire through nature or ideology. Dumas-Hernandez’ work reevaluates the question of what is garbage and what is not and a new dialogue is formed about conceptions of value, as well as exploring the paradoxical difference between what we see and what we know. A plastic bottle, normally thrown in the recycling or trash bin, could be considered to be an important vessel —used to carry water in poor village in Africa, or as we see here, Plastic Bottle Chandelier (detail) recycled into a haute chandelier.
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Kevin Osmond
Disposable Cloud Styrofoam and wire sculpture Kevin Osmond; 2004
This is one of my favourite pieces of art; an object that I really treasure. Measuring just under 18cm in height, it sits in my studio, a breath of fresh air amongst the chaos that seems to prevail. When I look at it, it never fails to uplift me. It brings to mind wide open spaces, and simplicity. It makes me think how amazing it is that the artist, Kevin Osmond, was able to create something so exquisite from reclaimed materials. I love Kevin Osmond’s work. It satisfies my intellect as well as my hunger for things that are aesteticly beautiful. It makes me think, it makes me smile. It just works.
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Tom Sachs
Tom Sachs’ sculptures interrogate notions of power, worth and status in relaton to consumer culture. His objects reflect on the criteria used to attribute value to the things we buy, as well as the imagined power name brands bestow. Using everyday objects and materials such as foamcore and synthetic polymer. he subverts and reconstructs contemporary icons, branding and packaging, thereby questioning their perceived commercial value. The resulting objects offer the viewer an additional paradox: highly valued works of art constructed from low-grade materials.
Skull; 2003 Foamcore and hot glue 9.84” x 5.91” x 5.91”
Chanel Guillotine, 2000 mixed media, 124.5 x 102.9 x 103.5 cm
On 30 Aug 2005, at 15:16, Info wrote: thanks for your kind email and invitation to participate in your zine. at this time im too swamped to prepare anything specifically for your publication but please feel free to download any images from my website and use them in your mag. i recommend cropping into detailed parts to show hardware. please send me a copy. tom
The Crawler 2003 Foamcore and hot glue, wood and metal frame 45” x 79” x 67.5” base; 73” x 24” x 40” shuttle
Let Every Nation Know 2003 mixed media 20 x 94 x 4 cm
The Crawler (detail)
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Sarah Doyle I have recently been involved in a couple of arty Summer Fetes with my “Popstar Makeovers”. I love the whole low-fi atmosphere of the summer fete, with people coming along with homemade cakes and selling jam and toys they have made by hand. The Leisure Centre Summer fete took place on the 6th August in a lovely garden in Winchester. I took part in the fete as the resident face painter – My usual artwork concentrates on the construction of identity through popular visual culture. So I felt it fitting to do some face painting in the style of Popstar’s makeup. This is a project I’ve extended and have been doing at other places. For the Leisure Centre fete I made a couple of Gene Simmons from KISS look-alikes as well as a mini Mana from the Japanese band Malice Mizer – who a lot of Japanese girls dress up and try to emulate. Vyner Street Fete happened in East London at the end of August. I was very happy that I got the chance to make a couple of David Bowies at this fete. I will be doing my “Popstar Makeovers” at a few other forthcoming arty events so keep an eye out for me. Do get in touch with me if you’d like me to come along to your own event to do some of my makeovers too…
Popstar Dressing Up project: Dressing up when you’re a teenager and trying to pull off the look of your favourite popstar (which always come off a bit low-fi looking). I’m not sure that anyone really pulls off the look they are going for completely successfully. Although at the time you think you look the bee knees, looking back more often than not you remember the looks not coming off quite as well as you’d have hoped. In my own teenage past I was a prince fan and tried to carry of the look sported by Prince’s sexy dancer “Cat”. This involved mainly wearing a dress I got my mum to make for me which was a replica of the peach dress Cat wore in the “Sign O’ The Times” Prince concert. Now, on “Cat”, this dress was a very sexy little number – the peach fabric looked great against her tanned skin. However my own pasty skin completely blended with the peach dress making me look more sausage-like than sexy. Still I persisted in wearing the dress – looking to the dancer as my inspiration whilst growing up. Thinking some of her sexiness might rub off on me if I wore her sexy outfit. The search for your own identity through popstars is a typical teenage pastime. Most people can look back at their own teenage years and remember trying to fit in with what they thought was cool at the time. For further information or to take part in The Dressing Up Project check out Sara’s webpage or contact her at: studio@purestarproducts.com
sarah doyle
Thoughts on a Grey Day Reclaimation I’ve been thinking a lot about this word lately. Where are the demarcation zones that define one’s identity in terms of merging the past with the present? What is reclaimed and what is of our own creation? What is the difference between evolving and ‘reinventing onself’? Do we ever move beyond the past or is our heritage, whatever that may be, indelibly etched into our being? Where does that amalgamation of past and present begin or end? Is letting go of something that no longer holds meaning - such as a long-held tradition or fixed belief - turning one’s back on a legacy or is it simply moving on and growing up? Alternatively, is reclaiming a heritage that is far removed from one’s everyday life a way of searching for an anchor, a sense of belonging? Certainly, the process of growing older has something to do with the way we perceive ourselves, and indeed, how we are perceived by others. It also has a way of causing one to reflect on the various aspects that make up ‘who we are’. We grow, learn, experience life, and (hopefully) evolve into well rounded individuals with a myriad of histories and experiences which culminate in the manifistation of our identity. We perhaps see and understand the value of legacy, yet we fiercly proclaim our individuality. And yet...and yet. We are still ‘who we are’, shaped by our present, tied to our past, for better or worse. I remember talking with a woman of 80 once, when I was barely 20. Being young and full of myself, I asked her, “What does it feel like to be 80?” I was genuinely curious, since it was a concept I just could not fathom at the time. Her reply was telling: “Well, some things don’t work as well as they used to, but I’m still ‘ME’!” That has always stayed with me, and as the years accumulate, I understand how absolutely true it is.
catch: Arts Publications
[an] magazine Arty Magazine Leisure Centre Publish and Be Damned Rant Magazine
Weblinks
Artangel Artinliverpool Artquest Art South Central Eyebeam Fallon & Rosoff Happy Famous Artists Kollabor8 Newsgrist Re-Title Rhizome Stand Assembly Stunned Theory.Org Wooster Collective Zeke’s Gallery
Listings
galleries, weblinks, etc.
www.a-n.co.uk www.artymagazine.com www.leisurecentre.org.uk www.publishandbedamned.org www.rant-magazine.com www.artangel.org.uk www.artinliverpool.com/blog www.artquest.org.uk www.artsouthcentral.org.uk www.eyebeam.org www.fallonandrosof.com/artblog.html www.happyfamousartists.blogspot.com http://kollabor8.toegristle.com/ www.newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/weblogs/index.html
www.re-title.com www.rhizome.org www.standassembly.org www.stunned.org www.theory.org www.woostercollective.com/ www.zekesgallery.blogspot.com
Galleries / Studios / Resources 198 Gallery (SE24) Bearspace (SE8) Brixton Art Gallery (SW9) Cafe’ Gallery Projects (SE16) Candid Arts Trust (EC1) Clapham Art Gallery (SW4) Gasworks (SE11) Hames Levack (W1) Hayward Gallery (SE1) House Gallery (SE1) inIVA (EC2) ICA (SW1) Photographers Gallery (WC2) Photofusion (SW9) South London Gallery (SE5) Space Station 65 (SE22) Space Studios (E8) Standpoint (N1) Studio Voltaire (SW4) Tate Modern (SE1) Transition Gallery (E9)
www.198gallery.co.uk www.thebear.tv/bearspace/ 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.housegallery.org 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.pauperspublications.com/gallery.html
www.studiovoltaire.org www.tate.org.uk www.transitiongallery.co.uk
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