Monday 24 September '07

Potatoes

I recently gave a talk as part of a Tate consultation event; they were looking into the possibility of creating a mobile Tate, or rather doing something Tate led that would connect the regions to the Tate and to each other. What I read to be an interesting ambition to make some kind of sense of a host of cultural activity across the UK.

It was a slightly disturbing experience with lots of breakout groups and feed back, some how whatever energy was generate in the breakout groups was instantly quashed in the reporting back bit. I found myself saying the same thing in these groups over and over again but no one seemed to understand it – I was left thinking I was a terrible communicator, I think I assume everyone gets a lot of stuff they don’t. I never really consider galleries or collections, so I guess as a starting point I am already off the beat. I had dismissed the idea of touring a structure and programme before even arriving, these were all things that I think everyone else was focused on. Anyway I can say that a group discussion drawn from the massed directors and curators of regional UK sure is a wishy washy affair. Every discussion group would come back with these crazy statements where a idea would be suggested and then immediately countered with the opposite, so; ‘we thought that the programme should connect with communities or it could be stand alone, the projects could be spectacular, but there would also be room for an intimate scale, could be big or small, long or short, fat or furry’ and so on, so in the end what we are saying is everything is fine? Christ knows what the Tate got from it, multi confusionist seminology.

This one idea I kept plugging that seemed really obvious to me was - to use the existing network of organisations and their connections to communities, organisations etc as the structure of the project. The Tate would then intelligently select collaborators, like 2 organisations with a potentially interesting relationship – not to similar in approach - and initiate a stand alone programme focused on collaborative working between the organisations and their stake holders, thereby linking communities across central and regional locations. For example Grizedale would be part of a programme of work in collaboration with say First site. The projects would be directed/curated by an independent or Tate curator who would have a role to critique and analyse the 2 organisations. The programme would explore the culture of the UK, the prescient notions of identity and all that sort of stuff.
The entire project would be explained and meaning drawn from it through the web site, so a kind of online collection of works – a strong critical analysis of this ‘product’ online forum etc would be good. I didn't really think to much about how this would be come a national marketable spectacle, but that would be relatively easy, opening the projects in a domino effect or all at once or as broadcast series of TV or documentaries, anyway that was my idea, seemed to be workable either small or large scale.

So below is the talk I gave, more or less, I hate reading talks so I didn't really read so much of it, but this was the gist.

A Mobile Tate

Grizedale and Roadshow
This talk might be considered to be along the lines of a dire warning rather than a shining example – which is not to say that I am not proud of the Roadshow project and what it achieved. There are from my perspective some rather less ambiguous dire warnings out there - large scale siting of Big Art in the regions. There is rightly an increased interest in contemporary regional culture. For the first time in history there are more people moving out of cities than to them. The historical precedents with regard to how the regions have contributed to cultural development still apply – the possibility of working in relative isolation, the bringing together of intense groups, the arms length perspective.

With regard to Roadshow the project came from a discussion with other sculpture parks in the UK and a desire expressed by them to do something jointly – The original proposal came from Grizedale and aimed to bring a newish approach to the sculpture park concept. Eventually all of the once interested parties withdrew, the project going against their principle ambitions to get on the map, this project deliberately tried to get off the map. This experience in itself was quite interesting in relation to being critical of the context in which you engage. There is I would say a somewhat uncritical approach in the regions and an awful lot of half-truths about audiences and the success of projects.

A theme that has engaged artists at Grizedale - in particular illustrated by Jordan Baseman’s films from 2000/01 ‘Sun always shine son the Righteous’ and ‘The one about the camel’ I could tell you the one about the camel but it would use up my whole time, the punch line is ‘What are we doing in Chester Zoo?’ you can work out the rest or just bear that in mind as a useful phrase. The films poignantly illustrated the lives and ambitions of people working outside of the mainstream, the complexity and growing dysfuncionality of their lives.

From the cultural high ground of the lake District - think Wordsworth, Ruskin, Schwitters and most importantly Beatrix Potter we found artists were more engaged by the periphery, a local underclass, what could be described as a directly oppositional position to the ubiquitous high culture – this has of course been a powerful theme that artists have long explored and represented.

Road show aimed to place artists in the romantic territory they sought to emulate and engage with, through the culture of being on the road, the references being principally rock and roll touring culture – of the Tom Saxondale variety - the circus and its romantic draw, religious, temperance and evangelical meetings, and all of that sort of outsider material.

The tour aimed to visit venues outside of cultural centres, periphery marginalised places and each venue the touring caravan linked to a local culture/activity often mediated by the host or instigated by the project itself. For example in the Lake District Grizedale linked the programme to a Country Goth and Magic fair and set up a battle of the bands event dedicated to Death Metal. Other venues were rather less confrontational with the Welsh leg linking to a local artist and community education project – that project ultimately was the most confrontational with the children of education burning their work and the marquee that housed it.

The project included around 30 artists in various capacities – the main tent housed a running programme of events, films and performances while a number of satellite projects extended the encampment across approximately 3 acres. Satellite installations were all live and included a 24-hour key and heel bar, a hermitage, a recording studio, a newspaper/fanzine press and a general hangout space. Artists included a broad cross section those interested in working with people and others less so: including Paul Rooney, Olaf Breuning, Colin Lowe and Roddy Thomson, Minerva Cuevas, Juneau/projects, Kevin Reid and Graeme Roger, Nathaniel Mellors, Dan Fox, Flatpak001, Mark Titchner, Guy Bar a Moz, Bedwyr Williams to name a few. Roadshow toured for a month, in an actually on the road way, each weekend a different venue – this was extremely hard on the crew.

The original idea was to forge a team that would work as one, the majority of the artists toured with the programme, erecting the show at the venues, and managing the programme. The principle problem with this approach was the use of alcohol - the project didn't exactly take up any of my temperance ideas. I well remember seeing various artists rooted to the spot apparently forming one half of ‘Bonjour Monsieur Corbett’ hand raised but unable to remember where they were or what they should be doing. The in fighting was a bonus and built factions within the group, gave the content a bit of edge. This hothouse environment is one of the special qualities of touring and rural residency programmes hard to replicate in urban centres.

For the artists the successes of the project were probably mostly in the myth making department, the artists largely shuddered at the close proximity to a ‘real’ audience, they recognised perhaps what they were keen to escape from, the dreaded ‘what’s that supposed to be’ question. Most quickly turned the experience into a series of pub stories and utilised the concept into art world versions bringing the ‘real’ into play with a celebratory amateurism/artist performance. Flatpak001 and Mark Beasley, juneaus, Bedwyr Williams and Gang Hut all having kept the spirit sort of alive. I think the project spawned a whole body of collective activities both locally and within the art/theatre related performance world. For the communities the projects touched it would be well to remember one quote printed in the Roadshow fanzine ‘a fun day out for the all the family ruined’ not sure if this was for real or ironic. It would be hard to see exactly how it could have been a day ruined unless you found the anticlimactic particularly distressing – I would have thought it was a given in a family day out. The hit and run nature of the project has not afforded any tracking of the impact of the project in regard to the communities but if the Grizedale engagement is anything to go by – and it almost certainly isn’t – there are a multitude of happy life changing stories, a lot of this though is generated by the continuing work of Grizedale that supports and offers further opportunities.

One aspect that I note on reading my catalogue text that I had envisaged but that I immediately after the event felt hadn’t worked, was the evolution of the programme whilst on the road, I imagined we would change and develop work, draw new people into the tour extend the life of it. In retrospect this did actually happen to a reasonable level, nothing entirely new emerged but many of the works changed and either got better or worse. Many of the relationships established continued and certainly very many new works came out and are still emerging from those relationships.

I think in terms of the notion of a mobile Tate the question of audience is of course paramount, playing to the home crowd or pushing the boat out for a mixed audience. At Grizedale we have long abandoned the home crowd. Being located in a remote location makes the drawing of a sophisticated art audience almost impossible and catering for a small local art audience relatively pointless – there are lots of contemporary art opportunities that fulfil the local art audience requirements.

The challenge is to connect with existing interests and maybe expand on them – this doesn’t always make for a comfortable relationship, existing niche audiences are not necessarily that open minded about their special areas of interest being explored and as Roadshow discovered there can be quite a proactive response.

The way that Grizedale has most successfully worked has been in initiating activity, establishing an approach and nurturing a participatory audience that will sustain and re work the activity. A good example would be the Consiton Water festival – not a hugely well attended event in the ‘art version’ year but now well established, reinterpreted and thriving without Grizedale management. Similarly it is possible to make an argument for a flowering of arts activity in Cumbria provoked by Grizedale activity – possibly many of the proponents of this activity would not acknowledge the source of inspiration and in many cases may have been provoked by a ‘I can to do better than that’ attitude rather than a desire to emulate. Equally it could be said that much of this activity perhaps plays too much to a small home crowd audience and fails to extend or reinterpret what art making is for, has not critical distance.

A core component of all the Grizedale projects is an analytical approach to contemporary culture – it may not look like it but there is an underlying seriousness that attempts to address change, the omnipresent themes of identity and value. A lot of the work is confrontational and can be seen as quite harsh in its critique, a lot is nurturing, supportive and critical and to me that is all as it should be - the job of an arts organisation.

I suspect that a Tate led programme would work very differently being of a level of professionalism that would place the content and spectacle more into the realm of alien visitation – potentially inspiring/accessible but possibly only to the home crowd. The questions that arise are to do with who this mobile Tate would be aimed at, who and what it would be for – would it visit the provinces and show us how to do International level art (like A levels) - that would be good. It could discover Britain through the spectacular siting of exceptional works - that could be fine.

It could engage with the complexities of UK regional culture, the relationship between centralised and decentralised, the learning/exchange process, the development of emerging identity and cultural relationship. Of course this is where the Tate must have its sights. This would be the difficult route, expensive, probably rather tumultuous and thankless. However the Tate has the brand that can move mountains, the ability to draw down the resources of the multitude of regional agencies, in particular the regeneration agencies and the expertise to engage with the complexities of the agenda. I hope it has the grit to take it on. I am not just being nice here for a change, I want to see the focus on the real agendas, the UK as a whole has the content and the need, I would like to see an engagement with what I have always thought art was here to do.

Posted by Adam Sutherland on 24/09/07 at 18:40 0 Comments

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