Studio 4: Others and the Self

Studio brief

Our work begins when we perceive an anomaly in the environment that is the result of opposing beliefs or contradictory metaphors. Moments when reality no longer appears seamless and the cost of belief has become outrageous offer the opportunity to create new spaces – first in the mind and thereafter in everyday life." THE HARRISONS (art collaborators)

Difference, ego and identity are great subjects for any artist. What might any new space in a mind look like from the outside? Psychological space and how one relates one's own interiority to an audience – an artist's public – can prove shocking and provocative. The photographer who won the Pulitzer Prize with the action image above suffered from depression. So psychological space is a tough one - using it without overdoing it is an edgy business. And making other people different (this doesn’t mean simple stereotyping) is another obstacle for artists to overcome, too. If as artists we ever advocate for the weak, then we're also also by default stressing the strength of those in power, not least ourselves - the artists, the people making the images.

The Others and the Self studio looks for precisely such problems in our multi-speed histories, in animal-human studies, in our globe-trotting, land-hopping voyages, in traces of old empires and in representation of the vulnerable. This studio will then examine art strategies for addressing and solving such problems in art, if possible. You can be a painter, a sculptor, a video artist, a photographer or a printmaker – this studio welcomes everyone. We'll explore relational art, situationist art, live art and our very own Tate's Altermodern along the way. In this studio, you propose an art project for the whole year. You set that art project out with an aim and a purpose. You research your project, using London as a study resource - its museums, libraries, galleries, art events and art archives.

Above all, in this studio we'll work on engaging the self with the world as an artist, using our own interest in new psychological spaces to make art. Dealing with others, using your 'self' and doing both of these well is crucial to so many artists' careers as professionals. The Others and the Self studio will use this year's Cass project In the Valley to devise art works for display in the spring at the Easter show. We shall use the psychological situations, needs and spaces we find on this project as our base material, beginning with a field trip in November.

This studio's art methodology is fairly simple. We'll start on the ground with some questions about aim and purpose. We shall set ourselves rules. We shall conduct field research. We shall make in all art media. We shall publish our findings. We shall display our art together.

The challenge for art students who join this art studio is as follows. To take what you have learned so far as an individual art student and to use this to learn more now in a group context, by applying those skills and that knowledge outside the art school. You may then use this work as a springboard for further study.

Artists to look at:

Rasheed Araeen, Renzo Martens, Martha Rosler, Lindsay Seers, Snaebjornsdottir/Wilson, David Wojnarowicz.

Reading list:

Baker, Steve (2012), Artist Animal, UMP, Minnesota. Library Ref Commercial Road 704.9432 BAK

Bourriaud, Nicolas (2009), Altermodern: The Tate Triennial, London, Tate Publishing. Library Ref Commercial Road 709.22 ALT

Enwezor, Okwui, Modernity and Postcolonial Ambivalence in Altermodern: The Tate Triennial, London, Tate Publishing. Library Ref Commercial Road 709.22 ALT

Rimbaud, Arthur – The Seer Letter, No 1 to George Izambard, in Mason, W (2004), I promise to be good: Rimbaud's Letters, New York, Modern Library. Not in the library.

Sontag, Susan (1974), Fascinating Fascism, in Under the Sign of Saturn, London, Writers & Readers. Library ref Commercial Road 081 SON.

Level 5 and Level 6 Studios are based in Central House 2nd Floor on Mondays and Thursdays. Please speak to your course leader for further timetable information.

Image by Rosemarie McGoldrick

Details

Course Fine Art BA (Hons)
Tutor Rosemarie McGoldrick
Pete Fillingham
Where Central House 2nd Floor Studios
When Mondays and Thursday

KWADWO ACHEAMPONG
ABI BAKER
ROLINA BLOK
DANIEL CATES
RAQUEL CHINCHETRU
JOHN NAZARI
FLORA PARKER
ALYSSA PHELAN
DESMOND RICHARDSON
LAURETTA SMITH
HATICE SOKUCU
MICHAELLE ST VINCENT
AVA SZCZEREK
DARIUS VERBICKAS
CHARLOTTE AMEY
FATIMA BEGUM
ELINA BITERE
DARIJA BORMOTOVA
BEATA BURDELAK
MAXIMILIAN HERBERT
BENJAMIN MOSELEY
MARKETA POPELKOVA
DARIA SMIECHOWSKA
OLIVER SPENCE
ANDRIANO TAVARES
SHANNA-LEE THOMPSON