Inspiration is not always easy to come by. Sometimes you feel inspired for what seems to be no reason at all, sometimes you definitely don’t feel inspired, and at other times you go to see someone or something and you think YES! Someone is making, doing or just being and you think that’s great, this is exciting.
In August 2011 I was fortunate enough to be invited to The Showroom to a workshop at Seymour Arts Collective’s week-long residency there. The workshop was being led by Liz Ellis (http://riversunderthepavement.org) and was on the theme of Manifesto. The discussion was on the Friday at the end of that week when London had ‘some disturbances’ and one couldn’t help but feel slightly unsure, something had changed and the dust had not quite settled down.
It was therefore a pleasure on the way to The Showroom off Edgeware Road to re-discover Church Street Market, a down to earth, busy, friendly street market with a real sense of place, a necessary reminder of the everyday going about its business. When I found The Showroom the ground-floor double-garage door of the gallery was wide open, again a welcome antidote to things being closed that week, and the people on the desk were (and please note some galleries!) warm, welcoming and friendly.
Walking around the space I began to get a feel for the differences at work within the group: photography, painting, postcards, video work, a wide range of work to see. Definitely not a space to rush in and out of, slow-art this year being my thing anyway, I began to speak with one of the artists, Richard Lamb, who was showing his Queensland film depicting the aftermath of the floods that had been so devastating there earlier this year. Having been to Brisbane for the first time in 2010 and been very impressed with the arts scene there, I had a strong sense of interest and connection with this film. With six months ago, when the floods took place, suddenly feeling a long time ago, this naturalistic film for me connected with the disturbances in London, and reminded me of how we can quickly forget news stories that are, at the time, very dominating in the media (slow-news anyone?). It felt right at this time to be made aware of this.
Amongst other interesting work the amazingly descriptive postcards being sent to the group by Robert (http://www.flickr.com/photos/the-reindeer/), a member of the group, fascinated me, vaguely reminding me of work I had coincidentally came across in May this year by Prophet Royal Robertson, yet absolutely unique, detailed and quite magical.
Manifesto tends to suggest politics rather than art to me, but once we were a given a brief history of the Italian Futurist’s Manifesto origins the word provided a very strong basis for discussion. Comments ranged from the general to the more personal, and the participation and liveliness from the collective reminded me how small group discussions, with everyone respecting each other, can be so illuminating and thought-provoking. Freshly cut watermelon was offered to all during the discussion by one of the artists-turned-food-supervisor, and the combination of ideas, art and food appeared to provide real sustenance to all there.
Beginning to understand more of the collective I found out that they usually meet at The West London Day Centre on a course run by City of Westminster College, and comprise of people who are homeless and ex-homeless. This was their first residency. I was very inspired that the artists were working in the space and sharing that experience with non-artists, being open to speaking and showing their work, quite a courageous and potentially challenging thing to do. A possibility that the collective were going to have a space at Tate Britain as part of the GOING PUBLIC Collaborations day in October was mentioned, and I made sure I was on the mailing list. Could this experience be repeated in some form at a much larger gallery?
October, beautiful as it was this year, arrived quickly and I made my way to Tate Britain and following some exploration in the gallery caught up with the collective again. They had chosen to have a room with a view of the river and gardens in The Clore Gallery, a light and almost perfect-sized space. An imaginative art t-shirt immediately caught my eye (see above images) and I chatted to the artist Ray Martin about this, and how relevant this art is to London right now. I then caught up with Mary and had a fascinating talk with her about her arts practice, and her use of art and Photoshop (http://seymourart.tumblr.com/Mary).
Another discussion also took place, appropriately on the theme of collaboration, and though I was not able to stay for all of this due to an interactive GOING PUBLIC piece by Non Zero One where I became one of the active participants in an imaginary water polo team – something I have also not experienced at Tate Britain before, and unlikely to do so again! – I still caught enough of the forum to notice that it continued to be rich in ideas and was provoking some much-needed food for thought.
This second visit provided me once more with a strong sense of the warmth, community, diversity and acceptance within the group, as well as their reaching out to strangers. Different views were expressed and acknowledged. I realised it is so inspiring to see artists working and talking in usually quiet gallery environments and I do wonder why we, or certainly I, don’t see more of this. Two pieces of writing that were exhibited on the wall in particular caught my attention. I later found out these are by artist Ismail Ali, who has kindly given me permission to use here:
WEB WE WEAVE
WHAT IS SOCIAL NETWORKING?
UTTERINGS MUTTERINGS STUTTERINGS
SHOUTING TOUTING FLOUTING
WITTERINGS TWITTERINGS TITTERINGS
TRENDS FRIENDS ENDS
A LIBERTY YARN
STANDING IN THE LIFT AT LIBERTY’S OF LONDON. DOORS OPEN
ON ‘FABRICS.’
AN EARNEST BIRD-LIKE, OLDER LADY TALKING AT A STORE
ASSISTANT, ‘YOU SEE DEAR, I HAD A NERVOUS
BREAKDOWN…….. PUT MY NEEDLES DOWN…… AND DIDN’T
KNIT FOR YEARS.” A PAUSE, FOR BREATH, “BUT NOW I’M BACK.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE INSPIRATION NEVER THE KNIT!”
THE ASSISTANT NODS IN SYMPATHY
For me, this summed up my visits to Seymour Arts Collective, it was and is all
about the inspiration. See them when you can and discover for yourself.
artsandmoresw4 