(Ben)
photography installation and sound/ RCA graduate. / worked as musician/ applied to RCA. photography MA
things that he’s done .. how things happened and what he did to make them happen
sound and images, silence, was like anything but silent, could hear the bones in his neck move etc. own thoughts, in the dark, start to see things. giving sound a materiality (Sound, Structure, Time, 2017)
degree show.. what you hope to get out of it. fairly sure that big galleries would come down and pick him, wasn’t sure if his work was ready for gallery presentation, invite a lot of people to have a conversation, did tours in groups, proactive way to get sth out of the show. get people to look at your work. get some good shots.
after college, didn’t have dialogue around work, empty, sth that really helped was a residency. curatorial. 3 months big studio, experiment with scale, the dialogue is really valuable. getting materials, gumtree, having a wall and putting research on it. 70 a month which was very cheap , usually double . there is wiggle room esp if it’s numbers. having friends that do things together, use each other’s resources..
a show, curated by a tutor at his college, he knew what he was up to and kept up with him. another residency in Portugal, friends of him in the studio. Some you have to pay for and some don’t. another residency vancouver for three weeks. open call, found through Instagram.. application, short interview, not a studio based one. an excuse to read a lot, meet new people. british council can fund, make conversation out of the councils, funding bodies. arts council England development and create practice)
uni, teaching guitar, work, funded to be paid to be in studios.. / approached with a collaboration idea with students.. breaking down the hierarchy.. another residency, chisenhale studio residency, met zoe, make workshops.. done a lot of teaching, bizarre things that are experience that help with these workshops.
teaching: teaching kids, main reason doing masters is to transition that into artist teaching... slowly build up experience doing talks here and there, apply for teacher position.. love teaching ,, casual teaching (start) - applying to so many teaching jobs, fairly low pressure things and build up.. have a special thing like he has sound experience.. units they’re doing and when they’re doing them, and relate to what you’re doing.. or say you’re interested..
4m x 5m space, object is based on gallery space corner, remade in wood, surface covered in noisy pattern from sound, sound and imaging. give sound some kind of physical presence, how react to space in the room.
based on ceiling in the house they were working in and shifted in board, process of making it, support structures becoming more and more interesting, structure of the image.
at chisenhale made a piece of music, context contingent piece of work. always different depending on the space they’re played in. temporary. such a luxury.
took a former graphics course, this work, steel, magnet board, solid support and everything else is temporary, like chalk, pen, magnets.
tahmina
2016 graduate BA in Wimbledon, chaotic nature of being a painter, told to start making sense of what it is we’re making. artificial ways of working. Grew up in Russia, found refuge in UK, had romantic idea of artist, wasn’t interested, curiosity of tactile nature of alchemist, unmixable substances.. conversation.. fragility.. didn’t want to create commodity objects,, started working on found carpets, recreating visual stimulations onto surface, not ready to go out to real world, wasn’t capable to contextualise why she wanted to work with these materials, surviving financially. international student. make decisions quick. RCA (2016-18) totally didn’t believe she’d get in, seemed exclusive. you see a bunch of people as screwed up as you are, competitive, sinking boat, unusually large year, RCA organises shows during xmas to public, high expectations from yourself, all your and parents savings on this, because unusual year, extra studio but only a group of people. proposed, all 71 of them, in that small studio, lack of facilities/tutors/space.. three days to get all signatures, all tutors supportive. not get a change in system ofc, knew that it was a rehearsal, facing real world with artistic statement. awareness of student in institution.. what was great about first year was able to forget about paintings but getting to know one another and coming up with insane projects, a friend of a friend of a friend. have space for free for a week. didn’t wanna just hang. created game, charged £2, nothing major, didn’t expect anybody big to come, but idea of somebody seeing your work.. RCA degree show 2nd year, nothing like first one, pretty isolated, amount of work before deadline, artist talent visa. and get a normal studio. intense. rehearsal to working solo. make a personal statement.. degree show idea of not fitting in, not about connotation of a story, so hard to move, texture, terracotta, not air drying clay, guston, degree show ended up awarded with a prize/funded by gallery, nerve wrecking, excited, didn’t plan next year to be that way. artist visa. suddenly own studio and lonely. find a productive time during the day, still not doing anything, had to work at night. find own structure, have to go nocturnal. hectic ness of day. Marlborough London, happening three months prematurely. very useful to have friends, capitalising friendships, so many people have helped her, photographed her work, breaking up her studio space, 9 months in between two big shows is not a lot, appropriate stuff in previous shows, props. no time to wait for night to get in right room. experimented with different materials. more figurative. physical layers. break down white space and interrogate the whole room. contacted for art fair, and didn’t go and offered solo show. future was so blurred and unpredictable but was happy. gamble on risk, might not have a studio next year, everything should happen slowly
the house the jack built (film)
third talk.. rca do rehearse those things with you.. lecture theatre, criticise you afterwards.. as a painting student (residency at a college, part of it was giving talks, west deen college of arts) reference letter, free education.. Europe.. keep diary of open course, don’t get discouraged by no.. not about u about format.. negative-folder of broken dreams, language of applying, strategic in timing, fail, and fail even better..
MA course how valuable, Ben did it a bit later (10 years of being adult) made a difference in think about his practice, but could probably self engineer that, need that time? so many people around you. (tahmina) best time of her life, need to have MA, all the things she’s gained, from MA, residencies, had a good rehearsal there. find funding, money, maybe at slade,
emotionally challenging, rather quit, actually failed dissertation and resubmit it, difficult to accept, intense, some teaching felt hierarchical, resources,
