Tribe Issue 9

2009

tribeINTERNATIONAL CREATIVE ARTS MAGAZINE

2 TRIBE MAGAZINE ISSUE 9

ISSUE 9 TRIBE MAGAZINE 3


I was really excited that I was able to write the introducAon for this issue of Tribe Magazine. An arAcle I wrote called A Cleaner PerspecAve, which focuses on an exhibiAon I curated of the same name, is included within. I was hoping to delve into my past to possibly explain my moAvaAon.

I began wriAng this with opAmism. There are links through my past as to why I do the things I do in the present - of course. My art educaAon and experiences have added something to my work and can not be willfully overlooked, but I cant be specic as to what their inuence is determinately. If I am honest I can only ever guess my moAvaAons.

This is not what a lecturer wants to hear.

Im aware that some may interpret this as an easy answer to avoid dicult quesAons. This may paint me as a fraud; perhaps I am even commiTng professional suicide.

The exhibiAon was an exploraAon of ideas and thoughts, so it wasnt an exhibiAon in the tradiAonal sense of the word in the rst place, but more like an interesAng piece of research. I realised I had to sit down aUer the exhibiAon and think about what ideas and thoughts had come of it. So the ideas that evolved through the process became the nal product.

What is my reasoning for lling more space in a world that is already full? I feel a heavy responsibility when producing work, and I take it seriously. I want to produce art which is thought provoking. I think modern art educaAon teaches us that an arAsts personal background is an explanaAon. Great art, inspiring art, must be rooted in the arAsts background, this encourages the idea of genius. We nd it hard to admit that it could be leU to chance, our egos wont allow it.

Despite my insAncts and learned behaviour, I am telling you this because I dont see anything wrong with it. I could have been a scienAst, worked in conservaAon, been a painter-decorator: all of these things I enjoy, but I dont pursue any of them. This may sound theatrical, but my point is that even though it would make me feel safer to believe that my path as an arAst was picked out for me by an invisible man, the truth is scarily rooted in chance.

A Cleaner PerspecAve evolved and new ideas came to light, ones that were more interesAng than the iniAal ones. In my defence, I dont know when an idea forms in Ame. I do not have brain book marks. If I did they would go in the bin, as even though I nd my process frustraAng, its also what keeps me on a creaAve trail. Its the exploraAon of ideas that keeps me interested, and I dont want to organise them, because then new ones might not form naturally.

My work and interests overlapped in this exhibiAon. That is the only fact I think you need to know. The resulAng thoughts are outlined in the arAcle.

Helen Moore, tribe correspondent

Featured illustrator: Meggie Wood, contents and back page.

meggiewood.co.uk

ISSN: 2050-2352

Editor In ChiefMark Doyle

EditorAli Donkin

Editorial DirectorPeter Davey

Marke9ng DirectorSteve Clement-Large

CoverMarians Broks

Inside cover spreadAnnemarie Bala, People I have met

ContributorsEddie Bacon, Fay Bird, Katerina Bodrunova, ChrisAne Vahge Young, Andrew Brewerton, Olga Noes, Courtney Ki_erman, Jonathan Broks , Marian Broks, Marcin Owczarek, Jordan Rodgers, Annemarie Bala, Ian Austwick,Julian Barford, Edward Cartwright, Derek Baker, Edd Kelly, Sam Walker-Smart, David Tong, Melissa Hall, Jerry Padeld, Helen Moore, Joanna Lyczko, United Visual ArAsts, Emma Pauley, Ali Farmer

To submit work:[email protected] say hello:[email protected]

Full submission details can be found on our website:

www.tribemagazine.org

ArAsts have given permissionfor their work to be displayedin tribe magazine. No part ofthis publicaAon may bereproduced without thepermission of the copyrightholder(s)

(C) 2012 Trico CreaAve CICcompany no 7982933


Inverse 3


Inverse 2

Ali Farmer

alifarmer.crevado.com


Emma Pauley

Sweet Cycle

(fabric design)

emmapauley.com


LET THERE BE LIGHT

UNITED VISUAL ARTISTS


T H E P A P E R

J E W E R L Y

O F

LET THERE BE LIGHT

UNITED VISUAL ARTISTS

For London based contemporary art and design practice United Visual Artists light has been a recurring fascination in their work and so too it becomes the muse of Gazelli Art Houses new exhibition let There be light The exhibition explores light as a medium, used in a variety of ways, and features artists who use light as a medium to create sculpture and installations, ranging from natural light that streams through stained glass to warmly glowing neon tubing. Tribe asks UVA what draws them to working with light.


This show features artists with a shared passion for using light in their work. Where has that infatuation sprung from for you?Much of UVA's early work focused on designing for live performance, and light is a fundamental tool used in this field. We worked with Massive Attack on six tours and as ideas evolved we removed more and more technology. It was a process of reduction really, stripping things away to a bare minimum and telling a story with just a few light sources. It was through this process that we learned how powerful light is as a medium in its purest form. Our fascination with light is endless; it's not tangible like other materials, it has a mysterious quality to it.

Light seems to hold an intrinsic inclusivity in it. It is naturally inviting and often has that element of the spectacular. Is it important to your work that it should invite interactivity? Do you think light encourages that engagement?Light is indeed very seductive, there's something primal about our attraction to it and I guess that's because of our survival instinct. We're interested in how light can influence the way people behave, especially in public spaces. We are not too dissimilar to moths flocking around a light bulb.

How important spectacle in your work?Sometimes it's important and sometimes it's not.

Many of your installation pieces are immersive. Can you explain why immersion is important to the work? Do you feel the installations you have done for a bands stage performance have the same effect in creating an experience for the viewer?Most of our work exists in the public realm or in spaces that perhaps do not have great peripheral viewpoints. Whether it's our own installation work or designing for live performance there is a desire to create an emotive experience for the viewer. It's easier to get the audience to suspend their disbelief if they are immersed in an environment.

Collaboration seems to be a key driving force for UVA. What do you feel you gain from collaborating with different organisations and collectives that you many not have on solo projects?As an art and design practice, it's natural that we collaborate with other people and organisations when we are designing. Collaboration with someone new can be


refreshing and take you out of your comfort zone, which is often interesting. But our plan is to be working on more self initiated work in the near future.

UVA its self is interdisciplinary. Do you feel there has been a loss of connection between fine art and other disciplines such as science and engineering? Could fine art benefit from greater interaction between a wide range of disciplines?I'm not sure if there has been a loss, I can think of many artists that are working with these connections. There's space for all kinds of artistic expression, it doesn't really bother us what other people are or are not doing really.We have grown up and are living in a digital revolution where ideas and disciplines are shared more freely, people are collaborating and there's a real DIY attitude to turning ideas into reality.UVA prides itself on group authorship and stresses the importance when it comes to recognition whether it's artistic or more technical.One could argue that the collaborative approach becomes a little diluted as it's less personal or autobiographical but thats okay. As I said, there's room for different approaches for art, there are no rules.

In 'High Arctic' you highlight issues of global warming. Is the use of installation to highlight important issues something you are interested in developing into future work?Climate change was an important part of High Arctic, but there was another story behind the work. We wanted to highlight the human relationship with the Arctic dating back to 500bc when he first explorers went there, right through to 100 years in the future when all the ice will have disappeared. We focused on both the destructive nature of human activity as well as the incredible ingenuity of all the people that have survived and thrived there. So it's a story of loss and triumph. Our ultimate aim was not to scare monger but to humanise the Arctic and make people more curious about the region and its problems, which affect the whole world.The foundation for High Arctic came from a journey to Svalbard with other artists and poets, again exploring interdisciplinary links. How did the journey affect the final outcome?The idea behind Cape Farewell (the charity behind the Arctic expedition) is to take artists to the Arctic by ship, and let them experience climate change first hand. There are also climate scientists on board conducting


research projects for the artists to observe and learn from. As you can imagine, there was a huge amount information to take in both visual and factual. I remember coming back to the UK and having hours of film, thousands of images and a plethora of scientific information and not quite knowing what to do with it all. Ash Nehru (co-founder of UVA) just said to me how did it make you feel and how do you feel about it now? So I tried to base the High Arctic installation around those feelings rather than information in the hope that it would resonate with people on a more meaningful level.The recent Cultural Olympiad project 'Nowhere Island' was also born of an exploration to Svalbard; inspirational place? Do you feel the artistic engagement with the area has been successful in highlighting the problems the area is experiencing?I think it's difficult to quantify. We felt that it was our responsibility to create curiosity regarding the region and the issues surrounding it so that people might take next steps themselves to find out more. The Arctic is so incredibly beautiful so there's many ways to attract attention to it. But it's also easy to forget because its so far away.Many of pieces of work have been shown in a public space, how does exhibiting your work, particularly in a group show effect the way the work is viewed.Some of our works are shown in different countries, one of the interesting things we observe are the subtle differences in peoples behaviour according to the social and cultural backgrounds. Some nationalities behave a little cautiously, whilst others are much more extroverted. There is also an element of audience and performer; some people want to interact where others just want to stand and watch

For more information on UVA please visit uva.co.ukFor more from Let There Be Light check tribes Programme tab for our interview with Sergio Calderon.

Let There be l ight can be seen at Gazel l i Art House

39 Dover Street , Mayfair, London, W1

13th September 28th October 2012


Joanna Lyczko

joannalyczko.blogspot.co.uk


A C L E A N E R

PERSPECTIVE


When I left University I felt disillusioned with the education system, but also irritatingly institutionalised. So

working as a cleaner at the University I had previously studied at certainly had its bitter sweet moments.

After an intense third year there is no denying the anti-climax you experience. Like many, I didnt know

what I wanted to do with my life; I often jovially describe it as being cast adrift into a sea of uncertainty to

my friends.

When I was a student I believed educational institutions were a sanctuary, but as I sat in a meeting the

other day where students were referred to as clients, it made me realise I was being a touch naive.

Working unsociable hours had made me invisible in a place I was previously considered significant, and to

be honest I begrudged this. I get up every week day at 4:45am and travel to work, after signing in a few of

us go outside with a cup of coffee and a cigarette to look at the sunrise. We start work at 6:00am and finish

our shift at 9:00am, slowly making our way home almost unnoticed.

Staff and students here have varying experience of lower paid jobs, and so the treatment we experience is

also varied. This is too say not all of our experiences are bad ones, but In my opinion there is an underlying

view about cleaning brought on by a shared history and upbringing about a hypothetical job ladder, and

cleaning is generally one of many considered to be at the bottom of this ladder. I think undeniably there is

a culture of judging people based on their jobs, its usually the first thing you ask about someone, after

their name, age and of course their address and phone number, email address, and lastly their mothers

maiden name and the name of their first pet, which when combined results in a hilarious porn pseudonym.

A Cleaner Perspective, an exhibition of work by cleaners that I recently curated, was coaxed into reality for

two reasons; firstly to reveal that we are not just cleaners but creative individuals, and secondly for a more

selfish reason; a feeling that I would have missed an opportunity. I had plans to leave Cornwall and move

back in with my parents, due to a heightened awareness of jobs currently unavailable to me. Coincidently

then as I planned to move back to Surrey I started to work on ideas that were site specific to Cornwall,

subconsciously making me powerless to leave. After all I would never be able to work with these exact

same people ever again, and they understood my strange ways and motivations for the exhibition as well.

So in short I was unmotivated but now there was an incentive to begin fear.


Ian

Ian Austwick


Three years of cleaning later and I felt my workmates trusted me enough to exhibit their work. It takes a while

to get past the preconceptions of what an artist is, as it turned out in this case, three years. I asked my

colleagues to submit anything they enjoyed doing in their spare time into the exhibition. Some of them were

past or present students but the majority of them had no previous background in the arts. I was excited by

the diverse range of work given to me; from pilot licences to certificates, poems, short stories, stills from

games, photos of sunsets, crocheted baby blankets, a book of confessions, bugs made from cutlery, the list

went on.

From a curating point of view, it made for an illuminating learning curve and it highlighted to me that people

arent engaging in money driven exhibits, but connected with the pieces in A Cleaner Perspective based on

their lack of pretence. No one had hand picked these pieces to fit collectively. It didnt rely on famous names

to pull in viewers; work that was more sellable didnt rank higher. What interested people were the individual

stories revealed. There may be a lesson to be learned here, if we want our work to be encompassing to all,

maybe the work on display should be seen less as a marketable product, but have more of a concept driven

narrative.

I expected a few problems when I began. After all why would I want to exhibit art work by cleaners in a

University? Its like someone on benefits wanting to exhibit in their local job centre. One minute I had the go

ahead to exhibit in the library and the next I didnt, there was a meeting I wasnt invited to about the

exhibition, emails passing back and forth, and at one point I was asked to move to a space which was

obviously less visible to staff and students, making our exhibition undetectable and pointless. Eventually it

was agreed we could exhibit where we previously wanted, and A Cleaner Perspective had the go ahead

finally.

I think its interesting to realise at this point that the only thing about this exhibition I had told anyone was

that it happened to be work by the cleaners. I admit a lack of information on my part probably added to the

cautious reaction I experienced. It seemed that staff were concerned A Cleaner Perspective could possibly

reflect badly on the University, yet there was no politically charged wording used in any of the promotion of

the exhibition or statements released. The message was self evident and highlighted further with the fact that

past students were exhibiting in A Cleaner Perspective which ran along side the end of year degree shows;

shows they had previously taken part in, shows that concluded three years of work, and which had previously

represented the beginning of their lustrous career.

Facing page: A page from Your Confessions - Annemarie Bala


Sunsets have used dust to create beauty for billions of years, weve been removing dust for 100 years

Sunsets have used dust to create beauty for bill ions of years, weve been removing dust for hundreds


Sunsets have used dust to create beauty for bill ions of years, weve been removing dust for hundreds

Sunsets have used dust to create beauty for billions of years, weve been removing dust for 100 years

Hoover Julian Barford

ISSUE 9 TRIBE MAGAZINE 35Sunrise Series Edd Kelly


David Tong


Game still taken by Melissa Hall


TO DREAM OF FORTY W INKS

Sam Walker-Smart

ISSUE 9 TRIBE MAGAZINE 39CD Art for Written by 3 Cleaners


Photograph donated by Derek Baker


Derek Baker - pilot license


Punk Super Hero Before Transformation

ISSUE 9 TRIBE MAGAZINE 43Punk Super Hero After Transformation

Jerry Padfield

44 TRIBE MAGAZINE ISSUE 9 'My Book Of Confessions' by Annemarie Bala


To conclude, the artwork on display at A Cleaner Perspective asked the

viewer to judge us on an individual basis, hoping in some way to challenge

the preconception of what it means to be a cleaner. Although this was not

just a social political statement about adult education, a lack of jobs, or the

corruption of educational systems but in engaging with people who may feel

intimidated by the art world. Since my time curating A Cleaner Perspective I

have become very interested in conceptual curating. I never considered

traditional galleries were missing out on anything before, but now I believe

they are. In many cases their unwillingness to both involve and evolve finds

the public excluded from what I believe is a vital part of their cultural

education. So it wasnt just an opportunity for staff and students to see a

different side to the cleaners, but it was also an opportunity for the cleaners

to see what their colleagues produced out of hours, and to give them

confidence in their own creative output.

I hope to continue spreading the message that art isnt exclusively for an

intellectual elite, but that art is for everyone to take pleasure and learn from.

Hopefully with the exhibition and this article it might also inspire someone

else to put on a similar exhibition. If you would like any advice on how to

plan your own exhibition or you are interested in collaborating then please

contact me through Tribe, or on my blog which is noted below.

Helen Moore is currently working as a Cleaner, and preparing an art based radio show for The

Source FM whilst interning with us at Tribe Magazine.

Follow her on twitter:

twitter.com/wipingjuicefrom

ISSUE 9 TRIBE MAGAZINE 47Edward Cartwright

Beetle Flowers

ISSUE 9 TRIBE MAGAZINE 49Jordan Rodgers jordanrogers.co.uk

ISSUE 9 TRIBE MAGAZINE 51Consumption


Urlo Middle

Marcin Owczarek

marcinowczarek.wix.com/photography


JONS GRANDAD(Part 1)

The year was 1957. My grandad, Marians Broks, was working on a BriAsh Rail wagon repair site in the West Midlands. Hammering a strip of metal, a shard splintered o and shot into his right eye. He was taken to the Birmingham Eye Inrmary. The consultant ophthalmic surgeon was away on holiday. His junior played safe and removed the eye.

My grandad tells me that losing sight in one of his eyes gave him the impetus to take up photography. Before the accident, he says he never truly appreciated the miracle of vision. I sense that photography was a form of therapy in a way it made him grateful for the giU of sight.

He joined the Kidderminster Camera Club where, through his passion for landscape pictures he soon earned the nickname, The Constable of Kidderminster aUer the great English landscape painter, John Constable. He told me he wanted to prove he was as good as anyone with two eyes.

My grandad gave up photography in the late 1960s. In part, because people in the club were becoming more interested in colour photography - something he couldnt aord. By then the family had moved to a new house on a council estate and there was no space for a darkroom.

One aUernoon earlier this year, aUer having a chat about photography, my Grandad asked me if I wanted to retrieve his old negaAves from the aTc. There were hundreds up there. When I got back to Plymouth, I spent some Ame scanning the negaAves onto the computer, which was a fascinaAng experience. I felt like I was an archaeologist unearthing the past. It was mysterious and it was capAvaAng. An interesAng thing for me was that I was scanning negaAves which my Grandad never got round to developing for whatever reason. It was like I was nishing o a job started 50 years ago, which gave me a great sense of connecAon with the past.

Despite his minor fame as a landscape photographer it was the portraits that parAcularly caught my eye. Faces locked in Ame. Look at the man with the pipe. Surely thats some French existenAalist philosopher not the local copper! But I like the landscapes too. Looking at them I appreciate that my granddad and I both have an eye for the abstract embedded within the guraAve. Nature or nurture? Who cares?

Jonathan Broks


Abby Dean

Courtney Kitterman

courtneykitterman.artistswanted.org


Motley

Olga Noes

olganoes.com


O n t h e E d g e o f S e e i n gAndrew Brewerton looks at the new works of Long Beini.

Colour iridescence in most owers occurs at the ultraviolet range of the light spectrum, visible to the compound eye of insects but invisible to the human eye. This petal iridescence depends not on colour pigment but upon surface structure, in which colour tones alter according to the angle at which the ower is viewed.

This is also true of the brilliant iridescence of certain moths and bu_eries, whose Any wing scales display the most astonishingly mulA-layered, microscopic structures: among the most complicated extra-cellular structures that are manufactured by a single cell.

The English word iridescent derives from Iris, in classical Greek mythology the messenger of the Gods, whose earthly sign was the rainbow. Normal human colour vision is indeed limited to the rainbow spectrum, those electromagneAc wavelengths that border upon ultraviolet and infrared, occurring in the range of c.400-700nm, which can be disAnguished by the rod and cone cell receptors that make up the physical surface of the Human reAna.

Where honeybees have evolved trichromaAc colour vision which is insensiAve to red but sensiAve to ultraviolet, Human trichromaAc vision is mediated by the types of colour receptors containing pigments with dierent spectral sensiAviAes, capable of absorbing light at long, medium


and short wavelengths, which approximate to orange-red, green-yellow, and blue, respecAvely.

These three primaries dier from the rainbow primary colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) and from painters primaries (red, yellow and blue) and the fact that the reAna has its own set or primaries is a very deep mystery.

In reduced light, colour sensaAon in human vision migrates towards the short blue wavelength and, in low light; rod cells in the human eye can sAll disAnguish about 500 shades of grey. The human reAna hosts about 120 million rod cells for night vision, and 8 million colour-sensiAve cone cells that have evolved and adapted for daylight condiAons, in which we can disAnguish millions of dierent colours, for most of which we have no names.

Languages that have only three basic colour terms always have black, white, and red. Those with four add yellow or green. Those with ve have both yellow and green.

Such astonishing consistency in human language may well be true as an index of universal colour classicaAon, but our experience of colour can never be conned by language, and is innitely variable in terms of sensaAon, colour hue, luminosity (intensity), and colour saturaAon. Colour qualiAes and characterisAcs vary on scales of brightness and darkness, of wet and dry, surface texture and gloss, freshness and desiccaAon, liquid, earth and air bodies, indelibility and fadedness, roughness and smoothness etc. etc. Every new combinaAon of these qualiAes is a new experience, a fresh sensaAon evoking and aestheAc response.

These colour qualiAes are further complicated by our physiology and experience, our technologies and cultures, and even via synestheAc resonance with other senses. Colour sensaAon varies between individuals. For example (though I am sure you will disagree!) it seems perfectly clear to me that the number 1 is white, 2 is yellow, 3 is green, 4 is orange, 5 is blue, 6 is pink, 7 is violet, 8 is red, 9 is brown, and 10 is most denitely black. Dont ask me why.

But why, you may ask, in a brief text for Long Beini on her new works in oil on canvas, is this writer so deliberately detained, and in such detail, by the opAcs of light and the human physiology of colour percepAon?

Well, because the impulse for these canvases, their subject, their making, and the presence of sensaAon of the nished work, is so very nely poised between the experiences of seeing and of not-seeing. For these painAngs were aUer some years of not-painAng, immediately following and eye infecAon. It wasnt serious Said the arAst, but I couldnt see for a week.


The apparent subject ma_er, mostly involving human gure, is almost arbitrary. The real impulse for this work was the a_racAon of a small point of colour or a certain atmosphere that caught the painters eye amid a range of photographs and images torn from fashion magazines. Their real subject is, I would say, not the human gure but the impulse of colour, and the lived experience of the medium of colour pigment and its physical applicaAon to the stretched canvas:

I use the canvas as the colour pale@e, to crush the oil directly on the canvas, and using the pencil, fork, stub or paper as the brushes.

This is the bodily act of painAng: in its physical, gestural, emoAonal and performaAve dimension; in its duraAon in Ame, in the act of looking and reecAng; in its tacAle and sensory involvement in the materials of oil pain, white spirit thinners, woven texAle fabric, and the agency of natural daylight. Somewhere in the act of making the work, the desire to paint has become the painAng of desire.

Pina Bausch, the modern dance choreographer who died the June, once said that she was not interested in how her dancers moved, but in what moved them. And this is precisely the unspoken energy that these painAngs evoke, on the edge of seeing and not-seeing. Each in its complex and wonder-ful, layered and structured colour surface, every bit as fragile and brilliant as a hibiscus ower. As a bu_ery wing.

Andrew Brewerton

Transcribed by Chris Courts

ISSUE 9 TRIBE MAGAZINE 89Christine Vahge Young

ISSUE 9 TRIBE MAGAZINE 91Dolly in Salzburg

ISSUE 9 TRIBE MAGAZINE 93Dolly in Athens


Dolly in Barclona

Dolly in Moscow

ISSUE 9 TRIBE MAGAZINE 95Dolly in Paris

Dolly in Granada

ISSUE 9 TRIBE MAGAZINE 97Dolly in Madrid

ISSUE 9 TRIBE MAGAZINE 99Katerina Bodrunova theoryofcolour.comDolly in Cordoba


Estranged

ISSUE 9 TRIBE MAGAZINE 101Fay BirdNote to Self back Then

ISSUE 9 TRIBE MAGAZINE 109Eddie Bacon


SAY H E L LO

t r i b e que r y@gma i l . c om

SUBMIT WORK

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Tribe Issue 9