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Configure Crude Complexities(2019) /
Configure Crude Complexities
2-channel looped video installation
Joseph Cutts is interested in the aesthetics and intricacies of bespoke manufacturing, and the moments when semi-automated mass-production processes are interrupted or augmented by human and mechanical intervention to produce unexpected outcomes. Filmed in Sheffield Forgemasters International and Lumsdale Glass Studio in Matlock, each highly specialised centres of production, Configure Crude Complexities considers the material properties of both heavy and fragile industries.
The work focuses on the monotony of automated processes involved in the transformation of raw materials through metal forming and glass blowing. Rendering the processes of melting, boring, forming and reshaping as abstract frames on screen, the work explores the unexpected formal and rhythmic qualities within manufacturing itself, through a carefully choreographed sequence of observations.
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Trigger Happy Discipline(2015) /
Trigger Happy Discipline
2-channel looped video installation
Trigger Happy Discipline focuses on the revolving properties of a range of imported drill bits, from steel earth augers to zinc coated, helical plaster mixers, and their formational arrangement, somewhat mimicking methods of Japanese flower arranging in tolerance of construction, assemblage and setting.
Encompassing a purposeful, slow action approach, a controlled trigger dictates the speed of matter in material resulting in a series of singular methodical movements. More than simply following a revolving part, Trigger Happy Discipline empathises with other areas of the tool, such as it’s ‘stem’ and ‘leaves’ as the lens profiles the mundane to the elaborate, given in the unconventional setup of the subject matter.
Subsequently the spiral play becomes an auxiliary, as scale, form, collection and aesthetics determine the curated set, with stature forming the natural order of existing artefacts on this platform.
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Light Behaviour Series(2014) /
Light Behaviour Series
Looped projection
Light Behaviour is an ongoing series of video works formed from an orchestrated repetitive process devised as a means to channel an outcome. The works are created through a reverse method of projection. The setup is of a projection beam positioned to screen a form of moving image. Face on; the beam of light draws in the camera lens and requests to be recorded. As a result of the beaming light, a reading is formulated. These rhythmic readings contain uncontrollable visual responses that help form a contrast to the rigorous technical process.
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Inscribed(2011) /
Inscribed
Looped projection, metallic film loading platter
Cutts addresses the shape and movement of water with a voyeuristic obsession into its fluidity, where one can only observe the glimmer moving over the graceful medium. In Aguaespejo Granadino (1955), Jose Val del Omar exploited the elegant flow of water by very rarely moving the camera, leaving the subject matter to explore the possibilities of motion and velocity. Adopting a similar method here, Cutts, whilst remaining still, is carried by a capriciousness, recognising reflection and flow as a rejection of control and automation.
As a contrast to this, a fragment of filmic history is used as the stage, as an imported 1960s Italian film loading platter is referenced for its origin story, material properties and as the catalyst for control in speed, as information is disseminated to shape accurate movement.
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WELCOME TO TOKYO(2011) /
WELCOME TO TOKYO
Looped video
Cutts’ video is constructed out of moments in cinema that feature images of neon lights in downtown Tokyo. Influenced by the stereotypical representation in film where the use of this iconic imagery depicts the adjournment to the “Bright Lights, Big City” ethos. Winking seductively, the gaudy facade is the embodiment of crass modern culture where the suggestion of excitement and expectation attempt to mask the grim realities within.
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Occupe(2011) /
Occupe
Looped video
Occupe is an adaptation of the final scene from Claude Chabrol’s 1970 film, Le Boucher. The camera draws towards an elevator button, a simplistic flickering red light, repetitive and constant with a predictable outcome, yet one is fixated by the hypnotic quality. Initially occupied until the light goes out, now vacant, and with a feeling of apprehension, we are left to contemplate nothingness, emptiness.
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Research & Development: In the Field (DYCP Round 9)(Award,2021) /
Research & Development: In the Field (DYCP Round 9)
2010 - 2019
Joseph Cutts has spent the last 11 years working in moving image and installation with a particular focus on the visual. In addition to the central subjects matters of his artworks or curated programmes, there has long been an obsession in the power of the image and the focal points of the designed composition, testing the attention span of its audiences, and in return receiving their hypnotic and direct gaze.Within his artworks, techniques have been employed such as:
- framed distant shots of industrial and idyllic landscapes of harbours, ships, building sites and city scapes, where life is organically exaggerated to such a slow pace to barely resemble movement. Moving image impersonates a still image until the odd transition or flicker of light appears;
- the flow of both mechanical structures and formation of water up close to highlight both contrasting automated and semi-automated processes and movements.
- the choreography of a constructed set, where the focal point isn't just dictated by the centre point or size of it, but all components involved and where background detail is key and not necessarily in a supporting role;
- timing, where the length of a frame/scene is brought into question to test the limits of the users attention.
The common denominators throughout the above points are that:
- the camera never moves and the stage must do all the talking;
- human behaviour is absent (on screen) but carries out the role in initially configuring what we see move;
- sound never plays a role as it isn't yet justified in the narratives.
While on screen content is a centre point, it's not the only focus as his works have a physicality to them and encompassed a wider installation set of materials that only slightly surround the av. Part of Cutts' setup is to utilise materials (glass, steel etc..), materials that hold a physical relation to the on screen content, if not a historical relation. It is here where the meticulous display of the screening mechanism/format is not under-represented as just a support, but is largely regarded as primary as the moving image.
The same principles of set design, timing and display are transferred over to Cutts' style of curating, when considering an audiences attention span, it's not a question of getting visitors to an exhibition or online platform, it's keeping them there engaged and investigating.
2020
Fast forward to April 2020 and the immediate closure of organisations and physical exhibition cancellations, now as audience members we contend with screen fatigue and online saturation as an increased number of organisations transfer their programme online, but assume the audience is both the same and willing to engage with content in the same manner.Results had shown that visitor figures (clicks) were low in public 'attendance' worldwide. Within Cutts' artistic and curatorial practice it felt very natural to temporarily abandon working in moving image during Covid-19 and not force content that would be misrepresented, making ethics to play the primary role in this decision. From here he curated two online programme Ghosts & Apparitions for Sheffield Doc/Fest & The Sound Intervention Service for the Adam Mickiewicz Institute's Digital Cultures
festival. Both programmes took the same fundamentals as his artistic practice's approach towards overcoming barriers to engagement and playing on levels of intimacy. The solution wasn't how to have the most expensive website, greatest marketing campaign or the most content, but how to have a user friendly platform that both was simple and clear in its direction and contained moments of required investigation from the user, coupled with moments of interaction.Pushing moving image to one side and highlighting performance and sound/audio artworks allowed for a new level of intimacy to appear, even during a time of solitude. Cutts' programmes acted as research and case studies that contributed towards his practice, as he curated artworks that both allowed for audiences at home to play a role either collectively/individually, through dialogue in futuristic CGI performances or simply through being told to wear strong headphones, "get into the cupboard under the sink and make yourself comfortable, smell your favourite spice or oil".
PRESENT DAY
Supported by Arts Council England, this grant now offers Cutts the opportunity to add a new direction and welcome sound into his practice, either as an isolated discipline or building up to composing scores that accompany future moving image and installation works, after ten years of primarily focusing on the visual. Working with multi disciplinary artist Rebekah Ubuntu (The Sound Intervention Service) and Forma, over the next four months Cutts will develop new compositions, creating site specific narratives through archived material, field recordings and dialogue overlays, whilst studying levels of quality in production and value of depth/volume and discussing ethics in hearing and language..
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The Sound Intervention Service(Curatorial,2020) /
The Sound Intervention Service
17 Oct 2020 - 24 Jan 2021
Digital Cultures: Imagined Futures, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw, Poland (Online Worldwide)The Sound Intervention Service is a programme of six provocative audio and sound artworks that act as a user's guide, offering tools to support your daily routine. This collection of artworks entails field recordings, forms of ASMR, as well as meditations and direct methods of engagement. The programme welcomes two new commissions from artists Karolina Breguła and Katarzyna Krakowiak, alongside artworks from Rebekah Ubuntu, Zorka Wollny, Erin Gee & Sofian Audry, and Diana Lelonek & Denim Szram.
In Despair, Hope and Healing: Three Movements for Climate Justice, Ubuntu composes a contrast of sound samples, field recordings, vocal activism and advocacy, that acts as a dedication to the unique, fragile and imperilled equilibrium of our planet’s ecosystem.
In Quiet Rush, Wollny has created a composed sound situation that reacts to the specific spatial, historical and natural conditions of mines hidden under the Earth's surface.
Gee & Audry’s of the soone, is an intimate setup of encounters with a soft female voice that comes to whisper a script written by a machine learning algorithm, showcasing each stage of the "learning" process as the algorithm slowly learns to "speak".
Lelonek and Szram’s Melting Gallery highlights the recordings of the three melting Alpine glaciers: du Rhone, Aletsch and Morteratsch, composed into a song, that acts as a symphony of disappearing glaciers, highlighting the slowly trickling catastrophe.
FULL PROGRAMME LISTING HERE
e-flux ANNOUNCEMENT HERESupported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute & Ministry of Culture, Poland
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Ethics & Strategy in Digital Art Practice (just because you can, doesn’t mean you should)(Masterclass,2020) /
Ethics & Strategy in Digital Art Practice (just because you can, doesn’t mean you should)
27 Nov 2020
Noviembre Electrónico, Buenos Aires, ArgentinaMasterclass Lead:
Joseph Cutts (Artist & Curator)In an age of rapidly developing technology and hybrid exhibition platforms, an artist or curator may find themselves beholden to trends as a means to remain current, if not socially engaged. In the world of contemporary art, immersive theatre or film, do the technological advancements of today eclipse the power of the subject matter and form? And do new online exhibiting platforms support an artist's work in the most appropriate way?
As an artist we must ask ourselves what are the key elements of an artwork we wish to be highlighted? And how and where do we wish for our work to be seen?
This masterclass looks to address the very modern trends in today’s exhibition formats and the ethics of utilising developing technologies as supporting mechanisms for displaying artworks in both an online and physical exhibition world. It will highlight what can be perceived to be a trend in today’s climate and where that trend has stemmed from. It will also provide case studies and examples of how to protect the authenticity of an artists work.
In this programme, artists will learn about:
- Timelessness vs trends in art forms and in the industry;
- How to protect their artwork in today’s climate (online & physical);
- How to distribute their work appropriately and plan an exhibition strategy; - The value of exhibiting their work;
- Longevity in their work;
This masterclass is open primarily to anyone working in VR, AR, Video & Sound/Audio Art, in the early to mid stages of their artistic career. Although those who are not artists but work with these art forms, are welcome to attend.
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Ghosts & Apparitions(Curatorial,2020) /
'Feel My Metaverse' (still), Keiken/George Jasper Stone, 2019 – Created for Jerwood Collaborate!, supported by Jerwood Arts and Arts Council England.
Ghosts & Apparitions
13 - 26 Nov 2020
Sheffield Doc/Fest, Sheffield (Online)Ghosts & Apparitions is an online series of audio, video and XR performative artworks by UK and International artists and collectives which explore current realities, a dramatised reality and an alternate reality.
The programme reflects on societal movements, sonic warfare and planetary health, through alternate and ghostly channels of communication and interaction.
The online portal is a gateway to a series of works conducted by audio, video and CGI, with elements of participation that are suggested through various levels of metaphorical and physical prompts, as well as narrative driven provocations.
Since the first glimpses of the moving image, ghosts were haunting our imaginations, including those yet to be. A ghost from then meets a ghost from now – histories and collective memory are born.
The perception of a ghostly identity or object might be apparent but not in a physical sense. Without material stimulus, we’re invited to question what is real vs what is preconceived, generated from fear, desire or otherwise.
As Joseph Cutts (Curator & Head of Arts Programme) investigate further into the roles of both the antagonist and protagonist, Ghosts & Apparitions welcomes the audio and visual works of Maria Court and Trinidad Piriz in The Burst of Things, a recount of stories based on two of the main objects that were integral to Chile’s most recent social outbreak; Kitty Clark in The Experiment, inspired by research into the Philadelphia Experiment, a short audio drama in which contact with an unknown force is attempted through esoteric means; and Paula Albuquerque in Overhead 21, through the immersive sounds of surveillance and weaponised drones, commonly used by Western States as a form of strategic stress-inducing intimidation.
Complimenting this setup, we welcome the work of Keiken in Metaverse Messenger, a one off XR performance that explored how our communication is adapting due to COVID-19 and how it will change in the future, as audience members invited to interact in real-time with an avatar from the future in a virtual world.
Parallel to this programme, we have invited each artist and collective to share insights into the research material, process and theories that inform their practice, in their continuing Artist Spotlight series.
Presented as part of Sheffield Doc/Fest's National Portfolio Arts Programme.
Supported by Arts Council England
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Digital Cultures: Imagined Futures Film Programme(Curatorial,2020) /
'The Fish' (still), Jonathas de Andrade, 2016
Digital Cultures: Imagined Futures Film Programme
17 - 26 Oct 2020
Digital Cultures: Imagined Futures, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw, Poland (Online in Select Territories)The motto of this year's festival serves as a pretext to rediscover the world of science fiction cinema and think about how filmmakers imagined the future in the mid-20th century. To this end, we will take a look at the few existing examples of Polish sci-fi films. Curated by Anna Winkler (Adam Mickiewicz Institute) & Michał Matuszewski (Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art) and Joseph Cutts (Artist & Curator), the film programme accompanying Digital Cultures festival juxtaposes the already historical examples of "imagined futures" in Polish cinema with contemporary narratives about what lies ahead.
The first Polish sci-fi films are not just dystopian visions, but also short television productions, such as Andrzej Wajda's only comedy about transplants, Stanisław Kokesz's short feature about a mad scientist, and Janusz Kubik's story about aliens. The Polish Radio Experimental Studio also played a vital role in creating an image of the future by using sounds to build new worlds.
Combining these rather obscure cinematographic works with contemporary productions, in particular works created by artists from Poland and beyond – in the meantime, the debate about our future has moved from the cinema into the sphere of visual arts – helps look at these films from a broader perspective, in the context of the most burning present-day problems and how they were tackled before. It turns out that there is a certain continuity to cinematographic struggles with the future. Visions of the climate catastrophe appear both in contemporary works and dystopias from the late 20th century. Artworks that take anthropocene, the climate crisis and ways to avert it as their subject matter are in fact immersed in the philosophical tradition of the often low-budget Polish sci-fi cinema.
The programme also includes foreign productions that expand our understanding of changes in the digital world and in the relationship between people and nature.
FULL PROGRAMME LISTINGS HERE
e-flux ANNOUNCEMENT HERESupported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute & Ministry of Culture, Poland
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How art institutions welcome the notion of degrowth(Panel,2020) /
How art institutions welcome the notion of degrowth
23 Oct 2020
Digital Cultures: Imagined Futures, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw, PolandA series of informal presentations and a panel discussion that looks at the cycle, processes and research of arts institutions, festivals, hybrid online organisations and their approach to sustaining an increasingly ecological and organic setup.
It will specifically highlight various models of environmentally friendly approaches in arts organisations, while looking at curatorial research, exhibition platforms, resource and travel. At the same time we will discuss the current barriers towards public engagement and the social transformations.
We will explore areas of how to develop as an organisation but aim to remain ethically balanced and distance ourselves from global capitalist systems.
Panelist(s):
Diane Drubay (Museum Strategist & Founder, We Are Museums)
Jagna Lewandowska (Curator, Museum of Modern Art , Warsaw)
Christoph Platz (Head of Curatorial Affairs, steirischer herbst)Chair:
Joseph Cutts (Artist & Curator)Supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute
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What AR Can Do for the Visual Arts(Panel,2020) /
What AR Can Do for the Visual Arts
11 Sep 2020
MUTEK CA, Montreal, CanadaThe events of the past months have accelerated certain developments, in turn creating new opportunities for artists, galleries, and museums to reach audiences and stimulate art market dynamics. This process has been propelled by augmented and mixed reality technologies and fuelled by the power of digital platforms and applications. Examples include Acute Art, Eyejack, and Collectionner, which was developed in Montréal by AGAC.
Panelist(s):
Joseph Cutts (Artist & Curator)
Cheryl Sim (Managing Director & Curator, Phi Foundation for Contemporary Art)Chair:
Sarah Spring (Parabola Films) -
Professional Practice in Virtual & Augmented Reality (Strategy, curating & longevity)(Workshop Series,2020) /
Why can't we do this IRL? (still), Megan Broadmeadow, 2019
Professional Practice in Virtual & Augmented Reality (Strategy, curating & longevity)
A four part workshop series for artists working in virtual and augmented reality.
Over four sessions, this programme will consider the longevity of virtual and augmented reality. It looks at what commissioners and investors look for in these modern art forms, the realities and challenges of them reaching a wider audience and a contemporary art world validity, and the developments and low points in mass production and trade.
This programme will look into methods of packaging your completed virtual and augmented reality work for planning a malleable and effective exhibition and touring setup. It will offer insight into the perceived trends of such content, where that perception stems from, and which organisations currently welcome such content and why.
In an age of rapidly developing technology, an artist may find themselves guided by trends, as a means to remain current and socially engaged. As an artist you might ask yourself:
- Do I need to contend with technology (headset) advancements and depreciation? How does that impact on my work?
- Where do I desire for my artwork to be seen?
- Can my work have longevity?
Our Curator & Head of Arts Programme Joseph Cutts invites a selected group of researchers, commissioners, curators and collectors from contemporary art and immersive art backgrounds to deliver a series of presentations on their organisations aims, research processes and year round programme. The selected are invited because of their contribution towards working with artists in virtual and augmented reality and their openness to support the longevity of those modern art forms.
This programme is about strategy once an artwork has recently been created and not from a funding or pre-creation point of view.
Supported by the British Film Institute
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Art House - online residency programme(Curatorial,2020) /
Art House - online residency programme
18 May - 31 Aug 2020
Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw, Poland (& Online)Some territories may find their circumstances different to others with regards to government issued lockdowns and the re-strategising of arts funding. As there’s an uncertainty surrounding when physical art and exhibition activities will take place publicly. Numerous organisations launch online exhibitions and programmes. Wanting to ensure that the authenticity of a project is maintained, and not simply lifted from once part of a physical exhibition platform to now an online one, resulting in a loss of depth, we will look further into commissioning and understanding artist’s needs
The last few months have undoubtedly changed artistic practice. Until now, artists could exist in studio/residency territories, lab’s editing suites, as well as cafes to limit the costs of their activity. Today, during covid-19, an artist could find themselves in a position of struggling, re-strategising or thriving (due to new demand), and considering how they can make work in this time of lockdown. Most of them have been deprived of their working spaces, playing such an important role in their creative process. Many of which may now be facing the challenge of finding their place in the new normal, and shifting their work into their homes.
Artist & curator Joseph Cutts is collaborating with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute on welcoming a new initiative that welcomes proposals from an open call for Art House – online residency programme, inviting Polish digital and visual artists to reflect on adapting in the times of the new normal. For two months, without the need to leave their homes, 20 Polish artists in residence will be developing their artistic concepts for new projects, while consulting mentors who work for top institutions in the world, such as Serpentine Gallery, and V&A.
The mentors will help the artists pave their way to creating a prototype of their work, providing them with their expertise during their biweekly consultations. The mentors are: Sandra Gaudenzi (University of Westminster), Julia Kaganskiy, Maya Dvash (Design Museum Holon), Kay Watson (Serpentine Gallery), Janina Prudenko, Bregje Benecke (International Film Festival Rotterdam), Katharina Meissner (MUTEK), Hussain Currimbhoy, Christopher Turner (Victoria & Albert Museum), and Katrin Bucher Trantow (Kunsthaus Graz).
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Welcoming New Art Forms (I was trendy once)(Masterclass,2019) /
'Another Dream' (Installation View), Tamara Shogaolu, 2019
Welcoming New Art Forms (I was trendy once)
28 Sep 2019
Digital Cultures: Living Archives, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw, PolandMasterclass Lead:
Joseph Cutts (Artist & Curator)In an age of rapidly developing technology, an artist or curator may find themselves beholden to trends as a means to remain current, if not socially engaged. In the world of contemporary arts, theatre or film, do the technological advancements of today eclipse the power of a subject matter and form?
As an artist we must ask ourselves what are the key properties of an artwork we wish to be highlighted? and where do we desire for our work to be seen? As a programmer or curator, shouldn't we welcome, if not, accept artworks that have taken advantage of modern advancements in technology such as VR, AR, Facial Recognition etc. and ensure that subject matter and form is at the forefront of why it is to be exhibited.
This masterclass looks to offer insight into what can be perceived as a trend by virtue of its currentness, where that perception has come from, and what worlds welcome and are beginning to welcome such art forms.
Supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute
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Subconscious Sensibilities(Curatorial,2019) /
'Apparatum' (Installation View), PanGenerator, 2019
Subconscious Sensibilities
6 - 11 Jun 2019
Site Gallery, SheffieldSubconscious Sensibilities is the UK's largest festival group exhibition welcoming emerging and established artists working in both modern and timeless art forms in installation, moving image, sound art, deep fake's, virtual & augmented reality and game.
The programme addresses the science behind the attention and distraction levels in participation through technology and non-fiction narratives. It acts as a mirror to modern everyday culture in both individual and collective experiences and acts as a catalyst to help us build a stronger appreciation of distant communities.
Presenting cautionary tales of data harvesting opening our eyes to discrimination and the failures of utopian design, blending our identities with those around us to acting as the trigger for generating sound samples from underground Polish radio. The artworks in Subconscious Sensibilities unsettle at first, slowly garnering addiction and challenging self behaviour.
Supported by a meticulously designed series of wooden recyclable pavilions, they act as the exhibitions consistent base layer, similar to the set of a film, the subject in the forefront isn't the only focal point on display. As timber slats and overarching birch ply roofs are re-treated and re-defined to no longer act as concealed supporting mechanisms, similar to that of a traditional exhibition setup, to the proud staging holding their own visual identity, whilst carrying out a functional mapping for the digital mechanical appliances to weave through.
As the programme welcomes both individual and collective experiences, the pavilions are neither closed off nor completely open spaces, not unlike a balcony or a petrol station, in questioning territory with their informal perimeters.
Subconscious Sensibilities welcomes new commissions and work of Zoyander Street, PanGenerator, Alexey Furman, Kelsey Boncato, Tamara Shogaolu, IP Yuk-Yiu, Bill Posters/Dr Daniel Howe, Frederik Duerinck, Camille Duvelleroy, Darren Emerson, Rob Eagle & Georgie Pinn.
Co-curated & Designed by Joseph Cutts (Curator & Head of Arts Programme)
Presented as part of Sheffield Doc/Fest's National Portfolio Arts Programme.
Supported by Arts Council England
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Construction House: Radical Materials(Exhibition,2019) /
Construction House: Radical Materials
6 Oct 2018 - 20 Apr 2019
S1 Artspace, SheffieldConstruction House is a six-month programme of commissions, exhibitions, events and activities by S1 Artspace studio holders, which will explore the role, possibilities and responsibilities of collective artistic activity today. The programme will reflect on the philosophy and relevance of the influential Bauhaus movement for today’s practicing artist and their relationship with society. The Bauhaus – which celebrates its centenary in 2019 – was the most influential modernist art school of the 20th century, whose approach to teaching, and understanding art’s relationship to society and technology, had a major impact in Europe and the United States long after it closed.
Construction House includes newly commissioned work by artists Alison J Carr, James Clarkson, Joseph Cutts, Natalie Finnemore, Vicky Hayward, Ashley Holmes, Peter Martin & Jon Cannon, Emily Musgrave, Lucy Vann and Roanna Wells. The programme will focus on experimentation and the Bauhaus philosophy of ‘unlearning’, transforming S1 Artspace into an active space of research, production and display.
A literal translation of the term ‘Bauhaus’, Construction House will reflect on the work and ideas of a number of influential Bauhaus Masters and Teachers, from Oskar Schlemmer, László Moholy-Nagy and Marianne Brandt to Gertrud Grunow, Johannes Itten and Paul Klee. Construction House includes archival Bauhaus material, photographs, film and original design objects, and, over the course of the six-month programme, will explore three core aspects of Bauhaus philosophy in relation to contemporary artistic practice:
Order & Limitationslooks at the creative possibilities of patterns, sequences and rules. The relationship between theory and artistic practice was fundamental to Bauhaus teaching, conveyed through a set of principles that could be applied to the production of visual art and design. Paul Klee produced instructional guidelines from his Bauhaus lectures in the Pädagogisches Skizzenbuch [Pedagogical Sketchbook], which included a series of dynamic conceptual exercises for artists to follow, some of which are reproduced in the exhibition. Inspired by Klee’s approach, Anni Albers used the strict grid of the loom as a basis for the abstract designs of her weavings and later prints and drawings, such as Do III (1973), included in the exhibition. The application of geometry and mathematical systems to choreography implemented by Oskar Schlemmer was famously realised in the Bauhaus Dances, delivered as a series of lecture dances between 1927-29, documentation of which is also included.
Leisure Time examines the potential of physical activity and play to encourage experimentation and unleash creativity, based on Johannes Itten’s teaching methods at the Bauhaus. Itten emphasised the importance of spiritual, psychological and physical wellbeing, introducing meditation and gymnastics classes into the curriculum. Movement, dance and sport were seen as methods for outwardly expressing internal experiences. Gertrud Grunow lead the ‘theory of harmonisation’ course which considered the relationships between sound, colour and movement, whilst Karla Grosch taught women’s gymnastics based on Constructivist principles, leading classes on the Bauhaus roof. Grosch’s classes are captured in the famous photographs of Bauhaus student T. Lux Feininger, a selection of which are included in the exhibition.
Radical Materials focuses on the practical workshops held at the Bauhaus, which brought together creativity and experimentation with materials with industrial manufacturing processes. The Bauhaus was founded on the principle that good design could revolutionise everyday life to create a new and better world. Workshops including carpentry, ceramics, glass, metal, graphics, photography and weaving were at the curriculum’s core. Some of the most iconic Bauhaus design objects were produced in the metal workshop led by Marianne Brandt under the guidance of László Moholy-Nagy, including the desk set, tray and coaster holder which are displayed in the exhibition. Moholy-Nagy’s experiments with materials and the movement of objects and light through space are included in the exhibition in his only abstract film, Ein Lichtspiel: Schwarz Weiss Grau [A Lightplay: Black White Gray] (1930).
100 years on from the inception of the Bauhaus, which despite its lasting influence only existed from 1919-1933, Construction House will consider how Bauhaus ideas can be applied to a fundamentally changed world. Over six months the studio holders will programme a series of participatory activities and events – including talks, performances, film screenings and practical workshops – to look at these ideas in relation to their own practice and interests in collaboration with other artists, designers and specialist manufacturers across Sheffield.
At a time when the role of artists and cultural organisations is becoming ever more important in presenting original ideas and independent thought, Construction House provides a framework for artists to explore their work and approach to artistic practice in relation to this influential movement through connections and collaborations across a broad spectrum of creative activity.
Construction House is part of Making Ways, a programme supported by Sheffield Culture Consortium through Arts Council England to showcase, celebrate and develop the exceptional contemporary visual art produced in the city. Additional support has been generously provided by The Fenton Arts Trust and The Finnis Scott Foundation.
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H2O (Human Horizons Observatory)(Residency,2019) /
H2O (Human Horizons Observatory)
19 - 26 Feb 2019
Bariloche/Buenos Aires, ArgentinaH2O (Human Horizons in Observation) is an international residency and summit programme that took place in Bariloche and Buenos Aires and that brought together scientists, artists, thinkers and cultural managers from Argentina, United Kingdom, Portugal, Switzerland and Latin America to frame, discuss and empower the field of cooperation, programs and projects that unite the arts and sciences, with the aim to outline a network of ideas and collaborations between individuals and institutions around the world.
H2O is organized by the British Council, the Art and Science Research Center of the National University of San Martín, the Secretary of Culture of Argentina, the San Martín Cultural Center and the INVAP Foundation. Its central objective is to delineate a network of ideas and collaborations between individuals and institutions around the world.
H2O's proposal is to create a fertile ecosystem to promote discussions in the transdisciplinary field of art-science, bringing together thinkers, scientists and artists with the potential to get involved in shared projects to detect global problems, outline research and production agendas and contribute with possible solutions.
An observer committee was formed, composed of the journalist specialized in science Nora Bär, the communication consultant specialized in science, technology and cultural industries Alina Membibre and the Cambridge professor Jorge Viñuales, in order to determine and evaluate to what extent the proposed objectives.
The themes of this first meeting were:- The field of art-science: state of the art.
- Art-science and education.
- Distinction between art, science and technology.
- Art-science, childhood and inclusion.
- Ethics in the field of art-science.
- Art-science and public policies.
- Anthropocene.
- Art-science, strategy models and curatorship.
Supported by Fundación Williams
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Realidades Alternativas: Toma 2(Curatorial,2018) /
Realidades Alternativas: Toma 2
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Prototype: Akasa, jhud, R. Lyle(Curatorial,2017) /
'Garrincha - Alegria do Povo (still)', Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, 1963
Prototype: Akasa, jhud, R. Lyle
5 Aug 2017
Millennium Galleries, SheffieldPrototype is a unique series of live performances, moving image works and parallel scores contributed by nationally and internationally selected guest artists and DJs. It invites audiences to welcome visuals of European machine empires, automated systems, regimented Brazilian training exercises, the welcoming of modernity in Latin American architecture and sculpture with contrasting beats and site specific performances that challenge the conventions of screening, exhibition and display, removing all limitations of audience interaction.
Prototype welcomes collaborations between Joseph Cutts, Ashley Holmes, AKASA, jhud & R.Lyle
Supported by Museums Sheffield and Making Ways, as part of the Everything Flows public programme.
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Everything Flows(Exhibition,2017) /
'Come and Go' (still), Rose Butler, 2016
Everything Flows
7 Jun - 3 Sep 2017
Millennium Galleries, SheffieldEverything Flows brings together work by emerging and established Sheffield-based artists working with painting, sculpture, video, photography and sound. The works are each united, in different ways, by a sense of ‘flow’, from choreographed movement and kinetic motion, through to the fluctuations of narrative, and the movement of international finance and migration.
Curated by Jeanine Griffin, the exhibition includes work by Paul Barlow, Rose Butler, Joseph Cutts, Natalie Finnemore, Ruth Levene, Victoria Lucas, Peter Martin, and Ryan Mosley, along with screening programmes/ events curated by Annexinema and Joseph Cutts & Ashley Holmes.
Everything Flows forms part of Making Ways, a new programme supported by Sheffield Culture Consortium through Arts Council England to showcase, celebrate and develop the exceptional contemporary visual art produced in the city.
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I Can Read With My Eyes Shut(Exhibition,2016) /
I Can Read With My Eyes Shut
20 Nov - 19 Dec 2016
S1 Artspace, SheffieldS1 Artspace is pleased to present I Can Read With My Eyes Shut; an exhibition of new commissioned work by four artists based at S1 Artspace.
In 2009, S1 Artspace established its Bursary Programme to support new graduates in their first year of professional practice. The four artists presented in I Can Read With My Eyes Shut were among the first selected and have since continued to develop their practice within the fold of S1.
Working predominantly in sculpture and collage, Emily Musgrave researches methods of display and composition. She often utilises low-value or discarded materials in works that explore their own permanence, value and substance.
Joseph Cutts examines the physicality of video medium, creating moving image works that are abstract both in their aesthetic and narrative form.
Natalie Finnemore creates sculptures that draw influence from the structural conventions of a space – line, colour and composition. The scale and volume of her works is suggestive of furniture or play-objects enticing the viewer to interact.
Working across sound and video, Peter Martin interlaces video sequences, found photographs and old TV adverts to highlight the subtleties that are integral to an overlying narrative and the constructs of our digital culture.
Supported by Arts Council England
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Three Act Structure(Exhibition,2014) /
Three Act Structure
12 Jul - 13 Sep 2014
S1 Artspace, SheffieldThree Act Structure brings together the work of S1’s Studio artists across three evolving exhibitions in the gallery over the space of nine weeks. For this project the fifteen artists have come together to re-examine the S1 Members’ show and to test out conceptual relationships inherent within the context of a group exhibition and outside the established parameters of S1’s open-plan studios. S1 artists Natalie Finnemore and David McLeavy have been commissioned for their first major collaborative work to produce a large-scale and adjustable structure that acts as a device to pull together and present new work by all the artists, including work made specifically for Three Act Structure.
The three act structure is a model commonly used in writing and storytelling that divides its narrative into three parts: the beginning, or Setup; middle, the Confrontation and the ending or Resolution.
In Act One we are introduced to the main protagonist (the modular Structure); its relationship to the other characters (the artworks); and the world in which it lives (the gallery). This exposition establishes the exhibition framework, creating a context through which each of the iterations will be read.
In Act Two the relationship between the Structure and the co-protagonists is expanded, works are re-installed with new works added, and the Structure is transformed.
The culmination presents itself in Act Three with all characters appearing simultaneously on set in their final encounter. Once again, there is a change of cast with all the artists now represented; relationships are re-visited and evaluated with the Structure adopting its final form for the Act of Resolution.
The model of the Three Act Structure allows for a re-casting to take place throughout the duration of the exhibition with visitors invited to return for the presentation of each act.
S1’s Studio artists have a diverse and distinctive approach to contemporary art practice and this exhibition therefore embraces a wide range of media including film, video and photography to installation, sculpture and performance.
Established in 1995, S1 Artspace has consistently provided affordable studio space in central Sheffield for contemporary artists at varying stages in their careers, from recent graduates to established artists working at an international level. The open-plan and shared studios allow artists to continually develop their practice in an environment that encourages and supports dialogue about contemporary art and the free exchange of ideas.
Supported by Arts Council England
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Yorkshire Festival: Tour de Cinema Film Programme(Curatorial,2014) /
'Vive le Tour' (still), 1962, Louis Malle
Yorkshire Festival: Tour de Cinema Film Programme
28 Mar to 5 Jul 2014
Yorkshire (Various Locations)The Tour de France is coming to the UK for 100 days this summer starting in Yorkshire. Sheffield Doc/Fest is proud to present the Tour de Cinema as a major strand of the Yorkshire Festival.
Programmer Joseph Cutts curates a selection of current and archived classic documentary and fiction films that highlight the literal and abstract stories of the history of cycling across the UK and Europe. The programme breaks down the fascination of cycling on screen from newly created archive sampled work Velroama (Daisy Asquith) to popular European classics as Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica), Jour de Fete (Jacques Tati), A Sunday in Hell (Jørgen Leth) to abstract films on adrenaline and exhaustion in Vive le Tour (Louis Malle) & Boy and Bicycle (Ridley Scott). The films in this programme depict the intricacies of manufacturing, the freedom of independence and the intensities at high altitudes, as person and machine is put into question in this fetishistic series of relationships.
Set to a backdrop of the countryside in open community spaces, these outdoor screening will tour across the region to National Trust heritage sites including Malham Cove, Hardcastle Crag & Gibson Mill, Nunnington Hall, Brimham Rocks, Fountains Abbey and Ravenscar.
The programme welcomes:
Bicycle Thieves
Vittorio de Sica / Italy / 1948 / 93 mins
In poverty-stricken postwar Rome, a man is on his first day of a new job that offers hope of salvation for his desperate family when his bicycle, which he needs for work, is stolen. With his young son in tow, he sets off to track down the thief. Simple in construction and profoundly rich in human insight, Bicycle Thieves embodies the greatest strengths of the Italian neorealist movement: emotional clarity, social rectitude, and brutal honesty.Supported by Criterion Collection
A Boy, a Girl and a Bike
Ralph Smart / UK / 1949 / 92 mins
Love, theft and deception causes havoc in a Yorkshire cycling club. Sam is captain of the club, and happily cycles alongside his fiancée and fellow member, Susie. This is until a passing motorist takes a fancy to her. Added to this, someone has stolen one of their bicycles. Will Sam get the bike and the girl or will he wind up in a spin?Supported by Park Circus
Bradley Wiggins: A Year in Yellow
John Dower / UK / 2012 / 72 mins
“Kids from Kilburn don’t win the Tour de France ,” asserts Bradley Wiggins. It’s late 2011, and he and his team are getting ready to attempt the impossible: A British win in the world’s most famous cycling race. Documentary maker John Dower is along for the ride, and as the celebratory adulation grows with every Wiggins win, Dower probes the prickly enigmatic man behind the myth. Wiggins’ wife Caz feels she is married to two men: a marvellous husband and the cyclist who “is a bit of a twat”. Abandoned by his father as a toddler, Wiggins naturally took to the sport which was his father’s undoing. As he heads into the gruelling tour where journalists outnumber cyclists by ten to one, Wiggins finds life in the spotlight difficult. He somehow maintains his focus to achieve the impossible dream: triumphing at both the Tour de France and the London Olympics in a spectacular summer for British sport.A Day Out
Stephen Frears / UK / 1972 / 50 mins
Alan Bennett's first television play, directed in black and white in 1972 by Stephen Frears. A charming comedy set in Edwardian Yorkshire, it follows a cycling club on a day out. A fantastic cast features Brian Glover, who was still a professional wrestler at the time, and Paul Shane, who was then a club comic.Jour de Fete
Jacques Tati / France / 1949 / 87 mins
In his enchanting debut feature, Jacques Tati stars as a fussbudget of a postman who is thrown for a loop when a traveling fair comes to his village. Even in this early work, Tati was brilliantly toying with the devices (silent visual gags, minimal yet deftly deployed sound effects) and exploring the theme (the absurdity of our increasing reliance on technology) that would define his cinema.A Sunday in Hell
Jørgen Leth / Denmark / 1977 / 111 mins
Jorgen Leth's film focuses on the 1976 Paris-Roubaix single day bike race over the cobbled farm tracks of northern France, normally reserved for cattle. Leth covers the race with twenty cameras and a helicopter and captures the drama as some of the sport's greats, including Merckx, De Vlaeminck, Maertens and Moser, battle it out through the dirt and dust clouds.Velorama
Daisy Asquith / UK / 2014 / 60 mins
Velorama, a new feature documentary film created from stunning British Film Institute archive film about a Century of the Bicycle. From the invention of the bicycle to the gruelling pursuit of Le Tour – a historical journey through a century of cycling are honoured in this specially-made new film comprised of fascinating archive materials and music. The film was commissioned to mark the arrival of the 2014 Tour de France in Yorkshire by Tour de Cinema in conjunction with Sheffield Doc/Fest.Boy and Bicycle
Ridley Scott / UK / 1965 / 27 mins
A teenage boy plays truant from school, and spends the day riding around the town and the deserted beach on his bicycle, letting his mind wander as he imagines he is the only person in the world. Boy and Bicycle is the first film made by Ridley Scott. The black and white short was made on 16mm film while Scott was a photography student at the Royal College of Art in London in 1962.From Trike to Bike
Yorkshire Film Archive / UK / 2014 / 5 mins
This is a short film which was produced in 2014 as part of the Tour de Cinema programme for the Tour de France Yorkshire Grand Depart and made entirely from archive footage held within Yorkshire Film Archive’s collections.Vive le Tour
Louis Malle / France / 1962 / 18 mins
In his short documentary Vive le Tour, Louis Malle presents his energetic evocation of the Tour de France. This, Humain, trop humain, and Place de la République, Louis Malle’s three French-set documentaries, reveal, in an eclectic array of ways, the director’s eternal fascination with, and respect for, the everyday lives of everyday people.Supported by the Yorkshire Festival
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Testing Ground: Master Class(Residency,2014) /
'Elemina' (still), Doug Fishbone, 2010
Testing Ground: Master Class
30 Jan 2014 - 6 Feb 2014
Zabludowicz Collection, LondonBuilding on the success of its debut, Testing Ground: Master Class returns in 2014, and offers a unique and free opportunity for a small group of emerging artists to work closely with leading international artists to discuss and develop their studio practice. Over the course of a week, eight young artists nominated by a nationwide group of artist-run spaces will participate in an intensive series of tutorials, workshops, reading groups, studio and gallery visits and seminars led by artist Doug Fishbone and guest artists including Marcus Coates, Ben Rivers, Lindsay Seers and Hannah Starkey as well as Zabludowicz Collection curators. In addition, each of the established artists will present an evening lecture giving participants and public a greater insight into their practice. This year’s Master Class will focus on a critical consideration around ideas of staging in relation to performative aspects of contemporary art practice alongside the physical presentation and viewing of artworks.
The emerging artists participating in the initiative have been nominated by Castlefield in Manchester, Eastside Projects in Birmingham, The NewBridge Project in Newcastle, Collective Gallery in Edinburgh, S1 Artspace in Sheffield, Spike Island in Bristol and Studio Voltaire in London. Each space was asked to identify artists for whom the opportunity to work with these tutors would be both an opportunity to consolidate their practice and give it a significant boost. In addition to having unparalleled access to internationally renowned artists, the Master Class participants are also able to build a national network of peers.
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Art Sheffield: Zero Hours Film Programme(Curatorial,2013) /
'Be Seeing You' (still), Chris Marker, 1968
Art Sheffield: Zero Hours Film Programme
4 Oct - 27 Now 2013
Art Sheffield: Zero Hours, Graves Gallery, S1 Artspace, Showroom Cinema, The Void, SheffieldTo coincide with the citywide Zero Hours exhibition programme, programme curator Joseph Cutts presents to you some of the most socially radical and cinematically provocative films from Chris Marker, Ken Loach, Berwick Street Collective and more. This programme highlights some of the most controversial and outrageous working conditions that incited rebellious formations of our recent history. We also see the view through the lens not just from the artist, but from the subject. The programme welcomes:
Arena Presents: Joseph Beuys
Christopher Swayne, Caroline Tisdall / UK / 1987 / 60 mins
Michael Maloney looks at the life and works of Joseph Beuys, one of the most prominent and controversial German artists of the past 30 years, who was a sculptor, performance artist, teacher and maverick politician, beginning his career as a Stuka pilot in the Second World War.Nightcleaners
Berwick St Collective / UK / 1975 / 90 mins
Nightcleaners was a documentary made by members of the Berwick Street Collective (Marc Karlin , Mary Kelly, James Scott and Humphry Trevelyan ), about the campaign to unionize the women who cleaned office blocks at night and who were being victimized and underpaid. Intending at the outset to make a campaign film, the Collective was forced to turn to new forms in order to represent the forces at work between the cleaners, the Cleaner’s Action Group and the unions – and the complex nature of the campaign itself. The result was an intensely self-reflexive film, which implicated both the filmmakers and the audience in the processes of precarious, invisible labour . It is increasingly recognised as a key work of the 1970s and as an important precursor, in both subject matter and form, to current political art practice.Supported by LUX
Louis Ghost Chair
Simon Martin / UK / 2012 / 20 mins
Louis Ghost Chair continues a line of subtle and engaging moving-image works by Simon Martin that meditate on particular moments and directions in art and/or design history. At the heart of many of these oblique, discursive reflections is a specific, iconic object – an item of furniture, a sculpture, or a museum piece from a particular canon or collection.Supported by Film & Video Umbrella
Be Seeing You (À bientôt, j'espère)
Chris Marker, Mario Marret / France / 1968 / 43 mins
From 1967 to 1976 Chris Marker was a member of SLON (the "Company for the Launching of New Works"). One of several groups that emerged in those years in which filmmakers, militants, and others came together on a cooperative, parallel basis, SLON was based on the idea that cinema should not be thought of solely in terms of commerce.1967 was also the year an important strike broke out at Rhodiaceta, a textile plant owned by the Rhone-Poulenc trust in the city of Besançon, France. The strike was unusual in character because the workers refused to disassociate the industrial conflict from a social and cultural agenda. The workers' demands concerned not only salary and job security, but also the very lifestyle imposed on them by society.
+Class of Struggle (Classe de lutte)
The Medvedkin Group / France / 1969 / 39 Mins
In 1967, Chris Marker and Mario Marret (under the aegis of SLON) produced A bientôt j'espère, which documented a strike and factory occupation—the first in France since 1936—by textile workers at the Rhodiaceta textile plant in Besançon, the goals of which prefigured many of the demands that would come to define May 1968.Many of the Rhodiaceta workers who had collaborated with Marker and Marret on the film were unhappy with the final production. In response, Marker and other SLON filmmakers reorganized their efforts to begin training workers to collaboratively produce their own films under the name "The Medvedkin Group", after the Russian filmmaker Marker would later memorialize in The Last Bolshevik.
"One of the most radical films produced in an era defined by radicalism, Class of Struggle reflects this will to liberation."
Supported by Icarus
The Spirit of ‘45
Ken Loach / UK / 2013 / 90 mins
1945 was a pivotal year in British history. The unity that carried Britain through the war allied to the bitter memories of the inter-war years led to a vision of a better society. The spirit of the age was to be our brother’s and our sister’s keeper. Director Ken Loach has used film from Britain’s regional and national archives, alongside sound recordings and contemporary interviews, to create a rich political and social narrative. The Spirit of ’45 hopes to illuminate and celebrate a period of unprecedented community spirit in the UK, the impact of which endured for many years and which may yet be rediscovered today.Supported by Dogwoof
Supported by Arts Council England