Over the last few weeks have had various people from the industry come in a give a talk to us about the work they do and their work. Some of these people include Gemma Marmalade, Daniel Alexander and Katrina Sluis. Each talk differed greatly and it was good to see more diverse aspects of the photographic industry.
Gemma Marmalade was our first guest of the semester and gave a great talk. I recommend going to see her talk about here work if you ever get the chance. She was a very entertaining speaker.
Half the talk was on her material work and then she threw a spanner in the works by mentioning that some of her work was false and made up. After the point she admits that to her audience, for me, I start to doubt anything she has said or will say.
Taking this to a next level is a piece of work she made called ‘Fish Stories’ in which she created a Wikipedia page around the idea of an old Italian ritual that used to be performed on a small island. She then recreated this said ritual on the streets outside the Ceri Hand Gallery with her partner. This involved throwing bits of fish and fighting with them whilst there was an opera singer performing. Obviously most of the audience on the streets would not have a clue what was going on and she commented that she is creating a tension between what is funny and what is not.
Gemma also comments that her work is always working between two divergent elements, fact and fiction, humour and seriousness. I asked her if she ever feels guilty for creating false information and she mentioned being anxious. It could be perceived as taking advantage of people or systems but it is also similar to inventing or staging her own money shot. If she revealed herself as a liar, all her research would be false.
Daniel Alexander is a Senior lecturer and Course Director at my university, London South Bank. Daniel gave us a really insightful talk into the ideas, creation, production and publishing of his project and book, When War is Over. His book on the First World War looks at the memorials, war graves and archived documents that store the details of millions of names. It also looks at the process of war graves from sourcing the stone to military funerals.
His project grew out of another one, on typography and the processes of lettering.
At the moment, as a student, I find it weird that I would work on a project for 6 years and have it put to one side, whilst I pursue other work. It would drive me insane that the project would take that long but I also understand that there is also practical limitations to follow. It is also good to see that during the 3 years of teaching at London South Bank, Daniel has also found time to finish this project along with an MA at London College of Communication.
Katrina Sluis is the first curator of digital media The Photographers Gallery.
The Photographers Gallery was set up in the 1970s and has been exhibiting photography ever since. Katrina mentions her biggest influence and favourite person, Hans Ulrich Obrist - Serpentine Artistic Director.
Katrina is always a pleasure to listen to but I have set my sights on video and film, away from the sphere of art, at the moment but I did take away some interesting bullet points.
- Hierarchy of cultural institutions are now being challenged by digital media
- Values ascribed to certain types of media fascinated
- how do images move from one context to another, analogue to digital?
- Katrina is very knowledgable about the internet and subcultures on the internet in the 90s and works around materiality of photography
- Putting a text into the world and takes on its own life - doesn't have to be art to do this, writing is an important ingredient as on the internet it creates a chain reaction in a way, writing inspires other writing and other artworks
- The digital can be seen in a number of ways:
new avant garde tool for the new avant garde artist
new communication tool, marketing tool,
produces its own culture, has its own culture
- there is a new audience to the gallery; designers, retouchers, new digital program
- know how to get money when having your own projects, fundraising is important
- be clear when writing proposals, what you wanna do, why and how
- Photography as an artistic medium accepted into art and the gallery should think about all forms of photography, be more socially open
- most institutions want to define mediums of photography for you, you as an individual have to break this norm
I want to launch myself into the world of film and video, mainly documentaries. I believe there is some cross-over with this and art to a certain extent but all art will be scrutinised relentlessly where as tv has less tendency to do so.
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