the whole

Just a quick one really and it's about process. I had a good meeting with Rachael on Monday and as I walked into town I was thinking that somehow we hadn't explained things well enough. How the product related to a broader process and today I have worked out that it's by talking about product and process as two different things we make them separate and distinct through language and somehow we need to get around this problem. In my mind and I suppose on the blog I've got a real disjointed clarity on how from walking through town with a rag and bone cart through to now the project is a single thing with nodes and point so just to remind us I'm going to re-post our diagram.


Kate Pahl was talking about spacial social justice today and it got me thinking again about agency and arts practice as a way of asking questions about social justice. For a long time and still to an extent I'm happy with asking questions but in the end it's important for things to have agency to enable change in some way. I think that we need to explain things better and this perhaps needs to be integral to the work. Like Paul says maybe we should set up a discussion group as part of the next bit of work. I've avoided this as it looks like Consultation which I'm not interested in been involved in but maybe we could use some of the money to pay Dennis to make some food and have a drop in. Just a thought one portion could serve 12.

I started off thinking I would try and sound posh and write something about Hegelian Dialectics and the notion of the whole as complete and indivisible - then I realised I know nothing about this but it sounds like something I should know something about.

For me the project changed on the way back on the train from the conference in liverpool and we as a group decided that the purpose of the work was to be active in trying to make SOAR works works to the best of our ability with the time and resources we have at hand. I use the word epiphany far to often but this time it sort of was one - like the meeting of the ways things began to make a lot more sense and the idea that our art could and should have a more direct social purpose and direction and still be art or maybe not be art but be something different and enabled by our position as artists.

I am really aware that this is a new skill and one of the first times that I've felt I've had a hold of the bigger and the smaller picture the meta Miso and Macro as david would say. It feels like we need to find a better way to explain this thinking with clarity - I will ask Kate to write more about the idea of been within the space I think this is what I think we need to do to occupy and dwell as artists and people in the space not as people delivering a project which is why the Ruskin idea makes sense on lots of levels

Kate Pahl thoughts

just tried to write on your blog but I got in a muddle about google accounts as I have two and one is owned by the University
So i will say what I was going to say which is the Parson cross work felt for me like a platform from which i could draw from as it was about being committed to the space and being in the space and then the ideas for the art work came from the people in the space . It is your best work I think. This is very much what was going on in East Herringthorpe.
You would love to see Liam's film will put it up now
I feel the meeting created a new shared space like the Parson Cross platform where we could move on from an understanding that the people in the space have a voice and that is valid
What i am concerned with is when voices are appopriated maybe I did this with the draws I don't know but I know the Parson Cross thing is very much what I want to do a

Thoughts

And Just on a practical level for anybody living up on Parson Cross here is an image of a breakfast from the English cafe -








I really enjoyed making and putting up the work in Parson Cross it felt ok to do it and it felt small scale and gentle and didn't aspire to change anything or engage anybody in something they didn't want to engage in it was just a small and nice thing to do, an intimate exchange. The work itself is like a picture in your house it may get changed around or go in the attic for a bit or get thrown away but in the end it's just what it is and we talked to people about it and that is that.

We could have worried about if it was enough and perhaps done something different or we could have perhaps done nothing at all and that is possibly a good question to ask - should we be there doing anything at all, should asda be there opening a massive shop should the library be moving, will any of this make anything better for anybody and does any of it matter. Possibly not in the grand scheme of things but we have chosen to try and be artists and we think that art and culture is for everybody and a need which people try and meet in all kinds of different ways and perhaps if our work is good enough we can help people to meet these needs in all kinds of different ways. I'm proud to be an artist in the world trying to make work which fits into places and has agency and draws attention to things and creates dialogues, sometimes small sometimes large sometimes personal sometimes political. I'm proud of the work in the shops and at least for this week that is enough - so as kate requested here are some more pictures.

Just a quick snap of deniz photos from when i was mounting - steve has all the photos , come on steve put some up. MADE FOR YOU.....
Was thinking about this work the other day and think that all in all this work on the estate is some of the best ive done - i dont mean as art objects necessarily, although i like them, but as the whole thing, the relationships, the conversations, the outcomes etc. good stuff.

ongoing conversation

Like we suggested at the very start exchange seems to be occuring. Maybe not directly out of the cart, but hey it was only a metaphor.

This is the conversation to date with Paul, i think its a good one for this blog, and perhaps enables to think deeply about our work and our intentions.

On 13 Jul 2011, at 16:00, paul allender wrote
Hi Kate and Steve,
Thanks for meeting me today - it was very gracious of you given that I was making some semi-critical comments on the blog!
I like what you are doing and I am inspired by the different works for each of the shops on Buchanan. I love the neon sign and the purple wig!

I've just spoken to my mum - they were thinking of going to the English cafe anyway and they'll definitely go now I've told them about it - they'll check out the pics and will be able to tell if the steel houses one is our old road. I also spoke to her about you going along to her Monday morning group. She is up for it! I'll tell you more about that later.

What I really want to say though is quite difficult to talk about - difficult to put into words that is. Its something like - the value of art is important and where art and the people of Parson X meet, exciting, disgruntling, possibly upsetting, creative things can happen and that dynamic is great. I personally love lots of art that my mum and dad would not. But that doesn't mean they are right anymore than it means I am right. Instead, a dialogue can take place which respects all. I think your idea of a discussion group is an excellent one - I would love to participate in it. Because as someone from that estate who was inspired by art and took a life trajectory that is built upon that initial inspiration, it would be beyond arrogant to think that I am one of a small number of people who did or can do this. So, I think that art is meaningful for people on the estate - and what artists do doesn't have to always be what 'the people' want.

What is coming to mind is what you said about Martin Parr, Kate. I haven't looked at his stuff for some time now - but I had never in a million years thought that the stuff I have seen was mocking working class people in any way. I have loved the stuff I've seen - it seems to celebrate the culture I come from. Talking of Martin Parr, he has worked with Graham Fellows (John Shuttleworth).
I wonder if you think he is mocking w.c. people? There is certainly an element of mocking in John Shuttleworth - but much more importantly there is a glorious celebration of Sheffield working class life. I love John Shuttleworth! Graham Fellows comes from a middle class background but his observation and empathy about white w.c. culture is fantastic!

So, cos I am going on a bit - i would never think what you are doing is 'mocking' or looking down on or anything like that. And I am not sre that you can have that much control about how other people choose to respind to stuff can you?

Just to say - I am writing this in a comradely spirit - not an oppositional one.
Gotta go now!
Hopefully speak soon....
Best,
Paulx

Thanks Paul I really enjoyed meeting you today - I have had a really good day today - it was nice seeing the work and really nice to have the very Sheffield slight smirk and "It's awright that" comment but most of all it was the kids looking at the pictures in the cafe and the guys having a laugth with Paul about his sign and just the fact that it was a bit of" somat and nowt "as my gran would say.
I'm with you on Martin Parr I've always liked his photographs - I'm not sure about John Shuttlworth however as "Two margarine's on the go - it's a nightmare scenario" and "Do you want a Nam nan" can not compare to "get the volvo vera" or the earlier classic" Gordon is a moron."
I'm sure our paths will cross and please put an application in for the small commissions
STEVE

> Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2011 20:25:51 +0100
> From: kate@kategenever.com
> To: spsheff@aol.com
> CC: paulallender@live.com
> Subject: Re: parson cross
>
> thanks paul for speaking to your mum and i would be really happy to
> meet her and her group. I hope she likes the photos.
> I suspect we are all trying to sing from the same hymn sheet [me,
> steve, you] re art, its position and its potential. I know in this
> case, meaning parson cross, i want to take people with me, i want to
> make collaboratively with them, i do not want to set myself apart -
> hence the work for the shops - something they want with a bit of us
> thrown into the mix.
> Re martin Parr - i think his work could be seen to celebrate/reveal
> the everyday life of all classes [think of those cocktail party ones
> aswell as the seaside stuff] Perhaps also like the work of Richard
> Billingham and Diane Arbus, there might have been a unmocking tone at
> the point of making - a document if you like [although im not sure of
> this and i do think they know what there doing for their own ends]-its
the final context that the work is shown in and who the
> audience the work is for that affects their meaning and therefore
> alters it. I suppose its the Gawp/Shock effect that i dont like for
> art/money ends. I think perhaps, like i said of the people laughing at
> the Mock Tudor wood on the council estate house photo, it doesnt sit
> well with me, i dont like the finger pointing, and the 'im better than
> you, what do you know' suggestions. It feels like the people are being
> used, for an artists own ends
> Anyway - perhaps we agree to disagree, its just not my cup of tea.
> No of course we cant have total control about how people respond, and
> thats what i continue to think about
> cheers and speak soon
> kate

Hi Kate,
It's great to hear from you - and I really like what you say here.
I guess it's not about Martin Parr as such - I think we have a good discussion going here and rather than agree to disagree, shall we carry on talking about it?
I would like to.
For me, I find it very difficult to write in a way that suggests potential conflict with others.
I don't want you to think I am being hostile in ANY way. I'm not.
And this is actually the first time I have had this type of discussion!
Your points raise some really important questions about the role of artists in societies - and in our case capitalist societies.
I started to think about these things when I was at art college in the second half of the 70's and it is only now that I have been able to properly talk about them!
I struggled at art college because it felt that what I was doing - and loved - had little relevance or 'usefulness' to the people on Parson Cross and indeed the people on the bus in Hull when
I travelled to college. It was difficult to love something and feel this. It felt like 'betrayal' of my class. I didn't invite anyone to my degree show - and I got into St Martin's College to do an MA in sculpture but I didn't go because I decided that art was too elitist. So I decided to study politics and sociology...

I can see this going on and on...so I'll stop now. Let me know what you would like to do. Do you want to carry on with a discussion in this way?
And YES - please put it on the blog - that would be great - I'd be happy to carry on on there.
If you have time and the inclination, it would be great to talk...!
I think you are right that we are all occupying similar terrain.

Oh and I asked my mum to say hello to you both the next time you are at the club on Tuesday night.

Best,
Paulx

Installation

Well a really nice day today although I think Like a snake who has eaten a small pig it will take me a month to fully digest my dinner. We keep saying we should write more on here but for today I think we should just have the pictures - not sure if Ruskin would approve or not.

Colley WMC

Just been looking on the internet to see if I could find any history about Colley Working Mens Club because I can't help thinking that it would be good to build on our regular pint and chat meetings there and try and build some connections with them - particularly as they are so close to the new studio site.

Anyway whilst browsing I came across Club Historians a group set up in 2008 to capture and document WMC's at a time when they are rapidly disappearing. I just had to share this amusing story which is on their website its well worth a read.

the 3 W's

I can't view David Sloan Wilson's film - apparently my computer is too old and I am working behind an administrative firewall - all of which could be mildly concerning except that the sun is shining.

I too have been thinking about the Whats, Whys and Wherefores of working in Parson Cross; the simple answer to The What might be because we, Yorkshire Artspace, are opening new artists studios bang in the middle of this neighbourhood. The Why is because we feel we should be open and accessible to the people who live there. And The Wherefores (apparently an old word used for asking why) is why would people want to be involved in what we do? Is it a bit presumptuous to think people will be interested? A lot of contemporary art turns me off and I want to know what might capture peoples interest enough to make them want to engage and do something out of their ordinary.

So this work is presenting a lot of questions but I suppose my reason for doing it is the possibility that someone might find it interesting and that it might bring a bit of something different to the ordinary...and if it we are 'capable of change [both selfishily and altruistically] depending on environment and interation with individuals' as David Sloan Wilson claims then even better.

david sloane wilson

http://fora.tv/2010/09/29/David_Sloan_Wilson_Evolving_the_City

This is a really excellent talk by a evolutionary biologist - and well worth a watch. he talks about alturism, religion and more explaining how we are of course affected by our upbringing and circumstance, but how as young adults we are plastic and capable of change [both selfishly and altruistically] depending on environment and interaction with individuals. Really interesting, if we consider the ideas in relation to any community with which we work.
I was particularly interested in the ideas about religion and religious groups and how people involved behave in relation to liberal and non religious groups. To a non religious Darwinist, brought up by people interested in science on a farm with animals and therefore in close proximity to the normal stuff like birth, life, sex and death I'm fascinated.

Ruskin

Well it's a step away from stallions - or maybe not? For some reason Ruskin is on my mind at the moment and I think I have a funny homogenized cornflake box understanding of Ruskin and in my mind it somehow connects to what we are trying to do with our work on Parson X and just my struggles with art generally. I think at heart I'm a hopeless romantic who without a god of any form looks for some sort of spirituality in the everyday. This gets wrapped up in the giant parcel of earning a living, art college training and the hope to do and be something different. So with no god I try and replace it with art - I was raised a good positivist, honed on the wheels of science and engineering taught to believe that everything was understandable if we only tried hard enough to understand it and gathered enough evidence to prove we understand it. But like a never quite believing lapsed catholic I find this world of facts and singular truths completely unsatisfying. The rock which was offered to me by my parents was always very small and was inevitably going to vanish in the floods and complexity of adulthood.

So Ruskin I will need to read more but what I feel now and before I read is that perhaps as a man who sits at the edge of enlightenment and the cusp of the false dawn of the new science offers us a way to explore whether things can mean more than they say and people can grow to be more than they are.