Professional Documents
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E-Catalogue: An International Art Event With Exhibitions, Actions, Talks and Projects YORK UK, 2010
E-Catalogue: An International Art Event With Exhibitions, Actions, Talks and Projects YORK UK, 2010
e-catalogue
www.crunchtime2010.org
EXHIBITION ARTISTS: VISITING ARTISTS:
Marco BAGNOLI (Italy) FREE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Grace NDIRITU (UK) Sean (Netherlands) Karl Heinz JERON
HILLEN (Ireland) Conrad (Germany) Patrick HEALY (Ireland)
ATKINSON (UK) George FIKRY Clare CHARNLEY (UKy) with Patricia
(Egypt) Samba FALL (Senegal) AZEVEDO (Brazil)
Vitantonio RUSSO (Italy)
Icelandic ARTISTS (Iceland) Laila ASSOCIATE PROJECT:
SHAWA (Palestine) Nicholas Cath FARR (Australia)
GALANIN (Alaska) TAYLOR (UKy)
and WOOD (UK) Mario Bottinelli SPECIAL GUEST:
MONTADON (Italy) Peter DUNN Lucrezia De Domizio DURINI (Italy)
and Loraine LEESON (UK) Guy Student of Beuys thought and
WOUETE (Cameroon) Patrick International Curator
McGRATH (Puerto Rico) Graham
MARTIN (UKy) KOSELLECK and
BRANDSTIFTER (Germany) CURATOR:
Beverly NAIDUS (USA) Stephen Graham MARTIN
BAILEY (UKy) Waldo BIEN
(Netherlands) Wild PANSY PRESS NOTE:
(UKy) Abdoulaye Armin KANE EXHIBITION ARTISTS
(Senegal) Jake ATTREE (UKy) Yan Supplied works to show
Wang PRESTON (UKy) Mladen VISITING ARTISTS
MILJANOVIC (Bosnia) Were in York presenting projects
Lizz TUCKERMAN (UKy) and talks etc. (UKy) indicates the
Jung-Hua LIU (UKy) artists live or work in Yorkshire
When I conceived of Crunchtime2010 I was thinking of International and UK artists were obtained via
the current financial crisis, consumerism and its effect recommendation, existing contacts and internet
on society and individual lives. Yet this is not the only research over a three month period whilst Yorkshire
issue facing human beings but rather the one currently based artists came via an open call and selection.
occupying our attention – how to stimulate growth and Most asked said yes because they believed in the
get consumers spending and banks lending – this project. Work offered was either existing or new work
against a background of uncovered greed, financial but all had to fit with the project brief, delivery
mismanagement, credit, debt, lifestyle, climate change, specifications and resource implications. To facilitate
celebrity and spectacle, poverty and inequality, this, innovative curatorial practices such as obtaining
rampant consumerism, fragmentation of society, work via email then printing it in York were employed.
globalization and pollution etc. All of these are part
of a whole that we as individuals try to piece together Crunchtime2010 took place in York from 29th January –
and make sense of, and represent a network of issues 6th February 2010 and involved two gallery spaces and
regarding world and societal organisation. special projects in the city’s streets and sites. Gallery
One was at New Schoolhouse Gallery and Gallery Two
Asking for artists’ responses to the global issues was at 5 High Petergate with special events and exhibitions
shorthand for how we as artists and human beings at New Walk, City Screen and Hungate.
view what’s going on, what strikes us, what interests us
creatively and how we express our experience of living The event was an independent art initiative funded by
in all this. Requesting such from artists from around the Arts Council England, City of York and Creative York. Its
world also offered the possibility of sharing and learning budget was small for its ambitions, and its success was
about life and conditions elsewhere. due to the generosity of participating artists and the
hard work of a few. This catalogue of events is a
The whole event was designed to offer a mirror to the snapshot of what happened.
issues we all face in relation to ‘the how and why of
living’ (Robert Hughes) and provide a snapshot of Graham Martin
voices contained in artwork on the issues of living in Curator
the early 21st century.
EXHIIBITION ARTIST / 05
MARCO BAGNOLI
(ITALY)
Marco Bagnoli is one of the great artists of Italian
Contemporary Art who has worked for more than 30
years in the international field. He has participated
three times in Documenta and four times in the Venice
Biennale. His works are placed in International Museums
and in important private and international collections.
www.marcobagnoli.com
GRACE NDIRITU
(UK)
Grace Ndiritu was born in 1976 in Birmingham and lives
and works in London. She studied at Winchester School
of Art, London and De Ateliers, Amsterdam, and had a
residency at Delfina Studios, London, 2004-2006. Her
‘hand crafted videos’ and ‘video paintings’ have been
widely exhibited at venues and events worldwide
including The International Centre for Photography in
New York (2009), Dakar Biennale, Senegal (2008),
Chisenhale Gallery, London (2007), and the 51st Venice
Biennale (2005).
www.axisweb.org/artist/gracendiritu
WORK SHOWN: My Blood Self: Civilizations Part 1 (2008)
MEDIA: Video
EXHIBITION ARTIST / 07
SEAN HILLEN
(Ireland)
Sean Hillen lives and works in Dublin. His photomontage
work in the1980's, based on his documentary
photographs, tried to express the complex and
conflicting experiences of growing up in the Northern
Ireland conflict. His major work, the official Memorial to
the 31 dead of the Omagh Bomb exposed him to the
unresolved underside of politics and conflict – where
‘inadmissible’ aims may excuse unforgivable acts. The
death of an acquaintance in the London bombings in
2005 further caused him to research and question the
'official story'.
CONRAD ATKINSON
(UK)
Conrad Atkinson is known internationally for his
groundbreaking artistic work on pneumoconiosis,
landmines, the thalidomide drug and asbestos related
diseases. He first visited Northern Ireland in 1971 when
his work on the deployment of British soldiers was
banned from being shown at the Ulster Museum after
attendants, backed by the museum’s trustees, refused
to hang the work. Since 1992 he has held the post of
Professor of Art at the University of California at Davis
(currently Professor Emeritus). Conrad Atkinson is
represented by Ronald Feldman Fine Art New York.
He is also an Honorary Fellow at the University of
Cumbria.
GEORGE FIKRY
(Egypt)
Born in Cairo where he is Professor in Art Education at
Helwan University. As an artist Fikry specialises in digital
and photographic media and has shown at the 10th
Cairo International Biennale and Venice Biennale 52.
SAMBA FALL
(Senegal)
Samba Fall, born in Senegal in 1977, studied Fine Arts
and Animation in Senegal as well as Norway. He now
lives and works in Oslo, Norway.
The painter and video artist belongs to the generation
of African artists who have been exploring the
possibilities of digital media from their beginnings.
He uses the creative freedom provided by digital
animation in order to examine and reflect upon human
behaviour. His socio-political art not only deals with
issues particular to Africa, but also touches on questions
of global relevance.
www.sfall.com
EXHIBITION ARTIST / 11
VITANTONIO RUSSO
(Italy)
Lives and works in Bari Italy. An economist and artistic
operator, he met Joseph Beuys on several occasions
and has participated in two Venice Biennales. His
artwork is in private and public collections and the
volume, ‘Vitantonio Russo – Economic Art’ is published
by Sivava Editoriale Milan 2007
LAILA SHAWA
(Palestine)
A native of Gaza, Laila Shawa is an oil painter, a silk
screen artist, and an illustrator of children’s books. She
studied in Cairo and in Austria with Oskar Kokoschka
and has exhibited throughout the Middle East, in
England and in the United States. She lives in London.
www.lailashawa.com
14 / EXHIBITION ARTIST
NICHOALS GALANIN
(Alaska)
Born in Alaska, Galanin is a contemporary indigenous
artist who studied in London and New Zealand. He is
foremost a contemporary artist whose work though
informed by his cultural origins is not solely defined by
them, rather it is a dialogue between traditional and
modern worlds. His work embraces carving, painting,
video and sculpture – with the concept suggesting the
medium.
www.nicholasgalanin.com
www.wildpansypress.com
16 / EXHIBITION ARTIST
GUY WOUETE
(Cameroon)
Born in Cameroon, Wouete is currently living in
Amsterdam as a Research Fellow in Fine Art at the
Rijksakademie.
www.retabloarts.com
GRAHAM MARTIN
(UK)
Born in Birmingham and brought up in Blackpool,
Martin lives in York and has exhibited in Russia,
Germany and across the UK. His work includes
mapping, pharmaceutical based artworks, actions
and interventions, and installation.
www.koselleck.de www.brand-stiftung.net
22 / EXHIBITION ARTIST
BEVERLY NAIDUS
(USA)
Over the past three decades, Beverly Naidus’ art has
dealt with socially engaged themes including
unemployment, racism, environmental illness, body-
hate, nuclear war and consumerism. Her mediums
have ranged from interactive site-specific installations to
digitally rendered artist’s books. Her work has been
exhibited internationally in museums, alternative spaces,
university galleries and on the streets. Since 2003 she
has been on the faculty of the University of Washington
Tacoma. She is the author of Arts for Change: Teaching
Outside the Frame (New Village Press, 2009).
ALSO EXHIBITED:
Monstrous
MEDIA:
Inkjet print
EXHIBITION ARTIST / 23
STEPHEN BAILEY
(UKy)
Based in Wensleydale in North Yorkshire, Bailey has
exhibited widely across the UK. Although his work varies
in scale and material, the underlying theme is about
exploring our attitudes to the world we live in.
Fundamental to this is a feeling that the Earth isn’t as
fragile as some make out; what is fragile is its ability to
support humankind, and that our ignorance may lead
us to destroy it.
WALDO BIEN
(Netherlands)
Waldo Bien was a master-student of Joseph Beuys at
the Düsseldorf Art Academy, 1970-76. He is a founding
director of the Free International University (F.I.U.),
Amsterdam, and his work, which draws on
anthropology and ethnography, has been exhibited at
major galleries around the world. A full study of his work
by Patrick Healy was published by Wienand in Köln, for
his show at the Ruhrfestspiel, Recklinghausen, 2000.
www.wildpansypress.com
26 / EXHIBITION ARTIST
JAKE ATTREE
(UKy)
Born in York in 1950, Attree has a studio at Dean Clough
in Halifax and lives in West Yorkshire. He has exhibited
widely over the years and produced work on a
consistent basis. His work is held in public and private
collections and is represented by the Hart Gallery in
London.
www.yanpreston.com
EXHIBITION ARTIST / 29
MLADEN MILJANOVIC
(Bosnia)
Living and working in Bosnia, Mladen Miljanovic is an
intensely political artist working in installation and video.
He is represented by the Anje Wachs gallery in Berlin.
In relation to ‘So much money So much art’ I want my Instructions for presentation and use:
work to be worth as much as people invest money in it. • Sentence written with coins on floor
• Sentence parallel with wall
www.mladenmiljanovic.com • People are allowed to remove or add coins
• Work is art piece as long as one coin on floor
30 / EXHIBITION ARTIST
LIZZ TUCKERMAN
(UKy)
Lizz Tuckerman constructs eclectic experimental pieces
using digital imagery, video, objects, drawings and
sound. Some of her work is influenced by her long
association with biomedical research. Lizz Tuckerman
lives in Sheffield, and is currently co-organizer of the
arts /science network Hybrid.
JUNG-HUA LIU
(UKy / Taiwan)
Born in Taiwan, Liu currently lives in London and is
studying for a PhD in Wi-Fi landscapes and Cyborg
Identity at the University of Leeds.
www.fiuamsterdam.com
ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE / 7000 OAKS / 33
plants and their ability to produce oxygen from carbon remain confined within their stupidity and to give no
dioxide and sunlight, our own life on this planet would consideration to the intelligence of nature, and if they
after all not exist. To conclude my address, I would like refuse to show any tendency to enter into cooperation
to quote from a speech and discussion that Joseph with nature, then nature will turn to violence to force
Beuys gave in May 1984 in the Italian town of human beings to take a different course. We're at a
Bolognano, where Beuys, together with his friends the point at which we have to make a decision. Either we
Baroness Lucrezia de Domizio and Baron Buby Durini of do it, or we don't. If we don't we'll be faced with
FIU Italy, had begun 7000 Trees Bolognano. This project enormous catastrophes all over this planet. Cosmic
created according to the principle of DIFESA DELLA intelligence will turn against humankind. But now, for a
NATURA called for the planting of seven thousand trees certain period of time, we still have the possibility of
and scrubs of different species as an arboretum to making a free decision and of deciding to take a
protect and work with threatened plants as a long term course that's different from the course we've traveled in
work of anthropological art extending over generations. the past. We can still decide to bring our own
In Bolognano Joseph Beuys said: intelligence into line with the intelligence of nature.
(Bolognano, Italy, May 13th 1984)
If we don't respect the authority, or the genius, or the
intelligence of the tree, the tree has so much For the tree planting Graham Martin and the FIU
intelligence that it can decide to telephone a message Amsterdam raised auspicious Tibetan prayer flags over
about the sad state of humankind. The tree will give a the site of the new monument and recited the Short
call or two to the animals, to the mountains, to the Ritual of Raising the Wind Horse under the flags – may
clouds, to the rivers; it will decide to talk with the power all be auspicious!
of geology, and if humankind fails, nature will take
terrible revenge, most terrible revenge, and this will be
an expression of nature's intelligence and an attempt to
bring people back to clear reason by means of
violence. If people have no other choice than to
36 / VISITING ARTIST
PATRICK HEALY
(Ireland)
Patrick Healy is best known for his live reading
performance of Finnegans Wake by James Joyce,
issued as a 20 CD set in 1991, and released by Rennicks
Auriton Publishing and the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
He has published extensively on contemporary artists
practice, was a Professor at the Free International
University, Amsterdam and has participated at the
Venice Biennale. He recently published a volume
entitled The Model and its Architecture, 010 Rotterdam.
With writer Hilarius Hofstede he founded and
contributed to the magazine Paleo Psycho Pop.
www.fiuamsterdam.com
WORK SHOWN: Patrick Healy reading to a tree (2010)
ARTIST’S TEXT / 37
www.patriciaaezevedo.com
VISITING ARTIST / 39
www.khjeron.de
WORK SHOWN: Karl Heinz Jeron teach-in, York
40 / SPECIAL GUEST
We are living at an historical moment when the virus of man, homo, comes from the word humus which
power has created an army of people who are signifies earth. Now we are committing an epochal
engaged not only in the destruction of myth, fantasy, suicide. Every day, we are setting ourselves with
belief in utopia, and dreams, but who are concerned violence and pride against the earth. Every day we are
with transforming freedom into a species of democratic destroying our Home. We need to become clear in
authority. ourselves, clear about human values. We have to
produce for our future a plan of life, a Project.
Today we find ourselves in a state of profound crisis,
which is worldwide. It is a multidimensional crisis, which In this phase of re-evaluation and of cultural
touches on every aspect of life: our physical, mental renaissance, rebirth, it is important that we minimise the
and spiritual health and our very means of subsistence conflicts and the discords that inevitably accompany a
– food as the support of our physical bodies, and major period of social change, to make the transition as
communication as the nourishment of social thought, painless as possible. It is not sufficient to conduct
the quality of the human sphere and human relations. polemics and attacks against particular social groups,
The crisis is moral, intellectual and spiritual. It is not just a institutions, or persons, rather to show how their
crisis in terms of technology, politics and culture, or, of behaviour and allegiances reflect a system based on
individuals, institutions, and governance, but is a crisis life denying values which has by-passed the truth of
on a planetary dimension. being. Only in this way can we approach a cultural
and pacifist transformation. It needs to be
It is a time that requires a profound reconsideration of demonstrated and recognised and made public that
all our values, our presuppositions and the entire system the fact of our social mutation and change is both
of culture. A refusal of values that are only based on vaster and more inevitable than is thought.
‘use value’ brings us to recognise the values we have
abandoned from preceding periods of our historical Through action the artist has an enormous role to play
cultural development. in this social transformation. The responsibility of the
artist is to point up what is in essence necessary. This is a
To think of the Earth is not to think of it as just an object. power to shape the form of society. This is a task for the
It is unique, and the common home of all mankind, a artist because art grows out of what society condemns,
living system which produces benefits for all those excludes, overlooks and forgets.
whom inhabit there. We are not just beings who live on
the earth – we are ourselves Earth. The word in Latin for A lot of contemporary painters just trace a few lines
42 / SPECIAL GUEST
and make objects without rhythm, without reason, or path of profit, with its two cul de sacs Power and Image.
any vitality – as if to say ‘ it is not important whether the Modern man is mutilated, an enemy to himself. Marx
work is consonant with things or not’ – other artists defined it as ‘alienation’, Freud as ‘ repressed’. Man
adopt a new language: video, photography, computers today has lost that ancient state of harmony, which
without thought, and others seek to copy nature could lead his soul in the words of Dante to the ‘love
faithfully, and the further they are from spirituality the which moves the sun and other stars’.
more they force themselves in that direction. Neither is
right. If we ask what has led to all of this, I think it is that
contemporary man has cancelled in his life ‘respect for
The artist is the one who positions art to align itself with time’. There is nothing more precious than time. It is time
the central function of our life, a function which which allows us to discover our identity, and thus to tell
changes the way we live our lives, how we think, how the truth about who we are, thus Time is the Truth of
we see things. It is a dynamic process of change, and man.
of learning in a radical way, and it never ends. The
intellectual zone in which the artist operates plays an Nothing else belongs to us as completely as time, it is
important role in the running and evolution of time, a our unique inheritance, and in our consumer society of
role which illuminates minds that have been confused rapid consumption, modern man thinks he loses
or are obfuscated, the role of art and its secret is to something of his time if he does not do things in haste.
show the path to those who are lost on the way. But none of this to-ing and fro-ing has anything to do
with the reality of time, which Hegel called the Zeitgeist,
The artist has to be in the service of society today to the Spirit of the Age. This Spirit is the one which marks
create a better human life. I believe that there is in everything, it is common to religion, to politics, social
every human being a natural tendency for complete ethics, the juridical system, but also to science,
development, which we could call the tendency to technological capacity, and most of all to art, and art
actualisation, something present in all living organisms, has the task of guiding the human to direct contact
and which is the basis for any approach based on the with this source of creative energy, to resist the pressures
person. This is what has to be worked on and of the world, to spiritualise the whole of life.
understood, the real motivation of human activity.
Art is an alternative and free form of human existence,
The times we live in are immensely complex with regard it is the place of what is essential and of the absolute
to human values. There is a confusion at the level of tensions where the artists does not just reproduce the
discourse, and a spouting of materialistic tendencies visible, but renders the invisible through the various
that indicate there is only one way, one path, that is the languages of his own soul.
SPECIAL GUEST / 43
Aristotle in his logic analysed the formal structure of The market, which wants to put a price on everything,
thinking, independent of its content. This uniting of cannot come to terms with the fact that art is not an
abstraction and precision was to be recognized to the economic ‘value’, and cannot be thought of only in
end of Greek philosophy as an immense contribution to that way. The market tries to put a price on art, but has
the clarification and creating of our order of method of no grasp of true values. The truth of the market is pure
thinking. It created effectively the basis of scientific nihilism, a totalitarian and violent force that brooks no
language. defence. The market spawns people with no
knowledge of art who try to manipulate the record, to
Humans have an essential faculty for language which create exigencies for their own interest, to create a star
finds different modes of expression and which is the system.
ability to stabilize a relation between an idea and a
sign, be it a sound, a gesture, a figure or a drawing. One can recall now, thirty years on, the words of Beuys
Lacan says language is not there just to inform, but to in his pleading for an alternative, December 23 1978.
evoke. In that sense the artist chooses by their creative There were three fundamental points in his call for an
expression the appropriate language, which has a alternative: one the general symptom of the crisis of the
capacity to indicate the essential concept of their times of our society takes the form of Capitalism or
artistic research. Communism. Secondly there is a total need to recover
intellectual autonomy, to create a radical and
Thinking is the fundamental language of the human innovative new reality, and to leave behind those ideas,
and of the human-artist, and this can when rightly which impede our ability for revolution, change. The
developed become a message for universal culture. only true revolution being that of our idea, and it is a
The true mission of the artist of this century is the revival complete error to think that such change is to be born
of the living spirit. The international joining of artists to of violence. The third point for Beuys was the question of
create a sane and thoughtful communication with unity in diversity, the need for co-operation, to create
respect to social re-birth, economic renovation and real zones of alternative action.
cultural renaissance is the task of our time.
For Beuys the authentic evolution and revolution will be
Nature cannot be dealt with as we deal with our cities, a correct economy based on the principles of
the countryside, and the entire planet. The artist must education, human capacity and needs. The separation
estrange himself from the values of consumption, and of economy and culture is a disaster, for Beuys the
reflect on the spiritual depth of man and nature, to research must be in the area of production, the place
have courage, to love reality. where distribution and consumption, in the economy. In
understanding this one also grasps the real productive
44 / SPECIAL GUEST
GRAHAM MARTIN
(UKy) with YORK ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST
CATH FARR
(Australia)
Brighton based photographer and theatre designer
IMAGES – CLOCKWISE
FROM TOP LEFT:
Crunchtime preview
at Gallery 1, Waldo
and visitors in FIU
space, FIU project
space, and Emily
Harvey our knitting
project assistant and
invigilator at Gallery 2
CRUNCHTIME IMAGES / 49
IMAGES – CLOCKWISE
FROM TOP LEFT:
www.crunchtime2010.org
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS / 51
CURATOR: Graham Martin An event such as Crunchtime2010 could not take place
An artist and curator, previously responsible for the without the support, help and belief in the project from
York Muenster Visual Arts Festival (Yomu) in 2007. artists, galleries, arts administrators and curators around
This showcased the work of 42 local and regional the world.
artists from the cities and included professional
development training within it. The Guildhall in York CRUNCHTIME WOULD LIKE TO THANK:
was transformed into artist’s studios, an exhibition Conrad Atkinson, Peter Boardman, John Oxley, Robert
area and a café, whilst late night projections and and Paula at New Schoolhouse Gallery, Raney Bench
site-specific projects took place across the city. at the Abbe Museum USA, City Centre Management
Crunchtime2010, though a development of this, York, Lucrezia De Domizio Durini, Dr Christa Paul, Loraine
specifically came out of an individual Arts Council Leeson, Doug James, York Archaeological Trust, City
grant to research showing and meeting artists in Screen York, The Lord Mayor of York, City of York Parks
Amsterdam and Berlin in 2009. In the future I would and Open Spaces, Bryan Eccleshall, Graham and
like to focus on exhibitions and trans-national Brown Wallpapers, Dayfield Graphics, Ben Hudson at
collaborations. www.g-martin.net Hudson Moody, Dave Dees Removals York, Sightsonic
Digital arts festival York, and Witzenhausen Gallery
CRUNCHTIME DESIGNER: Mode Amsterdam & New York.
Mode was founded in Edinburgh in 1993 by Doug
and Ali James and relocated to York in 2001. Doug Many thanks also to all the participating artists without
studied under Gert Dumbar (of Holland's Studio whose generosity there would be no event and no art.
Dumbar) at the Royal College of Art.
Contact 01904 654657 www.modedesign.tv Financial support was given by Arts Council England
and the City of York Council whilst Creative York
DURING CRUNCHTIME: funded the website.
Project assistants: John Oxley and Emily Harvey
Volunteers: Andy Q and Stephanie Spence-Martin