2nd Discussion
The second of three events for Rotor exhibition, where artists of the work can discuss their practice with an audience. The artists on this afternoon were Richard Higginbottom with his work ‘Cut, Weld’ and Richard Mulhearn with ‘Kerb’. Both photographers have made projects that represent the urban space. Chaired once again by Dr Liam Devlin, there was increase of the audience this time with around 25 participants. The seating arrangements were once again in a circle as this offers the participants to be encouraged to ask questions and debate to the artists. The format of the event was altered slightly with two responders coming in and talking about the work, essentially ‘responding’ directly to the artists. Where as at the first event the artists would talk about the work first and then acquire feedback after. The responders were Dr Sian Bonnell, a lecturer at Manchester School of Art and Adrian Davies of Leeds College of Art.
Dr Sian Bonnell started things off by looking into Richard Higginbottom’s title ‘Cut, Weld’ by analysing and reading it, implies slicing/fixing of the work which gives information on the pictures that would follow. The camera is essentially ‘slicing’ time, extracting a moment then trying to make sense and enjoy as well as consume the image that would be created. Richard’s work was a response to Michelle De Certeau’s writing of ‘Walking in the city’, here he uses the camera to explore the streets of Manchester and photograph the ambiguity/social aspects of his exploration. Dr Bonnell responds to the work by suggesting she is in the position of a detective trying to uncover something within the work. This is accomplished by the use of light/framing of the images themselves and a sense of capture by Higginbottom. However the photographs themselves are closed images, everything is there in the frame, thus the idea of feeling like a detective photographing certain parts of the city is a successful analysis. On to Richard Mulhearn’s work now ‘Kerb’, again Dr Bonnell suggested that the title implies something that runs alongside something else. However the images makes us the audience ask questions of what the camera doing. The work focuses in on humans in the urban space performing ‘ordinary’ routines to themselves of which look unordinary to us, the spectator. The viewers role is much more passive than the previous work with spaces featured are open ended. The camera reveals hidden gestures especially with its subjects performing these unordinary routines
On to Adrian Davies analysis of the work after a rather detailed response from Dr Barnell. Adrian agreed with what Dr Barnell had to say and responded by giving feedback to the artists by talking about the style of photography they had used rather than the work. He begun by stating that the work was similar to street photography in seeing and reacting to the world. However at times street photography can be seen as an aggressive and intrusive way of photographing and the work by both photographers is neither rather the exploration that one does on the streets is in the brackets of street photography. Of which the world provides endless opportunities to focus on and the ability to find something in the image that reveals itself is key to both works. Thus to be able to represent the city is a hard task for any photographer depending on the subject/context one uses to document this urban space and the social culture are rules we embrace.
Richard Higginbottom is a part time teacher at Huddersfield University and Richard Mulhearn is course leader at the same institute. Thus for their projects they were able to help each other with the edit of the photographs. The edit is the term used for sequencing within the images, seeing which photographs work with/against each other. The process can be a challenge in acquiring a right balance and getting another pair of eyes to help can be quite useful. Both photographers have created a physical/analogue copy of their work, Richard Higginbottom’s in the form of a newspaper and Richard Mulhearn’s in the form of a book. The book/newspaper is to go with the images on the wall and provide a more detailed understanding of the work to the public. Consequently especially with Higginbottom’s photographs, using the newspaper sequence one can take a journey through the city, page by page. The book creates the world on its own and allows the viewer to ask more questions thus to try make sense of the work/city. Using the newspaper format is to test ideas and with the city being this ever-changing environment, the context behind using the newspaper as a platform to test dummy books out, adds another layer to the work. The newspaper print can look/feel diluted compared to a print on the wall pinned up which feels completed yet temporary. The book concept by Richard Mulhearn’s is to create a book every 5 years around this project as it grows. So the next one may have a different colour/style/material/different images and so the book currently in Huddersfield Art Gallery is what the project is now.
After about an hour and half the event begin to draw its conclusion, however with the talk officially ending and the audience were free to leave. This meant that other members could have a chat to the artists and acquire more insight about the work, as sometimes being in a public space such as the circle seated format, can be slightly intimidating to be put on the spot and ask questions about the work of which one then becomes centre stage, so for some, talking to the photographers ‘out of the spotlight’ as it were, was beneficial to gathering extra context about the images.
The next event on the 6th April features Sarah Eyre and Layla Sailor and their theme of clichéd images of female bodies as a way to explore boundaries between objects and bodies.