Artists' Aid - conceptual bullsh*t&;#063;

Conceptual bullsh*t?

It's 4 pm on Sunday 6 July 2003. In a windowless room in the
Castlefield area of Manchester, 14 people of various ages sit with rapt
expressions. On a wooden table are four mini dictation machines. They
squawk discordantly and asynchronously. There is also a plate of Jaffa
cakes, a plate of Kit Kats, and a largely neglected box of wine, but,
apart from the dictaphones, the main focus of attention is a frayed
piece of gray plastic, about the size and shape of a heron's head. Is
the squawking related to this unsettling object? If one listens
carefully the sounds emerge as human - people um-ing and er-ing - the
noises of uncertainty and indecision.

Is this the inaugural meeting of a bizarre religious sect? Is everyone
here mad? No, or maybe yes. It depends.

Conceptual art is bullsh*t, you may think. Obviously the 14 people here
would not agree. I am at the second meeting of Artists' Aid (A.a), a
self-help group for artists, most of whom are Manchester-based. It is
chaired by Sophia Crilly (of the Castlefield Gallery, where we are
meeting) and Nicola Siddons (who recently exhibited her disturbing
photographic still-lives at the Victoria Baths). As the group is yet
new the artists are introducing themselves and their work. Nicola and
Sophia have decided on a hands-off approach and the meeting
free-wheels, long discussions diverting us down interesting side-roads.
Here's a taster:

* Astoundingly imaginative Lavinia Murray (she of the distressed
plastic and sounds of hesitation) talks of the potential correspondence
between human voices and the harmonics of buildings, and of the
equipment she's designing to let one hear human voices exactly as the
speakers would hear them.

* Joe Ainsworth, young and diffident producer of cool and soothing
symmetrical and geometric abstract paintings, solicits our advice on
his artist's statement, and perhaps receives more than he bargained
for! You can find more about Joe's work here:
www.manchester2003-uk.com/arts/joe-ainsworth-local-artist.htm.

* It takes us a while to conclude that Dawn Woolley's work subverts,
rather than reinforces, gender stereotypes. Dawn photographs herself in
various garbs and roles (eager little girl, ideal mother-and-housewife,
archetypal 1950s father...), making two-dimensional dolls from these
photographs which she then places in various attitudes and
relationships in a doll's house. Finally, she photographs the results.
For more information read about her exhibition in Manchester last year
(Warsaw Project Space, Open Artists Studios, 34 George Leigh Street,
Ancoats, Manchester, M4 5DG 19.8.02 to 14.9.02,
www.david-hancock.com/warsaw_projects/3/ ), her follow-on project will,
I gather, subvert the notion of the ideal relationship.

* Robin Perko, designer-bearded and technically gifted painter, shows
us his recent sketches, as well as his older paintings of models in
period dress. Re-enactment societies apparently furnish some of his
material.

* Louise Brookes (who does long-term site-based conceptual art linked
to social intervention programmes, e.g.
www.salford.gov.uk/news/ref03068.shtm) advises Robin to stick to what
inspires him, and never to paint with only the market in mind.

* Jacqueline Wylie
(www.artists.u-net.com/rogue4-00/rogue-jacquelinewylie.htm) is either a
knitter who loves working with text, or a text artist who loves
knitting, depending on one's point of view. She elicits our opinions on
her concrete poetry, which from a distance, looks like knitting. She
explains to us that she likes reclaiming the devalued and predominantly
female activity of knitting and bringing it into the world of
art.

* Lorna Green has brought in a selection of photographs of her work
(www.lornagreen.com/sculpt.htm). These are large and very diverse
outdoor sculptures which can be seen all over the world, from Canada to
Korea, and New Zealand to the Netherlands. Successful and
well-recognised, Lorna nonetheless tells us that getting commissions
never becomes any easier - one has keep applying and not be downhearted
by rejection! A useful note on which to end the meeting, I think.

So are these artists self-obsessed wasters, churning out "conceptual
bullsh*t" for the amusement and benefit of no-one but the moneyed
chattering classes, in a world where millions of kids die for want of
clean drinking water, never mind food, housing and education? I believe
nothing could be further from the truth. The benefits of art for
children's broad academic and social progress have been demonstrated
again and again (see www.creativeartspaceforkids.org/advocacy.htm). To
take one example, children who take part in art for at least three
hours on three days of the week for at least a year are four times more
likely to be recognised for academic achievement than their peers. Art
also benefits adults. I teach English to refugees, most of whom are
extremely keen to land proper jobs and pay their way. I recently took
my students to see a couple of paintings at Manchester Art Gallery.
Their interest and delight were palpable, and evidenced by the
questions the art provoked, on British culture as well as on the
English language. In addition, if my broader experience is anything to
judge by, most politically-aware original thinkers tend either to be
artists, writers and musicians, or at least to find vital nourishment
and inspiration in these areas.

In an age when the short-term and reductionist thinking of neo-liberal
capitalism wants us all to be tabloid-reading, designer label-addicted,
conformist consumers, when education is increasingly geared merely to
producing a flexible and compliant workforce, and when the richest of
the rich pay proportionately far less tax than the rest of us (and
often have no money to spare for areas that foster creative
intelligence), art and music are, if anything, more important than
ever. So man (and "woman"!) the bastions, and book your place at the
next Artists' Aid meeting (artists_aid@yahoo.co.uk). The buzz generated
by the cross-fertilisation of original and creative minds is
exhilarating!

Oh, by the way, in case you're wondering about the little-used wine,
no, they're not teetotallers - we ended up in a bar!