Collaboration: The dark side of Multitude?
Posted: 19/06/2019
As we prepare for this weekend’s Arches Open Studios we’re looking in more detail at Saturday’s talk, Collaboration: The dark side of Multitude? We’re excited to welcome four great guests to the Arches to speak about their different experiences of collaborating within their visual arts practices. Starting at 5pm on Saturday in Arch 04, the speakers offer a mix of experience and practices.
Gemma Gore (Studio Projects Manager at ‘a space’ arts) will be chairing the discussion about creative collaboration. What does collaboration mean to the artists and curators on the panel?
Dianna Djokey
Dianna Djokey’s central practice includes community participation, learning and engagement, and developing tangible ways for communities to engage with the arts. Dianna is the Communities Curator for the John Hansard Gallery. And part of artist/curator collective Stair/Slide/Space.
Vickie Fear
Vickie Fear has recently started as Curator/Programme Manager at Aspex Gallery in Portsmouth. She also works independently as a curator and producer across the South West.
Earlier this year Vickie curated The Unknown Knowns, an exhibition of artist’s moving image for The Arts Institute at The University of Plymouth; she is currently undertaking research and development for independent curatorial projects, supported by an Arts Council England ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’ grant.
Previously, Vickie has curated exhibitions of work by Emily Speed, Dr Kayla Parker and Clare Thornton at Plymouth Arts Centre, where she was Assistant Curator until 2017. She was also one of the driving forces behind the Plymouth Art Weekender; co-organiser of Counter; and co-founder/director of Contemporary Art Membership Plymouth (or CAMP for short). As a producer Vickie has recently worked on projects including Groundwork with CAST in Cornwall, We The People Are The Work in Plymouth and Jamboree at the Dartington estate with LOW PROFILE.
Lizzie Jones
Lizzie Jones has been working with others over issues such as the arms trade, peace, the environment and homelessness and bringing her creativity as an artist into the mix and service of such situations. She has been doing ‘food not bombs’ Southampton for the last 7 years; monthly food sharing on the street which offers a platform for creative sharing, props and resource making. She has a main collaborator, Les, her partner and together they have responded with Puppet Back Up and friends and turned up at DSEI arms fair, Farnborough air show, and solidarity happenings locally. Lizzie has teamed up with other artists to imagine and forge workshops and projects that promote inclusion and empowerment and understanding through creative processes. Lizzie is based at the arches studios and works part time as a gardener.
Paul Smith
Paul Smith works with Vicky Isley in the artistic collaboration known as boredomresearch. Together they encourage meaningful connections between art, science and society to foster a growing sensitivity towards the inherent fragility of natural systems. With themes as diverse as swarm robotics, disease transmission and a cultural obsession with speed their work resides in many international collections including the British Council and Borusan Contemporary Art, Istanbul and has received worldwide attention including: BBC, TIME Magazine, New Scientist and Discovery Channel Canada. They have been invited to work in some of the world’s most advanced scientific laboratories where they endeavour to re-engage scientist with their artistic roots to create cultural expression of cutting edge research.