Many thanks to everyone who came along to our events in February. We’re thrilled to welcome Eva Ruschkowski as the new Symposium book club coordinator. A very special to thanks to her for facilitating the book club on Claire Bishop’sArtificial Hells last month.
This Friday, 8 March, 7-9pm we’re discussing the chapter on Easter Island in Jared Diamond’s book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive. This book club will be facilitated by Tere Chad and Alter Us. Please follow the links for more info, to download the text and book your place. If you would like to facilitate the book club in future please visit the page for more info and come along to get involved.
Many thanks to everyone who came along to the launch of the Radical Pedagogy Reading Group. It was great to hear about everyone’s practice and particular interest in radical pedagogy and alternative art education. There was such a diversity of perspectives and questions, we’re very excited at the prospect of collaborating and learning together. The next session will take place on 24 March, 2-4pm at the Alternative Art School Weekender, a three-day festival and art school organised by TOMA (The Other MA) at Ugly Duck from Fri to Sun, 22-24 March. We’ve put an excellent programme together, check out the website for more details and come along.
On Saturday, 23 March, 12-4pm we’re running a collaborative DIY workshop at the festival to collect ideas on How To Start Your Own Art School in a handy and entertaining guide. Come along with your tips, ideas, stories, anecdotes, advice and full-blown manifestos! We will use all kinds of techniques, including collage, drawing, calligraphy and cut up poetry to produce A6 zine (105mm x 148mm). Materials and tools will be provided but you are welcome to bring your own. If you can’t come along to the workshop you can send your readymade page beforehand to info@artandcritique.uk.
The art crawl is back this month, join us on the last Saturday to view and discuss three artists’ films from Mayfair to Fitzrovia with Eva Ruschkowski. For more details and to book your place please follow the links.
[ART&CRITIQUE] WORKSHOP How To Start Your Own Art School Saturday, 23 March 2019, 12-4pm
Ugly Duck, 49 Tanner St, London SE1 3PL
Alternative Art School Weekender 22-24 March All welcome
[ART&CRITIQUE] RADICAL PEDAGOGY RESEARCH & READING GROUP What is alternative art education?
Sunday, 24 March 2019, 2-4pm
Ugly Duck, 49 Tanner St, London SE1 3PL
Alternative Art School Weekender 22-24 March All welcome
[ART&CRITIQUE] ART CRAWL Mayfair to Fitzrovia: Joy, Dance, Magic Saturday, 30 March 2019, 13:45 – 17:00
Meet 13:45 at Lévy Gorvy, 22 Old Bond St, Mayfair, London W1S 4PY
Curated by Eva Ruschkowski
Free, booking via Eventbrite
[OPPORTUNITIES & ANNOUNCEMENTS] March 2018
The list of opportunities,
open calls, deadlines,
announcements & vacancies
is updated regularly.
IMAGE CREDITS Flyer for SYMPOSIUM#34 Jared Diamond: Collapse, by Tere Chad. Sophia Kosmaoglou [2017] Art Skool Co-op Poster. Workshop, First Alternative Education Open-Day 2017. Photo by School of the Damned. Flyer for ARTCRAWL#16 Mayfair to Fitzrovia, by Eva Ruskowski. Philip Guston [1973] Painting, Smoking, Eating. Oil on canvas, 196.8 x 262.9 cm.
Hope you had a chance to enjoy the sun and recharge your batteries over the summer! We have an exciting season of events ahead with many opportunities to get involved and help build a self-organised alternative art school.
Today Monday, 3 September is the last chance to apply for the Critical Theory in Contemporary Art Practice Bursary for a free place on the course. Please download the application form and return it by midnight tonight.
Join us on Saturday, 29 September for the second installment of the Deptford Art & Gentrification Walk. Meet at 1pm inside Deptford Railway Station for an afternoon of discussions on the relationship between art and gentrification.
On 26 October 2018 we have a general meeting to discuss the future of the book club and nominate a new coordinator. Please come along if you’d like to help run the book club, decide how it works and keep it going. We will also be discussing a new research and reading group on radical pedagogy, alternative art education and self-organisation leading to the launch of a self-organised studio programme in 2019.
If you were subscribed to the symposium discussion list and have been removed due to the new GBPR policies please get in touch to rejoin the list.
We’re helping to raise money for a legal challenge of Lewisham Council’s decision to demolish the community-run Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden and the council homes of Reginald House as part of a regeneration scheme of the Old Tidemill site in Deptford. Please donate so we can Save Tidemill, Save Reginald! or come along and get involved in the campaign.
[ART&CRITIQUE] BURSARY Critical Theory in Contemporary Art Practice Bursary
DEADLINE Monday, 3 September 2018
Deptford Lounge, 9 Giffin Street, London SE8 4RJ
Tutor Sophia Kosmaoglou Please click the link for more info
[ART&CRITIQUE] ART CRAWL Deptford Art & Gentrification Walk Pt. 2 Saturday, 29 September 2018, 13:00 -18:00
Meet 1pm inside Deptford Railway Station, London SE8 3NU
Curated by Sophia Kosmaoglou and Paul Clayton All welcome, booking not required
[ART&CRITIQUE] COURSE Critical Theory in Contemporary Art Practice 8 Oct–3 Dec 2018, 6:30pm-9pm & 27 Oct 2:30pm-5pm
Deptford Lounge, 9 Giffin Street, London SE8 4RJ
Tutor Sophia Kosmaoglou Booking via Eventbrite
[ART&CRITIQUE] MEETING General Meeting
26 October 2018, 18:30-20:30
LARC, 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES
Closest stations: Whitechapel / Aldgate East All welcome
[OPPORTUNITIES & ANNOUNCEMENTS] September 2018
The list of opportunities, open calls, deadlines, announcements & vacancies is updated regularly.
If you would like to post your listing for open calls, opportunities or vacancies on the list please send us the details.
IMAGE CREDITS Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden, Deptford. Photos by Sophia Kosmaoglou. Patrick Mimran [2004] Billboard Project, New York. Photo by Sophia Kosmaoglou. Stanford’s Library Map of London & its Suburbs 1864, showing proposed Metropolitan Railways (detail). Chartist Meeting on Kennington Common, 10 April 1848. Photo by William Kilburn. Philip Guston [1973] Painting, Smoking, Eating. Oil on canvas, 196.8 x 262.9 cm.
We’re taking a break in August but we’re back on on Saturday, 29 September for the second installment of the Deptford Art & Gentrification Walk. Meet us at 1pm inside Deptford Railway Station for an afternoon of discussions on the relationship between art and gentrification.
The Critical Theory in Contemporary Art Practice Bursary is a fee-waiver awarded to one applicant who will benefit most from participating in the course, regardless of previous experience, background or education. To apply please download the application form and return it by Monday, 3 September 2018.
Have a great summer!
UPCOMING EVENTS
[ART&CRITIQUE] BURSARY Critical Theory in Contemporary Art Practice
DEADLINE Monday, 3 September 2018
Deptford Lounge, 9 Giffin Street, London SE8 4RJ
Tutor Sophia Kosmaoglou Please click the link for more info
[ART&CRITIQUE] ART CRAWL Deptford Art & Gentrification Walk Pt. 2 Saturday, 29 September 2018, 13:00 -18:00
Meet 1pm inside Deptford Railway Station, London SE8 3NU
Curated by Sophia Kosmaoglou and Paul Clayton All welcome, booking not required
[ART&CRITIQUE] COURSE Critical Theory in Contemporary Art Practice 8 Oct–3 Dec 2018, 6:30pm-9pm & 27 Oct 2:30pm-5pm
Deptford Lounge, 9 Giffin Street, London SE8 4RJ
Tutor Sophia Kosmaoglou Booking via Eventbrite
[OPPORTUNITIES & ANNOUNCEMENTS] August 2018
The list of opportunities, open calls, deadlines, announcements & vacancies is updated regularly.
If you would like to post your listing for open calls, opportunities or vacancies on the list please send us the details.
IMAGE CREDITS UK Commons Assembly, organised by Public Works and Commons Rising. Tate Modern, Jul 2018. Photo Darshana Vora. Patrick Mimran [2004] Billboard Project, New York. Photo Sophia Kosmaoglou. Robert Mapplethorpe [1988] Sepia Orchid from the series Flowers. Toned photogravure, 50 x 51 cm. Stanford’s Library Map of London & its Suburbs 1864, showing proposed Metropolitan Railways (detail). Philip Guston [1973] Painting, Smoking, Eating. Oil on canvas, 196.8 x 262.9 cm.
We got the autumn season off to a great start last weekend! Thanks to Anca Baciu and Mandy Wong for curating, and to everyone who came along on the art crawl from Marylebone to South Kensington on Saturday. We started off with Allora & Calzadilla at the Lisson Gallery, where we wondered how the exhibition lives up to the political critique in the press release. Looking at Wade Guyton‘s work at the Serpentine, we wondered how the large-scale digital prints on stretched canvas or digital prints arranged in display cases are “pioneering painting techniques that explore the impact of digital technologies”. We more or less came to the conclusion that this could be justified by referencing the work’s engagement with formalist concerns such as flatness, surface, illusion etc. We got utterly exhausted by the V&A LGBTQ Tour, which was delivered with energy and enthusiasm. We unanimously applauded this excellent initiative, but were disappointed at the emphasis on anecdotal stories about celebrities.
Many thanks to School of the Damned for inviting is to the First Alternative Education Open Day! It was a privilege to be part of this excellent landmark event together with other alternative art schools. We covered a lot of ground in a relentless series of workshops, met new people, exchanged ideas, played games and had a great time. Many thanks to Maria Christoforatou for preparing and facilitating our workshop, we collected participant responses and we’re putting those together to share. In the meantime you can download the handout with A4 poster.
[SYMPOSIUM] BOOK CLUB Foucault: Of Other Spaces
Sunday, 15 October 2017, 1:30pm – 4:00pm
Yurt Café, St. Katharine’s Precinct, 2 Butcher Row, London E14 8DS
Facilitated by Dasha Loyko Free, booking via Eventbrite
Our next event is the book club on Michel Foucault’s essay Of Other Spaces, facilitated by Dasha Loyko and hosted at Unison, a former lifeboat turned project space by Anastasia Freygang “to create a shifting pocket of inquiries”. We’re meeting at Yurt Café, located next to Limehouse station before we walk to the boat moored nearby. For more information, to download the text and book your place please visit the page.
[OPPORTUNITIES & ANNOUNCEMENTS] OCTOBER 2017
The list of opportunities, open calls, deadlines, announcements & vacancies is updated regularly.
If you would like to post your listing for open calls, opportunities or vacancies on the list please use the contact form to send us the details.
IMAGE CREDITS ART SKOOL CO-OP. Poster by Sophia Kosmaoglou. [SYMPOSIUM] #20 Foucault: Of Other Spaces. Flyer by Dasha Loyko. Daniel Clowes [1991] Art School Confidential. Eightball #7, Nov 1991.
After a packed season of events and shared activities with alternative art schools we enjoyed the summer alright! Read the bulletin on our adventures and find out about some of the places and faces of the alternative art education movement.
Now we’re looking forward to autumn rituals, open days, book fairs, art affairs, bonfires and getting together with warm cups of tea to exchange ideas, make decisions and change the future of art education.
On Saturday, 30 September we’re joining Mandy Wong and Anca Baciu for a crawl from Marylebone to South Kensington. We’re looking forward to some interesting discussions when we visit exhibitions by Allora & Calzadilla at Lisson, Wade Guyton at the Serpentine, and wrap up with the V&A LGBTQ Tour.
On Sunday, 1 October we’re getting together for an exciting array of workshops at School of the Damned’sFirst 100% Official Unofficial Alternative Education Open-Day! If you want to come along, get involved or help out please see below for more details.
[ART&CRITIQUE] ART CRAWL Marylebone to South Kensington
Saturday, 30 September 2017, 1:45pm – 5pm
Meet 1:45pm at Lisson Gallery 27 Bell Street London NW15BY
Curated by Anca Baciu and Mandy Wong All welcome, booking not required
We’re contributing to School of the Damned’s Open Day with a participatory workshop on alternative art education and we need your help! If you want to come along, get involved or help out please get in touch by responding to this email or just meet us at Set Space on 1 October at 11am. This is a 30 minute workshop, scheduled to start at 1pm.
[OPPORTUNITIES & ANNOUNCEMENTS] SEPTEMBER 2017
The list of opportunities, open calls, deadlines, announcements & vacancies is updated regularly.
If you would like to post your listing for open calls, opportunities or vacancies on the list please use the contact form to send us the details.
IMAGE CREDITS [ARTCRAWL] #13 Marylebone to South Kensington. Flyer by Mandy Wong. Sean Roy Parker [2017] HOW TO SELF-ORGANISE. Daniel Clowes [1991] Art School Confidential. Eightball #7, Nov 1991.
ART&CRITIQUE was a peer-led and volunteer-run alternative art education network dedicated to critical engagement with art practice, theory and research. It was founded in November 2015 and based at The Field and LARC. We employed collaborative, co-operative and collective models of pedagogy and organisation and fostered alternative models of art education in a series of public events.
Welcome to a new season at [ART&CRITIQUE]. We have two events coming up this month starting with a discussion of Susan Sontag‘s essay Against Interpretation on Friday, 9 September, followed by a [GALLERYCRAWL] from Mayfair to St James (via Soho) on Saturday, 24 September. In October we welcome Badiou scholar Kerry W. Purcell who will be chairing a discussion of Alain Badiou’s Art & Philosophy, the first chapter of Handbook of Inaesthetics (2004).
[SYMPOSIUM] BOOK CLUB Sontag: Against Interpretation Friday 9 September 2016, 6:00-8:30pm
The Field, 385 Queens Road, London SE14 5HD
Chaired by F. D. Free, please book your place
Please visit the website for more details, to book & download the text.
[GALLERYCRAWL] From Mayfair to St James (via Soho) Saturday 24 September 2016, 2:00-5:00pm
Timothy Taylor 15 Carlos Place London W1K 2EX
Timothy Taylor / Hauser & Wirth / Sadie Coles / White Cube Mason’s Yard Free, booking not required
Please visit the website for the details & a map of the route.
[SYMPOSIUM] BOOK CLUB Badiou: Art & Philosophy Friday 14 October 2016, 6:00-8:30pm
The Field, 385 Queens Road, London SE14 5HD
Chaired by Kerry W. Purcell Free, please book your place
Please visit the website for more details, to book & download the text.
We have three events coming up this month starting with a discussion of Boris Groys‘ essay Under the Gaze of Theory on Friday, 8 July and followed by a viewing and discussion of Jo Wolf‘s new work Dataat the [STUDIOCRIT] on Saturday, 9 July.
On Saturday, 30 July we will wrap up the events for the summer with a [GALLERYCRAWL] from Mayfair to Fitzrovia. We’re taking a break in August but we will be back on Friday, 9 September with a discussion of Susan Sontag‘s essay Against Interpretation.
[SYMPOSIUM] BOOK CLUB
Groys: Under the Gaze of Theory
Friday 8 July 2016
6:00-8:30pm
The Field, 385 Queens Road, London SE14 5HD Free, please book your place
[ART&CRITIQUE] STUDIO CRIT
Jo Wolf: DATA
Saturday, 9 July 2016
2:00-4:00pm
The Field, 385 Queens Road, London SE14 5HD Free, please book your place
[ART&CRITIQUE] GALLERY CRAWL From Mayfair to Fitzrovia
Saturday 30 July 2016
2:00-5:00pm
Green Park Underground Station Piccadilly London W1J 9DZ Free, no need to book
[SYMPOSIUM] BOOK CLUB Sontag: Against Interpretation Friday 9 September 2016, 6:00-8:30pm
The Field, 385 Queens Road, London SE14 5HD
Chaired by F.D. Free, please book your place
Spring 2016 was a busy time at ART&CRITIQUE! We launched two new events – the [GALLERY TOUR] and the [STUDIO CRIT]— and we hatched new plans. For more details please read on.
[SYMPOSIUM]#5 Latour: On Actor Network Theory, 11 March 2016
The discussion of Bruno Latour’s essay On Actor Network Theory (1990) was chaired by Johanna Kwiat. Johanna animated this difficult text and provided several imaginative routes into its many folds. She summed up the discussion by pointing out that “Latour invites us to think in terms of associations / connections, which don’t need to be qualified as ‘social’, ‘natural’, or ‘technological'”. For Johanna this has the consequence of unsettling “humans or/and human networks [from] their traditionally privileged position”, inviting us to “question the Cartesian legacy (modernism as we understand it), and that in itself is a bonus of reading this text”.
[GALLERYTOUR]#1 From Hoxton to Mile End, 19 March 2016
In March we launched the first [GALLERYTOUR] which took us from Hoxton to Mile End. We visited xero, kline & coma to see Chris Alton’s exhibition Under the Shade I Flourish. Blending fact and fiction in an installation comprised of video, posters, music and diagrams, Alton sets up a compelling account of the ill-fated blues-band Trident. The video documentary centres around the figure of Michael Ashcroft, the band’s manager and former Conservative party member, peer and tax exile who has been been at the centre of several political and financial controversies. The documentary chases up a series of ostensibly inconsequential clues in a futile attempt to solve the mysterious disappearance of the band members in the Bermuda Triangle, a metaphor for British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies that function as tax havens, a “cornerstone of institutional corruption worldwide”.* If you missed this exhibition you can see it at Lewisham Arthouse from 17-22 May 2016.
The next stop was Cell Project Space for Iain Ball’s installation Praseodymium Intracrine Signal Aggregate, the ninth in his Rare Earth Sculpture series. Ball’s installation engages with the paranoia induced by sustained surveillance. Despite the obvious connections that we were able to make, we couldn’t work out how the different components of the installation – the sculpture, the camera and the monitors – were interacting. The final stop on the tour was at Chisenhale Gallery to see Park McArthur’s exhibition Poly. This installation was composed of plinths along one side of the room bearing found objects that reference the body (condoms, latex gloves, oxygen masks, heel cushions, elbow braces). On the wall hung two sheets of paper soaked with super-absorbent polymer, electric heaters were placed around the edges of the room and three massive blocks of black acoustic foam were wedged into a corner. Like sarcophagi stored in a museum basement these monumental black blocks skewed our sense of balance in this rather empty room. The air felt dry, as though all the moist air was being sucked out by the black blocks. We were not sure whether this was a physical perception or a conceptual one. One of the plinths carried a stack of redacted photocopies of a letter notifying users of the closure of the Independent Living Fund. This was an uncomfortable place, it reminded us that the politics of austerity are having an unequal effect on society by targeting groups that are least able to resist.
[STUDIOCRIT]#1 Maria Christoforatou: Displacement, 20 March 2016
At the launch of the new [STUDIOCRIT] event series we explored concepts of displacement, home and the unhomely with Maria Christoforatou.
Maria’s work explores the emotional and physical dimensions of belonging via the concept of “home”, suggesting that ideas of home are nostalgically associated with imagined authenticity rather than lived experience. It is therefore a concern with identity that lies at the root of her project. To read more about Maria’s work and the studio crit please visit the event review or the event page.
Maria’s studio crit highlighted a common interest in the concepts of home, (dis)location, identity and urbanity so we’re on the lookout for a venue to organise an exhibition around these themes. If you’re interested in collaborating either as an artist, writer, curator or editor please get in touch.
If you would like to show your work at a Studio Crit from June 2016 onwards please visit the page to read the guidelines and get in touch with a preferred date so we can start planning. The Studio Crit is a good opportunity to set some goals for your work and it takes time to organise and promote, so we need to work towards it. The purpose of a studio crit is to visit an artist’s studio for a structured viewing and discussion of the work.
[SYMPOSIUM]#6 Duchamp: The Creative Act, 8 April 2016
On Friday 8 April we discussed Marcel Duchamp’s paper The Creative Act (1957). Many thanks to F.D. for chairing the discussion and Penelope Kupfer, who fulfilled the role of respondent.
F.D. contextualised the 1957 Convention of the American Federation of Arts where Duchamp delivered this paper, providing a great deal of intricate background information and a set of questions to facilitate the discussion. The discussion centred on questions relating to the role of the artist as “mediumistic being” in juxtaposition to the mediating role of the spectator who “brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications”. We discussed Duchamp’s use of the mysterious terms transubstantiation, transmutation, aestheticosmosis and especially his concept of the personal ‘art coefficient’.
Stephen Bennett made a diagram of how the ‘art coefficient’ works which helped us visualise the process. We wrapped up with responses to F.D.’s question on whether “found images can be considered readymades” by focusing on Pharmacie (1914). This is probably Duchamp’s first assisted readymade or appropriated found image, a technique that the Situationists would later call détournement.
Richard Burger and the Symposiastes at The Field Kitchen, 13 April 2016
On Wednesday 13 April, regular participants of the book club ran the Field Kitchen, a collaborative meal prepared every Wednesday evening at The Field, New Cross. Richard Burger cooked an exquisite pasta dish with peas, beans and sage, topped with pepper cheese and accompanied by a delicious home-made white wine from Greece.
Join us on Wednesdays for a home-cooked meal, catch up with some familiar faces, meet new people, help us cook and support this experimental community space. Food is served at 7:30pm, it’s pay what you can and the income goes towards expenses for the running and maintenance of the Field. If you would like to help out, setup is from 6pm and there’s always something to do until everything is cleared up at the end of the evening. You can also volunteer to cook by adding your name to the list on the wall.
[GALLERYTOUR]#2 From Whitechapel to Liverpool Street, 30 April 2016
On Saturday 30 April the group visited the Whitechapel to see Parallel I-IV, a video installation by Harun Farocki and Imprint 93, an exhibition of prints from the 1990s by then lesser-known contemporaries of the YBAs. The next and final stop was at Raven Row to see Channa Horwitz, a neglected and excluded artist in her own time. This exhibition has been compared to the current exhibition of a similarly neglected female artist, Hilma af Klint at the Serpentine.
We’re visiting the Serpentine next Saturday 14 May on [GALLERYTOUR]#3. But first up is [SYMPOSIUM]#7 on Friday 13 May where we will be discussing a review of Tate Triennial 3 (2006) by Brian Sewell. This session will be chaired by Richard Lloyd-Jones.
All [ART&CRITIQUE] events and free and inclusive so please feel free to invite your friends or bring them along. The London Event Calendar is jam-packed with exhibitions, events, courses and deadlines. Browse some of these below or follow [ART&CRITIQUE] on Twitter or Facebook for irregular event updates.
The art crawl was a series of tours organised by ART&CRITIQUE, on the last Saturday of the month we would head out to visit exhibitions and have a critical discussion on route. The itineraries were curated by members and contributors, supported with tools and guides available in the infosheet. Continue reading ART CRAWL→