Interview by Emma Weatherhead

LOW PROFILE, Never Give Up. (2013)

Nom de Strip: Take us back to 2003. How did LOW PROFILE come together?

Rachel Dobbs: We’ve been talking about this a lot recently, it’s like we’re describing the story of our engagement! Hannah and I met at university; we both studied Fine Art at Exeter School of Art and Design, which is now Plymouth University

Hannah Jones: We made friends and supported each other throughout the course, but we were both very much making independent work. I was painting at the time, and I was pretty serious about it!

RD: And I was talking to a lot of people about telephone boxes… My practice had a very weird shape.

HJ: We discovered the world of live art and performance through a series of accidents and invitations. We had a bit of  a crash course in the summer of our second year, and I dramatically abandoned painting. Two books completely changed our lives: Matthew Goulish’s 39 Microlectures: in the Proximity of Performance, a beautiful book not just about performance but about life and the world, and a book by Tim Etchells, the director of Forced Entertainment, called Certain Fragments. We then went to see a lot of live work together so our whole experience was a very equal one. I think that was a very important footing for our practice.

RD: We were learning about live art practice together, having exposure to new things at the same time and we had each other to talk about  whether we liked or hated something, and why.

HJ: Then, mid third year, we made a piece of work together, a performance called Three. We didn’t even get it assessed, we just felt like it was something that we had to do, and didn’t think that we would make work together after that point. So that’s how it started, by accident…

LOW PROFILE presents: Three, a performance. (2003)

NdS: Your collaboration as LOW PROFILE has stood the test of time. Why? How?

RD: I think it’s that starting point of being friends first; having a good understanding of each other as people; understanding each other’s nuances; living together. Being able to make each other laugh is important.

HJ: I think having that shared history and shared experiences to build on is really important.

RD: We’ve only really ever made work together where there has been an overlap in our interests. If it was a Venn diagram, LOW PROFILE would be the bit in the middle of Hannah and Rachel. It’s been like a really long conversation over ten years. After we graduated Hannah moved to Rotterdam to do an MA there, and I was living in Exeter still, and we started to email each other almost every day. That became a space where we could talk about the things going on in our lives that we didn’t talk about with other people. This was when the overlaps started happening; rather than staring each other in the face saying ‘How are we going to make some work?’ it was inspired by these conversations.

LOW PROFILE, DRY RUN part 5: Procedures for Preparedness (photo series). 
Photo by Dana Ariel (2012)

NdS: How has your work evolved over the 10 years; do you approach projects differently now as opposed to when you first started out?

HJ: At the beginning, we didn’t have a single great plan, and in a way that has evolved with our ambitions and aims. The goals that we’ve set ourselves were always set together and have developed gradually over the period of ten years. We have a set of constant small agreements that lead to one thing, and then another thing. And there is one unchanging agreement: to keep going, always.

NdS: How do you sustain your creativity and generate fresh ideas after working together for such a long time?

HJ: Initially we had the luxury of having lots of time, so the first two years of our collaboration was a very productive period. Because we have this fine art background we’re really interested in making work for specific contexts and situations, so we respond well to invitations. We’re lucky enough that we get asked to work in a lot of spaces, and it’s those contexts, like a double-decker bus or a boxing ring, that really help us think creatively about our working environments.

RD: A lot of our work comes from interaction and engagement with people within these particular spaces, rather than it being from a traditional view of something like a painting. It’s about creating a product and seeing if, and how, people react to that. Our work is generated from the situation of encounter, so we’re always thinking about how the audience is going to meet our work, and how the work needs to operate to make that interaction as successful as possible.

HJ: Having said that, we are also really keen to have some time when we’re not making work but doing research. Research for us can be anything from watching Ant and Dec, or a Die Hard movie, to going to a really boring lecture and passing notes between each other. It’s just being in the world, seeing the world in new and different ways, and collecting from it.

LOW PROFILE, DRYRUN part 2: How To Save You Skin When Disaster Strikes Without Warning. (2008)

NdS: Your recent work surrounding survival and perseverance seems to reflect your own work ethic. After having collaborated together for ten years, would LOW PROFILE ever, ever, ever, give up? That is to say, under what circumstances, if any, would the collaboration no longer be feasible?

RD: We have had honest conversations about these kind of things, like if one of us breaks our legs or dies, those are clear end points! It wouldn’t be possible to continue LOW PROFILE without one of us. ‘Til death do us part!

HJ: We’ve talked about it more recently, because LOW PROFILE turned ten, and we made a bit of a fuss about that. For us it felt like an achievement and we wanted to mark that moment and also to review the future of the collaboration. We’re both in our early thirties now, and we do have to think about the reality of making work within our changing life situations. But we have a really strong peer network who act as role models for sustaining a working practice throughout these inevitable changes.

LOW PROFILE, Here’s to another 10 commemorative photograph.
Photo by Gemma Paintin (2012)

NdS: What is it that inspires you both to keep working together as a duo rather than branching out? Have you considered working individually as well as collaboratively?

HJ: The last time I made a solo piece of work was in 2003, so ten years ago. There’s so much skill involved in being a solo artist, as there’s also so much skill in working collaboratively – they are two completely different ways of working. To have a serious solo practice outside of LOW PROFILE just isn’t interesting for me.

RD: I think we both pursue projects and other things that we’re interested in, we do still retain a lot of individuality outside LOW PROFILE. We’ve always both had demanding jobs which have satisfied some of that desire to go solo that you might find in a boy band. Sometimes I have affairs as well, but we don’t talk about that!

NdS: What is the future for LOW PROFILE? And where do you see yourselves in 2013?

RD: We have a lot of projects in the exciting proposal stage, but that aren’t concrete enough to talk about publicly as yet.

HJ: But we hopefully will be working again with ICIA in Bath again on a large scale project in the future…

‘Here’s to another’ 10 book launch, ICIA Bath.

NdS: Using your extensive experience and the gift of hindsight, what advice would you give to new artists who are just beginning their careers?

HJ: Work really, really hard. Graft. Don’t be lazy. Get up. Do it. Even when you’re poorly. We never take sick days!

RD: We actually have our own mottos, some of which are: never, never, never, never, never give up, make use of what you’ve got, and remember that you’re an artist not an administrator. Save money and take trips. For us, going out, meeting people and seeing work has been the fuel to our practice. Take time to get to know other artists and build a community and support network around you.

HJ: Also, other artists are your advocates, so be generous with recommending your peers work. And be nice! Be nice to work with. We always make sure that people like working with us, like going for a drink with us, and would always recommend us to other artists and organisations. Our last motto is that we make our own rules. As a student, it’s easy to get trapped in preconceived ideas of what a successful practice should look like and what success is. But do make your own rules, set your own goals and define your own notions of success, as those will always be more valuable than other people’s.

NB.

Exeter Phoenix are hosting an exhibition of recent works by LOW PROFILE spanning live performance, video, installation and artists’ publication until 6 July. Visit here for more information, and then visit the show.

Nom de Strip: I’m curious about the title of the work you’re developing at the Bike Shed Theatre – Albemarle. Does that have anything to do with the block of halls at former Dartington College of Arts called Albemarle?

Chris Goode: It probably does, but not directly. The new show is based around a dream I had last summer in which I was making a dance piece called Albemarle. I have absolutely no idea why that word popped up in my dream! At different times there have been Dukes and Earls of Albemarle, and lots of street names and places. It means ‘white soil’, which I quite like. But basically I’m using the idea of ’Albemarle’ to stand in for any kind of place that you glimpse, in a dream for example, and which somehow becomes important to you. In the show, this semi-fictitious place Albemarle becomes like a kind of Utopia.

NdS: So what will you be doing at the Bike Shed, and how do you hope local audiences might engage with it?

CG: The lovely invitation from the Bike Shed has been principally to use this residency to nudge forward the process of making Albemarle, which is in its very early days; and to show some work from that process to audiences, and also to open up a conversation with audiences about the ideas behind the show — about how we’re affected, emotionally and politically and in lots of different ways, by the glimpses we occasionally have of other ways of living, other kinds of society, other forms and structures we might inhabit. So there’ll be a wide range of different kinds of things to come and see (and be a part of, sometimes) in the evenings, from performances and readings to discussions and critical events: all of which connect, at least obliquely, with Albemarle, and all but a couple of which contain traces of me, with or without the company of other artists. I hope audiences and artists will be interested to follow the path of thinking aloud that’s going to take us through the residency in ways that currently are really hard to predict!

NdS: You’re spending a lot of time in the South West in the coming months. What are your perceptions of the region creatively and as a place to make work? Are there any West Country companies or artists who you admire or take an interest in?

CG: Yes, this is very true – the Bristol / Exeter / Plymouth axis has been increasingly important for me, especially the Drum in Plymouth where I’ve had a wonderfully fruitful relationship for several years now. It’s going to be great to spend some time in Exeter, where I’ve only ever spent one night so far (but it was the night that I had my Albemarle dream, so that was very significant!). I was just in Bristol this past weekend, where the buzz around Mayfest was amazing, though of course the theatre ecology in Bristol is so lively now anyway, all year round. What I’ve found about Bristol and Plymouth that I’m sure is true of Exeter as well is that there’s such openness. Local artists are incredibly generous and excited to engage with incoming work. I’m based in London where things can sometimes be a bit of a hothouse, in a more cautious and competitive way. I’m particularly eager to find out who’s doing what in and around Exeter, and of course the Bike Shed has been such an amazing catalyst in recent times, so I can’t wait to get stuck in!

Everybody knows that the way we live currently is broken; but not everybody can face up to that truth because our lives are currently organized in ways that prevent us from acknowledging and reflecting on it, that hold us in a place of fear and a feeling of powerlessness and exhaustion. Art opens up a space for change. Part of the thought underscoring the season is that we all, in our different ways, have occasional glimpses of a better life, a life we would rather be living.

NdS: Is taking inspiration for work from your dreams a new thing, or have they been fruitful ground in the past?

CG: No, I’ve always been very reluctant to work with stories or ideas derived from dreams. As an artist I’ve always wanted to concentrate everyone’s mind and attention on material realities, which are every bit as rich and complex as the wildest dreams, but which also have a political currency that I value very much. I’m only working with the stuff of dreams now because I’ve found a way to use those ideas to think harder about reality, not to escape from it.

NdS: Who will you be bringing  into the rehearsal space and making process during your residency at the Bike Shed?

CG: We’re doing the Bike Shed residency on a real shoestring so mostly I’m bringing one person down at a time. Theron Schmidt has been a key collaborator with me since 1997, but we don’t often get to work together any more as he’s very busy with academic work – and we also want slightly different things from theatre, I suspect; but I love and admire him and I can’t wait to spend some time working with him. Then Theron goes and Jonny Liron arrives, who has been my closest collaborator since 2008. Jonny is an extraordinarily gifted and intrepid artist and I think that will show up in the work we present. And then in the third week, some newer friends arrive: the playwright and performer Jo Clifford, whom I’m still in the early stages of getting to know but whom I adore for her humanity and her gentle radicalism; John Hall, an immensely distinguished and delightful poet; and Maddy Costa, who is a crucial part of Chris Goode and Company, and who writes brilliantly about our process from within. With each of them, some things are going to happen that I think I know about already, and some things are going to happen that right now I have no idea about. I can only say that they are all in their different ways really exciting and intelligent artists, and all people who are looking to create genuinely transformative relationships with audiences and with other artists. For all of them, theatre and poetry and art are not something we step out of our lives in order to do: they are part and parcel of how we live, and how we think about living better.

NdS: You mentioned that Abermale explores ideas of Utopia and other ways of living, is there a driving force behind you wishing to explore these areas at this particular time?

CG: I increasingly feel that art, and particularly theatre, has such an important role to play in creating a space for us to reflect on how we live together, socially, globally, and in our closest personal relationships. Everybody knows that the way we live currently is broken; but not everybody can face up to that truth because our lives are currently organized in ways that prevent us from acknowledging and reflecting on it, that hold us in a place of fear and a feeling of powerlessness and exhaustion. Art opens up a space for change. Part of the thought underscoring the season is that we all, in our different ways, have occasional glimpses of a better life, a life we would rather be living. This season, and the new show, and all my work in general, is about how we come to terms with what those glimpses might be telling us, and what we can do about it, for real. The work feels urgent – to me – because optimism is urgent, the energy it produces is urgent. No one else can make the change we need: but we can make it, and all of my work seeks to attest to that fact.

NB.

Chris Goode and company are in residency at the Bike Shed until 29th June. Visit the Bike Shed website for further information and to buy tickets.

Nom de Strip: How are finalists selected?

Matt Pontin: We put a call out in May and come the deadline in July, we have a large number of applications to sift through and make sense of. The photographic endeavours are varied and there is no specific agenda, we’re looking for considered projects which have been developed during the final year of a BA programme. Usually there is visible rigour in what we select, and although themes vary, selected works are often pertinent to the region. This aspect is something we intend to build upon.

NdS: How have previous graduates benefited from winning the prize?

MP: Each year we appear to have six very motivated artists, all seem to push on and achieve good things, we’d like to think the prize supports this good energy within the individual. The 2010 prize winner, Celine Smith, undertook a residency with Fotonow and produced new work in a community context here in Plymouth (where we’re based), she then went on to curate the prize with us in 2011. That year artist Ibolya Feher was selected to work on an educational project with Fotonow in Brislington where she supported a group of young people in making new work and having an exhibition in their youth centre. Then we have last year’s winning artist Mark Perham making new work in Temple Quay Enterprise Zone for Knowle West Media Centre, a show of his work will be presented at Bristol Temple Meads.

NdS: Could you introduce some of the finalists in this year’s show? What do you like about their work?

MP: We put the call out this month, so the 2013 prize is still to be decided. The show will be at Vyner Street Gallery from 9 -13 October and we imagine it will be even more busy than in previous years. To reflect upon the work of current prize finalists, who are all currently on show at Knowle West Media Centre, we enjoyed Mark’s somewhat contemporary musings on Cornish culture, Adam Pedley’s deeply emotive explorations of Devon and Philip Shannon’s accomplished documentary portrait project looking at hunters.

NdS: Are there any unifying themes in the finalists’ work this year?

MP: We sense the themes will be varied as always, when you have dozens of series of work to look through some things do begin to emerge –  the landscape of the region, personal reflections on place, the coast. Last year we seemed to witness a number of portrait projects where woodlands featured as a backdrop. Our interest as Plymouth starts to build up to City of Culture 2017 aspirations will be to push the notion of culture, we’d like to think that the current social shifts in politics might be reflected in some of the projects that are submitted. Perhaps documentary work will be more prevalent in 2013.

NdS: What makes good photography for you?

MP: That’s not something we really reflect upon too often, we may even like a bit of bad photography in the right context. There are now millions of us making good photographs, often there is little to distinguish any hierarchy at all, which is a very positive thing. Anyone can make photographs, and we tend to look for what is good about the context that these are being presented in. The graduate prize does however look to push what is diligent, passionate and considered in uses for photography, how the practitioner evolves work over a longer period perhaps. Good photography has purpose and an audience.

NdS: What are your thoughts on photographic practice in the South West today?

MP: There is a burgeoning scene here, supported by growing numbers of graduates in the medium, and also growing numbers staying in the region. The quality of higher education institutes in the South West stimulate a reason to practice here, like minded people seem to enjoy being among one another. We’re interested in how we move this to a more productive place where there are more opportunities for practice, more spaces to show work and means for new audiences to develop, beyond preaching to the converted. Fotonow aims to maintain its journey in being a regional organisation to showcase good work, and support emerging talent.

NdS: And at Plymouth College of Art, where you both work?

MP: The college has been stimulated by having a good neighbour in the university. To have a diverse mix of students in the city working within the medium can only be healthy. Plymouth College of Art offers a very practical approach to studies, with good input from academic staff along the way. The college is growing in exciting new directions, it can only be a matter of time before that new photographic department appears alongside some of the new infrastructure currently being constructed for applied arts. The highlight for the college students is the opportunity to take part in Free Range at Truman Brewery on Brick Lane in London, this year the show is running from 13 -17 June at T2 gallery and we highly recommend you go and see it.

NdS: What other projects are Fotonow working on?

MP: We’re working on a Heritage Lottery Fund supported project looking at the history of Plymouth City market, making a series of interviews and portraits exploring its fifty year history. A series of film screenings and exhibitions will take place in October to celebrate the collective work we make. We also have our ongoing Camper Obscura project which keeps us out and about; this weekend we are at Site Festival and we have been recently booked to be in Scotland in September. We’ve moved office too, to Devonport, so that we can develop the camera obscura at Seymour House, something that we’re relishing the chance to explore.

Are you a graduate interested in applying for the next South West Graduate Photography Prize? Fotonow have recently put out a call for submissions through higher education institutions for next year’s prize. Applicants need to be graduating this year from a course in the region. For further informationa and to keep in touch join the South West Graduate Photography Prize Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/SouthWestGraduatePhotographyPrize

Who: Francis Alÿs, Carlos Bunga, Graciela Carnevale, Karolina Erlingsson, Jirí Kovanda, Maider López, Adrian Piper, Curated by Marriana Garin.

What: This is KARST’s most extensive exhibition to date,  showcasing conceptual works from major international artists such as Francis Alÿs - Tate Modern held a retrospective of his work in 2010 – alongside prominent emerging figures. In this show curator Marianna Garin proposes the notion that seemingly small and subtle artistic actions can become catalysts for radical thought and change.

When: 15 June – 21 July 2013
Preview: Saturday 15th June 4pm – 9pm (Including a performance ‘eme emauto’ by Karolina Erlingsson – 6pm)
Gallery Open Thursday – Sunday 11am – 6pm

Where: KARST, 22 George Place, Stonehouse, Plymouth, PL1 3NY

Who: L.I.E

What: L.I.E Design School is a four-day informal school for design, organised by L.I.E (Library of Independent Exchange). This event is ideal for anyone interested in book works and presenting artwork in the format of a book. Design School examines the processes and ideas involved in designing, editing and producing published matter. Individual sessions will be led by visiting practitioners; each with a different approach, from talks and seminars, to screenings and tutorials.

Each day will be lead by a different designer, including:
Stephen Smith (Neasden Control Centre)
Holly Wales
Harry Blackett
Ken Kirton (Studio Hato)
Sofia Stevi

To apply, download an application here: plymouthartscentre.org/art/live/2013/l.i.e-design-school.html and return before the 2 July.

When: 16-19 July 2013

Where: Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth, Devon

Who? Hand in Glove are a Bristol-based group of artists and curators who aim to provide exposure and support for emerging artists at vital stages of their developing careers.

What? Hand in Glove presented  INTERPLAY in November 2012, an event which brought artists, curators and writers together to exchange knowledge, perspectives and artistic interactions. Labouring under the slogan ‘a survival camp for artist and artist-led projects’,  TENTERPLAY  promises the opportunity to rekindle and expand these discussions that lie at the fore of all creative practices, with a twist. Situated on farmland in Somerset, the campsite will provide an inspirational backdrop to thought-provoking critiques of artist-led practices, and pose questions surrounding the sustainability and survival of art itself.

When? Saturday 8^th/Sunday 9^th June

Where? Castle Cary, Somerset

Why? The prospect of establishing connections and future dialogue with a wealth of like-minded, creative individuals. Fun, sociable, inspiring and scenic.

There are still a few places left for Tenterplay. Book here today, this minute, this second  to avoid disappointment.

The National – Trouble Will Find Me.

This is the sixth studio album for the Brooklyn band, and follows 2010’s critical and commercial success High Violet.

Label: 4AD

Format: CD & LP
Vinyl comes with download voucher… double gatefold heavy vinyl with printed inner sleeve.

The album is the most self-assured collection of songs produced by The National in its 14-year career. In an interview with UK’s UNCUT Magazine, front man Matt Berninger described the songs as more “immediate and visceral” than their previous work. Trouble Will Find Me possesses a directness, a coherency and an approachability that suggests The National are at their most confident.

After a 22-month tour following the release of High Violet the band returned home. Regardless of plans to wait to record new music for another year or two, guitarist Aaron Dessner began working on sketches of new songs that the other members were too inspired by to not fully realise. Matt confesses,

“For the past ten years we’d been
chasing something, wanting to prove something. And this chase was about trying to disprove our own insecurities.
After touring High Violet, I think we felt
like we’d finally gotten there.
Now we could relax—not in terms of our own expectations but we didn’t have to prove our identity any longer.”

The results are simultaneously breakthrough and oddly familiar, the culmination of an artistic journey that has led The National both to a new crest and, somehow, back to their beginnings—when, says Aaron, “our ideas would immediately click with each other. It’s free-wheeling again. The songs on one level are our most complex, and on another they’re our most simple and human. It just feels like we’ve embraced the chemistry we have.”

The album was recorded at Clubhouse in Rhinebeck, NY. Trouble Will Find Me was self-produced and mixed by Craig Silvey with additional mixing from Peter Katis and Marcus Paquin.

NB

Buy the album with Drift Records here: http://thedriftrecordshop.net/collections/frontpage/products/the-national-trouble-will-find-me

Review by Simon Bayliss.

Vampire mannequins staged as bowls players, drip fake blood onto the rolled-out green in the centre of the gallery. Does this installation act as a red herring, like the conspicuously named Marmite Prize for Painting?

Perhaps not; painting has been declared ‘dead’ many times. The debate has waned, but to triumphantly claim that painting is born-again may be unrealistic. Perhaps the suggestion here is that painting is undead. Painters persevere, sucking the life out of their medium’s vast but self-contained history and culture, their once utopian attitudes forgotten. Has the significance of painting as a pursuit, been reduced to little more than a leisurely game? Nevertheless these vampire bowls players, at the hub of a flurry of pictures, appear gripped with manic pleasure; they are disturbed and anarchic, with sharp teeth.

John Stark, The Necromantics (2012)
oil on birch ply
50 x 60 cm

The touring Marmite Prize for Painting exhibition, hosted for a period in Plymouth, showcases a rich assortment of recent paintings, offering insight into a range of contemporary approaches extensive enough to span the field. At one extreme is John Stark’s The Necromantics, an old-master-style landscape painted in exquisite detail. The contemporaneity of the work is subtle; the heavy romantic light and vivid glossy paint generates an experience like viewing a simulated 16th century pastoral vista in high definition, and the cloaked figure performing an enigmatic act on a corpse adds a perplexing narrative. At the other extreme is Phil Illingworth’s Speciality Act, which refers to little within the traditions of painting, as the work is essentially sculptural; a peach coloured oval board, hinged like a toilet seat, inlayed with a circular patch of artificial turf. Its inclusion is valid however, because although it misbehaves, it is wall-mounted, and presents a composition within a field of colour suggestive of a painting, therefore offering an approach beyond traditional modes.

Phil Illingworth, Speciality Act (2012)
MDF, gesso, acylic paint, artificial grass, metal, plastic
26 x 54 x 17cm

Painting may be perceived as out of touch within an ever-expanding world of multi-disciplinary art in the digital age, and perhaps the vampires are a device to ‘sex up’ the medium’s conservative image. As expected many of the works have an overtly contemporary feel. There are a number of abstract paintings within the show which have a pioneering sense of painterly experimentation, as well as figurative pieces in which cartoonish motifs jest at the notion of painting as a serious pursuit. And these works, with a youthful sense of bravado, can relate to – or are at least unaffected by – the trashy horror movie aesthetics of the manikins.

Simon Carter, Dark Sea (2012)
acrylic on canvas
60 x 70cm

But there are also works which seem unconcerned with contemporary trends. Simon Carter’s Dark Sea is, at first glance, a curiously conservative inclusion, because its image is an abstracted seascape seemingly painted from observational studies. Clearly informed by modernist principles, it nevertheless pertains to none of the typically regurgitated St Ives School rhetoric, rife within provincial galleries. Instead its bearing is linked to London School painters, such as Frank Auerbach who has never painted the coast, and this incongruous contextual combination makes it unassertively fresh. The work’s seemingly rapid conclusion also contains the evidence of a hard-won battle – an approach often disregarded by recent trends – and this painterly recipe, as well as its sombre motif from nature, is refreshing.

Virginia Verran, P L I N Y (2012)
oil and pens on canvas
183 x 167cm

Another work with a timeless ambiance is Viginia Verran’s P L I N Y, which could be read as a contemporary mind-map, yet is painted with a similar sense of reverence to the psychic process of painting. It contains the traces of many phases of its evolution, and retains its blemishes. The artist’s divergent decisions hum as phenomenological events within the picture plane; circular forms, lines and dots, partially scrubbed out or reappearing, float and coalesce amongst foggy grey-matter. Although the painting has no figurative reference points, it is not necessarily abstract, but instead seems to represent a dynamic inner world, a vision of exploding synapses. A central dense round form, the colour of congealed blood, confirms its biological lexis.

Perhaps all these paintings would be best left unaccompanied by effigies of their undead makers. However, if this were the case the works would be cloistered, with no suggestion that painting is capable of dialogue with other art-forms. But does this matter? Painting is a materials-based activity steeped in its own tradition, and this is where its vitality lies. The assortment of work here encompasses a vibrant array of contemporary approaches; from awe-inspiring beauty to uncanny awkwardness, obsessive rendering next to off-the-cuff conclusions, ostentatious stylishness facing subtle harmonies, gritty realities opposing formal aesthetics. So does the vampire installation act as a red-herring? No, if witty commentary on the aliveness of painting is a central issue. Yes, if it detracts from what could be a stand-alone experience of the paintings themselves.

NB.

Simon Bayliss: simon-bayliss.com
The Marmite Prize for Painting IV: plymouthart.ac.uk/artadvantage.php?pageID=86#.Uaio1GT71vk

Thomas John Bacon – AKTION

As an emerging artist and recent MA graduate, I often find myself struggling for any recognition with regard to my performance practice, and I generally overwhelmed with ideas as to how to make my work attractive to potential art institutions.

Having an established institution or individual within the art world recognise your work generally means that you are in some way successful, that is, not failing. As any creative practitioner will know, rejection is an experience that one should expect to reoccur throughout their working life. What is so unique about the application process for Tempting Failure is that having had your work previously rejected is an essential prerequisite for participating in the event.

Tempting Failure is a project by Thomas John Bacon, a live art event which provides a platform for practitioners who wish to challenge social boundaries and or taboos through various modes of performance. The event is curated to include a program of artists that choose to tempt failure both physically and conceptually, and that are unified in their depiction of the human being as intrinsic to the possibility of failure.

Temp0rary – [15507]

The act of tempting failure reconnects us with the natural vulnerabilities and strengths that constitute our inherently fallible human condition.

To fail is to break away from established narratives, thus mapping new landscapes, challenging social norms and recreating social values.

Participating in Tempting Failure was a unique and humbling experience. Not only did it provide an opportunity for me to show work in a supportive and friendly environment, but I became integrated within an extensive group of people who were unified in their understanding of what it is to be alive.

Tempting Failure undermines contemporary trends as to what should or should not be seen within a gallery context; it also reaffirms that new possibilities arise from what is unpredictable. Many artists have previously engaged in the discourse of failure, but I would stress that there was something infinitely powerful about the collective nature of this event. In this case, whether or not the participating artists actually succeed in their quest to tempt failure is irrelevant. What is important is that a group of individuals have sought new modes of discovery that encourage a reconsideration of the current status quo.

NB.

Laura Murphy: lauramurphytimerevolution.tumblr.com

Tempting Failure: thomasjohnbacon.com

Empress Of – Systems EP.

Lorely Rodriguez, the singular mind behind Empress Of, is a 23-year-old songwriter and producer living Brooklyn, NY.

Label: Double Denim

Format: Ltd 12″

Beginning in early 2012, she began a personal exercise, writing and recording a series of one-minute ideas to set in motion the songwriting process. Completing each of these idea snippets in several hours apiece, she eventually amassed a catalog of about fifty. In October of 2012, Lorely began uploading them to YouTube, each paired with a color swatch; the project deemed a series of “colorminutes”. Listening through this series, one gets the sense of an artistic mind overflowing with creativity and personality.

Shortly thereafter, the first two fully-formed tracks were put online alongside the announcement of her first official release. “Don’t Tell Me”, the hyper-emotional and affecting ballad, was quickly followed by “Champagne”, a far more frantic but no less beautiful song, which came packaged with a uniquely striking video. Both songs stemmed from ideas first heard as “colorminutes” (#15 and #7, respectively) and were released on 7″ vinyl in November by No Recordings.

Now, Empress Of progresses one step further and release her first EP, via Double Denim Records. The four-song EP features two songs in English, and two in Lorely’s first language: Spanish. An immediately obvious common thread with the songs on this EP is the skillful straddling of highly complex and occasionally bizarre choices Lorely makes with her songwriting, arrangement, and melodies, all while retaining an undeniable penchant for pure pop sensibilities. This makes for a thrilling and distinctive end product; an amalgamation of fragmented influences spanning the traditional Honduran music she grew up with and some of her more modern inspirations: Julee Cruise, Antennae, and Broadcast.

To Lorely, the diversity of the EP represents the two halves of her artistic brain, divided by language and a far-reaching bank of references, but retaining a sense of cohesion through true musical integrity and a desire to create art on her own terms.

NB

Buy the album with Drift Records here: http://thedriftrecordshop.net/collections/frontpage/products/empress-of-systems-ep