THE VIDEO
Smile in the Crowd
Smile in the Crowd is intended to operate within the genre
of the 80s pop video, which provides a narrative model and armature.
The action is set to the cover version of a song by New Wave
British group The Durutti Column, here its melancholic and slightly
paranoid lyrics are read out by remote text-to-speech software.
The narrative also draws heavily on a scene from King Vidor's
silent film The Crowd 1928, a portrait of the struggle for subjectivity
in an industralised, mass-consumer culture. Using a combination
of D.W. Griffith's realism and Sergei Eisenstein's montage aesthetic,
Vidor introduces the protagonist, John Sims and the viewer to
the nightmare of an industralised New York, with mass crowd scenes,
melodramtic tracking shots of skyscrapers and a plethora of workers
sitting at identical desks.
Smile in the Crowd satirically examines this concept in a
post-industrial light, focusing on the internal and external
focalisation of the viewer. Here the image of the anonymous worker
is that of the prostitutes telephone-booth advert, commonly found
in large British cities. These are painted, animated and cut
with live action footage of crowds, traffic and internet porn,
mimicking the circular narratives and absurd dialogues of the
low-fi pop video. The narratively unmotivated disavowal of internal
focalisation echoes the voyeur/protagonist's process of disintegration
and highlights the melancholia, of living by increasingly remote
means.
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THE SPACE/COLLECTIVE
Switchspace
Switchspace is an artist run moving gallery, committed to
supporting new and established artists at all stages of the creative
process. We have curated a selection of exhibitions at varying
locations and we feel this transient approach offers a challenge
to individual artists as well as offering an alternative to the
traditional gallery system.
Switchspace was set up over four years ago by myself, Sorcha
Dallas, and my colleague Marianne Greated. We were recent GSA
graduates who, like the many artists around us, were faced with
the daunting prospect of acquiring a studio, making and showing
work in an already saturated artistic environment. We were both
well aware of the artist-run collectives who were trying to deal
with these problems and the positive effect they had, not only
on their immediate surroundings, but on the wider artistic community.
We began by utilising the front room of my west end tenement,
after fifteen months we had shown work by fourteen artists ranging
from solo and collaborative exhibitions in drawing & painting,
video, installation and performance. Predominantly Glasgow-based
artists were shown, but there was also work from New York and
London.
The term 'Switchspace' was chosen as it really summed up our
intention to utilise and transform alternative/unusual spaces
into environments in which work could be viewed. Being a self-funded,
private space, this first incarnation of Switchspace had its
limitations, especially in terms of access and advertising. We
both felt we had achieved as much as we could at that space and
in order for us to move on and progress we had to live up to
our name and switch the space. We were also spurred on by good
publicity, most notably a feature article on us in the December
issue of Artists Newsletter.
The idea for the second incarnation of Switchspace was born
of the need to expand our operations while remaining true to
the spirit of the original concept. To this end we decided to
set up as a charity and have been fortunate to secure the sponsorship
of Impact Arts(Fab Flats) who have been providing us with a variety
of properties throughout Glasgow in which to exhibit. We have
already shown 6 artists over a 12 month period within these properties,
with financial support from Glasgow City Council, and
hope to continue this program in 2003. Our recent program has
included new work by Ian Balch, Neil Bickerton, Margaret Barron,
Craig Mulholland, Douglas Morland with forthcoming exhibitions
by Sally Osborn & Alex Frost, Clara Ursitti, Lorna McIntyre,
Beagles and Ramsay and Sam Ainsley. For this programme we have
been successful in securing really positive support and press.
We believe this is a new and interesting idea with the work and
venue constantly changing. We also are committed to offering
an educational program in conjunction with the exhibition program.
Both myself and Marianne work as freelance artists working in
schools, youth groups, museums and prisons with children, adults
and special needs persons. We have combined our experience and
understanding to develop an interesting and informative series
of workshops and events, including free workshops for local schools
as well as gallery tours and artists talks, all proving invaluable
in involving and informing the local and wider artistic communities.
Switchspace also converted, for a period of 11 months, the
basement space at Offshore CafÈ, Gibson Street, where
we showed emerging artists on a monthly basis. This also proved
to be a really successful project and we ran in conjunction with
this a weekly art education programme for local children based
on each exhibition.
We have also curated a video/new media exhibition at The Arches
in April 2002, in conjunction with RAW and the Glasgow Art Fair.
This was a real success, with attendance figures being on average
100 people per day for the duration of the show and offered us
an opportunity to curate a different sort of exhibition in an
unusual environment.
We have also renovated and recently launched the new Glasgow
arts venue, The Chateau, with a large exhibition in December
2002. For this we worked with a range of cutting edge artists,
based in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, to create a series of
interventions throughout the building. Contributing artists were
Neil Bickerton & Lorna Macintyre, Karla Black, Paul Embleton,
Lotte Gertz, Kim Coleman & Susea Green, Alex Frost, Emily
Richardson and Hayley Tompkins. The opening was a massive success
with over 350 attending the event.
At present we have just completed exhibiting at this year's
Art Fair in Glasgow where we were within the Contemporary Pavilion
as part of EXTENSION, alongside The Collective, CCA, The Fruitmarket,
Lapland, Glasgow Sculpture Studios and Tramway. For this event
we showed work by Laurence Figgis and Henry Coombes, recent GSA
graduates . We are also continuing our programme of exhibitions
within residential properties due to securing major funding by
The Scottish Arts Council as well as continued support from Glasgow
City Council and Fab Flats. In 2003 we also hope to develop links
with similar organisations situated within the Scotland and the
UK.
SWITCHSPACE
Glasgow
07812605745 / 07947136442
http://www.switchspace.co.uk
Contact: Sorcha Dallas-- info(at)sorchadallas.com Marianne Greated-- info(at)mariannegreated.com
UPDATE 2005
Switchspace has now ended, Sorcha Dallas has set up her own
commercial gallery in the city, creating a more sustainable support
structure for artists working in the city (www.sorchadallas.com)
and Marianne Greated is a practicing artist (www.mariannegreated.com).
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