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Katherine Hymers |
Steven Paige Steven Paige’s personal feelings of rootless-ness are grounded in his attempt at constructing evidence of experiences. He tries to connect found systems that offer the potential to re-enter past familiar activities and place them in the present. He makes installations with sound, video and everyday objects that contextualise this point. Using outmoded or obsolete objects he attempts to generate a dislocation with the present, using the audience to act as catalyst or spectator. Lately he has engaged with the process of archiving the encounters that have resonated with him, generating a charge that then can be communicated. This is less an exercise in creating evidence, more in re-sourcing it, using various methods to mark the journeys and activities. On one hand it is looking back at the marks we might have made and the endless possibilities for connecting with a place, location and its inhabitants. On the other, it casts light on the politics of modern living and how this is constructed and ultimately controlled. What he attempts to do is create a pathway or route back to a temporal experience, encouraging the viewer to decide on its relevance or interest. Through the dynamics of place, distance and observation he gives opportunity to question our current condition and revisit lost connections.
Honesty, passion, integrity, self belief and diligence. During the last few months these words have been set forth by Franko as a measure for us as artists but also as a way of avoiding the pitfalls and diversions that the majority of artists have to face in maintaining their practice. Franko challenged us to look inward for a moment and take measure. I have been gently coerced into stopping and looking at the undercurrents in my work and picking apart the motivations and its drives. Initially this was uncomfortable, wrapped as my work was/is/might be in critique and gently distanced from me as the artist. I have been helped to face why and how I make work, what and who I am doing it for and how far am I willing to go to get work done. This was all the more powerful with the group in attendance and peer support. This can't be underestimated. Also, Franko has instilled a understanding of the bullshit that takes place in arts practice and in the business side of things. He has been brutally honest in is disseminating what goes on behind the scenes. This insight is challenging and a little ugly, but a necessary element into getting to grips with how I want to progress. So what have I got so far from being on the programme with my fellow artists and Franko? Stay true, turn the volume up and make good work and don't look down. I have put my practice back into the everyday and learnt to hold tight. It might not get made until tomorrow, but it will get made. |
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Franko B 2006
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