101 Pamela Wells

with Claire Diamond, Charlotte Levine and Ruth Helen Robinson

Choose your weapon Charlie

Choose your weapon Pamela

What would Freud say?

If it was for anything but Art…

Resurrection

Whatever makes sense to you

Over thinking the use of the bowl

Break a leg

Not that I’m superstitious or anything

Expect the worst and then at least you’ll be prepared

Answer the ‘what if’ disaster management

Try, fail – try again, fail better…

Prepare for the worst.  Anything after that is a bonus

I keep saying I should go to a Wolves match

It took me a year to get over objects!

I love making and doing things

I didn’t know my kitchen was gonna’ be famous

Donkey’s are going extinct in Ireland

I haven’t a clue about cooking

You do sound quite knowledgeable

We’re growing girls

Lets go crazy – I’d wok it

That’s why god made a wok

I get all these amazing noises in my bedroom

The wind – it kicks up the ions

No – this is my first time

Well done for admitting it

That’s dirty in so many ways

A long long time ago in a universe far away

The trick is Vaseline

Critiqued on your smile

It makes your teeth shiny

Why do I know these things

It’s good to share

Birmingham meets California on a smiley level

Move me, move me, I’m going to fry

Expose them!

We’re not sharing germs

We’ll make it beep

I’ll go get its tale

It’s made in a sticky way

I wouldn’t trust myself with raw fish here

I once met the gypsy king of Birmingham

How long is a moment?

I wonder what population we are eating?

I really want some Mary Janes!

With half a million you could buy a few people

Will you be willing to look after my dog collar?

I make a point of eating

Lack of oxygen

Don’t fling it, that’s rude

She’s too neat, let me out, let me out…

Whatever tickles you

Save me, save me, don’t let me jump…I’ve got to break free…

The bowl is deceptive

We promise not to tell anybody

I’ve just admitted on tape that I’ve committed white collar theft

In my eyes, it wasn’t wrong

I don’t want to know, but.. you’ve got better negotiation tactics than me

It looks like a pyramid from above

It’s your fault you shop lifting bitch

Should we change Johnny

Sparklers (gasp)

Oh no, get it get it get it, got it

What shall we do with the dead ones?  Put them in the ferrero roche box?

You’re smiling or is it the Vaseline?

Soo it looks all very serious and dangeroius

I tell you, there’s nothing like it for making friends

He’s almost dead in this one

Just put it back on the floor and it’ll be filed by the librarians

I think what’s wrong is I haven’t laughed in a while

It’s like things have a radiation half life, they can infect things a little bit

What are you?  I can hear the sea

And we’re back to Duchamp

Giggles again

I’ve upgraded my sweet taste

In Wolverhampton all you can smell is yeast

Oh look at that, it’s a boat

Cheers, vodka and coffee

The smoke has added to the atmosphere

I don’t work, I’m freelance

I gave my mother the 7th which was nice

I’m not sure if it’s a gender thing

That’s such a gorgeous spoon

Sure, let’s clear

I love talking to myself

Artist Worker Philistine
R H Robinson
Edited by Dave Beech

A study of any industrial town or city and its traditional trades provides us with the evidence of how art and aesthetics have been used to maintain class division. Good taste and etiquette has been enforced through the social reform of the activities and habits of the underclass; ornamentation and decoration, the relentless re-designing of ‘public’ space.

The connections between the decline of the working class and the imposition of gentrification in areas that were hotbeds of industrial activity cannot go unexamined by artists working in these areas. The social, political and economic dynamics of such sites is key.

The recognition of the role of artist as worker is neglected and our reliance on work, not as a source of income, but as a fundamental need is ignored.

The notion of Philistine subjectively embodies antipathy towards the aesthetics view of the cultured individual. An antagonistic social and political constitution provides a renewed critique of modern culture based on indifference to established intellectual and aesthetic values, rather than a reactionary ’uncultured’ response to modern culture.

Art is no longer viewed as a realm of the poor and unconventional. Institutionally it has been claimed by elite collectors and auction houses and socially by the gentrifying establishment. No artist can be seen as being lower class or philistine. Recklessness, eccentricity and outlandish tendencies are only acceptable if their essence can be packaged as a commodity- social awareness and concern acceptable only as art for social good.

The blurring of custom and difference distracts our focus from working class experience and any antagonism towards modern culture. Purpose and functionality have been taken to an extreme that satisfies only the statistics of 'Social Inclusion' policies and strategies of political correctness. And the further pacification of publics and communities experiencing extreme interference and change. The middle ground exists as a place of compliance and safe practice; not a zone for experimentation and indifference.

In high art there is at least honesty and openness about the art economy, which can almost be respected- more than can be said of much public and participatory art- in many cases funded directly by Government and the regeneration revolution's specific social and political agendas. The artist as worker within this enforcement can be faced with the dilemma of choosing sides- of selling out or giving in. But there is always a braver alternative.

Anti-capitalists often swept into the voluntary and charitable sector as 'creatives' working for the greater good are forced to choose between poverty and liberty; sustenance and compliance.

The decline of traditional industries has seen the rise of the creative sector (deemed the saviour of the British economy) which plays a major role in pacifying the public in the face of gargantuan scale regeneration that demolishes any remaining reminders of the working class that built modern society. City centres that were once the territory of the worker now adapted for gentrified city living. The artist is placed at the centre of this. Areas that were once home to industrial belts and the labouring workforce are now replaced with cultural sectors and accompanied by servicing personnel rather than a united workforce. Unfortunately complacency and denial of a continuing working class conscience are the requirement of cultural inclusion.

The tradition of Duchamp separates the artist/worker from his means of production. The Industrial revolution saw commoners forced off the land and in to towns by way of The Enclosure Acts. The labour previously required in the fields now needed as a workforce in factories. Despite exploitation and loss of tradition people adapted to their new urban environment and large numbers of people were now in contact with each other. Associations for self-education and intellectual debate emerged sparking the potential for a working class conscience. However new science, industrial life, poverty and the evolving working class did not conform to the Victorian stereotype of beauty and art of the time emphasized the developing British class system- its intention to instill morality. New ways of life and patterns of social behaviour including mass gatherings were a potential threat.

Artists might consider the connection between corporate theory and Modernism and how their practice supports and endorses this hierarchy.

Historically artists were genuinely in touch with the world of action their innovations were produced in an almost incidental manner- today artistic inventiveness is an end in itself. As the world continues to be filled with identical objects it may also be necessary to commodify alternatives with the purpose of redefining British custom. The instrumental fate of the working class has been aided by the overwhelming physical change to industrial towns and cities and the drastic capitalist strategies imposed in the workplace. The imposition of commerce-style management of the major workforces of Britain (heavy and light industry, health, education, public service) continues to destroy any possible solidarity amongst workers.

The power of art as social phenomena is subdued through the gentrifying process. The philistine is kept at bay and passions for the social, economic or political are withdrawn from public attention, elevated to a pseudo public arena serving the needs of the cultural sector, local government and the targeted art audience. Art education mainly serves to redirect the aspiring philistine to a path of social responsibility or monetary appreciation- both dissolving any initial passion for art and its ability to forge social change.

Artists regardless of their understanding or initial passion for art as a powerful societal force become components in the Creative Industries production line.

The alienation of the production line is reproduced in collaborative art if interaction emulates a process of separation from means of production- the project manager- a role forged from commerce and manifesting as the creative- directs the completion of the commodity and in turn de-skills. De-skilling of the role of the artist as worker evokes underlying deep seated issues of labour that relate to our overall working practice and performance. The de-skilling of crafts is marked by a concentration on the cursory part of making the commodity- the fundamental process of alienation through the Separation of Tasks.

Making involves making things happen. Commodity production is not inevitable in the making of acts, events, gestures and situations that go beyond the idea of commodfication. The production of social relations alone however are not a given indication of actual democracy. The creation of social environments where the audience is assumed as a community gather meaning from collective encounter. Often professing to have no independent or private agendas their potential outcomes remaining in a controlled environment. What type of relations are being set up here, for whom and why?

copyright©MISC.organization2009

< BACK TO PAMELA'S BOWLS

< SEE ALL BOWLS
< LIST OF PARTICIPANTS