Beyond the Gallery

A new tradition

of

non-tradition

Scott Farlow Artist

24th March 2015

Beyond the Gallery

- Practice Reflection

- A new way of thinking

- A new way of responding –Birmingham Markets

- A new way of being – what can I bring to the built environment?

Practice Reflection

who am i?I am Scott Farlow

I am an Artist

This is who I am

Being an Artist is as much about how we think, feel, behave

& respond to people & the world that we inhabit as it is

about what we actually create.

A Gallery beyond the Gallery

I explore connections and disconnections.

My work imaginatively responds to the narrative, meaning and identity of places and people.

I reveal beauty and resonance in the ordinary, the forgotten, the unexpected and the everyday.

My process - the experience of my work - is sometimes collaborative, often collective and always enriching.

My work is realised through permanent, temporary or mobile transformations of the public realm, place and memory.

A Portrait

of Culverhay

Community influencing

regeneration

Cricklade

With Reckless Orchard

For GreenSquare

Elemental Encounters

Artistic Action Research for Devizes

With the Scribblers Club

welcome Home – a public art commission for Linden Homes Western, Bristol. 2014

Beyond the Gallery

A new tradition

of

non-tradition

Scott Farlow Artist

24th March 2015

Designing is not a profession but an attitude….

thinking in relationships.

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

A new way of thinking….Being an Artist is all encompassing,

It is part of life.

It is my life.

It is both enriching & challenging,

& enriching because it is challenging.

It is rooted.

It is within and outwith me.

It is about endeavour & exchange.

It is about experimentation & failure,

& learning from those failures.

“The thing that's important to know is that you never know. You're

always sort of feeling your way.”Diane Arbus, Diane Arbus Revelations

THE PERSONAL NARRATIVE

Reflect upon your:

- interests & curiosity

- creative skills, inspirations & knowledge

- thoughts & imagination

Acknowledge what you don’t know.

Consider your willingness to:

- learn & find out more

- influence & be influenced

- experiment & innovate

- share & articulate responses & ideas openly

We all see things differently…

What can you bring to the table?

What is your offer?

A new imaginative, inspired & intellectual point of reference

– your integrity, energy, enthusiasm & endeavour.

Your SELF

THE NARRATIVE OF PLACE & PEOPLE

What is there? Who is there?

What is not there? Who is not there?

What can you borrow from what was & what is to inspire,

inform, influence, augment & enhance what will be?

When does a space become a place?

What is the narrative of this place?

What is local distinctiveness & identity?

What are places for?

THE CONTEXTUAL NARRATIVE

The non-gallery setting (to me) means everywhere else.

OUTSIDE THE GALLERY IS THE GALLERY

THE FABRIC OF PLACE IS AN ALTERNATIVE CANVAS

OR SETTING OR PLATFORM FOR INTEGRATED IDEAS,

CRITICAL THINKING & UNEXPECTED INTERVENTIONS

THAT ARE EMBEDDED OR REVEALED IN SUCH A WAY

AS TO INSPIRE PUBLIC INTERACTION & SOCIAL

EXCHANGE IN A REAWAKENING OF THE INDIVIDUAL &

COLLECTIVE CULTURAL CONSCIOUSNESS.

THE COMMISSION NARRATIVE

What does the brief demand?

What do clients think that they want?

Why do they want what they want?

In other words who (or what) are the ‘key drivers’

informing/influencing the commissioning process?

What is the rationale for ‘public art’?

We have a responsibility to consider matters of

appropriateness & sometimes to challenge and reconfigure

perceived notions of what is desirable.

A NEW CREATIVE NARRATIVE

Challenge ourselves to:

- challenge ourselves

- challenge others

- be curious at all times

- consider new opportunities, new ways of thinking & new ways of seeing & experiencing & exposing the world

- subvert common practice or the norm

- consider alternative methodologies & imaginative/innovative ways of employing our creative spirits to meaningfully engage with people & place

- create a new & enriching cultural exchange that emerges from & is embedded in locality

- strive for authenticity

As we travel around Britain, I am convinced most of us cannot really

appreciate what we are seeing. We take too much for granted, because it

is all so familiar.

Martin Parr

Beyond the Gallery

A new way of responding

- a wander round the Market -

The markets have been present here since 1154

Their enduring value cannot be underestimated – as a place of

commerce, endeavour, meeting point, love, loss, exchange

They represent the stuff of life – where everything happened –

the noise, the voices, the human interactions, the comings &

goings everyday.

And now it is changing again.

The daily state of flux is, itself, in a state of flux.

The change imposed by an ever changing system.

The rhythm, the routine, the familiarity, the life, the death &

the transactions will be replaced by a new set of rhythms,

routines & transactions.

The proposed shift and transformation of the Birmingham

Markets is part of the greater social, economic, political &

cultural transaction that we have made with the world,

ourselves & the human race in our quest for improvement,

advancement, expansion & greater efficiency.

So, amidst this unceasing change, Art, Artistic Practice,

Creative Innovation & Philosophical Thinking must also

adapt and positively influence the public realm and transform

our experience, understanding & relationship with new built

environments.

Artists must endeavour to play an intrinsic, enriching &

fundamental role in the new transactions.

We have an opportunity to be at the vanguard of these

profound shifts & to meaningfully inform & contribute to a

new local distinctiveness & sense of place.

Wander with open minds.

Look up,

Look down,

Look all around.

Look again.

Pause a moment,

Here and there,

To touch the surfaces,

And absorb the sense and patina of

place,

The space,

The people passing through,

The sights,

And sounds

Of the streets

And beyond.

Then return and wander Again,

With open hearts.

Look up,

Look down,

Look all around.

Look again.

And again. And again…..