Stefan Szczelkun CV 2014
Artists Statement:
My work is a sensible response to situations that I am in. This has led me to work in open artists collectives and to produce books. I have been wary of commissioned work unless in response to specific spaces, situations and communities. The media I used has mainly been writing, photography or video but has also included curation, performance and activism. I have tended to reject establishment modes to embrace more fluid situations.
Biography:
Born in London post WW2 of displaced working class parents I grew up in the suburb of Shepperton. I studied architecture at Portsmouth before joining the Scratch Orchestra. I had some success as an author in the UK and USA with three books on basic life supports: Survival Scrapbooks: Shelter, Food and Energy. Whilst at college I ran the Portsmouth Arts Workshop after being inspired by the Drury Lane Arts Lab and came in contact with leading experimental artists of the day. I then researched the elements of human ability whilst working with New Dance Collective and wrote for their magazine 'New Dance'.
During the Eighties I became a conventional artist moving from Mail art to drawing, printmaking and performance art. I was a founder member of the Brixton Artists Collective and gallery from 1983 -1987. Towards the end of the Eighties my work took a literary and theoretical turn in relation to identity politics. This resulted in: organising 'Working Press: books by and about working class artists' with Graham Harwood and writing three books on class and art; and co-curating a series of exhibitions with 'Bigos: artists of Polish Origin' that were supported by the Arts Council.
At the beginning of the Nineties I had the chance to build my own house in Kennington, London, as part of a self-build co-op. I took an MA in Time-based Media to train in digital media skills. This was followed by a doctorate at the RCA 1997 - 2002 in which I attempted to evaluate my experience of artists collectives with a participant study of Exploding Cinema. At the same time I produced a series of DVD video collections on culture and democracy publishing them post 2002. I got a job teaching on an MA Visual Culture at Westminster University and then joined the Mute Magazine editorial team. This led to a variety of articles and blogs including the collaborative Agit Disco project, which became a book in 2012, and is ongoing as a performance.
Since my doctoral research I have been activating the archives of my past collective activities. These have now been acquired by major public archives including: BFI Special Collections, National Art Library at the V&A, Tate Archive, University of the Creative Arts in Farnham and the Museum of London.
I currently live on the outskirts of South London and am married with a young daughter.
Selected Publications:
'Survival Scrapbooks, Shelter, Food and Energy' Three books published by Unicorn Books, Brighton and Schocken Books USA 1972 -74. (See also: Simon Yuill, Mute, 2006 and FACT, Liverpool, 'Climate for Change' 2009.)
'Artists Liberation' A4 16pp 1986 - Wrote and self-published the only British artist's manifesto of the decade (according to a Coracle compendium)
'Collaborations' Working Press 1986 'Class Myths and Culture' Working Press 1990 'The Conspiracy of Good Taste: William Morris, Cecil Sharp and Clough Williams Ellis and the repression of working class culture' Working Press 1993 (available online)
'Glamour Lied to Me' a text that started as a collaboration with Ed Baxter in 'Collaborations' was digested in 'Class Myths' and then republished in Polish by Wschodnia Galery in Lodz 1991 as part of an exhibition.
'Exploding Cinema 1991 - 1997: culture and democracy' PhD thesis RCA 2002. Aimed to provided a framework for the research and historicisation of open artists collectives. (Archive material now in BFI Special Collections).
'Kennington Common, Birthplace of British Democracy?' Working Press pamphlet, 1997.
London counterculture and people power of the Nineties. Three DVDs 1997 - 2008 - Following my doctoral theme of culture and democracy I shot a series of videos of significant public demonstrations and other events with a view to documenting their visual culture. Three DVDs of these were published with help from University of Westminster. My video footage of Exploding Cinema and Kennington Park has yet to be published.
'Sense, Think, Act: 200 exercises to describe human ability' published as a Mediawiki in 2004 - 6.
Video pedagogy. Research into use of video in higher education 2006 - 2011. Funded by University of Westminster. Two papers published.
Agit Disco as a book, 2012. A collection of 23 annotated playlists through which a variety of people consider the political effects of music in their lives. Each selection existed as a hardcopy CD that forms the main illustrative motif through the book. Published by Mute books in 2012 with several excellent reviews. Current form is a solo performance with 45rpm records - see below.
Active Archiving of Brixton Artists Collective 2007 - 2012. A day seminar at University of Westminster 2010 (edited transcription online). An exhibition and oral history video produced and exhibited at 198 CAL, Brixton 2011. Material acquired by Tate Archive 2012. Heritage Lottery and Arts Council supported. Theory article published in Mute Magazine 2012. Oral history video produced by me - online.
'Mixing it Up' an intergenerational artists project 2012. Video discussion with Robbie Lockwood. Produced by New Work Network. Released nationally. Online.
Artists Collectives/ Collaborative projects:
Portsmouth Arts Workshop 1968 /1969 - Curator/organiser. Many multimedia events.
BASE 1968 - As a student of architecture I organised a large scale experimental architecture event in Portsmouth, as part of Buckminster Fuller's World Design Science Decade. With inflatables, performance artists including Stuart Brisley.
Scratch Orchestra 1969 /70 - Recently documented as part of John Tilbury's major work 'Cornelius Cardew: a life unfinished'.(2008) This experience continues to inform my practice. I was part of a performance sub-group called 'Slippery Merchants'.
Brixton Artists Collective and Gallery 1983 /1986 - General leadership including anti-racism policy development. Organised three experimental shows: ROADWORKS: ten artists work in the street for ten days documenting their activity back in the gallery' (including Mona Hatoum and Rasheed Araeen), Art of ImMEDIAcy with Ian Sherman, and the first show by Bigos, my Polish artists group. Activation of the BAG archive in 2012 was supported by ACE and Lottery Heritage based at 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning. In Tate archive collection.
Mail Art - 1984 - 1990. Active in the International Postal Art Network. Many projects and artworks. Projects archived in Tate Library/archive and National Art Library/archive at V&A.
Performance collaborations - with Mona Hatoum 1985 /1988 (Chisenhale and Brixton). Performance art with Catherine Yass and the late Ian Hinchliffe and others at Zap Club, Plagiarism Festival and Chisenhale. Emigration Ritual in Hull with local residents.
Bigos: artists of Polish origin 1986 /1993 - Formed and led this open group to explore what art can contribute to the discourse on immigrant identity and cultural assimilation. Shows across UK and in Poland. Art Council grant for 'Made to Measure' UK touring show. Archive materials recently acquired by the Tate.
'Working Press: books by and about working class artists' 1986 /1996 - Group project and imprint to explore peoples thinking about the idea of working class artists and to support working class artists to self-publish their thinking. 18 publications by authors that included Graham Harwood and Mathew Fuller. Archived with contextual publication collection in 2013 by University of the Creative Arts (BookRoom, Farnham).
Sharsted Street Self-build Housing Co-op 1994 /1996 - Ten shared ownership houses built by ten families over three years. Video documentation and archive materials. Article Variant 2 Spring 1997.
'Song Books' 2012 - Two large collective realisations of John Cage's magnum opus performed at Cafe Oto and Arts Admin's theatre at Aldgate. This was Scratch Orchestra members with younger singers and performers. Reviewed in The Wire, Feb 2013.
‘Nature Study Notes’ 2013 -2015 - A continuation of the group above to perform a collection of text scores that played a core role in the early Scratch Orchestra in 1969. A performance at Chisenhale Dance Space June 2014 was positively reviewed in The Wire. Another performance follows at Cafe Oto on 22nd of February 2015.
'Agit Disco' project 2008 - 2015. A collection of 23 annotated playlists through which a variety of people consider the political effects of music in their lives. Each selection existing as a hardcopy CD as well as on a website. Published by Mute books in 2012 with an audio mirror on YouTube. Several excellent reviews. To be translated and republished in Japan. Also includes an ongoing Agit Disco Plus blog by me. Current dispersal form is a solo performance with 45rpm records and discussion - Cafe Gallery, London and Site Gallery, Sheffield, October 2014. MayDay Rooms, Fleet Street, London, November 2014. "Forty-five years after the launch of his astonishing flying disc, Stefan Szczelkun continues to promote delight, liberation and good thinking. The discs are still flying!" Howard Skempton, Composer.
Selected Photoworks (published videos listed above)
* Photo-day duets: 24 photographs decided by two artists over a 9-5 working day. Nine duets made in all with some now well-known artists. +
* Head to head: Sillouetted meetings of community members literally putting their heads together. Part of Bigos artists of Polish Origin outreach workshops (e.g. at Cartwright Hall Bradford). +
* 'Post Art': Mail art received from the International Postal Art Network placed in public spaces and photographed.
* ‘Housework was her life’. A set of slides of my mum at work.
* HOUSEWORK: Documentations of art actions in Eighties based on a plywood house on wheels. Includes video graded from S8 film. An unshown section made with Catherine Yass. etc.
* Glamour - culture or nature? Stretched photocopy based work printed onto cloth (V&A print collection). Includes texts and ongoing media research folders… (related paintings were shown at Transmission, text with Ed Baxter in Collaborations and Class Myth & Culture). Ongoing.
* HEAD: A macabre rotating mask with early computer generated soundtrack by Jason Skeet aka Aphasic c1995.
* Kennington Park: A phone-photo diary of 2006, videos of key events, paper archive, 1997 pamphlet, A meditation on the middle class mediation of public space. A possible installation.
* An album of phone photographs 2004 - 2008: Printed onto tailoring paper patterns providing an enigmatic diary. Proof available.
* Three performances for photograph: Photographers were Edward Woodman and Patrick Gilbert. Published as postcards and distributed as part of International Postal Art Network and in other ways.
* 'My Life in T-Shirts': Video and slides. Made with help from LabCulture and with a soundtrack by Simon Poulter.
* All Objects - an archeology of the popular subconscious: a video made for the Freud Museum and shown in the Polish Cultural Institute, London, 1998. This work alludes back to a long-term interest in 'All Objects' and 1001 activities.
* ‘A Biography recorded on mobile phones’ My daughter Maya was born in 2005 about the time phone videography started to be widespread. As the quality and size increases she grows up.
* 'Numbers 1 - 100': The semiotics of numbers.
Current Photo-projects
* ‘Plotlands UK - Gower’: I have recently photo-documented several of the chalet fields of Gower. I am currently working with Mikey Tomkins to raise funding to make video investigations of three UK plotland areas. (This is a long-term theme. I took my first slides of plot land houses in 1971.)
* 'Compostions' (sic): records of my domestic compost. Recently upgraded.
* 'Noticeboards': Drafted on iPhone but in process of upgrading. Community noticeboards.
* Thornton Heath: Documentation of a downmarket suburb where I live (ongoing). Again drafted using my iPhone camera. Intended as collaboration with theorist of the suburban.
* Left London: A Left-field Guide to London. Built around photographs, texts and localised walks. A proposed collaborative project with Caroline Heron that will grow from short videos to phone apps through 2015.
* ‘Windrush Generation’: A series of still Foveon portraits of elderly black allotmenteers in Thornton Heath.
* ‘Retail’: Shopfronts in South London.
Other works-in-progress in other media
* ‘Glamour: the politics of human beauty’: a long-term theme with past realisations in text, print, collage and oil painting. I have collected material to research this further.
* ‘Humanism and class separation’: This is an ongoing set of readings with an intended theory outcome. Collaboration or seminar welcome.
* ‘Ending Money’: Short texts that envisage a society beyond the current financialised one seems unimaginable to most people. The idea here is to form a team to look at the potential of the smart phone as a co-ordinating tool that could replace money. (This is not ‘the cash-less society’!)
* Working Class Artists: proposed oral history project focusing on interviews with mature working class artists to see how class origins have effected their practice.
* ‘ART MUST GET OUT’: A union style banner is made up and photographed outside of leading commercial whitecube galleries.
* 'Wooden concertina clothes airer' with the joiner Mandie Beuzeval. Revisiting a portable performance and projection structure from early Routine Art Co performances and enlarging it.
* 'Agit Disco Dispersal' - with a local area people are invited to bring recordings that have inspired them politically in their lives to an event. The recordings are played and the people talk about the music they have selected. This is all recorded and made into a series of radio programmes and pod casts.
* 'The politics of common land used for public meetings' (working title) - A feature film length collage. I have a rich collection of footage and other documentations from a participant study of Kennington Park that I would like to re-utilise within a dramatic narrative.
* 'LEFT LONDON' Tourist guides about London's landmark cultural centres from a radical viewpoint. Starting with The National Gallery, St Pauls Cathedral and Trafalgar Square, these places will be treated to a critical leftwing make-over. The tourist guides are intended to exist in the form of easily downloaded apps. Looking for partners.
