The workshop was led by the distinguished American artist Mark Dion, with the Canada-born, Chicago-based art critic Lori Waxman. Teresa Gleadowe initiated the workshop and was the convenor in partnership with Martin Clark, Artistic Director of Tate St Ives. Sally Tallant joined the workshop on Wednesday 19 and Thursday 20 October.
Martin Clark has been Artistic Director at Tate St Ives since 2007, leading on the development and delivery of the exhibitions and displays programme, as well as the wider public programme including Interpretation and Learning. Previously he was Curator of Exhibitions at Arnolfini, Bristol (2005-7), and Curator and Exhibitions Tutor at Kent Institute of Art and Design (now University College of the Creative Arts) (2002-5). Read More
Mark Dion was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1961. He received a BFA (1986) and an honorary Doctorate (2001) from the University of Hartford School of Art, Connecticut, and studied at the School of Visual Arts, New York from 1982 to 1984 and on the Whitney Independent Study Program, New York from 1984 to 1985. Dion’s work examines the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge and the natural world. The job of the artist, he says, is to go against the grain of dominant culture, to challenge perception and convention. Mark Dion’s work incorporates aspects of archaeology, ecology and detection. He is fascinated by the principles of taxonomy, the systems of classification by which people have sought to bring order to the world. The artist’s spectacular and often fantastical curiosity cabinets, modeled on Wunderkammeren of the 16th Century, exalt atypical orderings of objects and specimens.
Born in Montreal, Canada, Lori Waxman is a Chicago-based critic and art historian. Her column ‘Art at Large’ appears bi-weekly in the Chicago Tribune, and her reviews and articles have been published in Artforum, Artforum.com, Modern Painters, Gastronomica, Parkett and Tema Celeste, as well as the now defunct Parachute, New Art Examiner and FGA. She is the co-editor and co-author of the book Girls! Girls! Girls! in contemporary art (2011, Intellect Press, UK) and one of three contributors to Talking with Your Mouth Full: New Language for Socially Engaged Art (2008, The Green Lantern Press). Read More
Teresa Gleadowe is a curator, writer and editor with extensive experience in the contemporary visual arts in the UK and internationally. She worked as an Exhibition Officer and then as Assistant Director of the Visual Arts Department of the British Council from 1977 to 1989 before being appointed Head of Information at the Tate Gallery in 1989. In 1992 she joined the academic staff of the Royal College of Art to develop the first UK-based MA in curating, jointly initiated by the Royal College of Art and the Arts Council. She directed this two-year, full-time programme, Curating Contemporary Art, for fourteen years until the summer of 2006, when she left the college to work freelance. Read More
Sally Tallant is the Head of Programmes at the Serpentine Gallery, London where she is responsible for the delivery of an integrated programme of Exhibitions, Architecture, Education and Public Programmes. Since 2001 she has been developing an ambitious programme of artist’s projects and commissions, conferences, talks and events. Read More
Artists, curators and writers from the region were invited to contribute to evening events and to make presentations about projects in Cornwall and the South West of England. A number of special visitors were also invited to ‘drop in’ during the course of the workshop.
Ten participants were selected from the open submission: Laura Barlow, Paul Chaney, Hannah Jones, Kenna Hernly, Jonty Lees, Steven Paige, Abigail Reynolds, Phil Rushworth, Veronica Vickery, Bettina Wenzel.
A small number of international participants were invited to attend the workshop with the support of overseas cultural agencies: Natasha Ginwala, Birta Gudjonsdottir, Morten Kvamme, Daniel Muzyczuk. Read More