BEINGS

BEINGS has been published by Salt n Pepper Press to coincide with an exhibition held at Village bookstore in Leeds as part of Index Festival, a series of fringe events alongside Yorkshire Sculpture International. Village hosted a series of photographic exhibitions focused around sculpture and form. As a project it adds to the conversation about how photographic images speak about the sculptural nature of their subject, and in fact contribute to a transformation of 'things' into something that can be interpreted as sculptural objects. Objects come into being with an intended purpose; a reason to exist. This ‘stuff’ then sloshes around the everyday, like detritus: sometimes being useful (as intended); sometimes just being stuff. The area outside these two states is like a transformation, when an object or an environment can be seen as a separate entity from its particular function. In BEINGS, objects and environments are what they appear to be; a cheese pot, a ladder, a piece of laminate flooring, a road. However, they are also constituent parts of a larger whole, like the matter from which they are themselves made. Where these object-particles collide they create something new that is without a particular purpose, but which takes on a new sculptural form. In this context of remixing the everyday, some subjects instead sit as-found. Sitting in the glow of their reconfigured counterparts, they are somehow altered by association. They have a sculptural potential radiating beyond their use-function

#prank4offices

The output is a creative project, #pranks4offices, consisting of a series of photographs. Research process: Over several years, Welding has regularly searched the hashtag ‘#officepranks’, and collected an archive of hundreds of vernacular images. This led him to make informal comparisons on an aesthetic and process level with the work of art photographers. Iamronjay42 and Iaminstapauli0 were the Instagram names of two fictional office workers that engaged in a fictional office prank war. These characters were created as a vehicle to make the project #prank4offices for FORMAT International Photography Festival in 2015. Their office desks were set up in the exhibition venue at either end of the room, positioned facing each other. Over a number of weekends in March 2015, a series of pranks were staged on their desks, photographed then dismantled. The photographs were shared on the Instagram accounts, with the characters commenting on each other’s posts and continuing the fictional narrative. In the final exhibition, the two desks remained; one was surrounded by 700 plastic cups filled with water, the other completely wrapped in cling film. The audience was directed to view the photographs of the previous pranks on their phones whilst they stood in the exhibition space, revealing evidence of the office prank war. Research insights: The project raises questions about the role of creativity within the sphere of art practice and within everyday environments and the project playfully considers the merging of these two areas of production. The project also continues an ongoing critique of our relationships with daily working lives, where creative activities often run counter to the wider company aspirations of productivity. Dissemination: The project was disseminated at the FORMAT International Photography Festival, Derby, 13 March – 12 April 2015

La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même

OVERTIME was an exhibition that explored the differences between office spaces and the artists’ studio. SEIZE Leeds invited 26 artists to respond to an office space – to explore the tools and working methods common to such spaces through making art. Occupying a disused floor of Wellington Park House, in Leeds’ busy financial district, the exhibition brought together a diverse range of artists in order to showcase both emerging and more established practitioners from across the UK. SEIZE Leeds is an artist-led organisation that works to engage and support emerging and mid-career artists both regionally and nationally through a programme of ambitious art shows and events. They work with vacant spaces in situ to produce exciting and accessible exhibitions that explore ideas relevant to each location and promote talent

#prank4offices

A quick search of the hashtag ‘prank4offices’ on Instagram reveals evidence of two co-workers engaged in an office prank war with each other. Evident are a range of pranks including; multiple photographs of Justin Bieber's face neatly arranged to cover a desk, tin foil covering a workspace, belongings balanced precariously in a pile, the entire contents of someone’s desk cling film-wrapped to an office chair and a desk surrounded by hundreds of water-filled cups. The two employees are known as Iamronjay42 and Iaminstapauli0 on the photo sharing website ‘Instagram’. Iamronjay42 and Iaminstapauli0 are in fact fictional characters acting out a fictional office prank war. In reality, they are a vehicle for me to think about the process of making office pranks from the perspective of an artist. For me as an artist, making ‘work’ (in the art sense) is often done in the workplace or in everyday situations, utilising everyday ‘stuff’ to construct temporary arrangements. Don’t tell work, but this is often done on company time too. Making work in this way can sometimes feel like being an illicit ‘artist-in-residence’ in the office, and blurs the boundary between artist and worker. This article features a range of the photographs that make up the project #prank4offices. In a contextual statement about the work, it also proposes that there is a ‘sculptural desire’ in the workplace, and that the visibility of vernacular photography is affecting how users of everyday photographs stage scenes for the camera

Home occupations

The output is a creative project, ‘Home Occupations’, comprising of a collection of photography, moving image and text-based works, to talk about the sometimes-absurd experience of ‘working from home’. Research process: The research process involved searching popular hashtags on Instagram that relate to ‘boredom’ and ‘working from home’ as a starting point. I searched for visual evidence of what Jean Burgess describes as ‘vernacular creativity’ (Burgess, J 2010) in the actions of people who are working from home. I am interested in how peoples’ behaviours and their interactions with everyday belongings are affected by the home working environment. The production of the work for and in response to the festival is an innovative approach, and sets it apart from the majority of the projects shown at the festival. The project was made in real time, during the festival, as I worked from home. Four digital screens in the virtual exhibition were updated periodically throughout the festival, serving as updates on my progress (or lack thereof).Research insights: It is my assertion that working from home changes our relationship with the objects we own and the domestic spaces we inhabit. It results in inhabiting two personas; that of worker and homeowner. There is a contrast between the intangibility of virtual meetings and being surrounded by tangible household objects. They are present whilst I work, they distract me from work. Often, they serve as a reminder of something that needs doing. That shelf needs fixing. The lawn needs mowing. Other times, they are a welcome distraction from the work contained on the screen. The boundaries of the work/life balance become eroded when the dog can join my meeting. The term Home Occupations has a dual meaning here. In the US, zoning regulations have defined what is an acceptable home occupation. For me however, the title speaks of becoming occupied with the home, its contents and the permeable divide between work and life. The photographs are humorous, but they also highlight a significant change in our professional working lives, one that has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but is now most certainly endemic and here to stay. Dissemination: The project was disseminated at the FORMAT International Photography Festival 2021, 12 March 2021 – 5 March 2023 as part of a virtual exhibition curated by Peter Bonnell. The exhibition can be found on the link below until the 5th March 2023. It was also published in the exhibition catalogue which has been distributed internationally and is for sale through the Format Festival website

Cutting corners

The output is a creative project, Cutting Corners, comprising a collection of photography. Research process: This project takes as it’s starting point photographs from the British Safety Council (BSC) archive and the continual stream of vernacular photographs on Instagram to critique the performative, humorous and absurd nature of these scenarios. Mobile phone technology has enabled depictions of unsafe practices to be widely documented, distributed and accessed. The proliferation of these photographic warnings has increased dramatically. The photographs in ‘Cutting Corners’ show fictional health and safety problems, produced specifically for the project. Once photographed, the scenarios were swiftly dismantled and only the photographs remain as evidence. Research insights: People will do anything to cut corners. Or so it seems when browsing Instagram, where many photographs depict health and safety ‘fails’ that seem to celebrate others’ misfortune. A builder balances a ladder on a couple of buckets for that extra reach; a painter straps a house lamp to his head to illuminate the ceiling. There is a desire to see the mistakes of others because it makes us laugh and feel superior. Their methods may be lazy, but they are creative and surprisingly inventive. Photographs of hazards began life in earnest in the pamphlets of the BSC, and are now perpetuated and exaggerated through Instagram. The production of the work for and in response to the festival is an innovative approach, and sets it apart from the majority of the projects shown at the festival. The photographs are humorous, but they also highlight specific changes in the representation of hazards through vernacular imagery. Warnings of potential hazards were once controlled by the British Safety Council. Now, everyday users of photography take on this role and through exaggerated and absurd imagery the message is being effectively proliferated. Dissemination: The project was disseminated at the FORMAT International Photography Festival, Derby, 14 April – 11 May 2019

Are you the enemy? Are you losing it? Black Dogs Quarterly

Black Dogs is an art collective formed in 2003 in Leeds. It operates as a non-profit organisation that produces collective publications, exhibitions and events. This Quarterly publication draws together the work of a number of Black Dog members (and a few non-members) around the dual and interlocking themes of Who is the enemy? and Are you losing it