Something (not) like Art Sheffield

After a visit to Sheffield for the opening(s) of Art Sheffield 10 (Life: A Users Guide) last night it was encouraging to see a fairly substantial Leeds presence (as visitors). Whilst no doubt being there to enjoy it on its own terms I imagine that some of us were there also as a bit of a reccy and as such wondered whether people from Leeds might see it as a good model for an event in Leeds or not?

My view is that, quality of work aside, the fact that you can see the whole thing in an evening and it had some coherence to it was a good thing. One of our party commented though that the whole thing felt very 'regulated' and was as such a little pretentious (the curatorial theme being a bit unnecessary/redundant, wine being the same 'suggested donation' across the board etc). It did, however, prompt some fringe exhibitions, one of which we visited on The Moor (including work by Leeds' Joe Gilmore) was my favourite experience of the night by a long shot which went some way to fulfilling our desire for something a little less safe and muted.

Obviously there are parallels to be drawn and comparisons to be made with Leeds events like Situation Leeds, Ways of Looking and maybe ESA's United programme - perhaps even Light Night. Do people feel, after having visited or heard about Art Sheffield, that there is something valid for Leeds to learn from it, even it's something to make sure is done differently here?

what I particularly liked about the exhibitions in Art Sheffield was the walking between venues. I'm not saying I didn't like the exhibitions but the chance to see and explore around bits of Sheffield that I otherwise wouldn't see was exciting. I was surprised (and a little disappointed) that we didn't see any Live Art on the opening night.

I found the fringe event to contain the most interesting things that I experienced in relation to Art Sheffield. It was loud and smelly and a lot of fun.

One thing that irritated me about the exhibitions was the number of video works that could only be listened to with headphones. This might work if there are only 3 people in a gallery but when you've got hundreds it makes for lots of queueing and this event was launched to hundreds of people.

Overall though, a fun night out (no free booze though!!)

I liked the staples on the booklet.

Millenium Gallieries is fab - going up an escalator to see art- how mall?

My fave piece was Happy by Maud Haya Baviera Chap hands - Yes, clap hands!!

I will have to go back to see the rest cos I had to jet quicktime for early train - still it's on til May so it's likley I'll get the chance.

Working as an artist in both Art Sheffield and Situation Leeds there are a lot of plus' and minus' to be drawn from both. The advantage of an event like Art Sheffield (for the artist) is that it consolidates the viewing experience and extends the presence of the artwork for a longer period providing a greater scope to be seen to a wider range of people. This can to some extent translate directly into developing the artists profile and career (for want of a better word). This though is hugely difficult to quantify. It is very difficult and rare to see the actual benefits that are being reaped. That is not to say they are not there, only they are elusive. It is the hope that the high profile of the festival cultivates some similar raising of awareness for the artist. This is true in both cases but it is important that this process is developed and monitored and not assumed to happen organically. The organisers of Situation Leeds seemed aware of this and worked hard to pay the artist through such processes where monetary rewards were not possible.

Networking is of importance in such situations too. Situation Leeds were very good at cultivating this and arranged opportunities for the artists to meet early. This was not possible for Art Sheffield as the artists are coming from all over the world but perhaps there could be other ways of introducing each other in time. Of course this is perhaps not as important in such a festival.

I found the vitality of Situation Leeds was lacking in Art Sheffield although the quality of work in Situation Leeds was open to a lot of flux. It would be beneficial to an event like Situation Leeds to cultivate more formal processes in its execution while maintaining its ephemeral nature. The 5th Berlin Biennale was a good example of how this could be done.

I unfortunatly missed Situation Leeds, so I am afriad I cannot do any comparing, but I suppose looking at the MIF/CAM in manchester or when the British Art Show came to town, or for something instigated more locally FUTUREEVERYTHING 2009/2010, I agree that it is great oppertunity for especially solo artists to be a part of something so encompassing of the activity across the city, and as Rob said a great oppertunity to increase/broaden audiences to work, especially when mixing in international artists. But as always quality of work is an issue, how is that desided, who judges? try and curate something that big heavy handedly it can appear styfled (I am positive that is not how you spell that), curate it too loosley its disjointed. Then its hitting the middle ground without being medicore and safe...its a mind field and I am not sure anyone has the answers!!! But all in all I think it is great to try and build a platform to showcase whats happening in a city, and a great way to promote the scene I suppose. What I find when talking to alot of people in manc, and leeds, is people fed up, claiming its always the same faces and the scene/community is stagant and a big part of this problem is that graduates dont stay...they all move to london/edinburgh....somewhere, and the main reason they dont stay is they claim there is nothing to stay for, I think these type events go a long way to disprove that, especially the fringe events promotoing the DIY/ Underground culture.

However more specifically to do with Art Sheffield, I found the enviroment very closed and almost hostile, and its not the 1st time I have experienced that there. I think we all know how I felt about paying for the wine, which in principle I have no problem with, and had adequate money to pay (just thought I would put that bit in), but its that whole 'suggested donations' bullshit, if you want to sell booze, do it legally, if your not going to get a liscense then instead of saying, by not paying for that wine you actively not supporting what we do (which is what somebody said to me, to which I responded with 'i am supporting you by being here'...and it went on yadda yadda yadda) say we need to cover the booze, we havent got a liscense so we are asking everyone to pay £1.50. I really wouldnt care. I just found everyone very very tense and at some points rude. which I do not think reflects an event thats supposed to be open, welcoming and representation of the Sheffield art scene.

It wasnt til I got to Site and was dicussing this with someone there that this was perhaps expalined abit more, apperently SCAF (I dont know if this is true...please dont sue!) had got alot of peoples backs up, being putting demands on venues, imposing pricing etc, which alot of people were uncomfertable with, and this has caused people to break away to form the fringe festival, they had also adopted a 'smear' internet marketing campaign (fringe not SCAF) and had threatend galleries with desturctive interventions in there venues on the previews night....I have no idea how true this all is, not from the person i was talking to they are very nice and were merely passing on info(!), but it does go some way to explaining the tension in the air.

That said I thought 75% of the work was stonkingly good.

Yvonne just dug out a publication from Sideshow (a programme of events and exhibitions that coincided with the British Art Show) from 2006 which has an interesting article by (ex?)-Leedsman Bryan Davies about similar issues. Are these festivals and city-wide exhibitions that aim at a 'high-quality' experience sometimes way off the mark? Is it really in keeping with contemporary discourse on art to try and heavily brand and regulate a whole city so it appears as a great place for artists to be? Is it not the case that everyone can see through the (often misplaced) hype? I'm personally much more interested in festivals like Manifesta that (genuinely) try and respond to the area, and are quite conscious of their role in art tourism and the very complicit (with capital) and potentially regressive nature of that. Such 'politically-focused' art-events aren't without their problems of course.

That said, I went to the AV festival in Newcastle last week and had a great time. The (very loose) theme was around energy and, unsurprisingly, audio and visual technologies but actually a lot of the work that I enjoyed was pretty straightforward installation work like Felix Hess

and Artificiel



Very pretty (and innocuous) stuff! The whole festival had a really good vibe to it though; not particularly pretentious. Perhaps that was helped by the really mixed venues, from the Baltic to the Discovery museum, to independent Cinemas to the Tyne Bridge. (It was quite a trek to see everything though and that was just in Newcastle). Plus it doesn't really announce itself as a Fine Art, or even contemporary art festival; rather it's 'electronic arts' which I guess can take in a lot of design stuff too. Anyway, i'm sure there's something to learn and take from these various things that are happening in the North!