Snaps from the Open Studio

The last post here gave an introduction to The Open Studio at the University of Derby. It mentioned the importance of Photography as an artform within the School, something that has its origins in the 1950's and reached the pinnacle of its recognition in the 1970's under the guidance of Bill Gaskins and then Nigel Trow. Between them they brought into the teaching staff luminaries such as John Blakemore, Paul Hill, Richard Sadler, and Olivier Richon as well as a host of other major figures in the emerging Fine Art photography community. The course was almost unique in that for a number of years it was shared with the then Trent Polytechnic. The 'glory days' were somewhat behind us when we set up the Studio though I'd like to think we endeavoured to show that the medium was still celebrated even though it was now part of a broad based range of degree courses in Art & Design. But for a brief time we managed to assemble a quite stellar crew - John Blakemore, Sarah Jones, John Goto & Mark Durden amongst several other fine photographers. Alongside the 'big hitters' with long track records we had many other fine practitioners working in a variety of capacities and the work of Matt Jones, who ran our Mac Lab, is shown above.

Visitors featured in several of the exhibitions and one of them, Richard Mosse is now himself very much one of the big names in global Fine Art Photography. His Broken Spectre has received much praise in the past few years. At Derby he mounted an early solo show Nothing To Declare.

Part of the community were the PhD students, many of whom have had subsequent (or in some cases prior) success in their chosen field. One such was Antonia Bardis from Athens via the US and Goldsmiths College whose Manmade Environments ran from 19 Nov. 2008 to 30 Jan 2009 in The Corridor Space on the Markeaton Street campus - the main thoroughfare to the Library.

Although photography as a fine art practice had always been the primary focus at Derby we did try to expand the portfolio and David Bryson (work above) was one of the staff involved in this. We ran an interesting programme for some time that was devoted to still and moving image in the more scientific area, though sadly we couldn't attract enough students to maintain it. Nonetheless David was an important contributor to the wider ethos that resulted in a Commercial Photograpy degree running alongside the more art-inflected offering.

Post graduate students are an important component of any thriving academic research community, it is often the Masters students who are first to break 'new ground'. The image above is one such from Stephen Monger. Stephen was on his Masters course when he participated in a fortnight long residency in Cornwall selected from an open call for participants and organised by my colleague John France. His practice involved the painsstaking creation of a scene that he then photographed.

The Open Studio

I spent some fifteen or so years working at the University of Derby. I joined it a few years after it pulled off the remarkable feat of going from a College to a University sparking the gap as it were of Polytechnic status. Just over twelve months after I arrived (ostensibly as a short term contract of three months)I became the 'Acting' Dean of the (then) School of Art & Design. Six months later I was given the job for real. The first two years were tough but luckily I was aided and abetted by a really good bunch and we revalidated every course, survived three inspections and 'steadied' a badly listing ship. For a few years we were able to re-establish something that approximated a 'proper' Art School...no mean feat in a University. Of course there came a reorganisation in which we became a Faculty, with the Engineering School tacked on to us along with the Humanities courses (it might have been more ridiculous - the first plan was to amalgamate Art & Design with Health, that their Dean wittily suggested was because "they made the drugs and we took 'em").

One of the things that was a lot of fun though was The Open Studio - that we set up as a result of the research funding we were given after the 2001 RAE (Research Assessment Exercise. It enabled the School to support a number of exhibitions, inviting in artists from outside and enriching the student experience. The establishment of the Studio was accompanied by work by Peter Finnemore.

Over the years many artists mounted shows of their work. Inevitably given the School's long time excellence in Photography quite a few were included, some Masters and PhD students, others with no previous connections to the place. But the painters amongst us managed to include some shows too...

Above a canvas by Thomas Hylander, a recent Royal College graduate, below a painting on board by Sarah R Key, a previous graduate from Derby with a body of work that constituted part of her PhD submission at Loughborough University.

Collecting Art

I'm not overly fond of seeing my own artwork about the house.  I know others do it but I've always rather liked purchasing or better still exchanging work with other artists.  It started back at school but sadly several pieces I acquired from older pupils at Heles School have never made it onto the walls of my homes - primarily because they weren't framed.

This one uses a technique of transferring newsprint images to paper, a rather popular idea amongst the sixth formers who had picked up on the work of Robert Rauschenberg through devouring the copies of ArtForum our enlightened art teacher Peter Thursby had let us have access to his personal copies of.  This is the work of Christopher Madge, but as with the others I've tried to locate their later lives on the Web but to no avail.

Another I have is by an older pupil, Ric Conn, who seemed to me immensely suave and sophisticated and who I rather wanted to model myself on.  Not least because he was willing to experiment with proper abstraction. But perhaps the most accomplished piece I acquired came from a student called Denys Avis.

It struck me then, and still does, as a really good piece of design and a very sophisticated technical print.

Of more recent times...

Nowadays I'm not as busy as I was.  In fact more often than not I'm hardly pushed at all!  When we can, other obligations., funding etc., we try to get away.  Over the past few years we've been fortunate to obtain residency opportunities in both Cornwall and Shetland that have enabled us to spend time in these wonderful locations for artists whose work still depends on stimuli from such experiences.  Here I'm using the phone camera to capture something of the Cornish coast in a very benign winter evening.  The Cornish trip was especially good.  It took place right on the tip of Cape Cornwall, for most of history believed to be the most westerly point of the county, only to be superseded by Lands End when 'proper' measurement came along.  But Lands End has been privatised, with all the consequent degradation we might expect.  The Cape, saved for the nation through the good works of Heinz (our beans and soups contributing), is only a few miles north but a world away from the commercialised nightmare of the 'End'.

It's a great place to sit and think but also to make work, like the painting above, that I've titled Priests Cove.  As so often with my paintings anyone looking for a representational view will be disappointed  but I like to think that I capture something of the spirit of the place.

  

Skule's Out

In the spirit of de-cluttering my life (and making it easier to sort out at its end!) I'm junking a lot of stuff.  Amongst my papers are a clutch of essays written on the PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate of Education) course I took in 1975/6.  In amongst the scribble nestled this photograph of a display I made on my teaching placement at Frank F. Harrison school on the Beechdale estate in Walsall.  Looking back over the essays (and the feedback) it seems I was a deal more authoritarian back then, certainly more opinionated and rather less competent and talented than I suspect I imagined!

My tutor on the course, the wonderful Arthur Hughes, showed great forbearance as well as warmth to me, despite my appalling attendance record (I blagged off many lectures etc., relying on my wife Sue's notes, to go to my studio overlooking the Gas St. Basin).  Perhaps as a consequence I bumped along getting mainly 'b''s for my essays.  Reviewing them the assessments are very generous.

Just for fun I attach the blurb for the course...

More on the Speedway

The Speedway at Exeter was a real passion for several years (see earlier post).  I was also an avid collector of the Speedway Star & Post, a regular magazine covering the sport.  Here are the back pages for each of seasons 63, 64, 65 and 66 when the Falcons were featured.

Of course being very young I didn't understand the economics of the 'game' so when Jimmy Squibb arrived for season 64 I was made up.  With Len Silver our captain and rapidly improving Alan Cowland we must be set for success.  Little did I know - that Squibb had been drafted in to replace Silver (off to Hackney)...my annoyance is plain to see above!

A year later and I was at it again - this time obliterating poor Tim Bungay though Cliff Cox seemed a decent replacement, both good riders but not in the same class as Len.

To emphasise the dangerous nature of this sport one of the new team members above was Jack Geran, an Australian rider of considerable experience and seen below in a pit side portrait with fellow aussie Neil Street on the cover of the magazine.

Sadly Jack died in a pretty ghastly crash at the track later that year.  An annual competition was instigated after it.  Alongside many other (and happier) memories was the arrival of exotic teams from behind the 'Iron Curtain'.  Difficult though it is to recall now but back then Poles and Russians excited much interest.  I was especially a fan (following his appearance at the County Ground) of Andrej Pogorselski seen here

so much so I bought a rosette to support him in the World Individual Riders Championship later in that year.

A little later on when the USSR arrived I transferred my support to Gab Kadirov (who I now think was Gabdrakhman Kadyrov, six time winner of the Ice Speedway World Championships).

Not least as he gave me a glove as a souvenir in the pits and taught me how to say thank you in russian (it sounds like bloguverda...ish!)

The Derby Daze

For quite a few years in the early part of the 21st century my son Dexter and myself were season ticket holders at Derby County football club.  We saw a few good times interspersed with long periods of fairly indifferent action.  The 2006/7 season was one of our better times...we travelled down to Wembley in May for the championship playoff final where a goal from 'Pearo' (Stephen Pearson) sank the Baggies (West Brom) and sent us back to the Premiership.

If Pearo was the hero of the day then it also belonged to Billy Davies our then manager under whose stewardship this triumph was achieved.  We started the season that August in high spirits with the prospect of excitements when the big boys came to visit.  We were away in August so missed the first two home games -a draw against Portsmouth and a narrow defeat to Birmingham so our first match took place against Newcastle in September.

I don't recall much of the game but we did run out 1 - 0 winners.  But the portents of what were to come were already planted in that days match programme.  A few days earlier we had a thumping by Liverpool.  It should have been obvious maybe but it wasn't yet clear how badly the side would ship goals at one end and be so toothless in attack the other.

It was a season for the record books - but for all the wrong reasons. Derby never won another match and we were relegated in March with what still stands as the worst performance by a side in the history of the Premiership (only 1 win and 11 points).  Shortly after the Newcastle game the Chairman stood down and by the end of November the often pugnacious and eccentric Billy Davies left the club.  Despite the numerous changes it took until September 2008 (just 4 days short of a year) for us to witness a home victory (against Sheffield United back in the Championship).  Is it blind faith or just stupidity that keeps us coming back for more I wonder!