Presentation on non-traditional ways of displaying art from the Beyond the Gallery event at MADE on 24/3/15. Presentation by Scott Farlow, Artist.

1. Beyond the Gallery
A new tradition
of
non-tradition
Scott Farlow Artist
24th March 2015

3. Beyond the Gallery
- Practice Reflection
- A new way of thinking
- A new way of responding –
Birmingham Markets
- A new way of being – what can I bring
to the built environment?

5. Practice Reflection
who am i?
I am Scott Farlow
I am an Artist
This is who I am
Being an Artist is as much about how we think, feel, behave
& respond to people & the world that we inhabit as it is
about what we actually create.

7. A Gallery beyond the Gallery
I explore connections and
disconnections.
My work imaginatively responds to
the narrative, meaning and identity
of places and people.
I reveal beauty and resonance in
the ordinary, the forgotten, the
unexpected and the everyday.
My process - the experience of my
work - is sometimes collaborative,
often collective and always
enriching.
My work is realised through
permanent, temporary or mobile
transformations of the public
realm, place and memory.

8. A Portrait
of Culverhay
Community influencing
regeneration
Cricklade
With Reckless Orchard
For GreenSquare

19. Elemental Encounters
Artistic Action Research for Devizes
With the Scribblers Club

27. welcome Home – a public art commission for Linden Homes Western, Bristol. 2014

34. Beyond the Gallery
A new tradition
of
non-tradition
Scott Farlow Artist
24th March 2015

35. Designing is not a profession but an attitude….
thinking in relationships.
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

36. A new way of thinking….
Being an Artist is all encompassing,
It is part of life.
It is my life.
It is both enriching & challenging,
& enriching because it is challenging.
It is rooted.
It is within and outwith me.
It is about endeavour & exchange.
It is about experimentation & failure,
& learning from those failures.

37. “The thing that's important to know is that you never know. You're
always sort of feeling your way.”
Diane Arbus, Diane Arbus Revelations

38. THE PERSONAL NARRATIVE
Reflect upon your:
- interests & curiosity
- creative skills, inspirations & knowledge
- thoughts & imagination
Acknowledge what you don’t know.
Consider your willingness to:
- learn & find out more
- influence & be influenced
- experiment & innovate
- share & articulate responses & ideas openly

40. We all see things differently…
What can you bring to the table?
What is your offer?
A new imaginative, inspired & intellectual point of reference
– your integrity, energy, enthusiasm & endeavour.
Your SELF

41. THE NARRATIVE OF PLACE & PEOPLE
What is there? Who is there?
What is not there? Who is not there?
What can you borrow from what was & what is to inspire,
inform, influence, augment & enhance what will be?
When does a space become a place?
What is the narrative of this place?
What is local distinctiveness & identity?
What are places for?

43. THE CONTEXTUAL NARRATIVE
The non-gallery setting (to me) means everywhere else.
OUTSIDE THE GALLERY IS THE GALLERY
THE FABRIC OF PLACE IS AN ALTERNATIVE CANVAS
OR SETTING OR PLATFORM FOR INTEGRATED IDEAS,
CRITICAL THINKING & UNEXPECTED INTERVENTIONS
THAT ARE EMBEDDED OR REVEALED IN SUCH A WAY
AS TO INSPIRE PUBLIC INTERACTION & SOCIAL
EXCHANGE IN A REAWAKENING OF THE INDIVIDUAL &
COLLECTIVE CULTURAL CONSCIOUSNESS.

44. THE COMMISSION NARRATIVE
What does the brief demand?
What do clients think that they want?
Why do they want what they want?
In other words who (or what) are the ‘key drivers’
informing/influencing the commissioning process?
What is the rationale for ‘public art’?
We have a responsibility to consider matters of
appropriateness & sometimes to challenge and reconfigure
perceived notions of what is desirable.

45. A NEW CREATIVE NARRATIVE
Challenge ourselves to:
- challenge ourselves
- challenge others
- be curious at all times
- consider new opportunities, new ways of thinking & new ways
of seeing & experiencing & exposing the world
- subvert common practice or the norm
- consider alternative methodologies & imaginative/innovative
ways of employing our creative spirits to meaningfully engage
with people & place
- create a new & enriching cultural exchange that emerges from
& is embedded in locality
- strive for authenticity

46. As we travel around Britain, I am convinced most of us cannot really
appreciate what we are seeing. We take too much for granted, because it
is all so familiar.
Martin Parr

47. Beyond the Gallery
A new way of responding
- a wander round the Market -

49. The markets have been present here since 1154
Their enduring value cannot be underestimated – as a place of
commerce, endeavour, meeting point, love, loss, exchange
They represent the stuff of life – where everything happened –
the noise, the voices, the human interactions, the comings &
goings everyday.
And now it is changing again.
The daily state of flux is, itself, in a state of flux.
The change imposed by an ever changing system.

52. The rhythm, the routine, the familiarity, the life, the death &
the transactions will be replaced by a new set of rhythms,
routines & transactions.
The proposed shift and transformation of the Birmingham
Markets is part of the greater social, economic, political &
cultural transaction that we have made with the world,
ourselves & the human race in our quest for improvement,
advancement, expansion & greater efficiency.

54. So, amidst this unceasing change, Art, Artistic Practice,
Creative Innovation & Philosophical Thinking must also
adapt and positively influence the public realm and transform
our experience, understanding & relationship with new built
environments.
Artists must endeavour to play an intrinsic, enriching &
fundamental role in the new transactions.
We have an opportunity to be at the vanguard of these
profound shifts & to meaningfully inform & contribute to a
new local distinctiveness & sense of place.

55. Wander with open minds.
Look up,
Look down,
Look all around.
Look again.
Pause a moment,
Here and there,
To touch the surfaces,
And absorb the sense and patina of
place,
The space,
The people passing through,
The sights,
And sounds
Of the streets
And beyond.
Then return and wander Again,
With open hearts.
Look up,
Look down,
Look all around.
Look again.
And again. And again…..