Tag Archives: art

Don’t throw activist histories away: Huntley Conference on Arts & Activism, Culture & Resistance

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18th February, London

There were over a 100 artists, activists, community workers, young people, archivists & conservators, educators, parents, grandparents, policymakers. We were taking part in talks, creative “Groundings” sessions, a parallel youth conference, music & poetry performances, from the fabulous El Crisis, younger talented artists, and the more experienced, discussing race and power, creativity and resilience, protest and activism…..and feasting on delicious food from Jollofpot, book stalls, all in the great facilities of London Metropolitan Archives (LMA).

What was brilliant and so rich about this day was we were learning about art, activism and Black struggle through the legacy and networks of the two activists Jessica and Eric Huntley, now in their 80s, who arrived in London from Guyana in the late 1960s. Continue reading →

Art & Oil: guest review of ‘The Oil Show’ in Dortmund

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The Oil Show art exhibition at the Hartware MedienKunstVerein in Dortmund, Germany, is a group show about oil and its deeply rooted influence in economy and society.

This major exhibition, on til 18th March 2012, states

“We have reached Peak Oil – the maximum capacity of global crude oil extraction and production. After Peak Oil, the total global oil production cannot be increased. In the future, demand will always exceed supply. The global struggle for resources will intensify. Despite this our dependency on oil is growing further. We cannot, or do not seem to want to do without oil. We are seriously dependent. The works in the exhibition deal with our dependency on oil and the economic, political, and social entanglements and consequences of this growing dependency.” 

We invited former Platform ‘Research Associate’ Malte Beisenherz for his review.  Continue reading →

Oil, art & human rights links

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Shell sponsorship: there's something unsettling about the Shell branded baby blankets in this hospital in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Nevertheless, corporate sponsorship and community projects cannot absolve oil companies like Shell for creating a health crisis and human rights tragedy in the Niger Delta.

EU oil companies including Shell and Total will be banned from importing and purchasing Iranian oil by new sanctions, reported Reuters. As Iran threatens to retaliate by blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a major artery of global oil shipments, the UK foreign minister William Hague downplayed the likelihood of war.

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How John Browne, BP and the Old Boys Network keep the arts well-oiled

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I’m in the Members’ Room at Tate Modern, it’s 10.30am on a spectacularly sunny winter’s day.  The room overlooks the Square Mile – London’s financial district – and the view symbolises the growing pressures on artists and arts organisations to seek funding from the private sector, specifically from business.

Looking once again at the panel which honours a long list of Tate’s private supporters, I ponder the different ways of reading it:  you could feel pride in the civic engagement of all those individuals and companies;  or be struck by the generosity of the givers; or be amazed at the successful brand that Tate has made itself into; or feel moved to become a contributor yourself.

Or you could be mournful for the shift to the private sector of a public institution; feel angry at the dramatic shift in ideology from welfare state to the marketisation of the public arena that has underpinned all this. You could reflect that over the 30 years since Thatcher’s first assaults, our state arts policy has been increasingly pursuing a survival-of-the-fittest model favoured by the USA’s Republicans. Witness Arts Council England’s latest ￡100 million strategic fund to promote assist arts organisations in accessing private philanthropy. Continue reading →

Read online now – Not If But When: Culture Beyond Oil

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Now available to read online – click on the Issuu link above, or you can download the publication as a pdf here.

For hard copies by post visit this page for a range of payment options or you can purchase it from the Live Art Development Agency online shop here.

December 2011: Art collective Liberate Tate, arts and research organisation Platform and activist group Art Not Oil release a new publication, ‘Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil’, on oil sponsorship of the arts.

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Culture Beyond Oil Publication Launch – Tuesday 29th Nov @FreeWordCentre

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New Arts Publication - ’Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TUESDAY 29th November – Free Word Centre 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA

IMPORTANT – Previously this event had been advertised on Monday 28th November. Due to circumstances outside of our control, this date has been changed to Tuesday 29th November.

10.30am – 6.30pm Oil daub performance by Ruppe Koselleck

6.30pm – 8.30pm Culture Beyond Oil Launch Event (refreshments provided)

Platform, Liberate Tate and Art Not Oil warmly invite you to a get together to end oil sponsorship of the arts. Featuring the acclaimed performance poet Zena Edwards, the evening will be the first opportunity to purchase the freshly stamped limited edition copies of ‘Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil’.

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‘Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil’ – order your copy now

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‘Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil’ is a publication that sets out to discuss oil sponsorship of the arts. The single issue, limited edition publication features artworks in dialogue with the BP Gulf of Mexico catastrophe and articles that set out the compelling arguments for an end to BP and Shell’s murky involvement with many of the nation’s favourite cultural institutions.

Each copy of this full colour 1000 limited edition will be numbered and daubed with oil from Gulf of Mexico beaches by featured artist Ruppe Koselleck, as part of his ongoing Takeover BP project, in which Koselleck sells artworks to buy shares with the aim of ultimately taking over BP.

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Chatting art and politics with Margaret Harrison

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A total honour, Margaret Harrison visited us at Platform today, and gave us a copy of her brilliant Words and Texts 1969*2010. Harrison founded the London Feminist Liberation Art Group, her work has been exhibited all around the world, and remains as fresh and as challenging as when she first burst upon the scene. The first exbo of I Am A Fantasy was censored by the police in 1971 – it featured a comic-book superhero Hugh Heffner stuffed into a bunny girl costume amongst other images interrogating dress codes , sexuality and gender.

  

Margaret was visiting today to gift an amazing piece of work made earlier this year on RBS by her partner Conrad Atkinson, who has been talking with us about the oil sponsorship of the arts issues. Both artists have a number of artworks in the Tate collection.

 

Text from image: “pieces of wall st being sold as souvenirs. Wall St declares a collective” Atkinson made this is 1989 – uncanny premonition.

It was a special honour to sit down and talk about art and politics, and the last forty years of it in this country – we realised just as she left that this had been somewhat of an intergenerational feminist chat, with myself, Jane Trowell and Margaret Harrison sitting around the coffee table with twenty years between us each. The conversation was a sharing of journeys and battle stories, of creativity and activism that would continue on.

‘Britain on Trial’ event in The Guardian

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Check out this coverage of Shake! and Leeds Young Authors’ event on institutional racism in The Northerner blog. You don’t want to miss this unique collaboration between young people, Leeds University’s MA Activism and Social Change, Leeds Bicentenary Transformation Project, Leeds Black Film Club, chaired by Esther Stanford-Xosei of Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition of Europe.

The day comprises mini-lectures, discussion, creative workshops, and film screening of two rare films on anti-racist resistance in Britain There are still places available – email platformshake@gmail.com
Go to Shake’s blog for the whole context of our project with young people.

See reverse of flyer for schedule:

And if you missed Shake’s incredible workshop session at the Rebellious Media Conference “The Unheard: Youth, the ‘riots’ and the media”, get a flavour of it through the blog here. Hear how Shake’s artist-facilitators Sai Murai and Zena Edwards responded to the event through interviews by Ceasefire;  and read feedback from audience…

UpRise Anti-Racism Festival was amazing

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On Sunday, various Shakers were revelling in “Community is Home”, UpRise’s 2011 Festival happening across 14 venues in Dalston, Hackney. The day was bright and warm, and the vibe was fantastic. Boris Johnson’s decision to remove funding from the original “Rise” Festival did not deter the many committed individuals and organisations from making this incredibly important festival happen for the second year running. Huge noise for Paul Richards and the team..Yay!

It really did feel this good

From hanging out in the Eastern Curve Garden eating stone-baked pizza among the vegetable beds to listening to a stella line-up on the Dalston Roof Park, to shaking your bones to Aruba Red, it was a fantastic day. Trades Union stall holders, campaigners from the featured charities “2 Fingers to Violence” and “Medecins sans Frontieres”, and happy festival-goers of all ages strolled, talked, enjoyed, and stitched it all together. There is no better way to snub all those who want to portray this part of London in a negative light.

Shakers were there and our very own performance poet and facilitator Simon Murray (aka Sai Murai) facilitated a poetry workshop called “Breathing Space” for the Numbi night at Open the Gate. Only hours later those same workshop poets were taking the mic and pouring fresh and vital words into our waiting ears. Brilliant day, brilliant night, and Shake’s looking forward to more collaborations with our friends at UpRise and 2 Fingers to Violence.