Phil Smith
Phil Smith is a performance-maker, writer and academic researcher, specialising in work around walking, site-specificity, mythogeographies and counter-tourism. With artist Helen Billinghurst, he is one half of Crab & Bee, who have recently completed an exhibition and walking project called ‘Plymouth Labyrinth (funded by Arts Council England), a short walking project in the Isles of Scilly and a residency at Teats Hill slipway. They are currently engaged in a series of walks across the UK researching their forthcoming book, ‘The Pattern’ (2020). With Tony Whitehead and photographer John Schott, Phil recently published ‘Guidebook For An Armchair Pilgrimage’ with Triarchy Press.
He is currently developing a ‘subjectivity-protective movement practice’ with Canada-based choreographer Melanie Kloetzel. As a dancer he toured with Jane Mason in ‘Life Forces’ (2014-15). With Claire Hind and Helen Billinghurst, he co-organised the recent ‘Walking’s New Movements’ conference at the University of Plymouth. As company dramaturg and co-writer for TNT Theatre (Munich), he most recently premiered ‘Free Mandela’, co-authored with TNT’s artistic director Paul Stebbings, about the end of apartheid in South Africa.
Phil is a member of site-based arts collective Wrights & Sites, who recently published ‘The Architect-Walker’ (2018). As well as ‘Walking Stumbling Limping Falling’ (Triarchy Press, 2017) with poet Alyson Hallett, Phil’s publications include ‘Making Site-Specific Theatre and Performance’ (Red Globe/Macmillan, 2018), ‘Rethinking Mythogeography in Northfield, Minnesota’ (2018) (with US photographer John Schott), ‘Anywhere’ (2017), ‘A Footbook of Zombie Walking’ and ‘Walking’s New Movement’ (2015), ‘On Walking’ and ‘Enchanted Things’ (2014), ‘Counter-Tourism: The Handbook’ (2012) and ‘Mythogeography’ (2010). He is an Associate Professor (Reader) at the University of Plymouth.
The book mentioned in the interview that Phil was reading is Embodying the Dead.
The Heat Is On
As the heat of summer scorches, now is the time to retreat to the shaded comfort of the indoors and seek out opportunities to help further your artistic career. Rather than letting these long summer months wilt your ambitions, use this time to stack the deck, packing your schedule with time to find and apply for as many opportunities as you can that suit your work. Remember, not every opportunity will be a good match, but there are always those out there that fit. Never stop seeking.
As the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment approaches, the Elisabet Ney Museum invites women photographers to share photos the comment on the Centennial of the 19th amendment. Please see the website for full guidelines. Deadline is July 20..
Verandah Journal, a publication of Deakin University, invites artists to submit previously unpublished work for consideration in their upcoming issue. There is a small fee for those who are not students of Deakin University. For more information, visit the website. Deadline is July 20.
The Arts in Mitigation Fund invites artists to apply for grant funding. In their own words, they are looking to support: projects that expand the public’s understanding, through the arts, of how people are integral to our lifelines. The intended outcome of the funding is to make visible often unseen and under-supported lifeline and to cultivate a greater understanding of how we’re all in this together. For more details, visit the website. Deadline is July 21.
Praxis Center isn’t your every day art school. We are a small organization dedicated to teaching you the reality of the art world, the things that may not meet the artist’s eye at first. Whether you need a boost finding and applying for grants, open calls, residencies and other opportunities, or you seek a supportive community of colleagues and experts there to help you succeed, look no further. Praxis is exactly where you need to be.
Join GOLDEN on Facebook Live!
In these uncertain times, our first responsibility is assuring staff, their families and our entire art community is safe. We hope to turn the page on this devastating virus and return to normalcy soon. In the meantime, we continue sharing educational resources and have developed new Facebook Live events, providing an informal and intimate opportunity to meet artists and engage in topics we all love. Follow the GOLDEN Facebook page to join!
Brainard Carey is an author, artist and educator. He is the director of Praxis Center for Aesthetics. He has written six books for artists; Making it in the Art World, New Markets for Artists, The Art World Demystified, Fund Your Dreams Like a Creative Genius, Sell Online Like a Creative Genius and Succeed with Social Media Like a Creative Genius.
Photo credit: Wiki Commons
Believe
“Remember, a fact is a fact, no matter how hard the liars amongst you might try hushing it up.” -Billy Childish, My Fault
Truth is a funny thing. It can, in turn, be both subjective and objective. What is true for some may not be for others in some cases, but neither of these sides may negate the others’ experiences. And then there are the truly objective truths – those which can not be disputed. Scientific truths and historical truths. But even these hard and unyielding facts are often inextricably linked to the subjective truths of individuals. The objective truth of a thing might be that indeed it produces a different outcome for some than it does for others. Whether this is a physical outcome, a societal outcome, an economic outcome, the truth spoken by those who live it must be honored.
Caren Beilin is the author of Blackfishing the IUD, a nonfiction about gendered medical gaslighting. She is also an assistant professor of creative writing at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. It was there that she began work on this book. Life as a professor, she says, is one where you work alongside students. Six of her students at MCLA helped produce a podcast with the same title. The book talks about the copper IUD, a very popular birth control device, and her own story of the device making her very ill. When this happened she stumbled upon a world of others who also had terrible experiences with the device. To hear more about this and livve readings by the author, listen to the complete interview.
VLM is a Houston, Texas native where she has been quarantining since the onset of the COVID19 pandemic. Ordinarily she is an artist in constant motion, moving around the country and being “perpetually flexible” when it comes to making artwork. VLM misses traveling. As someone accustomed to living out of a suitcase, she finds the practice of settling in – hanging her clothing in a closet, for example – somewhat unsettling. While Texas was slow to be hit with the pandemic, when VLM spoke to us the state was reeling with a peak in illness. During all this, she continues to return to the studio where she is preparing a new video and a new series of sculptures to exhibit in the autumn in NYC. The working title for the show is Dream Cocoon. The film features luna moths she has been raising as well as sculptures rendered in marble that she calls marble ponytails. To hear more about her upcoming work and more, including what compels her to work with marble, listen to the complete interview.
A Few Words to Keep in your Pocket:
Truth is a complicated matter – at once universal and individual.
Interviews are available on iTunes as podcasts, and for Android please click here. All weekly essay pieces in a shareable format are here. The full archive of interviews here.
Books to Read
What are you reading? Add your titles to our reading list here. VLM recommends Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici. Blackfishing the IUD by Caren Beilin can be found here.
Deadlines
Submissions for the STARVD Art Prize are now open. Emerging artists, particularly those working in painting, drawing, collage, print and photography (or a combination) are encouraged to apply. Selected artists will have their work promoted in a selling exhibition on ARTSY.net in addition to cash prizes and other promotional initiatives. For more information, visit the website. Deadline for submissions is July 20.
Weekly Edited Grant and Residency Deadlines – review the list here.
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Join GOLDEN on Facebook Live!
In these uncertain times, our first responsibility is assuring staff, their families and our entire art community is safe. We hope to turn the page on this devastating virus and return to normalcy soon. In the meantime, we continue sharing educational resources and have developed new Facebook Live events, providing an informal and intimate opportunity to meet artists and engage in topics we all love. Follow the GOLDEN Facebook page to join!
Brainard Carey is an author, artist and educator. He is the director of Praxis Center for Aesthetics. He has written six books for artists; Making it in the Art World, New Markets for Artists, The Art World Demystified, Fund Your Dreams Like a Creative Genius, Sell Online Like a Creative Genius and Succeed with Social Media Like a Creative Genius.
VLM
VLM (Virginia Lee Montgomery) is an artist working between Texas and New York, primarily in video, performance, sound, and sculpture. She received her BFA from The University of Texas at Austin in 2008 and her MFA from Yale University in Sculpture in 2016. VLM deploys an idiosyncratic visual vocabulary of repeating gestures like drilling, dousing, or reaching and recursive symbols like circles, holes and spheres as she interrogates the complex relationship between physical and psychic structures.
VLM also works as a professional mind-map scribe, a Graphic Facilitator. Recent exhibitions include: “SKY LOOP,” Lawndale Art Center, TX (2020), “SCREENS SERIES: VLM,” New Museum, NY (2019), “HONEY MOON,” Midnight Moment, Times Square Arts, NY (2019); “PONY COCOON,” False Flag, NY (2019); “The Socrates Annual,” Socrates Sculpture Park, NY (2018); “CRASH TEST: The Molecular Turn,” La Panacée-MoCo, Montpellier, France (2018); “An unbound knot in the wind,” CCS Bard, Hessel Museum of Art, NY (2018); “Material Deviance,” SculptureCenter, NY (2017); and “The Particle Accelerator Memorial Project,” Physics Department, Yale University, CT (2015).