Thanks to all who turned up to the opening of SPECTRUM:WHITTLEHOGARTHPRATTTREND (especially these mexicans)

SPECTRUM:WHITTLEHOGARTHPRATTTREND runs until Sat 11 June, With SPECTRUM Almanac launch and closing event Fri 10 June 6-8PM at NewBridge Space.

Hugh Dichmont visits SPECTRUM

In the 3^rd of our guest writers visits, we were pleased to welcome Hugh Dichmont to the studios for what has become a typically relaxed day musing over arty things. Hugh is currently an artist based in Nottingham and also reviews editor for a-n Magazine. His artistic practice covers a number of different forms including drawing, performance and text-based work and he has also worked as part of an artist collective called Tether. As a writer for a-n Magazine he is also often faced with a variety of different artistic styles and mediums. You would think that with this medley going on in his life, that Hugh is instantaneous, a man with a short attention span or a character with split-second judgement. By sitting in a one to one session talking about my work I can safely say that this is both truth and fiction. His long pondering silences were quickly accompanied by a vocal assault clearly defining thoughts both on and around what I had placed in front of him. He is an all-consuming art monster.

Erewash Archive, 2008 Hugh Dichmont, collaboration with Chie Hosaka

In the last 12 months I have been trying to refine some screen-printing techniques meaning I have accumulated a couple of half-decent sized editions. Mostly paper based, I had decided to show Hugh them along with a proposed video to be shown at this years SPECTRUM exhibition. My work laid out like a storyboard I found myself immediately wanting to babble at Hugh, reverting to my undergraduate self in which I felt I had to explain every aspect of my work to tutors. What I soon realised was that Hugh wasn’t really bothered about my psychobabble, well not at first anyway. He just wanted ten minutes on his own to ponder on the work and draw his own considered opinion and thoughts.

After showing recent video and photographic pieces I have made we got onto the subject of photography and its place in the digital contemporary practice. I’m currently obsessed with this subject. When I log into my facebook account I am amazed at the number of photos that are uploaded each month (estimated at 2.5 billion) which melt into insignificance after a single click. This seems in total opposite to the quasi-nostalgic, domestic snap, which was hoarded in family photo albums and brought out to remind people of an immortalised moment in time.

Hugh seems to share a similar opinion to me with regards to social network, only his opinions are not as embroiled in the world of memento mori as mine. His discussion on the subject took us to a place in which social network offered a stage without fault. Where people can seem witty, well-informed, attractive and cultured through an endless spew of status updates and digitally enhanced images.

Thanks to Hugh’s insight into my work I was lead into new research for a piece of work I intend to include within the Spectrum exhibition:

I have spent the past month trawling through photographs on facebook. Through all my alleged ‘friends’ whom I have never seen in years, as well as friends I see daily. My aim is to collect as many throwaway captions as I can. For those not in the know, these are the comments users place under their recently uploaded photographs. Typically for the obsessive and self-absorbed, these people want you to know every time their newborn shits their nappy or their new kettle has just finished boiling or whatever. However, some of them made very interesting reading…    

Adam Hogarth asks Mike Pratt 20 (shit) Questions

Mike Pratt: Batman

Mike Pratt is an artist currently living and working in Newcastle upon Tyne. He has recently had a number of solo exhibitions including Extraospazio, Rome and Workplace Gallery, Gateshead as well as a number of shows as part of the JAMBON arts collective. In a recent Q&A between Mike Pratt and Adam Hogarth (Spectrum co-founder) we get an insight into Mike’s dreams, his musical influences and his love of sausage…..

Adam Hogarth: Hi Mike, can you give me a brief description about who you are?

 Mike Pratt: Hi, I’m a painter.

AH: I know you’re into your music. What are you listening to at the moment? 

 MP: Minutemen. I’ll normally get really into a band and completely over play them until I’m really sick of it, then move onto another.

AH: What was the first album you ever bought?

 MP: Madness (best of).

AH: What’s the worst album in your collection?

 MP: The Departure.

AH: You recently had a large solo exhibition at Workplace Gallery in Gateshead. What was it like?

 MP: It was great; I worked there for a month before getting the works finished and making sure things were right so it became like my studio for a short while. So when the show opening came around it felt a little strange having people walking around the space as I was used to it just being me.

AH: Did you find the whole experience daunting?

 MP: Yer but that should be a good thing.

AH: Do you have any other shows (apart from Spectrum) on the cards?

 MP: I’m working on a show for the Grundy gallery in Blackpool called ‘Nice Paintings’. Its going to be made up of paintings from there existing collection placed in and amongst some of my new works, it should be interesting.

AH: What are your feelings of living and working as an artist in Newcastle?

MP: I’m enjoying it.

AH: Do you have any particular artists that inspire your artwork?

 MP: Yer lots but its like listening to music I get really exited about something and completely over indulge myself. Its odd there aren’t to many painters who I enjoy looking at I normally find that people who make sculpture are more interesting.

AH: You’re a member of the collective JAMBON; can you tell me a little more about that?

MP: Well we are all a bunch of friends that shared a studio together. We wanted to make the group as a way of continuing the momentum and energy.

AH: How did the name for the group come about?

 MP: I think it was Andy (Maughan), he made a text painting that said ‘I am a French man, I wear a hat’ and from there we came up with the name JAMBON.

AH: What’s the difference between working within an art collective and working on your own?

 MP: If something goes wrong there’s more people to blame it on.

AH: Good answer. Like myself you’re also a member of the Graduate Studios Northumbria (GSN) programme at Northumbria University. Can you tell the boys and girls at home what that is like?

 MP: It started of great but feels now like I’ve been institutionalised and need to become a freeman away from the university and into the real world.

AH: What are the implications of having a studio within an institution like Northumbria University? (Pro’s and con’s)

 MP: There’s a lot of stupid rules about what you can and cant do there and access is a bit of a problem but in general its cheap warm and safe.

AH: I generally agree. Do you know what the plan is once your time in GSN is up?

 MP: Nope.

AH: In what direction do you see your practice heading in the next year or so?

 MP: I’d like to start making more sculptural works.

AH: That would be great. I know Matt (Hearn) was into your sculptures at your Workplace show. Can you give any hints into the work you plan to show at the Spectrum exhibition next month?

MP: I think they’ll be large drawings, although I don’t want to say in case I change my mind.

AH: What’s the weirdest dream that you have ever had?

 MP: Dreams where you are walking around a gallery looking at things then realise that it’s your dream and when you wake up you can make all those things. They always seem shit in real life though so the whole thing is a waste of time.

AH: When you were a kid, what did you want to be?

MP: A Marine Biologist because I liked swimming.

AH: Finally, spicy sausage or sloppy burrito?

MP: Sausage.

AH: I thought so…….

For more information on Mike Pratt:

http://www.workplacegallery.co.uk/artists/_Mike%20Pratt/