2020april

Well you may as well throw
Your
Hat
Into
The
Ring

Dangling spittle
On a hair
Thrusting in the wind
Striving to cling
To
The walls
Of the (-our, comma-) institution

Excellent.
Metrics of The, Excellent.
Quality.
Try and get your lips around that.
Roll it up against your soft palate
C W A L,
Q U E R T
Click and click
Lay bricks
Robust, rigorous, adept and strong (These are skills in brackets, Oxford comma, cut 151 words with spaces.)
I become the brick I long to cling to.
Except
Mucussy, garlicky sweat and coffee breath.
Take a fucking handful of magnesium and vitamin D and get out into the garden and do your Tai chi
Don’t forget to fucking talk about Impact
Whilst you swing aroundounounound

Well you may as well throw
Your
Hat
Into
The
Ring

You cannot loathe.
Those sweet moments.
Made all the more special by unfathomable characters and spaces
The removal of critical data.
Lick the brick

There is another. A shimmering approximation
Of (WHAT– Capitalised) I should be.
Sashaying seamlessly somewhere between buildings.
Angle poise.
A ray of harsh white sun.
best moments become
a badly fitting ensemble that happened by the bins.
cringe.
Pry out a flake of skin, a lump of wax,
Tease off a nervous scab
While you say it.
CRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Dig your fingernails in.

Refine (brackets- be clear about your objectives)
Salt crystals bloom on an empty bed, once a green expanse of ocean.

Define (to explain or identify the nature or essential qualities of)
The place where you came from in one character
(that can be a space)

A Dream without a plan is just
A A A (404 Sorry this looks like a broken link) A written statement outlining ideas, research and any key creative concepts associated with responding to industrial landscapes and spaces.
Visualisations of work which clearly speak to any initial concepts, including where appropriate information on possible form, appearance and materials that might be used
A draft budget outlining anticipated costings and approach for production
This information should be submitted in PDF format and uploaded when completing the application form (file size no larger than 2MB). The artist will set out an initial proposed methodology for, and any track record of, creative practice that responds to site.
If you would like to apply, we ask that your application is no more than 2 A4 sides (font no smaller than 11pt please).
Please include:
o Your full name.
o Your contact details (telephone number and email address).
o Links to previous and current work (up to 3 links).
o A short biography.
o Name and contact details (telephone number and email address) for two referees who know you and your work well.
Please tell us:
o What you would like to explore and / or build upon during the year.
o Why in particular you would like to work with us
o How your work engages audiences in unconventional or alternative ways.
o What you would use the £1,500 for during the year.
o What areas of advice and help would be most useful to you.
o What kind of training you might be interested in undertaking.
o Your availability for an interview during March 2017 either in person or on skype.
In the first instance please send Expressions of Interest. This should include:
• A statement explaining why you would like to be considered and how your experience is appropriate for a project of this type (max 300 words)
• Your initial response to the map, sites, and locations and how you would approach the commission (max 500 words). Please refer to this when developing your response.
• Your CV (max 2 pages)
• A Portfolio of your previous work, relevant to this commission (up to 10 images/ videos and-or 1 pdf up to 5 pages).
Deadline for submission: Sunday 28 January
It is recommended that you apply with enough time to approach us with any questions or queries in using the Submittable website.
Deadline for submission: Sunday 28 January 2018 at Midnight.
Please upload your EOI to
It is recommended that you apply with enough time to approach us with any questions or queries in using the Submittable website.
20. If you could collaborate with any musician/producer/engineer/DJ in the world, who would it be and why?

21. If you were to host a regular radio show, what would you do with it? Be as detailed and imaginative as possible.

22. Where do you consider yourself to be in your music career right now? And where would you like to be in the next 12 months?

23. What does this show mean to you? Please be honest - if you do not know us well, this will not affect your application.

24. If you are selected to take part, how would you like the programme to impact your career?

25. Have you had, or do you currently have a manager?
If yes, please say who:

26. Have you had, or do you currently have a booking agent?
If yes, please say who:

Please provide a short description of your artistic practice (200 words max.)
Track record *
Please list your track record in your chosen field, including relevant qualifications, awards, collaborations, partnerships, exhibitions / performances / publications, bursaries etc. (200 words max)

Please provide up to 5 key examples that best represent your work or portfolio (urls only). If submitting longer pieces of work (video, text etc.) please indicate the key sections we should not miss as we may not have time to view everything.

Benefit to your artistic practice *

How might your artistic practice benefit from being part of a cross disciplinary creative community over this time? (100 words max.)
AND REMEMBER:
 Always be completely professional in how you deal with funders: be polite, honest, punctual and pay attention to detail.
 Always keep your eyes open for all kinds of development opportunities and think about how they might work for you, your research, your practice and your project.
 Embrace fundraising - it can become a truly creative and inspiring aspect of your work.
Tell us about yourself and your creative practice
Up to 1,800 characters (approximately 300 words)
Your work

(up to 1,800 characters including spaces2) Think about:
the main focus of your artistic or creative activities;
your main artistic or creative achievements to date – for example, exhibitions, productions, publications, and so on;
any important commissions you’ve received;
important pieces of work you’ve completed;
if you’ve worked with any established artistic or creative partners;
any other information relevant to your track record; and
whether you have shown that you’re at the right stage in your practice to make a step change, and benefit from a development opportunity.

• Why is this important for your practice at this point, and how will this help create future opportunities?
• Up to 1,500 characters (approximately 250 words)
• Think about:
• what your main aims for the project are;
• why this is the right point to take some development time;
• what you want this development to lead to;
• what will be different about your practice as a result of this development.

You may as well throw your hat into the ring

Lou Barnell
@loubarnell
www.loubarnell.co.uk

Nowhere to Run

Danielle Imara
@danielleimara

The Lovers MMXX (after Magritte)

Inxestuous Sisters (Niya B and Giulia C)
@inxestuoussisters #inxestuoussisters

I am Ellie Harrison. Leeds Ellie Harrison. Grief Series Ellie Harrison. Not the Glasgow based artist of the same name or the woman who presents country file although I hear they are both lovely. I look a bit like an Afghan Hound in a 50’s dress and I embrace this.

I am a live artist based in Leeds and I also have a chronic illness which ebbs and flows in unpredictable ways. I use all the spoons* I can, making my work. Increasingly I’m mentoring, consulting or working as an outside eye on other peoples projects, as well as teaching in precarious University positions and banging my head against their subtly different online systems. Work happens at home or on the phone, or on video chat with artists in Brighton Canada and Mexico or in real life around Leeds.

So lockdown hasn’t changed all that much for me. Except…...no one is expected to gather at events in London or Glasgow or Brighton….or anywhere else for that matter. And suddenly the playing field feels more level for me. Some of my Leeds friends and peers usually spend significant amounts of time connecting with artists, venues and events in London and they have a richer cultural life and network for it. But I confess I had largely given up on strategic appearances at this show or that event because travelling depletes my energy and that means spending money on accommodation. So train and accommodation means I could be looking at £160 even before I get to the box office or the bar. Coaches are cheap but take longer so I will be more tired when I arrive. If you have encountered me at an event I will probably have been fighting exhaustion and brain fog looking more like someone's nana on a day trip out: vaguely happy but disorientated. I will likely be thinking about if there is anywhere I can lie down shame free that doesn’t require me leaving whatever it is. I’m also aware I have privelidge. I am white, I have a roof over my head and despite my families chronology that reads more like a shit Dickens novel than reality I sound like an affluent member of the middle classes.

I know artists from every region do a lot of travelling for work and it’s exhausting for everyone. But what about when that’s not an option because of sickness or caring responsibilities or money or a pesky global pandemic?
Whether real or imaged the artists that I would like to engage with feel less out of reach right now. I feel venues that might have been caught in hurrysickness might be more likely to speak across regional divides. Before all this, my collaborators in Mexico felt closer than my peers in London. But maybe I can take the chip off my shoulder and stop whingeing. Maybe we can exchange and talk and set down our baggage. Maybe I can digitally connect with other cities. Maybe artists from outside Yorkshire can have a little bit of that Leeds warmth….
WARNING: "Leeds warmth" often leads to horrific hangovers after a night at CLAY, followed by ill advised bloody Mary's in the morning. At least you can skip the Megabus ride home this time.

Warmth and slowness is key now and I have never been more ready. Comfort keeps me in my bubble, speaking to the artists venues and communities I know but maybe now, when so many things feel a bit strange, is the time to step out of that comfort zone. And I’d like to invite you to do the same. Who are the artists you admire from afar but don’t talk to? Venues: Where are the cities you haven’t travelled to recently or ever? Who are the makers working there? There is an open invitation to digitally visit Leeds. I’ll put the kettle on.

*See a short description of Spoon Theory here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoon_theory

My northern pity party is temporarily suspended: I hope normal service does not resume as soon as possible
OR
Is lockdown lessening the impact of the north south divide between artists?

Ellie Harrison
https://www.griefseries.co.uk/
@GriefSeries
@ellie_meg

a pair of hands holding, mine, something blue

Moa Johansson
@yesmoa
www.moajohansson.org

Feminist Faith

Ellie Mcloughlin Mejía
@tokenmexican

Uncivilizing

Sascha Akhtar
@akhtarsascha

The dead had bad dreams

Filippos Tsitsopoulos
@filippos_tsitsopoulos

Memory Loss

Alejandro Zertuche
@alzerall

Carrie...? Are you there?

Laurie Brown/ Wildeblood
@Wildeblooddesign
www.wildeblood.com

WITH ALL OUR LOVE, SEE YOU NEXT MONTH.

Hey friends, we're back for the April Issue of our online space/sharing/zine/gathering thing.

Over the last month online spaces, live-streams, zoom performances, digital hang-outs and net-work networks (HA!) have, for a lot of us, gone from a weird (almost dystopian) novelty into an increasingly established routine.
We've maybe been in touch more with our friends that live far away from us and that we don't often get to see in person, maybe we've been attending online-events streamed from places we've never been to and getting to know communities of local artists and makers that we wouldn't have had the chance to otherwise, maybe we decided to go completely off-grid and turn off internet and finally have time to read, or rest, or wank without constantly checking the clock. Maybe we're terrified of our income-streams during and post shutdown, we fear for our health and for the health of others around us, pushed into panic corners over the heightened uncertainty of our present and future.

Having the internet be this ultimate omnipresent venue where everyone can attend or put on events fairly easily and cheaply is as much an incredible blessing and privilege, as it is overwhelming and - for some - a trigger for anxiety-strikes over fears of missing out, under-producing, not making/sharing/engaging enough. We've seen the mindfulness discourse grow through posts, insta-stories, memes, blogs and vlogs, assuring people that not being able to produce is a totally normal and valid reaction to this situation (which, of course, it is!); maybe what's left out of the nuance of those takes is that business-as-usual and politically apathetic self-care routines aren't opposite binary paths, or a one-or-the-other situation.

We hope everyone is checking in with themselves, their needs and wants. We hope that everyone is doing that more often or more in-depth than 'normal' because this is an unprecedented social trauma; and even though our individual sets of privileges can make it so much easier in a lot of ways, the reality of trauma is always debilitating.
But what we must also remember is that as we get pushed into enforced rest, escorted into a break, a stand-still, a stop, a state-mandated pause to breathe, to read in the sun, the world keeps going on outside; politics, and the systemic oppressions their current form promotes, doesn't take breaks, isn't in pause, will never rest.

Unsurprisingly, the ones in our society who were already suffering and struggling the most before this, are the ones who are now the most affected too.
Not only we see the disproportionate ways COVID-19 is hitting poorer countries in the South, and how in the US and UK it is affecting specifically communities of colour, we also see this crisis being used to promote oppressive measures and divides fuelled by right-wing rhetoric: we've seen a complete disregard for war refugees made clear, we've seen the same disregard across the world for those in detention centres and prisons, a spike on racism targeting people from south and south-east Asian diaspora as well as a spike on anti-blackness in China, there's Poland surging with a strong anti-abortion agenda, attacks on Trans people like exemplified by Hungary seeking to end the legal recognition of ones gender, or the comments Liz Truss has made in the UK a few days ago about the health treatment of minors suffering from dysphoria.

If we don't plan now, when we are allowed into the physical world again these systems of oppression will have undergone an unimaginable acceleration process we won't be able to keep up with; our counter-narratives, our resistance strategies, our planned attacks need to be organised before it's too late, whilst we have some free time, before the market summons us back into the usual fast-pace work-to-survive mode which debilitates our ability to revolt.

We hope you're stopping enough to make sure you're okay, that you're caring and showing up for yourself and who's around you.
We hope we're all working to not cross the edge between resting and apathy, slowing down and complacency, self-care and collective disregard.

Enjoy this months issue, support the artists featured, and come back to see us in whatever we put together for next month.

In love & solidarity,
LAC x