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Charlotte Smith gets up early for
a private view
Time and Breakfast
Springhill Institute, Birmingham
17 August – 24 August 2004
play
Is our experience of art subjected to the ritual, relied upon to
confirm its continuation?
Example: the introduction of a review (ritually)
employs a statement, adds a literary twist and impersonates a critical
introduction. How to avoid this?
pause
Two statements and a question:
1 ‘Time & Breakfast’, held at
the Birmingham artist-run space Springhill Institute, attempted
a direct challenge of structures within the reception of art by
inverting the time scale of their private view from PM to AM.
2 This review attempts a direct challenge of
characteristic procedures employed within the general review format.
3 What is the function of a ‘confrontation’
with the art system and does this ‘function’ operate successfully
within either experimental model? (1 & 2)
skip backward
If we are unsatisfied by standard procedure then we must presume
that a better alternative is available and experiment relentlessly
until a better model is established. ‘Time & Breakfast’
demonstrated a very plausible critique of the narratives associated
with art systems, focusing on the model of the PV (private view).
This review of that event focuses on the traditional signifiers
of the PV, breaking down their appropriation at ‘Time &
Breakfast’.
resume play
‘Time & Breakfast’ opened on the 17 August, a one-off
open viewing as subsequent viewings were by appointment only. Running
from 6am until 9am, projection, text and a live TV link up between
the kitchen and gallery featured as part of the morning’s events,
which presented the work of Karin Kihlberg, David Miller and Reuben
Henry.
It was an acknowledgement of the PV as a social
experience. ‘Time & Breakfast’ questioned who orchestrates
this in addition to what the ideals of the PV have become.
Evidence of spatial interaction left by PV
visitors became a symptom of the event’s conceptual premise.
Attendees gathered in the kitchen for the main part, leaving a trail
of beans and coffee circles on the table and breakfast bar. Coffee
cups were positioned around what had become the reception area,
presenting the remnants of their contents. Few milled around the
‘gallery’ space for long, giving up the pretence of the
traditional private view and opting straight for social engagement.
If we accept that currently the commercial exhibition dominates
the popular public perception of art, then we may consider artist-run
spaces and their shows as the ‘chic’ alternative. Perhaps
we may suggest that artist-run shows challenge the commercial ideals
of viewing. Consider this action. You attend a PV. You pick up your
glass of wine and handful of nibbles, wave suspiciously to a couple
of faces, initiate a conversation and repeat until fade. At some
point during this routine you make the journey from the wine table
to the artwork.
On Tuesday the 17th this relationship was exposed
at Springhill. Walking from the reception/kitchen (which had become
the event by 7.45am) to the ‘gallery’ became a representation
of the barrier between the social and artistic endeavours inherent
in the experience of a PV. I imagined the space attempting to segregate
itself as ‘domestic/social’ and ‘art’, but failing
beautifully. It provided a clever metaphor for the concept of the
show. The event was the ‘barrier’ that tried pitifully
to exist. Making it a morning event simply highlighted that fact;
visitors not able to carry their fry-up around like a wine glass,
instead choosing to eat and converse without embarrassment. It didn’t
segregate the social from the artwork, it highlighted the importance
of sociability in the presentation of art.
fast forward
Inevitably, and somewhat ironically, the new system we form from
our revolt becomes a matter of habit and eventually as conventional
as its predecessor. There is no escape from the conventional or
traditional because it evolves. Is revolt futile? Or is it a necessary
function we thrive on? Anything that claims radicalism is quickly
absorbed by hungry artists, curators and critics alike, and reclaimed
as the monumental. Thus it becomes the source that provides next
season’s ‘radical’. Challenge, analysis, review and
experimentation are not futile however. On the contrary, they are
essential to the testimony of the conventional.
skip backward
Inverting the conventional food/drink adornments and time constraints
of the PV may only consign ‘Time & Breakfast’ to a
variation of the same struggle. However, it responds with a challenge.
The expectations are disrupted. For instance, the presence of a
critical text, usually a key accompaniment to most exhibitions,
a conventional tool, is absent from ‘Time & Breakfast’
– the elimination of an often superfluous hindrance. It was
a simple but critical move on the behalf of Springhill. The work
on display was inherently about the event – text would have
been redundant.
resume play
The encounters, happenings and interactions of Tuesday 17th, 6–9am,
were essential to the audience’s experience of ‘Time &
Breakfast’. This model could be maintained in the review of
any PV as a critical analysis of its fundamental procedures. Take
the pre- and post-PV experience for example. In the case of ‘Time
& Breakfast’, the shock of crawling out of bed at 5.10
am balanced out by the bliss of riding smoothly down the Aston Expressway
with no traffic became significant. Why do not the pre- and post-experiences
of any show merit the attention of critical analysis?
Patterns of visitation relating to am/pm schedules
were clear from the outset. Painfully obvious on my arrival at 6.10am
was a feeling of being unfashionably on time, not felt if the opening
had been pm I’m sure. As the sane visitors rolled in at 7.30am
till past the 9am ‘closing’ it further highlighted the
traditions inherent in conventional PV agendas. “Mmm”,
I pondered as one of only two there for an hour and a half, ‘If
this was pm then everyone would be down the pub by now…’
‘Ooo’, my mental notebook went, ‘… time, sig-nif-ies,
struc-ture, of, events.’
Also noted: arriving, mingling, coffee pouring,
coffee drinking, sugar stirring, toilet usage, chair shortage, burnt
toast, bean spillage, furious eating (free fry up), eye rubbing,
yawning, foot shuffling, standing and viewing patterns, conversation
making, cup rinsing, plate popping into washing up bowl, leaving.
The audience congregated in patterns of three at the wall to read
Henry’s work. The agendas people had – coffee then art,
talk then coffee, art then talk with coffee… I noted the tiny
interventions made into the commonly devised social programme of
PVs like more casual dress, even more just-got-out-of-bed hair.
Each and every little ‘incident’ became a mark with which
to plot the PV.
pause | slow play
‘Time & Breakfast’ is best understood in terms of
the relationships it created with its purpose, audience and location.
Uncovering and analysing the frequently overlooked details of the
PV brings us within tangible grasp of breaching the wall between
art and everyday life. Tracing the non-programmed interactions within
the space is a way to avoid identifying the artwork as the ‘event’
and focus instead on the integral conceptual theme. The consciousness
and awareness of the situation, the recognition of the environment,
the realisation of time structures, and the appreciation of added
extras (wine/coffee) all determine the experience of the private
view in general. ‘Time & Breakfast’ not only illustrated
this gloriously with a few simple moves, but challenged the function
of these things.
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Charlotte Smith is an artist and writer based in Birmingham. She
is co-founder of 'Rolling Platform' www.rollingplatform.org.uk
an online forum for recent arts graduates.
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