ARTISTS TALKING

Simon Faithfull's work oscillates between the micro and macroscopic. His film 30Km, commissioned by the Film and Video Umbrella in 2003 and shown at Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, and Pump House Gallery, London, perhaps best captures the spirit of his work. The circular projection begins with a close up of Faithfull's face, arms outstretched towards the lens as he gets the camera ready. He lets go of the equipment and we, the viewers, float away quickly. The round image that we see rotates to create a dizzy snapshot view of earth, with the artist a mere dot in the frame ' eventually the film ends with brief glimpses of the curve of the earth against black space. Faithfull used a weather balloon, satellite navigation and microwave transmitter to send the image back to earth. The camera and balloon were lost. What remains, back on terra firma, is a record of the artist and field disappearing into the distance at an alarming rate, in a rhythmic rotation that is hypnotic and quite dizzily disconcerting.

Digital media

Faithfull has used digital media for some time. In 1998 he co-founded the digital arts organisation e-2 which uses the internet as a platform for specially commissioned work. It facilitates artists who do not necessarily use digital technology to create new work. Tomoko Takahashi’s word perhect was jointly commissioned by e-2 and Chisenhale in 2000, and was one of the works for which she was nominated for the Turner Prize. Other artists who have worked with e-2 include Anna Best, Susan Collins, Brighid Lowe and Geraint Evans.

Faithfull's use of technology and new media does not get bogged down in technical complications. He uses it as a means to an end. Since 1997 he has been making digital line drawings ' a type of hybrid fine art and digital practice. He has produced an on-going series of drawings that are made simply by using a desktop computer and mouse. More recent works have utilized a Palm-Pilot hand-held computer that allows a type of direct observational sketching that harks back to pocket sketchbook and pencil. The first project to use this device was Lea Navigation which follows the River Lea from its mouth at the Thames in East London to its source near a tower block in Luton.

Residencies

Faithfull has worked on a number of national and international residencies over the last decade. He co-founded Braziers International Residency Programme in 1995. Although Faithfull values facilitating and working with other artists to enable them to make new work – both in e-2 and Braziers – he is no longer directly involved in these organisations. His primary focus is the development of his own practice.

In 2002 he was selected to undertake a two month residency at Artsway in the New Forest, Hampshire. This timeout period allowed Faithfull to immerse himself in his work. Unlike some artists who live off-site during this programme, Faithfull requested a live-work space at Artsway so that he could create a routine: “I’d get up in the morning and go mountain-biking in the woods with my dog' Then come back to the studio and make art.” The time at Artsway did not provoke a site-specific response to make work. Instead Faithfull developed his knowledge and skills in making a DVD film with Artsway’s digital technology support. During this time he made Orbital no.1 an ovular screen projection split into three rings with looped film footage from a journey around the M25, north and south London circular road, and the circle line.

Faithfull has made more site responsive work on his international residencies initiated by the organisation Triangle to Namibia in 1997 and the World Trade Center, New York in 2000. Triangle was already familiar with Faithfull’s work through his connection with Braziers and invited him to apply to their residency programme. For both these residencies, he produced work that formed a visual diary about his responses to these unfamiliar, exotic locations. World Trade was a diary series of digital line drawings that he emailed each day from New York to a group of contacts. At the end of each dispatch the recipients were asked if they wanted to continue receiving diary entries, and if they wanted to add more addresses to the list. The result was a snowball effect that created a steadily increasing audience network. In this way, Faithfull shows an integral understanding, and interest, in ways that information and ideas are transmitted. Through the use and expansion of word of mouth networks he allows an organic and genuine interest in his work to emerge. However, Faithfull is also proactive in the development of his professional practice. The snowball effect is, as many artists acknowledge, an extremely successful and long lasting means of building an audience and attracting new opportunities, but Faithfull continues to compliment it by dedicated applications to new projects and places.

Whilst a residency can provide a period of deeper analysis, as well as support for an artist, it can also provide a challenge to current ways of working, as well as exposure to new stimuli. Faithfull’s most recent residency on the Arts Council England (ACE) International Artists Fellowships Programme ‘Artists and Writers’ in Antarctica provided such a challenge.

Fellowship to Antarctica

‘Artists and Writers’ in Antarctica is a scheme that is jointly run by ACE and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). According to ACE, the fellowship’s key concern is “to raise awareness and understanding of the extensive scientific research [BAS] undertakes in Antarctica”. To this end, the fellowship scheme's aim is for artists to focus on creating tangible ‘outputs’ rather than purely a period of time for contemplation and exploration. ACE supports the artist's travel costs and provides a Fellowship grant while BAS provides the logistics of the artist's travel and support in Antarctica.

Project proposal

In 2003 Simon Faithfull applied to the Artists in Antarctica Fellowship scheme. The first year he was short-listed but not selected. The rejection stated the application had ‘considerable merit’ and so after seeking advice he re-submitted his application with a covering letter the following year. He proposed to send a Palm-Pilot drawing each day of the journey to and from Antarctica. The drawings would appear daily on designated web pages which would also show a map of his progress by air and sea to Antarctica, and later a series of text diary pages. In addition to the internet platform, the drawings would be emailed directly to individuals who wished to receive them, as well as shown in art galleries around Britain. His proposal was accepted.

Whilst ACE supported Faithfull’s trip, he was responsible for organising the public platforms for the work. The Antarctic project allowed him to pull together many strands of support and contact that he had built up over the years to create a diffuse nationwide project. Faithfull had been in conversation with Francis McKee at The Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), Glasgow for sometime about undertaking a digital commission there. They agreed that it seemed to be a good opportunity to show the digital work of the Antarctica project at the CCA throughout the period of his journey. The digital daily drawings were projected in the gallery as well as etched onto perspex to create an ever-growing installation.

Artsway in Hampshire also played a key role in supporting the public aspect of the project. Faithfull has continued a relationship with Artsway since his residency there in 2002. They operate a scheme with a small number of artists called Intimacy which aims to maintain links and support with selected artists over a sustained period of time. They hosted Dispatches on-screen in the gallery and encouraged Faithfull to approach the Southampton City Art Gallery about showing the drawings concurrently. The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), London, who had commissioned an exhibition of his work, Hard Drive, earlier in the year in the digital studio, also agreed to show the digital drawings.

After an intensive period of putting in place the structure for his work back in Britain, Faithfull set off for Antarctica on 22 November 2004.

Practicalities

Simon Faithfull’s journey to Antarctica was made by air to the Falkland Islands via Ascension Island. At the Falklands he joined the ice-strengthened ship RSS Ernest Shackleton which made its way through sea-ice for one month to its destination the Halley Research Station, perched on stilts on the ice cliffs of the Antarctic. Before setting off Faithfull imagined that his time on ship would allow a period of reading, reflecting and looking. He remarked that “in actual fact, it was really hectic for the whole journey. The thought of empty screens back in Britain meant that I had to make the drawings come what may. They didn’t always work as drawings, so most days I made several dud sketches before succeeding. These then had to be uploaded onto the website, prepared and sent to the sign writers in Glasgow (who were etching the perspex drawings that would go on display at the CCA) as well as updating the map, writing text etc. etc. In the end I barely read one book the whole time I was away.” Despite there being little personal space aboard ship (every available space was crammed with supplies to take to the Research Station), Faithfull fulfilled his daily dispatches, and shot a series of films from his porthole window. He comments that “I walked into my cabin and there was a readymade circular ‘Simon Faithfull’ film playing”.

Faithfull found the relationship with the crew and BAS organisation challenging. He was the first artist to go to the Halley Research Station and they were not very clear as to his role on the trip. The Base Commander of Halley Research Station made it clear that Faithfull's project was secondary to the work of unloading the ship. Therefore, he was expected to work twelve hour shifts along with his shipmates when they arrived at the Halley Station. Unlike the rest of party Faithfull was travelling back with the ship and so would only be on Antarctic soil – or ice – for six days. Faithfull remarked that “it was very difficult, as I was afraid that I had journeyed all this way and when I arrived in Antarctica I wouldn't have any time to spend making or thinking about work. Luckily, however, because of twenty-four hour daylight and the adrenaline of being in this incredible place, I was able to just work through the ‘night’ when I was supposed be sleeping. My immediate work mates also took pity on me and allowed me to skive a little.”

Despite these difficulties, Faithfull managed to continue to make and send his Palm-Pilot drawings. He also made a photographic work Halley Research Station, 12.05am which was sent to the Pump House Station in Battersea, London as part of the group exhibition ‘White Station’. Faithfull certainly fulfilled ACE’s remit to create outputs from the Fellowship, but this was largely through his own initiative, perseverance and hard work.

New inspirations

It appears that there are several outcomes from living and working in a new environment. In Simon Faithfull’s Antarctica Fellowship, the most obvious is the physical relation to an extremely different place: “The untouched snow (unbearable to look at without goggles) was alive with crystal fireflies of light but for all my clown-walking in huge moon-boots, the shimmering building ahead only grew a tiny amount ' floating through infinity white. An evil angel was playing with me ' blowing the building away across the featureless plain of white. If your eyes tell your brain things that don't make sense, your brain tries to fill in” (Simon Faithfull diary entry 24 December 2004).

However, perhaps the more challenging, and potentially exciting outcome, is the shift that this fellowship might offer to the artist's current and past practice. The long trip by boat out to Antarctica allowed Faithfull to settle into his Dispatches project. Each day a spidery black pixelated line would slowly appear as the image downloaded on glowing white computer screens across the world. The simple images had gone through layers of selection and simplification: first through Faithfull’s own seeing and thought process; then the marks made on his Palm-Pilot screen; the digital information coded, de-coded and re-coded across digital networks; finally seen by the viewer. Although this work is different in subject matter, it is, by its nature, similar to his other digital drawing series.

The fact that Faithfull only had a limited number of hours once he reached this strange continent undoubtedly meant that he experienced a slightly desperate sense in trying to gather and see as much material as possible. There was little time for over-conscious selection and experimentation. Now that the artist is back, living and working in a familiar environment, he can reflect on the raw material that he has, and the way that he might work with it. Faithfull has a large amount of footage from a far and distant place that few people will ever experience at first hand, but he is conscious that he does not want his work to rely on the exoticness of strange icescapes.

Many artists who have been on residencies reflect that the impact of a new experience in an unfamiliar environment is not necessarily seen immediately in their work. It takes time for the distillation of material and ideas to manifest themselves in the artist's practice. The ripples from Faithfull’s Antarctic journey will no doubt impact his practice for some time to come, both in terms of his art work and professional practice. He is already getting offers for his next international residency.

Links

www.antarctica.ac.uk/News_and_Information/Artists_and_Writers/further _details.html

www.simonfaithfull.org/antarctica

Update 2006

The things that have happened since the profile are:

1. The Iceblink shows earlier this year at Stills (Edinburgh), Cell (London) and Parker’s Box (New York). These all happened simultaneously and presented the video work from Antarctica that hadn't been seen until this point (as well as the drawings, diaries and a photograph). Alongside this I also gave a performance/lecture in each of these cities that used the video and drawings to tell strange tales of Antarctic politics, madcapped exploration and apocalyptic science – this lecture also formed the basis of the Bookworks book that came out to accompany the exhibition.

2. 12 Postcards from Berlin – a drawing project emailing out animations from a circular journey around Berlin. The drawings also appeared live as physical etchings in Gimpel Fils gallery and one has now become a large wall drawing in the exhibition ‘Anstoss Berlin’ in Haus Am Waldsee, Berlin.

3. Lost – commissioned by Whitstable Biennale Lost is a sculpture made with the ghosts of absent objects – an inventory of missing things. A simple but extensive inventory, Lost is a book that catalogues all the objects that I have lost and tells the strange stories of their individual departures. In June 2006, Lostwas deliberately left around the town of Whitstable, on the south-east coast of England. The publication appeared each day on benches, in pubs, by the seashore and on the various forms of public transport that were leaving the area (trains, planes and buses). The 500 copies of Lost distributed were individually numbered and finders were encouraged to record their discovery on a website before releasing the book back into the world.

www.simonfaithfull.org

The writer

Jane Watt is an artist and researcher based in London.

She has made site-specific work in the public realm for over ten years. She has completed a number of temporary and permanent commissions including projects for the Edinburgh Dental Institute, Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital and Forces of Light Festival in Helsinki. She has exhibited widely in Britain and abroad including solo exhibitions at the Economist, London, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth and Damasquine Gallery, Brussels. She is currently working on a large commission project in Cambridge for Land Securities and Christ's College.

In 2002 Jane Watt completed a PhD at Manchester Metropolitan University which examined the practices and processes of artists working to commission. In her current role as Research Associate at ResCen (Centre for Research into Creation in the Performing Arts) at Middlesex University, she facilitates written and evaluative outcomes. Jane also lectures in Art History and Theory at University of Roehampton.

Jane Watt

Jane Watt is an artist based in London. She has a PhD in the process and practice of artists in public art commissions.

jane@janewattprojects.com