ARTISTS TALKING

The two things aren't linked but they have played a big part in making me the artist that I am today.

The last seven years have been an art-rollercoaster ride, more reminiscent of a ride on Margate's decaying, scenic railway – an ever present fear of derailing, ultimately driving me on – than the glistening rides of Alton Towers. My strive for credibility finds me as a John Hughes to other people's David Lynch (though I like to think I'm becoming Richard Linklater).

My baptism of fire in to popular culture, aged eight, has played a major role in my work's content and theme. What I make conceptually, thematically and physically is gleaned from what's around me day–to–day; a realisation that all I know is all I know (until I know some more).

I've installed road signs in country parks, I've built churches in forests, I've tracked down the man that owns the first record that Ozzy Osbourne ever owned and I've had custard thrown at me in New York, whilst playing ‘1999’ by Prince – all in the name of art (vaguely).

I would happily say that I've blundered my way through my art career to date, living by the rule that if you are nice to people, put yourself out there and make good art, then everything will work out all right. This seems to have worked for me so far and I recently found myself in the enviable position of returning from a two-month residency/exhibition at PS1(MoMA) in New York, to start a year-long fellowship at UCE in Birmingham.

The fellowship is a particular luxury. ‘A year for an artist to research and make new work’ is its intention. The reality is that for the first time since university, I've had time to really think about what I do and why I want to do it. There have been long silences. There have been questions. There have been more long silences. There have been trips to Starbucks and, finally, there's been an emerging sense of direction of where I want to go with my work.

I'm currently collating a fans archive about the birth of heavy metal in the West Midlands, working towards a radio broadcast in Cardiff, with artists Gordon Dalton and Bedwyr Williams, which may involve Christopher Lee and will certainly involve a southern American preacher reading Slayer lyrics, and also a show in Leicester, where I'll be showing videos about urban cowboys. I also have visions of skateboarders and bands inhabiting one of the country's biggest and most prestigious art galleries, but don't yet know if they'll let me. Who knows?

If an Iron Maiden fan without an art A level can be allowed to exhibit at one of the most prestigious venues in New York (that's the only paperwork they don't ask to see at immigration), then I am certainly looking forward to what comes next.

UPDATE 2006
Since finishing the Wheatley Fellowship, things have (fortunately) continued moving in the right direction. I went straight into an Arts Council Fellowship in Krakow, Poland (with just a month and half out to nurse a broken leg), hosted by Bunkier Sztuki. I met some really interesting artists and curators there, one of whom I was able to bring over to the UK in March, through the Visiting Artists ‘Artist to Artist’ scheme.
Just before I came home from there I found out I’d been awarded a research and development grant to develop a live touring event based in the relationships between art and skateboarding. The major application for that has just gone in so keep your fingers crossed for me.
I’m currently artist in residence at Epic Skatepark in Birmingham (another project I developed, which will see myself and six other artists doing residencies there over the next ten months). I’m also working towards to my first proper solo show in 2008, (at City Gallery, Leicester) and a two person show at Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, in late 2007.
The naïve faith doesn’t appear to have let me down yet...

www.smarkgubb.com
www.arealrockarchive.com
www.epicartists.org