ARTISTS TALKING

Driven by a strong commitment to social and environment issues, Nils Norman uses digital illustrations and architectural modelmaking to propose redevelopments of urban sites. These designs range from converting Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan into a Monument to civil disobedience, to turning The Generali Foundation exhibition space in Vienna into a community centre replete with mushroom farm and discourse space.

Based on meticulous research, all Norman's proposals could be realised with existing technology used in alternative energy and farming practices. This research also feeds into books such as The Contemporary Picturesque that unearths urban design intended for control, and the impromptu architectures built by protesters to circumvent and oppose them.

Realisation of work

Recently Norman's designs have been developed into real conversions. The geocruiser, a commission by the Institute of Visual Culture in Cambridge, saw Norman converting a 20 metre coach in to a mobile greenhouse and educational resource centre, that toured various public spaces in Britain and Germany.

A commission in Denmark has seen Norman working on a real design for a manmade lake as part of a scheme for a new town. Artists have been invited onto the design team as consultants. Although a familiar strategy, this scheme has the artists at the top of the decision-making process for specific public spaces in the town such as the car park and city square.

Production & management

Most of Norman's work is produced and managed by himself, although during busy periods some making may be outsourced. Drawings are made using a computer and model vignettes are constructed using customised off-the-shelf supplies.

Making much of his work to commission and working on a laptop, Norman does not require a studio as such, but has recently moved into an office that he shares with an interior designer in London. Overheads for manufacturing his work are therefore relatively low, but the peripheral aspects of being an artist can be a burden: "My main expenses are living in London, duping slides, making up press packs and all the extra expenses made when travelling".

Survival tactics

Norman manages to survive working as an artist as well as undertaking an array of activities: "I have a multi-front economy, I sell work through galleries, I do guest lectures and teaching, I get artist's fees for participating in exhibitions and publishing books and grants or residencies from which to live".

This can provide an erratic and unstable income, although a large fee as a consultant to design an area of a lake in Denmark as a public space has helped to support him. In the past, like many other artists, Norman has worked in a wide variety of jobs including teaching English in London, New York and Germany in order to survive.

City living

Being in a major city is crucial for Norman's practice that requires access to a wide range of research material. It is also where he feels most comfortable living: "I used to own 90 acres of countryside in Pennsylvania together with the artist Mark Dion and being there alone used to scare me" he confesses.

Over the last 10 years Norman has lived in Cologne, New York and London. He feels that as an artist it is politically important to live in a city. The lively and active exchange of ideas that are possible in a city are crucial to his development and meeting other artists informally along with gallerists and curators has been essential for Norman.

Artist-run spaces

Starting out in the early 1990s Norman was heavily involved with artist-run spaces. This started with a converted squat in Bloomsbury which he and artist Sarah Staton set up as an ad-hoc exhibition space and Poster–Studio, a collaboration with Merlin Carpenter and Dan Mitchell. Norman was also involved with organisations in Germany having moved to Cologne after graduating from Central St Martins.

In New York he curated projects with friend and gallerist, Colin Deland, and co-organised Parasites, a series of interventions in public spaces. His involvement with experimental independent initiatives established a network of friends and colleagues, a mutually supportive group that has proved valuable in his solo career. However, "having your best friend as your gallerist is not a relationship I would encourage as a model, as it sometimes gets quite messy" he warns.

Open exchange

"It always strikes me as strange when I meet artists who invest all their time in gallery politics and culture, even on a critical level. It seems so old fashioned!" Norman is generally sceptical about the commercial gallery system finding it often corporate and rather bland.

Spaces such as Pro-qm in Berlin, a bookshop that functions as a space for discussion and exhibition is a more interesting model for him as an artist. Funded by the over-the-counter sales, the income is not reliant on individuals, such as collectors. This allows for an open exchange of 'information/propaganda', a key concern for Norman as an artist.

Links

Further information:
Nils Norman, The Contemporary Picturesque (Access/Excess), Book Works, 2000. www.bookworks.org.uk

Chris Hammonds

Chris Hammonds is a freelance writer and curator.