GRIP
GRIP is Emma Johnson and Michael Lumb.
Prior to 1999, Lumb had shown, in Ipswich, artists from Germany, Poland and Portugal and the U.S.A. as well as curating British artists in Poland and Latvia.
In
1999 Johnson and Lumb began to work as a curatorial partnership, initially
with 'Sites Abroad 2' in Ipswich bringing together artists from England, Finland,
Germany, Iran, Poland, Romania and the Ukraine. Since that date they have
continued to show artists in the region from Britain and Germany as well as
a major retrospective of the late English Fluxus artist Brian Lane. Their
most recent curatorial project was an exhibition in Arras, France.
TARDIS international
Following our previous curation of 'VIP', the brilliant title conceived by Mel Donohoe, which indicates the three areas of Fine Art practice represented (Videoart, Installation and Performance art) as well as their importance, an informal discussion took place about the nature of our curating activity and questioning why we had selected these areas of practice as the sole media. The short answer could have been because these are our areas of interest, and that they are linked because at one time they were considered to be 'alternative practice'. For those in the know, they can hardly be termed 'alternative' any more. In discussing what they had in common, there was talk of 'time based media', but this excluded installation, and the notion of 'time and space' began to emerge: or as a colleague, James Noble suggested, 'TARDIS'. We are all familiar with this acronym from Dr.Who, but 'Time and Relative Dimension in Space' was ideal for our purposes. The title was born.
It has been suggested to us that we cannot be seriously ambitious if we continue to curate in Ipswich, rather than in London for example - but for us there is something much more important, although defining it is not simple. For most of the participating artists, the work is about something far more profound than simply achieving fame and fortune. Ewa Swidzinska wrote in an email to GRIP "It is sad to see so much commercial performance starting in Poland". Martin Zet, on his web site proclaims that he is not prepared to waste time any more on writing CVs. "Martin Zet is at the moment refusing to write a bio ... You can consider this to be part of his fight for his freedom." Elsewhere he talks of the importance of revolution in places where revolution is not seemed to be needed: "No country is safe from revolution! - Even the ones which proclaim revolution as their basic principle…"
Whilst researching for an earlier project, we asked Di Clay if she had access to any of the archives from the London New Arts Lab (the very important experimental centre for the arts which she was a part of in the 1960s) and she replied that few were kept - 'happenings' happened - we wanted to experiment - we tended to live for the moment without thinking too much about posterity. Whilst it is regrettable that documentation was not made, we applaud the energy being channelled into the work itself rather than its commodification.
Clearly, we cannot claim the moral high ground - after all this is an introduction to a catalogue, and we will be documenting all the work. But, we have endeavoured in this age of pragmatism and compromise to privilege the importance of the work and its communication above all else, eschewing fashion, current trends and the increasingly self-referencing nature of the current art scene, whilst accepting that we are working at a certain time and in a certain place and are not free from myriad influences.
For GRIP, communication is essential. We want the viewer to be touched and moved by our art, and that of the artists we have curated. We hope you feel the sense of humanity brought to us by these artists, and that is why they will be in the venue each evening for you to meet and talk to. For us it is not just an exhibition, but an international artists’ meeting, an opportunity for exchange of ideas and to feel the warmth of internationalism.