‘Groovy Times’, Bronze with Cobalt finish and marble base, 2011 Courtesy New Artists Copyright Shorvon & Hunter
The Late Automatic 250 Land Camera’, 669 Polaroid Dye Transfer, 2011Courtesy New Artists Copyright Shorvon & Hunter
Lee Sharrock talks to the Founders/ Curators of NEW ARTISTS, Paddy Barstow and Arthur Hobhouse, and artist duo Shorvon & Hunter (AKA Nicholas Shorvon and Ben Hunter) who are exhibiting in the launch exhibition at Maggs Gallery (2-5 December at Maggs Gallery, 50 Hays Mews, London W1J 5QJ).
Shorvon & Hunter:
LS: You’ve been exhibiting and working together under the name Shorvon and Hunter since 2008. How did you first meet, and what inspired you about each other’s approach to make you want to form an artistic duo?
S&H: We met some years ago at Leeds university where we worked on a show together. Although we approach art and most things from totally different places, we found that together through negotiation we made much better work.
LS: What are the highlights of your career so far?
S&H: We have been lucky enough to be involved in some great shows and projects, but don’t really feel see these as career highlights. We are still very young as artists, so we really just try to just concentrate on developing our work, rather than seeing this as a career which has high or low points.
LS: The work that you’re exhibiting in the inaugural NEW ARTISTS exhibition at Maggs Gallery, explores new media such as Facebook (your ‘Facebook Top Trumps’ series) and dying media such as the Polaroid camera. Which media do you prefer working with, and do you think traditional and contemporary media is equally valid and relevant now?
S&H: We don’t really consider mediums in any kind of a hierarchical structure. Any argument about the validity of one medium over another is irrelevant as far as we are concerned. When we make work we tend to begin with an idea, and gravitate towards the medium that seems most appropriate on a case by case basis. This might involve making playing cards, taking pictures, making sculptures, or any number of other ways of resolving an idea.
LS: The Polaroids you’re exhibiting in the NEW ARTISTS exhibition have a haunting quality, with locations such as graveyards. How did you choose the locations, and what is the theme of this body of work?
S&H: Our Polaroids in this show came about in a slightly different way to most of our work. We are using 669 and 809 Polaroids which are long out of production, and it was really a case of us falling in love with the medium, having a small stock, and making a body of work with this. Really as a last hurrah or our own personal celebration of the medium itself, as no one will really be able to make these things again.
The subjects depicted are all things that have disappeared or are disappearing in one way or another, just like film. Most of our work is very controlled and centres around a certain topic or issue (Facebook, Surveillance etc) so it was nice to be a little more varied here. We have also explored some of the techniques, such as dye transfers and emulsion lifts, which are unique to this medium, and again will cease to be possible when the last final stocks are used up.
LS: You are also exhibiting bronze sculptures. Could you explain a bit about the concept behind them, the subject matter, and the process involved in creating them?
S&H: They are lost wax cast, and the original models are made of wax. After being cast, the bronzes have been plated in either gold or cobalt, rather than being patinated. We were thinking about mans insatiable lust for more, and the inevitable conflict this creates. History tells this story time and time again, and these works are taken from a larger series that incorporates historical narratives from war throughout the ages. In this way all the bronzes look in some way similar, with the figures swallowed up by these highly chaotic scenes.
LS: How does your work relate, if at all, to the 19th Century surroundings of the venue of Maggs Bros. Ltd., which is steeped in history?
S&H: It’s not linked as the work was not conceived with the venue in mind, but the space is amazing.
Paddy Barstow and Arthur Hobhouse AKA NEW ARTISTS:
LS: How did you come up with the concept for NEW ARTISTS?
NA: We met and got talking, and we saw an opportunity to do something interesting together that would combine our talents.
LS: What do you think is unique about NEW ARTISTS?
NA: Each exhibition will provide the featured artist(s) with a platform to build their practice, and consquently emerge in the wider art community with an enhanced value. We aim to establish NEW ARTISTS as the new point of contact between the established art world and emerging talent. NEW ARTISTS focuses on the promotion of up and coming artists. Our edge over the high-end galleries is that the location is variable. Using short-term contracts with property owners NA has the flexibility to respond rapidly to shifting artistic trends.
LS: What’s the NEW ARTISTS mission statement?
NA: Our mission is to deliver high-end contemporary work using a hit-and-run gallery model. We want to demonstrate how exhilarating and dynamic the impermanent art space can be. NA has a ‘catch us if you can’ philosophy – short bursts of art activity that deliver the urgency of the auction room: a sort of feeding frenzy where the opportunity to participate should not be missed.
LS: How did you curate the art that you’re exhibiting at Maggs Bros Ltd., and did you select the artists because you thought the work they’re exhibiting would relate well to the surroundings?
NA: Both of us had individual artists that we wanted to support, but we thought that in this instance, with Richie Culver and Shorvon and Hunter, that their work had a particular resonance. Aside from their mutual exploration of Polaroid in the show, their work and practise is worlds apart. Being individually close to both artists, we were interested in what the juxtaposition would look like.
LS: You say that NEW ARTISTS has a ‘catch us if you can’ philosophy. What do you feel is different about NEW ARTISTS to the Pop Up exhibitions that were popular for a while?
NA: The idea is act as an intermediary for emerging artists between the graduate show, and the transition to top commercial galleries. NA exhibitions will raise the profiles of artists and introduce their audience to tomorrow’s talent. The difference is that we source everyday industrial locations where art and venue will interact most creatively – as demonstrated by our inaugural exhibition at Maggs Bros. Ltd., which is a 19th Century building housing Booksellers by appointment to The Queen, and apparently haunted by the ghost of an ex-Prime Minister – we think that’s pretty unique! This first exhibition featuring Richie Culver and Shorvon & Hunter, in such an unusual and historic venue, aims to set the standard for more high spec installations that will allow artists to explore their art in varied contexts, outside the white box gallery space.
LS: What do NEW ARTISTS have up their sleeve next?
NA: We are supporting two incredibly talented new artists, and we be disclosing the details in January. Keep locked into our social media platforms, and look out for our website launching in January.
www.facebook.com/NewArtistsNA
twitter.com/newartistsna
newartistsna.tumblr.com
www.shorvonandhunter.com/
www.richieculver.com/
