Associates
PVAC Associates Scheme 2010
Selected Artists and Curators (see below for details):
Beth Richards, Katy Connor, Magda Tyzlik-Carver, Peter Stiles, Bryony Gillard, Bridgette Ashton, Mark James.
Ground Work South West
Beth Richards
Beth Richards’ practice explores the veracity of the archive, particularly the role of lens-based media in performative artworks. Often the authorship of the photographic outcome is beyond her control; emphasising the importance placed upon the actions in the work. The works visually reflect Richards’ influences of late sixties and early seventies performance artists, and veer from parodying to emulating notions of macho explored in their work.
i:Dat.
Katy Connor
Katy Connor is an installation artist working with digital audio visual technologies. She uses new media technologies alongside more traditional materials to comment on the ubiquitous technicization of contemporary experience. Continually drawn towards the relationship between the body and technology, Connor explores the move from an industrial, material-based culture to a post-industrial, digital age of information flow; in which our lives are mediated by technologies in a dynamic that is both alienating and empowering.
With a professional background in film and television production, Connor worked in the commercial sector for 6 years before developing her artistic practice. She has since screened and exhibited her work in galleries and festivals in the UK, Europe and Japan. Katy Connor is Lecturer in Media and Digital Fine Art at Plymouth College of Art and currently lives in Bristol.
Kurator.
Magda Tyzlik-Carver
Magda Tyżlik-Carver is a curator with the educational background in 20th century art history and theory. In her curatorial practice she works primarily in a network context developing projects within online and offline spaces which utilise online networking tools, such as wiki, Skype, iChat, and offline public spaces and galleries. Conceptually she considers her curatorial practice as that of a facilitator and connector who creates circumstances and discursive situations in which elements such as human, machine, software, affect, play, work, text, gallery space, artworks etc. come together in some form of interaction within a curatorial domain.
Plymouth Art Centre.
Mark James
Mark James is a young Independent curator based in the South West of England. He has previously worked on various curatorial and arts projects spanning the UK and formerly Exhibitions and Gallery Co-ordinator for Peninsula Arts, University of Plymouth.
His practice is concerned with exploring new modes and acts of curating through, gallery, offsite, and publishing projects. He conceived and is the keeper of the Itinerant Toolkit, a project looking into journeying as an artistic practice. The inaugural edition was held at The Reg Vardy Gallery Sunderland in 2008. Mark is also a member of James and Jones Curatorial Partnership (J&J). In collaboration with Artist/curator Ben Jones they are working on a series of projects looking to establish J&J as a collaborative curatorial practice and to investigate the role of curating in society and culture through a variety of mediums and roles.
Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery
Peter Stiles
Hartland Radar and Waterfall.
Plymouth College of Art.
Bryony Gillard
Situated somewhere between sculpture and performance, my practice draws upon common social forms of interaction, in particular, celebrations, sports and games. I am interested in exploring the role of social archetypes in these situations – the winner, the loser, the referee. Often working in collaboration with artists or with social groups, physical participation is integral to my work.
The idea of personal space and physical boundaries are recurring themes within my work, with an almost sadistic urge to force the viewer into potentially difficult situations, which hang between pleasure and discomfort.
Zest
Bridgette Ashton
Bridgette Ashton’s practice crosses sculpture, printmaking and photography with a core emphasis on drawing and an exploration of notions of time, place and narrative. She employs a diverse array of materials, regularly focusing on second-hand sources and found objects. She works mostly on a small scale making objects and images, often flagrantly nostalgic, which frequently retain evidence of materiality and process.