Freee, Protest is Beautiful, Billboard Poster, 2007. Courtesy the artists. Photographer Cat Beech
The Cut blog:
Join the ICA
Belong to the home of new art, culture and ideas. Know first, book first, see first, and pay less.
My ICA: mailing lists and more
Sign up for regular updates about the ICA's programme, special events and offers.
ICA Members: sign in to buy tickets
ICA Members can buy tickets online at discounted Members' prices by signing in.
Protest Is Beautiful
Date: 6 November 2008
The Cut spoke to Mel from the Freee Collective about creative spaces, collaboration and the ultimate critique.
Team Cut
The Freee Collective is made up of 3 artists, Mel Jordan, Dave Beech and Andy Hewitt, who were featured in the Nought To Sixty show earlier on in the year. Before the show draws to a close we thought it was esssential to catch up with them. With their bold sloganeering, performance and subversive public art they hope to engage with contemporary political and social realities. The Cut spoke to Mel, who told us about some of the ideas behind their work, and why it is important to collaborate on art.
Where is your creative space?
Not sure we have only one space in which we think and work. We have a sort of collective head space - all our heads working on the same ideas at the same time.
How do you guys collaborate on your work?
We don't really collaborate on our work in the sense of coming to a negotiated conclusion - we make collective work, which we see as different to collaborative. Collaboration implies compromise or the loss of something as an individual- for us collective working means more not less. The collective is a 'win win' situation in that we have three times more time, energy and thinking capacity.
The ultimate critique is the solution - what do you reckon?
It might be tough to arrive at the ultimate critique.
How much does a billboard cost?
It varies; it all depends how big and whereabouts. Location is important in terms of the price of the billboard rent. There is also the cost of poster production. We always tell the billboard company that the poster is an artwork but we are not sure if this affects the price; they are in the business of selling space so we are not sure how genuine the reductions they give us are.
Recommend a friend or website
We have been thinking about making a new work in which we 'hail to' the artists we identify with. Maybe we can try this out here? 'Hail to' Mark McGowan, Clegg & Guttman, Chance Projects, Carey Young, The Hut Projct, Laura Oldfield Ford, Santiago Sierra, Superflex.
Find out more at www.freee.org.uk.
POST A COMMENT
In order to post a comment, please log in:
Not Registered? Then register here now.