Directors
Laura Carew,
Joshua Y'Barbo

Email: chelseasalonseries@gmail.com

Wednesday 28 October 2015

Chelsea Salon presents: Alison Jackson in conversation with Simon Baker



Chelsea Salon is a peer-to-peer network of artists working in fluctuating institutional settings. Chelsea Salon is a collaborative effort with multiple platforms through which students, alumni, and professional artists have had the opportunity to meet in a variety of spaces, exchange ideas and forge productive relationships with artists and art institutions.

One of the features of the Chelsea Salon programme  is the series of talks organised by Laura Carew of Chelsea Salon. The talks are an example of the aims of Chelsea Salon to create a community of practice between current students at Chelsea College of Arts and its alumni. This forum is intended as an opportunity for artists to receive feedback on their practice and to experiment with ideas arising from their research. It is intended to expand the professional practice development of the artists involved. Although centred around CCA, it is intended to be inclusive and open.

We have probably all giggled at her images whether it be  Elton John having an enema or Tony Blair looking down Cherie’s bikini. All by the way situations that are credible but which we also know are a set up. The humour is powerful but there is serious intent here.

At a time when the photographic image has become ubiquitous as has our obsession with celebrity, Alison Jackson poses some important questions about authenticity and voyeurism.

Theoretically we all know that the camera can lie but we are inclined to believe and want to believe what we see. What is authentic anyway? As Warhol said “Who wants the truth? That’s what show business is for, to prove that its not what you are that counts, its what they think you are” .This encapsulates the postmodern concept of truth as a subjective value.

The photograph is more seductive than the reality. We project our fantasies on images of celebrities who conveniently cannot answer back. We feel we know them but of course we don’t. We seek our identity in public figures.

No public figure was more subjected to this treatment than Princess Diana. Voyeurism reached its zenith. We can only begin to imagine what Warhol would have made of it all.

Following the death of Princess Diana, the almost pornographic detailing of her death and the outpouring of grief that engulfed the country, Jackson made her name with a series of disturbing works culminating in an image which still resonates. This is her notorious photograph of 1999 which depicts Princess Diana, Dodi Al-Fayed with their imaginary mixed race love child. There was an uproar and this uproar only served to underline the implicit racism in the vi.
Jackson turns the tables on us. WE are implicated in the voyeurism. Photography she has said is “a slimy deceitful medium” which “tells only a partial truth”.
The in conversation between Alison Jackson and Simon Baker presented by Chelsea Salon  is being held on the 28th of Oct 2015 at the Chelsea College of Arts lecture theatre. Chelsea Salon is the subject of a PhD study into self-institutional art practice and institutional critique of the art school as is an overlooked site of critique neglected for art’s institutions of display, galleries and museums.  The PhD aims to explore new approaches to institutional critique by analysing the manoeuvrable practices of Chelsea Salon  and will contribute to knowledge by generating a theory of interstitial pedagogy that shifts between institutions.


Laura Carew & Joshua Y’Barbo

Chelsea Salon

Monday 1 June 2015

Open Call / Join Chelsea Salon



1. Open Call for Submissions: Salon on 13 June

Chelsea Salon is hosting a salon on 13 June to celebrate the opening of Penarth Studios off the Old Kent Road. The salon is a social event for UAL Pg Students and provides an introduction to the studio space and an opportunity to show work. 

The open call is for artists and collaborators across the UAL. There is no set theme for the salon and all proposals will be considered. Please find more details below: 

dates
Salon - 13 June 17:00-20:00
Submission deadline - 5 June 17:00
Installation - 12-13 June

Location: Penarth Studios, 27 Penarth Street SE15 1TR

Submissions: We are looking for 2-D, 3-D, Moving Image and Performance work. Please send 1-3 images (1MB), a written proposal, screenshot or links to video work. Submissions will be reviewed by the Salon team and confirmation emails will be sent out by 8 June. Installation will be held at the studios 12-13 June with the Salon held in the afternoon of 13 June. 

Please send submissions to: chelseasalonseries(at)gmail.com

The event is generously supported by the Postgraduate Community Student Initiative Fund and open to all postgraduate students at UAL. 


2. Join Chelsea Salon: 

Chelsea Salon is looking for volunteers who would like to collaborate with us in several areas of creative activity. These areas include: salons, talks, film, exhibitions, web / social media, documentation / archive and design. 

Individuals interested in film, performance, education, curation, exhibition design, documentary making, archives, art criticism and art writing could benefit from working with us.

We will be meeting Saturday, 13 June at 3-4pm at the Penarth Studios before the event to discuss collaborating together. Please email if you would like to attend. 

Chelsea Salon is a co-produced project that arose from the MA Fine Art course at Chelsea College starting in 2009. We are currently developing the project into a non-for-profit charity and are looking for people who would like to work with us during this development. 

About: 
Salons are pop-up exhibitions that are both dynamic displays and discursive platforms for discussion and performance. The site of our salons are constantly changing.
The Salon also hosts a series of lectures by well known artists  at Chelsea College of Arts and we are looking for people who might like to help with these and projects which arise from them.
The Chelsea Salon film club hosts classic film screenings and the presentation of original work by artists.

In addition, Chelsea Salon has the use of a temporary space called Landing Space on the 1st Floor of E Block at Chelsea College.There are opportunities here for curators.Currently Landing Space has three permanent monitors that are slightly demanding and problematic but animate the un-used landing in a specific way. We're looking for people to collaborate on showing moving image work within this space as well as supporting other areas of creative practice, i.e. salons, film club, talks, archive, etc… 

Web / Social Media and design support is needed to help update the salon website, organise the mailing list and promote events via social media and make the archive available to a secondary audience. This may include managing the online artist profiles and working with the rest of the Team to activate the potential of online spaces. This may also include promoting written criticism and artist's writing and managing the blog. 

Documentation and archiving overlap with other areas listed above and include individuals who are working in documentary processes or design based practices. The possibilities for capturing and representing salon activities would be an open discussion among the team.

For more information contact Josh or Laura at chelseasalonseries(at)gmail.com