Our May event was framed around the theme of New Social Sculpture. Social Sculpture, a term coined by artist Joseph Beuys in the 1970s united his idealistic utopian ideas with his aesthetic practice. This term brought together many artists and Beuys himself was part of the FLUXUS movement with artists from around the world creating happenings and opening up the definition of what art can be. Even our history as FLUX Events takes from this enlivened and engaging movement with the hope of looking towards the future of art.
The idea that artists can change the world has perhaps become outdated for a contemporary creator and audience but there is still a necessity to challenge the way in which we perceive things and a need for art to be instrumental in turning society to a new way of thinking. Artist Olafur Eliasson believes that ‘art is a practice through which vital aspects of society and life may be examined, challenged and renegotiated.’
New Social Sculpture looked into the way in which contemporary media artists create work using technology that has a social impact. Through the use of interactive devices, text, technology and participation, we explored how media artists create work that can challenge the way in which people view the world. How can art be a catalyst for change and how can we use technology to implement these ideas?
Speakers confirmed for the event are; Blair Zaye, Aphra Shemza, Tim Murray-Browne & Sebastian Kite.
Information about the artist speakers:
Sebastian Kite
Sebastian Kite is an installation artist based in London. Exploring the intersection of art, architecture and music, his site-specific installations employ light, sound, structure, projection and performance to illustrate new readings of spaces.
Kite’s immersive environments are created on an architectural scale, rooted in the embodied experience and the immaterial. Placing the audience at the centre of the experience, Kite seeks to disrupt our relationship with the space we live in, demanding a conscious engagement by questioning our perceptions of time.
Often performative, Kite works with choreographers, composers, filmmakers and fashion designers to create a collaborative practice. He has exhibited at Import Projects (Berlin), Saatchi Gallery (London), South Kiosk (London), Wanås Konst (Sweden), Sonica Festival (Glasgow), as well as a diverse range of off-sites such as prisons, bunkers, railway stations and industrial sites.
Trained as an architect at The Glasgow School of Art and Westminster School of Architecture, Kite graduated in 2010. Since then he founded his own installation agency, Kite & Laslett (2010-13), and has worked as Creative Director at design agency Jotta Studio (2014-17). Kite has taught at institutions such as The Bartlett UCL and Westminster School of Architecture and in 2015 received the Royal British Society of Sculptors Bursary Award.
https://sebastiankite.com
Tim Murray Browne
Tim Murray-Browne is an artist and creative coder based in London. He works with code, sound, graphics and interactive technology to create immersive spaces for interactive installations and live performance.
Murray-Browne’s work often responds to the movement of the body and draws on embodied experience — preverbal sensations of place, significance and understanding. He looks for new contexts for human connection and creativity, places that challenge our assumptions of who we are and what we do.
It includes instrumental ensembles that are performed by the audience, audiovisual landscapes generated by a dancer, interactive light and sound sculptures and immersive one-on-one performances. It spans collaborations with choreographers, hackers, architects, movement practitioners, musicians and dancers. It has been shown around the world at venues including Tate Modern, The Barbican, The Victoria & Albert Museum, Berkeley Art Museum and some more unusual places such as the Olympic Swimming Pool in London, The Caffarella Park in Rome and The Gargarullo Centre for Popular Conspiracy in Brazil.
http://timmb.com/
Blair Zaye
Blair Zaye is an artist/curator originally from New Zealand and has been based in London since 2008. Currently he is studying a Masters in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts and he also has Bachelor of Visual Arts. He has himself exhibited extensively all over the world from the UK to the US, Germany, Russia and New Zealand, as well as organizing over 70 shows and events showcasing over 1200 artists.
As an artist Blair Zaye researches the changes that have and are occurring in society and observes where artists have placed themselves within these conversations historically, presently and could do in the future. He attempts to investigate the boundaries and similarities between; technology, neofuturism, quantum physics, consciousness, the esoteric, spirituality, populism, human potentialism and the transcendental, through text, paintings, drawings, video, performance, installation and the transient magic of theatre, initially posing the following questions pertaining to the milieu and contextual melee above;
What’s happened? What’s happening? What’s next and how can this be expressed, relayed and understood? And moreover; What part does contemporary art have to play in a universal cultural (r)evolution in the modern world? In particularly what mechanisms can be utilized and is it possible to signpost the path to an awakening and cultivate a new holistic worldview? Exploring the duality or perhaps the dichotomy between the taught concept of the transcendental versus the genuine experience of it.
As a curator/exhibition and event coordinator he has worked on various projects; he has curated and manages events at ‘Breathing Room’, ‘The Hive’ and Façade spaces and has directed/curated/coordinated 'ILLUSTRATED' ‘FRESH’, ‘Projekt’, ‘Contentious’ ‘Showcase Cities‘ and ‘Fountayne Road Open Warehouse Day’ projects as a way to collaborate with artists and performers while curating popup shows offering a platform to a broad spectrum of creatives. He also produces an online street art channel https://www.facebook.com/streetartmedia.tv. He is the treasurer for New Zealand Studies Network, promoting New Zealand art and culture globally. He has worked with TEDxTottenham curating a exhibition of locally based artists to coincide with their talks and is an ambassador for Haringey Arts. Over the past 8 years as a curator/exhibition/event co-ordinator he has come to recognize the need for affordable art studios in London. So he is currently in the throws of starting ‘Studio Zaye’ providing much needed affordable studios for over 30 artists.
Check out Blair’s artist page for all his newly available work as well as his live stream performance/paintings and upcoming shows at https://www.facebook.com/BlairZayeArtist/
http://www.blairzaye.com
Aphra Shemza
Aphra Shemza co-hosts FLUX Events along with Maria Almena and Oliver Gingrich, this evening wil be curated by Shemza. Aphra Shemza is a London based media artist working with abstraction, interactivity and light. Shemza has a background in the arts having worked for Faggionato Fine Art and Amrita Jhaveri in the past. Academically she has been published in Tate Etc. magazine and given talks at Tate Britain, the Courtauld Institute and EVA 2017, to name but a few. In the last couple of years she exhibited her work in the Shard with Louis Roederer Champagne, Winter Lights Festival, Canary Wharf and Xi’an Maker Faire with the British Council.
www.aphrashemza.com
Sebastian Kite
Sebastian Kite is an installation artist based in London. Exploring the intersection of art, architecture and music, his site-specific installations employ light, sound, structure, projection and performance to illustrate new readings of spaces.
Kite’s immersive environments are created on an architectural scale, rooted in the embodied experience and the immaterial. Placing the audience at the centre of the experience, Kite seeks to disrupt our relationship with the space we live in, demanding a conscious engagement by questioning our perceptions of time.
Often performative, Kite works with choreographers, composers, filmmakers and fashion designers to create a collaborative practice. He has exhibited at Import Projects (Berlin), Saatchi Gallery (London), South Kiosk (London), Wanås Konst (Sweden), Sonica Festival (Glasgow), as well as a diverse range of off-sites such as prisons, bunkers, railway stations and industrial sites.
Trained as an architect at The Glasgow School of Art and Westminster School of Architecture, Kite graduated in 2010. Since then he founded his own installation agency, Kite & Laslett (2010-13), and has worked as Creative Director at design agency Jotta Studio (2014-17). Kite has taught at institutions such as The Bartlett UCL and Westminster School of Architecture and in 2015 received the Royal British Society of Sculptors Bursary Award.
https://sebastiankite.com
Tim Murray Browne
Tim Murray-Browne is an artist and creative coder based in London. He works with code, sound, graphics and interactive technology to create immersive spaces for interactive installations and live performance.
Murray-Browne’s work often responds to the movement of the body and draws on embodied experience — preverbal sensations of place, significance and understanding. He looks for new contexts for human connection and creativity, places that challenge our assumptions of who we are and what we do.
It includes instrumental ensembles that are performed by the audience, audiovisual landscapes generated by a dancer, interactive light and sound sculptures and immersive one-on-one performances. It spans collaborations with choreographers, hackers, architects, movement practitioners, musicians and dancers. It has been shown around the world at venues including Tate Modern, The Barbican, The Victoria & Albert Museum, Berkeley Art Museum and some more unusual places such as the Olympic Swimming Pool in London, The Caffarella Park in Rome and The Gargarullo Centre for Popular Conspiracy in Brazil.
http://timmb.com/
Blair Zaye
Blair Zaye is an artist/curator originally from New Zealand and has been based in London since 2008. Currently he is studying a Masters in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts and he also has Bachelor of Visual Arts. He has himself exhibited extensively all over the world from the UK to the US, Germany, Russia and New Zealand, as well as organizing over 70 shows and events showcasing over 1200 artists.
As an artist Blair Zaye researches the changes that have and are occurring in society and observes where artists have placed themselves within these conversations historically, presently and could do in the future. He attempts to investigate the boundaries and similarities between; technology, neofuturism, quantum physics, consciousness, the esoteric, spirituality, populism, human potentialism and the transcendental, through text, paintings, drawings, video, performance, installation and the transient magic of theatre, initially posing the following questions pertaining to the milieu and contextual melee above;
What’s happened? What’s happening? What’s next and how can this be expressed, relayed and understood? And moreover; What part does contemporary art have to play in a universal cultural (r)evolution in the modern world? In particularly what mechanisms can be utilized and is it possible to signpost the path to an awakening and cultivate a new holistic worldview? Exploring the duality or perhaps the dichotomy between the taught concept of the transcendental versus the genuine experience of it.
As a curator/exhibition and event coordinator he has worked on various projects; he has curated and manages events at ‘Breathing Room’, ‘The Hive’ and Façade spaces and has directed/curated/coordinated 'ILLUSTRATED' ‘FRESH’, ‘Projekt’, ‘Contentious’ ‘Showcase Cities‘ and ‘Fountayne Road Open Warehouse Day’ projects as a way to collaborate with artists and performers while curating popup shows offering a platform to a broad spectrum of creatives. He also produces an online street art channel https://www.facebook.com/streetartmedia.tv. He is the treasurer for New Zealand Studies Network, promoting New Zealand art and culture globally. He has worked with TEDxTottenham curating a exhibition of locally based artists to coincide with their talks and is an ambassador for Haringey Arts. Over the past 8 years as a curator/exhibition/event co-ordinator he has come to recognize the need for affordable art studios in London. So he is currently in the throws of starting ‘Studio Zaye’ providing much needed affordable studios for over 30 artists.
Check out Blair’s artist page for all his newly available work as well as his live stream performance/paintings and upcoming shows at https://www.facebook.com/BlairZayeArtist/
http://www.blairzaye.com
Aphra Shemza
Aphra Shemza co-hosts FLUX Events along with Maria Almena and Oliver Gingrich, this evening wil be curated by Shemza. Aphra Shemza is a London based media artist working with abstraction, interactivity and light. Shemza has a background in the arts having worked for Faggionato Fine Art and Amrita Jhaveri in the past. Academically she has been published in Tate Etc. magazine and given talks at Tate Britain, the Courtauld Institute and EVA 2017, to name but a few. In the last couple of years she exhibited her work in the Shard with Louis Roederer Champagne, Winter Lights Festival, Canary Wharf and Xi’an Maker Faire with the British Council.
www.aphrashemza.com
