Artist Talk - Angela Bartram

Angela Bartram

23.11.17

Bartram introduced herself as a sculptor. Or a “sculptor in the expanded field.” She considers all creative mediums she works with; performance, critical writing, curating as her sculpture.

In response to this, the artist first illustrated her curated exhibition, Documents Alternative #1 currently on show at the Airspace Gallery. The sculptural qualities of curation are evident in the way art is mapped in a show. She described the exhibition as revealing a constant state of change; as each piece will evolve as the exhibition progresses and moves to other gallery spaces.

 The work curated by Bartram explores themes of ephemerality and changeability; a short-lived conversation between art and audience. These transient conversations lead to questions that constantly expand and transform. The exhibition offers a reflection of the expanded field of sculpture that Bartram operates in.

The artist’s own work from the show; ‘366 Breaths’, 2016. Illustrates a human activity that can’t be materialised. Breath is inherently something paramount to our existence. Its not something we think about until we see its exertions under certain conditions (in cold weather or when close to certain materials). Here Bartram described her year long process of breathing onto an etching plate to expose the effects human breath on this synthetic material.

Fig.1 366 Breaths; 2016. Image courtesy of the artist. 

Fig.2 Licking Dogs; 2008. Video still. Image courtesy of the artist.

Fig.3 Tonguing, Ex Teresa; 2006. Image courtesy of the artist.

Bartram gave a detailed account of the liveliness of the audience in the Mexican Ex Teresa gallery where she performed her piece ‘Tonguing’, 2006. She mentioned that the galleries in Mexico are the only places where socially the people from the streets living in extreme depravity and the highest of society convene in that space; as a result, they fight for their voices to be heard. Her piece calmed down the agitated audience. Potentially, the suckling qualities of her actions and the offering of rock for everyone else to consume; allowed a certain regression that transported the audience to a tranquil time of suckling milk from the bottle or the mother’s breast.

Bartram described a fascination in the audience reaction to her pieces globally- Americans tend to talk all the way through a performance and engage. British audience tend to step back, go very quiet – give space to the artist. Element of fear perhaps? Social boundaries- In a later tutorial I queried her further on the variety of audiences that watch her work; the artist noted that the proximity of viewer to performance artist creates that tension that enforces an audience to step back. It makes them just as much a part of the art as the artist. 

Bartram’s 2008 Video, Licking Dogs; exposes an attempt to abolish the hierarchy that separates human from animal. Demonstrated by revealing herself as an equal being to that of the dog in an exchange of licks. She notes that licking is a submissive act by dogs and her licking back is an act of submission in return. An exchange rather than control over the animal.

During our conversation I proposed the notion of social prescriptions causing audiences to react in a way of perceiving her as sexualising or fetishizing human-animal relationships. She mentioned previously the work of Georges Bataille, an author of several works on the subject of eroticism. To this Bartram responded that she made a point of collaborating with neutered male dogs to overturn ideas that her work is linked to sexual relationships to animals. The science behind animal behaviour clarifies that licking by dogs is separate to the sexual connotations of human kissing.

Bartram’s practice is an interesting exploration of social boundaries and her interest in the human mouth as an “orifice of profound physical impulses”. Its clear the artist is keen to flip our social normalities on their head. As she mentioned; her work changes the dynamic of how we think about the part of us that we treat with great privacy yet we overlook the fact that it’s a very public part of our bodies.

www.angelabartram.com/