Art Lunchtime Talk: Creation Myth
| Place: | National Museum Cardiff, Cardiff, UK |
| Start date: | Friday 11, November 2011 |
| End date: | Friday 11, November 2011 |
| Times: | 1.05pm |
| Price: | Free, booking essential. |
Prof André Stitt takes us on a personal journey through the work of Joseph Beuys, discussing the cult and mythology of performance art and their relationship to his own arts practice.
A talk on the work of Joseph Beuys. Booking essential. Please book at the Information Desk on arrival
As a schoolboy in 1974 Andre Stitt saw Joseph Beuys interacting with the public on the streets of Belfast. This formative experience had a profound effect on the young would-be artist. In his talk Stitt takes us on a personal journey through Beuys' work, the current exhibition, the cult and mythology of performance art, and their relationship to his own arts practice.
Born in Belfast, N. Ireland in 1958 , Stitt is considered one of Europe's foremost performance and interdisciplinary artists. He has worked as an experimental artist since 1976 creating hundreds of unique works at major galleries, festivals, alternative venues and sites specific throughout the world.
Recent work includes: Venice Biennale 2005, Blatic Contemporary Art Centre, England 2005, The Drawing Centre, New York, 2006, Artspace, Sydney 2007, Asiatopia, Bangkok 2008, Spacex Gallery, England 2008, The Lab, New York, 2009, MCAC, Northern Ireland 2009.
In 2008 he was awarded the prestigious Creative Wales Award.
He is Professor of Performance and Interdisciplinary Art at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff and is the director of the Centre for Fine Art Research at Cardiff School of Art & Design, Wales, UK.
In 2000 he opened trace: Installaction Artspace in Cardiff initiating a robust programme of international time based work.
www.tracegallery.org
Stitt's curatorial work includes Span2 International Project, London 2001, Flashes From The Archives of Oblivion, Chapter, Cardiff 2007-08, RHWNT, Quebec 2003-04, Of Contradiction, Beijing 2005, Trace Displaced, Tramway Glasgow 2008 & the National Eisteddfod of Wales 2008.
His artistic output includes performance art, painting, drawing, installation, digital print, video, photography, and relational activity. He also produces music and tours with his band The Panacea Society.
Stitt is identified with a strain of performance relating more to visual art and art action [identified in Stitt's work as "akshun"]. His work focuses on difficult and traumatic themes; issues of oppression, freedom, coercion, subversion, experiences of alienation, appropriation of cultures, globalisation, and communal conflict. His work physically and emotionally embodies the divisive forces of capitalism and materialist addiction; processes of building and disintegration and the resulting journey toward redemption.
Stitt's uncompromising style has been variously described as "..enigmatic andcorruptive..unmissible" [Time Out, London] "..fierce integrity, immediate, spontaneous, releasing" [High Performance, USA] - Performance Magazine [UK] has described him as "..perhaps our shaman who is prepared to explore what most of us would not care to be let alone try to express" "..the nearest thing Britain has to a genuine indigenous cult performer." - "Arts best kept secret and last live wire" [ND Magazine, USA]
There are several books published about his life and work.
Details of Museum:
National Museum Cardiff
Cathays Park, Cardiff
CF10 3NP
http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/cardiff/
Phone: (029) 2039 7951
Fax: (029) 2057 3321
Open 10.00am - 5.00pm Tuesday-Sunday.
Galleries close at 4:45pm.
Open Most Bank Holiday Mondays.
Free entry!
