• ISBN13: 9781870736176
• Binding: Hardcover
• Subject: N/A
• Publisher: Stefan Szczelkun
• Publisher Imprint: Stefan Szczelkun
• Publication Date: September 5, 2018
• Pages: 40
• Original Price: GBP 20.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 427 grams
• BISAC Subject(s): Individual Photographers / Artists' Books, Subjects & Themes / Plants & Animals, and Subjects & Themes / Food

A book of 17 photographs taken of my compost caddy, whenever I found the contents interesting because of the colours or composition of elements or both. The photographs were taken with natural light from a skylight which gives a variation in the speed and aperture used in each shot. This information is recorded on the facing page with date of capture. The camera used was always a Sigma DP2 with Foveon sensor.

Finding beauty in chaos and decomposition appealed to my anarchist and anti-art sensibility. Representing still life or flora at the peak of its perfection reeks of petrified ideologies. Decomposition suggests that the formal relations we hold dear are subject to a continual state of change. Matter readied for breakdown by benign organisms reminds me that the world is 'on our side'. What is discarded can contribute to tomorrows new growth.

There are other ways of looking at these photographs. The seasons are partly represented by allotment produce and partly denied by unseasonal supermarket fare. Within these patterns the photos also give a partial picture of what we did and didn't eat during the two years or so that it took to do this project. There is also a way of seeing them as painterly compositions of abstracted colours and shapes that may have been a part of the subconscious criteria by which I would choose to take a photograph at any given moment. Was it a way of negotiating an escape from, or renewing the compositional presets that every aspiring artist absorbs from his or her culture?

Or the photos could simply be used as an observational game to name the fruit and vegetables shown?

And oh, yes, we do have an allotment so there is that in the mix as well.

Szczelkun, Stefan: - "Born in London post WW2 of displaced working class parents I grew up in the suburb of Shepperton. I studied architecture at Portsmouth before joining the Scratch Orchestra. I had some success as an author in the UK and USA with three books on our basic life supports: Survival Scrapbooks: Shelter, Food and Energy. Whilst at college I ran the Portsmouth Arts Workshop after being inspired by the Drury Lane Arts Lab and came in contact with leading experimental artists of the day, including Cornelius Cardew and The Scratch Orchestra. I then researched the elements of human ability whilst working with New Dance Collective and wrote for their magazine. Much later this work was published as Sense - Think - Act. During the Eighties I became a more conventional artist moving from Mail art to drawing, printmaking and performance art. I was a founder member of the Brixton Artists Collective and gallery which was active from 1983 -1987. Towards the end of the Eighties my work took a literary and theoretical turn in relation to identity politics. This resulted in three books on class and art published under the collective Working Press imprint and a series of made-to-measure exhibitions with my 'Bigos: artists of Polish Origin' group that were supported by the Arts Council and is now archived with the Tate. At the beginning of the Nineties I had the chance to build my own house in Kennington, London, as part of a self-build co-op. I took an MA in Time-based Media to train in digital media skills. This was followed by a doctorate at the RCA 1997 - 2002 in which I evaluated my experience of artists collectives with a participant study of Exploding Cinema. At the same time I produced a series of video DVDs on culture and democracy, publishing them post 2002. I got a job teaching on the MA Visual Culture at Westminster University and joined the Mute Magazine editorial team. This led to a variety of articles and blogs including the collaborative Agit Disco project, which was published as a book by Mute in 2012. Since my doctoral research I have been activating the archives of my past collective activities. These have now been acquired by major public archives including: BFI Special Collections, National Art Library at the V&A, Tate Archive, University of the Creative Arts in Farnham and the Museum of London. In the spring of 2017 I was invited to Documenta 14 in Athens with Carole Finer, to lead a ensemble performance based on the 'Nature Study Notes' improvisation rites. At D14 there was also a vitrine display of my archive material from MayDay Rooms, including at set of photographs of The Scratch Cottage, that was built and exhibited at Art Spectrum in 1971. A book of the whole experience of working with these improvisation rites was published in January 2018 - 'Improvisation Rites'. My work is a sensible response to situations that I am in. This has led me to work in open artists collectives and to produce books. I have been wary of commissioned work unless in response to specific spaces, situations and communities. The media I used has mainly been writing, photography or video but has also included curation, performance and activism. I have tended to reject establishment modes to embrace more fluid collective situations."