JOHN BEATTIE DESCRIBES HOW HE MADE TWO NEW FILMS FOR HIS UPCOMING SHOW AT THE RHA, DUBLIN, WHICH WILL TAKE PLACE IN NOVEMBER 2012

Background
‘An Artist, the Studio, and all the rest…’ takes the form of two HD film projections with audio, produced and directed between 2006 – 2012. Part one will be presented to the viewer as performative research, shot in the studio of the artist Tom Ryan (PPRHA born 1929) and the RHA School. Here, I observed what became a ‘master / apprentice’ relationship that has developed between myself and Tom Ryan since 2006.

Appropriating the 1854 / 1855 painting by Gustav Courbet, The Artist’s Studio, part two is a staged, choreographed moving-image film, shot in the Great Hall at IMMA, where representatives from various levels of the arts in Ireland were invited to be filmed in the context of this surreal, staged studio.

My work explores ideas and perceptions relating to notions of the artist, the studio and relationships with the audience. Through process- based and context-specific methodologies, my work attempts to create discourse between traditional, classic academic and contemporary practice. Employing the use of film production and performance, my interest lies in how the viewer deconstructs or unravels the creative process.

Process
The starting point for this process was a phone call, a letter and a studio visit, followed by an initiated task set by the artist Tom Ryan. To cut a long story short, I first came across Tom Ryan through his work, then through talking with him over the phone. I was immediately struck by his opinions and comments on contemporary practices and practioners. He regarded this kind of work as a form of “cult and heresy, and a bad, ill-informed one at that”. – From an interview with Tom Ryan in his studio, 2006 [Read more…]