Group Critiques

The following advertisement was placed on the noticeboard at the Whitechapel Gallery:

Meetings were held every three weeks or so between October 2003 and October 2004, and generally involved artists bringing along work to present in front of the group. Discussions revolved around the participants' work, wider art world issues, and eventually the possibility of putting on group exhibitions.

The motivation was to move beyond the superficiality of many peer-critques (such as that held by the Whitechapel itself) which tended to involve artists of vastly differing experience and interests. It was felt that these critiques ultimately lacked the familiarity, coherence and sense of consistency that a more regular series of meetings could afford.

A second more implicit motivation was to interrogate the notion of conceptual art. Did it actually exist anymore? Was it even a valid term in the early twenty-first century?

The experiment was to see what would happen if the term "conceptual art" was used to bring together a group of artists with a certain agenda; artists who, in some sense, saw themselves as "conceptual artists".

Amongst those who got involved were the following: Birgit Medele, Ana Moring, Russell Thoburn, Hannah Brown, Jang Young Jo, Iain Lonsdale, Dave Ball, Sally Wright, Alec Dunnachie, Jon Dew, Tomas Graveson, and also Nerys, Maria, Liam and a few others whose names have escaped us.

"It's the discourse between fellow artists, whose work and minds you respect, that make being part of a collective so worthwhile. The common ground between us means we're all singing roughly from the same hymn sheet, but the differences of opinion make for interesting discussions and provide valuable feedback when it comes to presenting work."
[Hannah Brown]

"What I like ... is that I can talk about my work without any lengthy introductions any other not-so-passionate-about-conceptual-art audience might require! And learn a lot from the other members and their way of thinking/working, and their ways as human beings! "
[Birgit Medele]

"My own view is that the group is an excellent way to open opportunities for us to discuss views about our own work and others, this way opening creative channels."
[Ana Moring]