Maybegood

Billboards are part of the daily visual landscape that are as ephemeral as they are easy to overlook. Alistair Owen, a former sculpture student from University of Wales Institute Cardiff (UWIC), won a Safle Graduate Award 2009/2010 to explore the possibilities of negotiating art in spaces that were not galleries, nor sites intended for monumental artworks.The award scheme is designed to give recent graduates a first taste of the professional world of art in the public realm, while offering mentoring and support. Safle project manager, Cinzia Mutigli, leads on the Graduate Award Programme. Here she talks to Owen about his project Maybegood.

Cinzia Mutigli

Since winning the Safle Graduate Award in February 2009 you have found opportunities to exhibit in galleries as well as creating artworks in the public realm in relation to the Award. What has been different for you in these two processes?

Alistair Owen

My work involves the negotiation of space in relation to the processing of systems. The white cube is a socially created space formatted for artists to allow a greater spectrum of work to be created and shown without the intrusion of varying surroundings. The public arena takes other elements into consideration. With the Maybegood project I wanted the public to appreciate the work on a level that took little or no knowledge of art or art theory.

CM

The Maybegood billboard project saw a series of four images displayed in central Cardiff. The images were of a seagull; the word 'And'; an image of static electricity and an image of a waiting room. In what way did the images you used suit your purpose?

AO

There were two possible ways or curating the billboards: view them as a series, which implies the use of a narrative, or choose individual works. Individual work seemed to allow a greater spectrum for exploration. The medium was one I had never used before. There were challenges regarding the etiquette of the site and the physical print and also working with a company on a project.

The principle of a billboard is to advertise a specific product, competing against the landscape. The site also changes images on a two -week rotation so the work has a given lifetime. There is a continuum across the Maybegood collection where the liminality of the given public space can be exploited.

The rotation parameters given by the billboard company was of primary interest. How a work is posted over another then posted over again. The work has a degree of flux and ambiguity around its lifetime.

CM

You mentioned the interactive Waitingroom artwork and the happening, which took place in the adjacent Vulcan Hotel. As people arrived you stamped their hand and they received a memento from the bar staff when they ordered their drinks. On that hot summer evening people spilled out onto the pavement with their drinks where the final billboard artwork was visible across the road.

For you, how did these interactions enhance or change the work?

AO

I was speaking to a couple of people and halfway through the conversation they looked at the billboard and asked if it was mine. That to me solidified Waitingroom, it sat between advertisement, design and art with enough dedication to become part of the preordained formatted system.
The Vulcan Hotel landlady and landlord were sublime hosts. Offering their extensive knowledge of the history of the location. This partnership is being further nurtured through Open/Close a group curatorial project I am part of at present.

CM

You talk about the influence of the film Stalker on your work. Do cultural and visual art references often play a part in your work or do more 'everyday' encounters and observations also have a role?

AO

The film Stalker has been influential, not only because of narrative but the nature of the framing and the length of shot which is much longer then most of today’s films. It allows the eye to sit dormant on a location and fully appreciate the content.

I have a keen interest in design and photography. Before studying fine art I was considering studying graphic or product design. My work still has an aesthetic that references these areas of culture today. The nature of the readymade means it is impossible to escape from the designed object. There is always a prerequisite to the object’s being, which has to be tackled before the work can be understood.

The ‘everyday’ creeps into my work as a matter of course. There are often starting points, which may lie quiescent for months or years before being aroused. I have no urgency in using objects or photographs. I have a mass of objects and imagery, which is primed ready for use. It’s important that this stuff surrounds the periphery as I find work that I deem to be successful often comes from these shady areas of my vision.