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jenner-benjamin · 3 years

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Submissions and Opportunities

‘Eros’ submission for ‘The Future is Queer’ online exhibition - monoprint on paper.

For the last year I have not set myself a brief or project to work towards in terms of a physical body of work, but have opted to use this time to think about how I might make myself known to my audience. Part of my methodology of achieving this has been to apply to opportunities and open calls that place myself in context with other like-minded creatives.

I have become more proactive in the last six months especially at submitting work to a variety of open calls, and fortunately I am beginning to develop a thick skin as rejections are regrettably inevitable. That being said, there have been times where my work has been accepted which is always great for morale.

Publications

Fourteen Poems is a poetry journal that showcases LGBT+ poets, each issue they publish fourteen of the best queer poets three times a year. I submitted the poems that I composed for the ‘anagapesis’ artist’s book to potentially get published in the fourth issue. Though finding my peer group within the visual poetry field is important to me, I would also like to test the waters and see how my written poetry would fair as well. Sadly the application was unsuccessful, but now that my first submission has been sent it might not be so intimidating next time.

Earlier in the academic year I took part in S.J. Fowler’s visual poetry course, ‘Seen as Read’. The correspondence I have had with him since the course has ended has confirmed my inclusion in a publication that collates the work of visual poets from around the globe that also attended Fowler’s poetry courses. Each participant submitted some works and text that highlight how the course impacted their practice. I chose to submit some images of the preliminary writing and finished laser cut typeface that I made in response to the asemic writing week. I have since been told that there will be an event to launch the publication in London that will be attended by all contributing artists. This would be a great opportunity to network with some of these artists and establish connections in a real space, away from the online forums we used to navigate our way through the poetry course.

‘To Call’ magazine is a mimeo-printed visual poetry publication by psw (Petra Schulze-Wollgast), based on the last issue of Tlaloc, 1970. Petra advertised an open call that requested artworks that were influenced by the pandemic. I sent some images from the ‘Exhale’ performance drawing series, made during my daily breathing and drawing ritual that began in lockdown. I have had confirmation from Petra that I will be included in issue number fifteen. This is the submission I have been the most excited about. I feel that my work lends itself to book arts quite fittingly due to its handwritten and autobiographical aesthetic and tone, and so having the opportunity to have a piece sit in a DIY publication alongside other visual poets is very in keeping with who I am as an artist at this present moment.

‘Write a song’ submission for ‘Resite’ - offset lithography on paper.

‘Resite’ is an assembling publication by Field Study that offers an element of audience participation. The editions are a nod to the Fluxus tradition of performance-based interactions and the pages are packed with scores, manifestos and documentation.

Since learning about the Fluxus movement from the Block Zero projects we got involved with I have been very aware of how my work is in dialogue with many Fluxus concepts. In lockdown I began to explore the links my practice has with performance and I have understood that these moments of outward reflections of inward feelings are candid happenings, much like those popularised by Fluxus artists in the 1960s.

I printed an edition of forty double-sided lithograph prints that have an event score on one side, instructing the reader how to write a song in the way that I would transcribe one through asemic writing. The text in this print is a direct homage to Yoko Ono’s ‘grapefruit’ manual of scores, even down to the date sign off at the end. The reverse side is a polaroid photograph that documents one of these happenings. These prints will be included in the next Resite assembling book and each contributing artist will be given a copy of the finished publication.

Exhibitions

I was delighted to have work selected to show in a digital exhibition entitled ‘The Future is Queer’ - the first time that I have exhibited solely with other queer artists. I have only briefly touched upon this side of my identity in my practice, and so relished the chance to have myself placed under this umbrella for the purpose of this exhibition. I have a lot to say about queer culture, and I feel that now more than ever the world needs people to speak up about the treatment and mistreatment of people from the LGBT+ community. For this reason I see participation in this exhibition as a first step towards telling more honest stories about what it is to be a gay man in contemporary society.

In keeping with this idea I have also submitted works to be exhibited at Bristol Pride this summer. I noticed the advert on social media and am still awaiting a response. The exhibition would be widespread around the city centre as opposed to a singular exhibition. If I have understood it correctly, it sounds to be not too dissimilar from an art trail - where there are multiple venues around the city for people to wander around and discover.

‘Wild Things’ was a call out by Beach Gallery in Orkney, Scotland that I entered just for fun, which from time to time can be a breath of fresh air. The call asked for artworks that focussed on wildlife, and so I submitted a series of three bumblebee monoprints. I was thrilled to learn that my prints are the focal point on the gallery’s website, being the first works you see upon entering the virtual gallery.

‘Bumble Bee III’ submission for ‘Wild Things’ exhibition in Orkney, Scotland - monoprint on paper.

Residency

A big achievement for me during lockdown was having my application accepted to be an artist in residence at the Museum of Loss and Renewal in Collemacchia, Italy.

I have been extremely fortunate to have been able to spend the last three years developing my practice and honing my interests in visual poetry in an encouraging environment, however I am ready to explore my practice away from an educational institution. There have been moments of anticipated self-doubt as the final weeks of the masters degree are looming. The opportunity to explore my practice in a residency setting would encourage personal growth in the form of self-confidence as well as being able to assert myself as an artist in a creative context.

Furthermore, since returning to my studies I have experienced first hand how important it is to discuss and unpick ideas with a peer group, and so I am keen to collaborate and build relationships with other artists at the residency.

I am eager to continue developing my ideas of discerning a narrative through reading asemic marks, and investigating where we might find narratives. I have proposed that during the residency I would like to place myself in the local community and examine through first hand research how these ideas might translate in a setting where the language spoken is not my mother tongue. How might a language that I don’t understand translate visually? My aim will be to record my findings through drawing and printmaking.

Immersing myself within a village community will provide extensive opportunity to explore a dialogue with new people and hopefully build a body of work that not only reflects these conversations but serves as a common language that is able to be read by all. I must remember to keep the emotional attachment at the heart of my practice and remind myself of the lessons I learnt from my residency at Bower Ashton Library - not to allow my work to become too formulaic and emotionally cold.

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