Archiving Contemporary Art workshops
- 27 March 2018, 10am
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This blog post presents a summary of content produced as part of the Art360 Foundation Programme (2014 to 2025). It is shared here with the intention of preserving and extending access to the important learnings from this programme of work.
6 workshops explored some of the practical approaches and theories of archiving contemporary art, with the help of the unique perspectives of Art360 Foundation artists, archivists and experts in the field. Taking place on 27 March 2018, they asked what are art archives, and why do they matter?
Archiving consultants Victoria Lane and Judy Vaknin introduced archiving and legacy planning, looking at what comprises an archive, what an archivist actually does, what can happen to an archive.
In an interesting and thoughtful discussion, they also reflected on how working with artists and their archives made them question and re-examine their roles as archivists, and how traditional concepts of the archive are being revisited and challenged by artists.
Artist John Hilliard and archivist Tito Magrini considered the initial phase of archiving John’s artwork, the practical systems Tito developed and implemented over time, and the layers of content new structuring of the archive has revealed. Drawing on personal experience, both artist and archivist reflected on their distinct but reciprocal roles within the process.
Maya Balcioglu reflected on her collaborative role in forming and developing artist Stuart Brisley’s archive. This workshop considers the ‘artist archivist’ and the relationship between archives and time. It focused on the process of historicising performance through archival practice, and the dual process of producing an archive and website.
Paul Rousseau spoke about his role managing the extensive archive of John Deakin, holding thousands of negatives and hundreds of prints.
Stella Keen shared her experience of archiving her father artist Jeff Keen’s life’s work. She provided valuable insight into the practical stages of taking apart and collating a large and dynamic body of work in her father’s studio.
