Call for Artists – Indie-Vision
Peterborough ‘Indie-Vision’
Anton Chekhov – ‘The role of the artist is to ask questions’
This is an opportunity for 10 visual artists/illustrators/graphic-designers/photographers and those working in print media to create new artworks for billboards. The project ‘Indie-Vision’ will commission 10x 48-sheet billboard posters to be sited in the centre of Peterborough and on main arterial routes, in the month of September 2014. Each billboard will incorporate a question provided by a leading cultural commentator (including directors, musicians, comedians, authors) providing the themes for city wide debates. The images will ask questions of passers-by, turning the streets into a site for philosophical reflection and conversation linked locally/globally through social media, press and radio. It is the intention that the project builds into a catalogue of social commentary on our times. A companion exhibition of all images will also be held, and a small publication will be created that captures the artworks, events and responses. Schools will be encouraged to ‘adopt’ a billboard, utilizing the question for a class/ school debate and a design challenge.
How It Will Work
Selected artists will be required to attend a Research and Development LAB at Metal in Peterborough (Monday 9th June – Thursday 12th June). This intensive week will be mentored by leading national practitioners, curators and historians working in poster design, PR, advertising and social media, and will support the selected cohort with their designs through action research. Each artist will select their design brief ‘blind’, not knowing who has contributed the question until the end of the process.
The selected artists will then have until Friday 4th July to complete their artwork incorporating the ‘contributed question’ for submission, and a group feedback session is scheduled for Wednesday 15th July. The artworks will be printed in August and installed for the month of September to create the walking tour.
Through a bursary all costs and expenses including travel, hotel accommodation, and food will be covered by the project. There is no additional fee.
In addition to seeing your work on a vast scale, a series of limited edition prints will be made of the ten artworks for sale. 50% of any subsequent sales of the prints will go directly to the selected artists.
About Metal
Metal was founded by Jude Kelly OBE in 2002 and was created as an artistic laboratory to champion the need for continual investment in artistic investigation and the development of innovative ideas that could shift the thinking in the UK cultural sector. We provide innovative, multi-disciplinary residency space for artists from the UK and overseas in Liverpool, Southend on Sea and Peterborough.
Alongside providing space for artists and thinkers to develop their ideas and further the philosophy of their work, we are interested in how this artistic process, and the practice of artists can input into, and potentially influence political and social issues of the day. Through our artistic programme we draw out evidence and ideas for a better understanding of the artist’s role in civic life, and ensure that these are shared with a wide and diverse set of partners. These ideas are showcased and disseminated on a regular basis through residencies, exhibitions, events, performance, discussion and publications.
If you are interested in this opportunity, please send 5 images of your work, a CV and supporting statement (no more than 1 side of A4) by Wednesday 30th April to Mark Richards, Director at Metal Peterborough, Chauffeurs Cottage, 1 St Peters Road, Peterborough, PE1 1 YX or email [email protected]. If you require any further information please call Mark Richards on 07854651610.
