Art, language, and a Kentish seaside town
Giles Turnbull
Millions of pounds have been invested to kick-start a cultural
revolution and make the town a hub of artistic and creative activity.
A Creative Foundation has been established to manage it all, and has
purchased run-down properties in the harbour area, renovating them and
hiring them out as art studios and boutique shops.
All of this is very welcome. Folkestone's had a hard time in recent
decades and any investment is a good idea (I say that, but feel like
taking it back when I see the enormous, hideous shopping centre that
has been erected in the town centre, which looms over the rest of the
town like wrecked scout ship from the planet Ugly).
This year also sees the first Folkestone Triennial, an ambitious
festival of public art. On my last trip down there I saw some of the
artworks and installations and found some of them very interesting or
entertaining. So far, so good.
I get troubled, though, by the language of art. I feel it ruins art
for the non-artist, by deliberately obscuring it in waffle that the
artist or promoter understands, but that most ordinary people cannot.
Take this paragraph from the otherwise very interesting Folkestonomy web site:
"Folkestonomy has set out to look at the wider cultural spaces and
networks that are linked to the production and delivery of the
Triennial, and to visualise its links and extensions into existing
cultural spaces and territories in Folkestone."
http://www.folkestonomy.net/information/
That tells me nothing, and I'm supposed to be someone who does words
for a living. It makes no sense other than to the person who wrote it.
What is a cultural space? What are these networks? Why don't you just
say what you mean?
I'm frustrated, because I discovered the Folkestonomy web site and
cried out with glee. Here was a web project that the town could be
proud of, I thought. But the more I delved into it, the more baffled I
became. My glee evaporated into grump.
The site does go on to explain in more detail:
"FOLKESTONOMY consists of a mobile mapping station and an evolving and
ever-changing online map. The mobile mapping station will travel
alongside the route of the twenty-three Triennial commissions,
inviting passers-by and visitors to trace and map their own links,
encounters and interests with the wider field of the Triennial. This
information will feed into a new and growing map of Folkestone
indexing a variety of the town's different informal and formal
cultural spaces, interests and networks that have been identified by
the individuals who take part in the mapping. The aim is to sketch and
show an image of an existing and extending cultural space that is
important, but currently less visible than others."
That's a bit better, but there's still too much waffle. I wish art had
the confidence to express its aims and origins honestly and openly,
rather than trying to cover them up in stifling language.
I'll stop moaning now. If you should happen to be near Kent on a spare
day with decent enough weather this summer, I encourage you to go down
and explore the Triennial happenings. I particularly recommend
"Folkestone:Boulogne" by Langlands and Bell (a short film shown in a
darkened room at the back of the lifeguard station on the East Cliff),
and "Tales of Space and Time" by Heather and Ivan Morrison - a home
made mobile library that you will never want to leave.
http://www.folkestonetriennial.org.uk/index.php/artists/biography/langlands-and-bell/
http://www.folkestonetriennial.org.uk/index.php/artists/biography/heather-and-ivan-morison/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gilest/sets/72157606595666365/