Edwina Fitzpatrick, 'Tioxide Europe, Ellis & Everard Ltd. and Phillips Petrolium, Middlesborough, Cleveland, 1996'
In: Artists-in-Research 1996-98. Edited by Alistair Raphael and Victoria Clarke. London: Institute of International Visual Arts, 1999, pp. 18-27.
Cleveland is a site of exceeding natural beauty, enhanced by the heavy industries that are located just outside Middlesbrough. Seals lend their name to the sand banks on which Phillips Petroleum's offshore oil pipe landing station is sited and where a number of SSSIs (sites of special scientific interest) are sandwiched between other industrial facilities. Of these, Tioxide Europe holds the European monopoly on the production of tioxide, a brilliant white chemical compound prized for its optical properties. Used in numerous household products, from paint to toothpaste, production and distribution starts here. The third host partner was Ellis and Everard Ltd. a laboratory and distribution company for hundreds of chemicals that are distributed nationwide, many of which are highly toxic.
It was against this backdrop of highly specialised industries located in a part of England that had supported such activities since the great Industrial Revolution, that our request for an artist to be allowed onto the sites was made. Interestingly, our initial conversations coincided with front-page newspaper reports about the growing frustration and public awareness of ecological issues; the catalyst this time being BP's decision to decommission its floating oil rig, the Brent Spar, after more than twenty years in service. Controversy flared when it was revealed that the cheapest but not necessarily the most ecologically safe method of disposal of this highly toxic vessel was to fill it with ballast and sink it to the bottom of a trench in the North Sea. Green Peace's dramatic response was given prime air time and lengthy discussions ensued about the public's ability to decipher and weigh up their partnership in, or their opposition to, the heavy chemical industries.
The three independent companies rose to the occasion and readily accepted our proposal to place and artist-in-research, dialogue and discussion with the management, employees and residents of Middlesbrough. After initial explorations of the Phillips plant, Edwina began to see the site as a large living organism with a number of similarities to our own bodies where oil, water, gases, ballast and reprocessing systems are each accurately timed and calibrated.
Expectations
The residency took place at three chemical plants during winter 1996, spending two of three days each week in Middlesbrough over a period of six weeks. As one of the first artists in the residency programme, I felt unclear about what my own, inIVA's and these companies' expectations were; about how the research and artwork would emerge, what form it might take, and how much work could take place actually on-site, especially as space was limited and security was an issue. The sense that there were no hard and fast rules as to how the residency was approached was both liberating and terrifying.
An initial and tentative line of enquiry, that of working within the laboratories to develop stable combinations of seemingly unstable materials, provided and initial trajectory of research, an idea 'safety net'. Having formulated this without direct knowledge of the site, this idea was swiftly vetoed as inappropriate to the laboratory's working processes. I then had to acknowledge that the residency could only develop through a questioning of my own expectations, my existing working methods and my previous assumptions about the sites of these three companies. It reminded me that, as a conceptual artist who had often created installations at very short notice, I could use this time to relax and simply allow myself to follow ideas, to see where they might lead. During this initial stage I visited all three sites and met employees in all areas, gaining an insight into their production and storage processes and how we all 'consume' these chemicals.
A Sense of Dislocation
The diversity of the three sites, and my desire to find common factors between them, led to a sense of dislocation. I also had to consider whether it would be more productive, over such a relatively short period of time, to focus on just one company. A lot of time was being spent travelling between the three sites, my temporary accommodation in Middlesbrough and my home in London, all on chronically unreliable public transport systems. This heightened my sense of dislocation but paradoxically created thinking spaces. With hindsight, I realised that these 'in-between' spaces were a key part of the residency, a private space to play with ideas when everything else felt so public. It marked the beginning of a questioning of how and where I wished to create my work, and whether the privacy of a studio, with its implied withdrawal, was appropriate. I also became keenly aware that the artist's personality is key to the success of the residency, together with the participant's degree of comfort with this insider/outsider role.
The Role of Research
I have always created site-sensitive installations, both in gallery and non-conventional spaces. The residency raised questions about how we consider and make site-responsive artworks. Issues emerged at every stage of development during the residency:
- How do artists define research?
- What constitutes a finished artwork, and to what extent is a work finished because there is a deadline?
- Is there a line between research and making, and if so, where should it be drawn?
I define research as the area in which ideas and the possibilities of whatever may be created are still wonderfully amorphous and unfixed...the place for true exploration. Ideally research and subsequent artworks are virtually inseparable throughout the creation process. However as each project evolves, decision-making becomes increasingly refined, and by definition, limiting.
Being overly concerned about creating a finished piece within given deadlines can imply a 'production line' methodology, an initial idea or blueprint which becomes actualised without evolution of an original concept. These expectations, based on a mental image of the finished product, are particularly relevant to residencies as they are often impossible to realise and lead to disappointment from all parties involved. When developing and creating work in a public context, the project exists in a verbal rather than visual language, and in my case is often created through conversation. Furthermore, to have an honest dialogue when you simply don't know where you are going can be difficult.
The Project
My approach was determined through the following observations:
-The sites could be perceived as bodies/metabolisms.
-The omnipresence of warning labels,health and safety measure, sirens etc. implied a sense of danegr, and that this volatile substances created a careful policing and regulation.
-There was a preponderance of staff in administration. the plants themselves seemed virtually uninhabited, run by sophisticated technology and operated by a few key staff.
-That pollution levels in the area, the high mortality rates and ecological awareness were issues, as was personal health.
-That the Teeside chemical industry originated in urine processing by the Victorians to create cardinal red dye from local rocks.
Rather than treating the sites as abstract or disconnected entities, I finally decided to explore their common factors through the people who worked there. I invited fifteen employees from each of the companies to work with me. The research/artwork took the form of questionnaires that I developed from discussions with people I'd met on site, and with others that they had introduced me to. Their responses were then collated and condensed into health and safety warning (COSHH) labels, which acted as autobiographies. The participating individuals were then requested to donate urine samples - a chemical biography of the individual's physical state at that moment in time. One company vetoed my request for the donation of urine as they randomly tested their staff through blood and urine samples, and this issue was highly sensitive amongst the employees who wanted to keep their jobs and felt this process infringed on their privacy. I found this veto curiously affirmative.
In total there were seven urine donations from the thirty-five participants, which were decanted into their biographical bottles, all of which were sealed to prevent any form of tampering (or any form of sample testing). They were initially presented on precarious-looking glass shelves at inIVA's library and archive alongside European Health and Safety regulations about handling urine. This was later developed into larger work at Middlesbrough Art Gallery, responding to the gallery's former use as a doctor's surgery, and the way that we often relinquish responsibility for our bodies to the authorities of employers or western medicine.
How the Residency Informed Future Work
The inIVA research opportunity created a real starting point for a new working practice, although I had already participated in many residency programmes for artists. It generated more awareness of my work in this area, especially within the art world. The following thoughts have emerged from this experience as well as a subsequent commission to create a new collaborative work for the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham:
-Issues were inevitably raised about the ethics of an artist working in collaboration with other people in these specific circumstances. How the work is authored and presented becomes particularly sensitive. At its furthest extreme does this practice imply that the artist is using and manipulating human beings as raw materials? When the collaborators are also employees, is there enough space for them to stand back and question the artist's request? Is there a danger of coercion? Alternatively, it could be argued that this collaborative approach makes art less intimidating and that the experience encourages confidence in the collaborator's own creativity.
-'Being there' as opposed to 'being out there'. When working beyond a physical studio base, the artist literally becomes the centre of all creative production: interaction, research and often the actual creation of the work as well. As such, it made me address and recognise the need for my own integrity as an individual and an artist (about the way I approach and work with other people; and my sensitivity to everyone else's 'expectations'), but also other's integrity about the vulnerability of my position and respecting my privacy.
-The artist as insider/outsider. Can audiences who are not familiar with contemporary art culture grasp this concept in a short period of time? Would we as artists wish to remain outside anyway, observing from a distance? I've also realised the importance of long-term thinking on projects to avoid 'hit and run' experiences for the artist and participants alike. This is especially relevant in the planning stages, and subsequently, to reveal what impact (if any) the collaborations created. I'm increasingly considering the merits of working on projects over a period of several years to demystify the artist, and by revealing our various working processes, help to dispel exclusive notions of inspiration and genius.
-The difficulties in setting up similar projects without the support of agencies and art galleries which serve to authenticate, nurture and fund projects has to be acknowledged. As important is their ability to create and maintain non-prescriptive situations in which the artist is free to explore a huge range of possibilities.
-Questions are raised about the need to find different art languages or even to dispense with conventional art terms altogether when working in a residency situation. Existing terms, including many of those used here (e.g. site), are derived from a studio-based art practice and seen inappropriate and unwieldy when working in this different way. They hint at the major re-think that this practice involves; and the liberation for all concerned that there are no universal rules or parameters governing how, what, or where, we create.