Sans Soleil by Chris Marker (2008) is the most sublime thing I have seen in a long time. It’s a collection of exquisite edits taken largely from Japan and Guinea-Bissau that are composed to letters read out by a woman who’s voice cradles you into a state of pure reflection. A completely blissful 100 mins. (2010)
On the 3rd September 2009 Charlotte Troy, a freelance publisher and editor, will open CT Pocket: the first arts bookshop in Southeast London’s Deptford. CT Pocket is a mini arts bookshop and will be located inside the contemporary art gallery BEARSPACE. Deptford is a fast growing arts ‘hub’, recently described by the New York Times as ‘a boisterous concoction of blue-collar aesthetics and intermittent hipsterism’ – and, with its high concentration of artists, a growing legion of galleries, Goldsmiths University, arts festival Deptford X; new Tate Trustee Bob and Roberta Smith recently declared the area as ‘sexy’. CT Pocket hopes to alleviate a local thirst for knowledge about contemporary art and aims to be a place for people to find out more and talk about art today.
To launch the venture, celebrated curator and writer Hans Ulrich Obrist has hand-picked 15 must-have new titles for any dis¬cerning reader (see p.2) to be featured and sold at the store. These include Michael Clark’s first monograph and Yoko Ono’s latest book, Anton’s Memory. In addition to this inspiring list, CT Pocket will stock a rigorously edited selection of new and second-hand books (and periodicals) dealing in artist monographs, theory, special editions, music and architecture; each in their own way inspiring, rich in content and meticulously produced. CT Pocket will also host occasional book launchs or talks, curated around the guest editor’s list of books.
Charlotte Troy publishes under her imprint CT Editions, and her personal work is interested in asking nosey questions of the culturally hot. For Q&A (2007), an experiment for a print publication, she sought answers from pop icons such as Terry Hall, Peter Saville and Susan Hiller; in Dispense and Connect (2008, part of the Hayward Gallery’s 100 Ideas), Charlotte brought together international editors Sina Najafi (Editor, Cabinet), Bice Curiger (Parkett), Barry Miles (writer and editor, Publisher of International Times, underground press syndicate), and Maria Fusco (The Happy Hypocrite) to discuss periodical art publish¬ing; and forMAN-MADE (2008) a pop-up shop which sold multiples of only one item daily (2008), she asked design historian Emily King to select an object for the store. For Charlotte Troy the bookshop is just the same as publishing: her goal being to disseminate ideas and enable correspondences; as David Hockney once said: ‘Art is about correspondences – making con¬nections to the world and to each other.’
Introduction: ‘It is truly strange how long it takes to get to know oneself. I am now sixty-two years old, yet just one moment ago I realised that I love lightly toasted bread. Simultaneously I realised that I loathe bread when it is heavily toasted. For over sixty years, and quite unconsciously, i have been experiencing inner joy or total despair at my relationship with grilled bread’ Ludwig Wittgenstein, Cambridge, 27 April 1951. A MUST READ…BRILLIANT, FUNNY AND TRAGIC.
This was another great vision on holiday; as it rained hard I sat in my bikini under blankets, drinking the finest Bordeaux wines, smoking fags and watching the under 19s women divers (who, as little containers of hope and ambition play on my mind). What took our attention was this singular guy, sitting in a typical sexually male chauvinist way watching these girls in sunglasses. Interesting sight that Paul caught on his camera.
"The best source of information about an artist is the artist." – John Baldessari, 1975
My new blog Artist-Talks is the first test in a new project I am looking to realise. This first go, works on a minimum viable product basis, within a strategy of make-test-learn where I see what I can achieve without any cost in digital media. The blog features collected video and audio from some of our most celebrated artists currently showing in our most popular institutions and museums.
Edited by Lucy Byatt and Charlotte Troy
For 100 years the Contemporary Art Society has played a unique and pivotal role in the formation of the UK's art collections. To mark the Contemporary Art Society's centenary year, the society developed a programme of projects, events and exhibitions in over thirty museums across the UK.
What’s Next? 100 Years of the Contemporary Art Society: Inside Public Collections features the extensive output of these interventions alongside vital conversations about curating, patronage and the cultural identity of Museums and the significance of collections on the artist and creative practitioner. The book also includes its own collection of works on paper from some of the UKs most important and emerging artists, all of whom have been supported by the Contemporary Art Society. The Contemporary Art Society has worked as a catalyst for the visual arts in the UK, continuing to develop and support audiences, artists, curators, collectors and collections alike. Timely in its nature and explorative in its method, this book is essential for anyone interested in public art collections today and curious about their future.
For 100 years the Contemporary Art Society has played a unique and pivotal role in the formation of the UK’s art collections. To mark the Contemporary Art Society’s centenary year, the society developed a programme of projects, events and exhibitions in over thirty museums across the UK.
What’s Next? 100 Years of the Contemporary Art Society: Inside Public Collections features the extensive output of these interventions alongside vital conversations about curating, patronage and the cultural identity of Museums and the significance of collections on the artist and creative practitioner. The book also includes its own collection of works on paper from some of the UKs most important and emerging artists, all of whom have been supported by the Contemporary Art Society. The Contemporary Art Society has worked as a catalyst for the visual arts in the UK, continuing to develop and support audiences, artists, curators, collectors and collections alike. Timely in its nature and explorative in its method, this book is essential for anyone interested in public art collections today and curious about their future.
Featured artists, writers and curators include: Claire Barclay, David Batchelor, Pavel Buchler, Yane Calovski, Marcus Coates, Richard Cork, Michael Dean, Katy Dove, Seamus Harahan, Andy Holden, Fiona Jardine, Elisa Kay, Torsten Lauschmann, Rosalind Nashashibi, Elizabeth Price, Hannah Rickards, Lindsay Seers, Sarah Skinner, Bob and Roberta Smith, Jon Thompson, Emily Wardill and Sally O’Reilly.
Q&A was initially published as a zine in 2006 dedicated to our cultural icons of the past, present and future. Its aim was to investigate the psyche of those individuals who shape our cultural and social landscape. And to entertain, enlighten and inspire the reader.
An experiment in simple magazine making, using the Q&A formula as our primary method of investigation the paper features interviews with Terry Hall, Susan Hiller, Amos Vogel and Peter Saville - you can read all the interviews, now digitized, here. The paper also included work by Jocko Weyland who created a series of short stories for us; Jon Link from Modern Toss who drew portraits of the contributors; and artwork from Seb Patane. It was given away for free through art institutions and quality bookshops such as the ICA and Koenig Books, and on the tube and in the streets of London. I still have a few left so if you want a copy please tweet me on @Charlotte_Troy
Following the publication the style of the sharp and fast interview exploded, it suits our speedy minds and screen sized vision. The coming commonality of the style of the interview put me off to be honest and I never produced another issue. However, it continues to be one of the most valuable and searched for pieces of content I own. More than this everyone enjoyed it, the artists contributing, the readers engaging with the content and me as an editor searching and hunting down those artists and individuals who I feel have something to say in one way or another. With this in mind I think it’s time to dust the cobwebs off the questionnaire and bring it back to life, this time including my friends, joe public and the culturally Pop.
If you like this you might also like The Protagonist and Artist Talks. And for regular updates please 'like" my Facebook page.
I would also like to ask for your help, is there someone popular who defines a moment for you? Who would you like to get personal with? What would you ask them? Would you like to answer one yourself? Answers on a twitter feed please: @Charlotte_Troy_#Q&A.
