The years that bookend this survey, 1989 and 2006, correspond to the year of the competition's re-branding and the last year that The Hut Project were eligible to apply for it respectively. The project will investigate this particular period of change and growth in contemporary art in the UK.
By invoking the knowledge selections of participants in this influential graduate competition, The Hut Project: New Contemporaries creates a negative model of a particular network and community underlying art practice in the UK. Mapping the trajectories of this significant network of artists, the project uses the New Contemporaries model both as a structural paradigm, and a conceptual departure-point from which to make a broader investigation into the distributive and validating mechanisms at work in the contemporary art world. By using a mechanism that privileges the singular and the finished to establish a process of production that is, by contrast, the product of multiple trajectories and rooted in a research methodology, New Contemporaries enacts a model of productive, comparative critique.
The interviewing process asks that artists reflect publicly on the trajectory of their career in the context of the competition that gave them an initial platform, and the broader phenomenon of growth with which it is linked. In turn, interviewers will be asked to consider the terrain that they inherit from those artists, and the broader cultural context in which they will develop their future careers. Through New Contemporaries the aspirations of today's young artists are made to encounter the reflections of the artists they interview; the 'next generation' is asked to deal directly with the legacy of their forebears and those forebears are asked to consider their impact on it.
Sponsorship
The Hut Project are seeking sponsorship for each interview at a suggested donation of £50. Sponsors will be able to select the artist interview they wish to sponsor and will receive a viewing copy DVD of the interview as well as an invite to the launch of the archive. For more information about sponsoring an interview please contact rebecca<at>thehutproject.co.uk
For any further information please contact info<at>thehutproject.co.uk
The Hut Project would like to thank all those involved as well as Steven Cleary, Ryan Gander, Jacqueline Holt, Sara Nunes Fernandes, Marisa Futernik, Andrew Lampert, Kaisa Lassinaro, Elsa Redpath and Chris Todhunter.
Project Manager: Rebecca May Marston, Project Co-ordinator: Catherine Janssens, Design: Europa, Web: Erik Hartin, Web technical support: Studio Republic.