First artist talks: Ian and Nick

Photograph by Pippa Hale (Two Burning Bushes 2003 not in the Exhibition) by Ian Crowe and Nick Rawlinson)

Last night a good crowd came along to hear Ian Crowe and Nick Rawlinson talk about their work together. They discussed how they have worked together collaboratively since the early 90's and shared a studio space in the early years, but until this year had their own individual practices. For them this created  a 'three' way competition, and decided to 'become one' early this year.

Nick now lives in Berlin, but they do see each other as much as previously with Nick coming back to Manchester at least once a month. Modern technology, which is so instrumental in their practice, has freed them to work to their strengths and more effectively, as geographic distance allows them to make more decisions autonomously on a project until they confront a 'problem' in their work, which requires conversation. Previously they may have 'micro decision made' together, and the work would have taken longer. Technological progress has also meant that they can create work on their laptops that two years ago would not have been possible, or would have been very expensive requiring outsourcing.

Nick and Ian were asked that given the themes of death, destruction and despair which permeates their work, were they pessimistic? The short answer was no, in fact that the nature of creating was optimistic. Ian also added that sometimes the only thing that could make him happy (presumably when he was down) would be art.

For those of you who have come across Art Transpennine Ian and Nick were instrumental in bringing it back in 2003, and on a considerably smaller budget than the launch of 1998. For just £530 they 'curated' the 'exhibition' (which included our director Pippa Hale) and enjoyed work from over 70 artists across 50 locations across the North. Ian was still wearing his canvas bag produced by one of the New York based artists.

The finale of the talks was a screening of 'The Fireworks' (not in the Northern Art Prize exhibition). Apparently at the original screening the audience applauded at the finale! We should see more of that!