Dance, Alex Pearl

APEngine talks to artist and curator Kerry Baldry about the One Minute project programmes of sixty-second artists’ films, now showing around the world, and including works by Tony Hill, Tina Keane, Katherine Meynell, Kayla Parker and Stuart Moore, Dave Griffiths, and many others. One Minute films by Alex Pearl and Nick Jordan can be seen in the Engine Showcase.

Why and how did the One Minute project start?

I was working in a group of artists’ studios which had a large and infrequently used gallery space, and which was available to me. This was an opportunity too good to miss and exactly what I had been looking for a while! I set about contacting some artists whose work I was familiar with, to see if they would like to be involved in a group screening called One Minute and got a great response. From this, I was invited by Steven Ball to show One Minute Volume 1 at one of his Cogcollective events in London and the programme gained momentum from there. There are now three compilations: One Minute Volume 1, Volume 2 and 3 and I will soon be compiling Volume 4.

It’s a lot of work, and a lot of artists represented – how did you find it/them – did people make things specially, or did they already exist?

So far well over 50 national and international artists have been represented in One Minute across the three volumes. Generally I contact each artist individually and invite them to send some work – I’m usually already aware of their work – some I know personally, sometimes I go on recommendations. I am however, thinking an open call might be good to do. Some artists make pieces specifically for the programmes and others send existing work.

It’s a very eclectic range of people and work…

That was the intention and there are so many ways the artists have responded to the challenge of working within the limited time frame of 60 seconds.

You’re on Volume 3 now – people must be responding well to the project?

Yes – I have had a good response to the compilations, and the programmes have been screened nationally and internationally at various galleries and cinemas. The Directors Lounge in Berlin have showcased it at Contemporary Art Ruhr and regularly screen the work, as do Hull Film and Nod Gallery in Prague. Most recently Volumes 2 and 3 were screened on all the outdoor BBC Big Screens across the UK. Cogcollective (now recently started up in Australia) also have been very supportive. Last year David Gryn from Artprojx screened Volume 2 during the month of December in his gallery in Kensington. But I am always looking for new spaces for screenings.

You’re a curator and an artist – how do you see/manage those two things – are they separate, or integrated?

For me, being a curator and an artist are both integrated and separate activities. As a visual artist I have my own set of concerns and personal visual language but also my creative process involves editing and selecting visual imagery. As a curator or compiler I select and sequence short films by both established and emerging artists that I feel are appropriate for inclusion in the One Minute programme. I look for originality and highly creative moving image works which are successfully paced for 60 seconds.