Artists Statement

To be an artist, one need only be aware of the ways the world is working and you are working in it. Within this ii is, in my opinion, imperative to keep asking those questions - what's it supposed to mean? how could it be misused? how can it have further value than that given it? These are some of the questions that arise when approaching and resisting the seduction of the object.
Like many artists of my culture and gender, I have looked at the statutory demands of many objects in one environment, and considered their obligation to perform in another environment. Sometimes in the psyscho-social, as in "Straight Women Must Stop Falling for Me", where viewers were invited to consider the trappings of Xmas in relation to the Virgin Mary, and the eroticism of the iconic form, within the contemporary questions of the place of prophylactics in the fight against Aids and HIV and especially the media myth that straight women were not susceptible as it was in the day, known as "The Gay Mans Disease", among other things; and sometimes in the greener environmental world as in "Whatever appears to have come in from the outside......"taking such iconic landscapes as the Welsh valleys, Las Vegas and the Nevada Desert, The Remarkables in Queensland, New Zealand and with just overlaying slide film manifesting further indictments of land disappearance and use.
Always engaged in the ideas of the philosophical struggle within the world of the sciences and the arts, I have now chosen to spend the next few years, really concentrating and working with issues involved in the imaging of the body through technologies that aesthetesize the body to such an extent that oftentimes we stare down the abyss of meaningless pain. The language of war becomes similar to that of household cleaning products, and the rhetoric of the medical world becomes that of fashion and trends. Ultimately, you're health depends on what you look like, therefore it becomes essential to go and be screened.
"Tetralogy" emerges from a long period of non-making and thinking more critically about how aritsts I have admired and seen over the last couple of decades have approached these ever more complicated and strategic technologies within their own art practice. Some of these artists were talked about in my Masters thesis entitled "Artists use Medical Imaging Technologies. What of I.T.?" Crucial here was an investigation into the role of Information: Information crucially given through these images and the information shared through these images. The most complex to read, due to the very specialised medical language, is not necessarily made any easier by a highly ornamented image. 'Tetralogy' not only examines these information methods, but specifically looks at the theatricality of the medical world of imaging, and the components that make up a suitable anatomy for a peaceful world at war.

Tetralogy

What do you want to know about me?

Emily Clark _ Artist, Writer, Curator
b.1966




Qualifications

2003-2005 MA Visual Criticism
California College of the Arts, San Francisco, USA

1999-2002 BA Hons Art and Aesthetics
University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, Wales, UK

1996-1997 National Diploma Foundation in Art and Design
Filton College, Bristol, UK

1994-1995 NVQ Video Production and Office Skills
HTV Community Unit, Bristol, UK



Exhibitions

2005 Postcard (group show) Playspace, 8th Street, San Francisco, US
2002 Cardiac Productions (degree show) UWIC, Cardiff, UK
2001 I Love Not being You (group show) Tactile Bosch, Cardiff, UK
2001 Table (group show) Southville Centre, Bristol, UK
1998 Chick on a Bike (open studios)BICA, Bristol, UK
1998 Rock and Roll (collaboration) Fat Stoogie Gallery, Bristol, UK
1997 Straight Women Must Stop Falling for Me, (open studios)BICA, Bristol, UK
'96- '97 A Situationist in Seattle (art action), Seattle, USA
1996 Candy Miller- Recent Paintings (collaboration) Prema Arts Centre, Glos.,UK
1995 ajar (group show) Konicus Gallery, Bristol, UK
1995 Are you a Cowboy or an Indian (open studios) BICA, Bristol, UK

Facilitated/Curated

2005 Chrome County, (Co-curated with Rachel Weeks, Elliott Lessing) Pawnbrokers Gallery, San Francisco, USA
1999 Phantom Twin by Rebecca Stevenson, Fat Stoogie Gallery, Bristol, UK
1997-2000 Fat Stoogie Gallery, Bristol, UK



Published Critical Writing

2005 Artists use Medical Imaging Technology. What of I.T.?
www.sites.cca.edu/sightlines/2005/eclark_bio.html

2005 Ågand now they aren't , but they areÅh at the Gregory Lind Gallery
Mesh magazine #2.2 www.meshsf.com

2005 Repair Work (on the art of Claudia Tennyson)
Southern Exposure Catalogue, no.1

2005 Aaron Parazette and Sharon Englestein: Conversagence
ARTL!ES #44 Fall 2005

2004 Lordy Rodriguez: New States
ARTL!ES #43 Summer 2004


Teaching Experience and Workshops



Fall Semester 2005 Teaching Assistant, Undergraduate Social Studies, Queer Attractors, Dr. Ignacio Valero, CCA

Spring Semester 2004 Teaching Assistant, Undergraduate History of Sculpture, Professor Lydia Matthews, CCA

July'98-Sept'98 Art Work shop Co-ordinator, Jamaica Street Hostel, I Kingsdown Parade, St Paul's, Bristol

July'99-Aug'99 Teacher, Desktop Publishing Summer School, Filton College, Filton, Bristol (Adobe Photoshop, Coreldraw, Word Perfect)

Employment _ Voluntary/Permanent/Temporary


October 2005 Assistant to Exhibiting Artist, International Actual Art Convention _ Art Caucasus, Tibilisi, Georgia
June 2002 Factory Operator, Travail Employment Group, Bristol
1998-2001 Gallery Manager, Fat Stoogie Gallery, Bristol
Dec'98-April'99 Casework Assistant, English Heritage, Bristol
Sept'98-Dec'98 Telephone Sales Operative, Everest Windows, Bristol
1989-1995 Assistant Exhibitions Officer, Gallery Assistant, Bookshop Assistant, Front of House Receptionist, Arnolfini, Bristol
1995-2000 Management Committee, Classical Marquee Co-ordinator, Disabled Services Co-ordinator, Bristol Community Festival, Bristol
2001 Research Assistant, PhD Thesis for Dr.John McNorton, RCA, London
1994-1998 Box Office Manager, The Comedy Box, Bristol
July-Sept'96 Gallery Manager, Edinburgh Festival - Overseas League, Edinburgh
1993-1995 Project Worker/Fund-raiser, Action Aid, Bristol
1991-1993 Telephone Sales Operator, British Telecom, Bristol
1990-1992 Assistant to the Director, British Short Film Festival,London


Conferences and Symposia


Sept 2007 SoFA Postgraduate Symposium, Massey University, New Zealand
Paper delivered: A Study into the use of Medical Imaging Technologies by Artists and the Medical Profession for Picturing
the Somatic
April 2007 Somatechnics Conference, Sydney, Australia
Paper delivered: Mind the Gap _ Artists use of medical imaging technologies and the implications in picturing the somatic
Chair:Symbiotics seminar
May 2005 Visual Criticism Symposium, California College of Art, San Francisco
Paper delivered: In (Visible Passed) - Artists use Medical Imaging Technology. What of I.T.?

I LOVE NOT BEING YOU - 2001, Tactile Bosche, Cardiff

I love not being you, was a moment, when I realised that I'd just watched two people leap out of a building after it was news. It had become something else.

STRAIGHT WOMEN MUST STOP FALLING FOR ME- 1997, Bristol Institute of Contemporary Art

ROCK AND ROLL, 2000- Fat Stoogie Gallery, UK

Whatever you do with time, it'll only do it back to you

If you've ever been accused of 'killing' time, this practice is for you. Make sure there is no net, and make sure that you keep accurate records of where it falls. People will see it as industry, and you'll start believing that it is indeed, time well spent.