Trifarious Projects | Photo Bernard G Mills

Trifarious Projects
Foreign Agents: Jonathan P Watts in discussion with Paul Clinton, Clunie Reid & John Walter

Sunday 15 June 2014
16:00—17:30

Umbrella Community Centre

Trifarious Projects (founded 2011) is a curatorial collaboration based in the South East of England. For this talk Trifarious have invited writer Jonathan P Watts to chair a discussion about the relationship of contemporary fine art practices to design, advertising and fashion.

The panel, which included writer Paul Clinton and artists Clunie Reid and John Walter, debated the ‘slickness’ that comes with artists’ appropriation of the applied arts’ materials and processes, and the question of whether art has become (or has returned to being) about the production of luxury objects for a rich elite.  Is the counter-argument, often upheld in the art world, that such work produces new contexts for the aesthetic appreciation of commercial design objects, or critiques fine art’s symbiosis with commerce, compelling enough to make a difference to viewers and audiences, and if not, what other creative approaches might be germane to the current moment?