I wish to develop the collaborative, community focused performance/video/sound work that has evolved from NOSE BLIND AND HUMMING (NBAH) to become the nucleus of my practice. ‘NBAH’ has created a community of artists, writers and performers which has both created opportunities for collaboration and also boosted individuals’ practices.
I see this being developed through a number of intertwining stands:
• Building on networks I have established, strengthen ties already made with individuals and institutions but also reaching out to others and exploring a nomadic approach. I see continued conversations with the EKKM team of curators (international) as well as developing relationships nationally by working with spaces such as OUTPOST in Norwich and Assembly Point in Leeds, to mention two.
• Seeking out mentorship from practitioners in performance and film such as Michael Curran and Jordan Baseman as well as attending workshops with experts in documentation and editing of sound and video such William Glass and Robert Sellens. This will benefit and strengthen my own practices as I push deeper into this new direction for my work, but also the community around NBAH.
• To upgrade the tools and equipment I’m currently working with as well as refine and develop my skills with said tools and software will allow for an overall more professional framework and output for my practice.
• give myself time through relieving some of the pressures of being an artist in London with a full time job and family.
This is an opportunity to cement and refine a new way of working. There are benefits of working across different media, allowing for an output that is flexible, reactive, transportable, open and sustainable. The aims would be to improve my skills in video and sound recording and editing as well as give time over to developing further performances and texts. I see this leading to an ever expanding and maturing body of work that can flux between media, I’m excited by the possibility to explore this translation effect – hopefully opening up more avenues to show work nationally and internationally.
Currently I’m interested in the creation and telling of tales, experimenting with the medium and mutation through translation that video has, melding autofiction and folklore and I envisage the work created with this bursary directly relating to the community in Darlington. I see this as an opportunity to bring the ‘NOSE BLIND AND HUMMING’ events and related workshops to the area. ‘NBAH’ is an open and inclusive space welcoming participants from varied backgrounds, ages, ethnicities and is a space to be able to ‘try and fail’ in and be supported in doing so. Anything can be tried out as long as ‘the air is moved’. NBAH is also a testing ground for my own work and I see that through engaging with the community directly, allowing for people to share their stories, poems, sounds, performances, something naturally and sincerely collaborative will be born. I want to draw out the stories of the area, the real, the fictitious, the grounded and the absurd. Through workshops I also see the possibility of sharing in areas such as sound recording, stage craft and storytelling, thus equipping those in attendance with transferable skills, rooted in creativity.
I am an Artist, Writer, Performer and Curator born in Essex and currently surviving with my family in London.
I work across sculpture, sound, written and spoken text with frequent deviations into other media. I have a rhizomatic and iterative approach to making, allowing for expansion and refinement through cycles of creation and return; accepting and galvanised by the existence of a piece in a given moment, rather than an everlasting artifact.
I often work with a combination of preexisting materials and the hand crafted – manufactured and found, industrial and organic – utilising absurdity and strangeness to tease out narratives and spark points of tension: to quote a painting by Ed Rusha, I’m looking for the ‘Sand in the Vaseline’.
Most recently I have been interested in the intersection of sculpture, sound and performance, and how both can create opportunities for collaboration, community creation and engagement.
I exhibit frequently across the UK and Europe (and once in America) and most recently had a solo exhibition “WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN?” at the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM); I was included in “All Mouth, No Trousers” Curated by Icing Room and ‘Take a Seat’ a group show supported by BOW Arts.
I am the founder of NOSE BLIND AND HUMMING, which is a supportive platform and testing ground for performative and text-based art practices: it is: ‘a space for words to be practiced and performed, a place to try (and if necessary, fail).’
I run a monthly experimental radio show A LEG AND A CHIN on RTM.fm.
I have a First Class degree in Fine Art (BA) from The Slade School of Fine art, UCL
I received a travel Bursary from A-N to travel to California to explore the relationship between sound and (anti) architecture of the communities and individuals of the High Desert.
I received the Stanbury scholarship twice while studying at the Slade.
I received a commendation for my writing from Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
I run NOSE BLIND AND HUMMING, which is is a space for words to be practiced and performed, a place to try (and if necessary, fail). Poets, performers, writers, readers, noisemakers, musicians, partisans, and parasites all welcome.
Outside of the structure and support of institutions it can seem difficult to test, make and share more performative works, thus we hope that this is an antidote.
I have been involved in the running (until it’s recent closure) with San Mei Gallery.
I am still involved as associate Curator at Van Gogh House London.
Most recently had a solo exhibition “WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN?” at the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM).
Email: benjaminarthurbrown@gmail.com
Address: 15 Drewstead Road, Flat 3, London, London, SW16 1LY, GB
