This summer Phoenix Art Space has been hosting Collective Conversations, a platform for artist collectives to showcase, experiment, and play. Three collectives have had access to our Main Gallery, using the space as a shared exploratory studio, workshop and event space over the course of four weeks. Participating collectives: Social Circles, Duncan Poulton & Nick Smith and ProjectOurs.

Join us in August at our Open Weekend, an opportunity to meet some of the collective members and discuss their work.

Open to the public Saturday 19 – Sunday 20 August, 11am – 5pm.

ABOUT THE COLLECTIVES

Social Circles
Social Circles is an artist-led Brighton-based collective of socially engaged artists, (formerly known as Brighton Social Engaged Artists Peer Group), committed to supporting socially engaged practice, individual artists and their processes. We work in a variety of ways together and with groups in a multitude of media, including sculpture, film, photography, mixed-media, drawing, performance and social happenings. Established in 2020 during Lockdown, it is currently running monthly meet ups to provide a supportive network for artists who work in this field in Brighton. Members of the collective have presented at ‘Acts of Transfer’ Towner Eastbourne, Eastbourne (2022) and ‘Structures of Community’ , a symposium on social practice at Brighton CCA (2022+2023). The collective is currently rapidly expanding and developing its identity, focussing on supporting and nourishing socially-engaged practitioners to develop healthy and sustainable practices, in an increasingly challenging context, in demanding and often exhausting roles.

Members: Katy Beinart, Helen Dewhurst, Isabela Vasques, Jenny Staff, Susie Deadman, Zoe Toolan, Polly Wright, Neil Pavey, Gil Mualem-Doron, Charlotte CHW, Helena Taylor, Arabel Lebrusan and Abigail Horn.
@social_circles
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Duncan Poulton & Nick Smith
Since meeting in London in 2018, Duncan Poulton and Nick Smith have been engaged in ongoing conversations about moving image, photography and the found image. As independent practitioners their areas of interest span anxiety, class, the internet, digital and video collage and the archive; themes which often combine and conflate in their collaboration. In 2019 they organised and curated a group exhibition and publication ‘Transitional States’ as part of Art Licks Weekend, collaborated remotely in 2020 and 2021 on digital collage, and in 2022 began the major video work ‘Y2K’ which premiered at TACO! gallery in Thamesmead, and later showed at Division of Labour gallery in Salford. For their Collective Conversations residency at Phoenix Art Space, they will be convening a larger group of artists to consider ‘The Archive’ in a multitude of forms from online amateur photography, oral histories, DIY publication and reuse of surplus found real and virtual materials.

Members: Duncan Poulton and Nick Smith
@duncpoulton  @nrt_smith
duncanpoulton.com
nrtsmith.com

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ProjectOurs
ProjectOurs is a collective of women and gender minority filmmakers. They create a space for artists across a range of disciplines to pursue filmmaking within an increasingly inaccessible climate, particularly for minority groups. Their collective practice centres playfulness, kindness, and reciprocity in the making of work; they build each other up, welcome faux-pas and encourage creative journeys. Their group formed to draw attention back to the rewards inherent in the process of filmmaking, leaning on the spirit of collective learning rather than financial and/or commercial success. Through collective strength, they aim to foster an inclusive environment where filmmakers can find mentorship, collaboration opportunities, and a platform to showcase their work. Together, they strive to create films that reflect the multitude of perspectives in our society, inspire meaningful conversations and capture the joy of the process.

Members: Anniston Quinn, Megan Russel, Stella Jordan, Madeleine Clench, Elle Brown, Meg Phoenix, Diana  Gorohova, Mariana Alfar, Ayshen Irfan, Eloise Brown, Nea Springer, Alex Moss, Evi Todd, Amelie Bernard, Rachel Pearson, Kim Head, Allison Pitcher, Milan Cater, Barbara Kelly, Lily Maddocks, Chris Bullock, Helen James and Imogen Radwan.
@project.ours

The ProjectOurs residency is supported by A Woman’s Place Projects.