The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
17
January – February 2009
FOCUS – SPART
20 Revolution (a revolutionary workout), Le Lieu, Quebec City 2006.
Nathan Crothers at the opening ceremony of the SPART Action Winter Game 2008, Belfast.
Play is Older than Culture
interested in making works that would not so much represent these
Justin McKeown discusses the concept of SPART and other Sport / Art hybrid practices.
Dadaist Arthur Craven who in 1916 challenged then heavyweight-
things, but rather embody them in everyday situations. From my perspective, the great granddaddy of SPART was the preboxing champion of the world, Jack Johnston, to a fight. While this is
In 2001 I had an epiphany, that just as the 20th century demanded
those things singled out as art, and, thereby, the superiority of the form
his most overt sport / art hybrid work, a quick glance at his biography
new forms of art, so too does the 21st century demand new forms of
of life which celebrates them, and the social group which is implicated.
reveals a larger than life character who understood that one’s existence
leisure. To this end I proposed SPART: the ultimate hybridisation of
This boils down to an assertion that bourgeois society, and the ruling
and appearance in the world could be composed as a work of art in
sport and art, and therefore the most evolved form of leisure on the
class within it, is somehow committed to a superior form of knowledge”.
itself. The realisation of such a thing necessarily embodies all the
planet. In 2001, when I first articulated the concept of SPART, I was
(2)
qualities of game play. Craven was last seen disappearing off the coast of Mexico in a rowing boat in November 1918. He was presumed dead,
virtually on my own in my enthusiasm for the development of such a
Therefore the idea that art as a vehicle of superior knowledge is
practice. And though my concept of SPART has grown a support
nothing more than a particular type of play enjoyed by a particular
network of collaborators in Europe, Canada and America, and even
section of society, is not something that sits easy in the minds of many
Since Craven’s first sport / art experiment others have been thin
earned me a solo show in the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, these
of those involved in the production and consumption of contemporary
on the ground. However in recent years this has been changing. Since
SPART practices have remained marginal. Yet today, my articulation of
art. Yet perhaps the mistake made by those who are perturbed by the
the announcement of the 2012 London Olympics and the shifts to
the concept of SPART seems to have had some prescience since sport /
idea of art as play is that they mistakenly believe that their concept of
funding this has caused, various artists all over the UK have been
art hybrid practices are becoming evermore significant as an area of
art is being undervalued, rather than realising that they themselves
dabbling in the hybridisation of sport and art. Indeed the UK
cultural experimentation. I was therefore pleased when Visual Artists
may be undervaluing or misunderstanding the significance of play.
government’s need for a cultural Olympiad has been an economic
Ireland invited me to write this article on SPART and other related
For as Johan Huizinga put it “play is older than culture, for culture,
driving force in these developments. While Martin Creed has flown
practices for this edition as it offers me a vehicle through which to
however inadequately defined, always presupposes human society,
the SPART flag for Brit Art with his minimally titled Work No 850,
clarify some key aspects of my thinking on this subject.
and animals have not waited for man to teach them their playing”
which saw runners gracing the floor of Tate Britain (4), perhaps the
(3)
but a body was never found.
What the reader must first understand is that my concept of
Thus it was with a head full of these and related thoughts I found
most notable events to spring forth as a direct result of the Olympics
SPART is very particular; indeed my understanding of art is quite
myself in London in 2001 watching the performance art festival SPAN
are the large artist’s sports days organised by the Grunts for the Arts
particular. Since I first began making art, I have been concerned with
2. One morning on my way to the festival I was having a coffee in a
Campaign in protest at the affects of the Olympics on cultural funding
the simple question: given the world we live in what is the point of
street flower market with a friend. While sitting with her I watched a
(5)
making art? This concern necessarily developed into an understanding
kid on a skateboard weaving his way through the crowds of people. As
common usage. A quick google search reveals a SPART club ran by
that art is an open system of knowledge whose basis is material.
a one time skateboarder I remembered the sensation of riding across
Lincolnshire council as an after schools club for kids. The term also
Thought of in this way, art provides us with a material based system
different surfaces, of choosing which bits of the pavement and road
seems to have had some currency in Australia, where rather a lot of
for exploring and reasoning the conditions of the world around us. By
were best to ride on, essentially pitting the materiality of myself and
money seems to be spent presenting annual SPART awards (6).
extension of this logic, artworks are not so much expressions of view
the skateboard against the materiality of the city, not in opposition but
but rather crystallisations of moments of material thinking. This way
in a kind of flowing harmony.
. In a more banal way the term SPART seems to be coming into more
Even in Belfast SPART seems to be catching on. The activities of myself and fellow SPART Action Group; Meabh McDonnell, Gerard
of thinking about art necessarily led me to work with time-based
In recalling this I also recalled my love of martial arts and the
McKeown, Nathan Crothers, Paul Stapleton, Caroline Pugh, James
mediums such as performance, video, installation and sound.
sensation of the flow of fighting in which conscious thought disappears
Black and others aside, other completely unrelated groups have been
Simultaneously I was also interested in art historic precedents for this
and all is left is the materiality of the body meeting the materiality of
producing their own SPART-style works. These include a wrestling
particular view of art, which could be found in the activities of
another. The kid on the board was poetry in motion. Then, he fell off a
match organised by the Lawrence St Workshops at the Giants Ring
movements such as Dada, Surrealism, Lettrism, Situationism, Fluxus,
curb and landed on his ass. Our eyes met and he looked back at me
titled The Fling in the Ring (7) and the Tit-tat Disco Olympics recently
Dutch Provo, Punk et al, who seemed to be primarily concerned with
with embarrassment. There it was lying naked for me to see, the whole
hosted by Catalyst Arts (8). Yet even though SPART seems to be gaining
redressing the divisions between art and life in one way or another.
poverty and poetry of early 21 century life, the Hollywood ‘cool’ of
ground, we within the SPART Action Group are choosing this moment
Something important in my readings of the activities of these
the Jackass generation was lying at the bottom of a curb in London. Yet
to officially announce a SPART Strike within Northern Ireland,
movements was the significance of play as a creative endeavour. Many
this kids hobby and his desire to pursue a particular type of glamour
beginning in January 2009. This is in protest at the cuts to funding
of the aforementioned movements were of a utopian current, aiming
through it was no different than the desire expressed by both artists
caused by the 2012 London Olympics. However, don’t expect SPART to
for a society in which man would be free in which to endlessly create.
and sportsmen from all walks of life.
disappear, rather await the application of our corkscrew logic to the
st
This is as evident in the demands of Dadaist Richard Huelsenbeck for
In this moment I realised the underlying commonalities between
“the introduction of progressive unemployment through the
both fields of endeavour: the conditions of the game, the drive for
to the
success and the risk of failure. The ruthlessness of the pursuit of ones
playground style city envisioned by the Situationist Constant’s New
desires, the idea of fair play, the assumption of abstract rules as guiding
Babylon architecture project.
principles governing the interrelation of form and content. Not to
comprehensive mechanisation of every field of activity”
(1)
Yet the concept of art as a form of play does not sit well with
mention the underlying way in which both sporting and artistic
many who treat art as a serious business. The reasons for this are
pursuits explore the materiality of being, albeit through quite different
varied but perhaps at the root of all of them is a problem summed up
strategies. Therefore, I first conceived of SPART as a category or
succinctly by Stewart Home when he commented: “Rather than
creative endeavour that would embody these conditions. In doing this
having universal validity, art is a process that occurs within bourgeois
I wasn’t seeking to combine sport and art, rather I was seeking to
society, one which leads to an irrational reverence for activities which
embody, materialise and explore the emotional and material
suit bourgeois needs. This process posits the objective superiority of
commonality that underpins both. As I begun doing this I was
idea and context of the Strike. It seems we already have the support of these people (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=paovxoOmDdY ) Why not go on strike yourself? Justin McKeown Notes 1) R. Huelsenbeck cited by S.Home in The Assault on Culture, AK Press, p5, 2) S. Home, The Assault on Culture, p43, 3) J. Huizinga, Homo Ludens, Paladin Press, p19, 4) http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/jul/06/art.tatebritain 5) http://gruntsforthearts.wordpress.com 6) http://www.verve.org.au/spart/index.html 7) http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OMi1ffxAMU4 8) http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/index.php?mact=Calendar,cntnt01,default,0&cntnt01even t_id=59&cntnt01display=event&cntnt01lang=en_GB&cntnt01detailpage=73&cntnt01retur n_id=15&cntnt01returnid=73