Stefan Szczelkun

My work is a sensible response to situations that I am in. This has led me to work in open artists collectives and to produce books. I have been wary of commissioned work unless in response to specific spaces, situations and communities. The media I used has mainly been writing, photography or video but has also included curation, performance and activism. I have tended to reject establishment modes to embrace more fluid situations.

Biography:

Born in London post WW2 of displaced working class parents I grew up in the suburb of Shepperton. I studied architecture at Portsmouth before joining the Scratch Orchestra. I had some success as an author in the UK and USA with three books on basic life supports: Survival Scrapbooks: Shelter, Food and Energy. Whilst at college I ran the Portsmouth Arts Workshop after being inspired by the Drury Lane Arts Lab and came in contact with leading experimental artists of the day. I then researched the elements of human ability whilst working with New Dance Collective and wrote for their magazine 'New Dance'. ('Sense Think Act' is published as a Kindle edition on 7/1/16)

During the Eighties I became a conventional artist moving from Mail art to drawing, printmaking and performance art. I was a founder member of the Brixton Artists Collective and gallery from 1983 -1987. Towards the end of the Eighties my work took a literary and theoretical turn in relation to identity politics. This resulted in: organising 'Working Press: books by and about working class artists' with Graham Harwood and writing three books on class and art; and co-curating a series of exhibitions with 'Bigos: artists of Polish Origin' that were supported by the Arts Council.

At the beginning of the Nineties I had the chance to build my own house in Kennington, London, as part of a self-build co-op. I took an MA in Time-based Media to train in digital media skills. This was followed by a doctorate at the RCA 1997 - 2002 in which I attempted to evaluate my experience of artists collectives with a participant study of Exploding Cinema. At the same time I produced a series of DVD video collections on culture and democracy publishing them post 2002. I got a job teaching on an MA Visual Culture at Westminster University and then joined the Mute Magazine editorial team. This led to a variety of articles and blogs including the collaborative Agit Disco project, which became a book in 2012, and is ongoing as a performance.

Since my doctoral research I have been activating the archives of my past collective activities. These have now been acquired by major public archives including: BFI Special Collections, National Art Library at the V&A, Tate Archive, University of the Creative Arts in Farnham, University of Dundee Archive and the Museum of London.

I currently live on the outskirts of South London and am married with a young daughter. I've just started to issue my current and past work as ebooks. Its fun adding full colour illustrations to old black and white text and seeing how books and pamphlets can work on smartphones.

Selected Publications:

'Survival Scrapbooks, Shelter, Food and Energy' Three books published by Unicorn Books, Brighton and Schocken Books USA 1972 -74. (See also: Simon Yuill, Mute, 2006 and FACT, Liverpool, 'Climate for Change' 2009.)

'Artists Liberation' A4 16pp 1986 - Wrote and self-published the only British artist's manifesto of the decade (according to a Coracle compendium)

'Collaborations' Working Press 1986

'Class Myths and Culture' Working Press 1990

'The Conspiracy of Good Taste: William Morris, Cecil Sharp and Clough Williams Ellis and the repression of working class culture' Working Press 1993 (available online)

'Glamour Lied to Me' a text that started as a collaboration with Ed Baxter in 'Collaborations' was digested in 'Class Myths' and then republished in Polish by Wschodnia Galery in Lodz 1991 as part of an exhibition.

'Exploding Cinema 1991 - 1997: culture and democracy' PhD thesis RCA 2002. Aimed to provided a framework for the research and historicisation of open artists collectives. (Archive material now in BFI Special Collections).

'Kennington Common, Birthplace of British Democracy?' Working Press pamphlet, 1997.

London counterculture and people power of the Nineties. Three DVDs 1997 - 2008 - Following my doctoral theme of culture and democracy I shot a series of videos of significant public demonstrations and other events with a view to documenting their visual culture. Three DVDs of these were published with help from University of Westminster. My video footage of Exploding Cinema and Kennington Park has yet to be published. Most of these videos and other available on YouTube.

'Sense, Think, Act: 200 exercises to describe human ability' published as a Mediawiki in 2004 - 6. Published as a re-edited Kindle ebook on 7th January 2016.

Video pedagogy. Research into use of video in higher education 2006 - 2011. Funded by University of Westminster. Two papers published.

Agit Disco as a book, 2012. A collection of 23 annotated playlists through which a variety of people consider the political effects of music in their lives. Each selection existed as a hardcopy CD that forms the main illustrative motif through the book. Published by Mute books in 2012 with several excellent reviews. Current form is a solo performance with 45rpm records - see below.

Active Archiving of Brixton Artists Collective 2007 - 2012. A day seminar at University of Westminster 2010 (edited transcription online). An exhibition and oral history video produced and exhibited at 198 CAL, Brixton 2011. Material acquired by Tate Archive 2012. Heritage Lottery and Arts Council supported. Theory article published in Mute Magazine 2012. Oral history video produced by me - online.

'Mixing it Up' an intergenerational artists project 2012. Video discussion with Robbie Lockwood. Produced by New Work Network. Released nationally. Online.

Scratch Orchestra activation of 'Nature Study Notes' a verbal score that led to large ensemble performances at Cafe Oto and Chisenhale Dance Space 2014/15. The four year process was archived at MayDay Rooms, London in 2015 which led to an invitation of take part in Documenta 14 in Athens.

2017 'Improvisation Rites: from John Cage's 'Song Books' to the Scratch Orchestra's 'Nature Study Notes'. Collective practices 2011 - 2017' 168pp with 35 colour photographs. Documentation of this extended project using press releases, reviews, participant emails, meeting minutes and photographs to capture the collective spirit of the project to reprise these historic written scores.

2018 'Chalet Fields of the Gower.' 70 Colour photographs plus interview with architect Owen Short. Hard back and paperback. The first published photographic survey of a UK plotlands.

2019 'Compostion'. 17 large premium colour photographs, 36 pages, landscape hardback. Composting considered as fine art.

2020 'SILENCE! the great silencing of British working class culture in the C20th.' 84pp in standard colour. 30 Illustrations Foreword by Lorraine Leeson. Cover design by Chris Saunders. Research in the new millennium which focuses on the repression of singing together in the first half the C20th in Britain followed by appendices of other forms of silencing as a mechanism of oppression.

2020 'Plotlands of Shepperton', with a Foreword by the late great Judith Tucker and an Introduction by Chris Saunders.

27 thumbnails, 38 full page photographs in premium colour. A photographic study over several years with a stream of commentary to give an in-depth insight into this little understood phenomenon of the UKs plotland self-builders.

2021 'Exploding Cinema 1991 - 1999: culture and democracy' 190 pp c47 b/w illustrations. Based on my 2002 doctoral thesis with the theory chapters cut out. A closely observed and contextualised history of the first nine years of this key counter-cultural collective.

2023 'Dementia Painting' 88 pp 216 x 216mm. Full colour illustration of paintings. Hardback. Argues that my mum was released from the constraints of art conventions by her dementia. Accompanied by three video pieces on my mum, culture, dementia.

2025 'Can Working Class Culture Be Knowledge? 120pp paperback.

2025 'Plotlands of Shepperton' a new deluxe large casebound edition.