Mik Godley: Considering Silesia & Field Study iPad & Phone work

• published: 22 Apr 2015
• views: 8

“Horst Mahler's Eyes” began as a small project for the Study Room of the newly opened Nottingham Contemporary, when I was asked to respond to a book in their library. I found a book called “The German Issue”* and thought “I'm a German issue - I’ll have a look”. About radical politics after 1945, it included an interview with Silesia born Mahler (I’d never heard of him before - I grew up around Wakefield) describing the story of his shift from being a founder of the extreme-left militant Red Army Faction, then barrister for Baader Meinhof terrorists, to becoming leader of the Neo-Nazi Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands. The source image is taken from the Vanity Fair publication of his interview: intentionally greeting Michel Friedman, a prominent member of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, with the illegal “Heil Hitler” forcing a high profile court case and further imprisonment. The extract of his voice is from the tape. Mum and I talk of “returning” to Silesia. She's not been since '45, evacuated to face the Dresden Firestorm - preferable to being among the revenge killings of millions of expelled civilians after the war's end - but first I wanted to retrain myself in field study techniques. I've previously been a studio based artist, so questioned “what will I do when I get there; what skills and kit do I need?” After carting an easel and rucksack of painting kit around, I realised an iPad was more portable, its digital nature offering other benefits. Ideas of field studies have now become part of my practice - both real and through the internet. The idea of Considering Silesia came to me from two directions: firstly receiving a JPEG of a graffitied painting (since destroyed) of mine from a château in France, then getting my first computer and surfing the net, thinking “let's see where Mum came from” - finding far more than I bargained for. That was in 2003 and I’m still working on it. It has entirely changed my practice. Working digitally with accessible technologies - I created a whole solo show for the Edinburgh Art Festival using an iPod Touch - informed my “analogue” practice: sourcing information and images from webcams, Google Earth, Street View, YouTube... documenting the nature of our evolving digital “way of seeing” - and responding through paint. Or an iPad. *“The German Issue” Edited by Sylvère Lotringer (1982) Semiotext(e) Exhibited at the School of Fine Art, History of Art & Cultural Studies, University of Leeds, 21st April - 15th May 2015 Thanks to Pete Morton for curating and Graham Lester George for the video end credits