George Barber (artist)

George Barber
Born 1958
Occupation Video artist
Known for Scratch video movement

George Barber (born 1958, Guyana, lives and works in London) is a video artist. His works have been shown at international festivals, competitions, galleries, been broadcast on television throughout the world and awarded prizes.[1]

Career

Education

George Barber received his BA in Sculpture 'A' (conceptual department) from St Martins School of Art in 1980 and his MA in Experimental Department from The Slade, in 1984.

Artistic career

Barber first gained acclaim through his low-tech video pieces composed of found footage which he deconstructed in an effort to display them as contradicting their intended purposes,[2] many of which become a 'deft reworking of cinematic narrative and cliché'.[3] Barber rose to prominence with these works, establishing the Scratch-video movement in the 1980s.[4] Many of Barber's Scratch works including Absence of Satan, 1985 and Yes Frank Don't Smoke, 1986 are seminal to the history of British video art.[5][6]

In 1990s, Barber moved away from Scratch in his practice and created low-tech video works which became 'influential in defining the then emergent ‘slacker' aesthetic'.[7] Barber's works became more varied in the later stages of his career as he shifted towards a more narrative style in his monologue works such as Refusing Potatoes, 2003 or I Was Once Involved In A Shit Show, 2003. These simple performances were formally different from the scratch videos however conceptually in line with Barber's larger body of work as he layered his own stories with existing film and videos. As such, Barber's central concern remains the manipulation of found footage into new artistic experiences.[8] With a focus on the narrative in his oeuvre, Barber sees 'himself, like Godard and Chris Marker, as a video-essayist'.[9] Engaging with current issues and debates in his work, The Freestone Drone, 2013 and Fences Make Senses, 2015 'Barber’s way around art’s potential political inefficacy'[10] is to redefine the terms as to the artist, art is a reaction and reflection of the world and the effort to see this reality without veils is an achievement in itself as it allows room for rethinking with less bias and contemplation of a neutral alternative.[10]

Barber has been part of numerous programmes at Tate Modern and had retrospectives at the ICA, New York Film & Video Festival and recently at La Rochelle Festival, France. In 2014 Barber took part at exhibition 'The Invisible Force Behind.' at Imai – inter media art institute[11] within Quadriennale Düsseldorf.[12] In 2015, the artist had three solo exhibitions at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, Young Projects in Los Angeles and waterside contemporary in London.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

2015

2014

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2002

Group exhibitions

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2006

2004

2002

1997

1996

Awards

2008

2004

1998

1990

1996

Publications

2005

1988

1984

References

  1. ↑ http://waterside-contemporary.com/artists/george-barber/
  2. ↑ Spielmann, Y.. (2006). Video: From Technology to Medium. Art Journal, 65(3), 54–69. http://doi.org/10.2307/20068481
  3. ↑ "Absence of Satan by George Barber". LUX. Retrieved 2015-11-19.
  4. ↑ NEWMAN, M. Z.. (2014). Video Revolutions: On the History of a Medium. Columbia University Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/newm16951
  5. ↑ "Assembly: Surface Tension | Tate". www.tate.org.uk. Retrieved 2015-11-19.
  6. ↑ Littman, S.. (2015). Experimental Film and Video: An Anthology. (J. Hatfield, Ed.). Indiana University Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16gz6vq
  7. ↑ "George Barber: Beyond Language - Works - LUX Collection". www.lux.org.uk. Retrieved 2015-11-19.
  8. 1 2 "Official website of George Barber - Contemporary video artist". www.georgebarber.net. Retrieved 2015-11-19.
  9. ↑ "CCQ7". Issuu. Retrieved 2015-11-19.
  10. 1 2 Herbert, Martin (2015). Dream Myself Outside: on George Barber. Cardiff: Chapter.
  11. ↑ "imai - inter media art institute". www.imaionline.de. Retrieved 2015-11-19.
  12. ↑ "The Invisible Force Behind. Materiality in Media Art". Quadriennale Düsseldorf. Retrieved 2015-11-19.
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