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Visual artists and literature magazine

Simon Currell

12 August 2009

About Simon

My artwork has been motivated by over twelve years experience in employment as a telephone sales representative and is inspired by a perception of how corporate space has become commoditized within call centre workplaces. The artworks investigates how employees react to this perceived objectification through assimilating or appropriating objects within their work environment.

The artworks are created by manipulating and appropriating imagery, objects and general processes commonly associated with office-based work. The objects used for my artwork includes office partitioning, appliances, stationery and gadgets, whilst the photographic images I have generated also frequently refer to the general modular design plan of the call centre itself. The works establish and develops practicable artistic modes of inquiry, ones compatible with my own working terms of employment as a call center agent. Thus the artworks are frequently conceived in, experimented with and in some cases resolved from this workplace setting. The intention behind working in this way was to shift aspects of my artistic practice outside the conventional realm of a studio setting and relocate it firmly within the codes, conventions, expectations and environment of the companies facilitating my employment as a telesales representative.

The premise for such an investigation starts from the idea that company time and resources can become misused, reenergized and translated as an expressive means for communicating human emotion and creating art. It is my assertion that this act may be viewed as a humanizing impulse or form of resistance against what is arguably described as a dehumanizing and alienating workplace.

My artworks investigate spatial, material, digital and conceptual methods of interpreting call center workplaces. My research has used repetition, automation and homogeneity as an expressive means for creating art. As my artworks attest, these creative methods articulate a degree of dehumanization and methodical order that I perceive to be integral to the call center environment. The research develops a highly formal range of visual material that is approached with a deliberately fetishistic attention to detail. It is a body of work that investigates the culture of the contemporary call centre and navigates the processes of workplace assimilation and appropriation.

Education and Biography

Education:
1988 – 1992 Whitmore High School – Harrow on the Hill
5 GCSE’s – Grade ‘A’
2 GCSE’s – Grade ‘C’

1992 – 1994 Greenhill College – Harrow on the Hill
3 A-levels
Art and Design – Grade ‘A’
English Language and Literature – Grade ‘A’
Media Studies – Grade ‘B’

1994 – 1995 University of Westminster – Harrow on the Hill
Fine Art Foundation Course – Grade ‘Upper Credit’

1995 – 1998 University of Northampton
B.A (Hons) Fine Art Degree – Class 2:1

2001 – 2003 Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design
Masters Degree in Fine Art

2006 – 2009 RMIT University, Melbourne
Doctor of Fine Art, professional PhD doctorate

Selected Exhibitions:

14 group exhibitions in Europe, United Kingdom and Australia since 1990, two solo shows in 2009