This is the first venture by Grey Area Books, a small press set up by Royal College of Art graduate Becky Beasley. The publication marks the first interview with artist and film-maker Hannah Collins since returning to London after ten years living and working in Barcelona. Shortly after being nominated for the Turner Prize in 1993, Collins moved to Barcelona having already spent time in Calcutta, Silesia and Poland.
Conceived, conducted and edited by Becky Beasley the interview contains previously unpublished material, much of which is very personal to the artist but for that very reason is fascinating in respect to a deeper understanding of how her practice has evolved over her periods of travel.
In a joint RCA graduate collaboration the publication is designed by recent Royal Communications & Design graduates, Avni Patel and Jon Spencer. How To Stay Hungry: An Interview with Hannah Collins has been produced in a limited edition of 1000 copies.
Whereas Hannah Collins is a very established, heavy-weight artist who deals with the margins and marginal things and people,the second project is with a quite different artist. Robert Ellis is himself, quite despite himself, an outsider. The publicationÍs working title is ïThe Autobiography of Robert EllisÍ.Robert has been through an art education in the UK and has been working as a civil servant all his adult life since then. During his art education he found that he was only really productive when finding ways to function outside of its institution. During his working life he has quietly pushed paper around by day, whilst in the evening and at weekends has produced an ongoing body of texts, drawings and watercolours. He has exhibited relatively regularly in the UK and abroad. He has also collaborated on performances and readings of his own writing as well as that of others. The publication has been developped from what began life as a Modern European Philosophy evening course essay and became, to quote Robert, ïmore of an autobiograophyÍ. It will incorporate his drawings (some made on diary pages, others on plain paper), collages, early writings and also a highly subjective edit of his Curriculum Vitae.
To mention a few of his activities in the last ten years, Robert has had solo exhibitions at Beconsfield and Whitechapel Project Space, a two-person show at City Racing and collaborated with performance artist Hayley Newman.
Purchase Publication
Link to design
Programme Notes Movie Screening Tonite (2003)
Institute of N pages 1-3 (2002/3)
Institute of N : Information Sheet (2002)
Dust, Night (2002)