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Stefan Szczelkun
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...view moreBorn 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'.
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, MayDay Rooms and the Museum of London.
I currently live on the outskirts of South London and am married with a young daughter.view less
Books by Stefan Szczelkun
Sense - Think - Act: 200 exercises about basic human ability Dementia Painting pub: dementia and painting Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings