Shipsides and Beggs Projects

This section is UNDER CONSTRUCTION and review.....

Neal's website also partners with information on Shipsides and Beggs Projects. http://nealbeggs.com/index.html


Via Ferrata Research Project 2009/10/11

STILL NOT OUT OF THE WOODS (3)- 2015 (Sculptural suspended twig-text)
RED FLOWERS ROUNDABOUT - 2015 (HD video 14min)
STILL NOT OUT OF THE WOODS (2) - The Mac, Belfast. 2012
YUPA STAR - some kind of memorial 2012 (HD video 13min)
BIVACCO 2011 (HD video 21min)
Ulster Iron Way / Marmolada Beez 2010
Marmolada Beez 2010 (text and image)
Still not out of the woods (1) video 2009
The Hanging 2008 (also with Tibaut Espiau)
Alphabet Climb 2004
Real time One 2004

Texts:

Shipsides and Beggs Projects at the Death Of Delawab 2010 - Slavka Sverakova

Shipsides and Beggs Projects - Artists commentry:

Dan Shipsides and Neal Beggs.

 

Dan Shipsides and Neal Beggs are both artists and climbers and have been collaborating since 2003 under the name Shipsides and Beggs Projects. They develop their passion for mountaineering as a way of exploring the intertwined notions of life, culture and society.

Their co-practice exploits the dynamic established between two individuals climbing, where being joined through necessity by a rope, becomes a creative model for developing art and sharing life. This activity enables a pattern where adventures and misadventures form the backbone of their creative process and conversation. Their practice does not aim towards a unified voice but instead an oscillating set of ideas and outcomes, at times shared and at times disparate and beyond ones control. Through this the work embraces wide sets of interests and activities, from music to mountains to madness and magic and their practice is not purely the tale of two climbers who became artists.

.....

 

Since 1996 and becoming aware of each others work which centres around their shared passion for mountaineering and rock climbing, Shipsides and Beggs have been occasional collaborators - though they prefer to call it a partnership.

This had led to several co-authored works and many mutually supported projects.

 

"In the mid 90's we were working in similar areas and themes, and since then our two practices have run on parallel trajectories - which come together at various times over the years through sharing or co-developing research and production processes, assisting and promoting each others practice and also by co-authoring artworks together.

We met accidently in Glasgow in 1997. I was just finishing an Master of Fine Art programme in Belfast and Neal an MA in Glasgow. We both conceptually developed out of a painting approach. We were both climbing up, around and both jumping off things in the name of art and climbing. Admittedly then our relationship began with paranoia over the other artist making similar work and using the same or similar subject matter. Who did it first? Who copied who? Who did it best? Who was ahead? The art world dynamic isn't ever far away.

Confronting this in 2001 we decided to develop an open, supporting and co-developing attitude to our work – seeing it as contribution to expanding and exploring our shared ideas and concerns and ultimately making our experiences in art and climbing richer. Meeting again in Paris in 2002 whilst I was developing the Rochers à Fontainebleau project and Neal working on Adidas Kids - we shared ideas of work in progress.

This in many ways develops out of a climbers' necessity for partnership – the micro society of two people tied to the same rope. I invited Neal to join me on a residency in Montserrat in 2003 because I wanted a climbing partner who shared my enthusiasm for art and climbing. Climbers usually or predominantly climb in pairs – as a partnership – sharing the same or similar aims and motivations – but they are still individuals who may act and see things differently. But they are tied to the same rope. This is a metaphor we find useful. We do not act as a single voice – we do not claim to fully share decisions. We discuss and give space to each others enthusiasm and skills. Through this we realize differences and nuances in each of our approaches, outlooks and skills.

Philsophically I believe that most of our work since 1996 has at least some development rapport if not a direct relationship. Our art practices travel on similar or adjecent tragectories and explore shared themes and ideas through different and not so different methodologies.

Several projects have been and continue to be enabled by this partnership – some as individuals and some as a co-authoring partnership." Dan Shipsides 2010

 

Notes on the collaborative approach of SBP.

Whist SBP is a collaborative project, it differs from many collaborations in that we don’t generally insist on joint or 50/50 authorship of the works we present. It is not aimed at a single voice. We (Dan and Neal) see the working relation as mutually beneficial, and dependent – the works could not exist in the way they do without the other person. We share our resources and raw material, and each of us takes from it. The results of which often remains within the authorship of the individual that made it, i.e. Dan or Neal or in some instances as both. Accordingly work might be assigned: Dan Shipisdes / SBP, Neal Beggs / SBP or just Shipsides and Beggs Projects. The thing we do insist on is that any of our works from this approach carries the SBP creditation so as to credit the other persons’ presence and input. In this way it is a little like a band, with songs written by different band members with assigned rights.

Biogs.

Dan Shipsides (born 1972 Lancashire, England), MFA University of Ulster, Belfast and is now based in Belfast at Orchid Studios and teaches at the School of Art & Design at the University of Ulster.

Neal Beggs (born 1959 Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland), MA Glasgow School of Art, now based in Northern France and teaches at the art school in Bourges.

Neal's website: Neal's website also partners with information on Shipsides and Beggs Projects. Divergence is a stength... http://nealbeggs.com/index.html