- 13 May 2020
The online journal British Art Studies invites artists and researchers to submit proposals for a cover commission responding to the theme of "British Art and Natural Forces."
The theme of “British Art and Natural Forces” focuses on the encounter between artistic or art historical practice and the forces of the natural world, and is the subject of the Paul Mellon Centre's autumn research programme. In recent years, artists and scholars have concentrated with new intensity on the relationship between visual representation and climate change, and the overlaps between artistic, geological, biological, and geophysical bodies of knowledge. These interdisciplinary collaborations have seen visual artists and researchers explore subject areas such as natural histories, indigenous forms of knowledge, concepts of the post-human, and revitalized theorisations of the sublime. We welcome proposals that touch on any aspect of this broad theme in relation to British art and its histories, considered in their most diverse and international contexts.
The chosen artist will generate between five and eight still or moving images that will form a series of covers for the journal’s eighteenth issue (November 2020), to be presented online as a digital commission.
The “cover” of each issue of British Art Studies plays with the conventions of the traditional cover of a journal or magazine. A cover traditionally has various functions: to illustrate or give a glimpse into the contents; to protect the pages sandwiched in between; and, occasionally, to conceal rather than advertise what is inside. The digital format of British Art Studies has allowed us to rethink what a cover is and what it can do. Our covers are typically accompanied by a short, written statement (c. 500 words). Recent cover collaborators include Laura Grace Ford, James Richards and members of the Asia-Art-Activism Research Network.
Proposals from individual artists, collectives, and artists working in partnership with researchers and curators are welcome. Stills, moving images, 3D models, and audio tracks can all be supported by the journal website. The commission is awarded with a fee of £500 for existing work and £1,000 for new work.
If your proposal is successful, you will work collaboratively with the British Art Studies editors to develop the feature and will receive editorial support, as well as assistance with any picture research and copyright clearance.
How to submit
Please send proposals of no more than 400 words, accompanied by images, to Baillie Card at [email protected] by noon on Monday, 17 August 2020.
Further details
British Art Studies (http://britishartstudies.ac.uk) is an open access and peer-reviewed journal co-published by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven. Since it was established in 2015, it has published scholarship on all aspects of British art, architecture, and visual culture, from the medieval period to the present day.
Banner image: Nicholas Tee Performing "Yellow Peril" at Manchester Art Gallery, 6 March 2019. Digital image courtesy of Nicholas Tee. Cover collaboration for British Art Studies, Issue 13: London, Asia (September 2019).