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Dr Steve Klee
Lecturer
Fine Art
- sk404@kent.ac.uk
- 01227 82(8979)
Steve Klee’s research focuses on the way in which power is distributed within art, particularly artists’ film and video
I am a practicing artist working primarily in video. In the last five years I’ve shown in London at (amongst other places) The David Roberts Arts Foundation, 176 Gallery, Five Years Gallery, No.w.here Gallery, Limehouse Town Hall, Zoo Art Fair and Event Gallery; also in Glasgow at Tramway and Transmission Galleries and at Lena Rosselli Gallery, Budapest.
My videos often clash together apparently discordant elements, for instance I might attempt to tell a story whilst employing the avant-gardist camera techniques of structural film, which are conventionally viewed as aggressive towards narrative. More recently I’ve experimented with the documentary format. Where We Were When We Bashed the Fash (2008) is a record of a history-walk undertaken to commemorate an anti-fascist demonstration in Lewisham during the 70’s. My video is a record of these oral histories and the urban geography in which they are set. However I have subjected this raw documentary footage to heavy postproduction, blurring the faces of the participants and collaging fragments from a series of famous photographs of the original battle. Although sympathetic to the marchers, the video makes the point that representation is always skewed and ‘evident truths’ must continually be questioned and re-verified. All my videos reveal an interest in the notion of ‘site’ – physical place as a conduit for histories and narratives.
Writing about art and writing as art are other important foci. For instance I’ve produced texts on the video installations of Aernout Mik as well as contributing fiction pieces for Frozen Tears a collection of artists’ writing curated by John Russell. My latest text on Mik was for a catalogue accompanying his retrospective exhibition, Communitas. This show tours the Jeu de Paume, Paris and the Museum Folkwang, Essen before arriving in 2012 at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
I am a member of the academic groups PoCA (The Political Currency of Art) at Goldsmiths and Contemporary Marxism at Chelsea College.
I have recently finished an AHRC funded PhD by Practice (2010) which concentrated on the aesthetic and political philosophy of Jacques Rancière. In the last five years I’ve built up an extensive portfolio of UG and PG teaching working across theory and practice at Goldsmiths University of London, London Metropolitan University and Chelsea College of Art and Design.
back to topI work across all levels of teaching at Fine Art UoK, from first year undergraduates to MA students. I convene modules, lead seminars and give one to one tutorials
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My core research interest has been the aesthetic and political philosophy of Jacques Rancière; his work provided the basis for my doctorate. The aim of this period of study, or at least the last frantic year and a half, was to transform his theory of the politics of art. I attempted to short-circuit his exclusion of overtly ‘committed’ cultural practice from the realm of art whilst maintaining the coherence of his description of democratic politics. In my eyes I was attempting to save Rancière from himself. An immersion in this subject area has made me proficient in issues concerning political subjectivity; culture as socio-political critique (from montage to overidentification) as well as the thorny perennial problem of defining art itself. Here I played Rancière’s art historical ‘regimes’ against Pierre Bourdieu’s uncompromising insistence on class ‘distinction’ as the secret structure behind art and culture.
This research infuses pretty much everything that I do but has resulted in several published outcomes; a catalogue essay for Freee art collective, as well as a minor skirmish with Dave Beech on the pages of Art Monthly.
Researching political subjectivity led me to partake in two collectives that straddle the worlds of political activism and cultural production: The Carrot Workers’ Collective and The Precarious Workers’ Brigade. Both are premised upon an anti-hierarchical, genuinely collective and democratic ethos. No longer an active member, although I still cheer from the sidelines, I’m currently involving myself with the new artists’ collective called Latymer Projects. This is an initiative by recent art school graduates which provides a forum of debate and support for the production of their own and others’ art.
back to top| Recent Exhibitions | |
| 08-2011 | Film Screening at LIDO Art Space, for The Overbearing Mother: Dylan Shipton with Ben Fitton |
| 11-2010 | Informal residency at The Centre for Possible Studies (Serpentine Gallery).A weekend event by the Carrot Workers’ Collective involving seminars and workshops to produce counter-propaganda leading to the first march against education cuts. |
| 05-2009 | Creative Jobs Survival Fair, event by the Carrot Workers’ Collective as part of the At Your Service exhibition at the David Roberts Art Foundation, London |
| 01-2009 |
Contested Ground, group show at 176 Gallery, London
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| 11-2008 | History on Film: Unreliable Witness Artists’ Film and Video, including the work of The Otolith Group, Al Fadhil, Ramona Köppel-Welsh, Chris Marker and Jean-Luc Godard at Tramway Gallery, Glasgow |
| 11-2008 | Structures Found Structures Lost, film & video show at Five Years Gallery, London |
| 07-2008 | In a Manner of Speaking, film & video show at Transmission Gallery, Glasgow |
| 05-2008 | Nought to Sixty, video backdrop for Kim Coleman and Jenny Hogarth’s Performance with the Boyle family, ICA, London |
| 03-2008 | UJ KOR TARS (New Contemporary), a selection of international artists showing at Lena & Roselli Gallery, Budapest |
| 02-2008 |
Routemaster General, LONDON, a selection of films and videos set in and exploring London, at 176 Gallery, London
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| 11-2007 | The Unfalsified Truth of Things, two person show of video work at no.w.here gallery, London |
| 10-2007 | Between 316-318, group show at no.w.here gallery, London |
| 04-2007 | Pollutant, solo show at Negative gallery, London |
| 03-2007 | Itchy Park, a night of performance and video curated by Emily Wardill, Limehouse Town Hall, London |
| 12-2006 | We have lost the hearts and minds, group show at E:vent gallery, London |
| 10-2006 | Centrefold, curated by Reza Aramesh, Zoo art fair, London |
| 04-2006 | Et TU TRIBUTE, an evening of performance and video, The Embassy, Edinburgh |
| Publications | |
| 03-2011 | Catalogue Essay for Aernout Mik, Communitas, I was commissioned to write a text for the catalogue which accompanies Mik’s major retrospective. The show opened in Jeu De Paume, Paris and will tour to Museum Folkwang, Essen and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. |
| 2009-2011 | Alternative Intern Guide, this book will be produced by the Carrot Workers’ Collective to offer ‘survival tips’ to interns within the cultural sector. Another aim is that through analysis and satire we can model alternative labour practices within this field. |
| 08-2010 | The Philistine Cuckoo, An extended letter published in Art Monthly magazine in response to Dave Beech’s article Encountering Art (Art monthly May 2010) |
| 06-2008 | Gallery Pamphlet for Freee Art Collective, on the occasion of their exhibition ‘On Joy, Sadness and Desire’ at Smart Project Space Amsterdam |
| 07-2008 | Overidentification and the Possibility of Criticality, an article which compares and contrasts Zizek’s notion of overidentification and Derrida’s theory of justice. Political Currency of Art (PoCA) Online |
| 12-2007 | Aernout Mik, Shifting Shifting, a Rancierian Perspective on the Politics of Spectatorship, Afterall Online |
| 05-2007 | Frozen Tears III, narrative text for an artists’ book edited by John Russell, co-produced with Koenig books and the Cabinet gallery |
| 03-2007 | Between Two Star Systems, catalogue essay for Alexandra Navratil, to accompany The Extra at Fondazione Adriano Olivetti Gallery, Rome |
| 2004-2006 | Not-Yet, magazine, edited by Babak Ghazi. I contributed an appropriated text, a narrative piece and a facsimile film poster |
| 10-2004 | The Future Magazine, edited by JJ Charlesworth. I contributed two reviews |
| 02-2002 | Metronome 8A The Stunt and Metronome 8B The Queel, edited by Clemintine Deliss. I contributed two narrative texts |
| Presentations | |
| 06-2010 | Art Schools: Invention, Invective and Radical Possibilities, contribution to a conference organised by Naomi Salaman held at The Slade School of Art |
| 05-2008 | Can Art Change the World? Presentation and panel discussion at Contact Theatre Manchester, organised by The Heretic Club and Castlefield Gallery |
| 02-2008 | The Possibility of Critique, seminar presentation as part of a Goldsmiths postgraduate reading group on the critical potential of contemporary art, organised by Suhail Malik, Pil & Galia Kolectiv and including Amanda Beech, Matthew Poole and Lisa Le Feuvre |
| 12-2007 | An Imposing Reality, at Visible Evidence XIV the ambulatory international conference on documentary, as part of the strand ‘When documentary goes to the galleries’: on questions of aesthetics and politics. Held at the University of Bochum, Germany |
| 02-2007 | Aernout Mik, a talk on Mik’s video politics with the Political Currency of Art research group (PoCA), Camden Arts Centre |
| 10-2006 | Rancière Conference, presented ‘research questions’ and was first respondent to Rancière’s keynote lecture, Goldsmiths |
| 09-2003 | We Make Our Own, presented Text, Tablet Gallery, London |
| Curatorial Projects | |
| 10-2004 | Motes In All Eyes, The Ship, London: Tolia Astakhishvili, Azorro, Beagles & Ramsey, Dave Beech, Declan Clarke, Dick Evans, Ben Fitton, Graham Hudson, Mark Hutchinson, Steve Klee, Paul Noble, Martin Westwood, Steve Williams |
| 11-2003 | Ram Lounge, The Ship, London: David Burrows, Nick Evans, Ben Fitton, Babak Ghazi, Steve Klee, Bjarne Melgaard, Hayley Newman, John Russell, Dylan Shipton |
| 02-2002 | Film and Video Screening, former Army Medical College, Millbank, London: Michelle Naismith, Paul Sharits, John Smith, Michael Snow, Mark Ariel Waller, Chris Welsby |
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I welcome practice led PhD proposals that explore issues to do with aesthetics; post-foundational political thought; activism and its relation to art; political subjectivity; writing as art; the history and theory of artists’ film and video and lastly ‘site’ - physical place as a conduit for histories and narratives.
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