Urban Art Association

Jason Atomic Record Attempt, by s-editions on Jun 17, 2008 15:49:54 GMT 1, From blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/2008/06/fast_art_drawn_in_60_seconds.html


Fast art: drawn in 60 seconds
The National Portrait Gallery sanctions an artist's attempt to sketch portraits at breakneck speed - but a world record is apparently out of the question
June 17, 2008 12:00 PM



On your marks ... Get ready ... Draw! ... Jason Atomic at work in Berlin. Photograph: Penny Bradfield

Under its broadly defined "arts" category, Guinness World Records has entries for the fastest-tied balloon dog sculpture (6.5 seconds) and for the furthest distance travelled by the "worm" rap dance move (108ft 9in). London artist Jason Atomic thought it was reasonable, then, to ask that Guinness officiate at his planned attempt to set a record this Friday evening at the National Portrait Gallery for the most portraits sketched in a given time.

To his surprise, they refused, saying they couldn't define what constituted a portrait and therefore had no way of counting how many Atomic sketched (notwithstanding the fact they'd managed in the past to define balloon dogs and worm dances).

Interestingly, the NPG, that robust pillar of Britain's artistic tradition, founded in 1856 with Disraeli one of its trustees, thought Atomic's record attempt was a terrific idea when he approached them via the improbable means of an audience feedback card at one of the gallery's documentary film nights. They saw it immediately for what it was - an entertaining sideshow that would bring in punters, create a festive live atmosphere and, hopefully, set a benchmark just for the fun of it.

Now we could start asking hoary questions about the definition of art, about how the viewer imposes meaning and the need for some realism in portraiture. But let's not.

Instead, let's nod with approval at the NPG's willingness to embrace a different kind of art. No, they're not going to be hanging Atomic's work in the gallery, but by inviting him to perform his attempt in their foyer, they give it their imprimatur.

In a session of up two hours, Atomic (his real name, changed by deed poll) plans to sketch dozens, maybe even 100 or more life-sized, full-body portraits of friends and strangers. It's as much a feat of endurance as it is a demonstration of artistic ability. When I met Atomic last week at the Tacheles gallery in Berlin, where he was exhibiting, he explained that speed sketching was the closest thing he'd ever done to sport. A balding goth who shaves his head to the skin, Atomic doesn't look cut out for feats of great endurance. But he'd been training by practising long shifts of speed-sketching and had got it down to a steady two minutes for a life-sized, full-body portrait.

An artist for more than 20 years, he discovered his gift for speed after he started sketching strangers at parties and nightclubs and, to avoid being too intrusive, got into the habit of doing it very quickly. Far from being precious about the final product, Atomic tends to give away, throw away or simply lose most of the speed portraits he sketches.

In Berlin, his work on display was of a more permanent kind - paintings with titles such as ''I am the death machine'' and a self-portrait that, ironically, took him a decade because it grew out of an old painting he'd started 10 years ago but shelved. It was, I have to say, pretty awful. Yet when he speed-sketched his vampiric muse and model, who goes by the name Mamko, he was brilliant.

The art, for him, is in the performance - the very act of sketching. The product is a refreshing amalgamation of those bitterest enemies - art and sport. Sport satisfies our need to measure, assess, compete and compare. Art frees us from all those constraints and allows us to create without rules, even if it is always accompanied by the infuriating impossibility of ever saying with certainty what the damned thing means, or whether it means anything at all - precisely the fuzziness that seems to have given the killjoys at Guinness such pause.

Sport is becoming more artistic as athleticism, technique and the gracefulness of play evolve and improve. Football can be almost balletic, as we have seen several times in Euro 2008 (if not so much of late in the English side). Why shouldn't it go the other way too? Why shouldn't art have a crack at being the biggest, the tallest, the fastest, the strongest?

Jason Atomic will hopefully set the ball rolling with a record for portraiture. Sadly it must be an unofficial one.

From blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/2008/06/fast_art_drawn_in_60_seconds.html


Fast art: drawn in 60 seconds
The National Portrait Gallery sanctions an artist's attempt to sketch portraits at breakneck speed - but a world record is apparently out of the question
June 17, 2008 12:00 PM



On your marks ... Get ready ... Draw! ... Jason Atomic at work in Berlin. Photograph: Penny Bradfield

Under its broadly defined "arts" category, Guinness World Records has entries for the fastest-tied balloon dog sculpture (6.5 seconds) and for the furthest distance travelled by the "worm" rap dance move (108ft 9in). London artist Jason Atomic thought it was reasonable, then, to ask that Guinness officiate at his planned attempt to set a record this Friday evening at the National Portrait Gallery for the most portraits sketched in a given time.

To his surprise, they refused, saying they couldn't define what constituted a portrait and therefore had no way of counting how many Atomic sketched (notwithstanding the fact they'd managed in the past to define balloon dogs and worm dances).

Interestingly, the NPG, that robust pillar of Britain's artistic tradition, founded in 1856 with Disraeli one of its trustees, thought Atomic's record attempt was a terrific idea when he approached them via the improbable means of an audience feedback card at one of the gallery's documentary film nights. They saw it immediately for what it was - an entertaining sideshow that would bring in punters, create a festive live atmosphere and, hopefully, set a benchmark just for the fun of it.

Now we could start asking hoary questions about the definition of art, about how the viewer imposes meaning and the need for some realism in portraiture. But let's not.

Instead, let's nod with approval at the NPG's willingness to embrace a different kind of art. No, they're not going to be hanging Atomic's work in the gallery, but by inviting him to perform his attempt in their foyer, they give it their imprimatur.

In a session of up two hours, Atomic (his real name, changed by deed poll) plans to sketch dozens, maybe even 100 or more life-sized, full-body portraits of friends and strangers. It's as much a feat of endurance as it is a demonstration of artistic ability. When I met Atomic last week at the Tacheles gallery in Berlin, where he was exhibiting, he explained that speed sketching was the closest thing he'd ever done to sport. A balding goth who shaves his head to the skin, Atomic doesn't look cut out for feats of great endurance. But he'd been training by practising long shifts of speed-sketching and had got it down to a steady two minutes for a life-sized, full-body portrait.

An artist for more than 20 years, he discovered his gift for speed after he started sketching strangers at parties and nightclubs and, to avoid being too intrusive, got into the habit of doing it very quickly. Far from being precious about the final product, Atomic tends to give away, throw away or simply lose most of the speed portraits he sketches.

In Berlin, his work on display was of a more permanent kind - paintings with titles such as ''I am the death machine'' and a self-portrait that, ironically, took him a decade because it grew out of an old painting he'd started 10 years ago but shelved. It was, I have to say, pretty awful. Yet when he speed-sketched his vampiric muse and model, who goes by the name Mamko, he was brilliant.

The art, for him, is in the performance - the very act of sketching. The product is a refreshing amalgamation of those bitterest enemies - art and sport. Sport satisfies our need to measure, assess, compete and compare. Art frees us from all those constraints and allows us to create without rules, even if it is always accompanied by the infuriating impossibility of ever saying with certainty what the damned thing means, or whether it means anything at all - precisely the fuzziness that seems to have given the killjoys at Guinness such pause.

Sport is becoming more artistic as athleticism, technique and the gracefulness of play evolve and improve. Football can be almost balletic, as we have seen several times in Euro 2008 (if not so much of late in the English side). Why shouldn't it go the other way too? Why shouldn't art have a crack at being the biggest, the tallest, the fastest, the strongest?

Jason Atomic will hopefully set the ball rolling with a record for portraiture. Sadly it must be an unofficial one.