Prologue (to the conversation)

“Of course, at the time, I didn’t in any way consider myself an equal to those artists. But each of those painters had something I was involved with, so I investigated them, trying to find out who they were, so I could figure out who I was—and where I was coming from.” — Keith Haring

Conversations between art practitioners have long been a way in which we have helped each other and ourselves find meaning and purpose in our practices. It allows artists to place themselves within a wider discourse while also allowing projects, curators, artworks and audiences to find voice and shape the works that bind us together.

The Modern Language Experiment (TMLE) is an artist-run project founded by Matt Stock and Keh Ng, who met on the MA Fine Art course at Central Saint Martins in 2009. Together they have worked collaboratively and nomadically with hundreds of artists across a range of projects in institutions large and small.

Sluice was founded by Karl England in 2013 and works with artist- and curator-led projects and galleries, collectives, collaborations and alternative platforms. Broadly defined, Sluice is concerned with artist-led culture. Sluice has existed as a peripatetic expo, gallery, biennial, screening platform, publisher, symposium and residency.

Roughly once a year Sluice organises a large-scale event, either in the UK or elsewhere, in which TMLE has been involved multiple times. The conversation between these two groups has been rich and ongoing over the years, as the various themes and varying formats have allowed the artist, curator, speaker and audience within each of us to react to the other(s).

The collaboration with Jochem Hendricks at H8H brings to life the ongoing conversations with new and old collaborators. The event comprises an exhibition demonstrating the ongoing conversations between practitioners, while an artist talk hosts a conversation about artistic collaborations from the past to the present day—highlighting why these collaborations happen and the expectations for and against artistic production, methodologies and conceptual concerns. Discussions include local and guest artists, curators, galleries and project spaces.

Artists: Karl England + unknown.artists.collective; Matthew Stock + Demi Spriggs; Warren Garland + Keh Ng; Tina Hage + Charlotte Posenenske.