peter chasseaud artist & writer

This site is the noticeboard for my artworks, and for my artists books published by Altazimuth Press (which is my imprint). It will be used to give information about my: Paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, films; Artists Books (Altazimuth Press imprint); Exhibitions; Specific Projects. Studio: My studio is in Brighton, Sussex, UK. Postal address: Peter Chasseaud, Studio 3S3, Phoenix Arts Association, 10-14 Waterloo Place, Brighton, BN2 9NB, UK.

Monday 15 December 2008

East London Line and the surveillance society: Paranoid and fragile state of England

Looking south towards Whitechapel Station; the new track being laid

Looking north-west towards Shoreditch Station, from Vallance Road; the new track being laid towards the bridge over the Liverpool Street main line at the site of Bishopsgate Station

I was reminded of the current Taking Liberties exhibition at the British Library when I was taking these photos on 12th December 2008 (and earlier photos for this artist's book / poetic photobook project). I have now been stopped and questioned twice by police for taking photos quite openly in public streets during fieldwork for my East London Line photobook - once at New Cross, and the second time at Whitechapel while taking these photos. At New Cross I was suspected of being a possible terrorist for taking photos near a railway station, and at Whitechapel of being a possible child molester for taking photos near a school. There's a strange disproportionate element about these police reactions to such public behaviour. I have heard recently of an artist who was told that he couldn't draw at Kings Cross station. This is the sort of police reaction to normal behaviour that we used to associate with totalitarian regimes. Writers and artists are now viewed with suspicion merely because they want to look at things! Are we now all to go around with averted gaze?

More to follow.

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Short Intro

Peter Chasseaud.
born: 1947 Croydon, Surrey.

Schools: Winterbourne Infants & Junior, Thornton Heath; St Joseph's College, Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood.
Colleges: University of Sheffield (BA); Croydon College of Art (Foundation); Redland College, Bristol (PGCE); Brighton Polytechnic (Fine Art, in the Faculty of Art & Design); University of Greenwich (Ph.D).

Working as an artist, teacher and writer based in Lewes, Sussex, since 1973. Studio at the Phoenix Arts Association, Brighton, since 2001.

Recent art and writing projects: The Euston Arch (2008); Ypres Willows (May 2007); Afghanistan - A Journey (2007); Thames - The London River (2005); Kings Cross (2004).

Forthcoming, current and recent exhibitions, etc: Phoenix Brighton Open, October 2009; Press & Release (artists books), Phoenix Brighton, May 2008; Phoenix Brighton Open, October 2007; Topographies: Willows and other projects, at the Star Gallery, Lewes, May 2007.

Current projects include artist's poetic photobooks on East London and the Borough Market areas, and setting up and operating The Tom Paine Printing Press.

Kings Cross Film

When I was working on my Kings Cross artists book project in 2004 I also made a video film while the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) redevelopment work was at its height. This was shot during a walk around the streets outside Kings Cross and St Pancras railway stations, including the old Kings Cross goods depot, the site of the Potato Market, and the area of the Regents Canal by the old coal drops (around Camley Street Natural Park). Some of the film was also shot from the top deck of a bus travelling along York Way, and includes the huge tube of the CTRL looming over the east coast main line at Belle Isle, just south of the NLR viaduct. The bus travels over the many-arched York Way viaduct, demolished while I was working on the project. Some Routemaster buses found their way into the frame while I was shooting. I hope to be able to copy this silent 40-minute film onto CD or DVD and make it available. It would be great to be able to commission a music score to go with it, but this requires funding! Any suggestions . . . ?

Rocket FM

In 2005 and 2006 I interviewed some Lewes residents for our very special radio station Rocket FM. These included Sir John Tomlinson (opera), Carolyn Trant (artists books), John Bleach (local landscape, archaeology, history), Anna Carlisle (dance), David Powell (Tom Paine), Dr Sue Hamilton (archaeology), Alan Shelley (antiquarian books), Katie Tearle (Glyndebourne Festival Opera), Cindy Holmes (trading in the Cliffe and local problems). Among the local topics highlighted in these interviews were over-development within the town, the lack of real local democracy (Lewes Town Council only has the status of a parish council; all the important decisions overr parking scheme, development, etc., are made by the District and County Councils which do not represent town views and feelings), and the overkill parking scheme. Google the Rocket FM website for more information.

The Lewes Arms

That wonderful pub The Lewes Arms is owned by Greene King who decided in December 2004 to stop selling Harveys beer (brewed in Lewes by a family firm) after many decades of happy Harveys' consumption in The Lewes Arms. Despite a national (and even international) campaign to keep Harveys on sale there, supported by Norman Baker MP, Greene King decided to go ahead with the withdrawal. Many local residents who have spent lots of time (and money) enjoying Harveys at the Lewes Arms are now boycotting the pub and Greene King. There is a strong independent tradition in Lewes, witness the Bonfire Societies, the Headstrong Club (Tom Paine), etc. We have a saying in the county that 'Sussex won't be druv'. Unfortunately we have large corporations which are able to deploy their market power to override local feeling and destroy small businesses, and a government that seems in thrall to big business. Support Harveys. Drink Harveys' beer. Thurs 26 April 2007: Grrene King have bowed to immense community and media presure and reinstated Harveys at the Lewes Arms! Hooray! A great victory for the local community against a typical insensitive corporate act. Sussex won't be druv! Now for a strong borough council for Lewes with real community control over planning, parking, etc.

Independence for Lewes - Restore Local Democracy - Make Lewes a Strong Borough

The historic town of Lewes in East Sussex (the County Town!) has only had the status of a parish council since local government reorganisation in the 1970's. This means that many crucial decisions which affect the town (planning permission, parking scheme, etc) are made by two other councils - Lewes District Council and East Sussex County Council - which represent much larger areas and the majority of whose members do not live in Lewes. We therefore have a 'democratic deficit' in the town, in that local people have very little control over important decisions affecting their town's visual appearance and their day-to-day lives. The people have therefore effectively been disenfranchised. The European Union, for all its faults, has enshrined the principle of subsidiarity. This means that decisions should be taken at the lowest feasible level. There is no reason at all why planning and parking scheme decisions only affecting the town should not be taken by the people of the town. Remember the film Passport to Pimlico? Lewes people are fed up with being 'dumped on' by the other councils. They want to be taken seriously. Why are parking machines being blown up? Why has the bus station been sold for development? Why is there too much development (and of the wrong type) on the flood plain? What are the (national) contingency plans for the predicted rise in sea level?

Bless

Harveys beer; Tom Paine; Mary Wolstonecraft; Sylvie Guillem; London; Paris; Lewes; Berlin; the Borough Market; Kings Cross; the Imperial War Museum's Department of Art (give it more gallery space); Joan Baez; Tate Britain; Grierson's 'Drifters'; The Night Mail; Anita O'Day singing Tea For Two Cha Cha; the Museum Tavern; the Lewes Arms pub before Green King pulled the plug on Harveys; Wagner's Ring; the Charing Cross Road; Jimi Hendrix; the West Pier in Brighton (alas); steam trains pounding up Camden Bank and Shap; the Headstrong Club; Chez Marianne; the Drunken Duck; Sheffield; Bob Dylan; club cricket; Tiger Moth aeroplanes; the River Thames; the Lanes and North Laine area, Brighton; the blues; Covent Garden; Sir John Tomlinson; the Hotel du Vin Bistrot; Radio 3; Brighton Museum and Art Gallery; Coco de Mer; champagne; Cecil Court; the Sussex Ouse; the Cuckmere; the South Downs; Mount Caburn; Chanctonbury Ring; the film Casablanca; fish and chips; R & B; Lewes Town Council (give it more power so that it can truly represent the town); the Musicians of All Saints; Ewan McColl's BBC Radio Ballads; In Parenthesis; the Convent Field; the film The Ladykillers (1955); the British Library; Powell & Pressburger; Devils on Horseback; Rocket FM; jazz; kippers;

Blast

Artists' statements; those who hate; arrogant architects; trophy architecture; the phrase 'train station', the empty Turbine Hall at the Tate Britain (where's the gallery space?); the warmongers Bush and Blair; Gordon Brown, the Treasury and the Private Finance Initiative; an Arts Council that is little more than an aspect of the Government's Social Policies; the Greene King brewery chain; privatisation; Trident; 'gated communities'; the misuse and overuse of the word 'issues'; the EU's democratic deficit; gas guzzlers;

Other Publications

Note on The Tate Gallery Shop 1976

The Tate Gallery Shop, 1976 This mixed-media construction no longer exists, except for a few of its elements. Approx dimensions: 14 x 36 inches. Materials - mostly found-objects - and symbolism/references: wooden window frame (shop window / picture frame); army webbing map-case, containing drawing and painting materials (artist), and paper bag printed with coat of arms and Tate Gallery Shop (gallery); Pre-Raphaelite postcard (derived product); cardboard cow (consumers); lightbulb socket (illumination); spinning top (op art; media); cigarette packet (pop art); aluminium tube in glass dome (clinical objects in vitrine); clear plastic ruler (quantification); small plastic animal (still life);