The wonderful work of Adele Prince

I am a London based artist, working across various media and working primarily in digital environments. I graduated in Interactive Arts from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2001 and have since exhibited widely, and completed numerous commissions, most recently for The Bigger Picture, Manchester and Punch and Vivid in Birmingham. I am interested in exploring those areas of everyday life that are often overlooked, pointing out the small but beautiful things that we so readily ignore. This interest has led me to create exhibitions around the manipulation of bus tickets, a website offering an exercise programme of everyday movements (www.easyexercises.com) and a performance  looking at how people stand when viewing art. I particularly enjoy siting my work in non-traditional art environments, allowing my work to be happened upon by people that may not normally visit a gallery; this approach has taken the form of instructions printed on ‘pay and display’ car park tickets and an exhibition in an old chip shop in Liverpool’s China Town.

The following was from a short interview with Adele…
 
FMCS: Hi Adele how are you?
 
I’m just fine, thank you! The nights are drawing in here in London Town, so I’m fighting the urge to hibernate and, instead, I am gathering together all of my ideas like a little arty squirrel, stockpiling them for the winter months.
 
FMCS: So please tell us what you are working on at the moment?
 
I currently have an exhibition at Angel Row Gallery in Nottingham. For this animated installation I have explored how people move whilst hanging around at the bus stop and compared this with how people move while looking at exhibitions in the gallery. There are a lot of similarities, as people sway from side to side, shifting their weight from one foot to another and tilting their head as they take in their surroundings. I have deliberately placed the figures out of context, removing any background detail, so the viewer has to work out where each person is; this is surprisingly difficult! I am also developing a long term collaborative piece, which is going to look at artists’ sporting achievements in the seven years leading up to the London Olympics in 2012. This will take the form of an artists’ network and will have an annual event and ongoing challenges. 
 
FMCS: Your work is very stylistic and has a certain signature to it how did that evolve?
 
I like to look at instructional diagrams on everyday items, like food packaging, flat-pack furniture boxes, in-flight safety cards and self-help books. I enjoy the aesthetic quality of these illustrations and have re-appropriated this style for my own work. I initially made instructions for actions that don’t necessarily need instructions such as folding knickers and eating chips and I have gradually extended this interest into other areas, developing my own style along the way.

 
FMCS: What is giving you inspiration right now for your artwork?
 
More and more in my work, I am looking at the way people behave in the city; I am interested in how people define their space in such a crowded environment. I have spent time recently filming people in the city, looking at the small gestures that they perform as they wait for the bus, sit in the park, chat on the phone. I am very much inspired by everyday life, I take great delight in what I see around me and the more apparently mundane the better! 
 
FMCS: Your work is becoming increasingly popular in the UK. Do you exhibit in Europe and further afield?
 
Much of my work has been focussed around the Midlands and the North West of England this year, but I would definitely like to take my work further afield in the future. I do have an international presence through my web based projects, so my work is seen by people all over the world, but I am working on presenting my projects in galleries overseas.

 
FMCS: We know that you have also had great success with your online endeavors, can you tell us a little bit about these projects.
 
My first online project went live in 1999, and within weeks www.lost-something.co.uk was receiving a huge number of responses and coverage in media ranging from computer magazines to the FHM website. As a result of this interest, I realised that the web was a fantastic tool for sharing my ideas, and now always try to have some kind of online presence. ‘Lost Something’ also received a nomination for the International Media Art Award in 2000 and, in 2004, I won an NTL Broadband Award for www.luckyworld.co.uk. My most recent web based project can be seen at www.trolleyspotting.co.uk. This piece was commissioned for the exhibition ‘Day-to-Day Data’ which has so far exhibited at Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham and Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth; in March 2006 the exhibition will be at Danielle Arnaud Gallery in London. For ‘Trolley Spotting’ I have spent time in each of the cities that the exhibition is touring to, and created a virtual (and printed) map of abandoned shopping trolleys. When I spot a trolley, I photograph it then note its co-ordinates, model and make, supermarket, time and date and distance from the supermarket - this data is plotted on the map for the visitor to explore. In addition to the web based element, I am working with local supermarkets, tagging their trolleys to add a subtle intervention to the urban landscape. In a way, this current piece echoes many of the concerns of ‘Lost Something’, which was the online documentation of ‘lost’ items I had picked up on the street.
 
FMCS: Where can we catch you in the next few months?
 
My exhibition ‘place-non-place’ is at Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham until November 19th. I have also been commissioned to make work for Art Review magazine, which will be appearing in the December issue; you can find out more about this here: www.deletia.org.uk. I am currently developing some new ideas that I have been mulling over for some time, and will update these to my website www.adeleprince.com as soon as they take shape.

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