Tom Bevan is a paper artist, maker, bookbinder, and is a recent graduate from the Interactive Arts course at Manchester School of Art. Here we discuss both his work and life after art school.
What ideas are you exploring in your work?
I mainly work in the medium of paper which began by exploring stories and narratives through means of bookbinding and sculpture. As I originally worked in a library, my interest lay in the evolution of the book – what position does the printed form of the book have in society when the digital revolution is taking hold? This led to questioning the difference between print and digital, in particular considering permanence and longevity of such media. Holding the book in regard as a material that lasts much longer than digital pieces, I began to record text from the internet (specifically Twitter) in hand bound books, keeping these fleeting moments of thought on record for years to come. How we use the internet and social media has become a natural question from here.
How much research do you put into your work? Does the work come through readings and observations or are you more motivated by an impulse or irrationality?
Initially my work was more material based and revolved around what I could do with my experimentation with media. This was a semi-conscious decision to base my first two years of my course around finding the medium, or theme, that I had an affinity with and being able to fully explore this come third year. After completing my dissertation, which was based around Harold Innis’ media displacement theory with a focus on printed books and e-books, I found I had a new appetite for research and for it to inform my work more. Now that I knew I wanted to work in paper, it was important that my work was based in issues, themes or topics that related to the real world. I felt work that was too far removed from society, and sat merely in my head, was slightly self-important and instead I wanted to consider how my work affected its potential audience. Research into communication theory, life narrative and memory all helped tremendously to feed into my practical work throughout third year and beyond.
If you are creating work for a gallery space does the audience influence the way you choose to create and exhibit a piece?
If I know the space the piece will be shown in before I start it, then I definitely consider this environment when creating and exhibiting it. I believe it is important to be aware of your audience and to consider their response to your work, and to do this effectively the piece must fit well in its context. I think this is true regardless of whether it is a gallery space or not as I showed book sculptures in a library as part of Chorlton Arts Festival. The aim was to appeal to children and families and to encourage them to explore books and so I arranged my pieces amid the bookcases and books throughout the library, creating a trail. Obviously, it isn’t a conventional way to show pieces of work, but in the context of what that piece aimed to do and how it was supposed to interact with its audience, it was the most appropriate way.
How was your time at university? Did you feel like you created a strong body of work within the three years of study at Manchester School of Art?
As I discussed before, the first two years of university were spent experimenting. The best part of university is having the time and the resources to try different methods and finding what works and what doesn’t. Regrettably, I don’t think I used the workshops to my full advantage until third year (and neither did I use the library as much as I would have liked). Due to my work being mainly experimentation, I don’t think I created much strong work that I could use in a portfolio now, however, I certainly wouldn’t change it. By understanding what I enjoyed, what I wanted to say and how I wanted to work, by the time I reached third year I had a confident approach to my work and created pieces that I knew I could use beyond my time at university. I was really pleased with my final outcome but, like any other student, it would have been nice to have taken more advantage of what was on offer (particularly the bookbinding and letterpress workshops!).
How has the transition been from student to graduate?
Throughout my third year, I began to dabble in event co-ordination and fundraising for Free For Arts Festival, degree show fundraising and later Oxjam Music Festival. I had found something that allowed me to be creative, allowed me to use my organisational skills (I love organisation) and get involved in. An issue I had had in university was the feeling of selfishness – I didn’t see my art helping anyone. I tried community arts and loved it, but when I moved to try workshops in schools, I pretty much hated it and that’s what drew me to fundraising; I am helping people whilst still being creative. I was fortunate enough that pretty much straight from graduating I gained a position on the Arts Fundraising Fellowship Programme – a new scheme funded by the Arts Council to train people to be future leaders in arts fundraising. It is a brilliant opportunity to train for a year in an arts organisation (I’m currently at the Royal Northern College of Music) and build my skills in this area.
My practice unfortunately has fallen to the wayside somewhat, which I think is a problem most graduates face. I have shown work at the Royal Exchange Theatre’s Craft Shop, Manchester Craft and Design Centre and as part of Bury Collective, developing ideas that I began to explore in university. I am making more of a concerted effort, now that I am settled in my job, to set projects and deadlines and start getting my work seen more again.
What advice can you give to students who are invested in being an artist after they graduate?
I would say if you are serious about being an artist then you should try and keep the momentum up straight from finishing your degree. Wherever possible, set yourself deadlines and try and apply for as many shows as possible – they may not be commissions or ways of making money but getting your work seen is really important. Make use of your university work. As long as you think it is of a high enough quality, don’t be afraid to submit the same piece to different shows. It’s more important to keep being seen. Have an online presence, somewhere where people can go to see more of your work. Networking is a horrible term but it really is important in whatever area of art you are working in. Go to socials or join collectives, meet people, gain contacts and stay inspired!
Do you have any exhibitions/ shows coming up which you are involved in?
I have recently been accepted to show at the Turn the Page Book Fair in Norwich in May this year which will be my first opportunity to show in a fair. I’m really excited to meet other book artists (the level of talent in previous years has been really impressive) and having a deadline to work to. I’m going to need to bind a lot more books beforehand!
Do you have any set goals for your career as an artist?
I am as much interested in fundraising as I am in my practice so a goal of mine is to set up an art social enterprise that provides art facilities for the community alongside free exhibition spaces. I would hope through fundraising I will get to a point where I will successfully be able to fund and run such a business. Of course, my artwork will run in tandem with this but I have a much less clearly defined path for this as of yet.
Art School Illustrated 