Greenbelt / Blog / billy childish

Eight Parts Nonsense

(by Simon Jones)

There's a problem though, sometimes. You come to get inspiration and it's easy to find. The artists are inspirational and so are the activists. The musicians can find the secret chord that David played and even the holy people can make you believe that being holy might matter. Greenbelt's creativity comes from its middle, its beginning and end.

But then. The artists are more artistic than you, and the activists more active. The holy people are holier than you and the comedians are funnier. The musicians play better than you and the poets are more poetic … sometimes, sometimes, it feels as if you can't add anything. Cant contribute, be part of it, join in.

But then and but then. Into this surfeit of excellence walks Billy Childish (a most excellent man). The trouble begins, he says, when people start trying to be successful with their artistic ability. Every artist is trying to get to the point where people applaud their special genius. It's the assumed part of creativity, that it's there to wow people, to impress them.

What rot, he scoffs. What nonsense. Either everyone is special or no one is. How does doing the thing that you're good at tell you anything about yourself? It's the failing that tells you that. It's in the failing that you find, and expand, your limits. It's in the failing that we reveal our true selves to each other, not in the triumph of our successes. Art – and religion, he adds – needs to be more than a cosy nest for the able.

Most days of the week this might be eight parts nonsense. His artistic failures sell quite well, after all. Even Billy knows, one suspects, that if you lined up everything he said against itself it wouldn't really add up. It would fail somewhat.

But today, when confidence leaks away in the face of a festival edifice of impossible achievements, it feels like a welcome corrective. Is the artist the master or the servant? Your skills aren't things to have confidence in, they're things to avoid. Having fewer of them might even mean that you're closer to self-discovery. Having weakness, you can read somewhere, might make you strong.

Fortunately, Greenbelt is full of people who have spent a lot of time failing. It's out there to find. In the meantime, do the thing you're not good at. Fail. Learn. Live a little.

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Take part in Visual Arts at Greenbelt 2009

With not long to go now, we are looking forward to the visual arts programme coming together after a year of planning.

As well as all our exhibitions that you can come to see, we've got lots of things you can take part in so here's a round up of what you can do & what you need to bring with you to the festival.

Photoflash Swap (The Hub)

Bring a photo [preferably mounted] to the hub on friday when you arrive where we are having an exhibition of everyones images over the weekend. then on Monday you can come back & swap your pic for another one in the exhibition.

(shhh!) (Ssaturday 6pm – The Hub)

A little moment of space on Saturday afternoon in the hub to come & be creative – knitting, drawing, writing, reading – whatever, with a mellow dj set playing in the background.

But remember – Shhh!, no talking just creating ! Some materials will be provided or bring your own.

greenhaus (Cottage Rake)

Bigger and better this year, we have 27 classes. Take a look here for the full line up – http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/system/downloads/visualarts/2009/greenhaus-timetable.pdf

Last year the classes were booked up very quickly so this year we are changing things a little & its first come first served, choose your class & then queue up outside cottage rake before the session is due to start.

Self Portrait (The Hub)

Back again this year, bring yourself and an open mind and have a go at your self portrait, teachers will be on hand to point you in the right direction and you might just surprise yourself.

Comic Book Portfolio Surgery (Sunday 2.45pm – The Hub)

Following on from the Marvel Comics panel, an opportunity for all you budding illustrators and graphic novelists to get advice from some real life comic book professionals. Bring a selection of your artwork along to the hub.

Art For All (All Visual Arts Venues)

Billy Childish one of our Visionaries artists and Speakers has created a limited edition print for us and we are giving 100 of them away free. Visit 6 of our visual arts venues to collect a rubber stamp on the back of your daily diary then come to the info desk in the hub to collect your print.

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Exclusive Pre-Festival Guided Tour of the Visionaries Exhibition

Visionaries: working in the margins
Guided Tour

Wednesday 10th June
6.30pm – 7.30pm
£7.50 incl. wine
Wallspace, All Hallows On The Wall, 83 London Wall, London EC2M 5ND

This year Greenbelt is bringing Trust Greenbelt recipients Wallspace’s exhibition ‘Visionaries’, to the festival. Whilst at the festival there will be a couple of guided tours of it, and Malcolm & Meryl, Wallspace’s curators, have kindly offered to do a pre-festival tour of the exhibition for us as well.

visionaries-blogDownland Discourse, Noel White. Photo: Torsten White

If you’d like to come along, it is next Wednesday 10th June, at 6.30pm and is £7.50 including a glass of wine. Please RSVP to rachel@greenbelt.org.uk so we can get an idea of numbers, and do forward on to friends and colleagues who might be interested.

For more info on the exhibition & Wallspace, click here, or see below.


Visionaries brings together artists working in this honourable and challenging tradition, which includes William Blake, Goya and Samuel Palmer – those who explore with passion the territories of the spiritual, the religious and the human condition. Their vigorous work spans almost 100 years. The exhibition will include works by a number of painters, who although they are no longer alive, are still hugely influential: Stanley Spencer, Cecil Collins, Norman Adams, Tony Goble and Albert Herbert. They are joined by contemporary artists: Peter Howson, Clive Hicks-Jenkins, Noel White, Paul Martin, Brian Whelan, the Chapman brothers, Billy Childish, Harry Adams and Adam Neate (tbc).

The prophetic tradition, with its history of dramatic enactment, is a rich one. Visionaries will therefore include a performance piece by Kit Poulson and David Shillinglaw will paint 'live' during the period of the exhibition.

The exhibition has been curated by Wallspace and will be on show at All Hallows on the Wall in the City of London from 20 May to 10 June. It will then travel to Greenbelt Arts Festival, at Cheltenham Racecourse for the August Bank Holiday weekend, from 28 to 31 August.

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