Goldsmiths - University of London

Susan Kelly

My research looks at relationships between art and micropolitics, rhetoric and practices of organisation in situations where questions are asked and answers are given. I make performances, public time-based work, installations and videos, I write and publish and convene events and performative investigations. I work both independently and collectively with the Micropolitics Research Group and the Carrot Workers Collective among others. Over the last nine years I have shown my work in Belfast, New York, Toronto, Helsinki, Prague, Dublin, St Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk, Tallin. Zagreb, and elsewhere.

Academic qualifications

2002-present Department of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths College, Ph.D.
1998-99 Whitney Independent Study Programme, New York, Studio Practice
1997-98 Department of Fine Art, University of Leeds, MA in Cultural Studies
1992-97 National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland. BA in Fine Art

Teaching

Lecturer in Fine Art & Course Leader MA Art and Public, INTERFACE: Centre for Research in Art and its Locations, University of Ulster, School of Art and Design, Belfast, Northern Ireland (2005-06)
Visiting Tutor in Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths College, Department of Visual Cultures
(2002 – 2005)
Visiting Tutor in Visual Arts and Critical Studies, Goldsmiths College, Department of
Visual Arts (2002 – 2005)
Guest Lecturer, St Joost, AVANS Academy, Den Bosch, Holland (2006)
Guest Lecturer, Piet Zwart Academy, Rotterdam, Holland (2005)
Guest Lecturer Art Academy Umea, Sweden (2004)
Guest Lecturer Helsinki Art Academy, Department of Time and Space, Finland (2003)
Guest Lecturer Lecturer Environmental Art, Tampere School of Art and Media
(TTVO), Tampere, Finland (2002-03)

Presentations and exhibitions

Selected Exhibitions, Events and Projects:

2009
At Your Service, group exhibition and one-day performance event with Carrot
Workers Collective, David Roberts Art Foundation, London, 2009
Militant Research: Studies in Transversality I, with Micropolitics Research Group, group investigation into Militant Research strategies with Colectivo Situaciones (Argentina), A Traversad por la Cultura (Madrid), Euromayday Hamburg, S.a.l.e. (Venice), Universidad Nomada (Barcelona), Goldsmiths College and LARC, London
Future Projection, with Carrot Workers Collective, Austrian Cultural Forum: Making a Living: Artistic Survival Today
Manufacturing Today, group exhibition Trondheim Academy of Arts Norway (forthcoming April 2010)
Several Silences, public spaces Belfast, with Bbeyond (forthcoming March 2010)
2008
Centrifugal Sequence IV PS2 Gallery, Belfast 2008
Belfast Film Festival, screening at PS2 Belfast, Northern Ireland 2008
Counterpoints, Lungomare Gallery, with Micropolitics Research Group, Manifesta
7 Bolzano, Italy 2008
Photoromance, with Micropolitics Research Group, Chelsea Space, Chelsea School of Art and Design Gallery, London 2008
Slow, with Micropolitics Research Group, Plymouth Arts Centre, 2008
London Cultural Workers Enquiry, drift & events with Brian Holmes, Gasworks Gallery, INiVA, 56a, Rampart and other venues, London, organised and hosted by Micropolitics Research Group, November 2008
2007
Carrot Workers Caucus, with Carrot Workers Collective at Summit of Non-aligned Initiatives in Education Culture, Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, 2007
Group analytic seminar with Suely Rolnik, with Micropolitics Research Group, Goldsmiths, 2007
Centrifugal Sequence II, SCZG Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia 2007
Centrifugal Sequence III, Gallery Augusta, Helsinki, Finland 2007
2006
Capital (it fails us now), Kunstihoone, Tallin, Estonia 2006
Russia: Significant Other, National Centre of Contemporary Art, and Anna Akhmatova Museum, St Petersburg, Russia 2006
Academy: Learning from the Museum, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Holland 2006
When Artists Say We, Artists Space, New York, 2006
Not Sheep: New Urban Commons &Enclosures, ArtSpeak, Vancouver, 2006
2005
Communism, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland,
International Biennale of Contemporary Art, National Gallery, Prague
Nije Otok (near island): Score for a Complex Scene, exhibition performance, pm Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia, 2005
Practicing the Commons, The Devils’ Glen Sculpture Park, Co. Wicklow Ireland,
2004
Definitively Provisional, APPENDIKS Copenhagen Denmark, travelled to Whitechapel Project Space, London 2004
Theory in Practice, Galerie Otok and Arts Lazareti Theatre, Dubrovnik, Croatia
2003
What is to be Done? Questions for the 21st Century The Lenin Museum, Tampere, Finland 2003
5th Krasnoyarsk Museum Biennial: Fiction of History, Krasnoyarsk Museum Centre, Krasnoyarsk, Russia, 2003
Amorph! 03 Performance Biennial, solo performance ‘Lobby’ commissioned for  ‘Summit Meeting of Micro-Nations’, Muu Ry Gallery Helsinki, Harakka Island public sites & Finlandia Hall, Helsinki, Finland 2003
Get Rid of Yourself, (in collaboration with 16Beaver), ACC Gallery Weimar and Leipzig, Germany.
24/7, (in collaboration with 16Beaver), Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania
International LunchTime Summit (event in collaboration with 16Beaver, the University of Openness and 24 international artists groups), Limehouse Town Hall, London.
Open Interview of the City of Leeds, (public art/audio project in collaboration with Janna Graham and Peter Lasch) Leeds Town Hall, UK
2002
The Land of Far Beyond: Pilgrimage up the Centre of World Trade The Museum of the City of Skopje, Macedonia, 2002
Are we Nearly There Yet? public time-based artwork and performance, Lake
Ontario; commissioned by Mercer Union Gallery for ‘Roadworks’, Toronto, Canada
A Nice Souvenir, Linenhall Arts Centre, Mayo, Ireland
2001
Office Hours, The Meat Market Art Fair, New York City
Annual Video Marathon, Art in General, New York
Urban Tales, Tampere Workers Museum, Tampere, Finland,
The Brewster Project, Brewster, New York, 2001
Microview, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the Municipal Art Society, New
York
2000
The Land of Far Beyond: Pilgrimage up the Centre of World Trade, performance and presentation of documentation World Trade Centre New York, 2000, traveled to
Calling Up Annie Moore, Studio 1019, Washington DC, 2000
1999
Whitney Independent Study Programme Open Studio Exhibition, New York City
X-mas, Kent Gallery, New York
Annual Video Marathon, Art in General, New YorkDetouring the Impossible Place, series of performances, Leeds city centre and suburbs
Kilquiggan, Audio-guided tour of a hill and a village, subsequently shown as an
installation at Tinahely Arts Centre, County Wicklow, Ireland

Selected Exhibition Reviews :

Emily Pethick, London Review of the Year, Art Forum International, December 2008
Jessica Foley, ‘What Form Must we Take?’, Circa Art Magazine, Spring 2008
Nicole Scheyerer, Academy: Learning from the Museum, Frieze, March 2007, Issue
105
Hedwig Saxenhuber, ‘Capital (It Fails Us Now) Tallinn’, Springerin, February 2006
Aleksander Tsapov, ‘Kui kapital veab alt, siis turvaliselt’, Eesti Paevaleht, January
23rd, 2006
Richard Vine ‘Biennale gamble: doubling down: spawned by a curatorial feud, two
international biennials now vie for viewer attention in the Czech capital’, Art in
America, September 2005
JJ Charlesworth, ‘Communism’ (review), Art Monthly, March 2005, pp.19-21
Aidan Dunne, ‘Bursting the Art Bubble, When Politics and Art Collide’, The Irish
Times, January 25th, 2005, p.16
Andy O’Mahony, Interview, Rattlebag, RTE 1 (Radio Telefís Eireann RADIO),
Jan 20th, 2005 (http://www.project.ie/cgi-bin/eventdetail.pl?id=289)
‘Communism’, The View, panel discussion review, RTE 1 (Radio Telefís Eireann TV),
Jan.23rd, 2005 (http://www.rte.ie/arts/2005/0125/theview.html)
Tim Stott, ‘Communism’ (review), Circa Art Magazine, online January, 2005
http://www.recirca.com/reviews/2005/communism/com.shtml
Robbie O’Halloran, ‘Dublin, Communism at Project’, Circa Art Magazine, Issue 111,
Spring 2005
Stephen Morton, ‘Micronations and the Limitations of Performance as Political
Strategy: Amorph 03’, Journal of Visual Cultures, Volume 3, No.1, April 2004,
pp.123-125
Krzeminska Agnieszka, ‘Amorph 03: Review’. Junge Welt, Germany, 30.8.2003
Pekka Luhta, ‘Amorph 03:~ Review’, Taide, No. 4, Helsinki, Anne Viljamaa
‘Amorph 03: Special Feature’, METRO, Helsinki, 29.8.2003
35 minute interview with Stephen Morton and Susan Kelly ‘Kultakuume’
Programme, YLE National Finnish Radio, 21.2.2003
Lotta Tuohino,‘Lenin-museossa Kysytään Vaikeita, Helsingin Sanomat (National
Newspaper, Finland), 5.3.2003.
Hannu Oittenen,’Miten Organisoitua Globaaliin Vastarintaan?’ Tiedonantaja
(Communist Newspaper) 25.4.2003, No.17,
‘Lenin-museossa voi Kysellä Vallan-Kumoukesta’ Helsingin Sanomat (National
Newspaper, Finland), 22.2.2003.
Elias Krohn, ‘Melkein Ainoa Lenin-museo’, Kulttuurivihkot (Cultural Notebook
Magazine), January, 2003.
Janna Graham, ‘What is to be Done?’ Review referring to archive and Artists Pages in
Fuse, Journal of Canadian and International Art and Theory, November, 2002
Vince Aletti, 'X-mas', Voice Choices, The Village Voice, New York, 2001

Grants & awards

Goldsmiths Department of Art Research Support Award, 2009    
LCACE (London Centre for Arts and Cultural Exchange), 2009    
Goldsmiths College Research and Knowledge Transfer Award, 2008
British Council Northern Ireland, Publication Grant for Centrifugal, 2008
British Council Artists Award, 2006
British Council Artists Award, 2005
Nordic Institute for Contemporary Arts: Artists Residency and Stipend, Helsinki 2003    
Arts Council of Ireland, Travel and Mobility Award, 2002
Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRC), PhD Scholarship
Arts Council of Ireland, Travel and Mobility Award, 2001
Jerome Foundation, Individual Artists Award, New York, 2001
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Artists Residency and stipend, World Trade
Centre, New York, 2001
Helena Rubenstein Fellowship, for the Whitney Museum of American Art,
Independent Study Programme, New York, 1999

Links:

http://micropolitics.wordpress.com/
http://carrotworkers.wordpress.com/
http://eipcp.net/transversal/0303/kelly/en
http://translate.eipcp.net/strands/04/kelly-strands01en#redir
http://centri.wordpress.com/

Professional activities

Course Leader BA Fine Art and History of Art

Conferences

Selected Invited Lectures, Presentations and Conferences:

2009   
Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Guattari: No End in Sight, with Micropolitics Research Group
University of Ulster, Belfast: Citizenship & Space, ISEA 2009 panel chair
Vilnius Art Academy, Lithuania: Manufacturing Today
Moderna Galerija / Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Radical Education Conference with Micropolitics Research Group
La Casa Invisible, Malaga, with Carrot Workers Collective, Cultural Governance and Institutions of the Common
Institute for Network Culture, Amsterdam, NL, Wintercamp, with Carrot Workers Collective, 'Creative Labour'
2008
Gasworks Gallery London: Disclosures, with Micropolitics Research Group
Moderna Galerija / Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana: Museum on the Streets
Zagreb University, Croatia: Incubator: Artistic Research in Academic Contexts
Chelsea College of Art and Design, The Second Sex, performance/ talk, London
2007
Goldsmiths College, Public interview and discussion with Franco Berardi (Bifo), organised and hosted by Micropolitics Research Group, Goldsmiths, November 2007
Chelsea College of Art & Design: The Consequences of Capital, invited speaker and
panel discussion ‘The Political Currency of Art’ with Pilot 3
Peer Gallery, London: Communism, CANAL public seminar
Serpentine Gallery and Situations UWE: Hang the Commission, panel debate
2006   
Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst (MukHa) Antwerp: Martha’s Library and Raymond
Williams Keyword Culture, public interview and discussion with Martha Rosler
Pro-Arte Academy St Petersburg, Russia: Grammars of Organisation invited speaker
at Chto Delat? public seminar
2005   
Camden Arts Centre, London and Re-Public Art: ‘The Transversal and the Invisible:
So how do you really make a work of art that’s not a work of art?’ invited speaker,
Strategies of (In)visibility symposium organised by eipcp research project: Re-Public
art (European Institute for Progressive Cultural Practices)
Project Arts Centre, Dublin: ‘The 1925 Workers Club and the Question of Immaterial
Labour’, invited speaker at Communism seminar
Fadaiat Border Academy, Tarifa (Castle of Guzmán el Bueno), Straits of Gilbraltor
and Tangiers, Mapping New Political Spaces’,
2004
Project Arts Centre and The Metropolitan Complex Dublin: public, recorded and
published round table discussions in conjunction with re-staging of Martha Rosler’s
Monumental Garage Sale
Finnish Institute, Berlin: ‘Topographical Blueprints for a New State: The Art of
Political Praxis’ conference paper, Politics and the Arts: Making Connections in
Theory and Praxis.
2003   
Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art, Helsinki: Power and Representation: invited
speaker and participant in week long closed seminar

Selected publications

Selected Publications

Kelly, S. (2010) ‘Asking, We Walk’, in Scales of Production: Public Activism and the
Performing Arts in Local/Transcultural Performance, John Rouse, Peter Lichtenfels and Lynette Hunter (eds.), London Palgrave Macmillan
Kelly, S., (2009) ‘Medium’, in Mapping Landscapes in Performance as Research: Scholarly Acts and Creative Cartographies, Lynette Hunter and Shannon Riley (eds.), London: Palgrave Macmillan
Kelly, S. (2007) ‘Ulster Must be Defended! Cultures of Translation and Parities of Esteem in the new tri-lingual Northern Ireland’, Translate, eipcp web publication: online: www.translate.eipcp.net
Kelly S. (2006) ‘Grammars of Organisation’ in Chto Delat? Special Issue: ‘How do Politics Begin?’ Issue 10, Part 2, February 2006

Kelly, S., (2006) ‘Communities of the Question’ in Self-Organisation: Counter Economic Strategies, Mika Hannula, Will Bradley and Cristina Ricupero (eds.), Berlin and New York: Sternberg Press, pp.96-124: ISBN 1-933128-13-5
Kelly, S. (2005) ‘The Transversal and the Invisible: So how do you really make a work of art that’s not a work of art?’Re-Public Art eipcp web publication, http://www.republicart.net/disc/
mundial/kelly01_en.htm, re-printed in Pedro Barateiro and Ricardo Valentim (eds.) catalogue Temporary Collaborations, published by Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon
Kelly, S. (2005) ‘Is Another World Possible? Report on European Social Forum London’, Fuse Magazine, 20:1, Spring 2005, pp.49-51 ISSN: 0838-603X
Kelly, S. and Stephen Morton (2004) ‘Calling up Annie Moore’ Public Culture, 16:1,
2004, pp 119-131, co-authored with Stephen Morton: ISSN: 0899-2363
Kelly, S. and Janna Graham (2004) ‘… and so we woofed’, Journal of Visual Culture 3:1, Sage publications, 2004, pp.119-123, ISSN: 1470-4129
Kelly, S. (2003) ‘Something Happens’ in Amorph! 03 Documents, Oliver Kochta (ed), Published by Muu Ry, NIFCA and distributed by Revolver, Helsinki and Germany, pp.6-12: ISBN 3-936919-45-3, and re-printed in Amorph! 03 Protocols, ISBN 1458-5561
Kelly, S. (2001) ‘The Land of Far Beyond: Pilgrimage up the Centre of World Trade', Link: A Critical Journal on the Arts, Issue 6, Spring 2001, USA: ISSN: 1097-9700