Folk archive: contemporary popular art from the UK

My research and art practice are integrated through a concern with popular culture and its artefacts. In this respect I do not recognise any division between my creative work as an artist and the work in the collection, and the contextualizing of works by others through a form of ideological curatorial practice. As a result of this attitude I have often collaborated with Jeremy Deller, sharing concepts and attitudes in specific projects.

Folk Archive was an exhibition based on an extensive survey of popular creativity in the UK. The intention was to collect and record engaging examples of creative visual practices from outside the professional arts and present this to a high standard. It explored how folk art has adapted to changes in cultural diversity and to developments in technology and politics. By giving serious attention to everyday activity as a valid contemporary art practice the exhibition also represented a strong institutional critique.

Alan Kane

Research Interests

Fine art
Curating
Socially engaged practices
Cultural interventions

Current Research
Questioning the hierarchies and forms of artistic or cultural production and blurring the distinction between artist and audience have always been central aspects in projects I have undertaken. This is true of both my solo practice and my long-term collaborative practice with Jeremy Deller. I have always held and promoted the position that art exists with or without the professional artist and my practice has been involved as much in framing examples of everyday creativity as in producing art.