features
07.25 Conditions Studio
There’s something quietly radical happening in Croydon. Conditions Studio. Founded by artist and educator Matthew Noel-Tod, Conditions is challenging the concept of art education. Instead, it offers something more grounded and intimate than the traditional art school machine. It’s a space to grow, to question, and to make.
“It is run by artists for artists and that is important to us.”
The structure is simple, and it plays to that. Artists are offered individual studio spaces alongside regular group critiques, public exhibitions and tutor sessions. Dialogue is just as important as output at Conditions, and the art coming out of the Croydon studio reinforces this. One of those public exhibitions, supported by UNCLE, is HARDCORE / LOVE. It’s a bold double bill of Mark Leckey’s classic Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore and Arthur Jafa’s devastating Love is the Message, The Message is Death. It’s a dialogue between the two artists and their iconic work.
“The exhibition is a powerful presentation, there are no frills, it is just the works in a dark room, facing each other.”
As they geared up to open HARDCORE / LOVE, we caught up with Matthew to talk about his early inspirations, the studio’s beginnings, and what it means to make art outside the centre of London.
FIRSTLY, CAN YOU TELL US WHAT CONDITIONS IS ALL ABOUT?
Conditions is an independent ‘art school’. We call it a ‘studio-programme’ and it is conceived in the tradition of studio schools and artist-run spaces. It is run by artists for artists and that is important to us. What we offer is ‘low-cost’ in relation to going to university or art school and we have a DIY ethos. This doesn’t mean we are not serious about art, but it does mean that we like to do things quickly and responsively, which larger organisations often can’t do. We are trying to offer an alternative to the rising costs of both studio space and education for artists in London.
BY DEFINITION, CONDITIONS REFERS TO THE PHYSICAL SITUATION THAT SOMEONE OR SOMETHING IS IN AND AFFECTED BY. WHAT DOES THE WORD MEAN TO YOU AND THE STUDIO?
I think this is the enduring quality of the name. Yes, it does mean physical situations, but it is also relevant to social, emotional and political situations, and these are all the factors that influence the making and viewing of art. Our name is about the conditions of being an artist, the conditions of the life and the world you are in at this moment.
YOU’RE AN ARTIST AND AN EDUCATOR, WHAT IS YOUR HISTORY? WERE YOU ALWAYS AROUND ART? DID YOU STUDY IT?
To go way back, I was expelled from high-school aged 15, which at the time felt like a disaster, but the solitude of that experience connected me intensely with art, photography, film and music and my way forward was to go to art school. I went to art school in the last year of free higher education in the UK and that always stays with me. The freedom that afforded you – including the freedom to not do what you were tasked with doing. I studied at what was then called Norwich School of Art & Design and as a student I was very lucky to start working for Lynda Morris, the curator of Norwich Gallery and EAST International. When I left Norwich, Lynda joked that working for her was my real art education, and she was probably right. Her programming was incredibly ambitious, and I loved the fact that it was a small regional art school gallery with some of the best artists in the world showing in it. I know that this logic influenced me in being confident on how you could bring something with very serious art ambitions to a non-descript location in Croydon.
ALBEIT VERY REWARDING, RUNNING AN INDEPENDENT ALTERNATIVE TO TRADITIONAL ART STUDIOS MUST HAVE SOME CHALLENGES. WHAT KEEPS YOU MOTIVATED?
It can be exhausting, and you must be prepared to be the caretaker when doing a project like Conditions. I also think it is important to do this work. Art is not always magical at every step of the way, there is a lot of pushing stuff around, mentally and physically. On the programmes at Conditions, I get to work with great artists in an environment which is free from many of value judgement you get elsewhere: the focus is on the work and the conversation around the work.
THE STUDIO PROGRAMME COMBINES INDIVIDUAL SPACES WITH GROUP CRITIQUES AND PUBLIC EVENTS, SUCH AS HARDCORE / LOVE. HOW DOES THIS STRUCTURE SUPPORT BOTH PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE ARTISTIC GROWTH?
The main thing I would say, is confidence building. The sociality of a group can really give people permission to make things they would have hesitated to do before. It is also important to exhibit that work, made by artists in the studios, which we regularly do. Involving Conditions in other projects, such as what we have done with ICA, NTS radio, Ormside Projects and now with the HARDCORE / LOVE exhibition allows people to be connected to the wider field of culture in what is hopefully a very meaningful way.
CONDITIONS ALSO RUN AN ONLINE MENTOR-LED PROGRAMME. HOW DOES THAT WORK ALONGSIDE THE IN-PERSON EXPERIENCE, PARTICULARLY FOR THOSE OUTSIDE LONDON?
This was something that we originally did under the circumstances of COVID, to keep people connected when studio work was hard. I eventually realised that there are many artists who don’t always need a studio space, or they need to fit it in around other parts of their lives, and that the dialogue that Conditions offers was as important as the physical space. It’s also another part of the ‘low-cost’ offer: some people could not afford a studio space but would want the conversation around their work and this was something we could provide. In the first year it was amazing how international the online group was and that again is a part of the broader sociality of something like Conditions. We once had a Zoom party during lockdown that went on until 5am, that always stuck with me as meaning that people were happy to connect online.
Conditions is an independent ‘art school’. We call it a ‘studio-programme’ and it is conceived in the tradition of studio schools and artist-run spaces. It is run by artists for artists and that is important to us. What we offer is ‘low-cost’ in relation to going to university or art school and we have a DIY ethos. This doesn’t mean we are not serious about art, but it does mean that we like to do things quickly and responsively, which larger organisations often can’t do. We are trying to offer an alternative to the rising costs of both studio space and education for artists in London.
BY DEFINITION, CONDITIONS REFERS TO THE PHYSICAL SITUATION THAT SOMEONE OR SOMETHING IS IN AND AFFECTED BY. WHAT DOES THE WORD MEAN TO YOU AND THE STUDIO?
I think this is the enduring quality of the name. Yes, it does mean physical situations, but it is also relevant to social, emotional and political situations, and these are all the factors that influence the making and viewing of art. Our name is about the conditions of being an artist, the conditions of the life and the world you are in at this moment.
YOU’RE AN ARTIST AND AN EDUCATOR, WHAT IS YOUR HISTORY? WERE YOU ALWAYS AROUND ART? DID YOU STUDY IT?
To go way back, I was expelled from high-school aged 15, which at the time felt like a disaster, but the solitude of that experience connected me intensely with art, photography, film and music and my way forward was to go to art school. I went to art school in the last year of free higher education in the UK and that always stays with me. The freedom that afforded you – including the freedom to not do what you were tasked with doing. I studied at what was then called Norwich School of Art & Design and as a student I was very lucky to start working for Lynda Morris, the curator of Norwich Gallery and EAST International. When I left Norwich, Lynda joked that working for her was my real art education, and she was probably right. Her programming was incredibly ambitious, and I loved the fact that it was a small regional art school gallery with some of the best artists in the world showing in it. I know that this logic influenced me in being confident on how you could bring something with very serious art ambitions to a non-descript location in Croydon.
ALBEIT VERY REWARDING, RUNNING AN INDEPENDENT ALTERNATIVE TO TRADITIONAL ART STUDIOS MUST HAVE SOME CHALLENGES. WHAT KEEPS YOU MOTIVATED?
It can be exhausting, and you must be prepared to be the caretaker when doing a project like Conditions. I also think it is important to do this work. Art is not always magical at every step of the way, there is a lot of pushing stuff around, mentally and physically. On the programmes at Conditions, I get to work with great artists in an environment which is free from many of value judgement you get elsewhere: the focus is on the work and the conversation around the work.
THE STUDIO PROGRAMME COMBINES INDIVIDUAL SPACES WITH GROUP CRITIQUES AND PUBLIC EVENTS, SUCH AS HARDCORE / LOVE. HOW DOES THIS STRUCTURE SUPPORT BOTH PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE ARTISTIC GROWTH?
The main thing I would say, is confidence building. The sociality of a group can really give people permission to make things they would have hesitated to do before. It is also important to exhibit that work, made by artists in the studios, which we regularly do. Involving Conditions in other projects, such as what we have done with ICA, NTS radio, Ormside Projects and now with the HARDCORE / LOVE exhibition allows people to be connected to the wider field of culture in what is hopefully a very meaningful way.
CONDITIONS ALSO RUN AN ONLINE MENTOR-LED PROGRAMME. HOW DOES THAT WORK ALONGSIDE THE IN-PERSON EXPERIENCE, PARTICULARLY FOR THOSE OUTSIDE LONDON?
This was something that we originally did under the circumstances of COVID, to keep people connected when studio work was hard. I eventually realised that there are many artists who don’t always need a studio space, or they need to fit it in around other parts of their lives, and that the dialogue that Conditions offers was as important as the physical space. It’s also another part of the ‘low-cost’ offer: some people could not afford a studio space but would want the conversation around their work and this was something we could provide. In the first year it was amazing how international the online group was and that again is a part of the broader sociality of something like Conditions. We once had a Zoom party during lockdown that went on until 5am, that always stuck with me as meaning that people were happy to connect online.
THIS PARTNERSHIP WITH UNCLE IS FOR THE EXHIBITION HARDCORE / LOVE WITH ARTISTS ARTHUR JAFA AND MARK LECKEY. CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THIS EXHIBITION?
It’s an amazing exhibition and the route to it happening was quite unusual as we are not a traditional gallery space. Gavin Brown, the New York based gallerist who grew up in Croydon, had heard about Conditions and got in touch with us. We were talking with him about doing something in Croydon and these two works Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore (1999) by Mark Leckey and Love is the Message, The Message is Death (2016) by Arthur Jafa came up. Gavin had such an important role in bringing these works to an audience originally. Our idea was the dialogue between the two works, a ‘call and response’ loop, and this was compounded by the friendship and respect that Mark and Arthur have for each other. So, the exhibition is a powerful presentation, there are no frills, it is just the works in a dark room, facing each other. To stage it in a half-empty shopping centre in Croydon seems very appropriate to the content of the videos, in that it is a space that is there to be interpreted. They are both videos whose meanings are authored by society as much as the artists and I think that they play with a lot more power outside of a museum context. The project with Gavin is also about fundraising for Conditions’ long-term future, raising awareness and gathering supporters.
WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR WHEN IT COMES TO DECIDING WHAT ARTWORKS TO SHOWCASE AT CONDITIONS AND WHICH ARTIST TO WORK WITH?
Our focus is mainly on platforming the work of the artists on the studio programme. We have done other projects and exhibitions as a way of raising the profile of Conditions and of showing art that we think is good.
AS A CROYDON-BASED STUDIO, HOW DOES CONDITIONS FIT INTO THE LARGER ART ECOSYSTEM OF LONDON?
It cuts across a few of the London art eco-systems and I’m happy with it being a bit free-floating. Some people access Conditions more because they like the studios, others access it more because they want an experience of art education which they have not had. I find it interesting to work on a relatively small scale and occasionally do bigger events. It keeps things exciting.
CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE ARTWORK ON THIS FLYPOSTING CAMPAIGN?
I thought long and hard about designing these posters. There was an open brief, which was nice, but with such well-known artworks it was important to me to make an identity that conveyed our whole exhibition concept, not just two well-known images. The idea was to link the global and the local, or provincial. In Love is the Message, The Message is Death there is recurring images of the sun, but also this line “the building is on fire” which seems like the tension between the heat and intensity of the sun, of violence and the sun as a life-giver and that dynamic frames a lot of the video: there is life and there is death. With Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore the rave images are very widely circulated, but it starts with a landscape and clouds and loops back to this cold and romantic vista of a figure in a landscape with what looks like a pirate radio mast. It’s a romantic painting and it’s blue and cold, the opposite colour temperature to the sun. It was also a peripheral image – that the post-rave pirate radio mast landscape could feasibly be a place like Croydon and the figure was spiritually lost. With the font and the text, I wanted to suggest rave posters that you see on lampposts and hoardings. They often state a place, but no specific address, so you have to find it yourself. I gave the text to two of the artists who are at Conditions, Cameron Harris and Bobby Ingham, and they came up with the layout and font. We did a lot of testing to see how it would actually work in the street, and I think it was very successful.
WITH APPLICATIONS OPENING SOON, WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR EMERGING ARTISTS HOPING TO JOIN CONDITIONS STUDIO?
Be real about the work and don’t think it’s not relevant to you. It’s more important to us to connect an interesting group of people, than to look at everyone’s CVs. Also do it if it is the right time for you. That’s important to listen to how you feel. i.e. what your capacity is, instead of feeling that you might be missing out on something.
https://conditions.studio
It’s an amazing exhibition and the route to it happening was quite unusual as we are not a traditional gallery space. Gavin Brown, the New York based gallerist who grew up in Croydon, had heard about Conditions and got in touch with us. We were talking with him about doing something in Croydon and these two works Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore (1999) by Mark Leckey and Love is the Message, The Message is Death (2016) by Arthur Jafa came up. Gavin had such an important role in bringing these works to an audience originally. Our idea was the dialogue between the two works, a ‘call and response’ loop, and this was compounded by the friendship and respect that Mark and Arthur have for each other. So, the exhibition is a powerful presentation, there are no frills, it is just the works in a dark room, facing each other. To stage it in a half-empty shopping centre in Croydon seems very appropriate to the content of the videos, in that it is a space that is there to be interpreted. They are both videos whose meanings are authored by society as much as the artists and I think that they play with a lot more power outside of a museum context. The project with Gavin is also about fundraising for Conditions’ long-term future, raising awareness and gathering supporters.
WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR WHEN IT COMES TO DECIDING WHAT ARTWORKS TO SHOWCASE AT CONDITIONS AND WHICH ARTIST TO WORK WITH?
Our focus is mainly on platforming the work of the artists on the studio programme. We have done other projects and exhibitions as a way of raising the profile of Conditions and of showing art that we think is good.
AS A CROYDON-BASED STUDIO, HOW DOES CONDITIONS FIT INTO THE LARGER ART ECOSYSTEM OF LONDON?
It cuts across a few of the London art eco-systems and I’m happy with it being a bit free-floating. Some people access Conditions more because they like the studios, others access it more because they want an experience of art education which they have not had. I find it interesting to work on a relatively small scale and occasionally do bigger events. It keeps things exciting.
CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE ARTWORK ON THIS FLYPOSTING CAMPAIGN?
I thought long and hard about designing these posters. There was an open brief, which was nice, but with such well-known artworks it was important to me to make an identity that conveyed our whole exhibition concept, not just two well-known images. The idea was to link the global and the local, or provincial. In Love is the Message, The Message is Death there is recurring images of the sun, but also this line “the building is on fire” which seems like the tension between the heat and intensity of the sun, of violence and the sun as a life-giver and that dynamic frames a lot of the video: there is life and there is death. With Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore the rave images are very widely circulated, but it starts with a landscape and clouds and loops back to this cold and romantic vista of a figure in a landscape with what looks like a pirate radio mast. It’s a romantic painting and it’s blue and cold, the opposite colour temperature to the sun. It was also a peripheral image – that the post-rave pirate radio mast landscape could feasibly be a place like Croydon and the figure was spiritually lost. With the font and the text, I wanted to suggest rave posters that you see on lampposts and hoardings. They often state a place, but no specific address, so you have to find it yourself. I gave the text to two of the artists who are at Conditions, Cameron Harris and Bobby Ingham, and they came up with the layout and font. We did a lot of testing to see how it would actually work in the street, and I think it was very successful.
WITH APPLICATIONS OPENING SOON, WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR EMERGING ARTISTS HOPING TO JOIN CONDITIONS STUDIO?
Be real about the work and don’t think it’s not relevant to you. It’s more important to us to connect an interesting group of people, than to look at everyone’s CVs. Also do it if it is the right time for you. That’s important to listen to how you feel. i.e. what your capacity is, instead of feeling that you might be missing out on something.
https://conditions.studio
