Culture Label and the New Creative Networks

21 October, 2009
by: Tom Jeffreys

I remember when I was about five and my parents took me to the Natural History Museum for the first time. In the shop there I bought a little pencil sharpener. It was orange with yellow spots and in the shape of a triceratops. I still have it to this day. Last year I went to Frieze Art Fair and as part of a project at Art: Concept, Paris, contemporary artist Jeremy Deller was giving away posters of the underground redesigned in the shape of a bicycle. This April, Lowri's brother bought a t-shirt from the Saatchi Gallery emblazoned with the phrase 'Chairman Meow'.

People like buying things from galleries and museums. It's a way of feeling like you're still in touch with them. But imagine if there was one place where you could look at and purchase products from places like the Tate, the V&A, the ICAbf, the BFI. Well imagine no more! For it is here, in the form of recently launched website Culture Label.

Not only is Culture Label a wonderful destination for cultural consumers, but it is also – and this is what I find interesting – symptomatic of wider trends in the world of contemporary cultural production. There's a desire now in London's creative communities to work together, to have new ideas, to do new things. And there's also a desire to open up what can seem an intimidating or inaccessible environment. In a sense, that is what Spoonfed itself is all about.

Tonight I get to spend an hour at Shoreditch House chatting with some of the key figures in this new development. With me are Peter Tullin and Florian Wupperfeld, Co-Founders of Culture Label (Florian is also Creative Director of Soho House Group); Hector Proud, Founder and Managing Director of Idea Generation; Claire Flannery, founder of nascent company Artfeelers whose aim it is to open up the multitude of small East End galleries to a wider audience; and artist Stuart Semple, whose explosive interpretations of pop culture have been exhibited all over the world – he's also collaborated with the likes of Diesel, Evisu, Levi's and The Prodigy. It's quite a gathering.

From left to right: Hector, Florian, Tom, Claire, Peter, Stuart

Tom: Firstly, can you explain a little about the origins of Culture Label, your ideas and how you got it started?

Peter: My background is working in fundraising in the arts world, working to generate sponsorship for a lot of the big galleries in London. It struck me that there was a lot of untapped potential... that cultural brands could reach out to more consumers.

So the three of us got together – myself, Florian and Simon Conshaw. It was one of those dinner table conversations where, at the end of it, an idea just sort of emerged. It was then a case of 'are we going to do something about this or not?'

Hector: Its one of those genius pieces of creativity within a really simple idea. I actually worked with all the people that these guys are now tapping up, and I'm just furious I didn't come up with the idea for Culture Label myself!

Florian: You can tell he works in PR!

Remote-controlled dinosaur, Natural History Museum, £34.26 on Culture Label

Tom: There seems to be a development in recent years of galleries acknowledging themselves as brands, seeking to establish their identity in that way, and reaching out to a wider audience.

Peter: We were chatting recently to Florian's friend Marcel Noble who set up Superbrands. In one of his more recent surveys, Tate was ranking ahead of brands like Vodafone or Manchester United. And culture is interesting – there are these incredibly powerful brands but they're not as overtly commercial.

Tom: Part of that is about reaching out to a wider audience, one that might not traditionally associate itself with the art world.

Claire: And I think this is where Artfeelers fits in. From next month I'm starting to run art tours round smaller East End galleries and artists' studios, ones which unfortunately cannot afford to hire help. The aim is also to attract people who may be slightly shy of the 'trendy east endy' area. Look at an event like Hackney Wicked and the way it opened the whole area up.

Tom: Clearly this breadth of audience is something that appeals to artists too.

Stuart: Exactly. I'd love to think that Roman Abramovich might walk up and buy one of my works at an art fair for a hundred grand. But there's only one Abramovich. But how many 13 year old kids can buy Michael Jackson's Thriller? Loads of them! And at my shows I love it when I see a 14 or 15 year old kid come in with his skateboard, spend 3 or 4 hours looking at every single picture and at the end write to me on the internet or something. And I just think, 'why can't they have something to take home?' One problem I realised a few years ago when my work started to get expensive was that a lot of the people who'd supported me and bought my work when I started out could no longer be involved anymore.

The Prodigy vs Stuart Semple, limited edition print, £300 on Culture Label

Tom: You mention people who've supported you. How supportive are artists of each other?

Stuart: Well my experience is in the East End and I have a lot of friends and a lot of support, and people will help me hang a picture if I need them to. It's a very organic and two-way community. And it's very nice. I think people are open-minded.

Florian: I think artists have always collaborated – there are now simply more channels. It used to simply happen in the coffee shop or in the pub.

Stuart: Yeah, but I still think it does. I did a print with The Prodigy and we did the deal for that in the Shepherdess Cafe at the end of my road over a bacon butty. It wasn't here in Shoreditch House!

Florian: The economy forces people to work closer together – alliances make you strong. So for example the Bauhaus happened after the Great Depression. When it's tight out there people come together to support each other.

Peter: It's interesting because – and this is bad for an internet entrepreneur – but I finally got round to setting up my LinkedIn account. And I realised just how many people had played a role in helping the project get off the ground. Even Spoonfed actually...

Tom: Even us?

Peter: Well you guys spoke about your experiences setting up a website. Sometimes you make mistakes and have to almost start again, but that's ok because that's what everybody does.

Florian: Are you going to leave that in?

Tom: Not really sure yet!

Studio Voltaire Print Portfolio 2006, £1,560 on Culture Label

Peter: The environment around the recession has actually been a good thing because, in terms of the cultural world, it's forced it to open up and be receptive to big new ideas. With less money available, more of these ideas are going to have to happen. This all helps to open things up now anybody can come in and feel that the art world is open to new sorts of ideas.

Stuart: We're at a time where we really need big heretical ideas. I think the culture industry desperately needs things like Culture Label to show how it can be done. It's a simple idea but it's about having the balls to actually do it to go to the Tate and say, 'Look, what are you doing?'

Tom: This new sense of collaboration and creativity in the art world its exciting isn't it?

Hector: Whether its people remixing their own songs or re-cutting Star Wars with funny clips or simply writing a blog. It's happening – that attitude is what's driving YouTube. It goes right back to the '70s ethos – learn 4 chords and you're ready to go. The collaborative process is accelerated now because people have additional tools – there's been a democratisation of participation in art, and appreciation of it.

Stuart: Exactly. In a way, it's like a new punk way of thinking. In the old days people were cutting and pasting and doing Xerox fanzines. But now you can have an idea and get a really high level of finish because of easy access to technology. We could never do that before you know, with a Mini-DV camera I can make a music video. That's a really major shift.

Claire: Bob and Roberta Smith said something recently about how we shouldn't have artists; we should have people making art.

Tom: And I couldn't agree more.

www.culturelabel.com
www.artfeelers.com
www.stuartsemple.com
www.shoreditchhouse.com
www.ideageneration.co.uk

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