Robert Rauschenberg called performance art, “Art that refuses to settle”. Future Past Coalition’s (FPC) performance at Kunst! Kunst! Kunst! on Thursday night at Sheffield’s Sidney & Matilda aimed to bring together unsettling and divisive elements from the past and present through an artistic moment. FPC sought to engage revellers in a dialogue questioning why humans seem to find it almost impossible to learn from the portents of the past, which can, if we allow, direct us to a better future.

Commands were given from on high. The dystopian clang of the Orwellian clock sounded as it struck thirteen. Then came the artists, the noise and weight of their bell and chain, the impact of their two bodies, of their personages and of their rising voices as they wielded large red metal crowd barriers to force the separation of the audience who pushed and pulled. Any resistance melted into compliance, easily allowing division. Here was a warning about the paradoxical nature of tolerance and the ease with which tolerance and freedoms of speech and action may shift into oppression. Here was the cry for the unchaining of the oppressed, the cry for recognition and care for all humanity. The call from the artist poet up high and the ready response of the bodies below generated a chilling, interactive, almost sacred place in the hollow industrial building. The voices from past and present brought together in the space created possibility as we chanted in unison.

“Hear the smoke whistle through the gaps,

Hear the smoke whistle through the gaps,

Hear the smoke whistle through the gaps,

The smoke whistle through the gaps,

Smoke whistle through the gaps,

Whistle through the gaps,

Through the gaps,

The gaps.”

We reflected: is it the portentous smoke of death and destruction or the whisper of truth and knowledge?

A short DJ set provided a welcome break to reflect and recover. Then a reading of a Prayer Before Birth was given. The poem was written by Louis MacNeice and was published in 1944. It responds to the pervasive fears, uncertainties, immoralities, losses, deaths and destruction during and after the 2nd World War. It is a plea for humanity to reset its moral compass. We need that now more than ever. MacNeice is pleading through the voice of an unborn child for a return to a better world. One not consumed by power, greed, pain, terror, control, loss, hunger and fear. The unborn child seeks protection from the horrors of the world they envisage being subject to. The arts must not settle on the page.

Why are we still killing one another?

Art must refuse to settle.

In How Artists Make Decisions, our intention was to visually articulate how artists think and make decisions and what the inner workings of an artist's mind might be like. Aspects of art practice have been illustrated and presented with a general overview, and description.

Our aim is to bring the reader closer to the minds behind art by breaking down the barrier between those who consider themselves to be creative, and those who do not.

"Understanding how we work is essential in our endeavour to be more compassionate, understanding, and successful beings. The secret between audience and artist has long been shrouded by verbose texts and ambiguous interviews. In How Artists Make Decisions, the mechanisms, reasoning, and intention behind art practice are rationalised into diagrams with the intention of portraying the inner workings of a creatives mind, and by extension the human condition.

Inside are 12 examples of this method, complete with descriptions, use cases, and unique names. These offer explanations about how artists make work and the processes that take place between inspiration and the execution of a final piece.

By explaining these processes in a new format, we hope to amuse, inspire, and bring the reader closer to artists. We wish to strengthen the bonds between art and its public."

Multimedia fashion, art, spoken word, audio, and video performance in the Pennine Lecture Theatre, Sheffield Hallam University. This performance was conceived and led by the Futures Past Coalition. We were able to draw on a range of collaborators with specific skills and interests who helped to make the work a huge success.

“‘Primavera, I am human’ generated a palpable and memorable response. Cassels brought her experiences to life, providing a moving critique of racism, colonialism, and life as a black African migrant in Britain. The sound initially suggested promise, though the costumed women soon suggested all was not well as they were either received and rewarded with gifts or de-crowned or admonished.

The music grew darker. Voices gave warning. Human paintings, in the spirit of Primavera, were created by Cassels. Splendid in her pink dress, she beat the huge, heavy chain on the floor, narrowly missing her bare feet. The chain crashed time and time again, recalling the ships and shackles of slavery and the whips of the owners. Chaz, a young black man, knelt in a kind of supplication, seeming to beg for something better in this life. Finally, Cassels led him quietly away and brought the audience to attention, chanting “I am human, you are human, we are human over and over again..." to an attentive, appreciative, and perhaps rattled audience.”

YVAN Beyond the Obvious 2 Book Launch
March 2022

The YVAN Beyond the Obvious 2 Book Launch was held in the Sheffield Hallam Institute of Fine Arts Head Post Office Cafe/Gallery Space, where the Futures Past Coalition were invited to perform in costume to enrich the event.

Futures Past Retrospective
Digital Publication, 2022

This publication was produced to immortalise the development and progress of Primavera, I am Human, in a format that was portable, concise, and stylized as a tabloid newspaper.

Futures Past Coalition grew out of friendships made during studies for our fine art degrees awarded in 2022. Working together seemed like a natural progression generated in part by the proximity of our studio spaces, mutual interests and concerns, and a desire to share aspects of our art and lives. We enjoy each other’s company, which is essential in a collaborative group of people with different life experiences. We have experimented with costume, film, music, performance, writing, drawing, and more. We agree and disagree without fear of anyone walking away.

Futures Past Coalition is an alternative, an antidote, and a brief uncoupling from the intensely individualised nature of much fine art making. Futures Past is supportive and a developing part of our methods. It is also relevant to our work as independent artists. Not surprisingly, like most artists, we struggle with describing our practice methods, especially since they occupy shifting sands, and we live in that difficult space of not knowing what is to come but knowing it will. Hence the desire to imagine, interrogate, test, draw together, and share what we have discovered in our collaboration.

In the creative process, artists employ various methods, techniques, and strategies to enhance creative outcomes. These can be broken down further into the mechanisms that make these methods possible, and form the building blocks that make up our practice. We see them as intermediaries between ourselves and the world around us. This publication intends to provide unique insight into the inner workings of our minds, with the intention of connecting participants to artists and their thinking.

Linda Cassels (1970)
My purpose for creating art is to tell stories that express concepts of humanity, identity, and belonging. Visual art is unique to humans, is an essential aspect of social history, and records who we were, are, and will be. It is physical evidence that our survival and future are transcendent, as we live in tomorrow every day, as time is circular and linear.Identity has many facets, but my work explores the topics of culture, class, and race in relation to belonging in an ever-changing world.

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Lyndon Watkinson (1999)
Lyndon Watkinson (1999) is an artist based in Sheffield, UK, who seeks to democratise art through collage, print, publications, design, articles, and sound. His work brings process to the forefront, appropriating imagery from everyday life, inviting the viewer to share in his memories.

In 2020, a blog post entitled Suburban Utopia, An Infertile Place formed part of the wider inquiry and development of his practice for his bachelor's degree in fine art. As his work matured, he applied this term as a formalisation of his creative endeavours, later abbreviating it to SU4IP, now used as an alias and publishing entity.

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Sue Hare (1954)
Rejecting the idea of retirement and having no intention to retreat or withdraw, I am resurfacing myself within art practice. My artistic approach is slow, often archival, and always research-based.
I enjoy exploring history, bureaucracy, and everyday life through artistic practice, as it has a role to play in revealing truths. I love to be aesthetically pleased by beautiful things, though beauty in my work is not the primary motivating factor. It may come as a happy result of exploring materials, methods, and making.

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