Homepage for UWB Portal News

He is one of those artists who not only document the world through their work, but also actively explore how technology shapes our perception of reality. His work — ranging from photography to video installations — often touches on themes of control, landscape, and the social responsibility of art. Martin Newth, professor and director of the fine arts section at the Glasgow School of Art, reflects in an interview on how art changes our view of the world, why collaboration with communities is key and how the European network of art schools can face current challenges. His work is on display in Pilsen until December 13 in the exhibition Boundaries: Doppelganger at the Ladislav Sutnar Gallery (Riegova 11).

In your work, you address, among other things, the influence and responsibility of artists for how we (general public, society) perceive the landscape or the world. How does painting/photography change our view of the world and our perception of it? How do you perceive this responsibility of the artist? 

I think art has a vital role in how we understand, imagine and relate to the environment. This role is often overlooked, but I am fascinated by how images and stories about the world shape the decisions we make about landscape. In the UK, for example, there are thousands of paintings and photographs that celebrate the beauty of the English countryside. Yet these landscapes are almost always shaped by human intervention, usually by men. The rolling green hills and neatly clipped hedgerows are the result of farming practices. The treeless hills and mountains of Scotland, covered in carefully managed heather, look the way they do because forests were cleared for agriculture or for game shooting.

Many depictions of these places idealise such landscapes and influence how we decide they should appear. These depictions do not simply mirror the landscape; they help determine it. They establish ideals that, in turn, shape the decisions we make about how land should be managed, controlled or allowed to appear. One of art’s great functions is to draw focused attention to aspects of the world that we might otherwise take for granted, and to question the assumptions behind our choices. Much of my own work centres on ideas of control. I try to draw attention to how the work is made and to invite a gentle reflection on how we understand, picture and shape the landscape. 

Can you describe one of the projects in which you worked with the local community? What was your goal? Are such projects an argument for the public that it needs artists? What should society expect from artists in general? 

These are great and important questions. One project where I worked closely with a local community was a film project called In Transit. It was part of a group of projects I made after the Covid lockdowns. I had the strange experience of hanging a gallery exhibition that nobody ever saw because of the restrictions. So, I decided to work differently. 

There were a few motivations. One was to bring my practice as an educator and my practice as an artist much closer together. Another was a statistic I had read about virtual museum attendance during lockdown. There was an initial spike, but numbers quickly fell to lower than before the pandemic. This made me realise that people want to participate, not simply be passive viewers. 

So, I decided to focus on one very particular area and make a short film about its many layers, including its transport systems, flora and fauna, its politics and, crucially, how it had been depicted in art and writing. In In Transit, one thread was the presence of invasive plants growing across many post-industrial wastelands. These plants became a useful metaphor for a place in constant transition, on the edge of London, shaped by continuous movement.

But the film itself was not the final outcome. It was shown to groups of people from the area, who were then invited to make their own short films in response. I was delighted by what they produced. Their films were inventive and offered a rich cross-section of the ideas and concerns that shape how a place is understood. I also loved the way the project invited members of the public to actively participate and create outcomes beyond what they had expected.

I cannot say the project had a direct impact on policy, but I hope it helped raise awareness of the area and the forces that make it unique. In nearly all my work I try to invite viewers to slow down and look more closely, to see the familiar in a new light. In a period of rapidly advancing technological change, this feels like an important function of art. Artists have a distinctive way of communicating on a poetic and imaginative level, not only on an instrumental or descriptive one. 

How important is the collaboration with other European art schools for your institution and why? 

For me, and for the Glasgow School of Art, collaboration with European art schools is incredibly important, now more than ever. There are many reasons for this, but recent political developments are a significant factor. Brexit has made it far more challenging to work with partners in Europe. It is a real shame that the UK has chosen a path that distances us from close cooperation with our European neighbours. This turn towards isolationism is, I think, an extremely dangerous trend, one that can be seen across Europe and in many other parts of the world. 

It seems clear that the challenges we face in the future demand closer cooperation rather than competition for what will be diminishing resources. This is one of the reasons why I believe the kinds of collaborative models that art schools can create are so valuable. They privilege criticality, creativity and dialogue and can act as a useful blueprint for how we might work together across disciplines and across borders.

I have also always felt that Glasgow, and Scotland more widely, has a strong sense of connection to Europe. While many parts of England look culturally and economically towards London, Glasgow seems to identify more naturally with the rest of Europe.

From an educational perspective, we have much to learn from each other. Visiting the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art was genuinely inspiring, especially in terms of how its commitment to cooperation and cross-disciplinarity is embodied in the architecture itself. There is something in that approach that we can learn from, even as we acknowledge that we work with much larger and more diverse student cohorts. In short, I feel there is a great deal to gain from building cross-European networks of like-minded artists and educators. In fact, I think it is not simply a good idea, it’s essential.