We are delighted to announce Artists Newsletter #1: The 1980’s edition edited by Black Hole Club.

In the first of a new series of publications celebrating the a-n archive, Black Hole Club were commissioned to unearth the past, probe the present, and look to the future. For Artists Newsletter #1: The 1980’s edition they explore topics from artist’s working rights and identity politics to activism, digital arts practice, and accessibility.

Returning to the cultural landscape of the 1980s for this anniversary issue prompted many questions. The most pertinent of which was the realisation that our activities were not to be framed by nostalgia.

The work we undertook is informed by our collectivity, knowing that we are better working together than apart. In this year of isolation, sociability and exchange, we wanted to build a future. Yet, time also loops backwards. Our activities in the 21st century are founded on the networks and projects that have been distributed by Artists Newsletter. That a-n’s work continues is something for us all to celebrate.

Black Hole Club, All We Ever Wanted, December 2020.

Contents:

In the issue art-duo Ambience Factory (Sophie Bullock and Sophie Huckfield) look through an ’80s lens at what the future will hold for the artists of tomorrow, and offer a 7-point plan of ‘how to push your art career to the next level’.

Experimental artist and writer …kruse uses the languages of code and hypertext to explore the developing histories of media and digital arts from 1980 to now.

Artist De’Anne Crooks speaks to Keith Piper, a key figure in the development of Black British art, and finds links to her own practice.

Artist and PhD candidate Emily Scarrott offers a fictional response through time to an artist who was lost in the ‘cultural wilderness’ in 1981, and who hoped to reconnect with other artists through a classified advert placed in an issue of Artists Newsletter.

Larissa Shaw, Cathy Wade and Suzi Osborn explore collective responses to artistic isolation.

The magazine-style digital publication also includes a wrap-around cover featuring a collaborative work created by designer Keith Dodds and Black Hole Club, plus 40 Years 40 Artists interviews with artists Sunil Gupta and Lis Rhodes, in conversation with writer Lousia Buck.

As an art student in the 1980s these were mine as well as a-n’s formative years. It has been a pleasure to revisit this time through Black Hole Club’s editorial eye.

Julie Lomax, a-n CEO

The publication can be read here and Black Hole Club’s are.na channel shares the development of the research for the issue here.

More a-n at 40 features and content including the 40 Years 40 Artists series of interviews can be accessed at www.a-n.co.uk/an40