Key details
Date
- 18 February 2019
Author
- RCA
Read time
- 2 minutes
Head of Programme for MRes RCA and Critical & Historical Studies Coordinator, Esther Teichmann – who received both her MA and PhD from the RCA – has collaborated with fellow alumni Monster Chetwynd and Benji Jeffrey to create a new film Phantasie Fotostudio II. The work is being screened on at John Hansard Gallery, Southampton from 16 February – 23 May 2019.
Key details
Date
- 18 February 2019
Author
- RCA
Read time
- 2 minutes
Phantasie Fotostudio II, Esther Teichmann and Monster Chetwynd 2018 © Courtesy the artists and Sadie Coles HQ
Benji, who graduated from Moving Image in 2017, is one of the participants and also composed an original string quartet score for the film, which contributes towards an atmosphere that is ‘medieval but strangely pinky’.
Phantasie Fotostudio II is the most recent work made as part of the ongoing collaboration between Esther and Monster, which began during their MA studies at the RCA in 2004. They formed a friendship over shared interests and their distinct but overlapping practices – Monster was making performances as well as paintings, Esther was making tableaus with studio backdrops, and they both worked closely with immediate friends and family.
The film follows a previous collaboration Phantasie Fotostudio, The Esthacus Teichwynd Photos, which was made and shown in Berlin in 2007. This work playfully drew on Esther and Monster’s diverse shared references, from Walter Benjamin’s essay 'Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction', Man Ray and Lee Miller’s solarisations to Fellini Satyricon. All the protagonists in both works are part of the artists’ expanding circle of friends and family.
Phantasie Fotostudio II, Esther Teichmann and Monster Chetwynd 2018 © Courtesy the artists and Sadie Coles HQ
Productive and sustaining friendships at the RCA
Besides reflecting on shared inspirations and preoccupations, these collaborations also reveal the productive and sustaining friendships formed across generations of artists at the RCA.
‘Working together is always a very fun and inspiring process from which we both take new ideas, insights and sensibilities back into our respective practices. When we aren’t making collaborative work together every few years, we are in regular dialogue about work and life, supporting one another by being able to speak very openly about all aspects of being an artist, academic and parent,’ Esther explained.
As an alumni and co-president of the RCA Students’ Union, Benji is well positioned to reflect on the important role art school’s like the RCA can play in providing an environment for these supportive and fertile relationships to develop.
‘Joy, enthusiasm and friendship can all be catalysts for work,’ he explained. ‘Relationships are a significant part of your practice. It’s important to start with being nice – whether that’s to yourself, to others, or the materials you are working with. It’s also vital to make work for people you care about and to find ways of being generous, giving and thoughtful towards audiences.’