Career Profile: Simon Rumley, curator and filmmaker

An image from Simon's film, The Living and the Dead.   

Simon Rumley is a partner in events production team Ellis Rumley Projects, with Zavier Ellis, as well as being a writer, producer and director of films. With Zavier he is organising The Future Can Wait, a forthcoming exhibition in London that showcases what they call The New London School. He tells us how he managed to go from filmmaking to organising seven art shows in New York, and now straddles both the film and art world.

What is your job title?
In this capacity I'm a curator/contemporary art promoter but I also write/produce/direct feature length films

Who do you work for?
Myself/Ellis Rumley Projects

What do you do all day?
Good question but usually a mixture of emailing, phoning, meeting people and writing.

What are you doing today?
A mixture of all the above. In terms of The Future Can Wait, we're trying to sort out the website design and get 42 artists to forward us their most up to date images and CVs and to answer a specially prepared questionnaire. We're also going through the final press release and approving that for sending out either later on today or tomorrow. As mentioned above, I also write and direct films and I'm communicating with the States about the theatrical release of my latest feature The Living and The Dead in New York and the DVD release for the whole country. I'm also relatively close to getting my first directorial gig on a feature I haven't written so there's a lot of emails going back and forth about this in preparation of signing contracts and nailing down a shooting schedule for March 2008. Am not going out this evening so once I've done all this, will hope to do some writing if I'm mentally fresh enough and then probably watch a film later on.

What's the best thing about your job?
Well I guess I'm my own boss and I don't have anyone telling me what to do and there's been quite a lot of travelling recently. Also, working on things that I've originated with people who are creativity and output and outlook on life I admire and share is a great thing.

And the worst thing?
Sporadic and uncertain payment. Never really stopping cos between The Future Can Wait and the film work, there's not many other things I'd prefer to be doing...

How did you get into it?
Between 2001-2005 I had a pretty lean time in terms of making films - apart from writing a few scripts that didn't get produced I shot one short (albeit with Greta Scacchi) and one pilot and I was getting more and more frustrated with the film industry over here, having already made three critically acclaimed features. At this time I moved into a new flat and thought it'd be great to get some original art so I started to go to various group shows and solo shows at places like Rockwell and Rosy Wilde as well as bigger galleries like Timothy Taylor and Victoria Miro. As I started seeing the same artists' work (Gavin Nolan, Alex Morrison, Gordon Cheung, Rui Matsunaga etc) I started to realise how strong all these artists were and I thought it'd be a great thing to get into somehow to counter the down time I had with film-making. Also at the same time I was considering moving to New York which I never did but in the end I had the idea of showing a lot of these artists in New York - since I'd never actually organised or curated an art show before and knew nothing about it, I felt there wouldn't be an incentive for anyone to show work in London with me but showing in New York, I felt, might be a different ball-game. From this New London Kicks was born and in 2005 I promoted my first art show in New York at the Soho House in association with Art Review and The Armory Show. I've done it every year since and The Future Can Wait is a logical progression to do a similar but substantially larger show in London for the first time.

Who's been the biggest influence on you, career-wise?
Can't say there's been anyone to be quite honest. I've always been a big believer in going out and doing stuff yourself because although there are people who'll help you, there's a hell of a lot more who won't or will come up with good reasons why you shouldn't do something. I suppose from my mid-teens, listening to the whole punk music phenomena - from the Subhumans and Conflict to The Clash and the Sex Pistols - this has pretty much been my outlook on life.

The Future Can Wait is an ambitious project – what's been the hardest thing about organising it?
Will probably be able to better answer this question when it's over! However, I suppose raising the finance, getting corporate sponsors on board and drinks sponsorship have to date been the trickiest things. Hanging the show is going to be pretty tough since we've only got about 24 hours to install 150 odd pieces of art from over 40 artists in a 15,000sq ft space so the possibilities will be endless. That said, hanging the work is one of the most enjoyable parts of the process - similar to editing films when you can really see everything coming together for the first time.

Tell us about this phenomenon that underpins the exhibition, which you describe as The New London School?
Well... I guess I've touched upon it above but both Zavier and I had worked with a lot of the same artists already - Stella Vine, Gavin Nolan, Alex Morrison, John Stark, Tessa Farmer, James Jessop etc and we both felt that there is, and has been for quite a while, a tremendous amount of talent and energy in and around the younger London based artists which hasn't been harnessed in the way that perhaps it might. The majority of people who we're working with in this show probably share two things: 1/ a technical ability which is hard to deny. Irrespective of whether you like the work or not, most people should look at the work and be impressed by its quality. In this respect, many if not the majority of the people we're working with have trained at the RA, RCA, Goldsmith's or St Martins. 2/ A lot of the artists also share the same DIY ethos that I spoke about earlier. Gavin Nolan, Alex Morrison, Hugh Mendes, Christopher Davies and Keira Bennett were all involved in some capacity in working/promoting the recently deceased Rockwell Project. Stella Vine ran her own gallery in Rosy Wilde. Cathy Lomax runs Transition. Added to this, people like John Stark, Gordon Cheung, David Hancock and many of the others also curate their own shows and I like the idea that none of these people are waiting for anyone to ask them to do something - they're just getting on and doing it. With this in mind, I've found there's a general camaraderie and support network between these artists that I've rarely seen in other artistic environments (especially film where mutual support is embarrassingly close to non-existent) and this is probably as important as anything in terms of how I'd categorise the "New London School".

What are you most looking forward to when it opens?
Selling some work and going to other peoples' parties! Less frivolously, probably seeing all the art consuming, defining and taking over the space. It's an amazing space and the combination of the art and the space together has the potential to really blow a lot of people's minds - especially when you compare the cramped nature of the Frieze/Zoo booth system which really doesn't let the art breathe.

What's been your biggest achievement in your career so far?
In terms of art promoting art, putting on seven successful shows in New York which started from nothing more than a whim and actually covering costs (just). To date, I'm hoping that The Future Can Wait will be the biggest achievement of my career. In terms of film-making, I'm pretty proud of the fact that I've completed four features in 10 years and have managed to travel the world - from Korea to Argentina - on the back of them and have won a few few awards/prizes in the last 18 months.

Who is your favourite artist?
I have a handful of favourite artists in TFCW but I think it'd be unfair to say who! In terms of artists generally a massive mixture which off the top of my head includes: Chiho Aoshima, Takashi Murakami, Dr Lakra, Marcel Dzama, Ian Monroe, Jamie Shovlin, Idris Khan, Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Gustave Moreau, Paul Delvaux, Arnold Bocklin, Chris Vasell, Odilon Redon, Hieronymous Bosch, Hisashi Tenmyouya, Richard Dadd, John Anster Fitzgerald, Glenn Brown, Dan Flavin, James Turrell, Rembrandt, Olafur Eliasson...

What's your favourite artwork?
Similar to films and music, I've never had a favourite piece of art...

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the arts in the UK at the moment?
The biggest challenge facing the arts is more like a week long symposium at the ICA or a Masters thesis...Facing 'art', I'm not sure really...I've never really understood why artists aren't more like actors or musicians in terms of their popularity although I suppose a few like Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst are. I'm sure many of the artists we're curating will resonate with many people both young and old and at the moment I think one of the hardest challenges is to get your average 'lay person' to progress beyond an immediate exclamation that they don't understand art and thus can't like it. Whilst sometimes it is good to understand, I don't think this is a strict pre-requisite to appreciating or enjoying something...

Where would you like to go from here, career-wise?
Art-wise, to carry on curating bigger and bolder and more successful shows. Film-wise, to carry on making bigger and bolder and more successful films. Ultimately, maybe, to combine the both together and achieve global domination!

If you could have a complete career change and do something else, what would you go for?
Hmmmmm...Probably a highly successful hedge fund manager so that I could buy a lot more art and finance my own films!