Paul Schütze
Encyclopedia
Paul Schütze is an Australian artist resident in London
. Over thirty years his work has spanned composition, performance, installation, video, printmaking and photography.
Schütze was born in Melbourne
, Australia
. He spent his childhood painting and drawing but left Caulfield Institute after only two months of an Arts Foundation Course to work in a factory. There he earned the money to buy his first electronic musical equipment. In 1979 he spend several months travelling and ended up in London where he immersed himself in concerts, museums and galleries. Returning to Melbourne he formed seminal improvising group Laughing Hands with Gordon Harvey, Ian Russell and Paul Widdicombe. The group existed in several forms until disbanding in 1982.
Schütze spent the next decade writing scores for films. His first feature soundtrack, The Tale of Ruby Rose (1987), won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best original Music Score. During this period Schütze lectured on film sound at both Swinburne Institute and AFTRS and worked as a film critic both in print and on national radio.
In collaboration with Michael Trudgeon, Anthony Kitchener and Dominic Lowe Schütze curated and featured in Deus Ex Machina, an ambitious exhibition/ publication at Monash University
in 1989. This was to be his first sound installation and subsequently his first solo album.
In 1992 Schütze re-located to London during a period of particular fertility in the independent music scene and released nearly thirty albums of original works over the next decade. Schütze contributed writings to The Wire
,
and performed his music in Europe, Scandinavia and Japan often with regular collaborator Simon Hopkins. In 1996 he formed improvising super-group Phantom City with Bill Laswell
, Raoul Björkenheim
, Dirk Wachtelaer at its core and Alex Buess, Toshinori Kondo
, Lol Coxhill
and Jah Wobble
as guest collaborators.
In 2000 Schütze was invited to exhibit in Sonic Boom at the Hayward Gallery
London by curator David Toop
. The same year he received a large commission for a permanent installation work for Cap Gemini and a second for a massive twenty-two screen audio/video work at the Gasometer in Oberhausen, Germany. He also contributed a sound work to James Turrell
’s Eclipse event/publication in Cornwall
.
In 2002 Schütze began working with Alan Cristea Gallery
London. In 2003 his first solo show Vertical Memory opened at ACG. The show included prints, video, sound and a huge wall work in which the whole of Alain Robbe-Grillet
’s novel Topology of A Phantom City was rendered as a continuous plane of silver text. In 2004, Stiftelsen 314 in Bergen, Norway mounted his solo show Garden of Instruments. This was the next stage in a large scale project that began in 1997 with the release of Schutze’s spoken architectural opera Second Site and continued with a series of lightboxes for ACG also in 2004. This project which is still ongoing now has its own site.
In 2006 Schütze began to work with Galleria Estiarte in Madrid showing prints, videos and lightboxes. His work is also shown at the Alan Cristea Gallery
in London. Following Schütze‘s two residencies at Cité des Arts in Paris making photographs, a solo show of photography – Twilight Science – opened in London at Alan Cristea Gallery
in May 2008.
An ongoing commission (initiated in 1999) to make a sound work for James Turrell’s Roden Crater
has involved several research trips and has now been completed as a five-hour installation piece in Dolby Surround
.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Over thirty years his work has spanned composition, performance, installation, video, printmaking and photography.
Schütze was born in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. He spent his childhood painting and drawing but left Caulfield Institute after only two months of an Arts Foundation Course to work in a factory. There he earned the money to buy his first electronic musical equipment. In 1979 he spend several months travelling and ended up in London where he immersed himself in concerts, museums and galleries. Returning to Melbourne he formed seminal improvising group Laughing Hands with Gordon Harvey, Ian Russell and Paul Widdicombe. The group existed in several forms until disbanding in 1982.
Schütze spent the next decade writing scores for films. His first feature soundtrack, The Tale of Ruby Rose (1987), won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best original Music Score. During this period Schütze lectured on film sound at both Swinburne Institute and AFTRS and worked as a film critic both in print and on national radio.
In collaboration with Michael Trudgeon, Anthony Kitchener and Dominic Lowe Schütze curated and featured in Deus Ex Machina, an ambitious exhibition/ publication at Monash University
Monash University
Monash University is a public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. Monash is a member of Australia's Group of Eight and the ASAIHL....
in 1989. This was to be his first sound installation and subsequently his first solo album.
In 1992 Schütze re-located to London during a period of particular fertility in the independent music scene and released nearly thirty albums of original works over the next decade. Schütze contributed writings to The Wire
The Wire (magazine)
The Wire is a British avant garde music magazine, founded in 1982 by jazz promoter Anthony Wood and journalist Chrissie Murray. The magazine initially concentrated on contemporary jazz and improvised music, but branched out in the early 1990s to various types of experimental music...
,
and performed his music in Europe, Scandinavia and Japan often with regular collaborator Simon Hopkins. In 1996 he formed improvising super-group Phantom City with Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell is an American bassist, producer and record label owner....
, Raoul Björkenheim
Raoul Bjorkenheim
Raoul Björkenheim is an American jazz guitarist. He was born to Finnish parents. His mother is actress/singer Taina Elg . He lived in the USA until he was 15 years old, when his family returned to Finland...
, Dirk Wachtelaer at its core and Alex Buess, Toshinori Kondo
Toshinori Kondo
Toshinori Kondo is an avant-garde jazz and jazz fusion trumpeter. He resides in Tokyo, New York City, and Amsterdam....
, Lol Coxhill
Lol Coxhill
Lowen Coxhill, generally known as Lol Coxhill is a free improvising saxophonist and raconteur...
and Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble is an English bass guitarist, singer, poet and composer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but left the band after two albums...
as guest collaborators.
In 2000 Schütze was invited to exhibit in Sonic Boom at the Hayward Gallery
Hayward Gallery
The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre, part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames, in central London, England. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings and also the Royal National Theatre and British Film Institute...
London by curator David Toop
David Toop
David Toop is an English musician and author, and as of 2001 was visiting Research Fellow in the Media School at London College of Communication. He was notably a member of The Flying Lizards. He was a prominent contributor to the British magazine The Face. He is a regular contributor to The Wire,...
. The same year he received a large commission for a permanent installation work for Cap Gemini and a second for a massive twenty-two screen audio/video work at the Gasometer in Oberhausen, Germany. He also contributed a sound work to James Turrell
James Turrell
James Turrell is an American artist primarily concerned with light and space. Turrell was a MacArthur Fellow in 1984. He is represented by The Pace Gallery in New York...
’s Eclipse event/publication in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
.
In 2002 Schütze began working with Alan Cristea Gallery
Alan Cristea Gallery
Alan Cristea Gallery is a commercial art gallery on London's Cork Street, founded in 1995 by Alan Cristea. It is the largest publisher and distributor of prints in Europe.-History:...
London. In 2003 his first solo show Vertical Memory opened at ACG. The show included prints, video, sound and a huge wall work in which the whole of Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet , was a French writer and filmmaker. He was, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simon, one of the figures most associated with the Nouveau Roman trend. Alain Robbe-Grillet was elected a member of the Académie française on March 25, 2004, succeeding Maurice...
’s novel Topology of A Phantom City was rendered as a continuous plane of silver text. In 2004, Stiftelsen 314 in Bergen, Norway mounted his solo show Garden of Instruments. This was the next stage in a large scale project that began in 1997 with the release of Schutze’s spoken architectural opera Second Site and continued with a series of lightboxes for ACG also in 2004. This project which is still ongoing now has its own site.
In 2006 Schütze began to work with Galleria Estiarte in Madrid showing prints, videos and lightboxes. His work is also shown at the Alan Cristea Gallery
Alan Cristea Gallery
Alan Cristea Gallery is a commercial art gallery on London's Cork Street, founded in 1995 by Alan Cristea. It is the largest publisher and distributor of prints in Europe.-History:...
in London. Following Schütze‘s two residencies at Cité des Arts in Paris making photographs, a solo show of photography – Twilight Science – opened in London at Alan Cristea Gallery
Alan Cristea Gallery
Alan Cristea Gallery is a commercial art gallery on London's Cork Street, founded in 1995 by Alan Cristea. It is the largest publisher and distributor of prints in Europe.-History:...
in May 2008.
An ongoing commission (initiated in 1999) to make a sound work for James Turrell’s Roden Crater
Roden Crater
Roden Crater is a cinder cone type of volcanic cone from an extinct volcano, with a remaining interior volcanic crater. It is located northeast of the city of Flagstaff in northern Arizona, United States.-Art project:...
has involved several research trips and has now been completed as a five-hour installation piece in Dolby Surround
Dolby Surround
Dolby Surround was the earliest consumer version of Dolby's multichannel analog film sound decoding format Dolby Stereo introduced to the public in 1982 during the time home video recording formats were introducing Stereo and HiFi capability...
.