Freee
Freee is a collective made up of three artists, Dave Beech, Andy Hewitt and Mel Jordan, who work together on slogans, billboards and publications that challenge the commercial and bureaucratic colonization of the public sphere of opinion formation. Freee occupies the public sphere with works that take sides, speak their mind and divide opinion.
Dave Beech, born Warrington 1965, studied Fine Art at Leicester Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art. Beech is a member of the art collective Freee, writer and lecturer at Chelsea College of Art. He is a regular contributor to Art Monthly as well as periodicals such as Untitled, Mute and The First Condition, he has examined the legacies of the avant-garde in essays such as ‘Art’s Detractors’, ‘Shock vs Awe’ and ‘The Politics of Beauty’.He co-authored the book The Philistine Controversy, Verso (2002) with John Roberts. his most recent book Beauty, is published by the Whitechapel Gallery and MIT and is one of a series of books documenting major themes and ideas in contemporary art.
Andy Hewitt, born Hull 1966, studied Design at Staffordshire Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art and recently completed his PhD at Chelsea College of Art. Hewitt is a member of the art collective Freee and teaches Fine Art at University of Wolverhampton. He co-authored the book Futurology, New Art Gallery Walsall (2009) with Mel Jordan.
Mel Jordan, born London 1966, studied Fine Art at Leicester Polytechnic and Birmingham Polytechnic. Jordan is a member of the art collective Freee and teaches at Loughborough University. She co-edited the book Art and Theory after Socialism, Intellect (2009) with Malcolm Miles and she has co-authored the book Futurology, New Art Gallery Walsall (2009) with Andy Hewitt.
Beech, Hewitt, and Jordan, along with Paul O’Neill and Gill Whiteley are editors of Art and the Public Sphere Journal.
Freee’s recent projects include: The Whistleblowers guide to the public sphere, The Narrative Show, Eastside Projects, Public Opinion Forming as Citizenship? The Word is the Individuals!, The Voice of Onomatopee, Eindhoven, NL. Petition to ban all advertising! (No more renting out of the public sphere), for the exhibition We are Grammar for the Partt Manhattan Gallery, The Pratt Institute, New York, USA. May 2011. Protest Drives History for the exhibition, Vectors of the Possible, curated by Simon Sheikh for BAK, Utrecht, NL. Sept 2010. Every Shop Window is a Soap Box, for the exhibition Touched, curated by Lorenzo Fusi for the Liverpool Biennial, International Festival of Contemporary Art, Liverpool, UK. Nov 2010.
Freee’s past projects include: Nought to Sixty, at the ICA, London; Terms Of Use, Centro Cultural, Montehermoso, Vitoria, Spain, curated by Lisa Rosendahl; How To Be Hospitable, solo exhibition at the Collective Gallery, Edinburgh; How To Make A Difference, solo exhibition at International Project Space, Birmingham and Protest is Beautiful, solo exhibition at 1000000mph Gallery, London. Past projects include: Gavin Wade’s Strategic Questions: 31. What Are Aesthetics? at the Venice Biennale 2005, B+B’s Real Estate at the ICA London 2005, and the Guangzhou Triennale curated by Hou Hanru in China 2005.
The Freee Art Collective Manifesto For A Counter-Hegemonic Art, project/publication was launched at the Venice Biennale in June 2007. It is also available from the Freee website.
