In 1986, the year before I was born, Hannes Leopoldseder wrote Ten Indications of an Emerging Computer Culture; in this text she highlighted ways in which computers were about to change society.
They now have.
My work tends to be participatory or preformative and to encourage this I engage with minimal aesthetics as I feel that the minimal can provide an easily accessible framework for the interactions I have discussed.
Untitled (Firewall) which was showing at Airspace Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent came down last week, I was super pleased with it! I’ve never been more worried about a show in the weeks running up to it, I was concerned about making blinds, I was concerned about the polythene I had in place of back projection fabric and I was concerned that I was going to struggle to judge the work due to not having time to really view the work at night. Glen sent me some video of the work a few days after install and all that fear went away… it looked just as I had envissioned it. See the video below and the photo to the side! It was also an unusual show in that there was no way to get audience feedback due to it only being turned on where the gallery was closed and no one was there! So if anybody reading this saw it or has anything to say about the documentation please do!
I’ve started developing a more resolved piece than I showed during Exploring Local History through Digital Thinking for the end of my residency at Southam’s Cardall Collection; I’m begining to consider a display/information point around which discussion will take place about how religion and medicine have met, helped each other or opposed each other; again based around St. Wulfstan and Dr. Henry Lilley Smith on whom my research during the residency has focused. I have some ideas which I’m really excited about, I’m going to build a platform and table based on Southam’s Holy Well, a very old site in the town (http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=18421) and have various ideas of what I’d like to happen in/on and around these! Theres also the possability of getting some old church pews for the audience to sit on!
I’ve also been considering the screen as camera, I have been composing/cropping and snapping (PrtSc + Ctrl V) truley DIGITAL photographs based on google image searches for ‘digital photograph’… Need to decide how these are to be shown and to start to look at the results really critically but I’m quite pleased with the results so far and intend to enter one for the John Turner Photography Competition.
Also been writing various proposals, working on a performance/lecture for MSFAC, working on a publication for Althorpe Studios and Gallery and have organised Ryan Hughes Presents… TNT (http://www.facebook.com/events/155068594632600/) again at Althorpe Studios and Gallery, hope to see you there Friday!
Untitled (Firewall) @ Airspace Gallery
Only just realised its been a very long time since I last posted… Sorry! I’ve been really busy, this post will cover the last month of my life which has included producing and presenting new work as a part of Junction Festival of Contemporary Art, a group show as a part of Saltburn Arts Fair, presenting Untitled (Network of Artist-led Activity) at Supernormal Festival, planning two events for Althorpe Studios and Gallery and making new work for a solo show In The Window at Airspace Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent which I’m installing on Saturday! As well as all this I’ve been working on average 33 hours a week at Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum, I’ve not really slept much!
A-(Discussion)-Board, a work thats been in development for quite a while was finished and presented at Junction Festival. Quite interestingly no one utalised the cork board side, however, the blackboard side was so well used that text and images spilt out onto the floor around the work! This reminded me of the audience at Rirkrit Tiravanija’s show taking it upon themselves to draw on the walls without any hint that this is what they were ‘ment’ to do. It also reminded me of the Umberto Eco quote which I have used a few times before
“The poetics of the ‘open’ work tends to encourage ‘acts of conscious freedom’ on the part of the performer and place him at the focal point of a network of limitless interrealations”.
spacetimearchitecture was presented at Saltburn Arts Fair, I wasn’t able to attend the fair but the curators have sent me some interesting stats about it;
1000 visitors to the School Exhibition8000 visitors to the FairMany visitors to the Saltburn Artist’s Projects’55 attending the symposium100 attending the launch party95% of artist selling work
And the documentation they sent of the install made me very happy! I like the video being reflected in and around the space…
Untitled (Network of Artist-Led Activity) was performed at Supernormal Festival, the script is being updated as we speak ready for the next performance of the work which will happen at some point in the future! I think the next performance of the work will have a video backdrop of footage collected at the Lombard Method during the Grad Residency where the work was first developed, as opposed to the fabric backdrop used at the festival. On a side note if anybody would like a copy of the script from supernormal I have some left and will send you on for the price of £3.00!The next Show at Althorpe Studios and Gallery that I have curated will be Grace Williams’ Students Never Change. Grace has said
A one night solo presentation by Grace Williams charting the adventurous and performative antics of the Midlands Art student party brigade 1930s to present day.
Inspired by a selection of archival photographs taken between 1930 -1950 at the bi-annual School of Art ball ‘Students Never Change: Art student parties and nights out 1930s to present day’ explores the creative night time antics of historical and contemporary Art students, tracking how celebrations have developed over the years. This night time exhibition will be transformed into an event providing guests the opportunity to participate in the creation of a new set of images for inclusion in the work. Adorn fancy dress and become part of the future exhibition of this work whilst enjoying a varied soundtrack reflecting the generational musical changes of the art student party.
Through an interaction with Birmingham City Universities Art & Design Archive held at BIADs School of Art, this exhibition re-contextualised at Althorpe Studios and Gallery marked the first in a series of events, exhibitions and workshops developed by Williams that drew inspiration from Archival collections and coincided with the launch of a new web resource focusing on improving accessibility to the Archival artefacts.
For further information please visit:
www.archivesandcreativepractice.posterous.com
Grace’s show is happening on Weds 29th at 7:00, hope to see some of you there! Info on the other show will follow very soon and it will be very exciting!
I will post more about Untitled (Firewall) at Airspace Gallery after it is all installed at the weekend…
Untitled (Firewall) Detail
I hadn’t realised that it had been quite so long since I last made a post; time flies when your having fun and all that! But in all honesty, since Identity Politics @ Althorpe Studios and Gallery last month I’ve been increadibly busy so I’ll sum up fairly briefly what I’ve been upto in this post…
I think I’ll start with Exploring Local History through Digital Thinking @ Southam’s Cardall Collection and various other locations. This is the show that marked the mid-point of my year long residency and consisted of a window display and 100 publications. The window display whilst a piece of work itself has provided some very practical information for the end of residency show which I was hoping it would, mounting the work before installing to stop warping/crinkling, being one of these points! The publications have been very popular, 25 from Althorpe Studio’s and Gallery’s have gone, 25 from Annie Carpenters (of Rogue Studios Manchester) show at Oxfam have gone, 15 from Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum have gone as well as copies to my mailing list being sent out… Several people responded to the works call for discussion, my favorite comment recieved compared the animation to a ‘disco flowerpot’. If you have a copy of this publication and haven’t got in touch, its not to late! just use #SouthamsCardallCollection on twitter!
The other major project of my month has been a one-day residency/performance at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum. I won’t say too much about this work as I’m currently writing an essay on it to be published in an exhibiton catalogue later in the year, however, the day was excellent, I’m increadibly pleased with how the work went, had some great discussions both with audience members, which provided the title I’ve been struggling to find for the work and with Phillipa the project curator. There are photos to the right>>> and will post when the catalogue becomes available!
The other big time consummers this month have been a two week install of Going For Gold, a show exploring the sporting legacy of Leamington Spa at Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum and I’ve been curating a Solo Show of works by Jack Branscomb that is happening at Althorpe Studios and Gallery this Friday between 7:00 and 9:00pm.
Other than all that I’ve been getting ready for Supernormal festival and Junction Festival of contemporary art, both of which are going to be really great! I’ve not had time to give too much thought to the work for AirSpace but am very aware that I’ll need to start making soon! I visited Eastside Projects a few weeks ago and was particully interested in Alice Channers works with respect to the construction of my blinds for the AirSpace show…
Identity Politics @ Althorpe Studios and Gallery was a great success.
We had over 50 visitors, which for the first event in a new gallery in a out-of-the-way part of a small(ish) town is fantastic!
It seems that everyone really appricated being able to speak to the artists and performers about the works and everyone loved the catalogue that MSFAC produced!
The only trouble was that a big chunk of the audiece left after the first performance… I think through not realising that there was another to come. Not for next time include times in the catalogue or on the wall in MASSIVE letters!
Some of the photos from the night can be seen on Marc’s (a studio holder @ Althorpe) flickr page with the following link >>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/9shooter/7432847778/in/set-72157630265904504/
Some other photos are attached to this post and I’m waiting for some more from other people! The video’s too large to upload anywhere, but again, next time will sort out a live feed!
Working on a site/context specific piece of work for a solo show as part of the ‘in the window’ program @ AirSpace in Stoke-on-Trent. I think I may have discussed Firewall before (and have even posted video) but the work has not been realised and until VERY recently has not even been in development at all, just waiting for an opportune moment.
I will be showing the work in the two front downstairs windows of the gallery in late august… I’ll post more about the details at a later date when everything is confirmed (it doesn’t have a title yet)!
I’m interested in how firewalls (in computing) block access to files and how if made physical can stop acces to the gallery; with this in mind the work will only be visable when the gallery is closed, if the gallery is open the work will be turned off and put away. Due to the logistics of the space back projection of the video will only work on one side of the building, in the other windows I am making a rollerblind with a screengrab from the footage orinted over. This means that it can occupy the space in a convienient manner, can be on/off/up/down with ease to allow for opening and closing and even just popping out to get milk and questions the material/immaterial devide…
The proposal I sent off for this show describes and contextualises the work by saying:
‘The work will consists of a low resolution webcam video showing a full screen of burning fire. This video will be back projected on to a site-specific back projection screen made to fill an exterior window of the exhibition space, the exhibition space will only be entered to provide maintenance to the equipment inside, other that this the space will not be entered so that the video stops access to space in the same way that firewalls stop access to information, if the gallery is open then the work must be turned off. The work will only be viewed from outside but will be available 24 hours a day providing the gallery is closed. This process of eliminating access reflects not only digital processes but physical ones as well; it is something Spanish born and Mexican based artist, Santiago Sierra has explored in Wall Enclosing a Space at the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2003 but lays more contemporary concerns around security and technology over this.’
work-in-progress
I am intrested in walls and networks. They are our experiance.
