Designated Drivers
In relation to the current campaign against censorship and in particular the proposed SOPA & PIPA bills its worth considering Temporary Services‘ project Designated Drivers (link to pdf), in which they asked twenty artists and groups to “each put up to 4GB of their archives, research, films, videos, software, images, etc on USB drives” – the visitors to the exhibition were “invited to copy everything!”
Co-Producing PAR+RS
Creative Scotland has just formally announced that I have, along with Trigger (Suzy Glass and Angie Bual www.triggerstuff.co.uk) been appointed as Co-Producers for PAR+RS www.publicartscotland.com, Creative Scotland’s public art development project.
So I’ve got a provocative question to start the ball rolling, is public art a subset of visual arts or is it everything across all artforms that takes place outside the temples of art?
Creative Scotland’s press release is here.
What art have I seen? AHM State of Play
Ruth Ewan’s Brank & Heckle at Dundee Contemporary Arts.
There for the AHM State of Play symposium. Ross Sinclair’s rant by audio/powerpoint was very refreshing, Jean Urquhart MSP deserved a standing ovation and perhaps hit the nail on the head. The Manifestos were really good, especially Tara Beall’s.
Once again, and precisely because there was no policy agenda being promoted, one must think hard to understand the point. Most conferences are organised by bureaucracies seeking to promulgate their policy initiatives and secure adoption by practitioners. Conferences organised by practitioners tend to complicate and agitate.
So what were AHM attempting to complicate and agitate? The simple answer might be in Jean Urquhart MSP’s talk which ended with an invitation or a challenge for the artists to engage more directly with the political – get stuck in, get into the Parliament, get political, stop talking the talk and start walking the walk.
And this is probably true, although perhaps the ambition for AHM was more subtle and demonstrated through the one-minute manifestos. These were a platform for artists (in the broad sense) to articulate something, frankly anything, that they felt it was important to say. Over the three events, some were political, some humorous, some dadaist, some demonstrated their point through their form.
My manifesto was intended to set out what I think is important in doing what I do. I was glad to be able to be part of another two manifestos (in the end). I was part of Tim Collins Anthropocene Evolution Alliance and on the day I found myself being part of Tara Beall’s multivocal performance.
We all have stuff to say and we all believe that it matters.
What art have I seen?
Ingrid Calame at the Fruitmarket in Edinburgh
Martin Creed Work No. 1059, 2011
The Scotsman Steps, 2011, Photo: Chris Fremantle
Martin Creed Work No. 1059, 2011
10 Rooms: Artists Take Over
Do you recognise this building in Ayr?
Holmston House used to be the Social Work HQ in Ayr, and before that was a purpose built ‘poor house’. It’s up for sale, but is going to be used over the ‘Open Doors’ weekend 3/4 September for a creative intervention – as far as I understand there will be five rooms, one each for artists to hang work, and five rooms, one each for artists to make site-specific installations on the theme ‘Buildings in Ayrshire.’
This isn’t my project, but I did think (making a mental leap) of the Artists’ Rooms and wondered what if Gordon Matta Clark was doing a room? What if Joseph Beuys was doing a room? Michelangelo Pistoletto? Marina Abramovic? (I’ve linked to pictures of the specific works in my mind’s eye).
Please feel free to add your own suggestions/links…
Open Academy Ulaanbaatar
Jay Koh and Chu Chu Yuan of the international Forum for InterMedia Art has recently announced Phase II of the Open Academy in Ulaanbaatar.
Open Academy Ulaanbaatar is an art and cultural resource development programme and phase 1 took place in 2008 – 09. Workshops will be conducted from late May to July, followed by projects led by local participants that will take place till early October.
There will be 4 projects organised around the following categories:
- Project involving cross-sectoral collaboration amongst Ulaanbaatar residents, with ideas grown and negotiated between collaborators
- Project that emphasises practical execution of arts and cultural management knowledge gained from OAU
- Project that explores local historical and culturally relevant themes, to connect the past with present through practices, narratives, networks and/or structures
- Project on urban/rural ecology, to explore durational creative engagements with the ecology of communities whose livelihood depends on the land.
The workshops are open to all residents in Ulaanbaatar and all projects are led by local participants and selected through an open call process by a local panel. Workshop facilitators for Phase 2 are Chu Yuan, Jay Koh, Defne Aryas, Burka Arikan and Richard Kamler.
Open Academy has been carried out in Hanoi, Hue, Mandalay and Yangon since 2003 by international Forum for InterMedia Art (iFIMA). Open Academy Ulaanbaatar is supported by Prince Claus Fund from The Netherlands. enquiry: ifima@gmx.net
The University of Local Knowledge
Suzanne Lacy speaks (Thursday April 28, 7-9 pm, at LACE – Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions – 6522 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles 90028) on her recent project in Bristol, England entitled The University of Local Knowledge, its process of engaging with over 300 Knowle West residents, and screens a selection of video “texts” in this first presentation in Los Angeles.
Founded during the great depression in the early 1930′s, Knowle West is a small community in the southwestern English city of Bristol. Residents were relocated from run-down council estates (housing projects) to Knowle West to work in surrounding tobacco and bag factories. Eighty years later these factories have been redeveloped into urban lofts, but nearby Knowle West residents face unemployment, stereotyping, and limited access to higher education.
Lacy worked with two art organizations in Bristol-the Arnolfini Gallery and the community-based Knowle West Media Center to produce an art project that brings together three spheres of knowledge: the arts, the university (University of Bristol), and Knowle West Residents.
Knowle West Media Center staff and artists worked with Lacy to “map” Knowle West by recording 1,000 video pieces, called “texts” in this project, ranging from 30 seconds to 4 minutes each. Through extensive discourse with community residents, these texts were assembled into categories, or “courses” on a website to portray the “University” through the eyes of its residents. The site features “courses” on rabbit hunting (animal husbandry), raising children as a teen mom (adolescent psychology), growing organic vegetables (agriculture studies) and how to maintain classic cars (mechanical engineering).
The University of Local Knowledge was funded in part by the Department of Cultural Affairs for the City of Los Angeles, The Arnolfini Gallery, and the Knowle West Media Centre.
Postcards to Japan
Express your support to the people of north east Japan by sending original A5 art work postcards.
After the major earthquake and tsunami in north east Japan on 11th March 2011 power supplies, land lines, mobile phone networks and internet access went down, making it extremely hard to contact family and friends to find out if they were safe.
The post office were quickly up and running again and in many cases the first news that loved ones were safe was by postcard.
Inspired by the wonderful impact postcards can have, we would like to invite artists and poets to send tangible messages of support to communities affected by the devastation by making A5 size original artwork or poetry postcards and posting them to:
“POSTCARDS TO JAPAN”
Ukishima Net,
Iwate, Iwate, Iwate,
028-4423,
Japan
We will collate all the postcards received into an exhibition to tour venues in north east Japan. There is no deadline, but if we have as many cards as possible by the end of May we can start putting on exhibitions. We also hope to publish a catalogue of the postcards received. Any profit made from the sale of catalogues would be donated to recovery projects in north east Japan.
Please look out for updates on http://www.ukishima.net If you have any questions please e-mail info@ukishima.net
Call for Hints and Tips on public art
Following on from the my last post, PAR+RS has announced the collaboration on the development of a short publication series entitled Hints and Tips: four books (one for artists, one for project managers, one for contractors, one for inhabitants) of hints and tips on public art. All contributions will be permanently recorded on the PAR+RS web site and an edited selection will form the printed editions.
Heaven for the opinionated, ambitious, vocal, frustrated, determined, elliptical… and subtle people working in public… I’m thinking about my numerous bugbears, rants and offers of unsolicited advice.
Go to Hints and Tips · Reflections · PAR+RS for a detailed brief.
leave a comment