HUZZAH
A lot Can Happen in Fifteen Minutes is launched, and a lot DID happen. We decked out New Bridge with collaged boards and packing peanuts. Holly made her traditional jelly. I made a soundpiece. We found sticks of rock. Helen coordinated some experimental readings of the text. All in all a success!
Although I am happy with the sound itself, I have learnt that I am prone to making audio far too quiet. I was tentative in making this particular track, knowing that I did not want it to interfere with the event aggressively, but slip an occasional surprise, or unsettling tone into the atmosphere. Although I think I structured it well for that aim, I should always work too loud- speakers can always be turned down but unfortunately not all amps go up to 11!
We were lucky to have the brilliant support of Kuba who kept us all dancing into the lates and a brilliant turn out Go team & thanks Helen Shaddock for a ace collab
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A lot of people have been speaking to me about my work seeming like a tiny world. Although I don’t want to fall into cuteness, I have been looking at miniature works and worlds. Through making these little scenes of landscapes, artists show us our world from a different perspective, a surreal one, a humorous one, one small enough to become a clear political statement. Tatsuya Tanaka Laurie Simmons Simmons’ Early Colour Interiors comment on commodity fetishism and the restriction of prescribed gender roles.
Talwst Currently I am making things out of bits. It looks like I am having the world's most adorable nervous breakdown I am thinking about how to present these or develop them- which is a step I usually skip I'm torn between two directions of where to take this either separating individual spaces, using frames, plinths, giving them room to breathe and significance in themselves eg. this richard tuttle arrangement or continuing to treat them as collections, producing an aesthetic closer to the archive like cabinets or curiosities or something Cornell-esque Yay for UnstapledPress' collaboration with Helen Shaddock
www.unstapledpress.bigcartel.com/product/a-lot-can-happen-in-fifteen-minutes having completed our snazzy risograph 'A lot can Happen in Fifteen Minutes' we're now setting about working towards a launch event I’m finally getting round to collating a bunch of names and references and researches I’ve had sitting around in intimidating list format. Cross fingers this goes someway to curing my cerebral lime scale. Beginning with: Mika Rottenberg The New York based, Argentinian artist Mika Rottenberg creates videos which operate with a dream-like logic. Treading a fine line between the grotesque and the satisfying, the works tend to revolve around Rube Goldberg-esque machinery powered by women. Those women she employs generally possess specific and peculiar traits- they may be exceptionally tall, perhaps heavy or have unusually long hair. The artist’s interest lies with women’s bodies, and the way in which unusual characteristics can be turned into commodities. Her work Mary’s Cherries, for instance, was influenced by an acquaintance of the artist with a very rare blood type, who quit her job in order to sell her blood. Chris Dobrowski Granted, the tone of Dobrowski’s work is very different, and he often errs towards humour and self-deprecation (hence my enthusiasm- I expect!) The artist also works along the lines of invention. Dobrowski manufactures sculptures with titles which note the frustration and thanklessness of making. He toys with ideas of scale and miniature models and has also worked to construct his own getaway vehicles (for the artist on the run!) Unlike Rottenberg, these contraptions are designed to be functioning, but some of his machines have let him down (sometimes literally and at great speed). Employing these mishaps, he has created lectures on failure which function as an extension of his artwork. Liberty Hodes I also had the joy of experiencing the theatrical, agoraphobic melodrama of Return to Sueburbia last week. Although the slapstick and squealing was, at times, too much for me I still found a lot to appreciate within the work. The play was structured by a voiceover- the artist’s pseudonym, Sue Burbia discussing her experiences living alone. These short vignettes were then illustrated with an overwhelming energy and gusto by the blonde wigged cast who danced it all out provocatively. I loved the way it did not take itself seriously, and its totally unapologetic childishness and the general DIY aesthetic. ( In fact, I did wonder if the opening Chaz and Dave dance was a reference to that Spaced episode which makes mockery of contemporary art and its indulgent strangeness.) It was, as myself and the audience demonstrated- laugh out loud funny in many places.
Henri Chopin Whilst doing grinding along with our current UP projects (we are currently working with the marvellous Helen Shaddock to launch our collaborative publication ‘A lot can Happen in 15 minutes’) we have been thinking more about aesthetics Just diggin’ this guy's layouts I have also been looking at a couple of artists whose work relies upon the relationships between text/objects/ images. Victor Burgin An artist whose work represents a rereading of images, Burgin employs photographs alongside icons, texts and other images to uncover new significances. Art & Language I feel I could say a lot about this work by Terry Atkinson and Michael Baldwin but an empty space is worth 1000 words Carl Plackman I really enjoy Carl Plackman's 1975 statement "Some people appear to move and act as if they were completely at ease in the world. I have always felt ill at ease; my body fitting as awkwardly as my clothes, the spaces in which I move just that little too empty or too full, the air too hot or too cold. Some people seem to have confidence, others are always uncertain, constantly attempting to find their own space in the world - questioning their very identity. Things are never what they appear to be." As well as being aesthetically enjoyable, the scope in such works for a writerly reader is something I find fascinating. alternatively we could just blow things up Fischli Weiss style after much deliberation, UnstapledPress are embarking upon a new project, It is wonderful to be assisting the wistful and whimsical Helen Shaddock (whose work can be seen here www.helenshaddock.co.uk/) to create a publication of her writing. Although Helen has a definite style, it has hard to define it precisely. It is colourful, playful, often very funny but treads a fine tightrope above something altogether too familiar and sad. This delicate, tantamount-to-something sensitivity which even permeates the poetry is something I really hope we can reflect in the book's design. After discussing her preferred fonts, formats and patterns, I have been trying some things out. Ultimately, this may well end up being the project we have been waiting for. Analogue procedures, design, binding and maybe even our first risograph printing exploit woo! stuff, things, not so obsolete formats! Despite my recent, lengthy and overwhelming stagnation I’m still hoping to continue the lecture format, so I have been looking at some similar works with varying tones It’s not so much the content of these works, as their structure, voice and delivery that interests me. Sean Lynch- Adventure: Capital I saw this work at the Venice Biennale, and it was probably about the only thing I witnessed that really captured my interest. Composed from a range of footage- animation and then images of ancient masonry vs sky scrapers, Lynch uses the film to explore ideas of capitalist structures, myth and migration. The voiceover was captivating. A gentle and beautiful voice, speaking of contemporary society through the language of folklore. www.adventure-capital.ie/about/ Considering characters and different voices I haven’t felt appropriate in a lot of my recent videos, due to their personal and confessional nature. I have very much found myself wanting to deliver my own home truths. This kind of voice, however, makes me more inclined to think about constructing personas. Maeve Higgins I just enjoy the awkward, anecdotal and playful delivery Higgins uses in her comedy. It is a generous and everyday kind of humour. Spalding Gray – Swimming to Cambodia etc. With Spalding Gray, it is the speed and polish of his delivery I enjoy. Quite in contrast to Higgins, his narratives feel as if they have been planned and worked over. He retains a sense of intimacy despite abandoning the spontaneity Higgins harbours. The staging is something that I think I may start to think more about. I feel a bit hampered by technology, but I enjoy his ability to reel of his monologue like a story teller. His visual aids aren't an interference like mine may be, but subtle, spaced out and comfortingly analogue. still completely wracked with writer's block, I ended up playing around with materials and silly things. actually- even after a rough term- i quite like the look of all my assembled stacks on mass |