Monster Chetwynd - Leap - BBC Radio 4

I'm currently making a series of watercolours relating to the 12 months of the year as they appear in a calendar form. I'm interested in different ways to display data, and the calendar is one way in which time is documented. My life is governed by time, whether that be, for example, not having enough time, time moving too fast or time going slow when you least want it. I was fascinated to hear about Monster Chetwynd's response to this years leap day.

"What would you do with a day out of time?

The leap day, 29th February, is the result of an unsolved 3000 year-old problem. Conceived by the Egyptians, passed on to the Romans and reformed by Pope Gregory, it’s all too often a day that passes by without another thought.

This year, the artist Monster Chetwynd won’t let that happen. Known for her exuberant large-scale multi-person performances in fantastical environments, she delves deep into the leap year's ancient history and bizarre sexist customs to inspire a new radiophonic performance. True to Chetwynd-form, she brings together a group friends and collaborators in her Glasgow studio to reimagine everything she learns about the leap day into a wildly playful theatrical happening.

Monster Chetwynd was the first performance artist nominated for the Turner Prize in 2012. Her work includes a multi-person Cat Bus (2010), a Bertolt Brecht and Betty Boop-inspired children’s play Dogsy Ma Bone (2016), and giant luminous slugs slithering up the stairs and façade of Tate Britain (2018).

With contributions from Kristen Lippencott, former director of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.

Performance featuring Marc David, Bob Moyler, Jessica Ramm, Anna Danielewicz and Rabi."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000fp51

January

I often find myself thinking about time;
how time flies,
how I need more time,
how precious time is,
how time can go fast but also slow,
how to make better use of time,
how we know when is the right time,
how much time is worth,
how we measure time
and so on.

I've been feeling the pressure to be productive, fill my time and avoid wasting time.

Piotr Piasta: The Realm of Forgotten Existence at The Granary Gallery, Berwick-upon-Tweed

I first met Piotr Piasta towards the end of 2014 when he gave an artist talk at ISIS Arts in Newcastle at the beginning of his 6 month residency at Berwick Visual Arts, Berwick-upon-Tweed. I was really impressed with his work, and excited to see what he would produce during the residency. I was not disappointed.

His residency was "in partnership with the Centre for Rural Economy (CRE) at Newcastle University, a research centre specialising in interdisciplinary social science, researching rural development and policy, food and society, and the wellbeing of rural communities.

For this residency Berwick Visual Arts and CRE were interested in proposals from artists that responded to theme ‘Beyond the Rural Idyll’ and questioned what and who is rural, local, authentic or vernacular and that explore rural life and society beyond idyllic representations.


Piotr's artwork explores themes of history, time and memory often within a rural context and he is particularly interested in ageing within rural communities and the stories and memories of older people. His practice is particularly relevant to the themes of this residency, as an ageing rural population is a growing concern in rural areas, with social exclusion and isolation too often being part of growing old for many in the countryside.

During his residency Piotr has spent time with older people in Berwick, listening to stories about life in the town and using this to inform a series of oral history interviews with older people – many who have lived in Berwick all their life.

The resulting series of five short films combine these interviews with archive material from Berwick Record Office and new film footage of Berwick-upon-Tweed and Northumberland shot by the artist, in an attempt to interpret these stories."

http://www.berwickvisualarts.co.uk/whats-on/63/piotr-piasta-the-realm-of-forgotten-existence


Each film focuses on a particular aspect of rural life in Berwick-upon-Tweed, such as the building of walls, farming of cattle and sheep and mussel fishing. A different voice of an elderly resident of Berwick-upon-Tweed features in each film. The dialogue is very natural, not like a scripted reading, nor indeed an interview per se, but more like an extract from a conversation with only one person talking. 

The visuals move seamlessly from black and white into colour, blurring the boundary between archive material and recently filmed footage. The camera moves fluidly in both types of imagery; panning the scenery; surveying the land. This creates the continuity between past and present, and makes for pleasurable viewing. 

Piasta has a real talent for making moving paintings, and it is obvious from the accounts of the residents, that they have developed a strong friendship with the artist. He is extremely respectful of the individuals, and it is obvious from watching him talk to locals in the gallery today, that he is a valued member of the Berwick-upon-Tweed community.

Caterina Fake suggests how to create time

Once again I am sitting at my computer after midnight trying to catch up on the emails of the day, and do some work. If only I could survive without sleep, if only I could clone myself, if only I could create more time. But how?

Caterina Fake suggests:

1. Eliminate or reduce media. TV, for starters. That's easy. Computers, since I work in tech, and love the internet, is less easy. Smartphones, also not easy. For a while I had my email retrieve messages from the server only at 10AM and at 4PM. That was brilliant. I should do that again. And at another time I spent roughly an hour online in the morning and another hour in the afternoon. Super! I was up to date on all my social media and yet I suddenly felt as if I had cloned myself, I had so much time.
2. Work offline. A blog post like this one can be written using a paper and pencil, and you're significantly less likely to find yourself, five hours after you started writing it, editing a Wikipedia entry on Even-toed Ungulates. I speak of what I know, friend. Paper, yes. Pencil, yes. Some of my favorite tools are listed on Lifehacker. 
3. Do less. Eliminate activites that are prestigious. Eliminate activities that require you to be around people you can't stand. Eliminate activities that you know are a waste of time that you keep on doing out of habit. Do things that add meaning to your life. Fulfill your responsibilities. Don't do things for people who should be doing them for themselves.
4. Don't make appointments or schedule meetings. This is difficulty level 8 or 9, but not impossible. One way around this one is the "come by Thursday afternoon" strategy -- that is, not setting a specific time to meet, but being flexible about that time the meeting starts. This is significantly less stressful for everyone and not even less efficient. Well, let's just say it is less stressful for me. I imagine it would drive more OCD or Aspergersy type people around the bend. 
5. Sleep in two shifts. Researchers have discovered that in pre-industrial times, people slept in two shifts, waking in the middle of the night for some solitude, conversations with another person, wondering, or wandering. Then they'd go back to sleep for another stretch. I have been doing this lately, and have been able to get 2-3 hours of uninterrupted creative work done in the middle of the night. 
6. Make time less precious. We are way too efficient, making use of every hour, every minute. When you were a kid, didn't you just spend hours poking sticks in the mud, climbing trees and sitting in them, looking at shells and seaweed that washed up on the shoreline? Time was not precious then, we weren't trying to stuff an accomplishment into every minute every day, we had time for thoughts and feelings. That was good! Any day spent that way was a day of joy and order. There was so much time.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20121002125913-3279-how-to-create-time?utm_source=swissmiss&utm_campaign=b8ac8c6040-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email