A lot can happen in a day - Spoken Word Workshop

The second part of my workshop at Turf Projects was a Spoken Word workshop. Leading on from the Reading Group in the morning session, I gave the group a number of options about the dirrection they wanted the workshop to take. Given that the group would be performing the outcome of the session, they decided that they were most interested in using the text within the publication as a starting point (as opposed to writing their own text), and thinking about how to reinterpret it and deliver it as a spoken word performance.



The text chosen for the performance was called 'As planned', and it was written in two columns, with each column suggesting a different character. It had previously been performed by two people, each of whom read one column of the text.





The group reinterpreted the text and identified there being four characters - a father figure, a mother figure, the subject, the internal thoughts of the subject.



We began by taking each sentence and identifying which character was speaking.





Most of the text remained the same as the original, but we did change the tense used by the internal thoughts of the subject.



Once we had identified the different characters, we tested out assigning different roles to different people in the group.



After some experimentation, we agreed on the line up for the performance. 

The natural interpretation was that the subject was younger than the father and mother figure, so we decided to mix that up and use one of the older members of the group to perform the character of the subject.





We then tested out the positioning of the performers in relation to the audience.



We decided where the audience would sit and set out the seating as it would be for the performance. 

We positioned one of the characters (the internal thoughts of the subject) amongst the audience so as to differentiate it from the other characters.



We filmed ourselves rehearse and re-watched the footage so as to identify any habits that were problematic or ways that the performance could be improved.

A lot can happen in a day - reading group

One of the galleries selling my publication, A lot can happen in fifteen minutes is Turf Projects, the first entirely artist-run contemporary art space in Croydon, South London.



Turf Projects are a charity organisation working to support the development of artists, curators and the public through an ambitious programme of free exhibitions, workshops and events.



Established by creatives with a personal connection to the borough, Turf now comprises; a gallery space exhibiting work from emerging & established artists; an artists workspace & events space; and an affordable studio provision for artists & makers.



In an attempt to prompt dialogue and discussion about the themes raised in my publication, to get feedback from readers about my publication, and to think of new ways of presenting the text within the publication, I developed a workshop to take place at Turf Projects in their Workspace and event space.



The workshop was broken down into three separate, but linked, sections. The reading group in the morning was an opportunity for the group to discuss the content of the publication. The group read a number of the texts; sometimes the same text was read, but by different people. This highlighted the different ways in which the same material can be interpreted.



We tried reading some of the texts as a group, and others we read just by one person. We spoke about the difference between reading them aloud and silently. I was reassured by the extent to which people related to the content within the publication. Although the texts refer to highly personal experiences, they have aspects that resonate with others due to the overarching emotions or themes.

Delighted to see my publication in NewBridge Books' new location at BALTIC 39

On my recent visit to the MFA exhibition at Northumbria University degree show, I was delighted to see my publication in NewBridge Books' new location at BALTIC 39

'A lot can happen in fifteen minutes' is now available at The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh

My text, 'A lot can happen in fifteen minutes', published in collaboration with UnstapledPress is now available at The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh. 

We are wanting to increase the number of stockists selling the publication, so let us know if you have any recommendations, suggestions or if you would like to stock the publication, please do let us know.

If you can't get to a stockist, don't worry, they are available to purchase online from here:

http://www.unstapledpress.bigcartel.com/product/a-lot-can-happen-in-fifteen-minutes

My contribution to No Niceties exhibition - collages

The 'No Niceties' exhibition featured works by a diverse group of artists, some based in Newcastle and the others from all over the country. They were united by the premise of the exhibition, namely to make a work in response to my recent publication, 'A lot can happen in fifteen minutes'. Some artists responded specifically to one of the texts within the publication, whereas other artists responded to the general themes of the publication.

I wanted to create a work that acted as a summary of the publication, and so I selected a key sentence or phrase from each text. I chose to use letters cut out from magazines to form the words, and then applied them directly to the walls in the gallery.



I scattered the texts around the gallery at varying heights and sometimes specifically positioned a sentence in relation to one of the other works.

My contribution to No Niceties exhibition - spoken word performance

In addition to all the responses from other artists to my publication, 'A lot can happen in 15 minutes', I used the 'No Niceties' exhibition as an opportunity to test out a couple of ideas relating to the text.

Given the success of the spoken word performances at the publication launch, I decided to create another to perform at 'No Niceties'.



My performance was scheduled after Stella's performance, so while everyone was focusing on Stella, my group of performers got into position, spreading out around the perimeter of the room, each facing the wall.

Once Stella's performance had finished, my performers gradually began whispering the phrase 'The ticking clock', a line from one of the texts within 'A lot can happen in fifteen minutes'. After a few minutes an assortment of other single sentences or phrases such as 'Desperately searching', 'You knew what to expect', and 'No explanation', were gradually introduced by all but one of the performers. This single performer repeated 'The ticking clock' throughout the performance, but the other performers varied the lines they were speaking.



As the performers changed the way in which they delivered their lines, increasing in volume and altering their tone, they also slowly moved backwards away from the wall and towards the centre of the room. They ended in a circle, each facing toward the audience with their back to the other performers.

As they neared the end of the performance, they became more softly spoken and returned to delivering the single line, 'The ticking clock'. At the point when there was some regularity and the performers were in tune with each other, I called out "No Niceties," marking the end of the performance.

My thanks go to the wonderful individuals who kindly agreed to perform this work with me.

No Niceties contributing artist - Stella Dixon

In the No Niceties exhibition, Stella Dixon staged a performance. 

The gallery lights were switched off, and the freestanding lights lit up the 'stage' area which was suggested by an array of pink and purple balloons, some of which were shaped as hearts, scattered on an area of tin foil on the floor.

Dressed in joggers and a pink bra, Stella entered the stage area as the music began to play. 

Over the course of the song, Stella performed to the mirror on the wall, rather like the way a teenage girl may practice in front of a mirror in her bedroom.

No Niceties contributing artist - Edwin Li

I haven't forgotten about the remaining three artists who contributed to the 'No Niceties' exhibition that I have yet to blog about.

Not only did Edwin Li deliver his amusing interpretation of the 'A lot can happen in fifteen minutes' text in which he recited a number of alternative sentences that were constructed from rearranging the letters used in the 'Order of texts' page, but he also acted as an entertaining compare, introducing each of the performances to the audience.

No Niceties contributing artist - Kathryn Brame

"Absence, loss, time and memory are all key concerns that influence my practice and after reading Helen’s text ‘A lot can happen in fifteen minutes’, it became clear to me there were similarities between our work. I felt that while the texts described a collection of awkward moments, they also portrayed a real sense of loneliness and isolation and of an individual having to deal with each of these scenarios alone. Sections of text such as: “You opened your eyes. Desperately searching for him. He was not there” and “She avoids you. As much as you avoid her” all spoke to me as moments of struggle and frustration with human connection."

"My work has often involved a single figure placed within a void, removing any clear sense of time or context. The space surrounding the subject and in which the work is shown is integral, serving perhaps as a form of protection, a means of heightening the subject’s importance or space for the viewer to add their own narrative. I submitted two pieces of work in response to Helen’s text – the first was a painting of a small figure looking out of the picture plane into the room, possibly searching for something or someone. I thought this work echoed the sense of loneliness I felt emanating from the texts."

"I also showed a very small text piece called ‘Everything will be alright’. This was a line taken directly from the text ‘You stand at the platform’ but was also a line used by Helen in her MFA Degree show sound piece ‘Everything will be alright’. I felt this line summed up the general feeling of all of the texts - that although these awkward and difficult moments have happened, there is still a sense of hope that everything will be alright."

www.kathrynbrame.com

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No Niceties contributing artist - Cecilia Stenbom

Newcastle-based artist, Cecilia Stenbom created an audio work for the No Niceties exhibition. Buzz was comprised of 15 recordings layered into a single track. The recordings were done over the course of one week, at different times of the day, capturing various everyday activities at home, studio and in public space, creating a record, of the uneventful and mundane of everyday existence.



Stenbom writes, "My work, primarily screen-based, is concerned with narrative and the everyday; notions of identity and human interaction. I examine collective experiences by reinterpretation and appropriation, employing both documentary and fiction conventions. I am interested in how the mundane and everyday is narrativised; the process of turning real experiences into fiction."

Originally from Sweden Cecilia has lived and worked in Helsinki and Glasgow before moving to the North East of England. Forthcoming and recent projects includes; Somewhere Becoming the Sea (2017) , Group Exhibition part of City of Culture, Hull, curated by Steven Bode and Film & Video Umbrella, Beam Reach Blasting and Parallel (2016) commission for Tall Ships Cultural Programme (UK and Sweden) In Waiting (2014), commission by Creative England, The List (2014), Figure two, BALTIC 39, Newcastle Upon Tyne.

www.ceciliastenbom.se

www.workplacegallery.co.uk

No Niceties contributing artist - David Sherry

Glasgow-based artist, David Sherry contributed a performance sculpture 'Glue the glue with the glue free standing tube of glue glued by its own glue' to the No Niceties exhibition.



In his absence, Sherry sent the following instructions to be performed by a 'helper'.


A tube of Yellow UHU glue, glued upright, standing free. As a performance sculpture.

On a plinth or old table, a helper opens the glue and glues the nozzle of the UHU glue with the UHU glue to the middle of the plinth or table top.

Holding the glue tube while it glues - in an upright position until it is glued free standing.

The performance is someone holding the glue until its glued upright and can stand on its own.



Sherry writes,

"My work includes performance, drawing, video, sculpture, and sound. My work reflects on cultural codes, asking questions of basic learned behaviours: What is work? What is success? What is respect? What is a living? What is happiness? Etcetera.

Central to my approach is ‘play’. I use the different processes of my practice to develop opinions and mini philosophies relating to common experiences. Many of my works aim to process ordinariness into an artistic source which is meaningful and creative."

Sherry graduated with an MFA from Glasgow School of Art in 2000. This year he will be performing at the Liverpool Biennial and Manifesta 11. He has had solo exhibitions at Outpost Norwich; Summerhall Edinburgh, Catalyst Arts Belfast; Villa Concordia Germany; Glasgow Museum of Modern Art and Tramway’s project space Glasgow. Selected group exhibitions including ‘Generation’ at the Kelvingrove Glasgow, ‘RIFF’ Baltic 39 Newcastle, Film and video at BBC Scotland, ‘Grin and Bear It’ at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork and ‘One fine morning in May’ at GAK Bremen. In 2003, Sherry was selected to represent Scotland at the 50th Venice Biennale and his work is held in many collections including the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art.

More information about his work can be seen at

www.dave-sherry.com

No Niceties contributing artist - Fang Qi

Fang Qi is a Chinese artist and illustrator with a BA degree in Public Art and MA degree in Visual Communication Design in Jiangnan University, China. She is currently based in Newcastle upon Tyne since 2014 being a Ph.D. candidate at Fine Art at Newcastle University.

Her contribution to 'No Niceties' was Ripening, a line drawing on paper.



Qi's research explores the relationship between the illustration and installation art which contributes to the new visual narrative strategies in the illustration which helps to reconstruct the self and identity.



For more information about her work, please visit

http://www.fangqiart.com

No Niceties contributing artist - Rosie O'Grady

Rosie O'Grady's contribution to the No Niceties exhibition was a short video titled Job Seeker. 

Rosie O’Grady lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland. She graduated from Glasgow School of Art and University of Glasgow with an MLitt Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art) in 2015, and from Glasgow School of Art with a BA(Hons) Fine Art (Painting & Printmaking) in 2013. O'Grady was selected for a Graduate Residency at Hospitalfield (2015) and was awarded a special commendation as a Finalist in Saatchi’s New Sensations (2013). She was a committee member at Market Gallery between August 2014 - August 2016 and recently worked as Programme Coordinator at Glasgow Sculpture Studios.



"The video Job seeker responds to the biographical snapshots and colourful designs of Helen Shaddock's publication A lot can happen in fifteen minutes. Advertised job titles flash in succession over footage of rock pools, fluorescent buoys, and seaweed-clad boats. These coastal scenes operate like stock imagery of a beach holiday, although the hand-held camera, white skies and water surface – unsettled by high winds – bely a reality altogether less glossy and tropical."



"The role titles for jobs in various fields and industries briefly become suggested narratives, characters or extracted insights into a range of daily experiences."



"The accounts of simultaneous anxiety and absurdity within Shaddock's publication are mimicked in the video through the pace at which it offers a diverse selection of career paths to an accompanying soundtrack of song introductions relating to freedom, the weekend and a reluctance to work nine 'til five."



For more information about Rosie O'Grady's work, please visit her website: www.rosieogrady.co.uk (currently under maintenance)

No Niceties Contributing Artist - Sarah Grundy

Sarah Grundy is an artist who works regularly with music, text and live performance. Sarah's response to the publication for the exhibition was a song.



Having read the whole publication, "it was the order of texts that I mainly used because it felt to me as if the titles gave a summary of the general feeling of the publication and the words seemed like a starting point for a song, a framework to build on and make it my own. I then started writing the music and thought of a few ideas, but I ended up choosing the music that seemed most different to what I would normally be inclined to make because it put me outside of my comfort zone, which felt in line with the text itself. The atmosphere and feeling of the text therefore was the part that stood out to me, but also the braveness and generosity of the writing. It feels personal whilst bridging the gap with the audience and offers the readers an almost scary moment of honesty and insight. I wanted to try and also offer a similar experience and share something with the people who were at the exhibition."