Announcing the Circus Between Worlds Facebook page

With a month to go until the opening of Circus Between Worlds today sees the launch of the Circus Between Worlds Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/circusbetweenworlds/) and twitter (@circusbetween) account.



Each day will focus on a participating artist, collective or collaboration.



The ball starts rolling with Zoe and Neil today and from tomorrow posts will be in alphabetical order.



Walker & Bromwich are known internationally for their large-scale sculptural works, participatory events and exhibitions that invite audiences to imagine better worlds.



Their expansive art works re-ignite Utopian ideologies through protest, pageant, celebration and contemplation, and have, at their core, a collective desire for an alternative way of living.

http://www.walkerandbromwich.org.uk/home.html

An exploration of playfulness in contemporary art

You may have noticed that activity on my blog has been rather sluggish during the month of January.

The reason for this is that I have had to direct my attention away from the studio and focus on writing my Master of Fine Art dissertation which had to be submitted today.



The dissertation has been a huge challenge, but I have found it to be of great value to my practice.

I chose to write about playfulness in contemporary art, and identified three ways in which play can be said to exist within art, namely: the form of the artwork; the process of making the artwork and the way in which the audience experiences the artwork.

These key aspects were the focus of three contemporary practice case studies. Comparisons and contrasts were made between sculptor Phyllida Barlow, collaborative duo Zoë Walker and Neil Bromwich, and Carsten Höller.

I identified how play relates to the artwork they make; the processes they engage in when making work and how the audience interacts with the work.

My experience of going to see their exhibitions, and in the case of Walker and Bromwich, being involved in one of their artworks informed the inquiry which was aided by an examination of secondary research.

I intend to make the dissertation available on my website at some point but, in the meanwhile, if you would like to read my dissertation, please do not hesitate to contact me.

My email address is helen.shaddock(at)yahoo.co.uk

Circus Between Worlds - workshop #1

I am delighted to announce that the proposal I submitted for The Circus Between Worlds project has been accepted. The project is part of Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2016 and is led by Neil Bromwich and Zoe Walker. It will take place in the ruined shell of the Alexander 'Greek’ Thompson Church on Caledonia Road Glasgow. A variety of international artists and students from Newcastle University, Glasgow School of Art, Edinburgh College of Art and Strathclyde University will present work as part of this ambitious off site-project.

Today I met with the five other students from Newcastle University that have been selected to present work. After discussing some practical issues with Neil and Zoe, we tested out some ideas in relation to my proposal. This work is performance based, and involves multiple performers. It was great to have a group of people willing to work with me to try out different ideas. I am excited about working in this way with each other to help foster a supportive critical network, and am looking forward to our session next week.

Here we are making different balancing poses in pairs.

Find out more information about the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2016 here:
http://glasgowinternational.org

Site visit to Caledonia Road Church

In support of my proposal for a performative work to be included in the Circus between Worlds programme as part of Glasgow International 2016, I went to visit the site, an Alexander Greek Thomson Church on Caledonia Road in Glasgow.
We met Neil Bromwich and Zoe Walker who are running this project (along with other artists from Edinburgh and Glasgow) at the site, and they showed us around.

A bamboo structure has been erected in the space by architect, Lee Baxendale.

Pallets have been piled up to form a kind of seating area.

The tall tower and outside wall will act as a dramatic backdrop for the performances.

The view of the Church from the road .

A group of architects have built a shelter just outside the gates to the Church.

After the site visit Neil and Zoe took us to their studio and showed us a model of the site and discussed further their ideas for the event and went through the proposal requirements. 

Now all I have to do is write up my proposal! 

Art Lending Library on tour

Today I took part in the launch of the Art Lending Library in Peterlee, East Durham.

The Art Lending Library is a project by 
Market Gallery and Walker & Bromwich.

The ambitious commission by Zoë Walker and Neil Bromwich takes the form of an experimental library and public procession. Originally conceived and curated by Market Gallery for Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2012, it provides the unique opportunity for the people of the town or city in which it is exhibited to borrow works of art and enjoy them within their homes, work places and community centres.

The Art Lending Library brings together over 50 works by a diverse range of artists working across the broad spectrum of formats available within contemporary visual arts practice. The project has been made possible through the generosity of participating artists in gifting their works into the care of the library, to be made available to loan for the duration of the exhibition.

The library structure is made up of multi-functional wooden crates. Each crate houses an artwork and is detachable and ready for transport to people's homes. On returning to the library the crate is re-attached to the body of the library and again operates as a display case. This modular design creates a constantly changing sculptural form that maps the user's borrowing. As people borrow or return an artwork they will also physically shape the library, becoming a part of an on going social sculpture.

The project stands in resistance to the tide of narrowing access to the arts and education by creating an egalitarian space where art can be borrowed and enjoyed by all sectors of society. Art Lending Library follows the model of a public lending library which members of the public can join free of charge.

Following its success in Glasgow, the Art Lending Library is going on tour, and today it was launched in as part of the inaugural East Durham Creates Festival. Here are the details:

Peterlee
Peterlee Memorial Methodist Church 29 Oct – 1 Nov 2014

Thornley
Thornley Village Centre 7 – 10 Nov 2014

South Hetton
Robin Todd Centre, South Hetton 13 – 16 Nov 2014

Artworks from artists based in Durham have been chosen for the Art Lending Library in this venue.

Artists that have been exhibited in Art Lending Library include Penkiln Burn, Graham Fagen, Joanne Tatham and Tom O'Sullivan, Mark Vernon, Ellie Harrison, Katie Cuddon, Henna Rikka Halonen, Oliver Braid, Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva, Mark McGowan, Karen Guthrie and Nina Pope, James McLardy, Stephen Hurrel, Alec Finlay, Laura Eldret, Calum Stirling, Andrew Burton, Laura Aldridge, David Sherry, Chris Biddlecombe, Stuart Murray, David Faithfull, Yu-Chen Wang, Jonathan Owen, Nick Fox, Andros Semieko, Kate V Robertson, Peter Evans, Beagles and Ramsay, Jemima Brown, Ally Wallace, Dean Hughes, Fernando Arias, Salome Oggenfuss, Roos Dijkhuizen, Kevin Hunt, Clara Ursitti, Tessa Lynch, Helen De Main, Sandy Grant, Jasmina Cibic, Pilvi Takala, Razan Akermay, Rachel Maclean, Pester & Rossi, James Stephen Wright, Romany Dear, Jacqueline Donachie and Roddy Buchanan, Tim Savage, Ciara Phillips, Catrin Jeans, Chris Mackenzie, Ross Frew, Ewan Manson, Rachel Barron, Sarah Laing, John Vella, Tom Nolan, Kate Murphy, Deborah Kelly, Michael Needham, Ashley McCormick, Annie O'Donnell, Dryden Goodwin, Gayle Chong Kwan, Iacopo Seri, Juan Pablo Echeverri, Margaret Harrison, Nick Kennedy, Nicky Peacock, Kraig Wilson

Designers Sophie Dyer & Sebastian Gorton Kalvik continue to deliver the design work for Art Lending Library.

The project is accompanied by a programme of free participatory events that are open to everyone.

 

Being involved in the parade was a really positive, fun and moving experience. A group of students from the Fine Art department at Newcastle University volunteered, and we were kitted out with librarian and art-handler outfits. The procession took us from the Methodist Church where the library is based, along the High Street and through the local shopping centre, leading back to the church.

 

Some of us were carrying flags, there was an art handler carrying an artwork which was then handed over to a librarian, other librarians were using the crates as drums, and we were handing out the Art Lending Library cards. An excellent brass band brought up the rear of the parade and added a crucial tuneful element to the memorable event.

Having seen the Art Lending Library in Glasgow, back in 2012, I was very keen to be involved in it here, and the experience truly enhanced my appreciation of this wonderful participatory artwork.

Walking down the grim, grey High Street lined by shops to let, value shops and bookies could have been a rather depressing experience, but the Art Lending Library brought a cheer to the streets and it was amazing to witness the light that people had in their eyes when we passed.

I gave a couple of lads some library cards, and a moment later they were helping hand out a bundle of these cards to others as they walked with us to the church.

Already there have been 4 items loaned out of the library, hopefully a sign of things to come.

At the briefing we were given some rather startling figures about the lack of arts and culture provision in this area, and I really hope that having such high quality artwork in Peterlee gives the community a sense of what contemporary art is and can be, and helps create a curiosity and desire for more.

For more information please visit
http://www.artlendinglibrary.org.uk/about/east-durham/

http://eastdurhamcreates.co.ukhttp://

www.walkerandbromwich.org.uk/home.html