Claire Douglass

Claire Douglass, The Georgian Parlour, Sutton House, Hackney, London, 2002

In a genteel Georgian Parlour, the place for the taking of tea, I filled the available display cabinet with a multitude of unspoken woes. Each piece of crockery was inscribed with a secret that I'd collected from anonymous donors over the previous year. From simple admissions of dislike, to stories of hidden sexuality, rape and eating disorders, the accumulated angst was almost audible.

Inscribed crockery, Georgian display case

this is another one that captivates me, i love the inner text on the surface of the tea cups, a love how its all bound together making it un usable, but also so tightlky compaced that yo would want to open it for fear of breaking the lot.

she says abput her concepts and influences:

Your culture hates you. No, really it does. There are so many ways that the culture we collude with, works against our best interests. You can see it in the various artifices and self-mutilations we employ to reinforce our visible femininity, masculinity or youthfulness, but it could also be seen in the unattainable and conflicting aspirations that permeate our ideas of, Motherhood, alpha-masculinity, the good life, success, the happy family. Take your pick, there’s any number of ways to measure yourself and be found wanting. It seems that to varying degrees, we have all been conscripted to reproduce the collective fiction of whatever culture we’ve inherited. If these ideas weren’t so damaging to the participants, they might be no more than a series of interesting observations, but there is private shame when we collude with, but cannot ourselves mirror the attributes that we aspire to. The anomaly between societal myth and our personal experience, the space where our own experience doesn’t quite match up to the expected culturally enforced model, that’s the bit I’m interested in. I am presently engaged in creating images that could have come from a parallel universe where these ideas are no more than historical artefacts. A universe where maybe the human species is allowed to be less than perfect.

this last bit just causes me to explore futher these ideas and maybe re considered people who infulence her like : Louise Bourgeois, Cornelia Parker, Tristram Hillier, Tony Cragg, Christian Dior, The V &A

http://www.axisweb.org/seCVFU.aspx?ARTISTID=5687 

more AR Clare Charnley

Clare Charnley

Concepts/ideas/themes
For some time I have investigating the problematics of intercultural dialogue, with particular reference to nationalism and the politics of language. Employing live art for its directness and its high risk of embarrassment, this inquiry initially took the form of a six-year collaborative project in a range of countries (Speech 2002-20077). Speech acknowledges, and then utilises, different cultural experiences, urgencies and intentions. It is not based on consensus. One of my collaborators described the work as opening up situations of mutual vulnerability. It has lead to the publication of So communication… translating each other’s words, co edited with Katrin Kivimaa, in which issues of language are considered by an international selection of writers, artists and academics pondering themes drawn form the performances. Word Exchange involves swapping stories with the public about language(s) and pleasure, and about subjective attraction to specific words (Fresh Festival Hastings UK; Humbermouth Literature Festival, UK). In the process I have built up an evolving collection of brief recordings of individuals’ linguistic loves (in Kurdish, Somali, Cornish, Swedish, Portuguese, Taiwanese, English, Cantonese, Mandarin, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Welsh, Russian, Icelandic, Arabic, Estonian etc). These recordings are made and held on simple yellow record/playback units (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsedlf1w_4Y ) which were activated in a performance at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. In Misunderstandings, another ongoing project, other’s firsthand verbal accounts of misunderstandings (cultural, linguistic, behavioural, technological etc.) are pitted against each other. As anecdotes they become a means of verbalising understandings and interpretations, as well as a process of laughing at the flaws, pitfalls and general unreliability of communication. Some of these stories have been told many times and polished in the process so that they better represent the teller’s worldview. Sometimes they reveal assumptions, prejudices or fears. At other times they point towards romantic imaginings about the other. There is much comedy in misunderstanding, and the teller often recounts in a humorous way, laughing as they do so. The laughter can be directed towards themselves who may be revealing an act of ignorance, naivety or stupidity. In these cases the telling of the story is often an act of generosity on the part of the narrator. Immigrants’ experiences are often rich in misunderstandings, both as misunderstander and misunderstandee. However, although misunderstandings are can be generated by difference it is also important to recognise that the phenomena of misunderstanding is universal, and gather material from as many sectors and in as many languages as possible. Exhibited together in a database, these parallel stories will build a grand and complex narrative about the process of forging meaning in incomprehensible situations – an activity that can evidence great creativity and ingenuity

The language lesson (100 teachers and 1pupil), 2008

UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

live art, sound

so with claires work its the facnation of words and storys, how they are forms and how we can all realte, it reminds me of a friends who is a story topper- she must always realte it back to her better story of a simalr sistuation making your irrilavant, makes me smile i'm sure we all have one of these friends.






i also liek how she explore using these communitcations and storys diffreance in cutlutral experiances thsi is somehting for em to futher consider with my own practice.

AR -Rebecca Beinart

Rebecca Beinart

My practice investigates the way we shape the places we inhabit, and how they in turn shape us. I make live events in public places, installations, and interventions. My projects frequently take the form of an experiment in which you are invited to take part: exploring the territory between art, ecology and politics.

a love this exploration between the art and the everyday, how we inhabit space is also a bit of a facination of mine, and i can see my practie drifting in thsi dorrection,

here peice: Tea Potential Mobile Experiment, 2008 facinates me, as it is very simalr to what i did with my distruption peice.

she describes it as: The Tea Potential Mobile Experiment is a self-sufficient Tea Party mounted upon a bicycle. The bicycle makes journeys in search of plants to brew up, fuel for the fire, water, and company. The bicycle is ready to unfurl into a tea party at a moments notice. The project quietly asks about our hot-beverage habits, lines of supply, and the alternatives to be found in unexpected places.

Over the summer of 2008, the Tea Bike explored the Tea Potential of areas of Devon, London and Bristol. An archive of teabags records these journeys, made from foraged plants that have been dried and hand-processed. Each one is unique. Each one has a story.

Bicycle, table, umbrella, teapots, basket, storm kettle, foraged plants

i love the idea of each hvaing a story, but also suttle enquiring about tea drinking habbits, i think i should explore these as they quite excite me, maybe a form of menu, or index card with preferances.

axis artist research

Merlyn Riggs

I have a socially engaged, collaborative art practice, focusing on public participatory art works. It can be termed as Dialogical Art , Anthropological Art or Social Sculpture and takes the form of events, performances, installations or happenings but essentially they are not just artworks concerning passive observation, but active participation- the art relies totally on the viewer to bring it alive.

I identify relevant, common issues which deal with reality and produce pieces which stimulate dialogue and may provide a platform for further action.

Physically my work takes the form of installations using easily recognisable everyday found objects and social situations, culminating in work that emerges from wardrobes, appears in the context of a museum, poses as a Coffee Morning or on the pages of a cookbook. I also use the invisible materials that are available to everyone- feelings, thoughts, speech and conversation, giving them substance and form. Through audience participation, I hope to provoke more active and effective engagement with wider socio-cultural contexts. I bring together groups of people with a common interest creating a temporary community to generate relationships and communication. Food is a key element in my artwork I create social occasions built around hospitality . All of my artworks are peripatetic and can be set up in gallery and non-gallery spaces.

I create Contexts, provide specific Content and open Conversation.

My primary resource is the public, to participate, interact and collaborate with my work. I initiate non-threatening pieces to challenge convention and stereotypes, hand it over to the participants and work with whatever I get back. The participants become the authors of the work. The outcome is unpredictable and very exciting.

found at http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=13977

Merlyn Riggs, The Peripatetic Tearoom - Talking Tearooms, 2009, Tearoom in action food




Merlyn Riggs
Afternoon Tea, 2008, 'Afternoon Tea' is a peripatetic tearoom which is loadeded into the artist's van and set up wherever it is required. The image here is of the work installed as part of Retard This, Missexhibition at Corse School in Aberdeenshire.

The artist wrote 'Afternoon Tea Guidelines for Novices' to accompany the piece which reads as follows: 'The main issue is one of conformity. There is an institution of tradition which has laid down the basic rules which must be upheld. It would be wise to stick to these rules for your first attempt. I have provided a classic menu. If any recipes are needed please contact me well in advance. You will find there is room for individualism and flexibility within the sacrosanct boundaries of Afternoon Tea, but large deviations would alter the whole concept. Please feel free to bring your own personal stamp to the tradition. There is still considerable scope for creativity. My art deals not only with the everyday and the ordinary, but also with perception and recognition of the self. I challenge convention and stereotypes with individualism and flexibility. I am a social artist; I invite audience participation. Please, come along and have Afternoon Tea with me'.


this seems to be an artist up my street, she uses the everday to create temproy structure for conversation to form around, tho to me it seems too un structure, i'm not sure if i could reliqunisch conrol in the same way she has.

more unnecessary, but communication based

The Institute of Unnecessary Research

 

 

Antony Hall investigates the way we interface with technologies, visually, physically and idealogically, and how these interactions effect us creatively and socially..

Links

www.enktechnology.info

www.antonyhall.net

www.variableg.org.uk/ENKItech/introduction-video.html

Antony Hall’s performance at The Stone Bell House in Prague as part of the Enter 3 Festival called “Recreation of BZ Reaction” for more information see www.variableg.org.uk/art_work/bz_reaction.html

The ENKI experiment 3 was shown as part of the Interspecies exhibition.

See photos of the show here.

 

Head of Cross Species Communication - Antony Hall

“Antony Hall investigates the way we interface with technologies, visually, physically and idealogically”