Well, it will be once the other artists de-install their work.
Our trace has been removed, possession of the space made public once more!
Author Archive
The notion of the neutrality of the white walls and us as the artists challenging this gallery logic, marking it just with our presence was initially very intriguing. However having seen the video of the singing performance ‘Concert: The Lesson on Dis-consent’, we added to the mark making, therefore increasing the audiences curiosity and perception of our behaviour.
As you can see from the aftermath, we marked the white walls around the viewers and the artists’ work, claiming the negative space to be our own. Making the public space, private, in a sense by occupation, and also with the chalk and fluorescent post-it strip marks.
I believe we challenged the gallery logic and in doing so, may have managed to raise a few eyebrows! However maybe by just observing as watchers within the space, we could have achieved the same results.
We observed, we invaded, we interacted and we marked!
Our presence was certainly noticed and definitely bewildered some.
I thought I was out of my comfort zone, but having spent some time performing I found myself really absorbing the surroundings. A sense of merger with the negative space especially in the darkly lit room.
There’s a Thing Which I Can’t Remember, But I Feel Exactly Like That Now – An Exhibition by the Randomroutines.
Posted: May 13, 2012 by FaridaB in UncategorizedTalk about occupying space!
Artists: Tamas Kaszas, Krisztian Kristof, Ninni Wager.
This performance was recorded at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden on October 28, 2011.
This piece continues the series of musicals (songspiels) written and produced by Chto Delat and composed by Mikhail Krutik over the past three years.
The occasion for this latest work was the Chto Delat solo show at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. We could not pass up this opportunity to engage in dialogue with the legacy of Bertolt Brecht, who premiered two works,Mahagonny-Songspiel (1927) and The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent (1929), at the new German chamber music festival in this same city. We wanted to produce a new piece in direct dialogue and debate with the work of this great master.
The piece is based on a critical reading of a number of texts produced by the anti-psychiatry movement, which emerged in the late sixties and early seventies in the Europe and US, especially those of the well-known Socialist Patients’ Collective in Heidelberg. In our performance, a “chorus of patients” that has been invited to appear at the exhibition opening becomes engaged in dialogue with the audience.
It is also noteworthy that Baden-Baden is a city with deep historical ties to Russia, and even today it is frequented by members of the Russian elite, who go there to relax and seek medical treatment. We thought it important to critically reflect this state of affairs: thus, one of the characters in our performance is a “typical” Russian businessman, who argues with the chorus and voices the values of this new class.
Our work critiques the modern concept of a healthy lifestyle and discusses how we might radicalize it and “turn illness into a weapon.”
I like the idea of using the two rooms, 1 light and 1 dark to our advantage. Unified as a group wearing the same colour, we will have a bigger impact on our surroundings and on the viewers. All wearing black in a white lit room, our presence alone marks our space and like the Observers in Fringe will create curiosity within the gallery viewers minds as to why we are there and what we intend to do.
Maybe with torches or any other kind of light ,we could mark our presence in the dark room. I think being dressed completely in black (especially in this room) is somewhat unnerving and maybe a little disconcerting too, as black is generally associated with death and funerals. Going round observing or staring in this room will definitely be confusing or bewildering for others.
I’m not sure how the pin-hole camera works in the dark room, but we’ll leave that with you Maryam to look into.
Look forward to Friday when we role play observing others in a gallery environment!
Public Square, Mischa Kuball, 2007
Public Square, Mischa Kuball, 2007
Perhaps the most overt and temporal public work to date was Public Square, which Kuball orchestrated for the exhibition ’Das schwarze Quadrat. Hommage an Malewitsch’ [The Black Square, an homage to Malevich] at the Hamburg Kunsthalle in 2007. Kuball slipped across the boundaries of typical homage exhibitions with a serious, but not solemn, socially engaged action and a tongue-in-cheek poke at the pomposity of the art world. More than six hundred volunteer-participants walked in formation through the streets of Hamburg. All were dressed in black with the exception of the perimeter participants who were dressed in white, a living-and-dynamic configuration of Kasimir Malevich’s ‘Black Square’ painting, first shown in 1915 (4). The front line held a banner with the phrase ‘public sphere – every gesture in the city is politics’, and periodically the ‘living square’ chanted ‘Ma-le-witsch, Ma-le-witsch’.
The formation changed from a square to a rectangle and back again. In Kuball’s words, it referred to the ‘amorphousness of a tolerant society’, and a reference to a mid-1980s incident in Hamburg. More than 800 people demonstrating the evacuation of squatters and demolition of buildings in the Hafenstrasse district were surrounded by police and trapped in a kessel (‘kettle’) for more than a dozen hours, a strategy later used by police to contain demonstrations in other German cities. Kuball noted that the kessel and Public Square melds and melts into ever-present questions of political order and public tolerance. Press photographs of these kessel maneuvers show the white helmets of the police forming a de facto white perimeter that echoes Kuball’s ‘Malevich-ian’ black and white square, which supports the maxim that life imitates art. But it doesn’t stop there: a version of the ‘Black Square’ painting was mounted on the front of truck that carried Malevich’s coffin in the funeral procession in 1935. Kuball’s approach to work the public realm can be summarised in a comment made by the American artist-essayist Douglas Davis in 1976: ‘art is not life … it is an activity encircled by life, upon which it depends’ (5).
See Also, http://www.publicartscotland.com/features/3-Throwing-Shapes- for full description.
As discussed, I thought I would introduce you to one of the observers in the TV series: 
“September” played by Michael Cerveris.
The Observer appears to monitor Pattern events for reasons unknown to the Fringe team. (The producer has said there are no aliens in this show, so the Observer is most likely from an alternate Earth – but his origins have never been confirmed).
He is bald and has no eyebrows and is of average height. He is usually dressed in a dark gray suit with a matching narrow brim fedora, a white shirt and a dark tie. He speaks precisely, giving the impression that he chooses his statements with great care. He is generally polite and soft-spoken.
The Observer appears in every episode, even if only for a few seconds and at extremely long range. In a viral marketing campaign, Fox arranged for the actor who portrays him to appear at various “real world” events garbed as his character, and for the cameras to “find” him in the audience.
He is one of several Observers. As many as four have appeared together, at which meeting dialogue revealed that the Observers are named for calendar months. This implies (but does not state absolutely) that there are twelve of them. An Observer called “December” may be in charge; the others seem to defer to him, and he is the oldest appearing Observer seen to date. At least one Observer has died; they are not immortal.
Is The Observer a scientist? Someone from the alternative universe? Someone from our future universe? Is he Walter in the future? Is he Dr. Bell? Is he Dr. Bell in the future?
‘Space becomes a question, ceases to be self evident, ceases to be incorporated, ceases to be appropriated. Space is a doubt: I have constantly to mark it, to designate it. It’s never mine never given to me I have to conquer it’
George Perec, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, 1974.
When I was doing some research earlier, I came across this article and found it rather interesting as its about the gallery space we will be exhibiting in but also relates to our actual project in terms of SPACE. Have a read.
Jordi Ferreiro – “Drawing the space was an action made in the Art Center La Panera from Lleida, with whom I worked together with a kids group the idea of the white cube and I proposed them to draw a new three-dimensional space inside the exhibitor space, using tape in different colours.”
Collaborative action with kids
Rubbertape
2009
I was sat on the jubilee line train and saw this poem by Imtiaz Dharker, I had to post!
SPACE – Condition of Existence in the material world.
Posted: April 18, 2012 by FaridaB in UncategorizedI recently read this description for a course titled: The Geometry of Structure and Space, offered by The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, and I found it quite interesting in respect of our interest in the notion of space!
Space is one of the five conditions of existence in the material world. The remaining four conditions are: time, form, number, and substance. As ‘conditions’ they are considered ‘pre-existent’ to manifestation and become the laws by which the manifest state is held in being. Although the five conditions are interdependent, space is studied as a subject in its own right. The art of space is fundamental to all the arts. By definition, space is both the theatre of events and a participant in determining events through the word ‘direction’. Students are guided through the fundamentals of dimension, from point to line, line to plane, plane to solid (all as structure)….
In our case, in the exhibition, its interesting how we intend to occupy public space and make it our own, yet it is space itself that will determine how much we actually occupy. From point to line, line to plane, plane to solid, what kind of structure or mark will we manifest and leave behind to hold its own?
Felice Varini 
By JEROEN BEEKMANS | Published: WEDNESDAY AUGUST 5, 2009
The Pop-Up-City Blog http://popupcity.net/2009/08/tape-is-the-new-graffiti/
Today I stumbled upon the work of New York-based artist Aakash Nihalani, who invented a no-nonsense, effective and creative form of sticker art by taping up the walls and streets of his city. Nihalani’s creations add an extra layer to public space, forcing the passengers-by to stop for a moment and view walls or stoop from a different perspective. Check out the artist’s photostream on Flickr to view more of his work.
Check out Aakash Nihalani’s work, its pretty cool, http://www.aakashnihalani.com/
Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, Gordon Matta-Clark
Posted: April 12, 2012 by FaridaB in UncategorizedChristianna, re your previous images, check out this blog describing the events of the performance:
http://bombastictelefantastic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/laurie-anderson-trisha-brown-gordon.html
Considering the space within Site Specific Performance.
Posted: April 12, 2012 by FaridaB in Uncategorizedhttp://ssp2012caseywright.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/
I came across this blog and found these words rather interesting in relation to our own thoughts and ideas for our project:
“We therefore decided to think about space. The space between the performers and the audience and how our performance challenges the space. We then realised that the audience effectively become our performers and us, the interviewers become the audience. These roles of performer and audience switch continuously throughout conversation which is a dynamic of our performance that I really enjoy.”
Casey Wright
Revolutionary Performance Art in the form of dance! Step Up 4: Miami Heat
Posted: April 12, 2012 by FaridaB in UncategorizedYes, I know its a film trailer but I saw this trailer at the cinema and loved the reactions of all the onlookers around the dancers in the film. But what I loved the most was the bit that showed the reaction of the gallery visitors when the sculptures in the gallery space started to move. Keep a look out for that bit!
Towards the end of the trailor, you may feel this film has been inspired by Trisha Brown’s Walking on the Wall performance at the Barbican, (image posted previously by Christianna) when you see the dancers on the wall.
Universal Pictures will be releasing Step Up 4: Miami Heat in UK cinemas on 10th August 2012.
Check it out, cool trailer but even cooler ideas for our performance!
Enhancing Your Art with Negative Space – check out this article!
Posted: March 30, 2012 by FaridaB in UncategorizedInteresting article on the importance of negative space.
Although we are not exhibiting photography for the project, our project uses the same concept, working with the negative space around the art within the gallery, and making it our own for our version of art.
http://www.tutorial9.net/articles/design/enhancing-your-art-with-negative-space/
Installation view of Lucio Fontana’s ‘Spatial Light – Structure in Neon for the 9th Milan Triennial at the Palazzo dell’Arte,’ Milan (1951)
Fontana saw his work as a classic representation of what he called “a spatial environment” and described it as “a new element which has entered into the aesthetic of the man on the street.” As a recently renovated version of his 1951 neon goes on display in the same building in which it was first seen, Pasini explores its making, meaning and legacy. (Francesca Pasini on Lucio Fontana).
Read more at http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue14/lasso.html
Fontana’s first one-man show with abstract works took place in 1935 in the Milan Galleria del Milione.
Lucio Fontana lived in Argentina as of 1939, where he found the private academy Altamira in 1947, he and his students at the academy composed the “Manifiesto Blanco” (white manifesto), demanding the synthesis of artistic genres and the renunciation of traditional materials. Back in Milan in 1947, he found the “Movimento spaziale” and wrote the “Primo Manifesto dello Spazialismo”, demanding a new form of space-oriented art. Two years later he realized the projects “Ambiente nero” and the first “Ambiente spaziale” in the Galleria del Naviglione: objects painted with fluorescent colors in a darkened room were illuminated by an ultraviolet light. He composed the second manifesto of the Spazialismo the same year, followed by the third in 1950 and the fourth in 1951.
Fontana was to open up the way for subsequent artists to use neon. And many did. For Bruce Nauman, Dan Flavin and Keith Sonnier, it was a key element. As well as Mario Merz, Joseph Kosuth and Franz West, a younger generation have also utilised it to great effect, including Tracey Emin, Martin Creed, Gabriel Kuri and Patrick Tuttofuoco.
Patrick Tuttofuoco’s ‘Olympic’ (2005) installed in a Milanese Courtyard
In & Out Of Space – Angel’s Egg
Single-channel, visual and conceptual video art that explores human consciousness and philosophical ideas, through digital media. Screened at international video festivals and contemporary art exhibitions.
Check out his website at http://www.lozano-hemmer.com/ for his really inspiring projects.
One of his many brilliant projects was “Voice Array“. Audience participation in a very clever way.
As a participant speaks into an intercom, his or her voice is automatically translated into flashes of light and then the unique blinking pattern is stored as a loop in the first light of the array. Each new recording pushes all previous recordings one position down and gradually one can hear the cumulative sound of the 288 previous recordings. The voice that was pushed out of the array can then be heard by itself.
Another one of his projects titled “Tape Recorders“, used rows of motorised measuring tapes to record the amount of time that visitors stay in the installation. As a computerised tracking system detects the presence of a person, the closest measuring tape starts to project upwards. When the tape reaches around 3 meters high it crashes and recoils back. Each hour, the system prints the total number of minutes spent by the sum of all visitors.
Well worth checking out this artist!
Mark Daye is a Canadian Graphic Designer whose use of signs in a public space has been well publicized in the press.
Official looking street signs pertaining to messages of homelessness — installed around the city streets of Toronto: Concept & design.
Art is… a question mark in the minds of those who want to know what’s happening. ~ Aaron Howard
I believe questions will certainly be raised within the gallery space with our art!
Another interesting public artist:
Mark Jenkins (born 1970 in Alexandria,Virginia ) is an American artist most widely known for the street installations he creates using box sealing tape. In addition to creating art, he also teaches his sculpture techniques through workshops in cities he visits.
Jenkins’ practice of street art is to use the “street as a stage” where passersby become actors. Many of his installations have resulted in intervention by the authorities whom he also regards as actors. Most of his early outdoor works were non-commissioned.
Jenkins said the following about the illegal aspects of street art during an interview with art critic Brian Sherwin, “There is opposition, and risk, but I think that just shows that street art is the sort of frontier where the leading edge really does have to chew through the ice. And it’s good for people to remember public space is a battleground, with the government, advertisers and artists all mixing and mashing, and even now the strange cross-pollination taking place as street artists sometimes become brands, and brands camouflaging as street art creating complex hybrids or impersonators. I think it’s understanding the strangeness of the playing field where you’ll realize that painting street artists, writers, as the bad guys is a shallow view. As for the old bronzes, I really don’t see them as part of what’s going on in the dialogue unless addressed by a new intervention.
http://xmarkjenkinsx.com/outside.html
http://xmarkjenkinsx.com/tapesculpture.html
Georges Rousse – Interesting excerpt from his biography
Posted: March 21, 2012 by FaridaB in Uncategorized“His raw material is Space: the space of deserted buildings. Taking his inspiration from a site’s architectonic quality and the light he finds there, he quickly chooses a “fragment” and creates a mise-en-scène, keeping in mind his ultimate goal, creating a photographic image. In these empty spaces, Georges Rousse constructs a kind of utopia that projects his vision of the world–his imaginary “universe.” His creation both expresses his artistic intentions and resonates with his impressions of the site, its history and its culture. Finally, this results in a photograph, a flat plane, so the shapes he paints and draws, and the volumes and architectural constructions he creates in those massive spaces seem fractured or split on different levels. His photo masterfully brings together painting, architecture, and drawing. It carves out a new space in which the artist’s fictive world becomes visible.
At the heart of this questioning the definition of art, his work deals with our relationship to Space and Time.”
Taken from:
http://www.georgesrousse.com/english/informations/biography.php
I was looking up some public artists and came across Georges Rousse. He has participated in numerous biennials (Paris, Venice, Sydney) and received many prestigious awards
Rousse has created artwork similar to that of Felice Varini, who I posted about previously.
However Rousse’s portfolio includes far more than the use of illusionary geometric shapes within a space, especially his work between 1981 and 2007. I’m very inspired by this artist and I’m sure you will be too.
http://www.georgesrousse.com/english/reception.html
Suggested viewing: MEDEA (1969 film by Pier Paolo Pasolini)
Posted: March 20, 2012 by FaridaB in Uncategorized
A commanding presence’: Maria Callas in Medea. Photograph: Allstar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGPd411gOYA
To win the kingdom his uncle took from his father, Jason must steal the golden fleece from the land of barbarians, where Medea is royalty and a powerful sorceress, where human sacrifice helps crops to grow. Medea sees Jason and swoons, then enlists her brother’s aid to take the fleece. She then murders her brother and becomes Jason’s lover. Back in Greece, the king keeps the throne, the fleece has no power, and Medea lives an exile’s life, respected but feared, abandoned by Jason. When she learns he’s to marry the king’s daughter, Medea tames her emotions and sends gifts via her sons; then, loss overwhelms her and she unleashes a fire storm on the king, the bride, and Jason.
Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in. ~ Amy Lowell
This could be true for any piece of art in any media but it could also apply to our intended artistic performance of leaving each personality’s mark, in the space, on the day!
My field of action is architectural space and everything that constitutes such space These spaces are and remain the original media for my painting. I work “on site” each time in a different space and my work develops itself in relation to the spaces I encounter.
I generally roam through the space noting its architecture, materials, history and function. From these spatial data and in reference to the last piece I produced, I designate a specific vantage point for viewing from which my intervention takes shape.
The vantage point is carefully chosen: it is generally situated at my eye level and located preferably along an inevitable route, for instance an aperture between one room and another, a landing… I do not, however, make a rule out of this, for all spaces do not systematically possess an evident line.
It is often an arbitrary choice. The vantage point will function as a reading point, that is to say, as a potential starting point to approaching painting and space.
The painted form achieves its coherence when the viewer stands at the vantage point.When he moves out of it, the work meets with space generating infinite vantage points on the form. It is not therefore through this original vantage point that I see the work achieved; it takes place in the set of vantage points the viewer can have on it.
If I establish a particular relation to architectural features that influence the installation shape, my work still preserves its independence whatever architectural spaces I encounter. I start from an actual situation to construct my painting. Reality is never altered, erased or modified, it interests and seduces me in all its complexity. I work “here and now”.
Felice Varini
I’m keen to see how our interaction on the day of the exhibition, in between the other artists and the viewers, will have an impact on the environment in the gallery as a whole! Our art may not only invade public space but will invade the personal space of others, communicating a discourse in ownership for that actual time alone and will also entertain questions related to social behaviour, especially if we all do dress the same in say, black! What mark we leave will be the trace of our interaction with both the public and their space and this form of art cannot be sold, bought or owned, itself free of any ownership!
Read the following for more info re. Proxemics:
http://www.cs.unm.edu/~sheppard/proxemics.htm
“The term “proxemics” was coined by researcher Edward Hall during the 1950’s and 1960’s and has to do with the study of our use of space and how various differences in that use can make us feel more relaxed or anxious.
An aspect of proxemics is the use of Personal territory. Four areas of personal territory; public, social, personal, and intimate.
Cultural differences and the use of color in our physical environment can have a great impact upon our interactions with others. But these are only two of more than twenty major aspects of proxemics such as eye-contact, facial expression, smells, body warmth, gender, number of people involved, subject matter, and goals of the communication, for which we continuously and automatically adjust our use of space.”
The following is an excerpt from the essay title I posted yesterday. I think this paragraph sounds very much like the explaination for our art on the day!
“Unsanctioned street art also challenges the fundamental notions of commodity and ownership.
There is no product to be entered into the capitalistic framework of society – it cannot be sold,
bought or owned. It offers and alternative to the subjugation of the individual to the pseudo-needs
and desires that the spectacle generates. It is this freedom that is one of the most seductive
aspects of street art. It is beyond the ‘aura’ of Benjamin – each piece, be it reproduced elsewhere
or not, has its individuality provided not only by the work itself but also by the environment
surrounding it.”
This essay may be a long read but is very interesting!
On a train going home from uni and the chap next to me is drunk, asleep and leaning on me.
Talk about invading my personal space!
Check out this post, it has loads more amazing pics:
http://kristinfarrell.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/artists-dealing-with-space/
Many more ideas were generated by Christianna until Francesco suggested the idea of questioning the use of public space for personal use. After some deliberation between the four of us, we decided to work with this notion and started bouncing off each others’ thoughts of what we could do with this rather broad concept of Space Within!
Once the group was formed, many ideas were generated through brainstorming sessions. Keeping into consideration, the local area of the gallery, Christianna and I came up with quite a few good ideas and dismissed others for several differing reasons. These were some of the ideas I suggested:
- Land Art – (not practical as permission would need to be required from the council).
- Looking at TIME, Past & Present – Sourcing images/photos from the local area going back many years. (Worries of cost escalating).
- Words, Phrases, Comments, Text – Using familiar/unfamiliar languages creating a narrative or several narratives. Christianna liked this idea and suggested we could use a roll of fabric that could be rolled up and down by the viewer reading the text.
- Sourcing fabric from different cultures within this area (Wentworth Street) and utilising it somehow within a piece or pieces of art – This links with Christianna’s idea for a Union Jack suggestion.
Our journey began with the setting up of the group, which in itself was a task.
The group members for this project are:
Francesco, Farida, Maryam & Christianna.
Welcome! !خوش آمدید Benvenuto! સ્વાગત! Willkommen!
Posted: February 21, 2012 by FaridaB in UncategorizedWelcome to all members of Group 6, the authors of this blog and also to you all out there occupying the world wide web space.
Feel free to follow us on our journey through this project, where we will be questioning and investigating the notion of occupying or interacting with space, whether private or public.
Space Within 