John Cage: Every Day is a Good Day. Gallery Interaction 16th April

This was the first interaction in the gallery for the John Cage season and we were lucky enough to have beautiful weather, a packed gallery and a designated space for the interaction session. The area  - in which you could also watch videos on John Cage - proved to be invaluable and along with my two wonderful volunteers, Josef Konczak and Will Richards we created a real hub of creativity, inventiveness and discussion.  Those that interacted were asked to  take photographs of parts of their own bodies or something close to them, randomly pressing the shutter at a time when an utterance was heard within the gallery space, that stood out above all others.  The photographs were meant to be immediate and taken without traditional aesthetic framing. The images were then converted into black and white files and printed. The utterance or sound was then added to the image with pencil.

The idea was to produce images inspired by Cage’s idea of chance and forced artistic limitations.  Specifically inspired by Seven Day Diary (Not Knowing), 1978, the artworks produced reflected a particular time and place, the juxtaposition between text and imagery engaging with the relationship between the self and chance encounters. For the duration of the Saturday interaction the prints were shown on the windows of the workroom. 

The exercise instigated much dialogue about how easy it was to follow a specific brief and relinquish the desire for creative autonomy.  Many found this challenging and liberating when they achieved a work of art created entirely by chance.  Those with a more prescriptive notion of producing artworks had two or three attempts before producing something that appeared to be just chance encounters.  Some discussions developed into philosophical ideas of  'autonomy' in art and whether it was still 'you' producing the artwork as they seemed so determined by chance. Each print produced was unique and represented personal artistic integrity, despite being produced from an outside brief.  Interesting dialogues were instigated about the 'value' of the art object in relation to the amount of 'work' put in to the final piece.  I shall be doing the exercise again on the 7th May and will be very much looking forward to the afternoon.

Lift the Lid 3 Moving Insect Portraits Sunday April 3rd

Moving Bug Portaits......

For this third session the theme was to identify a favourite insect, and then create a portrait of yourself as this insect which would be able to move: a moving bug portrait!

Here is Angelica holding her selection of bees and butterflies

Whilst her brother Vinnie shows off his caterpillar...

The above caterpillar is clearly in full motion and a lively collaboration between mother and daughter.

The afternoon was less busy than usual as it was Mother's day and in between exhibitions, but everyone who came to the session quickly identified with their favourite insect, such as the multi-dimensional butterfly by Caoimhe seen below, and went straight into action.

Ladybirds and bees were very popular and some very focused concentration on making them move was inspiring to witness in participants of all ages. Below are companion dragonflies created by a sister and brother:

This last image was of a wonderful insect created by a gentleman called David who deftly used pipe-cleaners to make his 3-D artwork and sums up the imaginative approach towards the final selection of Moving Portraits...

Lift the Lid 2: Shoe Portraits March 5th

It could be said that a shoe give all kinds of insights into the unique personality of any individual, the tiny detail of a type of stitching, colour, traditional style, eccentric etc all indicate sometimes unconscious facets of the wearer. By creating a shoe as a portrait, what kind of information would be passed on to a viewer?

With a lovely group of intrepid workshop participants much activity was spent creating shoes in widely varying forms from 2 dimensional as below:

To these sculptural creations... So what does a shoe portray about its owner?

The workshop drew upon the work from the preceding Lift the Lid, where portraits were created in the form of a story, drawing and or collage as reinterpretations of a selection of the Moving Portraits exhibition. From 5 instructions family groups could identify key aspects of a portrait and then eventually create their own which may or may not correspond to the way that others would perceive the same portrait.

The choice was then offered to the participants of this session to either create a shoe which they thought that the person in one of the portraits might wear, or one for themselves, taking into consideration the exhibition and own likes and dislikes.

So a fabulously colourful range of footwear emerged, and one pair of friends taking up the invitation to create a dance with their shoes, which turned one corner of the space into a dance area, see below.

The result was to create a new version of moving portraits, as the shoe portraits became alive and were danced and moved around the space before being taken home. Thank you to all those who participated so imaginatively.

Gallery Interaction 19th March

Thank you to all who wanted to take part in the interaction with Guy Sherwin's short film, "Portrait of Parents" 1975.  As per my previous post, this is a 3 and a half minute film looking at the idea of portraiture through the moving image.  The participants were asked to engage with the film, which features Guy Sherwin -seen in as a reflection in the mirror- filming his parents.   We discussed the relationships between the son and his parents and their 'performance' for the camera.  We discovered that the viewers relationship with the film is substantially changed when also filmed and this added an additional dimension, becoming part of or extending the performance and the narrative.

There were many students visiting this week as next weekend will be the last chance to see the exhibition!  If you haven't already seen this brilliant show, "Moving Portraits", I highly recommend that you do.  Well worth the effort, especially to catch the film "Bernadette" by Duncan Campbell....a must see!

HOWL (15) screening at the Pavilion

HOWL (15)
Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Freidman

with James Franco, John Hamm, David Strathairn and Jeff Daniels

Howl is the fictionalized account of the 1957 obscenity trial surrounding the publication of Allen Ginsberg's poem of the same name, composed from court records and interviews with Ginsberg, and animation inspired by Illustrated Poems by Allen Ginsberg and Eric Drooker.

James Franco starts as the young Allen Ginsberg - counter-culture poet and chronicler of the Beat Generation. In his famously confessional, leave-nothing-out style, Ginsberg recounts the road trips, love affairs and search for personal liberation that led to the most timeless and electrifying work of his career: the poem Howl. Meanwhile in a San Franscisco courtroom Howl is on trail. Prosecutor Ralph McIntosh (David Strathairn) sets out to prove that the book should be banned, while suave defence attorney Jake Ehrlich (John Hamm) argues fervently for freedom of speech and creative expression. The proceedings veer from the comically absurd to the passionate as the host of unuual witnesses (Jeff Daniles, Mary-Louise Parker, Treat Williams, Alessandro Nivola) pit generation against generation and art against fear in front of conservative Judge Clayton Horn (Bob Balaban).

Howl is simultaneously a portriat of a renegade artist breaking down barriers to find love and redemption, and a romantic ride through a prophetic masterpiece that rocked a generation and was heard around the world.

22, 22, 27 March (2pm) - £3

Saturday 26 March (7.30pm) - £6 including a glass of wine, half a Peroni or a fruit juice

Bookings: 01424 229 111 http://www.dlwp.com/

Chinese Whispers part 2 Moving Portraits Sat 12th March

The two responses above were offered for the same original set of words:

Perspective, alien, unsettling, interesting, pleasing... The one on the left identified the portrait, the one on the right chose a different one, who do you think the description is about?

The second episode of my Chinese Whispers style of experiment with transmission of information was an interesting development from the first session. As I considered the original responses to specific portraits, what was interesting to me was how words can be so subjective as to potentially offer a description which could represent a number of other pieces. In which case, could a random recipient of such a response be able to relocate the original source?

So this was my quest, to engage the Saturday audience with 2 tasks: take one description from an unknown person and see if they could locate the original portrait and then once they had made their decision, to find their own response to this portrait.

Who was this?

...the same person as the above two responses?... in fact the same as the previous two.... Duncan Alexander Goodhew portrayed through 5 pairs of eyes.

Two things were important to identify:

1. That it was a less a case of being right or wrong to identify the portrait from the description.

2. It was of greater importance to consider why a decision was made and what this brought to the gallery experience.

A particularly wide range of people took part, and all concluded that this extra focus encouraged their interaction and consideration of what a particular portrait was communicating. It also heightened their awareness of the very subjective assumptions which we make, when looking at such an image as filmed portrait, and how this influences our subsequent memory and what we might pass on to others about our experience.

The above response was to what was actually a response to one of Peter Gidal's portraits in Heads, but encouraged some amused dialogue between a mother and son about the nature of the Cactasia!, and certainly wouldn't have been a choice of focus without my request.

I enjoyed responding myself to different conversations and by making my own decisions on who to give which kind of a trigger set of words. More subtle and less specific for some, more playful for others, sometimes giving people a portrait which was different to one they identified most with, at other times doing the opposite to see if they could recognise it through a different perception.

The above response on the right was a great visual portrait and also accurate in tracing Wearing's 2 into 1, from a first description which was relatively straightforward.

In most cases I had added my own 'noise' to the transmission process, by removing words from the original response which could make it too obvious which of the portraits was being referred to. It was something of a revelation to me to see how many people tuned in to the correct choice. Many people were torn between a correct choice and a different one, so were instinctively able to track the path back.

These were responses to Non-specific Threat, from a quite poetic original set of words by an artist and writer from the previous session, whose style in itself then encouraged an interaction of depth and creative expression.

This therefore became an opportunity to move through the perceptions of others towards the essence of a portrait, seeing through their eyes then again through the camera lens and finally with a different view both objective and responsive to a charming elderly lady smoking and laughing, or a young woman crying etc.

.

These words described Portrait of Ga, but were also thought to portray the subject of the Bee Fever, and who could argue with that. Thank you to all who took time to contribute, such as the art teacher Chris Mansell from Lewes, and for a great deal of intense concentration and interesting responses.

Gallery Interaction 5th March: Shadow Portraits 2

Roll up, roll up! This week's interaction felt like a circus sideshow, with people crowding round to watch the action and participate. There's nothing like a spotlight to attract attention: moths to a candle.
The process of creating the shadow portraits was the same as my interaction several weeks ago: a bright light throws the shadow of the portrait sitter on to paper: the resulting silhouette is drawn around with coloured pens.


There was a wonderful diversity of approaches to posing for the portrait on the part of the sitters. Many people decided to create group portraits, encompassing the whole family. Surprisingly, there were a number of people celebrating family birthdays, which meant that their portraits became a very personal record of that event.


The lovely couple below, took a romantic approach, kissing in front of the paper, creating shadows of tender togetherness, which were truly charming.


Others decided to take over the whole drawing process themselves, discovering in the process just how fast you have to work and how still you have to sit. However, nobody is ever completely still. The more restless the personality, the more the person moves, which means that you are constantly having to shift the line, creating multiple overlays - which of itself becomes part of the description of the person in the portrait.




As with the moving portraits in the exhibition, they way we move, the way we choose to pose - even when we are just sitting and looking - says so much about us. Capturing multiple, shifting silhouettes of someone is much more descriptive than we imagine. Everyone who participated began to realise how much of themselves was being revealed.


I was struck by how delighted the observers and participants were with the simplicity of the technique we used to create these images. Just shadows and a drawn line. No complex technology. What we were doing here is probably the same as our prehistoric ancestors did thousands of years ago with a piece of charcoal on a cave wall, in front of a fire. The exploration of the self is an eternal fascination.

In the course of the afternoon around 37 people had their portraits made. I would like to thank everyone who participated for making the interaction such an enjoyable and thought-provoking event, with a particular nod to Tracey, Richard, the Lynton Vakili family, Delilah, Louise, Ruby and Rosie.