LAUNCH NIGHT!!!!

For the Launch Event we have worked with a total of 15 creatives who have added their own input to this evening, from the graphics you see, the clothes we are wearing and the music you’ll hear without even including the art work on display.

Eloise P.Jones & Amber S.V.Ablett, dressed by y.not.i, infront of a David Butler.

The Launch Exhibition aims to highlight the production over the product.  An artist’s ideas, research and the process of making a piece of work are rarely seen; it goes on ‘backstage’ and the audience is presented with an outcome that encapsulates what has gone before.  The works exhibited tonight show evidence of their own making and, in some cases, the process continues throughout the evening.  We, the audience help to produce the work as part of Airimages’s performance and to understand Karlsson’s installation we must get inside it and assist in its deterioration.  Matthew Mackisack’s Techne…Psyche…Edison…Baird invites us to read aloud and so we become a part of the piece when we do.  

Joseph Alber stated that ‘art is concerned with the how and not the what’ and added to this should be ‘the why?’.  By highlighting ‘the how’ these works demand that the viewer asks why were they made.  When the process is apparent the viewer is made aware of the time that has been spent on the work, and evidence of time can be seen as evidence of existence; a way of drawing attention to the artist themselves as we can see their hand in the making of the work.  

AIRIMAGES

Airimages are a collaborative project that invite the audience to both observe and make the work.  Infact, audience participation is an integral part of the work; they choose the direction that the performances take, a brave task for Airimages, giving up an amount of control to the hands of their viewers.  Airimages create theatrical images and tableaux influenced by a background in fashion but rather than attempting to capture a single moment in a photograph, they create a live event in which change and experimentation is supported and developed.  The process of their work does not have a definitive terminus as they encourage the audience/participants to take copies of the images produced and leave feedback, continuing the performative act without them.

www.airimages.org

Airimages Performance

MUSEUM OF US

Museum of Us is Ablett and Jones’ attempt to understand each other through the objects they possess. If we personally select and cherish the items that surround us they must indicate who we are and what we hold most dear.   The Museum of Us is the celebration of the everyman who is so frequently passed over and ignored.  Here Ablett and Jones seek to draw attention to the importance of the individual within the masses.   Museum of Us consists of two displays. One depicts Jones’ representation of Ablett through a selection of her personal belongings and the other, Ablett’s portrait of Jones. The clinical display of exhibits and samples reflect society’s macabre fascination with other people’s lives. 

www.detailsonrequest.blogspot.com

Detail from Museum of Us

MATTHEW MACKISACK

Techne…Psyche…Edison…Baird mixes the passive act of watching film with the physical engagement of reading a text aloud.  By inviting the viewer to read the text, he is asking them to become ,and create , part of the work, making the act of reading and watching an integral part of the work itself.  Like David Butler, Mackisack draws our attention to what is perceived, playing with what is real and what is intentionally misleading.  

Techne…Psyche…Edison…Baird, Matthew Mackisack

VICTORIA KARLSSON

Victoria Karlsson’s installation In Passing looks at a physical involvement with physical objects.  By inviting viewers to walk through paper strips hung from the ceiling, In Passingechoes the act of reading a book, creating the physical involvement

of turning each page, along with the mental escape of being separated from the real world, inviting exploration of the space.  The sounds created are recorded, so that as the paper disintegrates and deteriorates we are left with an audio imprint of the piece. Each time the piece is displayed there is a separate and individual audio track which documents it.

www.victoriakarlsson.com

In Passing, Victoria Karlsson

 

DAVID BUTLER

The way in which each person views the world is formed and fashioned by their perceptions and David Butler’s paintings seek to highlight this.  His use of less traditional painting mediums and use of bright colours and jagged compositions illustrate the way in which they have been made.  David Butler is studying for a PhD in Fine Art and Contemporary Critical Practice at Reading University,

RIE HALE

The components of Ausgabe 1.4 are those that you can see.  There is no question to the medium or the how and because of this simplicity it demands that the viewer asks what or why.  The unassuming quality is what draws the viewer’s eye to the sculpture.  The piece has almost alchemic properties, using a liquid to make a solid, so the materiality of the sculpture is undefined and transient.  Rie Hale has recently completed a MA at Central Saint Martins.

www.riehale.com

MATTHEW JAMES KAY

Zion is a sculpture, partly made by Matthew James Kay and partly made by the contribution of nature.  The cardboard mountain is left to deteriorate and change by the elements. Kay gives up control over the sculpture to the environment and lets the work take its own course.  

www.matthewjameskay.com

LAURIE LAX

Laurie Lax is in her final year studying Fine Art at Bath Spa University.  Lax’s drawings were made on site for this exhibition, taking material from walks around the area.  Referencing traditional pigment making methods, she uses found plant matter rolled into small balls strategically rubbed onto the paper’s surface.  The remnants of the works creation, found on the floor below the drawings, highlight the production.  The size of the piece envelops the viewer within the marks and textures, constantly moving the eye around without a focus.  

LIBERTY ROWLEY AND MARK JAMES

The short film A walk from the East End to Southend, is a collaborative project between Liberty Rowley and Mark James.  The film is made up of still images taken during a walk from the artist’s home in the East End of London to the Southend Pier, presenting the viewer with one image at a time to be absorbed before it is replaced by another.  The artists are interested in the act of walking rather than the destination, setting themselves a long and tiring task.  It is almost an absurdist challenge to complete and once the target has been completed they turn around and return.  This in itself draws attention to the doing rather than the outcome.  The artist’s are also interested the links between the act of walking and madness, looking at Sid Barratt of Pink Floyd’s walk from Chelsea to his mother’s home in Cambridge, the poet John Clare’s walk from one mental institution in Epping Forest to another in Northampton and Van Gogh’s walks across the South of England.

http://fourfeetfilms.blogspot.com

Y.NOT.I STYLISTS

The [DoR] team have been styled by Heather Lyttle and Gemma Hyslop, who work collaboratively under the name y.not.i.  Known for their styling and direction of avant guard Editorial, TV Production and Performance Art, y.not.i endeavour to create a platform for contemporary designers and artists.

y.not.i.styling@googlemail.com

SHAUN TURNBALL

Shaun Turnbull has designed the graphic material for the Launch Event.  With the concept of emphasising production over product Turnbull designed a booklet advertising the Launch that opens up to a poster.  The simple and eye-catching design ensured that they captured the attention of any passers-by.  Turnbull graduated from Bath Spa University and is currently employed by Sea.

www.shaunturnbull.co.uk

ROSS JONES

The evening’s event will be documented in photographs by Ross Jones, a freelance photographer based in Finsbury Park. His work covers a diverse range of subjects, from music to travel, urban, press and commercial.  Jones has worked his way round the festival, club and gig circuit over the past few years, capturing some of the country’s leading rock and pop stars along with the audiences who are as much part of the events as the performers. 

www.vitreumphotography.com

All image rights: Ross Jones/[Details on Request]

[A.S.V.Ablett]