The Doers, The Drifters & The Dreamers, November 2010 

 

A weekend of performance, music, visual art and workshops exploring the thematic threads of doing, drifting and dreaming.

1. The doers - is concerned with arts practices that are reflective of the historical, socio-political, philosophical and poetic aspects of work and labour, as well as attentive to or expressive of the labour inherent in the production and presentation of the work of art itself.

 2. The drifters - draws on work that employs strategies of play, de-familiarisation and the re-mapping of internal and external landscapes; work that critically reflects on the saturation of the everyday with the instrumental (il)logic of capital and implements the non-productive strategy of the drift to reclaim alternative experiences of public space and time

3. The dreamers - is reflective of work that employs the work of dreams, phantasms and the imaginary as tools for the critical reflection on and productive transformation of the everyday.

Participating artists included Ruth Beale, Cupola Bobber, Maurice Carlin, Siân Robinson Davies, Ruth Ewan, Peter Harrison, Claire Bundell Jones, Juneau Projects, The Grubby Mitts, Philip Stanier, Ultimate Holding Company, David Williams and ArtYarn.

please visit the project website for more information www.doersdriftersdreamers.wordpress.com

 

 

Interludes 01 - Permanent Vacation

Andy Holden

 

 

Collaborating with Sophia Crilly director of Bureau, Manchester we invited Andy Holden to create an exhibition that responded to the theme of collecting and the collector. 

What makes a collection transcend mere accumulation is not only the fact of it being culturally complex, but the fact of its incompleteness, the fact that it lacks something.  Lack always means something unequivocally defined: one needs such and such an absent object.

- Excerpt from The System of Collecting, Jean Baudrillard

 

Transforming Bureau with an installation of chipboard walls and coloured lights Andy Holden created an installation that recalled the homemade spaces of garden sheds, attic rooms and amateur museums - the self built structures that are packed full with an assemblage of souvenirs and memorabilia - rooms that are immersed in the everyday obsessions of the owner.

 

Mounted on the walls Holden exhibits a found collection of photographs that documented a plethora of British pub signs. Taken between 1964 and 2000 the abundance of imagery attested to the obsession of the anonymous photographer, his or her passion for collecting and the eccentricities of their chosen subject matter. 

 

A Dinner Invitation, September 2009

Collaborating with Lucy Drane of Central Reservation Bristol and Lucy Keany editor of Fools In Print, we curated an evening of food, film and performance where the installed works played with the notions of hosting, presentation and display imbedded within the act of holding a party and cooking a dinner. Participating artists included Aline Bouvy and John Gillis, Liz Bowley, Lady Lucy, Jenny Lawson and Andrew Mania.

 

Club Shepway 2004-2008

I was a founding member of the Kent based arts collective Club Shepway. Club Shepway was initiated in 2004 to establish an active network of artists and exhibitions in the Folkestone area of Kent responding specifically to the towns process of regeneration and gentrification. As a group Club Shepway aims to investigate the surrounding area of South Kent, particularly the changing culture of the seaside resort by staging exhibitions and event. We also want to create opportunities for artists working within the area and build links with other artists and independent arts organizations establishing a rich network of critical dialogue and artistic support. To date we have organised a series of events and exhibitions including participating in Transition Gallery's 2007 exhibition O'Dreamland and The 2008 Art Car Boot Fare.

 

Other projects included -

Vernacular Spectacular

 

From June to September 2008, Club Shepway was given use of Folkestone's historic funicular lift. Once an emblem of the area's Victorian heyday, carrying passengers from the up-market Leas Promenade to the bustling seafront and pier below, the lift now stands atop the rubble foreshore of a run down seafront awaiting regeneration. Club Shepway transformed the lift into a temporary exhibition space, inviting artists to develop work in response to the physical confines of the lift carriages and the unique position of the town mid regeneration process.

Artist included:Jan Sykes, Tom Sykes, Asa Spratt, Abi Gilchrist and Bryony Dawkes Hayley Bates, Kayle Brandon, Joanna Brown, Samuel Carney, Jacqui Chanarin, Diane Dever, Denice Dever, Amy Feneck, Benjamin Fletcher, Will Gould, Bethany Hart, Emily Hill,Steve Hines, Abigail Hunt, Simon Kennedy, Gerry Kelly, Lady Lucy, Cathy Lomax, Alex Michon, James Newton, Marco Palmieri, Kieren Reed, Matt Rowe, David Rule, Souvenir Magazine, Lady Lucie. 

The series of installations were exhibited alongside the Folkestone Sculpture Triennial 08. Following the project Club Shepway was invited to support a symposium by Public Works as part of their on going Friday Sessions, delivering a presentation at the event How Much Art Can Regeneration Take?

 

 

 

I am Local

Working with artists across the region Club Shepway produced an online mapping service for South East Kent. I Am Local provides a free online creative index and social network for artists, venues and organisations with the aim to foster conversations, audience growth and collaborations between practitioners.