time to talk (Unearthing Project / Tate Exchange)

Here they are, images of the pilot event of Unearthing at Tate Modern on January 25^th, a collaboration between myself and The People’s Bureau in partnership with Tate Modern and Stave Hill Ecological Park.

Strangers holding hands while plaster, then dental alginate - safer apparently, health and safety gone mad if you ask me! - is poured into them. For the time it took for the plaster/alginate to set, these couples were committed to each other and engaged in conversation, prompted by short text read to them addressing issues around regeneration and foundation of the city. The cast were kept as mementoes of these conversations, together with notes written by the participants in response to the converstaions and activity.

time to talk

A few photos taken when Eva Sajovic and Corinne Silva paid me a visit in my old studio in New Cross, wanting help with casting Jaffa oranges for a project they are working on in Jordan. While the moulds were setting, Eva and I joined and cupped our hands for Corinne to pour plaster in. 

The plaster started to set and heat up while we stood still and faced each other. When it started cooling was an indicator it was set and we released our hands.

During the time it took for this to happen, roughly 15minutes, we discussed the possibility doing this as an activity for the pilot event at Tate Exchange of Unearthing, a collaborative project between The People’s Bureau and me. Strangers would commit to holding hands while waiting for the mould to set, prompting conversations that would be recorded. Off now to find the images of the actual event...

 

hands on and back again...

 

While sifting through photos, full of renewed commitment to post most regularly on this blog, I’ve come across these images. They were taken at Raversijde in Oostende, with the participants with who helped me create the performative installation Score for the Atlantic Wall, part of the exhibition Private Tag.

We spent the morning taking the piece down, and in the afternoon rehearsed ways of working the material, exploring ideas for producing a new piece with it.

 

As usual, things happened real fast and by surprise. Yours truly luckily managed to record some of the action with these few shots. The aim is now to find means of exploring this further, possibly at the same site. Read about it here a few posts from now… 

Score for Sittard / Cultuur maak(t) je

Score for Sittard, a piece commissioned by Joanna van der Zanden and artist Jeanne Van Heeswijk for Cultuur maak(t) je at Sittard’s new museum De Domijnen, in Dutch Limburg.

The piece started with a local group of ramblers collecting materials for make cords with which are pictured here installed in the museum. The making of these was done in formation leading to the cords being used as props to dance with and being tied into knots and plaited braids (the dance scores), before being untied again.

More info on the project is included in the following link.  

 

 

 

 

strung

strung - A collaborative film and performanc by Jane Fradgley & Shane Waltener for 
Reclaiming Asylum, an exhibition at the Bethlem Gallery. 

Below are extracts from the exhibition catalogue. All images are film still shot by Antonia Attwood
  

Whilst exploring ideas of being grounded (or not), facing anxiety, risk taking, embracing the unknown and the journeys taken as a consequence of all of this. A young woman weaves and moves through an insecure structure, feet off the ground, attached to the tree itself, which while defying gravity gives her support, safety and freedom to climb.

Based around a majestic Lebanese cedar tree next to the Bethlem Gallery, Fradgley and Waltener have come together employing stitch, movement, sound and visuals to create new performance and moving-image based work with Laura Glaser (dance artist), Zoë Gilmour (sound artist) and Antonia Attwood (videographer). Inspired by Fradgley’s project held and Waltener’s woven installation and performance work, strung, is an enquiry into notions of personal boundaries, freedom and restraint.

seeking movement for blessing

barefoot dancing

cutting shapes

shifting

yearning and stitching

blissfully climbing

breathlessly

falling

darkness looming

unnatural holding

strung out

pausing

melting gently cleaving

soul transcending

end of the

weaving

A poem by Jane Fradgley

Note to myself: Find out what a work might be about. Let everyone get on with what they do best. As soon as we all know, the work will be done.- Shane Waltener

Score for the Atlantic Wall

Score for the Atlantic Wall is a performative installation created with a group of participants at the Atlantikwall Museum, a WW2 site at Raversijde near Oostende. The piece was commissioned by Vrijstaat 0 for the exhibition Private Tag, curated by Isabelle De Baets.

The piece, developed over a couple of weeks, was made by walking through the site following existing animal tracks, desire lines and boundaries marked by trenches and openings to tunnels.

These paths, made physical through stitch, brought into view and into mind the superimposed networks of lines dissecting the site, topographical, man-made and imagined.

The group of participants completed the work in a durational performance at the opening of the exhibition. A film documenting the making and rehearsal of this piece was also shown.

For more information on the exhibition, click on this link.