more on ideas for the space-in-between...

ok- so now laura and i have decided to go for it with a short sharp collaboration, very experimental (the nature of the site for everyone wokring on art projects over this month), testing out some of our research ideas and different styles of performance/exhibition and just see what happens. the draft we have submitted for the press release is;

Laura Bean and Harriet Poole are working with site-specifc performance art to explore the fictive and real histories surrounding the site. They will be deconstructing factory processes whilst simultaneously exploiting photography in a performative manner. Audience members are invited to participate and surrender unwanted home furnishings/clothing to help facilitate the performance and leave new traces of occupation.

26th April 2008
3- 5.00 By appointment- please email harrietpoole@gmail.com to arrange.
5-5.30 Performance open to all
5.30-6 Installation

The idea being we can play with the 3 hours event in 3 parts- part one- explore the breakdown of goods produced by light-industry businesses/ home furnishings 'from' future housing occupation, through participatory performance (more non-matrixed),in which we are subverting the norms of manufacturing in generating temporal photograms. part two- devise a performance we are both in (live/mediated?) and watched by the audience, and, part three- create a final installation with experiments with projections.

more to think about- tomorrow we spend the day in the space playing with site, ideas and technology.....yipeee

from the local studies centre- on the-space-in-between....55 Leroy St, Bermondsey

News article on the st, 1964


1976- Annette Display wigs ok, so my trip to the local studies centre in borough wasn't as useful as I had hoped in that small businesses had very little written about them and very few photos existed of the site/street- would need to contact the businesses direct for records although most out of business and impossible to track.... I have a list of the nature of the light industry firms including the following (from Linda Duffy, thanks, from Post Office records );

1893-1900 – Sowle Thomas, wheelwright
1908 – Million Advertising Novelty Co Limited
1912-15 – Simmons W F and Co under-clothing manufacturers
1916-17 – Newey Brothers Ltd hook & eye manufacturers
1928-9 – Barclay, Roberts and Co Ltd trouser press mfrs
1937-39 – Stanley and Woodward Ltd coathanger mfrs
1947-9 – British Novelties (Model Manufacturers) plaster figure mkrs
1970 – nº 51/55 Frederica Display, figure manfrs.
1973-83 – nº 51 Annette Display, Wig Co. Ltd
1983 – No 55 H&M Fashions, ladies’ fashion mfrs
1988 – nº 55 Stacey Ltd. Ladies fashion manfrs.

The ~H& M Fashion may be of interest- is this the current high st retailer? Like the range of businesses listed.

Am also interested in the fact that the article above is talking about reportedly appalling housing conditions on the street with 'dangerous, dilapidated landings,' when this currently dilapidated site at end of April is being demolished and becoming contemporary appartments- there may be material in this.

objects and atmospheres- non-verbal workshop with geraldine pilgrim (part 6)

not a task set but playing with space and site and intervention....more posts about this workshop to follow....

objects and atmospheres- non-verbal workshop with geraldine pilgrim (part 5)

exercise- 3 bodies creating a photographic tableaux that expresses an emotion responding to site-consider the vantage point of the audience and number of viewers at once, entry route to the space.

this is the basement outside franko b's studio....any ideas what emotion? i fear that this highlights the problem with documentation over live presence of body viewed in space!! and also how problematic it is to only communicate one emotion- lots of miscommunication. then importance of the gaze- to look at the viewer through the glass to implicate them somehow?

i liked this exercise the best- 3 interpretations of the same emotion, the frame in a frame of the door at the front and then through to the back.some basic moving of objects to implicate them in connection to our bodies- placement of chair. am wondering if i look as convincing as i felt, the comment by the audience was that i embodied the emotion but i'm less convinced in these photographs....

objects and atmospheres- non-verbal workshop with geraldine pilgrim (part 4)

and final (third lot) of photos from body sculpture exercise....

objects and atmospheres- non-verbal workshop with geraldine pilgrim (part 3)

second lot of photos of body sculpture expressing an emotion (?!).....

objects and atmospheres- non-verbal workshop with geraldine pilgrim (part 2)

ok- so these are photos from the exercise where we were asked to place self in the environment in a way that expresses an emotion- site-specific body sculpture.

in analysing these we were to consider the whole body- postion, site, aesthetic in relation to the emotional concept expressed.

i'm going to leave it at that for now- what emotion am i conveying? is it obvious (?!) what i am interested in is how the photograph gives me a new way of looking- seeing what i looked like according to one viewer- i asked them to move around me which raises interesting issues about audience perception and vantage point on promenade performance work.

more photos in next post...