"What do you do then?" 3 Art projects from the archive that say it better than me
Sometimes it’s better to let the work do the talking. In this post I’ve chosen three different projects to do just that.
“SO what do you do then?”
Sometimes I feel like I’ve shot myself in the foot by choosing to be a multi-disciplinary artist. And one that doesn’t really work in traditional forms like painting and drawing…it’s harder to explain what I do. I’m still working it out after nearly 20 years of making work as it’s constantly shifting and changing as I get older.
Sometimes it’s better to let the work do the talking. In this post I’ve chosen some of my favourite past projects that sketch out a little bit of how I like to work and involve people.
The first live art work I ever made, aged 21.
Food for Thought (Liverpool – site-specific, then Deptford X Festival)
This was my final year piece at LIPA. When everyone was working on a set in the university theatre, I was more interested in getting inside empty building - not a lot has changed!
Food For Thought took over an empty, semi-derelict restaurant in Liverpool, with a personal, feminist response to food, body image, diets and media images of women which felt pertinent to me in my late teens and early twenties. This was the time of fat shaming and no-make up faces in celeb magazines.
There were painted performers playing out bizarre rituals with their food, audiences wore pig masks and ate brightly coloured food that was part of the experience.
Looking back it was hella literal, but in 2007 I was following a spark that I can still feel alive today - playing with the personal and getting people out of their everyday places and routes into an unusual environment and experience that might spark an idea, a feeling, a change.
The first project devoted to my local community
The Takeaway Shop (you make a book and take it away, get it 😎)
As a multi-faceted human I recognise that we all have multiple interests, passions and fascinations. I’ve always been intrigued by the history of where we live, who walked the same streets as us, what our high streets looked like, what was here before there were buildings etc etc. It somehow makes us feel more connected to where and how we are living our day to day.
Local historical archives are often not that accessible - only open on weekdays, with an appointment, they can be intimidating places with microfiche machines that nobody knows how to use (or what the heck they are!)
I wanted to change the way we can access the history of OUR places and basically, bring it to the people.
I knew that people would be interested in different topics so I created an opportunity for people to pick ‘n’ mix the bits of history they would want to read about again and again. They could literally cut and paste the parts they were drawn to, in the form of a book.
I was introduced to book-making in my last year of university where we explored ways to make our own portfolio from scratch. Using some of these techniques, I invited participants to book a slot and come make a book with a small group of people (max 8 around a big square table).
To host the project, I found a local empty space within the heart of the community I was living in - at the time: Deptford, South East London.
I was lucky in that Deptford is unbelievably rich in very interesting and mind-blowing history and events. Maybe one day I’ll write a post about it…
After moving around so much from the age of 18, from the North East, to Liverpool, then on to multiple London houseshares when I was 21, maybe subconsciously this was me needing to put roots down somewhere... To really get to bed down in a place and mix with others that felt that urge too.
The first project with teenagers (that lasted over a year)
The Colour to The Grey project began by me being interviewed by a panel of teenagers which I loved. Producer Natalie Querol (The Empty Space) and I put together our pitch and the teenagers had the ultimate decision of who would get the commission…
The starting point of the project was asking the young people what needed to change or what they wanted to be different in their lives and community.
It began with delivering live art workshops with over 70 young people in South East Northumberland around art & community activism, citizenship and change-making. This included inviting local MP’s into workshops and asking them questions. A big part of this process was me getting to know them, listening, asking the right questions and trying to see the world and their town, through their eyes.
After a while, a core group of 10 young people self-selected from different schools, youth clubs and community groups. We worked towards a creation of an artistic event happening across different spaces within their town (Blyth). And yes, some of these spaces were re-purposed empty spaces 😉
Within the event, I mentored and supported each member to produce their own works. These included participatory crafting sessions with the public, installations, visual art, live art performances, banners, badges, audio walks and more.
The group could play with being multi-disciplinary artists making personal work and toying with arts activism to get their voices heard and make change happen.
This project won a Journal Culture Award.
Sept 2017 – August 2018. Commissioned by bait, funded by ACE, co-delivered with The Empty Space.
I’ve got a project you can do RIGHT NOW, that involves book-making (I teach you how to make one using a blend of techniques I developed to be easy, quick but beautiful) and filling it with whatever you like.
You can do it on your own or use it as a tool to record the words of loved ones.
It’s called The Story of You And Me