Syndicate: L+ New Projects

[jon Bewley and Simon Herbert <locus+@newart.demon.co.uk>]

Locus+ Newsletter. October 1998.

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Locus+ is a non profit arts organisation based in Newcastle upon Tyne,
England. Full details of projects to date with documentation and essays :
www.locusplus.org.uk.

Locus+ projects currently in planning or early stages of production.

We are seeking partners/collaborators in any capacity for the following
projects by Laura Vickerson, Jonty Semper and Lloyd Gibson.


Laura Vickerson

Factories and Fairy Tales

Farfield Mill, Sedbergh, National Park, Cumbria.

The production of a 'garment' constructed from 750,000 red rose petals
individually pinned to each other. The 'garment' will be 20' wide and 70'
long. It will be produced over a two week period in the Farfield Mill,
Sedbergh, Cumbria by a group of women who used to work in the now closed
Textile Mill.

Farfield Mill was built in 1827 and closed, permanently, after 169 years
continuous linen production in 1996.

The production period will be the first three weeks of March next year with
the finished garment exhibited as part of the Sedbergh Spring Fair on March
20th 1999.

The production period will be open to the public and the process will be a
Netcam broadcast.

In addition to the manufacture of the garment Laura will be compiling oral
histories from those involved in the project and others connected to the
Mill, local industry and the village. These stories will be the ambient
sound of the final exhibition; a whispered archival record which will act
in counterpoint to the fantastic and surreal nature of the displayed
garment.

Laura Vickerson's installations incorporate materials and methodologies
redolent with associations of home and daily life. Referencing feminine
arts/crafts or repetitive tasks performed by women, the labour involved in
organising, collecting and arranging these materials forms a powerful
visible presence in her work. This project examines opposing forces: the
romantic and the industrial, invoking romantic ideas of the role of women
in the home and as labour in emerging industrial contexts and emphasising
the inherent contradictions of producing dream-like works and the
pragmatic, labour-intensive task of actual making such works a reality.

Sensuality, carnality and desire are eluded to in the metaphorical function
of the garment, yet there is also a sense of romantic transgression and
coercion in the manner that the soft materials have been pierced and
regimented. For all the grandeur and scale of the final display, there is
also vulnerability and intimacy.

Laura Vickerson lives and works in Calgary. She represented Canada at the
Istanbul Bienale in 1997 and two catalogues are currently available
'Velvet'  ISBN 1-895086-44-2 and 'Trace'  ISBN 0-921613-87-3.

A document will be produced consisting of an enhanced CD using footage of
manufacture and excerpts from the conversations. It will be co-publication
with the Media and New Technologies Department at the Banff Centre for the
Arts, Alberta, Canada.

One imagines the work to be extremely fragile, however it is quite robust
and can travel relatively easily.We are looking for organisations or venues
who may wish to show the garment with the sound tapes in other
venues/locations.

Jonty Semper

Kenotaphion

'Kenotaphion' is an audio artwork to be published as a CD which will be the
result of researching, locating and anthologising all the existing official
recordings of the two minute silences from Remembrance Sunday. The silences
(which are marked - in those cases where the full recording is still
available - by the chiming of Big Ben at the beginning and a cannon shot at
the conclusion) will be assembled in chronological order.

The armistice that ended World War 1 was signed on November 11, 1918.
Armistice Day, the anniversary of this signing, was marked as day of
commemorating the dead of World War 1. In 1945 Armistice Day fell on a
Sunday and it was decided that the second Sunday in November, Remembrance
Sunday, would become the day on which the nation (UK) would collectively
commemorate the dead of World Wars One and Two. The Whitehall ceremony was
and is documented, filmed and broadcast by different organisations; Pathe
News, Gaumont British, Reuters and the BBC amongst others. Although the
first ceremony took place in 1919 no 'official' audio recordings exist from
before 1928. This project will bring together all those fragments and
complete recordings which still exist.

Although countless Remembrance silences are observed all around the UK
simultaneously, the national shared image is one of politicians and members
of the Royal Family standing at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London. This
collective ritual is sanctioned and legitimised from the centre. As an
'invented tradition' it fulfill the expected conventions of respect; the
two minute silence leveling divisions, uniting through grief and
contemplation. Within this 'space' there is no difference between
participant and spectator.

The Remembrance ceremony is loaded with particular social and political
meanings and significance.

'Kenotaphion' is a seemingly simple compilation. In formal terms it is
ironic and provocative; challenging conventions of the relationship between
recorded sound and the human ear and those values which we ascribe to
meaning. In cultural and sociological terms the intention is to reveal the
conflation of public and private through the annual re-enactment of this
socially binding ritual.

This CD of silences will be accompanied by a booklet which, in addition to
explaining the genesis of the project, will include essays that examine the
symbolic value of collective rituals and the history and purpose of
Remembrance Sunday. (One confirmed essayist is Adrian Gregory author of The
Silence of Memory: Armistice Day 1919 - 46 (Berg 1994. ISBN 1 85973 001 9))

Kenotaphion. From Greek. kenos  empty + taphos  tomb.


Lloyd Gibson & Mark Little

n

'n' is a new collaborative project by artist Lloyd Gibson and writer Mark
Little. It is the manufacture and filming of a sculpture in a specific
place with the parallel production of a publication/CD.

In 1942 the British Government secretly tested biological weapons, anthrax
dispersal devices, on Gruinard Island off the NW coast of Scotland.

It remained a forbidden place until 1988 when the Ministry of Defence (MOD)
declared the island safe for limited grazing following a two year
decontamination programme, which included the spraying of 250,000 gallons
of formaldehyde onto the topsoil. Whilst the island is now considered to
fall within safe limits, the MOD have had to concede that because of the
deep penetration of the spores into the soil, total decontamination is
impossible.

The 1942 experiment on Gruinard Island was code named 'n'

We will place a small figurative sculpture of a child on a headland with
the island in the background. The surface of the sculpture will be
constructed from what are known as 'smart materials' or Shape Memory Alloys
(SMA's). These are materials that have molecular memories at predetermined
temperatures. Time lapse cameras will record the sculptures deformations
and reformations over an extended fixed period. The film, as a CD Rom, will
be a companion document to the publication.
In parallel, and integral to the project, is a publication that fully
documents the research, fabrication and placement of the sculpture.
Furthermore, the physical material of the book itself (paper, linen bound
hardback in a linen bound slip case, inks, spot varnishes, etc.), would
also be infused with temperature controlled aromatic and spectral smart
technology. This would mean that the ambient or body temperature of anyone
handling the book/object would trigger responses from its surfaces; change
of colour or emissions of different aromas. The book itself would be
reactive and 'infected'.

The hope is the work will resonate in the imagination and as myth. The book
will be an interactive object reflecting the metaphorical themes and
concerns of the sculptures location.

n is a project designed to explore fundamental issues of the our
relationship to place. The conjunction of the imagination and myth with
political and social realities, the jarring of science and nature. 'n'
will focus on the significance of an infected place / island acting as
metaphor for the political, social and biological body.

The figurative/sculptural aspect of 'n' is not a work for explicit public
display; it will be geographically inaccessible. Nevertheless the sum of
the individual aspects of the project will combine to produce a public
artwork.

We will be announcing 'n' in March 1999. However, we would like to exhibit
the sculpture and other materials; research documents, archive photos etc
in other locations over the next 18 months an are seeking collaborators.
The production of 'n'will be completed towards the end of 1999 or early
2000.

Lloyd Gibson and Mark Little live in Newcastle upon Tyne. A previous Lloyd
Gibson publication is available 'The Perplexities of Waiting' ISBN
1-899377-04-2.

Please pass on this information about these projects to anyone who you feel
may be interested.

Images and text about these projects will be posted on our website from
November 1st.

Other projects ongoing and in development:

Anya Gallaccio's first catalogue. A co-publication with Tramway and Dundee
Contemporary Arts. Cornelia Hesse Honegger. Exhibition currently at the
Vancouver Art Gallery until Jan 1999. Stefan Gec. Buoy will be in the North
Sea in December. Paul St George's Minumentals®. Now available from outlets
throughout the UK or mail order. Full details:  www.minument.demon.co.uk.

Locus+ invites proposals from artists or collaborative opportunities from
other organisations.

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Thank You.

Jon Bewley & Simon Herbert
t: +44 191 233 1450
f: +44 191 233 1451