Tuesday 15 November 2011

High Performance Rodeo



As High Performance Rodeo launched its 25th edition, we're proud to be part of this year's line up with Limelight: Saturday night. Commissioned by Calgary's Public Art Program, Limelight will be part of the High Performance Rodeo events in January and, for the first time, it will be on ice!

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Liberty Kent Public Art Award


A belated news, last month we were delighted to have been shorlisted for the Liberty Kent Public Art Award for Iconic Site in Margate.
And 2 weeks ago we got the news that we were runners up! A very nice surprise indeed.
The winner for 2011 is Adam Chodzko for Ghost and the other runner is A K Dolven for Out of Tune, a very company to be in.

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Fogo Island



Browsing the Fall edition of Canadian art, we just came across a very nice description of the project we undertook in Fogo Island 2 years ago:

"...Later, Gunnarsdottir gives me a present from the Arts Corporation: a publication the foundation produced, a booklet of an artist project called 4 dimensional mapping that she curated in August 2009.
The project included artists from France, Scotland and Switzerland, [rather anonymous, basically us and Erika Irmler] and involved local residents. It documented an investigation of the material culture of Fogo Island, and contained locals' verbatim descriptions of geographical markers and the sea, recipes of traditional dishes like Jiggs' dinner, drawings of local architecture and other cultural points of interest, photographical portraits of residents, and copies of postcards sent to Glasgow detailing aspects of the island life. In its careful documentation of the culture, the 4 dimensional mapping project was not so different from the careful documentation undertaken by the original Fogo Process."

Rock Haven, Fogo Island’s Newfoundland art-residency experiment
by Lisa Moore

Nuit Blanche

We just came back from Toronto where Limelight was presented at the fifth edition of the Nuit Blanche. After an installation in the pouring rain on Friday, the weather held for the event on Saturday and the crowd was amazing, the spotlight was constantly surrounded and the passers-by queued to go in, a real pleasure to watch, smilling all night.
Here are a couple of pictures and descriptions of the night gathered from the net before we upload our own pictures:

From Blogto.com top 10 Nuit Blanche 2011 Toronto exhibits:


It was really nothing more than two spotlights shining down into the middle of the street at Yonge and Grosvenor, but its beauty was its simplicity. Essentially, the street corner was turned into a stage, and random people become the performers as they stepped into the light and did...well, whatever the hell they wanted. A large crowd was consistently on hand as they were treated to impromptu acts of performance art, acrobatics, and a 300+ pound man running through the light with his shirt off, screaming at the top of his lungs. B.S. Photo by Tom Ryaboi

Some of Limelight's action in this youtube clip by backformore06 starting from 2.18 untill 5.00:


from Chromewaves
20111001 Limelight dancers

Monday 19 September 2011

ALBERTA COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN

This coming Thursday we shall be talking about our work and our plans for the next 18 months in Calgary with Watershed+ at ACAD.

PECHA KUCHA CALGARY - WEDNESDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER

Next week we will be taking part in Calgary's Pecha Kucha 9 organised by Calgary Arts Development. The night kicks off with pre-show entertainment on River Walk. The main event starts at 7pm at the Golden Age Club on 610 8th Ave. SE. Seats can be reserved by visiting CalgaryCulture.com.



It would be great to see you there!

Friday 2 September 2011

The move


That's it, the studio and our personal belongings are all packed and waiting for Mr Fed Ex to come and ship it all to Calgary.
Once we're settle there we'll start posting more, especially about the Watershed+ project that is taking us there for 18 months.
More soon

Tuesday 23 August 2011

Frankfurt

Just back from installing Limelight: Saturday night in Frankfurt for Playing the City, an event organised by the Schirn Kunsthalle.

From their website:
Playing the City—take three. From August 11 to August 25, 2011, more than fifteen international artists will occupy the inner city of Frankfurt with their actions, performances, and installations. Art will take to the street again. Playing the City 3 will focus on public space as a venue for artistic activities involving the city and its inhabitants in a variety of ways again. Each day will see new participatory projects by such artists as Tania Bruguera, Minerva Cuevas, Jacob Dahlgren, Tim Etchells, Christian Jankowski, San Keller, Kommando Agnes Richter, Levent Kunt, Eileen Perrier, Il-Chin Atem Choi, Sans façon, and Upper Bleistein. Political manifestations, demonstrations, or markets and stands specially organized by artists will help carry on the discussion on the collective, free and designable space, its limits, and not least its inhabitants' involvement.

In parallel to the activities unfolding in the city, the project team will do its work in public in headquarters set up in the Schirn—feeding the website, answering questions about the exhibition, and organizing and documenting all activities. Playing the City 3 can also be followed on the Internet as a digital extension of public space:

DIRECTOR: Max Hollein. CURATOR: Matthias Ulrich (Schirn). ASSISTANT: Clara Wörsdörfer.

The electricians really enjoyed Tristan's colour choices for the installation day.

Wednesday 13 July 2011

Pecha Kucha - tomorrow night


We will be taking part in Glasgow's Pecha Kucha 5 at the Tramway, kick off is at 7pm, I think its ticketed, we are looking forward to it - hope to see you there.

Shamelessly cut from a website:
Another set of talks in the Japanese Pecha Kucha format, which, for the uninitiated, allows creative speakers to show 20 slides for a strict 20 seconds each, keeping things pacy and exciting. This month's event is jointly curated by Trigger producer Suzy Glass and freelance designer Katy West.

Tuesday 17 May 2011

University of Oxford


Last week we took part in a seminar at the University of Oxford, Creative ecologies: conditioning inventiveness.
The other people invited were eminent geographers, archeologists, political theorist, musicologist, philosopher and anthropologist, an amazing combination of knowledge.
To put it simply, we were looking at creativity in its wider sense, basing the discussions on some of the objects from the awe inspiring Pitt Rivers Museum which hosted us for 3 days. The objects used, which we were allowed to manipulate,
included a tupilak,
a mandrake root,
a desiccated heart encased in a heart-shaped lead container and a Micronesian Nautical chart.pictures from the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

From the introducing paper by Charlotte Bates, Joe Gerlach, Thomas Jellis, Wendy Morrison, and Sefryn Penrose, the seminar aimed to engage "with objects which are in some ways unfamiliar to us, which will stimulate us to engage and to talk in ways unusual in an academic meeting. As we have stressed above, the idea of mutual making of people and objects is key to many current approaches to the material world. Academics tend to write and talk about this mutuality, rather than engage with it. There is risk as well as potential in such engagement, but we are hoping not just to consider creativity from a distance, but also to set up some of the conditions in which creativity occurs."
As part of our engagement for the seminar we devised a workshop session looking at the importance of individual recollection of objects and their personal meanings.

We felt very privileged to be able to spend a week discussing and exploring such notions in the company of fascinating people and with the access to such unusual objects.

Thursday 5 May 2011

Marseille


Last week we went to Marseille to meet some people (amongst others Vanessa Santullo one half of the great culture blog Marseille face b) and, after talking about it for many years, we finally started to discover this exciting city.

Along the way we were advised to check the Bonne Mère (the Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde) to see the ex-votos.
There were indeed some fascinating ex-votos paintings but the most amazing sight was the of dozens of models of boats of different periods, and a few planes, hanging from the ceiling, placed there in gratitude to the Saints. Boats floating in church.

We look forward to returning to Marseille soon.


Friday 22 April 2011

Charmouth bridge opening


Yesterday we went to Charmouth, for the opening of the footbridge we designed with the Dorset County Council engineers.
In this beautiful location on the World Heritage Site of the Jurassic coast and the South West Coastal Path the intention was from the beginning not to create a bridge that would become a focal point but to create a place that would enhance the experience of crossing the river and become a viewing point for this landscape. The result is in keeping with the scale of the previous bridge but bows towards the sea and widens in its centre, creating an overhanging balcony over the river, almost a public space in the middle of the bridge.

It has been a really productive collaboration with the design team from day one, and yesterday was a great pleasure to see so many people enjoying the bridge.

Sunday 17 April 2011

Margate


We've just finished installing Iconic site, now placed on the historic Fort Road Hotel in Margate.
To coincide with the opening of the Turner Contemporary, Iconic Site was commissioned to question the future of the Fort Road Hotel, now laying derelict, one of the last building in the area that JMW Turner would have recognised if he were to visit Margate today.



and a small video of the switch on.



Commissioned by Margate Arts, Creativity, Heritage

Saturday 9 April 2011

Limelight Gaborone


A wonderful first night for Limelight in Botswana - for more images please see
www.limelightontour.blogspot.com

Thursday 7 April 2011

Limelight back on tour


We arrived in Gaborone, Botswana, Thursday morning at the invitation of the Maitisong festival and the British Council. Limelight will be installed tomorrow at Riverwalk from 7pm. We are very much looking forward to exploring the city and meeting some of its residents over the next six days.
Photo taken during an interview at Duma FM this afternoon.

Wednesday 23 March 2011

Charmouth Bridge getting closer



We just received a picture from the engineers of the main framework of the bridge being put in place today. it's getting tantalisingly close to completion.

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Charmouth bridge on site


Construction work on the new Charmouth footbridge we designed with engineers from Dorset County Council has begun. Below are images of the first elements - piles are in place, and work on the abutments is underway. The steel frame should be delivered to site in the next couple of weeks and if all goes to plan it should be open for the easter holidays.
The old bridge (the one which needs replacing) is still in place and usable so you can get a good look at how things are progressing with the new one.


view of pile taken from the old bridge


the two piles neatly alined next to the old bridge


heavy foundation works for the abutments on which the bridge frame will sit

Wild life on tour


After its first four nights at Cumbernauld Theatre, Wild Life has now begun its tour around Scotland, Mull Theatre tonight at the Tron in Glasgow this weekend amongst other dates.
Actors Lesley Hart and David Ireland do an outstanding job, it's worth seeing just to watch them at work.

Reviews have been good so far.

Here are a few pictures from the final dress rehearsal (thanks to Jonny Rogerson (Assistant Director) for the images:
Nick Millar -Production Manager - putting the final tweaks to the projection

Tristan, producing freehand Graffiti for a (genuine) part of the set.

Final notes on set with actors Lesley Hart (Daisy) and David Ireland (Dave)

The set complete but absent of the actors


chatting with Director Nick Bone

Friday 25 February 2011

Wildlife



Last day of preparation for the new theatre production with Magnetic North on a new play by Pamela Carter, Wildlife opens tonight. Another productive collaboration with the theatre director Nick Bone.

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Site visit



Margate, January 2011