Curatorial Research Trip to IstanbulOct/Nov 2007
One of ten curators invited to attend the Istanbul Biennial.
Trip organised by Clarissa Corfe, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester.
Supported by Arts Council England.
www.istanbulresearch.blogspot.com..............................
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Turnstile - Single UseThe Holden Gallery, Oxford Road, Manchester
Thursday 26th - Saturday 28th July 2007
Devised and curated by Karen Gaskill
Turnstile is a 3-day visual feast; saturating an audience with media-based creative endeavours.
Turnstile is a new concept in art tourism - an innovative exhibition format developed around the idea that most people only visit an exhibition once. Turnstile utilises this observation as an approach and redesigns the format to an exhibition, mimicking an audiences actions and flow.
Turnstile will present a series of 3 single-day exhibitions. Each day will see artists install, show and remove their work from a space, a rotating audio-visual extravaganza. This style of event is new and innovative, responsive to tight schedules and busy lifestyles. The space will be open for preview each evening from 5-9pm, after which the work will be removed ready for the next artists to install.
Time is throwaway, a disposable and low valued commodity. Many contemporary objects and experiences are designed for single use, nurturing a short term, disposable society, a culture of quick consumption and fickle fashions.
Art and media are often viewed in a similar way. Many people only visit exhibitions once, absorbing as much of the experience as possible, lingering if it interests them. Interval is interested in work with this 'one off' culture in mind; this may be representative in the materials used, the critical approach, or even the consideration of a 'one off' as something precious and cherishable.
Turnstile responds to the hidden positives in the above demise, providing 3 intensive and concentrated time slots for artists to show their work. This shortens the window in which an audience gets to see a piece of work, and for the artists places more emphasis on creativity and experimentation instead of semi-permanently installed polished work. Overall, this aims to create an ongoing flow of ideas and topics for discussion in the space instead of static content.
Day 1 Thursday 26th 5-8pm
Successful FailureThough we rely on it to get us through tasks both quotidian and extraordinary, our technology is constantly failing us. Decay, malfunctions, errors, and other indicators of failure can be purposefully engineered into a creative work as part of a statement on how our reliance on technology is often founded on untenable hopes that today's cutting edge tools will last the test of time.
Katherine Behar | Marisa Olson | Ruth Pringle
Curated by Karen Gaskill and Michelle Kasprzak
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Day 2 Friday 27th 5-8pm
Outside of ParallelOutside of Parallel is a series of screen-based works that explore strangeness. Experiences such as deja vu reveal perceived ephemera that seem to occur out of parallel with the everyday. These one-off occurrences create unease within the familiar and routine, bringing about a slightly altered state of perception and the manifestation of eeriness or strangeness.
Brass Art | Jane Brake and Jenna Collins | Rose Butler | Eimer Birkbeck and Joe Duffy | Rebecca Lennon
Curated by Karen Gaskill
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Day 3 Saturday 28th 2-5pm
Portable RestIs rest portable? Has it become a commodity that you can take to the park and experience? Portable Rest sees artworks that induce, create or represent relaxation, questioning how we can be proactive in being inactive. Audience members are asked to bring suitable accessories for relaxation; rugs, mats, picnics, etc.
Neil Grant | Raven | Neil Webb
Curated by Karen Gaskill and Steve Swindells
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www.interval.org.uk..............................
ScatterProjects - If ElsewhereThe Media Centre, Huddersfield
14th June - 6th July 2007
Project devised and directed by Karen Gaskill
(Also see
Research section for Scatter Article)
The project is supported by Huddersfield Media Centre and the Digital Research Unit at the University of Huddersfield.
Blink|Levon Biss|PostSecrets|John Davies|Katamari Damacy|e-Petitions|Rob Chui|Open Music Archive
If Elsewhere… If Elsewhere is here, and nearness is networked, then where is the local? In the "old days", before the Internet, the term 'local' was used to define our surrounding physical environment. We defined our location with an X on the map, and our 'locale' consisted of what was within our sight line, or was 'a stones throw away'. Such terms have since been adopted for use in our online environment, aimed at keeping terms familiar and easy to use, but subsequently generating a duality of meaning, one that blurs the boundaries of the real and the virtual. As the web has become more social and relational, terms like 'local' have become popularised, representing a personalisation of, and more importantly giving a presence to, the connecting structures of network spaces. These are essentially the links that comprise of and weave together a network or a community, creating an intimacy that echoes that of the most familiar spaces of the heart.
If Elsewhere draws from these shared terms and looks at the concept of the Glocal - the global local. Glocality, Glocalisation, all whisper of something close, perhaps an act of making something personal, or a redefininition of our understanding of the near and the far. Our world has physically shrunk; cheap air travel and our networked population mean that the global has become local in every sense. If Elsewhere is interested in how people take control or represent themselves in this Glocality, and as a body of work considers the nuances of the immense and the intimate, revealing different portrayals of this fascinating blend of ephemerality and permanence, public and private.
This is revealed in projects such as Frank Warren's PostSecrets, a global web-based phenomenon broadcasting anonymous and emotionally loaded secrets to an electric community across the globe. Something you are unable to reveal to even the closest person in your life, when shared with a receptive and non-judgmental 'virtual other', somehow becomes a lighter burden to carry.
Levon Biss's photographic series One Love presents a captivating perspective on our global shared love of a game. These four images, selected from a large collection taken in over 26 countries, are indifferent to markers dividing countries, race, gender or the provision of suitable or defined areas to play, and symbolise beautifully the commonality of experience.
Black Day to Freedom reveals the Glocal is not always positive; this animation subtely infers through its delicate contents our lack of attention and often racist, blinkered attitudes towards asylum seekers and refugees. An incredibly critical issue firmly rooted in everyone's locale, it reminds us that the global is always very local, and issues present in even the closest of communities are often easily overlooked.
Anywhere Blogs offers us the unique ability to annotate the space around us. Using text messages, users can post to and download messages from the Anywhere Blogs platform that are specific to an exact location. Contextual information, anecdotes or personal opinions can be left about local places in the physical environment, bringing that spot to life through revealing a past, present and future.
Katamari Damacy provides us with a unique perspective on building an abstract space. Through the collection of found items from other planets, a new habitation is created; a new locale made up of stolen parts from another locale. From something so small and intimate, to the creation of an immense constellation, this game in its heavily stylized, surreal setting looks kookily at our serious attachment to environment and material possessions.
John Davies Allotments photograph considers landscape in a different way. Historically allotments have formed a backbone for local communities, sustaining not just our dietary needs, but also our social and economic ones. It could be said that historically allotment culture draws many cultural similarities with contemporary P2P - peer to peer, or plant to plant - networks, as spaces of social exchange; nurturing a collective responsibility towards the shaping of our inhabited environment.
10 Downing Street E-petitions present another form of early social exchange. Petitioning has always represented a freedom of speech and an important starting point for any campaign towards change. In our current trend of participatory citizenship and citizen journalism the world is listening, and not just the cataclysmic and polished ideas are heard, but also the personal and the absurd. This assortment of rejected petitions characterises the democratisation of global content production.
Karen Gaskill
June 2007
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