A WORKING TITLE (2011)

A WORKING TITLE was a concept led platform showcasing new and existing work by artists from the UK and Europe. A number of the works shown over the weekend were new commissions responding directly to the associated themes.

Exploring the modernisation of situation, examining how situation has developed as a consequence of modernisation and visa versa, within particular relation to the urban environment and Lincoln as a city, the platform invited artists to respond directly to the presented context.
The concept derived from one of the cities historical starting points; the canal. Using history as an example where cities were founded on sites that had access to water and were protected by raises in the land where buildings could be founded. The rivers were used as trade routes, later canals were built as the demand for trade grew and transportation via use of barges or boats required more fluidity. The concept did not explore the historical context of the canal but used it as a starting point to witness both modernisation and situation develop.

The platform was initiated with the aspirations of becoming an annual event, after curating the inaugural project in 2011 the platform was then handed over to a new curatorial team based in the city of Lincoln to develop it’s future.

The Trivia Of Eccentric England (Part Two) (2011)

Exploring the eccentric side of British behaviour, its traditions, quirks, rituals, rules and everything in between. The second half of the season saw two commissions supported by a series of events including a screening of Matt Stoke The Gainsborough Packet and a symposium of eccentric subjects. The symposium bought together artists and eclectic thinkers from across the UK to explore subjects that may in isolation be deemed eccentric.

Matthew Cowan opened the second part of the programme which explored the eccentricity of bell ringing as a physical act. A performance and documentary style video were produced by means of working with the Lincoln Cathedral bell ringers, said to be the longest standing practicing bell ringers in the country. A silent black and white film captured the motions of the ringers and the supporting performance involving the repetitive ritual of bell ringing, the mechanism of the bell ropes, and the artist's own take on the physicality of campanology took place where folk traditions encapsulated the performance.

Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich concluded the season by producing a new performance, documented by film, that explored the attributes of eccentricity and an exploration in to the myth making that is part of family histories inspired by the eccentric Charles Waterton. Waterton’s independent thinking allowed him to pioneer the first nature reserve in the UK and invent the wooden bird box at a time when most aristocrats would be shooting birds as vermin.  This research created a devised performance where invited guests attended an Eccentric Banquet. The banquet utilised ritual and story telling to create an immersive evening of frivolity. Both of the commissioned works were documented to create video works.

Participating artists: Matthew Cowan, Victoria Melody, Project Pigeon, John Plowman, Anthony Schrag, Matt Stokes,
Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich

Working in collaboration with The Collection, and The Forestry Commission, ‘Charter of the Forest’ presented a number of new artist’s commissions located throughout the woodland surrounding Chambers Farm Wood, that explored issues relating to land ownership and use of woodland space.

The Charter of the Forest was outlined as a complimentary charter to the Magna Carter from which it originated, and was issued in 1217 by King Henry III. The charter is sometimes referenced as the Charter of the Common Man, as it was the first document to give land access and ownership rights to people outside of nobility or clergy. Lincoln Castle is the only site which holds a copy of both the Charter and the Magna Carter.

The charters re-establishment of rights of access and the historical relevance of the Lincolnshire woodlands, acted as a starting point for the artist’s commissions. The proposed selling of woodland under parliament (2011) and the verbal mythologies that have been passed down through generations exploring the rural of the countryside were explored throughout the project. New works in the woodlands included ‘The King of Lincolnshire’ a billboard tableaux exploring mythology of the woodland by Tereza Buskova, ‘Where Theres Smoke’ an installation with a charcoal burner that let out smoke signals influenced by protest songs by Via Vaudeville!, a live film set following a narrative where the forest animals are given eviction notices in response to the proposed sale of the woodland by Richard DeDomenici and a Two Way Radio Guided Tour by Townley and Bradby with James Wilkes that took the audience on an alternative excursion in the woods.

Participating artists: Tereza Buskova, Richard DeDomenici, James Wilkes and Townley & Bradby, Via Vaudeville!, Boyd Webb, Carey Young

The Trivia Of Eccentric England (Part One) (2011)

Exploring the eccentric side of British behaviour, its traditions, quirks, rituals, rules and everything in between. The first half of the season saw two commissions supported by a series of film screenings and talks. The first commission by Uddin and Elsey a London based duo, exploring the British love of locomotion and train spotting. The commission saw interventions placed in Lincoln Central Railway station for members of the public to stumble across. The interventions played with historical romanticism of the railway through music, game play and observation.

The season concluded with a Parade Of Normal Objects by Anthony Schrag who turned the question of eccentricity on its head, by exploring normality. The two stage commission saw a competition in the local newspaper search for Mr and Mrs Normal in Lincolnshire, who were later crowned in an award ceremony. The second part was a parade of normal objects donated by local Lincolnshire groups that independently conform but collectively appear questionable. The parade took place at the Lincolnshire Show an annual agricultural event, where members of the audience were invited to vote for their most normal object.

Participating artists: Shezad Dawood, Luke Fowler, Henry Hemming, Anthony Schrag, Uddin and Elsey

Boy Horse Shoe Bed (2010)

Townley and Bradby became resident in the city of Lincoln over the autumn half term. The artists came to explore their relationship as an artist family, and to discover how possible it was to make art work as a family unit. Over the course of the residency there were three core events, an Open House investigating the process of producing work, two talks given simultaneously, a performance lecture where the artists explored the format of a talk, giving the audience an option to engage with the concurrent talks by facing one way or another. The final element of the residency was a child led tour of the city.

The child led tour was a re-construction of a tour of Lincoln the artist’s youngest daughter had taken them on earlier in the week. The tour became a mix of ‘follow my leader’ and factual meanderings. Instead of investigating the city’s main attractions the audience were led around twisting corners, and encouraged to run down steep hills, the aim of the tour was not to discover historical Lincoln, but to enjoy the city as a child.

Participating artists: Townley & Bradby

Union (2010)

Lincoln Art Programme commissioned Cardiff based artist S Mark Gubb in collaboration with the Usher Gallery to develop a series of flags which flew atop the building. The hoisting and flying of Gubb’s flags represented a symbolic act of new beginnings as the Usher Gallery re-opened following a redevelopment to it site.

Titled Union, S Mark Gubb has used the project as an opportunity to explore the history and representation of national identity within the Union Jack flag.  Gubb will used each of the Usher Gallery’s flagpoles to hoist an alternative historical variation on the standard Union flag design, collectively depicting the flags historical struggle in representing its own identity and power.

Flying at the front of the building were two designs The Welsh Dragon and The Scottish Union flag.  Former Wrexham Labour MP, Ian Lucas, designed the Welsh Dragon flag to highlight the lack of Welsh representation within the current flag. The Scottish Union Flag was produced to celebrate the beginning of James I reign, in 1606, after he inherited the English and Irish thrones. Although remaining separate states, this was the first time that an element from individual flags where amalgamated to simplify a now united country.

At the back of the building the Protectorate Jack and Re-flag flew. The Protectorate Jack was produced to rectify the underrepresented of the Kingdom of Ireland. Similar to the Welsh Dragon design, the Irish emblem was placed in the centre of the existing Union Jack. Despite being used for just under a 100 years the Irish arms was removed in 1660, following the restoration of the monarchy under King Charles II. In 1707 the present day flag was redesigned and became the official Union Jack.

Re-flag headed a campaign in 2003 to address the diversity of a multicultural Britain. Nigel Turner, a campaigner for multicultural Britain suggested that the introduction of black within the Union Jack would promote a positive statement about the progression of a multiracial society. However the design was criticized for over simplifying the issues surrounding racial equalities and was never official used.

Participating artists: S Mark Gubb

Search Party Vs Lincoln (2010)

Search Party challenged the city of Lincoln to a three day marathon table tennis tournament. The people of Lincoln responded in their thousands to accept the challenge and watch the spectacle. Opening the tournament was the Mayor of Lincoln who Search Party defeated in straight points, the only player to score zero.  By the end of the first day despite torrential rain and the odd breeze Search Party had stormed into a commanding lead with Lincoln only winning four games.

Hearing of Lincoln’s deficit Andy from the Lincolnshire Crusaders Table Tennis Club, ranked number one player in the county, number ninety two in the UK came to show Search Party how the professionals play, and provided a lesson in table tennis. His mighty forehand was no match for Search Party and a glimmer of hope shone in a brief moment for Lincoln. During the second day, Lincoln won a third of all matches played but the strong gales that blew across Cornhill Square called off play mid afternoon. The day finished with Lincoln still facing a mountain to climb and despite the score improving Lincoln had yet to reach double figures.  

As the day’s commentary filled onlookers ears more players took the challenge to Search Party. Despite the wind Lincoln persevered for pride rather than glory, it was clear that Lincoln would be the lowest scoring city Search Party had played. The tournament finished Search Party 61; Lincoln 14.

Characters came and went, the weather became an endurance but the fighting spirit lived on. Search Party came to challenge Lincoln to a marathon game of table tennis, and left victorious. Champagne was shared between winners and losers, hands were shaken, cheers were given, and Search Party stood strong to play another day.

Search Party’s interest in sport and competitive participation has informed the Search Party Vs series. Each city they take on has its own stories that are woven into the commentary text, and developed as the event progresses, special moments, unforgettable characters, trials and tribulations become a part of the durational narrative. Search Party came to Lincoln with their own stories, how they had played in the cold in Finland, how the people of Plymouth forced a draw, they left Lincoln with new tales, playing their highest ranked player to date, buying new equipment to deal with the rain and leaving Lincoln as the lowest scoring city by some margin.  

Search Party are interested in the way people come together to represent a community and a social pride. This work investigates camaraderie and how un-familiar people share a collective goal through their residence. Search Party’s work looks to acknowledge a single moment and occasion in time, to acknowledge a location and observe its presence amongst its people.

Participating artists: Search Party

Pilgrimage of the Fool (2010)

Agnes Nedregard was commissioned to develop a new work that reacted to Lincoln as a historic site. She responded by undertaking a pilgrimage toward the counties most famous landmark, Lincoln Cathedral. The pilgrimage stemmed from an interest to connect to a place through journey within a landscape.

Travelling in a costume reminiscent of a medieval traveller, Nedregard followed the Viking Way route which runs through the width of Lincolnshire, historically used by pilgrims travelling to Lincoln Cathedral. Beginning at Woodhall Spa approximately 20 miles east of Lincoln Cathedral the pilgrimage began and proceeded to travel through a number of villages with regular stopping points. These stopping points enabled Nedregard to engage with local people and places, pubs, post offices and historic sites which all presented opportunities for the pilgrim to tell tales of her journey so far, and allowed people to join her at different stages of the pilgrimage.

As Nedregard arrived in the city, audiences met and greeted her under the Stonebow Archway, a common meeting place for local Lincoln citizens, before joining her for the final section of the journey. Under the imposing peal of the cathedral bells, Nedregard ended the journey. In a final act Nedregard unravelled her cloth bundle to reveal a miniature wooden model of the cathedral encased in a glass globe, an item Nedregard had secretly carried for the duration of the journey. Nedregard released the model and placed it on the steps of the building before leaving.

Participating artists: Agnes Nedregard

Lunatic Box (2010)

Prussian Projekte presented Erica Eyres’s first solo show in Nottingham “The Lunatic Box”. The Lunatic box showed a section of Eyre's video works from 2006 -2010.

Eyres fascination with the human condition and its position within society informs her videos, through the characters presented in her mockumentaries she investigates human nature, how we perceive others and in turn how we portray ourselves to others.

Utilising the aesthetic of a low budget television or film pilot, Eyres evokes an artificiality which works in tandem with the psychological depth embedded within the characters created. The combination of which has an effect of compassionate repulsion by the viewer. Her films first repulse the viewer before enticing them back with a sense of compassion for the created characters

Eyres is the actor of the characters in the mockumentaries as well as the director, and as a result not only subjects herself to the interrogation of the audience, but also invites the audience to in turn examine their own self image. Questioning the reality of our opinions of ourselves in relation to how we in turn are perceived by others.

Participating artists: Erica Eyres

Active Research (2010)

Undertaking the role of the researcher a one day series of events that would get audiences to actively take part in the art works and present their opinions was produced, to understand how a Lincoln audience would react to various art forms. Gold:Sand:Spring used interactive works, intervention works and performance works by Charlotte Pratley, Leila Al-Yousuf, and the Shrug Ladies. The following report supports this research.

Click to download. This is a large file and may take a while to download.  

Participating artists: Charlotte Pratley, Leila Al-Yousuf, Shrug Ladies

Holes (2010)

Prussian Projekte were invited by Digital Broadway to curate a multimedia show throughout their building. Prussian Projekte responded with a programme that explored film, video and sound works using durational narratives in which situations only seem to progressively get worse. Situations are explored in which common sense tells us to walk away, yet instinctively we are pushed towards that breaking point- like ending up in a hole just too big to escape. The programme’s highlight, consisted of a 10 hour epic durational video work by Steve Hines, projected in the Broadway café bar. This was accompanied by a sound installation from Garry O’Conner in the toilets.

Participating artists: Garry O'Conner, Steven Hines

Bite The Hand (2009)

My Dads Strip Club resided in Lincoln for three days to present work that was politically relevant and active. Their work focused around two main issues, Buy Nothing Day and the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, one questioned consumerism and the other issues of ecology.

Four events were presented to the audience over three days, the first of which, Bite The Hand, acted as an introduction to MDSC’s works and other artists who use activism in their practice through a stand up comedy style evening, hosted in the Dog and Bone pub. The evening explored every day consumerist actions, alongside personal insights into a brain washed world of capitalist dictatorship. Chris Graham’s no-frills attitude introduced bare faced facts of Coca-Cola's pillage of the globe through creating works that reversed the cycle. This functioned by subjecting Coca-Cola machines to unrequested sexual intercourse, an amusing anecdotal insight into an under reported issue.

The final day of residence on Buy Nothing Day encompassed two interventions. During the Christmas shopping rush in the Lincoln high street, Chris Graham attempted to sell ‘deer shit’ to shoppers using the premise of buying ‘deer shit’ for Christmas rather than ‘cheap shit.' Lining the inside of Chris' coat were packets of glittery ‘deer shit’ retailing at £4000. The idea was to raise awareness of people's consumption during a time where there is a compulsion to buy for the sake of doing so.

More information on the series of events can be found at www.lincolnartprogramme.co.uk
Click here to see more videos of the events on Vimeo

Participating artists: My Dads Strip Club

Baggage Reclaim (2009)

Prussian Projekte presented a solo show of artist David Theobald which showcased three works that were concerned with the movement of objects, natural and mechanical. The center piece to the show was a cinematic reenactment of a fly trapped inside a kitchen, the viewer following this perspective often became disorientated as the fly flew into a window pane or landed on the table only to suddenly take off again.

Supporting this work, were two pieces that showed the monotony of waiting for a bus that never comes in a metaphoric sense. Greensleeves, one of the two pieces, took the perspective of a car driver being over taken by an Ice Cream van playing the Greensleeves tune whilst being stuck in slow moving traffic. The distant noises of car stereos and engine revs intersperse the musical tone of the van and the humming drone of the monotony of waiting.

Participating artists: David Theobald

Milee the Sheep and her Animal Orchestra (2009)

Performing as Milee the Sheep for the Lincoln Art Programme, Lee formed an orchestra of eight other animals specifically chosen as species that humans have successfully cloned, including a dog, a deer, a monkey, a rabbit and a pig. These participants/performers formed part of a new piece of work combining film, sound and live action within a traditional auditorium space. Composed of three discrete sections, Lee's project aimed to address notions of audience engagement with performance, through creating an overtly theatrical experience whilst inviting other people to collaborate and participate within the work. The event began with a short, if surreal, film depicting Milee the Sheep and her orchestra playing musical instruments in a woodland environment late into the night.

Extract from text written by Anneka French
Participating artists: Feng-Ru Lee

Its Not The End Of The World (2009)

Prussian Projekte launched with a solo show from Darren Banks. “Working with previously lost or forgotten imagery and film, Banks deconstructs and reassembles to push his work in new directions, conveying his ideologies succinctly and yet with unerringly accurate, stuttering motion. Playing with our hopes and expectations he teases our anticipation time after time, building tension, and then it knocking back down.”

The exhibition provided an opportunity for Prussian Projekte to explore alternative display locations whilst projecting a large screen video work in the main gallery. Works wee hidden inside cupboards and back projected from upstairs windows, declaring the building officially open.

Participating artists: Darren Banks

** Prussian Projekte was launched in October 2009, Amelia Beavis-Harrison was a founding member and worked on initiating the inaugural programme, until April 2010.**

Art Jacking Debate (2009)

‘Live art asks us what it means to be here, now’*
When Live art is presented in a public environment to an unsuspecting audience, does it alienate or empower the people and places it seeks to engage?

* Live Art UK Vision Paper

Art jacking provided an opportunity to actively discuss with a live audience the role of live art in public spaces, on the eve of the Lincoln Art Programme launching a new programme of live art activity. Art Jacking saw a debate that opens ideas and questions that look at the nature, role and experience of art that is alive and how audience respond to art and its varied formats.

Art Jacking saw various invited speakers that ascend from a variety artistic backgrounds and consequently bring varied opinions and experiences on the role of live art. Ranging from Lois Keidan, director of the Live Art Development Agency championing live arts ability to pursue new ideas and experiences, to Hugh Dichmont’s proclaimed embarrassment and humiliating feelings when being caught up in a situation that requires him to participate in live art activities. The debate’s speakers worked around a structure that based their arguments on the ideas relating to live art alienating its audiences in a negative manner or empowering them positively. Discussing subjects from activist induced events to live art in low engagement areas and the effect it has on its audience, the debate rather than develop firm answers to the role of live art, opened up ideas and subjects to its audience in an effect to enhance the profile of live art through collaborative dialogue.

Still from the film 'A Day in the Life of a Triple Z Celebrity' by Victoria Melody and Michael Melody

"Mike Melody makes Shadrach Dingle look respectable" TV Forum

This video was meant to "explore the relationship between daughter and fathers perceptions of art, from Victoria’s formal education and Michael’s experimentation with art through his career as an antique dealer" Instead dad got drunk and became a hammy performer auditioning for his own episode of the Antique's Roadshow.

We constructed a portrait part real and truthful and part enactment. Subjects were raised about celebrity, death, antiques, art, and life experience answered. Remove the initial light layer of humour and there exists a more sinister kitchen sink reality. We set out to collaborate and created this video by default. It has made me realise that it is no accident that I am who I have become.

Participating artists: Victoria Melody, Michael Melody

Crumb Publication (2009)

The Crumb Publication can be downloaded here, by clicking on the following icon.
Depending on your connection speed this can take a few minuets.

If you would like a printed publication, send an email to amelia@ameliabeavisharrison.com, with your name and postal address.

The Crumb Publication is a series of texts accumulated and expanded from the Crumb Programme curated in spring 2008. The publication presents a response to the minds of the contributors to the programme, exploring in some cases the working methodologies of the participants and organisations laced with occasional obscurity.

Contributors: AAS, Beacon, DOT, Via Vaudeville!
Alexander Stevenson, James E Smith, Benjamin Hargrave, Timothy Dixon, Alan Armstrong, Steven Bradley

ART:WORK (2009)

ART:WORK was the first performance for the Lincoln Art Programme. Armstrong’s performance was a heightened recreation of his routinely structured behaviour during his morning vocation. The audience were invited to see Armstrong routinely mop the floor space for a four hour period, retracing the same pattern repetitively. Interspersed by scheduled tea brakes where Armstrong played on his incessant repetitive behaviour of reading the Metro and Sun newspapers in sequence each morning with out fail, alongside his structured snack purchases from the corner shop and vending machine. 

Crumb Programme (2008)

The Crumb Programme was an exhibition and events based programme curated for Standing Room at Harrington Mill, and incorporated collaborative based exhibitions, talks by organisations/groups/projects and a range of film screenings. The programme was designed to explore cross disciplinary collaboration in a variety of different situations.

The exhibitions formed three collaborations each sourced from local studio groups, Timothy Dixon and Benjamin Hargrave from Tether, James E Smith and Alexander Stevenson from Stand Assembly, and Alan Armstrong and Steven Bradley from Exit Here. The collaborations presented a series of obstacles that arose from the nature of collaborative practice and the artists being largely unfamiliar with each others practice, thus perusing very different outcomes. For Armstrong and Bradley the experience presented frustration and anxiety with the final exhibition taking on a split space indicating a decision to step away from the nature of producing collaborative work, with the exception of a Goe board that although small in size dominated the space with its competitive dexterity.

Challenged by distance E Smith and Stevenson approached collaboration through a removed dialogue via emails. The emails become the forefront of the collaboration with a reactional model forming the way their exhibition would be structured. The final exhibition portrayed the journey the artists had undertaken with objects and photographs replacing sentences and stories that had been shared along the way.

Participating artists: Alexander Stevenson, James E Smith, Benjamin Hargrave, Timothy Dixon, Alan Armstrong, Steven Bradley

JACKINABOX (2008)

'Maybe Jackinabox should be read as Exit Here’s statement of intent as a group, for although the work exhibited is that of external practitioners, there is a definite sense of cohesive purpose and belief in the show, suggesting that Exit Here’s own direction as artists lies on similar ground to that of Roberts, Payne et al. Exit Here have undoubtedly announced their public arrival in an arts scene ever expanding and developing - with fellow independent groups such as Tether and (the now relatively senior citizens of) Stand Assembly pursuing a growing number of projects locally and throughout the country - with an exhibition that adds weight to the argument that, as much as Nottingham needs large-scale government funded centres such as Nottingham Contemporary, the future of the city as a site of cultural interest lies as much in the hands of fringe groups, such as Exit Here, and their projects.'

Text from a review by Hugh Dichmont
Participating artists: Andrew Bracey, Margaret Diamond, Matthew James Kay, Edward Payne, Matthew Mark Roberts

Badge Project (2007)

Exit Here commissioned five artists to produce limited edition badges as a part of the Tether Festival. Each set of badges was placed at a different location in the festival, enabling people to collect the full set of badges as they travelled around events.

The artists each took a different approach to their commissions; Oran O’Reilly explored the legacy of Nottingham via the humble tape measure providing a gate way into Nottingham’s rich history of design and manufacture. Whilst Benjamin Hargrave produced a poetic accolade to collaboration, acting as metaphor for the future relations between Exit Here and Tether.

Participating artists: Steven Bradley, John Plowman, Oran O'Reilly, Benjamin Hargrave, Daniel Hunt