Spike Island Autumn 2016
Exhibitions Café Events
Roman Štětina Miroslav & Buriánek Hedwig Houben
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Exhibitions Hedwig Houben Others and I 1 October to 11 December 2016 Preview: Friday 30 September, 6–9pm
Dutch artist Hedwig Houben makes sculptural works and installations that are mediated by film, performance and language. For her first solo exhibition in the UK, Houben presents tableaux and accompanying filmed performances from the last five years. Each work comprises one or more art objects and a script that is activated by the artist or a guest performer. At Spike Island, Houben is working with four guests (a visitor, a collector, a staff member and a studio artist) who take on the role of the ‘performer’ and activator in four separate performances. Houben is interested in the shift that occurs when the works leave her orbit and exist in isolation from their maker. Who is the most powerful player — the artist, the art work or the spectator? The artist’s scripts are witty, meandering, and sometimes ridiculous. Like their sculpted counterparts, the scripts are malleable objects which lay their form open to the performer and the performance. They reflect on the work, and the decisions made in order for it to come into being from shifting points of view — sometimes from the artist, as if she were giving a conventional artist’s talk, but often from the perspective of the objects, which become characters that reappear
in different works. Through their repeated use, Houben demonstrates the lack of any fixed or singular meaning and emphasises context as crucial to interpretation. On the opening night of the exhibition, the artist performs Personal Matters and Public Affairs (2016), which examines the position and status of the individual when they are removed from their private space. A 1:1 scale plasticine model of a Volkswagen hatchback, ‘The Other’, is confronted by a plasticine portrait of the performer, ‘I’. During the exhibition a number of different people take on the role of performer, thus modifying ‘The Other’. Imitator Being Made (2015) — performed by Houben on Tuesday 8 November, 6.30pm — features three characters, ‘The Made’, ‘The Being’ and ‘The Imitator’. In its discussion of the relationships between these three characters, the work considers issues of power, collaboration and dependency. How much do authenticity and originality really matter? Don’t we all learn through copying others? See p. 6 for details of performances.
Hedwig Houben Imitator Being Made (2015)
Hedwig Houben Personal Matters and Public Affairs (2015)
Exhibitions Roman Štětina and Miroslav Buriánek Director’s book, Instructions for use of Jiří Kolář (2016) Production still
Roman Štětina and Miroslav Buriánek Instructions for use of Jiří Kolář (2016) Installation view, PLATO Ostrava
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Roman Štětina and Miroslav Buriánek Instructions for use of Jiří Kolář 1 October to 11 December 2016 Preview: Friday 30 September, 6–9pm
Czech artist Roman Štětina’s work investigates the ways in which broadcast media including film, television and radio are created. His videos, installations and sculptures foreground the props, studios and technologies that are otherwise hidden behind the sounds and images received by an audience. At Spike Island, Štětina presents a new feature-length film made in collaboration with Miroslav Buriánek — a long standing director of radio drama for Czech Radio — which traces the process of recording a series of poems by the Czech poet, artist and translator Jiří Kolář (1914–2002).
Buriánek’s interpretation of the poems, Instructions for Use (1969) is documented over the course of an arduous two-day recording session; translating them from the page through a precise and dynamic process, refining intonation, intensity and silences to convey Kolář’s meaning and Buriánek’s interpretation of it. The film exposes method, which we see in exhaustive detail and extreme close-up, with the final faultless recording being the one thing we never hear. It was Buriánek who first opened doors for Štětina at the studios of Czech Radio
(the country’s public radio broadcaster), enabling him to produce a body of work over the past ten years staged in their premises and using their technologies and archival records. As Buriánek approached retirement as a director, Štětina wanted to pay tribute to his personal generosity by capturing on film his exceptional way of working with a script, with actors, and physically, within the delimited space of the recording studio. Buriánek was invited by Štětina to select a text and — rather than a play or novel — he selected Kolář’s, Instructions for Use, first published in Czechoslovakia in 1969.
Jiri Kolář was an important figure in the artistic and literary avant-garde which spoke out about the communist regime in place in Czechoslovakia from 1945 until the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Implicit in much of his work, including verse and documentary prose poems, collages and crumplages, is a freedom of thought expressed from within a repressive and censorious political system. From Kolář to Buriánek to Štětina, the exhibition traces the movement of ideas across three generations.
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Events Hedwig Houben Imitator Being Made (2015)
Exhibition Tours Free, no need to book Informal introductions to the exhibitions led by invited guests and members of the Spike Island community. Marek Pokorný Saturday 1 October, 2pm Marek Pokorný gives personal insight into Štětina and Buriánek´s collaboration for the film Instructions for use of Jiří Kolář which was presented by Pokorný at PLATO (the art gallery in Ostrava, Czech Republic where he is artistic manager) earlier in 2016.
UWE/ Art in the City Talk Hedwig Houben Wednesday 2 November, 6.30–8pm £6/£4 concessions Arnolfini, 16 Narrow Quay Bristol BS1 4QA Free for UWE staff and students with ID Call Arnolfini on 0117 917 2300 or visit www.arnolfini.org.uk to book Hedwig Houben discusses her practice and current solo exhibition at Spike Island.
Foley Workshop with Films at 59
Artist Performances Hedwig Houben Personal Matters and Public Affairs Friday 30 September, 8pm Free (taking place during the exhibition preview) Hedwig Houben’s sculptural performance examines the position and status of the ‘thing’ and the individual when they are removed from their private space. Houben and a replica plasticine portrait perform with ‘The Other’, which takes the shape of a car in a 1:1 scale plasticine model. Hedwig Houben, Imitator Being Made Thursday 3 November, 6.30pm Free, booking advised This scripted arrangement attempts to understand three leading characters, ‘The Made’, ‘The Being’ and ‘The Imitator’, which appear in a sculptural form as three characters moulded in one head. During the exhibition, four invited guests will take on the role of ‘performer’. See www.spikeisland.org.uk for more details.
Saturday 12 November One-hour workshops at 11am, 1pm, 3pm Free, booking advised For ages 16 to 25 Interested in sound? Want to learn about how it’s recreated in movies, television, and radio production? Join Foley artist Richard Hinton for an introduction to the magic of live sound effects. Using various props and materials, participants are taught how to craft audio for a variety of film genres, including additional work by Roman Štětina.
Film Screening Sophie Cundale, After Picasso, God Thursday 17 November, 6.30pm £5/£3 (free for Associates) London based artist Sophie Cundale introduces and screens her most recent film After Picasso, God, a co-commission between Serpentine Galleries and South London Gallery.
Creative Time Summit Occupy the Future (Live Stream) Friday 14 and Saturday 15 October, 3–11pm See www.spikeisland.org.uk for full schedule Free, drop in anytime What does it mean to actually occupy power in a future as yet unwritten? Creative Time Summit — the world’s largest international conference on art and social change — occurs in Washington D.C. just weeks before the 2016 US Presidential Election. It takes this important moment to collectively consider what it might mean to radically transform the current state of democracy. Watch the Summit unfold inside our free screening space with open discussions led by members of the Spike Island community.
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Events
Talk and Screening
Benjamin Orlow The ticket that exploded +1 0 -1 (2015) Film still Solveig Settemsdal Singularity (2016) Video still
Film Screening Hester Reeve (2013) Photograph by Damon Waldock
ICA Artists' Film Biennial 2016 Open Call: Outside Tuesday 25 October, 6.30–8pm £5/£3 (free for Associates) Booking advised Outside features eight short films made in the last two years selected from an international open call for emerging artists and filmmakers. Participants include Graeme Arnfield, Amir Ghazi-Noory, Jenny Gordon, Samantha Harvey, Patrick Rowan, Lawrence Lek, Laura O'Neill and Benjamin Orlow. Presented as part of the ICA Artists’ Moving Image Network.
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Ritual in Transfigured Time Solveig Settemsdal and Kathy Hinde Tuesday 8 November, 6.30pm Free, booking advised Artist Solveig Settemsdal and composer Kathy Hinde present their nine minute collaborative work, Singularity, and discuss the intriguing relationship between images and sound. In Singularity, Settemsdal’s video explores a fluid form of sculptural drawing through suspending white ink in cubes of gelatin, while Hinde responds to these abstract forms, creating sounds for string quartet and on resonating metal tines salvaged from toy pianos. Their discussion is chaired by producer Kate Romano with contributions from sound artist Rob Godman.
Night of the Fellows Tuesday 11 October, 6pm Free, booking advised Each year Spike Island offers fellowships to promising graduates. We look forward to welcoming new Graduate Fellows for 2016–2017: Robert Davis from Falmouth University and Amy Gough and Alfie Kungu from University of the West of England. Night of the Fellows sees them introduce themselves alongside outgoing fellows who recall their experiences at Spike Island and discuss plans for the future.
Film Screening Bohm Dialogue With artist Hester Reeve Saturday 5 November, 10am–5pm Free, booking essential Experience Bohm Dialogue, based on the theory of world-renowned physicist and philosopher David Bohm (1917–1992). Bohm Dialogue offers a simple yet revealing process of understanding and micro-change made possible by a group of people committing to ‘meeting’ together over the course of a specified amount of time and through adherence to a few radical principles.
Tony Romano and Corin Sworn The Coat (2016) Film still
Tony Romano and Corin Sworn Tuesday 6 December, 6.30–7.30pm £5/£3 (free for Associates) Booking advised The Coat (2016) loosely adapts Aristophanes’ The Birds from the Athens of 414 BC to contemporary Calabria. Here a young man and his daughter arrive from Albania in search of a swimming coach who fled the collapse of Communism in the 1990s. Presented as part of the ICA Artists’ Moving Image Network.
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Studios
Literature Novel Writers
Behind the Scenes
£5/£3 concessions Booking advised Each month we invite a debut novelist to read from and talk about their work in an informal setting. Prior knowledge of the text is not essential. Topics of discussion include theme, structure, inspiration and the craft of writing. These sessions are a great way to discover new writing talent and great books. In partnership with Bristol Festival of Ideas.
Free, booking advised Chat with artists based at Spike Island, explore their studios and view work-in-progress during these informal encounters. Each artist gives a brief introduction to their practice followed by an opportunity for questions and discussion Alexander Stevenson Saturday 22 October, 2pm Alexander Stevenson discusses his working methodology of mining information to extract and re-present an idea. Huge fabric sculptures, theatrical performances and quasihistorical narratives generated from remote locations, are just some of the outcomes.
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Carol Laidler and Pat Jamieson Flight (2015)
Carol Laidler and Pat Jamieson Saturday 19 November, 2pm Carol Laidler and Pat Jamieson use landscape as a frame for a series of text-based interventions. They introduce their ongoing residency with alldaybreakfast at Glenside Hospital Museum and perform and discuss their latest work — Flight.
Test Space Test Space is programmed by studio holders based at Spike Island and offers artists a chance to exhibit new works and test ideas. Artists from within the Spike Island community and beyond are included. Please ask at reception for access. Courtesy Rebecca Swindell
Colin Higginson and Marcus Jefferies 1 to 16 October Preview: Friday 30 September, 6–9pm A new installation exploring the rapid development of urban space in the city, the visual language of gentrification, and the selling of luxury lifestyles. Rebecca Swindell, Surface Stories 26 November to 11 December Preview: Friday 25 November, 6–8pm Surface Stories is an exploration of drawn narratives on a variety of different surfaces and found objects.
Garth Greenwell What Belongs to You
Adam Biles Feeding Time
Sunday 16 October 2016, 6–7.30pm What Belongs to You is a stunning debut about an American expat struggling with his own complicated inheritance while navigating a foreign culture. Lyrical and intense, it tells the story of a man caught between longing and resentment, unable to separate desire from danger, and faced with the impossibility of understanding those he most longs to know.
In conversation with Laura Keeling Thursday 24 November, 6.30–8pm Feeding Time is the story of a rebellion in an old people’s home — or perhaps, more pertinently, of a rebellion of people who just happen to be old. The characters in Feeding Time are as funny, annoying, sharp, deranged, loving, and infinitely various as everyone else. They deserve dignity, and they know it — which makes it all the more imperative that something is done about the appalling conditions in Green Oaks. This is a deeply humane book about the triumph of the human spirit.
‘A rich, important debut, an instant classic to be savoured by all lovers of serious fiction because of, not despite, its subject: a gay man’s endeavour to fathom his own heart.’ The New York Times Book Review
Chosen by The Observer as a Fiction Pick for 2016 and described as a ‘scintillating novel of ideas’.
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Activities
Coming soon
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Lubaina Himid I am Making Art
Bristol Print Collective (2015) Photograph by Vicky Willmott
Baby Art Hour Friday 21 October, 10–11am Friday 18 November, 10–11am Friday 16 December, 10–11am £3 for the first child in a family group £1 for each additional child All materials provided Booking essential Led by artist Éilis Kirby, these monthly sessions in Spike Island Café are for under fives and their carers. Come play with colour, shape, texture and learn easy ways to create, using simple methods and materials. The gallery opens early at 11am so you can view the current exhibitions after the session.
Free, booking advised Materials provided, donations welcome These monthly activity sessions are led by artists and take place in Spike Island Café. Visitors of all ages and abilities can try out new techniques and approaches to making art, from drawing and painting to collage, sculpture and animation, and are invited to drop in any time during the session. Claymation Saturday 8 October, 2–6pm Dive into the world of Claymation. Create whatever fantastic plasticine things take your fancy and, with the help of our professional animators, bring your creations to life! The medium is the crumplage (after Jiří Kolář) Saturday 5 November, 2–6pm Artist Ben Owen sets up a collective space, inviting you to massage and mediate prints through froissage and crumplage, methods pioneered by Czech artist Jiří Kolář. Hey Press-to! Saturday 3 December, 2–6pm Join Bristol Print Collective to learn some simple printmaking techniques using household objects, and create your very own bespoke Christmas wrapping paper and greetings cards.
20 January to 26 March 2017 Preview: Thursday 19 January, 6–9pm Lubaina Himid was a pioneer of the Black Arts Movement in Britain in the 1980s, which offered a forum for black artists exploring the social and political issues surrounding black history and identity. This exhibition — a collaboration with Modern Art Oxford and Nottingham Contemporary — seeks to address the significance of Himid’s contribution as a British artist. Known as a painter, her recent work has interrogated the history and representation of the African diaspora and the role of museums in discussion around cultural histories. Her work investigates historical representations of the people of the African diaspora and highlights the importance of their contribution to British culture.
Lubaina Himid Naming the Money (2004) Courtesy Hollybush Gardens
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Calendar
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Spike Island Café
September p. 2 p. 4 p. 10 p. 6
October Saturday 1 Saturday 8 Tuesday 11 Friday 14 Saturday 15 Sunday 16 Friday 21 Saturday 22 Tuesday 25
2pm 2–6pm 6pm 3–11pm 3–11pm 6 –7.30pm 10–11am 2pm 6.30–8pm
Exhibition Tour I am Making Art Night of the Fellows Creative Time Summit (Live Stream) Creative Time Summit (Live Stream) Novel Writers: Garth Greenwell Baby Art Hour Behind the Scenes Studio Visits Film Screening: ICA Artists’ Film Biennial 2016
p. 6 p. 12 p. 9 p. 7 p. 7 p. 11 p. 12 p. 10 p. 8
Photograph courtesy Eat Pictures
Friday 30 6–9pm Exhibition Previews: Hedwig Houben Roman Štětina and Miroslav Buriánek Test Space: Collin Higginson and Marcus Jefferies 8pm Artist Performance: Hedwig Houben
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Open Monday to Friday, 8.30am–5pm Saturday and Sunday, 10am–5pm Organic ingredients and an ethical stance are at the heart of Spike Island Café. Expect a warm welcome, seasonal menus, a well-stocked bar, good coffee and cake every day of the week. It’s the perfect place to meet, relax and even host gatherings. Café hire is free subject to minimum bar spend. Call 0117 954 4030 or email spikeislandcafe@gmail.com
November Thursday 3 6.30pm Artist Performance: Hedwig Houben Saturday 5 10am–5pm Bohm Dialogue with Hester Reeve 2–6pm I am Making Art Tuesday 8 6.30pm Ritual in Transfigured Time Saturday 12 11am Foley Workshop with Films at 59 1pm Foley Workshop with Films at 59 3pm Foley Workshop with Films at 59 Thursday 17 6.30pm Film Screening: Sophie Cundale Friday 18 10–11am Baby Art Hour Saturday 19 2pm Behind the Scenes Studio Visits Thursday 24 6.30–8pm Novel Writers: Adam Biles Friday 25 6–8pm Exhibition Preview: Test Space: Rebecca Swindell
p. 6 p. 8 p. 12 p. 9 p. 7 p. 7 p. 7 p. 7 p. 12 p. 10 p. 11 p. 10
December Saturday 3 Tuesday 6 Friday 16
2–6pm 6.30pm 10–11am
I am Making Art Film Screening: Tony Romano and Corin Sworn Baby Art Hour
p. 12 p. 9 p. 12
Book for events online at www.spikeisland.org.uk, call 0117 929 2266 or visit reception.
Thank you Spike Island is a registered charity (no. 1003505). Spike Island gratefully acknowledges support from Arts Council England and Bristol City Council. Hedwig Houben’s exhibition is supported by the Mondriaan Fund and Outset. Roman Štětina and Miroslav Buriánek’s exhibition is organised in partnership with the Czech Centre London and PLATO Ostrava, Czech Republic. Štětina received the Jindřich Chalupecký Award in 2014 which led to the commission of Instructions for use of Jiří Kolář by Jindrich Chalupecky Society. The exhibition Návod k použití Jiřího Koláře was presented at PLATO Ostrava from 23 June to 19 September 2016, curated by Marek Pokorný. The ICA Artists’ Moving Image Network is funded by Arts Council England.
Cover images: Roman Štětina and Miroslav Buriánek Instructions for use of Jiří Kolář (2016) Hedwig Houben Imitator Being Made (2015)
This programme is available in large print. Ask at reception, email admin@spikeisland.org.uk or call 0117 929 2266.
Spike Island
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Spike Island is an international centre for the development of contemporary art and design. A vibrant hub for production, presentation and debate, it invites audiences to engage directly with creative practices through participation and discussion.
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