Spike Island Summer 2016
Exhibitions CafĂŠ Events
Xavier Antin The Eternal Network
Stuart Whipps
Isle of Slingers
2
Exhibitions Stuart Whipps Isle of Slingers 9 July to 18 September 2016 Preview: Friday 8 July, 6–9pm
Isle of Slingers draws together multiple strands from the work of the British artist Stuart Whipps in his largest, most comprehensive exhibition to date. Whipps trained as a photographer and while his work now ranges more widely, the processes and history of photography underpin much of his thinking. Fixing — the photographic process of setting an image, of preventing any further change by exposure to chemicals — here becomes a motif through which Whipps explores the formation of ideas. Throughout the exhibition Whipps questions how things come to be realised in a certain form and points to the paradoxical effort of attempting this when both ideas and the physical world are in a constant state of flux.
Opposite: Stuart Whipps Ffestiniog Slate (2015)
The exhibition takes as its starting point and structuring principle three types of stone — Portland stone, slate and shale — colour coding them to guide the viewer through a series of unexpected narratives that the artist has researched for each of them. A mass of archival information, photographs and objects trace these stories, while the film at the heart of the exhibition attempts to draw out connections between these seemingly isolated trajectories. While most of the works presented have been newly made for the exhibition, they grow out of ongoing research that has informed the artist’s work over the last ten years. It is the first time that these disparate narratives will be brought together for a single exhibition and includes work made around a concrete sculpture garden in Mexico, the remnants of the Scottish oil industry, a ballet company in 1933 and the theft of flowers from a garden in North Wales.
4
Exhibitions
Xavier Antin The Eternal Network 9 July to 18 September 2016 Preview: Friday 8 July, 6–9pm
For his first solo exhibition in the UK, French artist Xavier Antin presents a series of newly commissioned works that take as their starting point the independent publishing and printing house Beau Geste Press (BGP). From 1971 to 1976, BGP operated from a remote farmhouse in Devon where its founders — the Mexican artist couple Felipe Ehrenberg and Martha Hellion, and the art historian David Mayor — gathered around them a ‘community of duplicators, printers and artisans.’ As in Antin’s work, economy and autonomy of production were the
principles at the heart of the BGP ethos. Adapting the means of production to their varying needs, members of the BGP community used a wide range of printing techniques, from spirit duplication to offset, often just stapling together photocopied sheets of paper. They specialised in publishing artists’ books (by Ken Friedman, Ulises Carrión, Cecilia Vicuña, Carolee Schneemann, Opal L. Nation and Helen Chadwick, to name but a few) and distributed them internationally via the postal network. In collaboration with artists affiliated to the Fluxus movement, they also produced and released eight
5
Xavier Antin News from Nowhere (2014) Maison d’art Bernard Anthonioz
issues of a magazine called Schmuck, which promoted transnational connections between artists by focusing on art from various countries and looking at the local scenes of Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland and Japan. The exhibition The Eternal Network, which borrows its title from a term coined by the French Fluxus artist Robert Filliou, considers BGP as a blueprint for the alternative circulation of art before the internet. Xavier Antin’s recent work examines the functioning of technical devices — more specifically image reproduction devices such as printers or scanners — as manifestations of time-specific modes of representation. His project for Spike Island addresses BGP’s heritage by using archival material as a score for a
speculative history of the printing press. The resulting presentation, however, is keen to depart from its initial premise and free itself of the burden of history. A series of dysfunctional sculptural machines are scattered in a darkened space to form an idle printing workshop, where only traces of a past or suspended (re)productive activity can be seen. Each element of this mechanic landscape either produces light or is itself lit, as if scrutinising something or being put under scrutiny itself. Fragments from typewritten letters, excerpts, quotes, and clues from the BGP archive are displayed on these mechanical bodies, which are also used to put back into circulation bootleg versions of BGP publications, true to Antin’s confessed belief in reanimation through copy — and copy only.
6
Events
Exhibition Tours Free, no need to book Informal introductions to the exhibitions led by invited guests and members of the Spike Island community. Karen Di Franco, archivist and curator Saturday 16 July, 2pm Karen Di Franco talks about Xavier Antin: The Eternal Network with reference to the relationship between performance and publishing within art movements of the 1960s and 1970s, including Fluxus and Conceptual art. Helen Legg, Spike Island director Saturday 23 July, 2pm Helen Legg discusses the work of Stuart Whipps, reflecting on her visits to his studio and the process of shaping the exhibition.
Xavier Antin An Epoch of Rest (2014) Palais des Arts, isdaT, Toulouse
Volunteer led tours Every last Tuesday of the month at 1pm (during exhibitions) No need to book We also offer free tours in Italian and Spanish, by request. Please book in advance at reception.
Artist Talk
Stuart Whipps Mould 008 (2012)
Stuart Whipps Thursday 21 July, 6pm ÂŁ5/ÂŁ3 (free for Associates) Booking advised Stuart Whipps talks about the disparate narratives that have been brought together for Isle of Slingers, his most comprehensive exhibition to date.
Tania Hershman Flash Fiction Workshop
Ian Giles Clay Meditation Photograph by David Pearson
Ian Giles Clay Meditation Tuesday 19 July, 6.30pm £5/£3, free for Associates Booking advised Artist Ian Giles invites you to participate in a period of collective reflection. This interactive performance explores how human relations can create an energy that is as palpable as traditional sculptural materials.
7
Sunday 4 September, 2–5pm £10/£7 Booking advised Taking inspiration from the current exhibition, Isle of Slingers, which weaves its way from Mexican sculptures to ballet and Welsh gardens, come unleash your imagination and write some flash fiction — the shortest short stories — with poet and short story writer Tania Hershman. No previous experience required, just pen and paper.
Mark Pawson Instant Publication Workshop Saturday 13 August, 2–5pm £15/£10 concessions All materials provided, booking essential Artist Mark Pawson demonstrates how to make several types of books, cards and badges using photocopiers and rubberstamps. Make and take home your own small library of publications using everyday materials.
Coco Fusco Film Screening
Coco Fusco TED Ethology: Primate Visions of the Human Mind (2015) Film still
Tuesday 13 September, 6.30pm £5/£3 (free for Associates) Booking advised In TED Ethology: Primate Visions of the Human Mind (2015), Fusco revives and embodies the chimpanzee animal psychologist Dr. Zira from the original Planet of the Apes films of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Presented as part of the ICA Moving Image Network. Duration 50 minutes.
Studios
8
Behind the Scenes Studio Visits 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. Huma Mulji Saturday 9 July, 2pm Pakistani-born Huma Mulji’s work explores ideas of displacement. Mulji discusses the range of influences that inform her practice and how material and conceptual decisions are made in her studio.
Bristol Doors Open Day 10 and 11 September Tours on the hour, 10am–4pm Free, booking advised This annual citywide event invites visitors to explore some of Bristol’s most intriguing architectural gems. At Spike Island, behind the scenes tours are a chance to learn about the building’s history as a tea packing factory and its current use as a home for artists, designers, creative businesses and students.
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.
Tom Goddard Crow Jane Blues (2016)
Tom Goddard, Crow Jane Blues 2 to 29 July 2016 Preview: Friday 8 July, 6–9pm Crow Jane Blues presents Thomas Goddard’s continuing research into the use of manipulation by those in positions of power. Gender, political and media power play are represented through the prophetic figure of the crow and Skip James’ haunting 1967 version of Crow Jane. Coming soon: Colin Higginson and Marcus Jefferies 1 to 16 October 2016 Preview: Friday 30 September, 6–9pm Colin Higginson and Marcus Jefferies work collaboratively using archive photography as a starting point for sculptural interventions.
Activities
9
Baby Art Hour Friday 15 July, 10–11am Friday 9 September, 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.
I am Making Art Free, booking advised Materials provided, donations welcome These monthly activity sessions are led by artists and take place in the 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.
I am Making Goals Saturday 9 July, 2–6pm Join East Bristol Contemporary co-directors and eurolegends Karanjit and lewdjaw for 90 mins+ of footy and art inspired activity. Consider ideas around the design and visuals used in the beautiful game and create some of your own. Football sceptics welcome. Badges, Builders and Vagabonds Saturday 20 August, 2–6pm What is it to have a good eye? Libita Clayton shares her archive of found material for this session inspired by DIY cultures; let go of preciousness, cut-up, remake and leave with a shiny new thing — a one-off badge! Pinhole Pictures Saturday 3 September, 2–6pm Learn how to make and use your own pinhole camera in this session led by Bridget Alexander. In a world where instant gratification is deemed the norm, this simple photographic process offers a slower view on life.
10
Literature Novel Writers £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.
Claire Fuller Our Endless Numbered Days Thursday 28 July, 6.30pm 1976: Peggy Hillcoat is eight. She spends her summer camping with her father, playing her beloved record of The Railway Children and listening to her mother’s grand piano, but her pretty life is about to change. Her survivalist father, who has been stockpiling provisions for the end which is surely coming soon, takes her from London to a cabin in a remote European forest. There he tells Peggy the rest of the world has disappeared. Her life is reduced to a piano which makes music but no sound, a forest where all that grows is a means of survival. And a tiny wooden hut that is Everything. Winner of the Desmond Elliott prize in 2015.
Nadim Safdar Akram’s War Thursday 29 September, 6.30pm One night, Akram Khan walks out of his house towards an appointed time and place where he is supposed to detonate a bomb that will end his life and that of many innocent bystanders. As he wanders through the town he encounters Grace, whose life has been marred just as his has, forming an unlikely closeness borne of need and necessity. Delicately drawn, Akram’s War is an honest and shocking kaleidoscopic portrait of contemporary Britain, and of the ways in which the twists and turns of fate can scar and mark a life.
Residency Tamarin Norwood Throughout 2016, artist and writer Tamarin Norwood is in residence at Spike Island, working with a network of researchers and practitioners including an animator, a 3D print engineer, a choreographer and a sign language translator to explore the acts of drawing and writing in relation to time and three-dimensional space. See www.pointlinetime.net to follow Tamarin Norwood’s year in residence. As part of her residency, Norwood presents a series of events.
Morehshin Allahyari and Daniel Rourke The 3D Additivist Manifesto (2015) Video still
11
The 3D Additivist Manifesto Sunday 10 July, 2pm £5/£3 (free for Associates) Morehshin Allahyari and Daniel Rourke present The 3D Additivist Manifesto and forthcoming Cookbook, a call to push 3D printing and additive technologies to their absolute limits and beyond; into the realm of the speculative, the provocative and the weird.
12
News
Announcing the artists selected for Syllabus II Eastside Projects, New Contemporaries, S1 Artspace, Spike Island, Studio Voltaire and Wysing Arts Centre have together developed The Syllabus; a partnership programme to support ten artists over a one-year period. We are pleased to announce the artists selected for Syllabus II 2016–2017 are: Mira Calix, Faye Claridge, Dylan Spencer Davidson, Mike Harvey, Elizabeth Jackson, Tyler Mallison, Nika Neelova, Tom Smith, Thomas Whittle, Laura Wilson. Syllabus II provides the artists with a series of intensive seminars at each of the partner venues; to encourage enquiry into individual participants’ work, offer practical guidance on surviving as an artist, and offer ongoing access to curatorial and other staff at the partner organisations.
Opportunity Camera Buff Film commissioning opportunity for young people Do you have ambitions to work with film? We can offer you the support, funds and professional experience needed to develop your early ideas into a broadcast quality short film. Camera Buff is an opportunity for 16–24 year olds based in the South West of England. Deadline for applications: Monday 26 September 2016 To apply, or for more information, visit www.spikeisland.org.uk or email admin@spikeisland.org.uk. Camera Buff is part of the Random Acts South West Network Hub led by our partners Calling the Shots.
Coming soon
13
Hedwig Houben 1 October to 18 December 2016 Preview: Friday 30 September, 6–9pm Dutch artist Hedwig Houben makes sculptural works that are mediated by film, performance and language. She foregrounds the acts of making and talking about art in awkward performances that reveal to the viewer the questions she asks of her own activity and process. Houben describes her work as attempting to understand how the process of making ‘relates to the structures that we create together within society — rules, assumptions, expectations.’ This, her first solo exhibition in the UK, will include a number of key works made over the last five years, encompassing film, performance, sculpture and text. Hedwig Houben Five Possible Lectures on Six Possibilities for a Sculpture (2013) Still performance lecture video Courtesy the artist and Galerie Fons Welters
Roman Štětina and Miroslav Buriánek
Instructions for use of Jiří Kolář 1 October to 18 December 2016 Preview: Friday 30 September, 6–9pm Czech artist Roman Štětina’s work investigates the processes of creating broadcast media including film, television and radio. His videos, installations and sculptures foreground the props, recording studios and technologies that are usually hidden behind the sounds and images received by an audience. Štětina presents a new feature length film made in collaboration with Miroslav Buriánek — a director of radio drama who worked for the Czech Radio station for 37 years — which traces the process of recording a series of poems by the Czech poet, collage-artist and translator Jiří Kolář, Instructions for Use (1969), for radio broadcast.
Calendar
14
July Friday 8 6–9pm Exhibition previews: Stuart Whipps, Isle of Slingers Xavier Antin, The Eternal Network Test Space: Tom Goddard Saturday 9 2–6pm I am Making Art 2pm Behind the Scenes Studio Visits Sunday 10 2pm The 3D Additivist Manifesto Friday 15 10–11am Baby Art Hour Saturday 16 2pm Exhibition Tour Tuesday 19 6.30pm Ian Giles, Clay Meditation Thursday 21 6pm Artist Talk: Stuart Whipps Saturday 23 2pm Exhibition Tour Thursday 28 6.30pm Novel Writers: Claire Fuller
p. 2 p. 4 p. 8 p. 9 p. 8 p. 11 p. 9 p. 6 p. 7 p. 6 p. 6 p. 10
August Saturday 13 2–5pm Mark Pawson Instant Publication Workshop Saturday 20 2–6pm I am Making Art
p. 7 p. 9
September Saturday 3 Sunday 4 Friday 9 Saturday 10 Sunday 11 Tuesday 13 Thursday 29
2–6pm 2–5pm 10–11am 10am–4pm 10am–4pm 6.30pm 6.30pm
I am Making Art Tania Hershman, Flash Fiction Workshop Baby Art Hour Bristol Doors Open Day Bristol Doors Open Day Film Screening: Coco Fusco Novel Writers: Nadim Safdar
p. 9 p. 7 p. 9 p. 8 p. 8 p. 7 p. 10
Book for events online at www.spikeisland.org.uk, call 0117 929 2266 or visit reception.
Support us
15
Donate Spike Island is a registered charity (no.1003505) working to nurture artistic talent and bring artists and audiences together. Your gift, via our website or at one of our donations boxes, supports free entry to exhibitions, educational activities, subsidised studios and artists’ development.
Volunteer
Michael Beutler Haus Beutler (2014/2016) Installation view, Pump House (2016), Spike Island Photograph by Max McClure
Thank you Spike Island is a registered charity (no. 1003505). Spike Island gratefully acknowledges support from Arts Council England and Bristol City Council.
Join our dynamic team of volunteers and make a significant contribution to the work we do, while gaining valuable work experience within the arts. Apply online at www.spikeisland.org.uk/opportunities
This programme is also available in large print. Ask at Spike reception, email admin@spikeisland.org.uk or call 0117 929 2266.
We wish to thank Patrons of New Art Bristol for their support: Jerry Cowhig MBE, Professor Alex Gilkison, Mike Jackson, Lance Moir, Esther O’Callaghan OBE, Zoe Sear, Craig White, Iwan Wirth and those who wish to remain anonymous. The Eternal Network is supported by Fluxus Art Projects. Additional support is provided by Centre national des arts plastiques, France.
Cover images: Xavier Antin Insolation (2016) Stuart Whipps Pulpits Rock (2016)
Spike Island
Visitor Information
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.
Gallery open Tuesday to Sunday, 12–5pm (during exhibitions only). Admission to the gallery is free. Prices for events vary, please see individual listings for details.
133 Cumberland Road, Bristol BS1 6UX Tel. 0117 929 2266 www.spikeisland.org.uk admin@spikeisland.org.uk
Spike Island aims to be a fully accessible building. There are three Blue Badge parking spaces outside the main entrance.
Café open Monday to Friday, 8.30am–5pm, Saturday and Sunday, 10am–5pm.
Booking Information Book for events online at www.spikeisland.org.uk, call 0117 929 2266 or visit Reception.
SpikeIsland @_SpikeIsland @SpikeIsland
Mailing list
Arnolfini ← Underfall Boat Yard
Harbourside Walk
PRINCE STREET
Visit our website to sign up for Spike Island’s fortnightly e-newsletter or email admin@spikeisland.org.uk
Ferry crossing
SS Great Britain Ferry crossing
M Shed
Spike Island
FOOTBRIDGE ←
← CREATE
GAS FERRY ROAD
The Orchard
HANOVER PLACE
SYDNEY ROW
CUMBERLAND ROAD
NORTH STREET and TOBACCO FACTORY
Pay and display car park
BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS STATION →
WAPPING ROAD
Harbourside Walk