In the spring of 2018 I was invited to mentor Monica Vlad and artist duo, STRWÜÜ as part of The Auxiliary artist in residency (AiR) programme. With this invitation fresh in mind I slipped on my walking boots and went out for a think: what is the purpose of mentoring? What might I bring to the table, and how can I make this relevant to each of the artist’s practices? Walking and thinking are comparable and excitable activities; walking excites the brain and the body, and in turn the activity of the body moving can incite reflection, memory and new ways of thinking. There is a perpetual shift in walking – fast or slow – and with that a change in one’s perceptions. Clouds scud across the sky, morphing in kaleidoscopic tones
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and textures, erasing chroma in their shade; multiple bodies in space-time journey together and away from one another… With this peripatetic method in my thoughts, it became my aim to bring an equally multifaceted approach to mentoring: metaphorically navigating through the artists’ creative and personal histories, weaving between their current artworks and repertoire, their inspirations, experiences and their speculations as a means to get to know practices in a holistic sense, and with that offer appropriate thoughts, critical feedback and sensitive provocations to each of their rich, varied, poetic and curious practices. Most important of all, the time with the mentees was to be focused on the
transformation of energy: a place not only for emitting (sharing) but equally for absorbing (listening). The Auxiliary’s kitchen is a warm, vital place. A focus for food and ideas to be cooked up and shared out; where recipes are thrown out of the window in preference for desultory conversations and communal sensory experiences that bind and enhance. Apt then that I first met Monica, and Jo and Lukas (STRWÜÜ) in this kitchen space, around cups of steaming tea. Away from the formalities of the “white cube” gallery, or performance space the conversation flowed, and with it an understanding of the artists’ preoccupations and working practices formed in an organic, connected way, creating a constellational, rather than
linear, field of awareness. The Auxiliary residency is vital in its culture of inclusivity and hospitality. In a society, that demands our time and energy leaving us less for nourishing company; dreaming and deep and magic thinking, the residency’s purposeful crosspollination of ideas, working practices and experiences is a welcome resistance to the rush of economic demands and propensity for fast living and consuming. Through the programme’s alternative strategies and acts of care, The Auxiliary has succeeded in cultivating safe, nurturing and porous spaces, where time for reflection is respected on a level with opportunities for stimulation, and where creative
inspiration and professional guidance comes in omnivorous forms. In the food, conversations and skills shares, the socials and the community events that take place, the random coming together of certain bodies/ energies – a migration by purpose or necessity – is enrichment for the minds, bodies and communities that touch, and are touched by, The Auxiliary’s residency programme. This proliferation of feverish creativity and connectivity is seeping into the studio walls and out into the world at large.
4-5 ABOUT
20 - 23 ANDREA ROBERTS
6-9 MONICA VLAD
25 MESSAGE FROM THE AUXILIARY
10 - 13 STRWÜÜ
26 - 27 THANK YOUS, FUNDERS & PARTNERS
16 - 19 MSHR
Helen Frosi, Dec 2018
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Founded in 2016, The Auxiliary Project Space is an artist-led, grassroots contemporary arts organization. Focusing specifically on sonic and contemporary art, The Auxiliary has hosted over 35 international artists at its space in Stockton. It aims to showcase both international and regional artists and create legacy by highlighting the Tees Valley as a place where brilliant and bold work is practiced and produced. Artists are invited to reimagine and reconfigure the space around their needs; from workspace to gallery, meeting point to studio. Curatorially, The Auxiliary is a site for the production of sound art practices that encourages and promotes the sonic arts through investigating the rich local industrial heritage through 4
artistic inquiry and reimagining the Tees Valley as a site for invigorated creative industries. Enabling local, national and international artists in devising independent art platforms and structures for the dissemination of contemporary art practices throughout the Tees Valley, producing legacy through long term projects and community engagement, fostering cultural exchange with international organizations and artists that share a similar ethos. Funding from both national and regional funders has enabled The Auxiliary to further strengthen links throughout
Europe and America, to offer funded opportunities for international artists to live and work in the Tees Valley, and to provide a platform for local and regional contemporary artists. Recent projects have included Stockton Contemporary, a ten day celebration of contemporary in Stockton Town Centre, FEED, a nomadic sonic night happening across Stockton and Middlesbrough, Creative Arc, a cultural and artistic exchange programme between the Tees Valley, Detroit and Berlin, and Middlesbrough Art Weekender, a festival of contemporary, experimental and digital art set across Middlesbrough town in a variety of autonomous galleries, empty shop units and slack spaces.
AUX-AiR18 was funded by Arts Council England and MIddlesbrough Council, and generously supported by MIMA, Navigator North and Platform A Gallery. www.theauxiliary.co.uk
In early 2017, The Auxiliary invited emerging artists, curators, researchers and makers working within sonic worlds to apply for its AiR programme, AUX-AiR18. From over 220 applications, the team chose 6 artists to participate. The first and second residency took place in April and May with artist duo Strwuu (CHI & GER) and artist Monica Vlad (ROM). The third and fourth residency took place in September and October, with the artist collective MSHR (US) and artist Andrea Roberts (CAN).
Each residency featured workshops, talks and open studios by the visiting artists, and culminated in an exhibition and performance. Strwuu and Monica Vlad performed and exhibited in BASE Camp, formerly the main post office of Middlesbrough.
As part of Middlesbrough Art Weekender, MSHR and Andrea Roberts exhibited in a disused warehouse on Station Street and performed at BASE Camp during a special FEED event. Invited artists were also given critical mentorship by leading UK sound based practitioners, as well as local networking opportunities.
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“LOST, BUT NOT LOST FOREVER” MEDIUM: PERFORMANCE Monica Vlad designs and develops new media installations and sound spaces. She uses new and old technology as an artistic medium of expression and as a medium for the audio visual communication. She explores their potential for spatial communication and art. www.monicavlad.com
Cracked from discarded cassette players that are churned out cassette tape loops; radios play random AM/ FM frequencies and create a depth to the sound. A sewing machine, the central piece with piezo microphones attached to its surface, detects the vibrations of the mechanics and transforms them in audible waves, an adjacent rhythm, created using the metal needle perforating the surface. The noises grow a light sensor from a S I G N U M device used to create the principal beat and the bass. It’s thunderous. The visual glitch and spasm with the sound. Teeth rattle. This media is very much alive. For Aux AiR 2018 Monica Vlad presented “Lost, but not lost forever” a sound performance that utilizes old media devices to create new adventurous soundscapes. Traversing
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between old and new media, Vlad blends these together to create synched and energized performances. In her own words ‘The performance is a Media Archaeology project using unusual objects as non-common instruments with the result of a live analog sound composition. The idea was to recreate the act of playing in Ableton with loops using a computer, but without a computer; therefore, the only solution was to recreate the physical / analog loops as cassette loops that are the base of this performance’ The title “Lost, but not lost forever” is a tribute to old media that doesn’t exist anymore (or dead media) but we still remember their existence. It also asks the question “What’s the life expectancy of a media?”. Of course, this depends from type to type, but at the end, somehow, they all die. Or “Is there a media that
never died?”. “What’s the new media that is going to conquer the world?”. The residency - the area in particular - had an impact on the performance; it is a bit darker than usual. I actually have another point of view on the world now. The area is something I haven’t seen before and it’s pretty amazing,something that I haven’t experienced until now.’
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“UNTITLED” MEDIUM: PERFORMANCE & INSTALLATION The artist duo STRWÜÜ was founded in 2014. They kidnapped a plant, ate for a stop motion animation and performed together with a giant water lily in a pond. They had inaudible sound objects concealed, used each other as marionettes and spent a long time to move a small stick slowly forward. They layered animals into ever-changing patterns, provided old printers with prosthesis and made Chinese pigeon whistles circle in a huge hall. They tied strings to shape sounds, let insects rain and constructed noise as unstable as possible. They bridged time to generate space, accompanied industrial buildings while oscillating and forced air to dance. They deprived fans of their cooling effect and cooked rosin to engender friction. www.vimeo.com/strwueue
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For Aux-AiR 2018 the artist duo STRWÜÜ (Jo Wanneng & Lukas Fütterer) immersed themselves in the region through walking. Acting as conduits for a plethora of diverse outputs, STRWUU where exposed to a number of issues that have historically made a lasting impact on the region. Through the practice of walking, STRWÜÜ explored sites of industry, waste, urban and rural pathways, regeneration and failed regeneration projects and came to understand the complexity of life in the north. ‘We arrived here and started walking around, having a look, a glimpse at everything and spoke with people and looked at small things we found on the street and things that interested us. And we started to look for things we could combine or start an interesting
topic in. We saw a lot of interwoven structures, or buildings and factories. We heard that this area has a long history of steel industry in England. So the work is a reflection of this. We had a strong impression of what is happening here. A lot of the main industry is finished here now, and that’s had a strong influence on the people here. Although it’s not very obvious at first, there is some kind of tension here.’ Subsequently, STRWÜÜ showed their AUXAiR18 performance at the Goethe Institut China at the 798 art district in Beijing.
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“RHSM” MEDIUM: PERFORMANCE & INSTALLATION MSHR is the art collective of Birch Cooper and Brenna Murphy. Their work meshes digital sculpture, analog circuitry and ceremonial performance. They construct and perform cybernetic compositions using synthesizers of their own design. For exhibitions, they install macro-arrangements of these sculptural instruments to create immersive lightsoundscapes. In their performances, they engage the systems through a series of unique interfaces. They also work with 3D modeling programs to design virtual reality spaces, embedded with generative computer music systems. MSHR’s sculptural, musical and electronic work inform each other deeply, creating the meta-form that is their collaborative practice. www.mshr.info
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‘Our goal was to use our time at The Auxiliary to develop and install a new installation at Middlesbrough Art Weekender 2018 that incorporated sculptural sensors from a previous project into a new system that included digital elements. We also hoped to get to know the Northeast music community. Integration of computer music systems into our installation and live work was one of the main ways that our practice developed during our residency.
We plan to continue exploring the relationships between hardware and software in our work that we we’re able to expand on at Auxiliary.’
Live performance by MSHR @ Base Camp for Middlesbrough Art Weekender
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“ASH FROM A FIRE, SKIN OF A SNAKE” MEDIUM: INSTALLATION Roberts’ multidisciplinary practice explores affect, technology, and the embodied self within capitalism. Using sound, video, installation and performance her work often involves feedback between the virtual and physical, the spoken and written word, and the use of sonic phenomenon as socio-political material. She thinks of her work as a kind of speculative echolocation: identifying our positions within systems of belief and power and imagining them otherwise. www.andrea-roberts.com
Ash from A Fire, Skin of A Snake’ is a series of installations that invoke ancient forms of divination and the rise of psychometrics. These works take up Cambridge Analytica & #39’s use of the O.C.E.A.N. personality based algorithm (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) as a dark mirror of of lived intersectionality, siphoning identity into data points orbiting in place. I went to Stockton with the goal of making an installation with the materials at hand in the exhibition space and in the community at large. While I had spent some time preparing, researching and shooting some video ahead of time, the bulk of the work was done on site at the warehouse. This experience has encouraged me to work more site responsively in the future and to take bigger risks. Living and working with other artists
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for six weeks with studio space and living quarters all in the same place removed all the distractions from daily life and also provided a built-in support system with which to talk about ongoing work, progress made, ideas and art practice in general. Having studio visits and public events like FEED and the Middlesbrough Art Weekender, organized by The Auxiliary, provided the possibility to make connections with other artists and curators from the area. The time, space and financial support provided by The Auxiliary was instrumental in being able to accomplish this goal, from assistance with sourcing materials to problem solving and just day to day talk in the kitchen. In the future when evaluating other residencies I take part in, I will compare them to the experience I had at The Auxiliary as a litmus test of the positive and supportive ways an artist residency can be run.
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The Auxiliary has become many things, but what possibly sets it apart from other artist-led organisations is that its roots are firmly set within a home. A live work space doesn’t begin to describe its four walls and inviting artists to come and work with us within these walls has become one of the defining aspects of The Auxiliary. Residency programmes of all shape and size ultimately provide time & space or the means to acquire these things. The Auxiliary is no different. Working closely with the artists, our residents quickly become roommates and the lines between work and life blend and blur.
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Carmel and Graham Ramsey
Peadar Byrne
Charlotte Nichol
Mayor Dave Budd
Elinor Morgan
Greg Lonsdale
Vicky Holbrough
Culture Lab at Newcastle University
Nicola Parkin
Claire Dupree
Kingsley Chapman
Tony Charles
Thomas Tyler
And everyone who supported The Auxiliary Project Space in 2018
Neil Simpson
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www.theauxiliary.co.uk