WRITING EXHIBITIONS: AN ASSEMBLING by David Berridge

WRITING EXHIBITIONS: AN ASSEMBLING

12.00 - 16.00 / 28 nov 2009 / 7.9 cubic metres

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Funeral for Flowers 1 : Flowers Never Purchased / Never Served a Purpose In their short lifespans, flowers play meaningful roles in the defining moments of human existence, from housewarmings to ceremonial offerings, from acts of courtship to professions of love, from get-well-soons to expressions of condolence and memorials to the deceased. Swelling from tender bud to full bloom, flowers are celebrated symbols of pleasure, beauty and life. But as they wilt and die, flowers represent fragility and the swift passage from life into death. Whether presented as single, elegant stems, bundled into elaborate bouquets or wrapped into wreaths, cut flowers bloom for the span of an occasion and wither after the ceremony concludes. These flowers were found at 8pm on Wednesday November 25th in a bin outside a flower seller on Mare Street, London. Yellow roses, symbols of friendship, were joined with ribbon. Many were tied to colored twigs dipped in glitter, wrapped in plastic, bundled into bouquets. The smell of the Lilies overpowered the scent of the rubbish that settled below. Although their provenance is unknown, it is likely these flowers were bred in a distant nursery, chopped from their roots and shipped at great distances to Covent Garden Market, to be picked up by the flower seller at the break of day. But their imperfectons, wilted petals and looming dates of expiration, deemed them unsaleable and botanically irrelevant. These flowers never acted out their symbolic manifestations, never celebrated courtship, or solemnly expressed condolence.

Placed in the Cube at Stanley Picker Gallery, they seemed to memorialize themselves.

This Funeral for Flowers was the first test in a larger project called Compost Cemetary - in which flowers are composted as a funerary rite of death and renewal. As this was not possible on this occasion, we made the decision to throw the flowers into the river beside the gallery. As the flowers waited for our ritual on the bridge, we noted that they seemed to mark a tragedy of a human life, rather than their own. The flowers could not escape an imagined symbolism, even at their own funeral.

18 Rugby Street | Ted Hughes [Extract]

“Whoever comes into it never gets properly out! Whoever enters it enters a labyrinth – A Knossos of coincidence! And now you’re in it.”

18 Rugby Street | Kim Patrick

The installation 18 Rugby Street challenges 'blue plaque' heritage and proposes a new methodology for the design and curation of literary spaces and exhibitions. The confessional poem '18 Rugby Street' by Ted Hughes was subjected to a poetic design methodology that translated the writing strategy of the poet into a design strategy, the reader experience into the user experience. Literary criticism and poetic practice extracted the aesthetic components and values allowing architecture to deconstruct and reconstruct the structural formation of the poem, exhibition design to capture the domestic textures of the confessional work and motion typography the performative qualities of the text that curation then choreographed for the user experience. 18 Rugby Street is not only a poem but a biographical space that anticipates a blue plaque. To achieve the necessary tension with conventional literary spaces the framework of the installation is the result of not directly occupying this biographical space but re-visualising it in a new one through appropriation. This embracing of the materiality of language forces the written word on the page into a state of performance off the page and a new space emerges from the confines of the book not as liberation but as translation. The result is a moment where typography achieves poetic utterance. The reader becomes a spectator immersed, outside of the confession but inside the poem's interior design.

We can draw a line from the tip of our pencil to our piece of paper and we have a dot. We can draw a line from our piece of paper to a person we love and when the person dies we can still have the line that touched the person. We can draw a line from our piece of paper to a person we love and then move the paper and the line is still touching the person. We can draw a line from our piece of paper to a person we love and then move the person and the line is still touching the paper. We can draw a line from our piece of paper to a person we love and then move the paper and the person and the line is still touching the line. We can draw a line from our piece of paper to the tip of our pencil and we still have a dot.

WE NEED: a sharp pencil a person we love a piece of paper

Tamarin Norwood

One day I will find you standing by the door of the bathroom. You will have cupped your hands together as though you were trying to catch drips from the ceiling, but nothing will be falling. And then I’ll notice in the air inside the cup of your hands you’ll be watching the light pull sway. And as it moves back and forth through the air you’ll be moving your hands in time, so that they always contain it. One day you’ll have gone out to work and I will still be at home. I will find all the glasses in the house, and I will get the empty jars and bottles we’ll be collecting under the sink, and I will balance them all into a wall against the kitchen window. We’ll be able to see through the window but because of the refraction of the curves there will be dozens of the house opposite. You won’t have learnt to swim and I’ll still be getting dressed one morning. You will lie on your front across the bed with your feet hanging over one side and your head and arms hanging over the other side. You will pull your arms out in front of you and paddle your hands as though you are swimming. You will swim fast but only by paddling your hands and wrists and feet and ankles, and your arms and legs will stay straight. You will not be moving your body enough to keep you at the surface of the water. I will be out late one night and waiting for the bus home on an ill-lit street by some loading bays for a supermarket. There will be some men coming towards the bus-stop and they will be laughing and I won’t be able to find my phone. One day you will be hanging the washing out to dry. It will be sunny and I’ll be sitting by the wall reading a book.

Tamarin Norwood

Suddenly the knot at the end of the cord will snap undone and the line will capsize, and it’ll catch on the fence just short of the ground. The cord will slip sharply and form a triangle with the floor. But the pegs will hold firm, so all our clothes will end up suspended just off the ground, resting their elbows and knees against the paving as though they were having a chat. That night you will be asleep in bed and I will still be awake. I will draw over our sheet a biro line from the page of my notebook to your mouth. One day I will be at home and you’ll have gone to work. I will switch on the computer and press our bed sheet against the scanner and scan the line I drew on it section by section, and I will save it as a pdf. I’ll phone around for some printing quotes. I’ll put the sheet in the wash. One night we will be asleep and doorbell will ring. It will be three in morning. We will wake up and I think it is finally happening and I breathe out hard the words oh God.

the the will will

One evening you’ll be brushing your teeth and I’ll be standing behind you taking off my eye make-up with cotton wool. I will notice something new on the skin of your back, a fine thread, blue and just underneath the surface of your skin. Your skin will feel smooth and warm. You will look around my room one day when I am not there. You will find my empty jam jars and you will pick some of them up, and after a while you will pick up one of the ones I’ll have glued to some other jars in a way that some of them rest in the air rather than on the shelf. You will not know I’ll used to have done this.

Visual Language and Other Ways of Thinking Language, which shapes our thoughts and how we think, is inextricably bound up with image. Language is the means by which we translate our thoughts, our dreams to ourselves, and more importantly how we fix these in our memories. Essentially language is a system of signs, a means of connecting the signifier and the signified, the word (in the case of language) and that to which it refers. Jacques Derrida wrote extensively about language and ‘différance’, the gap between what is thought and what is said, between what is said and what is understood. Language therefore is not a complete tool. He also wrote that once we understand that there is no central or original ‘signified’ which is absolutely outside or beyond ‘différance’, then we must accept also that the “this was the moment when language invaded the universal problematic, the moment when, in the absence of a centre or origin, everything became discourse”.1 Image-making, exhibition-making, the visual, cannot therefore be severed from language, from discourse. There is a fundamental relationship between image and language, whether spoken, performed, written or thought. This too elucidates and exposes the difference between translation and interpretation. True translation may not even be possible, and a multiplicity of readings of any given text, artwork, exhibition will always be likely. These cannot be limited by constraints of intention or context on behalf of the author. Indeed, many artists sought indeterminacy in art. John Cage’s 4’33” is different each time it is performed, consisting of the noises of the audience in the auditorium. Allan Kaprow’s ‘Happenings’ are essentially scripts, sets of instructions which direct enactments, with the understanding that each performance will be altered depending on the circumstances and the participants, that there will always be an element of chance at play. These ‘happenings’ sought no hierarchy between the artist and the viewer, aimed for observers to not just ‘read’ the work, but rather to interact with it, becoming part of the work. Jacques Rancière elaborates on this in The Emancipated Spectator, describing an audience, which wishes to be active rather than passive. Both Cage and Kaprow are reputed to have influenced the Fluxus Movement, which in turn is associated with performance and event scores, which allowed the work to be realised by anyone, while still acknowledging the author as the originator of the piece. ‘Happenings’, although longer and more complicated, likewise had the intended effect of blurring the line between art and life. The concept of making text visual, of ‘Writing Exhibitions’ consequently has been in existence for a while, but to what extent is it possible to make language visual? Many attempts in this direction have been made over a long period. Concrete poetry and experimental poetry, which could be described as an artistic expression of written language, both make this endeavour, using typographical experimentation as one means of making the textual visual. As far back as 1897, Stéphane Mallarmé wrote Un Coup de Dés, which deliberately used blank spaces and the conscious placement of words and lines to encourage multiple and non-linear interpretations of the text. The organisation Oulipo in France, founded in 1960 by François Le Lionnais and Raymond Queneau, as a commission of the Collège du Pataphysique, famously use a

constraint to reveal a potential. Queneau is best known for his Sonnet Making Machine in which ten sonnets were published on top of each other, allowing each line of each sonnet to be read with each line of every other sonnet, giving 10 to the power of 14 possible results, which make this an enormous, visual and interactive text. He also wrote Exercises de Style in 1947, a collection of 99 versions of the same incident, each one distinct in its expression of tone and style. Ming Wong’s video work at the Venice Biennale this year echoes this ‘exercise’, albeit with very different intentions. Wong employs this strategy to explore notions of gender, race and identity. There are many other possible examples of text becoming visual. Many artists, who use neon in their practice, use text in a fragmented way, reminiscent of experimental poetry. There is, in fact, an abundance of textual based art practices. Isn’t language always visual to an extent: the shape of language; the visual markings of letters and words on the page or wall; the mental imagery associated with speaking or understanding. The letters used in written Mandarin are based on images of the signified. In German, adjectival clauses allow one to pile up images and ideas as an adjective, like layers in a painting: for example “The twice a week visiting the bookshop in the hope of finding that elusive title girl missed the bus by seconds.” This example also serves to demonstrate both how language shapes our thinking, in that there are texts and theories written in German, which though ‘translated’, couldn’t I maintain, have been written in English, and the impossibility of true translation. A good ‘translator’ interprets the essence of what is written and re-writes that in another language. This interpretation is essentially what is happening when proposals, scripts and scores are curated or transformed into exhibitions or performances. The Symbolic Order could be compared to a large bubble, within which we are all contained, and language likewise to a slightly smaller bubble within the first. It is not possible to think outside these bubbles, but it is possible to push at the edges of thought, to make an attempt to think in new or other ways. Perhaps the inclination and desire to find the visual in the textual, to capture by other means what language cannot, is just such an attempt. This desire to get beyond language manifests itself in virtually every art form, one of the most poignant being Franz Kafka’s character, Gregor Samsa, in Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis), who wakes up one morning to find that he is a giant insect, no longer able to communicate with his family and conscious of his separation from them. This visual or physical manifestation of the human state could partly be described as an attempt to highlight the shortcomings of language and the detachment which is arguably built into it. It is however also true that much communication happens all the time, that language is used effectively, sometimes beautifully to convey meaning. Nevertheless the very fact that humans strive towards other ways of thinking, demonstrates an innate awareness of language’s deficiencies. Perhaps in the same way that one word helps define another, one language can help define another, bring a new dimension to a concept, give it more readability. By ‘language’ here, I mean verbal, textual, visual, aural, gesture, additional methods by which meaning is conveyed. The exploratory

nature of such attempts could be read also as new ways of thinking. This is happening right throughout the art world: exhibitions now regularly hold symposia, talks, probing workshops; traditional catalogues are being replaced by artists’ books, or by critical readers; art institutions are setting up philosophical reading groups. Art, the visual, used to pulling in strands from other knowledge fields, has become the lens through which we can examine our place in the world and how we operate within that. The tendency towards making language visual, towards non-linearity, and towards a stretching of the potential visual elements which language contains, is a step, a valuable attempt towards other and new ways of thinking.

Jacques Derrida, “Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences”, Modern Criticism and Theory, ed. David Lodge (New York, Longman Inc, 1988)

fiona fullam, 2009 Response to WRITING EXHIBITIONS

THREE PLANS FOR A VOCAL EXHIBITION

sing it say it sing it say it say it say it sing it sing

The mutation of the voice

copying out text

becomes a means of rejection

laptop keys pressed

to enable song ANTI-CREATION

the story hoping

its own construction

just as the sound rises upwards from inside the body towards the reed of the larynx

continues

Not only conformity is expected from the voice, it finds itself also in competition to establish its own specific character and pattern. The field to which the voice conforms itself, and at the same time opposes its autonomy, is the surrounding world of sound. This contains not only other human voices, but also non-spoken noises - the sounds of nature, animal noises and sounds created by machines, traffic or appliances. Every voice is emitted within a distance, i.e. in an acoustic field of resonance in which it sounds and is audible. The acoustic capacity is dependent on the volume, i.e., the actual decibels, and also on the space itself, its acoustic retention, and also, of course, on the competition with other voices. That means the voice doesn’t require an empty space, a blank space, like writing (with which it is so often compared), but at least an acoustic grey space from which it must stand out in order to be audible. ....but on closer inspection, the fine line between noise and voice is not as evident as one first thinks, especially when one takes into account that a machine can imitate voices. This medialization of the voice is a substantial element of its daily and current experiences... It is its usability through the media that makes the voice similar to other sources of sound, for all find themselves again in a pool of reproducibility... Whether unfiltered, medially filtered, or synthetically reproduced it is always about a competition of presence. _________ THOMAS TRUMMER, “VOICE & VOID” IN TRUMMER ED. VOICE & VOID (THE ALDRICH CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM, RIDGEFIELD, 2007), 12-13.

Tr a n s c r i p t e x c e r p t s f r o m B B C R a d i o 3 N i g h t W a v e s d i s c u s s i o n

Ed Hollis’ The Secret Lives of Buildings MS: Matthew Sweet, Program host for BBC Radio 3’s Night Waves EH: Ed Hollis, Architect and author of the bookThe Secret Lives of Buildings RR: Ruth Reed, President of Royal Institute of British Architects PG: Piers Goth, Architect MS: Modernism encouraged us to believe that art and architecture should embody the desires and intentions of an individual mind. Le Corbusier’s Machine(s) for Living were not designed to accept the improvements or develop ments of others. The architecture writer Edward Hollis is asking us to revise this notion, to see some of the world’s greatest buildings as compromises, works-in-progress, rather than finished perfect objects. The only architectural perfections, his book suggests, is to be found on the drawing board or in dreams. He argues that we ought to cast aside the idea of the visionary architect; stop building dirty-great monuments, and work with the building stock that we have, and do it with a little bit more humility. It’s a provocative idea for anyone about to commission, say ... a spanking, new headquarters for their corporation, which is why we’ve invited him to pitch his ideas to the new head of the Royal Institute of British Architects Ruth Reed and to the architect Piers Goth. [...] MS: The nub of this, that the role of the architect as the creator of a landmark building, the auteur theory of architec ture, I guess, is one that maybe we should abandon? EH: Absolutely. And I think that one of the things behind my sort of thesis, I suppose, is to think of an architect as a composer rather than auteur, and as this is Radio 3... imagine a composer writes a score for a piece of music but it doesn’t get performed by Beethoven. I’ve never heard Beethoven perform his Ninth Symphony but I’ve heard hundreds of other performances of it and that makes all those notes that Beethoven himself actually wrote down sort of live and in a sense I think that’s maybe the way an architect, if they’re intending to build for the long term, might think about things, is how might other people perform the buildings that they’ve designed. [...] MS: Ruth, let’s have just a think about this other contention of Ed’s that somehow that the architectural perfection is only achievable on the page or in the head of the architect. Is that an idea that you would accept? RR: No, because I think architecture is as much about what goes on in the building and about the needs of the people that are going to inhabit it and use it as the physical structure in itself. In fact, take the use out of a building and you take away its raison d’être and it becomes a shell, a hollow shell. So I don’t see buildings without people. MS: But Piers, buildings do have a kind of dream life, don’t they? PG: They should do. And if you are going to carry a culture, and if your going to make great buildings, of course, you have to have dreams about them, about things they could and couldn’t be and how they might and might not be, and they may not be exactly what you meant but no more or less than any great piece of music isn’t exactly perfect, any more or less than any book is exactly perfect or could have something taken away or added by the same author probably later in their life or whatever. No doubt many architects wish they could make alterations to their buildings when they see them. But by and large, I mean within the scope of that, I would say that buildings are perfectible. And there are some absolutely.. the Stirling Prize alone shows some absolutely, [RR: Sigh] fabulously, perfect gor geous buildings where you wouldn’t really want to change one jot or tickle of them. They are a terrific conception by an architect which lift the whole of our lives into a different plane. They offer a new physical and environmental experiences and I believe that we should be looking to architecture and the environment to produce these things for us. There is a huge tendency towards comfort and towards not having change, and architecture is one of those ele ments in society which seems to be the most controversial about change, and I say to people enjoy it because the, change is, in the end, very, very good for you. And, very exhilarating. [...] MS: But for you Ed, this true perfection can only be achieved when they’ve crumbled away or when they’ve been lost in some way and survive only in memory. EH: Think of it like this, Goethe said that ‘Architecture was frozen music’. I’m suggesting that architecture is music that’s played over a very long time, and a perfect piece of music is a time-based work of art. And I think it would be wonderful if we could think about buildings as evolving over time and the form of their evolution was in itself a perfect ible form rather than the momentary, photographic instant in time of perfection.

ARGUMENTS

An epitome for an ideal form - the closing page of Le Corbusierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Towards an Architecture

TRADITION

. . . an ongoing conversation

A PROPOSAL

FOR THE RECORD – A WRITTEN CONVERSATION /Marianne Holm Hansen

There are 600+ words in the English language to describe emotions

In England, people are not commonly known for speaking about how they feel

So, FOR THE RECORD, we will not speak – we will write

FOR THE RECORD is conducted through the collaborative writing of two alphabetical lists (records) identifying words pertaining to how we feel - or may have felt - within a given situation. The conversation will begin by each participants writing an emotional word on the first list, then writing the same word on the next list. Playing across two lists allow for the interplay of ‘memory’ as well as time and distance for reflection. The conversation will continue by participants adding new/revised words to both lists in the same manner. The conversation will end with a simultaneous reading of the two lists and any concluding remarks this may provoke. The purpose of FOR THE RECORD is to consider and record how we feel within a particular situation and how this may transform over time and through conversation. As well as to evoke conversation about the emotional states experienced within a site-specific situation, FOR THE RECORD also partly exists to playfully test our knowledge of language and the impact of rules and structures upon collaborative working, thinking and doing. When situated within an exhibition context, FOR THE RECORD may also be seen to explore the existence and persistence of emotions in relation to contemporary art and practices. FOR THE RECORD simultaneously exist as text works, as written conversations and as live events: collaborative record making or emotional minute taking.

FOR THE RECORD - Scribed (detail) Writing Exhibitions 28 November 2009, 12-4pm

achey anxious bemused blank bungling captivated cold concerned confused comfortable convivial considering curious cynical delighted envious excavatinged glad harried hurried ignorant insincere interested involved lost mapping nervous outside overwhelmed post-nervous present pressurised pressured quiet relaxed rushed self-conscious stressed tentative thankful time uncertain unsure

achey anxious bemused blank captivated cold comfortable convivial considering curious cynical delighted envious excavatinged excited glad harried hurried ignorant insincere interested involved lost mapping nervous outside overwhelmed post-nervous present pressurised pressured quiet relaxed rushed stressed tentative thankful time uncertain unsure

FOR THE RECORD - Written Conversation (transcribed) Writing Exhibitions 27 November 2009, 4.30-5pm

absent applauded aware awash better big buzzing calm careless cheap clever collected confined contained contempt controversial cool composed crude curious deceived crystalised different decieved direct differentiated diminished distant elaborate disingenuous efficient dispersed eponymous fake fearful fictional fine fine fine fine fixed fortunate fortified genuine glad good great guilded hallowed immaterial immersed informed incomplete inspired intrigued involved jumbled lazy less-confident left light lovely lost meaningful menacing needy need-to-be-alone nice observant obvious ok outside overwhelmed pickey perplexed pleased photographed plugged-in prescious(?) proud quiet quirky real recovered residual recycled restored reminded revived removed rude sad seduced serious shallow short significant superstitious suspicious tall thoughtful tired tolerant tranquilized trapped uncertain unexpected unsure unwanted watched (sorely)-wavering wayward weird waiting wanted wanting weighted withdrawn wonderful wordy wrong artificial attached awake

absent applauded artificial aware attached awash awake better big buzzing careless calm cheap clever collected confined contained contempt cool composed crystalised controversial direct crude different diminished differentiated curious decieved distant disingenuous deceived efficient dispersed elaborate eponymous fake fearful fictional fine fine fine fine fixed fortunate fortified genuine glad good great guilded hallowed immaterial immersed informed incomplete inspired intrigued involved jumbled lazy left less-confident light lovely lost meaningful menacing needy need-to-be-alone nice observant obvious ok outside overwhelmed pickey perplexed pleased photographed plugged-in precious(?) proud quiet quirky real recovered removed recycled residual reminded restored revived rude sad seduced serious shallow short significant superstitious suspicious uncertain tall thoughtful tired tolerant tranquilized trapped uncertain unexpected unsure unwanted waiting wanted wanting watched (sorely)-wavering wayward weird weighted withdrawn wonderful wordy wrong

FOR THE RECORD - Scribed (transcribed) Writing Exhibitions 28 November 2009, 12-4pm

All material copywrite Jeffrey Iverson, 1976 (More Lives Than One, Pan Books, Great Britain).

Writing Exhibitions Symposium The Secretary is Fired Minutes Script 10.30-5.30, Friday 27 November 2009 Studio 1, Stanley Picker Gallery Present Cast:

In Attendance Understudy: Voices Off Off-stage:

David Berridge (DB) – Chair Narrator Anne Charnock (AC) Hyun Jin Cho (HJC) Fiona Fullum (FF) Matt Giraudeau (MG) Marianne Holm Hansen (MHH) David Johnson (DJ) Pippa Koszerek (PK) The Temp Kim Patrick (KP) Matthew MacKisack (MM) Tamarin Norwood (TN) Eliza Tan (ET) Helen Kaplinsky (HK) Caroline Bergvall (CB), Jonathan Keats (JK)

Item Scene 1.

Introductions (Jonathan Keats, Experience Exchange) [It remains unclear what occurred during this episode]

Action Point The Narrator explains that the Secretary has been fired. A temp has been requested and is due to arrive shortly.

Strategies Anne Charnock […]

Matthew Mackisack [Note to self – find hand-scribbled notes]

Discussion Ud tiy Xb EWs rgua ur;a vwxYAW TIY EWakuaw rgR U HYAR OYF NT DUBFWEA UB RWG QEIBF ew ID RGW JTWVies ib oyeoiaw,

The Temp arrives during AC’s talk. Furtively looks around for table. Pulls up chair to table. Sits down with minimal creaking. Eyeing her bag. Change over AC – MM. The Temp pulls out laptop from bag and hastily opens it up. MM starts his presentation. The Temp’s finger hovers over start-up button for a second before grabbing an A4 sheet of paper and pen. Hastily begins scribbling notes. MM comes to an end and The Temp starts up the laptop only slightly disturbing the ensuing discussion. Commences typing at a rapid pace trying to catch up.

Writing Exhibitions Meeting The Secretary is Fired Minutes Script Friday 27 November 2009 Studio 1 Present Cast:

In Attendance Understudy: Apologies Off-stage:

Item Scene 1.

Action (Point)

Introduction The Narrator explains that the Secretary has been fired. A temp has been requested and is due to arrive shortly.

Minutes of the last meeting […]

The Temp arrives whilst the minutes are being approved. Furtively looks around for a table. Pulls up chair. Sits down with minimal creaking, eyeing her bag.

Matters arising

[Note to self – find hand-scribbled notes]

The Temp pulls out a laptop and hastily opens it up. Hovers Index finger over start-up button for a second before grabbing an A4 sheet of paper and pen. Hastily begins scribbling notes.

Ud tiy Xb EWs rgua ur;a vwxYAW TIY EWakuaw rgR U HYAR OYF NT DUBFWEA UB RWG QEIBF ew ID RGW JTWVies ib oyeoiaw,

The Temp starts up the laptop only slightly disturbing the ensuing discussion. Commences typing at a rapid pace trying to catch up.

Board Meeting The Secretary is Fired Minutes Script Friday 27 November 2009 Board Room Present Cast:

In Attendance Understudy:

David ???? (D?) – Chair Narrator A… Charnock (AC) Heeoun Jeen?? (HJ/G?) Person at top end of table Bearded man David Johnson (DJ) Woman on left across Person on right two down “ “ “ “ three dwon Pippa Koszerek (PK) – Secretary The Temp

Item Scene 1.

Apologies […]

Action (Point)

The Narrator explains that the Secretary has been fired. A temp has been requested and is due to arrive shortly.

Welcome The Temp arrives whilst the Narrator is welcoming the Board. Furtively looks around for table. Pulls up chair to table. Sits down with minimal creaking. Eyeing her bag.

Minutes of the last meeting

[Note to self – find hand-scribbled notes] 4.

The Temp pulls out laptop from bag and hastily opens it up. Hovers Index finger over start-up button for a second before grabbing an A4 sheet of paper and pen. Hastily begins scribbling notes.

Matters arising

Ud tiy Xb EWs rgua ur;a vwxYAW TIY EWakuaw rgR U HYAR OYF NT DUBFWEA UB RWG QEIBF ew ID RGW JTWVies ib oyeoiaw,

The Temp starts up the laptop only slightly disturbing the ensuing discussion. Commences typing at a rapid pace trying to catch up.

The Law of Diminishing Returns * ‘I was fascinated by these buildings, and I wanted to transform them. You, know, normally you don’t destroy buildings. You do it sometimes, but usually you transform them, like the Christians transformed old temples of the Pantheon into Christian churches … I transformed these old buildings and gave them a new destiny, a new meaning. Because you never succeed in really destroying something, it always lives, and it’s more efficient to transform than to destroy. Because the thing that is destroyed survives more than the thing that’s transformed.’ (Anselm Kiefer on the architecture of Albert Speer) * 1. A desk is set up in the gallery with drawing materials and audio recording equipment; a curtain separates it from the rest of the space. 2. Visitors to the gallery are invited to take part in the project. 3. The first participant is shown reproductions of Étienne-Louis Boullée’s designs for a Cenotaph for Newton. They are asked to give a verbal description of the designs, and an audio recording is made of their description. 4. The 2nd participant listens to the recording and attempts to illustrate the description with the materials provided. 5. The 3rd participant views the 2nd participant’s drawing and makes a verbal description of it. An audio recording is made of their description. 6. The 4th participant listens to the 3rd participant’s recording and attempts to illustrate their description. 7. Points 5 and 6 are repeated until an arbitrarily chosen number of drawings and recordings have been amassed. N.B. It is important that the sequence is followed, i.e. verbal description alternating with drawing, and that each participant only does one of the two; ‘drawers’ must not see the previous drawings, and ‘describers’ must not hear the previous descriptions. 8. The audio recordings are transcribed and the transcriptions catalogued. The drawings are also catalogued. The drawings and transcriptions are presented together, but not simultaneously. *

Um … central is a big orb. It looks like a big, science fiction, Egyptian tomb. It’s got clouds in the background, some sort of architectural structure, and a gateway at the front, with either lots of people circling around the central portion or … not. Um … on the bottom left hand corner there’s a spiral and coming up from the top of the spiral is a straight line upwards and at the top of that straight line which is almost at the top of the page is a short line coming out to the left. Going back to the spiral, from the middle of the spiral there are three lines coming out horizontally on the right-hand side of it and bisecting those three lines, going horizontally downwards or upwards, is a straight line. Above the top of the three lines is the top two sides of an equilateral triangle and above the three lines is a kind of freehand, threehumped squiggle, at the far left of which is a, um, coloured-in circle which is about eight millimeters across. So in the center of the page, taking up about – no, let’s start again. From the top right–hand corner coming down there’s a long straight line, like a roofline and it almost, like, intersects the top of a large container which is just marked out by its two sides and a line at the bottom. So you’ve got a large container and you’ve got a kind of roofline coming out of the top of that. Then outside the container on the right-hand side there’s a small triangle, but then inside the container, underneath the roof, there’s a kind of spiral, there’s a series of spiral lines and these curve round about eight rotations, quite compact together and there’s a big circle in the center of them - that’s kind of shaded with a pencil - that looks like an eye. And then coming out from that there’s, like, three lines like rays of the sun and on top of that there’s a small pattern which looks like the outline of a hat you’d get in a Christmas cracker. Um … and from the left-hand side of the spirals a kind of splay of short lines, which come out in a kind of curve out of the container, and above the long line that’s coming from the right-hand corner and almost, but not quite, connects up with where the lines start in the top-right corner. And then also if you quickly come down from that, underneath the small triangle, then you start outside the container and draw a line that kind of goes into the container, um, but then sort of has a dip then it forms an angle of about, God knows, it sort of forms a right-angle after going down, I mean, and that’s what the drawing is. There’s a gust of wind blowing through, um, a box, that leads into an alleyway that, um, that leads to some sort of house, I suppose, um, a house with three pillars, with, um, lines, squiggles, lines, squiggles. Er, a kite flying downwards.

WRITING EXHIBITIONS: AN ASSEMBLING

CONTENTS: Hyun Jin Cho, 12.00-16.00/ 28 Nov 2009/ 7.9 Cubic Metres; Anne Charnock, Uncertainty Series; Matthew Giraudeau, Leprechaunâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Denial; Heather Ring/ The Wayward Plant Registry, Funeral for Flowers I: Flowers Never Purchased/ Never Served a Purpose; Kim Patrick, 18 Rugby Street; Tamarin Norwood, Genuine Smiles; Fiona Fullam, Visual Language and Other Ways of Thinking; David Berridge, Three Plans for a Vocal Exhibition; David Johnson, The Secret Lives of Buildings; Marianne Holm Hansen, For the Record - A Written Conversation; Helen Kaplinsky, Strange Myths of the Psyche; Pippa Koszerek, The Secretary is Fired; Matthew MacKisack, The Law of Diminishing Returns. Assembled by David Berridge.

writingexhibitions@gmail.com