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New Upcoming Online Publication ... When the City Speaks - Live Art Interventions (Research Archives) When the City Speaks is a live art piece with artist and audience participation. It is inspired from the philosophies, which form the creative process of Derbyshire in all her work. An interest of the social commentary and critique of art and culture explored in the urban space. The following form a chronology of events that led up to When the City Speaks being researched and developed, including archival research sources of press release, reviews, etc..
(From
left to right and down) Jo Derbyshire's 'Seasons - When the City
Speaks'; Transvoyeur artists performed at the ‘Cosmic Cabaret’ on Walk the Plank Theatre Production Boat, Liverpool, England on Friday 10 November 2006. This live art programme was managed in collaboration with Walk the Plank and Bluecoat Art Centre (Liverpool, England), as part of the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006 and in association with the performance programme of the Liverpool Biennial 2006. It was presented as ‘… a Cosmic Cabaret featuring paranormal activity of a musical, magical, dancical, theatrical, and mystical nature...’. The artists from Transvoyeur included Agata Alcaniz, Jo Derbyshire, George Lund, Tony Knox and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, as well as guest artists participating, such as June Rose, Andrew Hodge and many others. Sweeney presented a performance called ‘Boudicca’s PMT in the 21st Century’. This has previously been in Berlin, London and Liverpool, 2005-2006. This live art is one that has evolved with each rendition, reciprocal to the context of the spatiality and urban culture. This opened with artist dressed in white medical coat and a white mask reversed to the back of her head. This produced a dual profile. Sweeney walked into the audience and conscripted a male and female volunteers. She guided each to sit either side of her on the stage and passed them sheet of text. She introduced the text as ‘Athena Review Vol. 1, No. 1 from The Annals by Tacitus (AD110-120) Book X1V, which describes the Rebellion of Boudicca (AD 60-61). This was a translation from Latin to English describing the rise and fall of Boudicca. She instructed the two volunteers to commence reading the ancient text and to continue until the last page. The male and female started to recite, at times in unison and others a cacophony of words that conflicted when out of synchronisation. She draped over the two figures a mass of gold chiffon. She then stood reversed, with the white mask on the back of her head peering towards the audience. Dressed in white medical coat, she stood arms outstretched while the rendition of the historical events of Boudicca was imparted to the audience. She then turned and knelt to the ground. She collected a mass of paper on the floor in front of her. On these were printed biological diagram studies of the female’s reproduction system. The artist folded layer by layer each sheet to form paper aeroplanes, which she threw with vigour into in to the air and audience. To reside back, composed and calmly fold another. She then on the adjacent side took from her side a palette and pot of blue paint. She emptied the contents to the palette. She disrobed from the medical coat and with two hands pressed to the palette covered her palms in paint. She then applied this to her whole body, working up the arms, across the breasts and down her abdomen, stretching precariously to cover her back and finally her legs. During these actions, the male and female continued to read the ancient text. Sweeney curled into a ball, stretched her arms forward, head still down she clawed at the ground. As her hands draw close to her body, she released a piercing and merciful scream. Several times the shrilling lament was released from her lowered body. The force of the energy expelled the affliction, grief and anguish expressed in the text by the male and female read. A woman, Boudicca, who is remembered in the canons of history who led the Iceni rebellion against the Romans, after her husband, Prasutagus, as king of the Iceni, died. The Romans went against their word and Nero was ruling in Rome and the Britons were forced to endure huge taxes, conscription and inhumane treatment at the hands of Roman authorities. The peaceful treaty after Prasutagus death was forgotten and for more wealth, the Romans invaded the lands of the Iceni. Boudicca was flogged her daughters were raped. The essence of a females strength is re-represented in the ideologies in this text of 21st century constructs of gender politics. Sweeney presented a captivating and poignant performance, as the female, as the lover, the matriarch and femme fatale to avenge what was lost. Her body painted blue similar to the Ancient Britons preparing for war. George Lund, an associate artist of Transvoyeur, was the male who volunteered in this live art by Sweeney and the female was Sharlene Squires, a Play Writer. Derbyshire conceived and directed a production with a group of artists titled ‘Seasons – When the City Speaks’. The performance opened with digital photographic stills projected as a backdrop. These images are created by Andrew Hodge, a photographer, whose collection of images are iconic of the city of Liverpool. A performer, Sweeney seated on a chair. She commenced reading a monologue. A text written by Derbyshire of her experiences of the city of Liverpool combined with historical and popular culture references. These structured into the ‘Seasons’ and titled ‘When the City Speaks’. Some moments later Derbyshire enters the scene carrying art materials, which she spreads across the floor. A collection of paints, brushes and so forth. She departs at each the orator states a seasons to return with a canvas representative of each term and another artist enters the scene adjacent to the placement of the canvas. These canvases a combination of mixed media, painting and collage. Photographs and text mixed with abstract and figurative representations. These form the foundation of a visual dialogue cognitive to the subject being read aloud. On conclusion of the monologue, Derbyshire disappears from the scene and the four artists sat next to her canvases start modifying the surface of each. The reader invites members of the audience to come forward and contribute to the seasons on the canvases. The artist, Derbyshire, compares the seasons within the structure and semiotics of her art formed by her experiences and lineage against the urban spatiality. The idea of time and space is explored and as something has a natural progression in evolution of a place, so too is that of the human creatures intervention. The invitation for the audience to contribute continues with this innate sequence by modifying the spatiality of the canvas. An intervention of historical and natural cause and effect and the linear concept of time by human experience. The performance finalised with each member of the audience interacting with the art and becoming part of the creative seasons of each canvas. This piece was intrigued the audience and the live art became a type of ‘happening’ in the creative process. This production is an organic piece that has evolved from previous performances in Liverpool and London. The first explored at the View Two Gallery, Liverpool, England, and then re-examination in he socio-urban and cultural context of London. The project evolved from Derbyshire examining Liverpool as a World in one City through the seasons with a historical, personal and social perspective. Through collage and performance, with an interior monologue narrated by Sweeney, the audience were invited to participate and add to the four collaged canvases Derbyshire had prepared for the performance. Each canvas represented a season in the City, with Derbyshire as the social historian examining Liverpool from a personal perspective. The canvases themselves originally looked like an enlarged page from a journal or a scrapbook where Derbyshire references and archives what has happened over the last year. Through each progressive stage the audience become part of the visual dialogue in the series of canvases. Knox and Alcaniz presented a new twist on the performance conceived by Knox. The piece had evolved to include the collaboration of Alcaniz to sing in Spanish the theme tune to the 1960s series of Spider Man. The scene was set with Alcaniz, as the orator/singer and projected on either side a digital short movie by Knox showing asserted demise of ‘Moth Man’, a guise created by Knox in earlier projects on the concept of the super hero in post modern life. The Moth Man character moves through some woodland, digs a whole and then disrobes to reveal the person underneath. The items of the costume are then buried in this film. Knox entered the scene through a back door from a shed between the two projections. Alcaniz sat to the right towards the audience. The performance involved Knox in normal attire, but the reverse to the film transpires. He is in his normal clothing, but undresses to show underneath not Moth Man, but a poorly made costume of Spider Man. The unkempt nature of the Spider Man costume is something reflective of this comic book hero in a child’s perceptions. Knox posed in iconic super hero stance, synonymous with those produced in comic books and through to the male gender form in the canons of ancient sculpture. He then moved through the space, mingled with the audience, and resided with in them to watch the digital film of the interment of the Moth Man costume. During these transitions in the performance by Knox, Alcaniz continues to sing the theme tune in Spanish of Spiderman. Knox returns to the stage from the audience and Alcaniz then changes her tone and starts to insult this dishevelled Spider Man in Spanish with explications of disbelief, “Ooh! La! La!”. She
stands from her chair and points to his stomach and genitals,
shaking her head in disapproval. The vilification of the character
departs the scene and the final stages of the digital video projection
conclude. During the performance, the audience exploded into a
rapture of whistles and applause at the undressing on the onset
of the performance to change taunts and jeers at Alcaniz’s
derogatory insinuations. The evening of events and performance at the Cosmic Cabaret of the Potting Shed was a fusion of conceptual performances through to theatrical, dramatized and musical recitals. It was an eclectic mix of different forms of live art. Other artists to this event included Mandy LaRomero, Jo Docherty, The Gang with Dorrie Halliday, Lisa Wrigley and many others. The platform presented the artists of Transvoyeur and others the opportunity to present art of an alternative nature and expand on the philosophies of the Transvoyeur artists in their practice to examine and explore socio-cultural parameters and cognative in ethos of ‘Cabaret Voltaire’ (The Cabaret exhibited radically experimental artists, many of whom went on to change the face of their artistic disciplines; featured artists included Kandinsky, Klee, de Chirico and Ernst … Cabaret Voltaire. Under this name a group of young artists and writers has been formed whose aim is to create a centre for artistic entertainment … The idea of the cabaret will be that guest artists will come and give musical performances and readings at the daily meetings. The young artists of Zurich, whatever their orientation, are invited to come along with suggestions and contributions of all kinds. -Zurich, February 2, 1916). Further information can be viewed at: Transvoyeur:
www.transvoyeur.co.uk Affiliations
to:
One contributor wrote Liverpool Hello over the canvases, most of the others used the underground sign as a symbol of the capital, whilst others used the Eros image from the Evening Standard. The Bayswater crowd were the most enthused spending quite a bit of time on their work, I suspect amongst them were some of the Bayswater Road Artists, who show their work every Sunday in the Capital. Interestingly enough Derbyshire's World in One City was changed by the London crowd with one contributor writing London next to the caption, another commenting that the image looks like and orange and that the best oranges come from South Africa! The next performance is scheduled in Liverpool on 10th November on Walk the Plank's cabaret performance, the Potting Shed Goes Psychic.
(From left to right and down) Audience at performance of View Two Gallery. Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney in Boudicca's PMT in the 21st Century, Jo Derbyshire's Seasons - When the City Speans collaboration, Jeimy Marisol Martínez Galavíz explores the concepts of sound with the piano. Last, Ken Martin (Director of View Two Gallery) and Jeimy Marisol Martínez Galavíz. On Friday 27 October 2006, the final Transvoyeur Performance Art Platform 2006 at the View Two Gallery (Liverpool, England) was presented. Researched and managed by the Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, UK Projects Co-ordinator of Transvoyeur, there was a selection of artists from the city and internationally. The artists included Jeimy Marisol Martínez Galavíz, Seasons - When the City Speaks (Alison Bazely, Laura Baxter, June Hobson, Peter Worthington, and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, conceived and directed by Jo Derbyshire) and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney. The first performance art piece was by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney. This was titled ‘Boudicca’s PMT in the 21st Century’. Firstly performed in Berlin and then London, 2005-2006. This live art is one that has evolved with each rendition, reciprocal to the context of the spatiality and urban culture. This opened with artist dressed in white medical coat and a white mask reversed to the back of her head. This produced a dual profile. Sweeney walked to one side of the room and whispered in to an audience members ear. She requested this message to be passed through the audience members as in the game of ‘Chinese Whispers’. When the chain was concluded on the other side of the room, she requested the male to speak aloud what was said. Sweeney then asked the first member of the audience, who was female to stand, and the last, who was male, to join her at the front. She guided each to sit either side of her and passed them sheet of text. She introduced the text as ‘Athena Review Vol. 1, No. 1 from The Annals by Tacitus (AD110-120) Book X1V, which describes the Rebellion of Boudicca (AD 60-61). This was a translation from Latin to English describing the rise and fall of Boudicca. She instructed the two volunteers to commence reading the ancient text and to continue until the last page. The male and female commence recitation, at times in unison and others a cacophony of words that conflicted when out of synchronisation. She draped over the two figures a mass of gold chiffon. She then stood reversed, with the white mask on the back of her head peering towards the audience. Dressed in white medical overall and trousers, she stood arms outstretched while the rendition of the historical events of Boudicca was imparted to the audience. She then turned and knelt to the ground. She collected a mass of paper on the floor in front of her. On these were printed biological diagram studies of the female’s reproduction system. The artist folded layer by layer each sheet to form paper aeroplanes, which she threw with vigour into in to the air and audience. To reside back, composed and calmly fold another. After some time and the pile of printed biological studies expired, she curled tightly into a ball. During these actions, the male and female continued to read the ancient text. Sweeney curled into a ball, stretched her arms forward, head still down she clawed at the ground. As her hands draw close to her body, she released a merciful scream. Several times the shrilling lament was released from her lowered body. The force of the energy expelled the affliction, grief and anguish expressed in the text by the male and female read. A woman, Boudicca, who is remembered in the canons of history who led the Iceni rebellion against the Romans, after her husband, Prasutagus, as king of the Iceni, died. The Romans went against their word and Nero was ruling in Rome and the Britons were forced to endure huge taxes, conscription and inhumane treatment at the hands of Roman authorities. The peaceful treaty after Prasutagus death was forgotten and for more wealth, the Romans invaded the lands of the Iceni. Boudicca was flogged her daughters were raped. The essence of a females strength is re-represented in the ideologies in this text of 21st century constructs of gender politics. Sweeney presented a captivating and poignant performance, as the female, as the lover, the matriarch and femme fatale to avenge what was lost. As Shakespeare captured in his writings ‘Hell has no fury like a woman scorned’ and Boudicca epitomized this. The next performance to follow was Jeimy Marisol Martínez Galavíz a visual, performance and sound works artist from Mexico. She walked over to the piano in the View Gallery and raised the lid to the strings. She bent with poise into the piano, her head lowered to the strings. The audience looked on curiously. Then she intoned a musical note, not a choral or recognisable song, but tones emanated, scaled and alternating in no rhythm. There were interludes of silence, but during these moments it was realised the reverberations of her own voice on the inner strings of the piano resonated. Intonations of a duet between instrument and artist, reciprocal sounds forming a duality in this intervention. The disjointed tempo of the process crescendo from the soprano inflections to hysterical screams and equally the strings echoed back. She moved across the scale of the piano strings and each responding by chord and note against he energy of her voice. The audience sat bewildered and entranced by this strange interaction with our notions of artist, musical instrument and structured sound. She rose from the piano, faced the audience, and left the performance platform. The final performance was conceived by Jo Derbyshire with other artists and audience members participating. The performance opened with a performer, Sweeney seated on a chair. She commenced reading a monologue. A text written by Derbyshire of her experiences of the city of Liverpool combined with historical and popular culture references. These structured into the ‘Seasons’ and titled ‘When the City Speaks’. Some moments later Derbyshire enters the scene carrying art materials, which she spreads across the floor. A collection of paints, brushes and so forth. She departs at each the orator states a seasons to return with a canvas representative of each term and another artist enters the scene adjacent to the placement of the canvas. These canvases a combination of mixed media, painting and collage. Photographs and text mixed with abstract and figurative representations. These form the foundation of a visual dialogue cognitive to the subject being read aloud. On conclusion of the monologue, Derbyshire disappears from the scene and the four artists sat next to her canvases commence adding to the surface. The reader invites members of the audience to come forward and contribute to the seasons on the canvases. The artist, Derbyshire, compares the seasons within the structure and semiotics of her art formed by her experiences and lineage against the urban spatiality. The idea of time and space is explored and as something has a natural progression in evolution of a place, so too is that of the human creatures intervention. The invitation for the audience to contribute continues with this innate sequence by modifying the spatiality of the canvas. An intervention of historical and natural cause and effect and the linear concept of time by human experience. The performance finalised with each member of the audience interacting with the art and becoming part of the creative seasons of each canvas. This piece intrigued the audience and the live art became a type of ‘happening’ in the creative process. It is interesting in this series of three performances by the artists there is a consideration of the female role in post-modern society and culture contrasted to the canons of history and inherited concepts. There is a recognisable universality to these notions and regardless of time separating the historical figure to the contemporary female artist the fundamentals remains the same of the passion and zeal of the female in her many guises, as lover, matriarch, leader, professional and so forth. This does not remove the female from her status in contemporary life; rather it recognises the essence of her strengths and weaknesses in time and space, all which are integral to both genders, male and female, in her relationships of everyday existence and life. Indeed the ancient text on the subject of Boudicca, a canonised female figure, is recorded, inscribed and explicated by a male, Tacitus. Whether the war cry of an ancient female embodied in Sweeney’s personification to the screams from Galavíz, by tonality, function and rationale, we are presented by two woman who similarly test the preconceptions of spatiality in sounds and visual dialogue. Again, parallel to the fundamentals of Derbyshire’s monologue of shared experiences and understanding as a female living in the urban space of Liverpool. The Transvoyeur Performance Art Programme 2006 was realised with the support of the Ken Martin (Director/Curator) and Sam Skinner (Exhibitions Co-ordinator) of the View Two Gallery, Liverpool, England. Contact details: Transvoyeur
UK View
Two Gallery
The Liverpool and New York Exchange Programme of Transvoyeur 2006 was eventually launched in the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006 at the View Two Gallery, 23 Mathew Street, Liverpool, England, on Tuesday 24 October 2006. The
artists in this exhibition include: New York Collective: Lara Allen, Michael Ricardo Andreev, Chris Borkowski, Rodney Dickson, Stephan Fowlkes, PJ Cobbs, Aaron Miller, Raphaele Shirley and Lee Wells. The collection of art is a series researched and developed by the Liverpool and New York artists over the past two years. This was intended for the week of the Independents Liverpool Biennial launch week, but was systematically removed and pulled hours before the opening. The philosophy though of Transvoyeur has always been one for positive and constructive energy to realise projects and exhibition of an exceptional impetus in contemporary art and practice with mutual respect and support of each collaborative artist in the international groups. Albeit this negative outcome on the onset of the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006, the artists from Liverpool and New York the most constructive course of action was to research other outlets and open the exhibition later during this cultural time in the city of Liverpool. Through the professional support of Ken Martin (Director) and Sam Skinner (Exhibitions Co-ordinator) of the View Two Gallery space the exhibition was realised. The doors opened at 6.00 pm for the private view. Many people from the arts community, local and international, attended to view the art, including members of the public. Some visiting from London, Edinburgh, Paris and Barcelona. The comments expressed from different members from the public and international arts community, included ‘The best exhibition I have seen during this Biennial’ ‘The work all very strong and immensely diverse, but it works cohesively. Excellent show’. ‘I remember seeing the work of Transvoyeur artists in the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2004 and it was provocative and thought provoking work then. This new work is again strong”. The Transvoyeur artists are elated with the positive feedback, due to the difficulties encountered at the onset of the previous exhibition being pulled by ulterior means, but collectively they endeavoured to realise an exhibition of worth. Each artist from Liverpool and New York researched and produced new art for this exhibition, as one of the inaugural concepts of the Biennial and Independents in 1999 was that during the international platform of the different arts and cultural events it should be contemporary and innovative art presented. This ethos all the Transvoyeur artists have believed in too and significantly, with those members who have a history with previous Biennials. The exhibition of Transvoyeur is on the first floor of the View Two Gallery. You enter the space from a flight of stairs at the main entrance and immediately presented with a projection a projection of a series of images that show strange and surreal architectural structures. These are a collection of images produced by Raphaele Shirley and documentation of architectural maquettes, constructed and deconstructed to explore ideas of time and space. These images references the primary source of her own creative insight in the temporality and spatiality of virtual urban structures, as well as an element contributed to PAM (Perpetual Art Machine), which is a database of digital materials of which she is a co-founder with Aaron Miller, Chris Borkowski and Lee Wells.  Slide projections in entrance of gallery by Raphaele Shirley. Adjacent to this New York artist piece is a large-scale photographic portrait of veiled gold face with menacing eyes peering through. This is by Tony Knox and part of the recent developments of his Moth Man character, an alter ego of wrestling character. From this entrance area, the space bends around into a larger area where two further large-scale photographs by Know are exhibited. Moth Man by the Pyramids, with two Egyptians on camels in the background bewildered with this strange gold winged character jumps across the stones with the pyramids as a backdrop. The next image of equal scale show the character armed flayed in the night with a row of streetlights arching away in the distance. During this Biennial, Knox is the Artist in Residence at the Field Fund Project in St Helens, part of the Anthony Gormley initiative introducing arts to alternative audiences at the De La Salle School.
Moth Man in Egypt by Tony Knox. Facing these images of Knox is a large reproduction print of a newspaper by Gary Sollars. This is a pseudo newspaper and titled ‘Get Wired’. The concept derived on the satire of news credibility in a socio-cultural context of postmodern society and where intrigues from the critical to banal are abstracted to the humorous rationale. Sollars was a short listed artist in the John Moores Prize this Biennial too.  'Get Wired' by Gary Sollars. There art continues down a long wall to two explorations by Jo Derbyshire. One is a large painting in mixed media of abstraction face with undertones of Picasso-esque influence and similar the other, but in pastels, a fusion of mass of faces peering inwards and outwards of the two dimensional surface. These are described as psychoanalytical studies of form and tone and within the layers of each abstracted composition of the human face or head something different to be discovered and realised by each viewer’s perspectives.
Jo Derbyshire's psychoanalytical studies. Next are four large paintings by George Lund. A combination of the figurative and abstracted in an explosion of colour and hue, which he is synonymous with his art. These are formed in a naïve style and the subjects a commentary on the socio-politic climate of the global affairs, including relations of the human creature with ecological matters, the prevalence of war overseas and the common denominator of unjustifiable justified to result in destruction. For Lund who generally touches on the sublime in previous art and imbued in his palette has retained the tonality and range of colour he is known for, but here he delves into topical issues that effect us all in contemporary life. Lund has recently been one of the commissioned artists by the Liverpool Culture Company with a limited edition reproduction of his art on merchandise relative to the city, arts and culture.
George Lunds combination of abstraction and figurative social commentaries. We move down further into the space and next there is an immense wall installation. This is a collaborative piece by all the New York artists (i.e., Lara Allen, Michael Ricardo Andreev, Chris Borkowski, Rodney Dickson, Stephan Fowlkes, PJ Cobbs, Aaron Miller, Raphaele Shirley and Lee Wells). It is composed by a collection of large sheets of paper, each distinct, but discernible with layered media to each. Each New York artist has contributed to each section of paper with one final artist constructing the final surface and image. One that is perceptible in style to their practice.
An audience member studing the New York collaboration wall installation. The black and white heraldic status denoted by Andreev on a bed of collaborative colours and tones. The geometric overlays recognisable of Fowlkes on the chaotic fusion of stratum by other associate artists. The military symbolism and group portrait by Wells in a spatial composition of a world formed by the contributions of the others. On another sheet expletives and foul language pervade the surface combined with commentaries of current socio-political content. These are perceived to be those conveyed by Dickson. An Irish artist, previously based in Liverpool and now New York, whose work considers the extremity and inhumanity of warfare and the socio-culture sections of society that survive on the periphery of such. Equally so, as one studies each part that forms the whole of this installation we observe the cognitive form by each artist from Allen, Borkowski, Miller and Shirley. The installation is fascinating. It is a hybridised narration of not only each artist’s concepts, but also a collection and amalgamation of the universal ideologies that permeate the globalisation of art, culture and society. The next piece is a wall installation by Sweeney. A performance artists who works in different media from live art, digital video, photographic and those of a more scientific content. We are presented by two large-scale images, which on first analysis make her form seem obscure. Then it is realised the artist is shown lying on a table legs upwards with a mirror in-between her legs that reflects her genitals. These two, although similar, are positions symmetrically opposite to each other. One is black and white, her arms out of perspective only her shoulder can be seen with her head bent down peering towards the viewer. In the neighbouring image that is colour, one arms can be observed released upwards with a meat baster. On both images to her left is a glass bowl containing fish. There is a space between these two life size portraits and placed is a large pedestal with a glass bowl containing live gold fish.
‘Darwinian Donations (DIY)’ by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney. Across the top of this large wall composition are three further photographic studies. Over the black and white portray reversed is an image of gold fish in a bowl and similarly reversed in colour. Next to this, an explicit photograph of her hand pulling apart her underneath and inserted is the meat baster. The third and final image is an overlay of the two previous ones and this positioned over the coloured image of her. The overt image of the insertion is actually shrouded with draped white voile that falls to either side of the pedestal. The material similar to that covering her head and table in the live art photographic stills. This installation by Sweeney is titled ‘Darwinian Donations (DIY)’, a social commentary of genetics practiced by some in everyday life to realise offspring. The style of the composition and image has Renaissance undertones of the draping and tonality, but the harsh white embodies the clinical resolve of genetic intervention where the understanding is evolved and permeates down through societal erudition. Sweeney in the coming months is due to commence collaboration with one of the world’s top geneticists in the research and development. Then there is the art of Charles Nuttall. An arcade machine on first observations, but the graphic design and signage refer to ‘Moth Man versus Nutcracker’. This is a collaboration piece by Nuttall and Knox. Nuttall adapted the concept of Moth Man and combined with his own wrestling character of Nutcracker transformed the spatiality of these characters from the performance context into the realms of digital video gaming media. Members of the audience could interact with this piece by becoming either character to fight in a wrestling tournament with already recognised wrestling characters from the World Wrestling Federation. Further to these two characters was also the option to select digitalised characters of the artists as they are normally seen, aka Knox and Nuttall.
Mothman versus Nuttcracker Arcade Machine by Charles Nutall in collaboration with Tony Knox. There were then three separate digital video installations by Alcaniz, Byrne and Shea. The digital video media of Alcaniz was a performance intervention set in the context of the Liverpool as the European Capital of Culture. These were three environmental art performances are derived by action, intervention and visual dialogue on concepts of urban space, culture and ecology. In various modes, she collects each piece of garbage in the public space and replaces it with a piece of sliced lemon. A long and arduous process, but the meticulous actions of the artists in this film present an element of the susceptibility of the human relationship with space, whether relative to the urban environment or the planet overall. The environment performance is an ongoing project which aims to explore and analyse culture in terms of waste as the residue for societal expression. These films are derived from the live art interventions in location targeted and representative of Liverpool as the Capital of Culture 2008.
Agata Alcaniz's 'Environmental Art@Liverpool Capital of Culture'. The rendition intrigues the viewer to what we normally take for the obvious, but while curiously captivated by the actions of the artist, we are further motivated to the reasons and objectives of this live art intervention captured in the film. This piece is a profound expression of a topical subject and relative to the government adverts, we observe late of a night on television of the prospects of global warming. Alcaniz touches a nerve in a subtle, but innate sense, rather than the repetition of these government information services were we become desensitised. Byrne's work uses a technique of remix which reconfigures work in different conditions so that the work is always specific to the event/space of it's showing, for example the 16mm film '12 Stone 4' was shown as a video at the Tate but as an installation at the Pompidou. Similarly the work in this show is drawn from other work but is reconfigured for this show, for example 'On the Edge of the Estate (the Beacon)' was the central panel of 'Another Day' at the Ormeau Baths gallery in Belfast but is here re-edited and a new transfer for this show. It is here shown with 'On the Edge of the Estate (Penmere)'.
Brendan Byrne's A'nother Day'. Both were made on the edge of council developments (the beacon being one of the largest council estates in Europe). Both are constructed in this abandoned undeveloped edge, a place of danger and beauty, where usual rules of conduct fall into the shade and mythologies of freedom and fear co-exist. 'On the Edge of the Estate (the Beacon)' was produced on 16mm film using a modified camera to give very long exposures producing a deep star field. This is attached to a rig which revolves once every 24 hours against the movement of the Earth giving a celestial perspective where the movement of the Earth is apparent and the stars remain relatively still. 'On the Edge of the Estate (Penmere)' was shot next to the sewage works on a hot Summers day using a microscopy technique. In contrast to 'On the Edge of the Estate (the Beacon)' it is slowed down to reveal the motion of the gnats as they fly manically in their one day of life. Both reveal a change of human perspective at the edge of the everyday and the ordered. An attempt to produce a sense of perspective in which we are not the centre of the Universe. Shea presents a digital video piece, which was researched and developed over a series of hypnotherapy sessions. The concept of which to give-up art. This is not merely a performance, but a reality and addresses the role, purpose, function and rationale of an artists existence, not only in the professional and socio-economic realms of arts and culture, but considers the psychological and intrinsic motivations one that can construe the act of being an artist as a compulsion and innate ability; as the artist not only presents this film as an end product of the concept of art, but denotes the failure of the hypnotherapy and the urge to create a deeper ingrained urge which has been theorised and philosophised about since the institutionalised precepts and canons of art history. The viewer is drawn into the personal experiences, passions and conflicts of an artist in post-modern life, as she exposes her aspirations and fears. The viewer becomes absorbed themselves into the psychosis of the artist and share in the artists temporal visions and emotions carried by the gentle timbre of the hypnotherapist voice, who cannot be seen, but heard.
Members of the audience sharing in the hypnotherapy of Cath Shea's art. The collection of work touched on a range of subjects in contemporary life, each compelling representations of the themes explored by each artist. It is an exhibition one could visit a second and third time and will realise something new.
Mina Jackson and Ian Jackson on the Moth Man versus Nuttcracker Arcarde Machine. During the opening an many different members from the art community were present. Ian and Mina Jackson (Art in Liverpool Weblog and Gold Fish Gallery respectively) and Bryan Biggs (Bluecoat Art Centre, Liverpool, England).
Bryan Biggs (Bluecoat Art Centre) discussing the art of Transvoyeur exhibition. The exhibition finishes Saturday 04 November 2006, so it recommended you take the opportunity to view this exhibition. The next stage programmed for this collection of art is to be exhibited in New York in early 2007. Further information on the exhibition is available from: Transvoyeur
UK View
Two Gallery
Jo Derbsyhire, one of the principle members of the Liverpool Management Team of Transvoyeur and affiliate artist is off to London to research the contemporary arts and culture. During her stay, she will not only liaise with several galleries, curators and artists, but will present her new performance 'When a City Speaks: Seasons' in the context of London. This piece was research and developed for the Transvoyeur Performance Art Platform 2006, part of the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006. She explores in collaboration with other artists and audience participation the process of creativity juxtaposed to socio-cultural and urban references of memory, residue and interaction. This piece is one that evolves with each place visited from the original art derived by the artist and contributions encouraged by participants as the creative process becomes a sense of a 'happening' and art itself becomes an artefact from each place. Her research in London will be with Wendalena Kaye an established London visual artist and both associate members of the London Biennale (www.joderbyshire.co.uk).
Venue: View Two Gallery, 23 Mathew Street, Liverpool, L2 6RE, England. Artists: Liverpool: Exhibition
Dates: Monday 23 October 2006 - Saturday 04 November
2006. Private
View Transvoyeur
UK View
Two Gallery
Venue: View Two Gallery, 23 Mathew Street, Liverpool, L2 6RE, England. Artists: Jeimy Marisol Martínez Galavíz, Jo Gough and Emma Sweeney, Tony Knox and Adam Webster, Mandy Romero, George Lund, Nagachoo, Ernesto Sarezale, Antonio Sassu, Seasons - When the City Speaks by (Alison Bazely, Laura Baxter, June Hobson, Peter Worthington, and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, conceived and directed by Jo Derbyshire), Catherine Shea ('Kitty'), Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, Lisa Jane Wrigley, Suzy Walker – Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, Kai-Oi Jay Yung and Neil Campbell. Friday
29 September 2006, 5.30 pm - 7.00 pm Friday
06 October 2006, 5.30 pm - 7.00 pm Friday
20 October 2006, 5.30 pm - 7.00 pm Friday
27 October 2006, 5.30 pm - 7.00 pm
Contact details: Transvoyeur
UK View
Two Gallery International
Events …Flagging Down May Day, London Biennale and Liverpool
On Sunday 30 April 2006, a group of Liverpool artists met on the iron bridge in Sefton Park, Liverpool, England. This was a prelude to the Flagging Down May Day event by the London Biennale and a contribution by Liverpool artists. The London Biennale in association with other international artists are collaborating to produce a global cultural and shared experience. Flagging Down May Day is a large intervention event happening in cities where artists and artisans have created flags with visual symbolism to come together in unification. This was conceived by the Adam Nankervis (Museum Man Gallery, Liverpool) and David Medalla (Co-Founder of the London Biennale). Artists in London and similar in Liverpool and other cities are contributing to these 'happenings'. The Liverpool collective of artists was organized by Jo Derbyshire with the support of Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney and George Lund on behalf of Nankervis with Tony Knox photographing. He, along with Medalla, are co-ordinating the London Biennale event of Flagging Down for London Bridge at 6.00 pm on Monday 01 May 2006. In Liverpool, the artists arrived and together they hung their flags on the railings of the bridge, while others held them aloft. Passers-by stopped curious at the collection of images on the flags. A fusion of diverse styles of contemporary art practices from the conceptual to the figurative and a mixture of materials and themes. A performance by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney and Jo Derbyshire then followed. Sweeney becomes the object and structure, as is the bridge, to share in this event. Derbyshire hangs a collection of flags across Sweeney’s body, the imagery of which is a reproduced foetus with the artists face and the text ‘urban culture’. The bridge and body denoting time encapsulated to the venue of the bridge, its history and that of the city and people of Liverpool. The location for the Liverpool Flagging Down was selected by Derbyshire. The iron bridge in Sefton park is a famous location of a tragic love story as told by the ghost Liverpool writer, Tom Slemen (www.tomslemen.tk). The tale is one of two lovers from different social backgrounds. The man from an affluent family and the female lower echelons in a day such things were frowned upon. On the knowledge he is to marry another chosen by his family. She, distraught, takes her own life and it is said to this day she haunts the bridge, the place of their rendezvous waiting for him. Similar to the history of the city of Liverpool it has been one of socio-political and economic extremes and at times these transitions in conflict. From the wealth imbued in the architecture throughout the city, structural artefacts of a time, when through merchant trade Liverpool was one of the most prosperous places. However, through the drastic shifts and changes, the city has experienced extreme social and economic deprivation in more recent decades. The historical essence of the city is one of the paramour waiting in abeyance. On the precepts of the London Biennale, Nankervis and Medalla’s Flagging Down and unification we join ‘her’ to celebrate a city of culture. Liverpool, the city and the place, as artists, residents and generations of lovers before in time and now one in a state of flux again. A renaissance and redesign, but this time as ‘lovers’ joined with no divide. The outcome yet to be realized for the city of Liverpool, but it is one we all hold a role to play as artists and people here. The artists and galleres who contributed and participated in this event in Liverpool are: Individual
Artists Art
Groups/Galleries Transvoyeur
Artists US Artists: Michael Ricardo Andreev, Chris Borkowski, PJ Cobbs, Rodney Dickson, Stephan Fowlkes, Aaron Miller, John Sebastian, Raphaele Shirley, Lee Wells. Long
Journey Home Group Web www.londonbiennale.org
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