A Walking Art Gallery... 'What the Flock?!'

This is a follow up on my last blog. What seemed to be a static, one off happening has turned into one that is moving through time and space. Over the last week I have watched the spray painted stencils, which existed on the main route from Hyde Park to the University, become faded under the foot of many a student on the way to lectures. I thought these were the only remains. However, this morning I witnessed the return of the flock, or more precisely of 'what the flock?!' Cardboard cut outs of black sheep on sticks were yet again stuck in the marshy grass of Hyde Park. This time with the date 10/10/10 printed on them. What did the date mean? Perhaps it was informing us of the beginning of the exhibition, proper, or even more interestingly the end-date. This got me thinking about the life-span of exhibitions. Conventional exhibitions usually advertise when, where and how long the exhibit is going to be. We are too often used to planning to go to an exhibition at a certain time and place. However it is becoming an increasingly common occurrence to stumble across artworks in public domains, which, repeating what i said in my last blog, gives us an entirely different experience. It is a much more confrontational kind of experience, we see it and experience it whether we like it not. For example, like in the case of the Mysterious Banksy, who has given rise to graffiti art.

I thought my questions would be answered when I caught a glimpse of a black sheep out of the corner of my eyes whilst sat on the Parkinson steps. I looked up to see a parade of people dressed as sheep with the trade-mark black-sheep-on-stick in hand. They were anouncing the date through a megaphone. I ran over to see if they would shed any light on what the flock was going on, but apparnetly they had no idea either. I was simply instructed to go to http://www.whattheflock.org.uk/ at 10pm on the 10/10/10. The 'exhibition' was now moving to cyber space. This is interesting as the internet is increasingly becoming a platform for new-media art and an art space in its own right. This is reminisent of the previously blogged Art experiment 'Second Life' by Hayley Goodsell. Creating virtual environments in which art can exist, or virtual environments and web pages that are actually art, again bring to mind the question of the art gallery. What constitutes an art Gallery? As you have suggested Mark work by the likes of Christo, who makes huge landmarks such as the Reichstag, Berlin (1971-95) into art objects by wrapping them up, thus making the environmental space surrounding it the viewing gallery. Therefore if the art object exists on your computer screen your bedroom becomes the gallery. It won't be long until an 'art gallery' app will be come available, if it hasn't already, making anywhere you are an art gallery.

After checking out the web page, which is linked to LUU, I began to wonder whether it was an art project at all. It could be anything to do with LUU from elections to the promotion of yet another weird and wonderful society or even a marketing tool for a new product. In any case I think it is an intriguing 'project' that raises issues surrounding what constitutes an art gallery. I can't wait to see what is to be revealed on Sunday.

http://www.whattheflock.org.uk/ ... watch this space!

Alex

Gallery Wall to Hyde Park Floor, ‘What the flock?!’

Hi everyone I’m Alex and this is my first blog. Where better to start than a trail of stenciled sheep, each titled ‘What the flock?!’ The trail lead me through Hyde park yesterday morning to a full flock of cardboard cutouts stuck on sticks and some hanging in the trees. Projects like these are now a normal site to behold when walking through cities and parks. Over the last 50 years art has slowly moved away from gallery and museum walls, and now pretty much anywhere constitutes an art space. There was no sign of an artist or establishment, which made it ever more intriguing. If I had seen this in a gallery or museum situation my experience would have been somewhat different. The spontaneity of time and place allowed me to look at, think about and make conclusions (or not) about the ‘piece’ without any preconditions. I think seeing art outside gallery walls brings new dimensions to a work as it engages with the environment and the minds of those who would not usually encounter art. All in all it got my brain ticking (which at 9.30 in the morning is quite an achievement) and gave me a cheap giggle on the way to uni. I am excited to see more of this kind of thing next week at Leeds Light Night!

Alex

Leeds Public Art Walk

I had the pleasure and privilege of leading one of the monthly art walks organised by Pavilion and Project Space Leeds last week, for which thanks must go to Gill for the invitation and rounding up such an impressive array of lovely people for me to talk at, to and with. For those of you who couldn't make it, I've archived the route we took and works we saw on map below. The loose theme of the walk was culture and urban regeneration, taking in the redevelopment of the Corn Exchange, Brewery Wharf and Holbeck Urban Village in relation to the ways in which public art has been deployed in each of these reconstructed, reconstituted areas of the city.

View Leeds Art Walk in a larger map

Leeds Public Art Map

Here's a sneak preview of the Leeds Public Art Map made in collaboration with the Leeds Public Arts Officer, which you'll hopefully see embedded in the Leeds Art Gallery website and elsewhere very soon. We've had lots of interesting conversations over the last six months about what constitutes the 'public' and 'art' of public art and how best to determine and collate the knowledges that surround these interventions into the social sphere. Hopefully this map represents a template which will be edited and added to, documenting also what is lost, temporary and still in production. I'd be very interested to see what you all think, there's a link to the full version at the bottom of the map.

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Art in Unusual Spaces

Creating Art in Nature - Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2009

Hi everyone!

The ongoing discussion (sometimes controversies) over the relationship between urban regeneration and museum/gallery development reminds me of an interesting project in Japan that might shed light on other possibilites relating to the issue. Instead of turning the cityscape into a museological space, this time it is the rural area which is transformed into heterotopia.

I am here to introduce/advertise a volunteer program for the fantastic Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2009 (http://www.echigo-tsumari.jp/english/). Echigo Tsumari (I will simply call it ' ET ' from now on) is situated in the Niigata province of Japan and is a rural area scattered with rice fields, dotted with hills with a population of less than 75,000 residents.

Once an important area of local rice cultivation, the region is seriously affected by rural-urban migration since the 1970s. With the rapid loss of young people to the megacities and the declining birth rate, schools and local business continue to close down, rice field and rural cottages abandoned and the average age of the population keeps increasing over the past few years. (In fact it is a trend that the entire nation will have to face as Japan is probably one of the few Asian countries facing a serious aging population crisis).

As a result, starting from the year 2000, a group of art experts in Japan initiated the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial project which aimed at revitalizing the region through inviting artists from all over the world to collaborate with local people in creating site-specific artworks. Or in director Kitagawa's word, to 'dig out the value that can be found in the region, raise that value, show it to the world, and by doing so contribute to regional revitalization through the medium of art'.

In the previous three triennials (2000, 2003 and 2006), the organisation committee sucessfully invited famous artists like James Turrell, Christian Boltanski, Christian Lapie, Leandro Erlich, Cai Guo-qiang, Yayoi Kusama, Richard Wilson etc. to install site-specific artworks in the landscape of ET which celebrate local culture, as well as question the relationship between human and nature in our post-industrial world. This year, another 300 artists with different nationalities will gather in Echigo Tsumari in June to celebrate its fourth triennial and the committee of ET is desperately seeking English-speaking people to help with the event.

Volunteer works include assisting artists to install or gather material for their artworks, holding guided tour for tourists as well as helping general logistic management (if you have a driving licence). Knowing Japanese language is not a must as the local helpers will accompany you with your work. You will be provided free accomodation and food subsidy, with a lot of coupons for taking outdoor hotwater bath (onsen) overlooking magnificent natural scenery. The only thing that is not included is the air ticket cost (which I know is not cheap), but I am sure that the benefit of joining this triennial is immense and it will definitely change your way in looking at art and nature (the artwork that you help to create will stand there for many many years!)

If you are interested, please contact me through gchanart@gmail.com. The official website of the event is http://www.echigo-tsumari.jp/english/. A detailed online catalogue of previous artworks can be found at http://www.echigo-tsumari.jp/artworks/photo_en.php , may be you will find some artists that you are familiar with before!

Here are some other marvelous artworks that you can see in ET:


Takamasa Kuniyasu - Matsudai Dragon Pagoda

Ilya & Emilia Kabakov - The Rice Field
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Akiko Utsumi - For Lots of Lost Windows

Christian Boltanski ＋Jean Kalman - The Last Class

Leandro Erlich - Niigata House