Arts & Ecology

Body armour and designer trees!

Can you imagine how you might advise an artist about whether or not he should take his body-armour with him on a residency? That’s the everyday nature of daily conversations and logistical planning within the RSA Arts & Ecology team as its international programme begins to bear fruit! A range of artists are now completing commissions and placements somewhere in the real or virtual world - all addressing serious ecological issues. 

London based artist, David Cotterrell, is back from a month’s residency in Kabul with the Turquoise Mountain Foundation. In April, he left for Afghanistan in a whirl-wind of last minute checks and hitches: who would pay for the UN flights into Kabul? Does the RSA insurance policy adequately cover an artist in a ‘passive war’ zone? Should he take body-armour with him?  In the end, David arrived safely in Kabul and spent his time working alongside Afghan artists and craft makers as well as teaching students at Kabul University’s Centre for Traditional Afghan Art and Architecture. He also developed his own practice in the context of ecological and related social issues as a result of the conflict.

The head of the arts programme at TMF, Jemima Montague, said of David, ‘..you are now the most  famous international artist in Kabul - everyone said how much they learned, how moved they were by your images and observations’.

Watch out for the next blog about his time in Kabul and outputs over coming months.

In other worlds, German artist Dirk Fleischmann is currently to be found either near a ‘forest farm’ in the Philippines or wandering around the strange, angular terrain of Second Life – on a virtual island run by ZKM! The artist is trying to buy a plot of land in the Philippines where he intends to ‘seed an art- forest’. He plans to mirror the growth of this real-life forest with designer-trees in Second Life! His research residency can be tracked in Second Life and the RSA Arts & Ecology website from the middle of June. Fleischmann will also be interrogating notions of carbon offsetting within cyber space!

Other events:
Matt Collishaw resurfaced with an impressive new work at Spring Projects, a new London gallery space in Kentish Town. The gallery specialises in fusing fashion, design and fine art under the inventive eye of its director, Andree Cooke, an excellent curator with a track record in crossing these disciplines. His installation entitled ‘Deliverance’ left viewers with literal and emotional marks as momentary revelations of humanitarian and environmental disaster were exposed to the eye with a cacophony of flash-lit images. The snatched glimpses of human tragedy forced a phosperent after-image onto the back of the eye (if not the brain!) and it was quite a struggle to re-gain composure on re-entering the wine-sipping throng of the London art crowd.

The next show at Spring Projects commences on June 13.

Organised by Director of Exhibitions, Mark Sladen, the ICA is currently running a series of solo, one week shows by sixty artists from Ireland and the UK.' Nought to Sixty ' is pitched as ‘a multifaceted portrait of the emerging art scene in the two countries’ and I think this snap shot is well worth a visit. Look out for Alexander Heim who addresses ‘intrusions into urban life where animals, processes and chance routines create self-sustaining pockets of otherness’ - 16-23 June

Greenwashing in Turin

Tue Greenfort Untitled, 2008 modified Eurobins

Arts & Ecology recently made a trip to Turin for the opening of Greenwashing at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo which has been curated by Ilaria Bonacossa and Latitudes (Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna). It is the concluding project of a year long programme at the Fondazione tied to the environment.

25 international artists were invited to participate in Greenwashing, including some familiar faces to the Arts & Ecology project; Lara Almarcegui, Maria Thereza Alves, Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Tue Greenfort, Cornelia Parker, Tomas Saraceno and Sergio Vega.

Among the highlights were The Bruce High Quality Foundation’s ironic demonstration of alternative energy sources in the form of wired up citrus fruits in the guise of BP's logo which in time exposed itself as a health hazard and Chu Yun’s collection of defunct outdated technologies whose stand-by buttons were winking in the dark in a sedate yet sinister fashion - last year the government announced that stand-by switches will be outlawed in the UK

If you are able to get to Greenwashing you won’t be disappointed - this is undoubtedly the seminal exhibition of artists who are reflecting, responding and challenging the state of our planet.

Notes from Delhi - Week 2

Read on for extracts from week two of the Arts & Ecology residency at KHOJ Artists' Association.  You check out the full version on the Arts & Ecology project page.

19th November

'Asim takes us to the Yamuna River.

On the way, I see a man giving a block of ice ‘a seaty’ on the back of his bike - he’s pedalling fast cos it’s melting.

First stop is an illegal Muslim settlement that neighbours the Yamuna River.  A high red fence cuts access to the banks of the river, it has been recently erected - 2005 or so. The reason for the erection is unknown. We look through the fence at green misty marsh beds, the river stench encircles us.

We go to the bridge. We can’t take photos here - there’s a general fear that bridges and other vital civil structures may come under terrorist attack. We look over and the smell of pollution is so over whelming I get a headache from it.

There are a lot of plants taking up a lot of space. Asim tells us the story; Lady Mountbatten, the wife of the last Viceroy of India was having an affair with Jawaharlal Nehru (first Prime Minister of India). As a token of her affection she gave him water Hyacinth, the settler plant started occupying every inch of the waters taking advantage of its resilience to the system in place. It starves the water of oxygen so a beetle was modified to combat the Hyacinth’s strong hold and its reign collapses. Interesting analogy.

On the other side of the road we can walk down to the bank. One of the boaters takes us for a spin through toxic foam, passing plastic bags and general detritus. Even though the river is extremely polluted things seem to carry on, things somehow keep going, Swifts dip the water and I still get that sense of relief and grounding I find a trip on the water offers.

Boys are diving for things of value.
The river is sacred yet its physical mortality is not recognised.
 
…. the alchemy of transformation is rapid and very visible here.' 

21st November

'In pursuit of the idea of self made and the exploitation of the hand made. I visit the local basement embroiderers in Kirkee village. They are all in basements, young men do all the work, some are paid a meal a day. We visit four in total, the work they are doing is extremely fine and sells for a lot of money. Taking photos is generally not an option, and the atmosphere is quite tense. The last place we visit is the most comfortable. It’s small with three people working and we talk directly the embroiderer’s. I ask him if they can teach me embroidery.

They say it takes at least 6 months but I could go along. I like the idea of taking on a job of this kind. Heath and I discuss this as an option for the project producing a map on the shawls whilst I go to work to learn about the people’s lives and the technique.

Unfortunately this would require a time much longer than our remaining weeks. Possibly could see if I could go for three days to add to the research experience.'

Notes from Delhi - Week 1

The first Arts & Ecology residency began in November at KHOJ Artists' Association in New Delhi with artists Kayle Brandon and Heath Bunting. 

Throughout the duration of their residency Kayle and Heath are sending us their accounts, observations and thoughts. You can read their diary in its full entirety on the projects section of the Arts & Ecology website but here on the blog we'll provide you with a couple of snippets from each week. Enjoy!

15th November

‘Walked around Kirkee village where KHOJ studios are sited. The village used to have lots of farming land then the city grew around it and ran through it. The floor is littered with sweet wrappers, later I find out they are chewing tobacco wrappers. The dogs seem exhausted; lots of the bitches have tits that drip to the floor, overwhelmed by reproduction.

Things have a beaten, worn appearance; I think the climatic elements of the desert in the north, the monsoons and the sun play liberally here.

Delhi is colourful. People wear very colourful clothes, well, the women wear very colourful clothes, traditional to India wear, and men seem to tend toward the western trouser, shirt set up.

Here a new shopping Mall has risen on one side of a busy road. Directly on the other side, is a community that live in tents and have horses and goats. The border that separates the two contrasting places is the road which is always swamped with vehicles. Conveniently crossing the road isn’t an easy undertaking.

Rachel and I go over and look around the highly guarded, air conditioned Mall. We try on very expensive dresses, then return to the village. We are able to transgress realms fashioned out of class, money and status systems. We are realm hoppers.’

18th November

‘Another day of money moving in and out of pockets… Gandhi’s portrait in and out of millions of pockets (he’s on every bank note).

Decided to go the Mahatma Gandhi Museum, we commence a haggle with an auto drive, and then in the auto we go, back into the bedlam of Delhi’s road network. Auto journeys are fast becoming the staple of my experience; long, short curly ones, fast, bumpy, scary ones.
 
Inside the Gandhi museum the lights go off and then on a few times. During the loss of power there are moments of standing and looking at things in half light, the experience is somehow emotional.

Memorable things: A chart of the salt march, a room dedicated to the Khadi principle, spinning wheels and pictures of men spinning in conference centres, gardens and assembly rooms. The museum hosts a collection of Gandhi’s things; his dentures, can opener, foot scrubber, and sandals to name a few.’

Extracts taken from Kayle Brandon's residency diary, November 2007.