APPENDIXES for Unit 6 Agency to Change. Hand Carving Hand

Hand Carving Hand

RESEARCH

Kersten Bergendal, Swedish artist recognised as a ‘pioneer of time based participatory intervention’.

The Trekroner Art Plan Project – “Open Plan – An New Commons for Trekonner” , Bergendal asked residents of a new urban area “what would you like to share, or do together? What do you wish to share with each other?”

the artist planned the installation of three towers in steel and acrylic glass, to act as “a central self governed zone between the rational suburban settlements.”

“My work intervenes with the logic of a place. This also means, that the place and its locals, professionals and institutions also intervenes with me and thus with the art project, making it an unpredictable reciprocal and simultaneous ping-pong process. The discursive platform that eventually might grow out of such an exchange, aims at cultivating an existing local agency and improving conditions for joint local action with point of departure in the spectrum of critique on, utopic ideas about and hopes for the site.” Bio from website https://kerstinbergendal.com/

Marcus Coates

Journey to the Lower World 2005 – “**an album of words and images reflecting on human and animal consciousness in** the contemporary world — how ancient forms of knowledge, healing and spirituality are adapted to fill a void. adapt ancient forms of knowledge, healing and spirituality to fill a void in the contemporary world.” – Mark Wallinger

Coates facilitates a connection, communion, communication. attempting to aid the residents of Liverpool’s Linosa Close, a 24-storey council tower block scheduled for demolition. I’m not entirely sure about Coates’ work, or how and if it effectively ‘helps people’, perhaps he creates an “image of hope” as Wallinger suggests.

“Applications were sought from the general public and local community groups to attend a week-long workshop devised and led by Coates in a community centre in Bethnal Green, London. Six participants were selected to attend this one-off course. The group were encouraged to develop the scope and use of their imagination. They trained to create and sustain imagined worlds in which they could immerse themselves. They went on to use these experiences to gather relevant information from their imagination, to help answer questions for themselves and other people, i.e. strangers on the street, local residents and policy advisors at City Hall, London.” Marcus Coates website.

Coates proposed questions like:
How can we intervene to help end the war in Syria?
What can I do differently to get a job?
What stops me from starting my own business?
How will the world cope with the ever increasing population?
How can I approach this job interview differently?
If people know if something is bad for their health, why do they carry on doing it?

I’m interested in. how Coates uses question as a sort of trigger for pre-existing ideas or queries that havens been fulfilled, answered, explored before, what I like about the participatory work that I have chosen to focus on is their involvement of creating a ‘space’ or zone for thought, catharsis.

National Covid Memorial Wall. – brain child of the same campaign leaders who called for an inquiry into the government handling of the pandemic, the memorial wall could be seen as apolitical but that’s without the acknowledgement of radical grieving that it portrays. is it not technically graffiti? and an encouraged confrontation with loss. I mean its on the wall facing parliament…

https://www.ribaj.com/products/designing-out-stress-on-paediatric-wards – an article called “Designing out stress on paediatric wards” by Pamela Buxton, discusses art in children’s hospitals – how do you achieve the same thing in a normal hospital and not be patronising/too much…?

MATERIAL RESEARCH

Wax tablets – reusable writing/drawing tablets, first archaeological evidence found in a 14th century BC shipwreck in modern day Turkey, also used in Ancient Greece, Rome, Mesopotamia and Medieval Europe.

London has its own relationship with wax tablets, The Bloomberg Tablets are a collection of 405 preserved wooden tablets, found at the site of the Bloomberg building in the financial district of London.

https://www.asor.org/anetoday/2021/07/assurbanipals-ipad/ –

this material research inspired the initial stages of my workshop development, however after focusing more on the research/ideas side I’ve realised the wider possibilities of this medium and practice. if I were to continue developing my workshop or the ideas involved; carving into wax instead of plaster and slip casting the relief – the wax would be really interesting to work with and reusable/ recyclable – a better vehicle for the process, malleable in more ways than one.

CYLINDER SEALS –

small round cylinder of stone, usually with a hole pierced through the centre, carved into to depict script and figurative scenes, typically rolled along a piece of wet clay to create an impression of the design – a positive. used as signatures, like a signet, as jewellery and as magical amulets. They are though to have originated in the Late Neolithic Period c. 7600-6000 BCE in modern day Syria.

Although I’m using plaster in the workshop, the method and use is very similar – I too hope to create a sort of collection of signatures – visual footprints (or handprints) of one person, through the eyes of another.