Zierle & Carter

Artist Statement

Alexandra Zierle and Paul Carter's collaborative work is interdisciplinary, multi-sensory and site and context responsive spanning from live art/performance art, happenings and interventions, to sound, video and installation. Through their practice, Zierle & Carter critically examine different modes of communication and what it means to be human both as individuals and as a collective entity. Their work addresses notions of belonging, cultural identity, the dynamics within relationships, harmony through conflict and the transformation of limitations.

Rooted in a fine art context their work adopts a simple yet rich visual aesthetic, which employs various approaches and guises. The work fundamentally explores societys conventions, traditions and rituals both old and new, often flipping them on their head, peeling them back, reversing orders and disrupting the norm. Zierle and Carter's work sites an embodied investigation into human interactions with their immediate environment and exemplifies a profound curiosity of the unknown, the void, of embodiment, and the now.

Art Hub

Absent Engagement

You are invited on a journey into the dark of a cinema, led by torchlight. Here you will find what is not there and discover a way of communicating that doesn’t involve speech but requires your imagination to guide the dialogue.
The work is shaped by the audience’s interactions, each performance holds the key to the next journey and by the end of the evening the fragments delivered by each participant will tell an intimate story.

Biography

Zierle & Carter's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including MOMA, New York, US and Plymouth Arts Centre, UK as part of Marina Abramovics Institute for the Preservation of Performance Art and The Pigs of Today are the Hams of Tomorrow. Their work has been shown at IMAF 2009, Odzaci, Serbia; Exit-ence and Exist in 08, Brisbane, Australia; Contaminate, Boston, US; Beyond the Abject, Collision 08 Festival, Area10 project space, London; Videophile, Phoenix Gallery, Brighton; Buenos Aires Zonadeartenacción - Foto y Video Acción 2007 and Bases and Conditions, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Transitions, Out of Bounds and Invigorate, The Exchange and Wastelands at Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance.

In 2006 Zierle & Carter received the Ferdinand Zweig Memorial Scholarship to produce new work in Patagonia, Argentina. As members of The Western Alliance we have presented To Good To Be True, URGENCY/AGENCY Residency exhibition with The Western Alliance and Turkish artists Iz Oztat and Volkan Aslan as part of the Visiting Arts Artists to Artist scheme, The Delfina Foundation, London, UK.

Further information to be added soon.

Links

Artist Website

Kimbal Bumstead

Summary of Practice

Kimbal Bumstead's ongoing research is into performer- participant relationships and the documentation of intimacy. He works with people as his subject matter - bodies and faces - exploring the issues surrounding physical contact and control through live interaction and sensory experiences. His work is about the here and now- about you and your relationship to touch.
Bumstead plays with the power relations that exist between the performer and the participant, where mutual vulnerabilities and insecurities are exposed, it's about being human and lovingly tortured.

There are two vital facets to his work that intertwine and support each other: the physical experience of interacting with another human through touch, and the process of documenting that experience through photography, video, drawing and email correspondence.

Art Hub

Touch Tent is a nylon dome tent with two people in it - a private installation for one audience member at a time. Inside there are rules. This is a performance with aims and objectives. You do not have to do anything. It's an experience for you. The rules will be broken once you go inside.

A man encapsulated in a cannonball wants to draw your portrait, he cannot see you but he knows you are there.

This performance is part of the artist's Touch Drawing project in which he constructs portraits based on the journey of touch across the face, discovering cheek bones, sockets, flesh, scars, he documents this journey with a stick of graphite on paper. Each sheet is then also marked with the audience member's email address. A few days later, they receive a photograph of their drawing.

Biography

Kimbal Bumstead graduated with a first class BA in Fine Art and Art History from the University of Leeds and is currently completing his MA in Performance and Theatre from Queen Mary University of London.

He has exhibited and performed solo work worldwide, in Russia, Mongolia, Vietnam and Poland. He recently performed and exhibited at the Beijing Biennale in China, Transit Station: Art as Event in Copenhagen, Denmark, Act Art 8, London, Wrong Love at the A Foundation, Liverpool, and North By Northwest at Tate Liverpool.
He lives and works in London.

Links

Artist Website

Graphic Design

Logo and Flyer Design by Becca Allen:
http://beccaallen.co.uk/

Event Venue

Art Hub will take place at The Poly in the centre of Falmouth.

The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society is a charity dedicated to promotion of the arts and science in the county of Cornwall since 1833. Operating out of The Poly building in the heart of Falmouth and working with the local community, the RCPS hopes to provide an arts, science and educational space for the people of Cornwall for many years to come.
[http://www.thepoly.org/, accessed 20/07/10]

For more information visit The Poly's website

Satellite Performance

Nail Art by Bryony Gillard will happen on Falmouth Moor on the afternoon of Art Hub [21st August] from 12pm until 3pm.

Hedva Eltanani

Summary of Practice

Hedva Eltanani's practice is intertwined with theoretical research. She focuses on how digital technology may affect audience experience and their relationship with the performance. These days she is devising series of LABs in order to explore particular elements. Each LAB is devised around a specific question that guides the work. The elements are chosen in order to bring out an understanding of the audience experience and the kinds of experiences it may open for the audience. The artist also collaborates with other practitioners on various projects. She is mainly involved in projects of Physical Theatre, Interactive Theatre, and Devised Theatre.

The theoretical research informs the practice. The performances feed the theory. After having Blast Theory as a case study, producing different labs and experiments and taking part in different kind of performance she is working on her first article in regard to her research.

LAB4

This is a journey of communication between two places. It is a game that challenges the audience to bend the boundaries of space, interaction and intimacy. Live online performance is carried out for the audience in the Art Hub. London is brought into Falmouth and vice versa. They are connected by streaming media and web applications. The structure enables the participants to follow different stations. Each station is a short game which challenges elements of group dynamics and technology.
How intimate will it go? The participants are being invited to deepen the connection by keeping this community active using web applications.

LAB4 is an exploration of communication between two places using streaming media and web applications. It is another step in a series of LABs that explore digital technology and audience interaction. It is part of a research on digital performance and the way it affects audience experience.

Biography

Hedva Eltanani graduated MA Advanced Theatre Practice from Central school of Speech and Drama. She researches the various usages of technology within live performances and the way they affect the relationship between the performance and the participants. Her research intertwines academic and practical research.

She presents her research in different conferences such as 'JAM 2010 – The Audience Spectacular' in Reading University; DRHA 2010 conference in Brunel University and TaPRA 2010 conference in Cardiff University. Her recent collaborations were: "Scenes From the Iliad" original play devised by "Flying Dutchman"; an adaptation of "The Trial" by Project K; "The Hall" by 19;29 and adaptation of "Crime and Punishment" by Ashes and Diamonds. Now she is creating a series of devised LABs performances, each LAB explores different aspect of her research.
More details are in: http://vs4rslab.wordpress.com/about/

Bryony Gillard

Summary of Practice

Situated somewhere between sculpture, performance and event; Gillard’s practice draws upon common social forms of interaction or traditional customs, often celebrations, sports and games. She is interested in exploring the role of social archetypes in these situations – Winner/Loser and Referee, Teacher/Student, Parent/Child.
Often working in collaboration with artists or with social groups, physical participation is integral to the work. Gillard explores the idea of camaraderie and how art can bring people together.

Nail Art

Between 12 and 3pm on 21st August, members of the public will be invited to have their nails manicured in the style of one of four famous artworks. Amanda Carey, a locally based nail artist will create the participant’s chosen style, and instead of purely performing a service, she will discuss the specific artist’s work with the participant.
The activity aims to explore the divide between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art, inversions of hierarchies and the translation, transference and value of knowledge.
The participant will not only leave the activity physically altered, but will have contributed to an ongoing conversation about the artists chosen for the designs. These designs combine the visual languages of Art and the cult craft of ‘Nail Art’ and also pose the question of the role of the Artisan within contemporary society. The hierarchy between the client (participant) and technician is reversed, as the technician provides the additional role or service of instructor.

Biography

Bryony Gillard is an artist and curator based in the southwest.
She is a Director of Project Space 11 – the first artist-led space in Plymouth. Earlier this year she was selected as PVAC Associate Artist for Plymouth College of Art and supports her practice by working as Programme Assistant at Plymouth Arts Centre.
Recent projects include a residency during Transition at The Exchange, Cornwall, a curatorial project – Take Place at Spacex, Exeter, a performance lecture for ‘Free School. Lecture Hall’, East London and later this year an exhibition, The Sutton Youth Initiative at The Gallery, Plymouth College of Art.

Links

Artist Blog

Susan Mortimer

Walk the Line

For Art Hub, Susan Mortimer performs Walk the Line. The performance is a live cast actuation work, which questions the role of the body in society.

In the performance the artist will walk repeatedly around a taped blue line, which forms a square on the floor of her studio. Through the inexpressive action of walking, Mortimer questions the function of the body as site for social inscription and its significance in the development of 'the self'. The artist's concerns are reflective of contemporary society, where advancing technologies are impacting on the lived experience of the physical body and the construction of identities.

The taped blue line is representative of society's boundaries which aim to achieve social cohesion through dictating our adherence to taboos, moral codes and expectations of behaviour. As an example of popular expression of such social customs, Mortimer chose the Johnny Cash song 'I Walk The Line' as a starting point to her work.


Summary of Practice

Susan Mortimer's practice examines connections between impassive movements such as walking, the body as site of social inscription, and the construction of identities.

Mortimer works with the mediums of video, live broadcast and photography; exploring the responsibilities of the artist as she performs in front of the lens, and investigating the expression of the body through the languages of these mediums.

Actions such as walking signify embodiment and engagement of the physical body, examining its role in the digital age. Mortimer is concerned with the impacts of digital technologies on social communication and the effects, which the absence of the body in such interactions will have on the coherence of social structures.


Biography

Current:

MA Digital Arts, Camberwell College, University of the Arts, London

Ongoing:

Mail Art One Zine, distributed through Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead, DLI Gallery Durham, Northern Print Studios, London, LPS London

Exhibitions:

Act Art Censored, London, July 2010

Glasgow International Book Fair, April 2010

Oxhouse Online Alphabet, 2010

Mail Art Exhibition, Long Gallery, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, 2010
(Curated by Alison Stockwell and Susan Mortimer)

Salon, Open exhibition at the Temporary Art Space, Halifax, Yorkshire, 2009

Steps August 2009, Peep Warbrobe Gallery, Halifax, 2009

Field Show, Emptyshop Gallery, Durham, 2009

Interim Show, Camberwell College, University of the Arts, London, 2008


Links

Artist Website

Artist Blog

Artists

Participating Artists in Art Hub:

Bryony Gillard

Hedva Eltanani

Kathryn Ashill

Kimbal Bumstead

Susan Mortimer

Zierle & Carter

About

Art Hub is a Live Art event investigating social connectivity. A programme of performances explores the dynamics of interaction, as the replacement of face-to-face conversation with online networking causes social distance.

The event will take place at The Poly on Saturday 21st August from 6.30pm until 11pm. An afternoon performance will also happen on Falmouth Moor from 12pm until 3pm on the same day.

Selected artists examine notions of intimacy, collaboration and exchange; occurring in both physical and virtual space and questioning the impact of online technologies on contemporary culture. The featured artists are Bryony Gillard, Hedva Eltanani, Kathryn Ashill, Kimbal Bumstead, Susan Mortimer and Zierle & Carter.

Art Hub happens at a significant point in time for Live Art in Cornwall, with the launch of the Performance Centre at University College Falmouth, scheduled this autumn.

The event will be followed by an exhibition of documentation, to open at Woodlane Campus from Tuesday 7th until Saturday 11th September.

All admissions free of charge.

Visitor Information:
The Poly
24 Church Street
Falmouth
Cornwall
TR11 3EG

Website: arthubfalmouth.blogspot.com
Contact: arthubfalmouth@gmail.com

Rachel Entwistle, Curator