The Impossible Theatre
3 February 2006 - 17 April 2006
The Curve


'Delve into the realms of the impossible, the fantastic and the unknown where art and life overlap.

This unique exhibition presents the work of ground breaking 20th century Polish theatre director and artist Tadeusz Kantor, alongside that of younger Polish artists Pawel Althamer, Katarzyna Kozyra, Robert Kusmirowski and Artur Zmijewski. While the works in the exhibition include a variety of media - sculpture, performance, installation, photography and video – that all engage with ideas of performance.

The exhibition includes many of Kantor’s early preparatory drawings, props and documentaries of happenings and includes his wonderful Sea Concerto, in which a conductor ‘directs’ the natural sounds of the city and the sea.

The performances by Pawel Althamer and Katarzyna Kozyra have been produced by Barbican Art Gallery in association with the Polish Cultural Institute, London.

The Impossible Theatre has been curated by Sabine Folie and Hanna Wroblewska and organised by Kunsthalle Wien in collaboration with Barbican Art Gallery and Zacheta - National Gallery Of Art, Warsaw.'

Pages Research

Research Proposal November 2005 – May 2006

Kelly A Drake

Background

The initial focus for the beginning of my research journey will be on women artists who I can identify as, or who do identify as lesbian or queer artists and who are specifically examining questions of sexual identity, gender and sexuality through artistic practices including painting, sculpture, installation and photography. I am aware from the outset that this is a very broad field (UK and world wide) and that my goal is to either to directly identify a number of artists that I would like to suggest are part of the Pages show in 2007, or as may happen suggest a way forward to ensure that lesbian artists or artists dealing with these issues are represented. I am keen to identify artists who are contemporary and current, and at the beginning of the research I will not delineate my research to just UK based artists, although again I think it would be preferable for Pages to have UK based makers and practitioners. The goal of the initial stage of the research is to decide upon a number of strategies about the ways in which I may identify artists who I would like to research in greater detail, most probably because they interest me because they are dealing with notions that reflect my practice or notions I am dealing with as a painter who primarily uses an abstract genre.

I am interested in considering how recent history (10-20 years), sexuality theory and social change has impacted on the ways in which lesbian artists not only do, show and explain their work, but what also what themes there maybe in the work, if any, across the board. I am interested in the ideas about self identity and labelling given the changes that the LGBT community may be experiencing given recent legislative developments. Is there a need to reference the artist as LGB or T, and if so how does this manifest itself.

A prevailing idea that has been posed in this post-modern moment by Cherry Smyth, poet, critic and curator, is that artists who are dealing with issues related to sexuality and/or gender have ‘subverted issues of visibility, explicitness and explanation that once were the prevailing practice and replaced these by a probing, subtle and indirect approach’ to the subject matter – perhaps instead aiming to embody such issues within the actual materiality of the work. I want to use this research to explore this and gain a snapshot of the issues that a range of artists are dealing with and how they are dealing with them. Again, once I have identified a number of artists that interest me I may focus in on a limited number.

Proposal for the project “PAGES”
Melissa Bugarella



For this project I am interested in researching critics and video artist that could help me or even participate into the pages project maybe by organising a symposiums or a screening. Particularly I would like to investigate the role of women in the video art and performance field and invite theorists and critics to create an interactive debate that would expand to the public and the women’s library.
Since video and sound art are between the most recent forms of art practise, I would in a way expect to include the women’s library and the public into updating and questioning the role of theory and video in contemporary society.
I would like to be able to contact a variety of European artist and theorist possibly covering a range that would expand into the eastern European countries since those are from the most recent to join the European union.
I intend to achieve the previously mentioned goals by initiating a dialog with the different women that I would like to invite and make part of the project. This process would involve contacting them by mail, e-mail, telephone and possibly visiting them in their studios and cities, and I will document any research and development through photographs, written mail and film if necessary. This could then be used in the need of archiving a process of communication and exchange between the participants.

Katrina Anderson

Pages Project Proposal

Abstract

It has been described as a "tame longing without any particular object" by Schopenhauer, "a bestial and indefinable affliction" by Dostoevsky, and "time's invasion of your world system" by Joseph Brodsky, but still very few of us today can explain precisely what boredom is. However, boredom is a defining feature of the modern age and avoiding it has become an obsession. The world’s boredom threshold has never been lower and eluding boredom has become a moral imperative, a multi-billion pound industry. Thus, boredom becomes both a ‘democratic affliction’ and a great leveller, bound up with changing definitions of work and leisure, art and mass culture, aesthetics and sexual difference” (Petro 192). Throughout history artists, writers and poets have wrestled with the subject of boredom, for example, Beckett endlessly waiting for Godot. Boredom was a status symbol, and even today a declaration that one is bored lends a fake air of sophistication. Many feminist writers today believe that we are suffering from a post-feminist ennui and argue for the reclamation of feminism from a “post-feminism” that is unable to offer representational life to the concept and experience of boredom.

Aims and Objectives

To conduct research on women artists, writers, etc, whose work has been influenced by concepts of boredom. The research will encompass many ways of researching information, for example, bibliographical research, abstracts, archives and manuscripts, literature reviews, journals and newsgroup archives, directories, indexes and periodicals, newspaper articles, as well as, information from other libraries, organisations and artists.
To pay particular attention to audience participation and audience selection/focus in the artists work.
To research across disciplines and develop a flexible and innovative approach to the research apparatus.
To develop and design a database of all potential artists for the pages exhibition, with information regarding where they are based and their contact information, etc.
To have a comprehensive list of artists/contacts at the end of the research project.

Research Questions

What do we already know in the immediate area concerned?

Who are the artists already known?

What are the inconsistencies or other shortcomings of this information?

What views need to be (further) tested?

Who are the artists as yet unknown?

What evidence is lacking, inconclusive, contradictory or too limited?

What contribution can the present information be expected to make?

Is this information satisfactory?


Provisional Timeframe

October
Begin literature reviews and researching the subject area. Examine the collection at the Women’s Library.

November

Start expanding research techniques, using archives and manuscripts. Search the internet for local and international artists. Use international library databases. Begin compiling and designing a database of potential artists and artists contacts.

December

Develop contact database. Attend appropriate art events to develop contacts and research appropriate archive material, newspaper articles etc.

January

Research local directories and if need attend local art events, for example, Nottingham. Make contact with artists working in Warsaw. Make contact with other artists.

February

Develop contacts with artists groups and organisations. Review existing research so far, paying attention to areas for improvement.

March

Research will be specific and database will be comprehensive. Continue grappling with ideas about boredom and maybe conduct ethnographic research on audience participation on selected artists work.


April

Begin ‘cutting the corners’ of the research.



May

Developed a comprehensive list of women artists, writers etc, with full contact information/history. Achieved the aims and objectives of the project proposal.


Research Thus Far

I have been researching the work of the playwright Sarah Kane, sculptors Susan Collis and Ruth Claxton as well as artists working in Vienna and Prague. Both cities appear to be a fruitful line of research on this subject and the bursary may allow me to investigate further. I also intend to visit the North-East to research local artists.

Oh..! and also this website that tell us all about the city, music, CCA, and more more art!!!

this may be a very interesting website to have a look on:
(Polish video art!!)

"The Films of Polish Women Artists in the 1970s and 1980s - From the Archive of Polish Experimental Film"





Ewa Partum - Tautological cinema : Film by Ewa (1973)
"The first film from the Tautological cinema cycle, does not bear any resemblance to a document.
It is an autonomous cinematic realisation conveying the impossibility of communicating one’s own ideas.
Covering her mouth, eyes, and ears, to signify that the idea is within the artist and thus unable to be conveyed, Partum formulated a concept, which – as it was her objective - describes the alienation of a conceptual art creator.
The artist-creator cannot express his/her idea, which, when materialised on a medium or entering into the field of experience of another person, becomes distorted and distant from the original."

hello everybody!!
i am in finally!!!
it took me a while to understand the blog.... : ) !!!

Project Proposal: Kikki Stromstad
Female identity and the nature of distance.

Mainly I want to look into female artists and writers, and their different ways of portraying the idea of distance. This can be mentally, psychologically, emotionally, physically or geographically distances. I want to do more into the idea of longing for somewhere or something else than your current location, either it comes to a place, a relationship or a state of mind. In order to fully understand the psychology of distance, I will also research the idea of female identity and the conscious and unconscious quest of fining ones identity, sexuality, and ones home.

I want to look into travelling journals, diaries, poetry and novels written about and by women.



I am espesially interessted in finding out more about unknown Nordic female artists.
The bursary will allow me to travel to Norway meet up with some or several of the women i am interessted in talking to. I will also be going to Warsaw, Polen along with all the contributers of the whole pages project. In Warsaw we will try to see as many shows as possible, visiting sights, and hopefully some local artists.

My plan is to spend most of my money on travelling, making use of the opportunity to visit exhibitions and artists abroad or within the UK.
A fair share of the bursary will also go towards books that hopefully will play a significant part of the research.


Set of goals:

Get the experience of interacting and collaborating with professional curators, artists and galleries.
Learn more about research methods, witch will be helpful in relation to my present art practice, as well as my future practice.
Develop a personal method of research
Interact and collaborate with fellow students and tutors
Work and socialise with artists that have the same interests as me.
The ability to visit artists in different parts of the UK or perhaps even different parts of the world.
The knowledge and experience of participating in a project like this

I have a lot of expectation for this project, and I hope it will raise my awareness of research methods both towards my current practice as well as my future art practice. I am hoping that the research for Pages, also will be helpful in relation to my own studio practice and the contextualising of my work.

I will also be using module aims as a vivid part of my reaserch, such as further developing methods of researching, developing processes of self management and developing critical evaluation skills related to my own work as well as others.



The Virago Book of Women Travelers;
Edited by Mary Morris
Virago Press, London 1996

Female Kristin Valla – Norwegian writer.
Came out with her debut novel; Nutmeg in 2000.

Ørstavik, Hanne

Vaa, Aslaug poet
Aslaug Vaa was born in Norway, but spent most of her years studying French litterateur, and art history in Paris and Berlin.

Hege Woxen - poet
Norwegian poet, studied litterateur in Norway and Spain, and spent several year abroad, both in Spain and South America.

Linn Ulvin

Tale Næss

Randi Beck- Norwegian painter and printmaker

Mary Chamberlain
Narratives of exile and return
New Brunswick, N.J. ; London : Transaction Publishers, c2005

Rosemary Betterton
An intimate distance: women, artists and the body
London: Routledge, 1996

pages exhibition

Research proposal - Emma Pegg

Dream interpretation within poetry and fiction

The 'dream' is another world, where there is no definite place, or shared experience within a common reality. A book exists along the same lines, before it is opened it is merely an object, however, when the book is opened, the act of reading opens up a limitless private world where the reader as well as the words on the page become the medium.

Fiction or poetry in essence is written through the imagination and read through the imagination, it only exists with this partnership. It is a flexible middle ground lying somewhere in between our dream state and out perceived conciousness.

My initial proposal for research is two look at two different aspects within this area . Firstly it would be interesting to take the poetic or fiction form and observe their structure and the space they inhabit within our conciousness, that is to say when we are awake . Therefore the role of the 'reader'.

Secondly, to take on the 'writer'. The journey of a poem or story stems directly from the imagination, the closest link to our dream state. I would like to initially find examples of writing which may have a narrative built around a dream theme or to find a piece of writing which is deeply rooted in the imagination, that is to say an almost abstracted narrative. I would like to take this further and observe visual work that also stems from our dream state and relate it back to writers and poets.

As the brief for research is to observe creativity within a female space, the task will be to observe how women writers/artists and readers/viewers have tackled this area. I am a bit apprehensive about falling into an area where I discuss women and their imagination, therefore taking on the gender issue, but this will be inevitabel as my research is going to be about women writers and visual artists.

The openess of the proposal has been put forward to allow me to move freely when researching and will lead me into other creative areas.

Beth Collar’s Research Proposal for PAGES

“Today, I would claim, the visual arts have transformed themselves into what might be described as a vast, uncoordinated yet somehow enormously effective research program that looks critically at what we are and how we know what we are – at the foundations of knowledge and perception, and of the structures that modern societies have chosen to construct upon those foundations.” *1

I have begun my research by looking into the role of the female in evolution, asking the question “what are we?”. I am reluctant to give women special treatment: by celebrating individual women who have achieved things 'against the odds' we risk reinforcing the image of female inferiority. Instead I am focusing on the female as a phenomenon, however if I were to have to choose one female I would choose the posited Mitochondrial Eve*2 – the most recent common matrilineal ancestor of all living humans, a female in Africa around 150,000 years ago – to be my heroine.

My first goal is to deepen my understanding of the evolutionary and anthropological background. Some of the issues which have come up here are:

• The emergence of human creative intelligence and how this was molded by female sexual preference. And the sexual selection of disadvantageous or useless features in humans and other animals (long tails, extravagant colouring, absurdly large horns or antlers etc.)

• Behavioral patterns in both sexes as a means to attract a mate – a recent study found that women wear make up to appear more fertile thus duping a male into procreating with a less than ideal partner. I intend to explore the implications of this discovery in relation to the history of ideal beauty, masquerade and self-confidence. I have also come across a type of antelope in which the males cake their horns in mud to make them appear bigger, and thus more attractive to the opposite sex.

This research is broadening my understanding and ability to deal with museums collections, I am in the process of creating a catalog of prehistoric artifacts relating irrefutably to women; tools specifically used by women or carved female figures. The female as a symbol of fertility is a recurring icon in ancient cultures, however stronger male gods later replace these deity’s and this, perhaps political, process is often preserved in myths and holy texts. In the exhibition proper, I would like to have a brought together a display of these objects.

I plan to investigate female artists who use evolutionary processes to make their work; this is most likely to exploit technology (and here my project crosses with Annie Spinsters). As well as female artists who’s practice concerns itself with particular elements and theories in evolution and sexual selection. This is a wide-ranging research project, encompassing Anthropology, Psychology, Biology, Archeology and Theology. The artists I intend to involve will retain practices that are similarly complex.



*1 from Figuring It Out by Colin Renfrew

*2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_eve

PAGES Research Proposal Gin Dunscombe


Outline Proposal

I am researching the letters (correspondence) of women which have been created in conditions of duress or difficulty, in particular those letters written while women were incarcerated (prisons, Gulags, exile) or ‘disappeared’. Letters written on surfaces not used for letterwriting and illustration under ‘normal’ conditions will be of particular interest e.g. those written on treebark, Rizla cigarette papers etc.


Outcomes

Artefacts: illustrated correspondence from women
Prints made by me inspired by this work
Research folder: this will track the process and content of the research and will be in the form of sketchbooks – illustrated correspondence to myself
Dissertation? Authored by me on this work and the makers of it
Short film incorporating material from the Imperial War Museum archives and original footage
Exhibition catalogue entry


Methodology

Environment scanning: libraries, museums and galleries, the net, my own networks and those of other artists to formulate an answer to the question: what’s out there?
Collection and continuous curation of the work that I find with commentary on the process of curation in this context.
Permissions/copyright seeking for artworks and material to be displayed
PR and Press coverage








Outline Timetable

October 2005 Scope the project
November • Establish methodology, budget
• Plan research.
• Investigate Imperial War Museum film archive
December • Imperial War Museum: film and artefacts archive. Develop key relationships and research material.
• Net scanning.
• Establish contact with key sources e.g Museum of Occupation In Latvia, Dr.Bickford in Sydney, British Museum Letters Department, Frances Welch, Gillian Slovo, Robert Service (Lenin and Stalin’s biographer)
• Activate my Irish and Latin-American networks.
• Contact everyone I know who lives in countries either currently or previously occupied and ask everyone I know to do the same.

January 2006 • Map out film with Reen Pilkington: storyboard, timetable, resources (end date for this project = August 2006?)
• Utilise planned visit to Amsterdam to research and to find David X? old friend who published Anne Frank’s diaries for contacts and sources
• Develop contacts and build research sketchbooks
• Start making prints – screenprints/collographs
February • Interview on camera with Miss Worthington (aged 90) whose parents ran a Post Office during WW2
• Research trip to Latvia/ Moscow/Petersburg
March • Ongoing collection of material
• Interview with Keith Broughton about Italian POWs working on Somerset farm
April • Ongoing collection of material, cataloguing and selection
May 2006 Final edit and selection of material for use in PAGES Exhibition

LAYLA CURTIS

UK based artist - psycho-geographic work, GPS technology, web-based projects.
(sorry, no image)

Current Project: Polar Wanderings
"After leaving London on Thursday October 27th 2005 Layla Curtis will spend the next 3 months carrying out an extensive psycho-geographical exploration as she travels through Madrid, Santiago, the Falkland Islands and remote islands in the Southern Ocean headed for Antarctica. Recording this journey using a personal GPS tracking device, Layla Curtis will create a continuous line drawing charting her passage to and from Antarctica. Regularly logging longitudinal and latitudinal data generated by the GPS system onto the website, Layla's movements will grow into an interactive line drawing embedded with photos, videos, sound recordings, and text. As the project progresses the live GPS drawing will develop into a complex data map through which viewers can personally explore this multimedia survey of the relatively sparsely mapped continent of Antarctica..."


Previous Project: Message in a bottle - From Ramsgate to the Chatham Islands
"On 25th May 2004, fifty bottles containing messages were released into the sea off the south-east coast of England near Ramsgate Maritime Museum, Kent. The intended destination of the bottles is The Chatham Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. The islands, which are 800km east of mainland New Zealand, are the nearest inhabited land to the precise location on the opposite side of the world to Ramsgate Maritime Museum. It is anticipated that the bottles may be found several times before reaching the Chatham Islands.
Several of the bottles are being tracked using GPS technology and are programmed to send their longitude and latitude coordinates back to Ramsgate every hour. The information they transmit is used to create a real time drawing of their progress..."

Both of these require broadband to view properly.

Layla's home page

WEBSITE DESIGN MEETING

Thursday 12th January 2006





Present: Francesca, Annie and Lynda, with David Lovelock and Sally Oldfield, Lynda's colleagues at Crescent Lodge, who have kindly offered to help with our web design.



Francesca has already started planning the look and structure of the site, and has been working on a series of photographic images to represent the Pages identity.

The images below are the first attempt to come up with a graphic imagery for the project.





We discussed how Crescent Lodge could help us design a logo based on these images for use on letterheads etc., as well as using the designs to generate a changing series of background images for the web pages and perhaps a set of posters.
We decided that more work should be done on paper to plan the overall look and structure of the site, but that we should get a couple of static pages up on line so we can see how it looks in different web browsers and get some feedback from you all. Crescent Lodge will be providing us with space on their server so that we can do this as soon as possible. We also discussed the need to buy a domain name and put a holding page up so that we have a URL people can get used to using. We will then be able to link to and from the blog on this holding page, which will slowly grow into the website.
Don't forget that the blog will be generating a lot of the site content, so keep those posts comingin!

Intro and forthcoming trip
Hello Pages people.
I'll be looking at venues and funding for the exhibition. I'm also sorting out some things for us to get up to on our trip. I'm hoping that we can persuade someone to throw a reception bash for us so that we can meet the maximum amount of people in the minimum time. It's only a short visit, but please post any suggestions/requests and we'll try and fit in as much as possible.

GUIDELINES FOR PAGES’ BLOG

Pages curators decided to provide a blog. so that you can discuss the process of creating Pages exhibition, dialogue with each other, discuss your research and everything related to Pages Exhibition.
This blog is an archive of The Pages Exhibition.
You may also pose questions and make suggestions to its contributors. Whilst we don't want to silence anyone's opinions we would appreciate your courtesy in following the Guidelines below when using the site:

Your introduction (required)
Before you enter the discussion on the forum for the first time please introduce yourself.
Comments
Try on comments on others’ posting as well as your own.
Images
Images can be resized if they are too large.
Give messages a relevant subject line
This is important for people to be able to select the messages they want to read.
Spam
Advertising of any product or service on these forums is not permitted. Chain letters and pyramid schemes are similarly prohibited.
Flaming
Any material which constitutes defamation, harassment, or abuse is strictly prohibited. Use common sense while posting.
Offensive Content
Material that is sexually or otherwise obscene, racist, or otherwise overly discriminatory is not permitted on these forums. This includes user pictures. Use common sense.
Illegal Content
Providing or asking for information on how to illegally obtain or provide software or music is forbidden.
Cross-posting
Posting a thread in more than one forum is not allowed. Just post it once in the correct place.
Copyright and ownership
Comments and forum messages are owned by Pages exhibition.

Hello everyone - i am in the blog at last!

Kellyxx

I'm celebrating as Babette has succeeded where all else failed - I can now blog - hello everyone!

Jasia Reichardt - writer and curator

Curated Cybernetic Serendipity - an early computer-art exhibition at the ICA, 1968.

Extract from Robots: Fact, Fiction and Prediction, 1978 (PDF)

Spaces in Between, from the International Symposium at Akademie Schloss Solitude, 2004.

Annie's Research Aims:

My research focuses primarily on the theme of technological innovation in the work of female artists, curators, inventors, musicians etc. This covers the invention of new tools, innovative use of existing technologies and, more broadly, the ways in which new technologies impact on, and provide new possibilities for, the ways in which women work, play and communicate, both within the arts and the wider community.

As well as present-day established practitioners, I will spend some time looking at historical figures in the development of technological art forms, and, with an eye to the future, to investigate the work of some up-and-coming new-media artists.

Some of the issues I will be addressing:

• The historically male-dominated nature of the development of technology – How easy is it for women to enter and practice within technological disciplines? How has this changed over time? What new skills, attitudes and priorities do women bring to the technological arts? Are there still problems specific to women working within these areas?

• Passive consumption vs. active development – to what extent are female artists using existing tools to develop their own, tailor-made toolkits? How are women, within the arts and within the wider population, using the internet to form new communities and arenas for dialogue and self-expression? What is the extent of women’s involvement in the collaborative development of new technologies?

• Identity, anonymity and authorship issues in relation to new-media practice – When a project is built using team-developed technologies, often open-source, where does authorship lie? Can the artwork be separated from the innovative tools used to build it? In what ways are women constructing virtual identities through which to express themselves in cyberspace? How do women’s virtual identities relate to their flesh-identities? To what extent is the internet facilitating a more fluid attitude to gender? How relevant at all are gender issues to women’s on-line activity, outside of areas where gender is the issue?

• Cross-disciplinary practices – What is the experience of female artists working with scientists, engineers etc.? What is the experience of female scientists, engineers etc. working with artists? Can female practitioners in both groups of disciplines contribute anything new to the now ancient Two Cultures debate?