DIY: 2014 – French & Mottershead ‘Living Archives’

Bring your boxes of stuff to delve into …

Project summary:
In the Spring of this year Carolee Schneemann’s exhibition at Hales Gallery, London was interesting to note. The gallery’s website described the show as follows: 
”Her work from 1966 Water Light / Water Needle, reconceived as a gallery exhibition featuring archive material and recent paintings made within documentary photographs from her archive”. 
Schneemann’s work was primarily made up of contents from her performance archive.

This DIY weekend will consider how our own archives might inform our futures.

Discussions during the weekend will focus on inventories and creating legacies; the issues around framing and re-contextualising the documentation of live work, and how archives might enter collections, and in turn form part of new curatorial conversations.

Another aspect of this weekend is the opportunity to look back into our archives, and revisit ideas that originally excited us, looking at how this material could potentially have a new life through live work, or object-making and editions.

Artists are invited to bring a box of archival material (metaphorical or actual) which we will look through, and creatively and critically explore the contents of.

A curator and/or gallerist will also join us on one or both days to bring their expertise to the conversations (individuals to be announced).

Lunches and refreshments will be provided.

Dates, times and location(s):
All day, 11th and 12th October 2014. Central or East London – exact location tbc.

Application procedure:
We’re seeking six artists to join us for the weekend. Open to artists with over ten years of professional practice in live/performance/visual art.

Please email French & Mottershead, cc'ing Aaron Wright, with a short description of why taking part in this DIY weekend would be of interest/use to you, and what your current interests are re: your boxes of stuff. Include a short biography and web-links.

Deadline, noon, Monday July 21st.

The artist:
Rebecca French & Andrew Mottershead are a collaborative artist duo, carrying around a large archive relating to performance, photography, film and installation works dating back to 1998. Their work has been exhibited and performed extensively in international contexts including art museums, galleries and in the public realm, and has been commissioned by a number of festivals and biennials. Please visit: www.frenchmottershead.com

Contact:
French & Mottershead