DIY: 2017 – Documentation
- Year
- 2017
28 professional development projects across the UK and Ireland run BY artists FOR artists
DIY 14: 2017 offered artists working in Live Art the chance to conceive and run professional development projects for other artists.
28 projects took place across the UK and Ireland (and Transylvania) between July and November 2017, produced in collaboration with 26 national partner organisations. Projects were additional supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation, and through the Diverse Actions initiative from Live Art UK.
Ranging from GPS Embroidery in Jersey to eco-centric performance in Aberdeenshire, from the performance of the Islamic faith in London to radical body art in Brighton, and from an exploration of otherness in Dublin to a human flea circus in Stockton, DIY 14 included some of our most unusual and transformative projects yet. Here we present selected feedback, images and video documentation.
Video
Catherine Hoffmann: Maybe Jumping Is Enough
Lizzie Philps: GPS Embroidery
Bedfellows: SEX TLK MTG (Sunrise to Sunset)
Daniel Oliver: MAX DYSPRAXE's Performance World Neurodivergent Revolution Fun-time
Feedback from lead and participating artists
'It was incredibly validating to share my practice with others who care about these themes already, and enriching to discover the overlaps between our approaches to them' – Lizzie Philps, lead artist (GPS Embroidery)
'Facilitating this retreat was an incredibly stimulating and enriching experience. I think it had some of the most profound learning of my journey as an artist so far' – Peter McMaster, lead artist (Performing Landscapes)
'Running the DIY has reinvigorated my sense of freedom in my own practice' – Susan Merrick, lead artist (Your Neck Of The Woods)
'It gave us a chance to test methodologies that we have been developing for several years with a group of people who have very different skill sets to ours, in an environment that supported genuine exchange' – Johanna Linsley and Rebecca Collins, lead artists (The Felixstowe Affair)
'This was one of the biggest pedagogical spaces I’ve organised as a facilitator; I feel like it’s really given me confidence in my skills to support artists on a larger scale and in other ways' – Paul Hughes, lead artist (Men From Behind)
'Running the DIY has been a positive and affirming experience, it has reinforced and highlighted the fact that as ageing artists we deserve a voice and can look at and design our own working model for ageing on our terms' – Giovanna Maria Casetta, lead artist (Help The Aged)
'I did not know that the work would be healing, and I greeted this reflection with enormous swelling gratitude' – Sara Zaltash, lead artist (Approaches to Embodied Islam)
'The workshop was incredibly valuable in bringing new voices to our discussions. It is always useful and energising to meet people working along similar lines and building new relationships from this position' – Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom, lead artist (Sounding In, Sounding Out 2.0)
'We learned how important time spent together was, how labour brings people together, and how these things help create spaces of safety and care' – Sheaf+Barley, lead artists (How To Build Boats And Influence People To Build Boats)
'It was a humbling experience to work with such talented and devoted participants' – Sheree Rose, lead artist (Methodologies in Body Art)
'We and the participants were learning from each other in very indirect and direct ways (language, gender politics, artistic references, ways of moving etc) and the way in which we were learning was queer – it was unfocused, lacking in shape or even tangible content and in this way shared many strategies with live art practice and queer methodology' – Jessie McLaughlin, lead artist (We Are Family FC)
'Seeing other artists experience shifts in their perspective of their work, their artistic identity and what they feel their work is for was extremely gratifying for us' – Rachel Mars and Greg Wohead, lead artists (Locating Your Own Audaciousness)
'I noticed that most of the participants talked about coming on the workshop to carve out space for themselves outside their many commitments. To talk, to listen, to belong, to simply be' – Katherina Radeva, lead artist (On Otherness)
'Our time together opened up a very real dialogue and has spawned ideas including an art trip to the Feis Ile (a whisky festival in Scotland) and the takeover of a derelict church in Florence…' – Zoe Toolan, lead artist (Whisky – The 'Spiritual' Art of Getting An Artist Out Of Their Head)
'It has made me really think about, perhaps for the first time what it means to be a mother and an artist' – Participant (GPS Embroidery)
'It clearly demonstrated that live art continues to be as relevant as any other medium that takes poverty and class as its subject and from the perspective of fighting class shame' – Claire Brumby, participant (Maybe Jumping Is Enough)
'Through my experience in the floatation tank I became sensitive not only to what I was perceiving but how I was perceiving it. This has led me to question whether my own experience of reality is the norm, and if not, is there a way for me to convey my perception of reality through my art form' – Participant (Creative Neurophenomenology of Perceptual Phenomena)
'I’m so grateful to you for giving me the opportunity to participate in DIY Help The Aged, to meet a delightful band of retrobates and to enjoy some shared fun whilst considering some extremely serious issues' – Participant (Help The Aged)
'Fantastic few days in Folkestone reimagining the economy in the shape of a uterus, reading, thinking, working hard, singing money based karaoke and squeezing in two amazing sea swims!' Calre Qualmann, participant (Marricksville School of Economics)
Banner image credit:
From DIY14: Water Bodies, led by Zoe Czavda Redo, Tuuli Malla, Xavier Velastin (image: Rosie Lonsdale)
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Part of DIY: 2017
Professional development projects by artists for artists across the UK
DIY: 2017 – Bedfellows: SEX TALK MTG (Sunrise to Sunset)
It’s about sex. Sex as education. Sex re-education.
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Bridget Floyer & Susan Merrick: Your Neck Of The Woods
“Why should anybody listen to you if you are not a good neighbour?”
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Call for Participants
Professional development projects conceived and run by artists for artists
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Catherine Hoffmann: Maybe Jumping Is Enough
A human flea circus 3 day residency with the StenchWench
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Daniel Oliver: Max DYSPRAXE’S performance world neurodivergent revolution fun-time
Destroy and rebuild the world of performance and make it weirder and awkwarder and wonderfuler, just like you
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Daniella Valz Gen & Jade Montserrat: From a Creative Case to an Ecology of Care
A two day research and sharing retreat investigating definitions of ‘diversity’
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Ellie Griffiths & Greg Sinclair: Neuroaesthetics
Reimagining the neurodiverse performance space
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Fabiola Santana: Houses of Decay – An Intervention
Let’s explore together the potential for connection and humanity by creating new rituals to deal with death
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Gareth Cutter & Paul Hughes: Men From Behind
a creative enema of filthy writing, subversive image making and public interventions ‘via the back door’
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Giovanna Maria Casetta with Helena Waters: Help The Aged
A traditional seaside weekender for ageing artists with a punk/anarchic ethos
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Jack Tan: Law In The Limelight
Developing insights on law through performance and theatre practice
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Jessie McLaughlin & Jo Chattoo: We Are Family FC
Queer people exploring our queer bodies by chatting, kicking footballs, gentle boxing stuff, rapping, running, dancing…
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Johanna Linsley & Rebecca Collins: The Felixstowe Affair – a sonic detective story
An acoustic investigation of the Suffolk coast for composers and sonic artists
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Katherina Radeva: On Otherness
Identity is a complex thing. Difference is beautiful.
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Madeleine Hodge & Rebecca Conroy: Marrickville School of Economics – Summer School
Fuck your extraction economy
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Marikiscrycrycry: THE T R A P LAB
A dance workshop series, curated club night, open laboratory, and curated self-care night to dance our dreams into reality
Read moreDIY: 2017 – max+noa: How to Build Boats and Influence People (to build boats)
Five days making your own skin-on-frame coracle somewhere outside in Northumbria and thinking about things quite a bit
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Network 11: Sounding In, Sounding Out 2.0
A workshop for artists working with sound and performance using the black diaspora as their centre of navigation
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Peter McMaster: Performing Landscapes
A 4-day retreat exploring eco-centric approaches to performance making
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Rachel Mars & Greg Wohead: Locating Your Own Audaciousness
A reckless retreat exploring the possibilities of audaciousness culminating in a strictly one-off performance
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Sara Zaltash: Approaches to Embodied Islam
A curious, performative invitation towards embodied practices of the Islamic faith
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Tara Fatehi Irani: Her Eyes Under the Bridge
Entangling personal stories of leaving behind and moving ahead
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Zoe Czavda Redo, Tuuli Malla, Xavier Velastin: Water Bodies
A symposium, on land and in water, for adapting to life on an inundated planet
Read moreDIY: 2017 – Zoe Toolan: Whisky – the ‘spiritual’ art of getting an artist out of their head
You definitely need a dram…
Read moreAlso
DIY: 2018 – Nigel Barrett & Louise Mari: Tiny Revolutions
How to make a working political theme park for babies and early years
Read moreDIY: 2019 – Jenny Gaskell: Have you tried screaming your heart out and pretending to be Cher?
Creating a connection practice based on karaoke and daydreaming and oversharing and shared chips
Read moreDIY: 2016 – Season Butler ‘Stet* – Performative Writing and Doing History’
a performative writing retreat on commemoration and constructive forgetting
Read more