The Greatest Show of '86

I started researching the National Garden Festival of 1986 back in 2009. As Stoke-on-Trent's biggest ever cultural regeneration project, the NGF was an example of many of the things I have been interested in and researching for the past 5 years or more. It looks at land reclamation in post-industrial cities, urban/landscape design, impact of culture and arts on regeneration, heritage, legacy etc. The fascination in many ways comes from the fact that this is a hidden and secret space in the middle of an urban conurbation.

The name of the retail park, Festival Park, may hint at the project which saw the reclamation of 165 acres of polluted, mineshafted land - but most of the shoppers who visit never venture into the now fairly mature parkland, which is a permanent gift to the city and a legacy of the Garden Festival. The site had been Wedgwood's Etruria Factory, and then Shelton Bar Steelworks. The land was in a terrible state, and many environmentalists say that the NGF team could not possibly have cured the land of its problems in such a short space of time. The hills and ravines were molded from tonnes and tonnes of slag - but despite this, the 26 year old trees and shrubs seem incredibly healthy.

My project has involved conversations, tours, collecting remnants and images and building an understanding of this fantastic project, which is not celebrated enough.
I had been taking small groups of artists on tours of the sites with maps, and as a result Rednile asked me to lead a tour for a group of 20 artists as one of their factory nights. For this tour I focused on trying to show the sites of a number of the sculpture trail artworks from the festival. Only a few of the pieces remain on site now, some have been dispersed around the city, while others have vanished. The idea was to inspire the artists on the tour to send in proposals to Rednile for a series of commissions, which would hopefully raise the profile of the Festival Site, and Rednile and I selected 3 of the proposals to go ahead.
Little Earthquake's Phil put forward the idea of intimate tours which would locate some of the artworks from the festival in the city, but also bring people from the city up onto the site.

Ruthie Ford was inspired by my collection of Woman's Weekly magazines, as they had commissioned a Cottage Garden at the Festival in '86.

Ruthie carried out a workshop in AirSpace Gallery resource room with the public, making crocheted flowers, and talking to people about the Woman's weekly planting scheme, and their memories of the Festival.

Ruthie also made some fantastic giant flowers, a delphinium, a hollyhock and a foxglove - all flowers from the Woman's Weekly garden - which were planted on the hill up to the Festival Site, which could be clearly seen from the retail park. The idea here was that people shopping might look up and notice the amazing parkland - and be intrigued to come and explore.

The final commission was David Bethell's 'Against All the Odds.' A durational performance lasting a day and a night, which was inspired by the changing use of the site. From factory, to steelworks, to leisure space, and now to office and retail space. In particular, David was interested that one of Stoke's largest growing employers Bet365 employees often visit the site in lunch breaks - finding a welcome escape from the office environment. David set up an office at the original compass point - the site of Richard Wilson's lighthouse 'Stoke Lightening Stack.' A sculpture made of scrap car headlamps, originally intended as a permanent piece, and one of the artworks that we cannot find out much about. The performance saw Dave setting up an office space, and working at his desk, then as night fell the office was dismantled and turned into a lighthouse, and then a life raft, and then back to an office again, ready for morning.
Originally, the organisers of NGF '86 put forward the idea that the park would become a Sculpture Park. This would have been a fantastic asset for the city, especially with the names of the important artists that had works on the site: Antony Gormley, Richard Wilson, Cornelia Parker to name just a few. My tours and the Factory Night commissions have raised the sites profile, and I hope more people will visit the site as a result. One of the fantastic outputs of the Factory Night project is the map which Andrew Branscombe kindly made for the project. This new map shows the site as it is today, and locates where many of the park's amazing features were, and some still are. This map can be found here. My final tour of the Garden festival site took place last weekend, and coincided with David Bethell's performance.

I linked up with the Closer to Homes walkers, who walk the site every weekend, so the final tour took around 20 walkers, using our new map, and visiting all of the sites of interest. A big thank you to Rednile for commissioning the series of tours and artworks that have reactivated the festival site, and brought colour, sculpture and fun back to this wonderful city asset.

Looking today at Ray Johnson's film of the NGF I realise something about my feelings about the site, since the first walk I took up there, getting lost with the 1986 map, - what I really want, while watching the footage, is to be able to go back in time and see it all for myself. I want to walk through the brand new landscaping, and figure out exactly where everything is. I feel frustrated by the short clips which do not linger long enough for me to locate the features geographically with the site I know so well. I will continue to visit the site, but I think that for now, my research is done.

CAM ART WAR

CAM Art War from ve strata on Vimeo.

On Thursday, 19th April AirSpace studio artists met up in order to burn artworks as a show of solidarity with Antonio Manfredi, Art Director of Casoria Contemporary Art Museum, Naples.
Antonio made world news earlier in the week with his art burning protests, which spread across the sea to John Brown in Harlech, Wales. See coverage of the burnings on the BBC here.
We were asked to show our support and join in the burning.
We met in the yard armed with our various artworks:
Pete Smith had brought a box full of his ceramic hands.
David Bethell brought a shire horse sculpture.

Behjat Omer Abdulla had 'WAR' the first drawing in the series of works he has been making in the past 4 years.
Bryan Holdcroft had brought a drawing.

Kate lynch had a mixed media piece with wax.
Joyce Iwaszko brought a painting.
Glen Stoker brought an etched photographic piece.

and I decided to burn the first of my handmade text pieces, 'This City Needs People Like You.'

My piece has been hanging in my studio for the past few years, and was originally meant as a message to the people of Stoke-on-Trent, an urge to be socially conscious and active - but also a message to myself. Sometimes, the job of the artist is one which leaves you feeling undervalued, and so a message like this can be important.

It is recognised that artists and art activity is often underfunded (if funded at all), undervalued and artists are often underrepresented. Since cuts to the arts have made the situation critical, many artists have been forced to stop practising and many fantastic art spaces have had to close or reduce their programmes. This is a terrible mistake at a time when people really need imagination and creativity in their lives, in order to stay afloat during the recession.
As everyone arrived and the fire was lit, the group went very quiet. There was a strange sense of trepidation and excitement in the air,as we one-by-one placed our works in the fire to burn.

It was over very quickly; my piece - which had taken hours to do burnt up in less than 30 seconds, and left a shadow of itself on the ground.
We hope that in some small way that our burning will draw attention to the cause. As Antonio Manfredi has pointed out, with cuts to the arts threatening to close museums and art galleries across Europe, the public will not have a chance to see artists' work - so why not just burn it, if it is so undervalued?
THE ART BURN CONTINUES: CAM ART WAR NOW SPANS 4 COUNTRIES
Artists - please show solidarity with us by burning art.
Greece: Antonio Manfredi, Naples. 
Wales: John Brown, Harlech 
England: AirSpace Gallery!
Germany: Thursday, 26th April - Artists in Berlin set to burn art: Barbara Fragogna , Ahner Petrov, Alexander Rodin and Martin Reiter will burn some of their work produced in art center Tacheles in Berlin  
Let us know if you plan a burning of your own.

Broad Street

Back in 2008 I did a project which aimed to look at the context of artist led spaces in two cities: AirSpace in Stoke-on-Trent and Window 204 in Bristol. I had the use of both art spaces windows at the same time, so decided to undertake an investigation to consult the public on their opinions of the two spaces. I recorded the process and consultation activities from the two spaces, and displayed the results of the Stoke activity in Bristol and vice versa.  See the results here.

I also created long photographs of the two places, showing the context of the buildings on their streets.
I thought it would be good, as part of the Stocktake process underway at AiSpace Gallery to see what has changed on Broad Street since 2008, and so have created an updated version of the long photograph now (see above to compare.)
Changes since 2008 include:

• a few tiles have fallen from the Francesco group frontage
• Unique tiles and flooring have opened
• Moon & Co Solicitors building are now to let
• Mercer Jones have new signage
• Toad in car hi fi have closed and the building is now to let
• Monzil Tandoori have painted their frontage from green to blue (I think the green was nicer)
• The Blue Wing Grill has closed and Monzil have extended
• Ahyan fast food is now Ibrahim Barber Shop
• S.B. Pedley Barbers have painted their frontage from red to blue
• Express Claim Care (Accident management) have become a second hand computer shop and the business above (Express Graphic design and Prestige Car Hire) have closed
• The Mitchell Memorial Theatre has had a massive refurb - and now has an impressive Spitfire Wing projection, and a cafe.
• The ABC cinema which was partially demolished in 2008 is completely gone, and is now the entrance to TESCO. There is now a large patch of waste ground between The Mitchell and the solicitors.
• Woolliscrofts Solicitors have not changed
• AirSpace signage now reads AirSpace Gallery rather than just AirSpace
• Swinton Solicitors now have scaffolding up

Remembering Indefinable City - Feb 2007

I returned to Stoke-on-Trent after a number of years away, doing a PGCE and spending a year in Japan. I returned to a city where I no longer knew anyone, and one which seemed to have no art scene to speak of. I didn't know that in 2005 two new graduates from Staffordshire University were cooking up plans to open Stoke-on-Trent's first contemporary art gallery.
I was really lucky to have been offered some lecturing on the BA Fine Art course, and although at first this was just a few hours, I was really pleased, as I had applied for around 40 jobs, sent out hundreds of C.V.'s and been for a number of interviews (always seeming to just be pipped at the post by those with more experience).
To supplement my teaching I also found work as a support worker, caring for a wheelchair user in their own home in Llandudno. The job meant I would go to Wales for one full week in three, and then have 2 weeks back in Stoke for my Lecturing and for my arts practice. Having been away I was completely without links or networks, either locally or nationally - and without them felt quite adrift. I was making work periodically, all around ideas of city development and the movement of people in cities, but it was not really going anywhere.
The turning point came in June 2006 at the University Degree Show, where I met David Bethell, one of the Directors of AirSpace Gallery. My colleague had mentioned me, and David invited me to come for a meeting, to discuss the idea that I could curate an exhibition at the newly formed gallery.
I was very nervous and excited when going to that first meeting and meeting Andrew Branscombe, who showed me around the amazing Falcon Works factory -where the gallery was based.
I had already thought of the idea of a show which would ask other artists to consider the areas I was interested in, and a call for work was quickly put together, which talked about the human costs of the regeneration of cities. I was fascinated by the city as a constantly moving target, ideas of palimpsest and flux were important. The size of the main space in the gallery told me that I could be ambitious. The boys (Dave and Andy ) were encouraging, but clear that I could really be experimental, it would be up to me what I might do and they would be there to help me. Wow.
The gallery had secured a bit of funding for their programme (though not much) and they were able to offer me a budget of £500 to work with. Deciding I wanted around a dozen artists I put out the call and waited.
In the end I had 11 artists (and had decided that as artist/curator I would be one of them).  Indefinable  City was underway. Some of the artists selected were already known to me, but others were fantastic surprises;

Niklas Goldbach, a Berlin based artist and film maker put forward his wonderful film My Barrio.
Adam James (in his final year of a printmaking MA at the Royal College at the time) offered prints, a specially built tower and a film.
Polly Penrose put forward her beautiful nude self-portraits, taken by night in work spaces - a factory, an office.
Aside from these there were a number of new works by eight other artists, Ben Frost, Wendy Taylor, Kim Clarkson, Heather Buckley, Emma Roach, James Newton, Ian Brown and me - a mixture of film, stencil work, installation, sculpture and photography. I was very pleased with the mix achieved.
I quickly discovered that some artists are easier to work with than others, it was a real learning curve, with one artist in particular whose ideas changed and moved on at an unreachable speed. This was a challenge, when trying to put together a coherent show.
The Falcon works, though an awe inspiring place, wasn't without its problems.  A February install in a space with no heating, and running on generators meant we all felt the cold, but the excitement, optimism and enthusiasm of the AirSpace team meant it was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.

The show attracted record visitors for the gallery at the time, and the positive press coverage and audience feedback created a feeling that even here, in Stoke-on-Trent, anything could be possible.
I learnt a lot in those months of putting the show together. Press releases and artist statements, transport of artworks, damage to works, the problem of too many sound pieces in one space, artists with a different sense of urgency than the installation team, viewers who walked on works or bashed them about, local press photographers looking for the money shot.
Somehow, the finished show looked great, and I could not have been happier. The strange anticlimax afterwards lead me to try to retain my links with AirSpace, offering to write reviews or catalogue essays, getting involved where I could. When a studio space came up (now at 4, Broad St. the cold and constant break-ins leading to a gallery move) I jumped at the chance of becoming a fully fledged member.
The connections made through the gallery kickstarted a career in the arts that had previously been ambling along. Opportunities since have often been (directly or indirectly) related to my involvement with AirSpace. The provision of a space for critical debate and support have been invaluable, and though we have our artistic differences on the whole the projects and events we have worked on together have improved life for me in Stoke-on-Trent, and I hope this is true for other artists in the city.
A lot has changed in the city and in the UK as a whole since 2006. Cuts to the arts mean that it is much harder to keep projects like AirSpace going, and the six years have been hard for many of us, but we have survived so far.
The main thought that we have reached is that as the art world changes, artists need to adapt and change too. The approach taken six years ago, simply cannot work today, but back then we managed to put on a great show with few resources, a bit of cash and a lot of energy. None of the artists involved in Indefinable City were paid for their contributions however, and that is unsustainable as an approach. It seems right that AirSpace is undertaking the Stocktake at this time, just like the city, the gallery is also in a state of flux and change, and presently we are unsure what will emerge from the process, but what we should revisit is that optimism, enthusiasm and energy which we had at the beginning, some of which has waned as we have not done enough to keep ourselves sustained. This process will tell us a lot about our future and what I do know is that Stoke-on-Trent would be a much poorer place without AirSpace. Viva La AirSpace!
Here is a video interview - talking about all the work - 5 years ago!

Indefinable City-2007 from ve strata on Vimeo.

A Walk with Emily

Emily, I am up on the garden festival site, near to the compass where Richard Wilson's lighthouse was.

It is February, but a warm and sunny day. It feels like that moment just before the world wakes up, it has been a time of struggle and hardship, and much has been lost. But there is something in the air, as if it is the moment before a breath.

There are so many tiny birds, some I don't know the names of. I can hear a strange mechanical tapping noise, like a hammer reverberating against a hollow drum. I have to walk right around the clump of trees before seeing a great crested woodpecker. He sees me and stops tapping, before disappearing. I am writing this from the clump of trees, hoping he will reappear.

Small sounds come from the undergrowth and make me nervous, snapping twigs. It could be an animal, large, a rat the size of a dog, teeth baring - about to jump out. I move on.

I am standing on the bridge over the rocky ravine, the bamboo has died-back over winter and more of the rock can be seen, a magpie coughs in a tree above. I see an old man with a boy and a dog in the distance. Something goes wrong with my ears and I can hear nothing but a high pitched whine, and then the sound is back. I suddenly notice the road noise and see the road through the trees, a car alarm, a lorry reversing, a constant hum of the city as it circles this forest.

A man passes me on the bridge, we look and then look away.

Just around the corner I come to the wooden spikes on the hill. There are only 6 left standing now. Again the feeling something is watching me from the brambles, dozens of eyes are trained on me. I am being stalked.

I go off track. There is something red hanging in a tree. A long ago boomerang. I am forced to take a lost path, the brambles and branches have taken this one. They grab at my coat and scratch at my face. I breathe as I regain the path.

But this is the wrong path and I have to double back.

This staircase compels me up, it leads to a round platform, perfect for viewing - what? Something important was here. This spot sends me back in time. I am wearing a jumper dress, my sister a shell suit, we salute each other, a mixture of girl guides and peace hippies. We were never at the garden festival, so I can only imagine other people like us, in hopeful sunglasses, and floral dresses, with a packed lunch in a coolbox, looking for a day out. It rained a lot in 86, but it was nobody's fault back then.

Something has changed here, one of my landmarks is missing and a new path has opened up. It leads around to some moss covered stones like a mini ampitheatre. Back on the path I head towards the trig point. Suddenly the weight of 26 years is clear. This was a bare hill once, with a lone figure standing next to a column. 

The figure was misplaced some time ago, and has become a legend. Now this is an unnatural forest. A wild boar snorts and rampages at the bottom of the hill. I will take another route. Emerging from the trees I hear children yelling, cars, a crossing beeping green, and magpies cackling from every direction.

Standing between two palm trees, a family group comes from behind me, making their way towards what I know is coming; up and over the hill ahead. I linger here in the area which was the labyrinth. I could do with a broom to remove all of the leaves that have fallen on the round wooden feature.

The final remnant on my way out is the paved circle, with flying birds before a red sun. It is overtaken with grass, but seems right. This place belongs to the birds. At least it does today.

Emerging over the hill I am spewed out onto the retail park. Sunday afternoon shoppers milling about in and out of cars into supermarkets electrical shops, fast food outlets. I am back.

A reply from Emily:

I have walked the perimeter looking for an entrance but the previous triangular hole I’ve always used is gone, replaced by high wooden boardings and signs covered with the developer’s name and idyllic images of a development currently halted by the recession.

On my way to the site, I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I drove past (like every journey) and saw that the carcass of the dragon slide was still standing. In my dreams as a 5 year-old, this was the centre of an underwater world in a reoccurring dream, which I glided around, barely needing to swim. The dragon’s mouth was part of a long series of red tunnels full of water that left me giddy even after I woke up, only slightly irritated that the whole of my primary school class had been there to share it with me. Only his head remains now, but his long neck used to be the best part. The site still has an oneiric atmosphere; dreamlike because it exists firmly in the past, in my past, as well as being here, now, in front of me. I feel sure Foucault would say this was a heterotopia linked to slices in time (past with the present and its potential for the future), a perfect example of one of these heterochronies¹.

Cars stream steadily past, surprised to see a pedestrian where there are usually no signs of life. It’s a 30 mile an hour limit along there but I don’t think anyone is sticking to it, I can feel myself bristle on the narrower part of the pavement as each car displaces the air towards me.

My aunt had a job as a busker on the site during that summer of 1984, so I felt hugely important, like this connection gave me power and ownership over the site. My twin sister and I could go in free and spent much of the summer swanning around, sitting on huge pencil benches in an exotic glass palm house, eating funny feet and playing in the ball pool. We also helped Jill out with her songs. Our favourite went like this:

I’ve found a baby bumble bee, won’t my mummy be proud of me. (hold out hand to show bee with a huge smiling, proud face)

OUCH! I was stung by a baby bumble bee, won’t my mummy be sad for me. (react to an imaginary sting and show a very sad face)

I’m squashing up a baby bumble bee, won’t my mummy be cross with me. (grind hands together

I’m licking up a baby bumble bee, won’t my mummy be cross with me. (lick palms as you sing to distort the words)

I’m puking up a baby bumble bee, won’t my mummy be cross with me (exaggerating vomiting with noises, doubtful face).

The song appealed to our disgusting sides and we took special delight in licking our palms with the whole of our tongues, but there were so many bees and so many flowers, that it seemed made for that particular place and time. Now I can see long grasses and a few wild flowers, it’s a sparse landscape, raggedy and kind of torn rather than the plump, neat planting that used to be there.

Walking around the fencing I feel glad I can’t get in somehow, the distance stops the other, more colourful place getting eroded by the reality. It’s a liminal space, neither derelict nor rebuilt, it’s waiting for inhabitants and only half dressed. Without flowers, the brightest colour is the restored Japanese pagoda and tori, which still seem incredibly promising, like anything could happen in that part of the garden. A bit further along I come across the entrance gates and it feels like I could be anywhere, a theme park of the Giardini in Venice between biennials. I can just make out the Mersey across the park and it reminds me how much water there used to be here; fountains, a Blue Peter ship and the Yellow Submarine of course. I can’t place where they would have been, nor can I remember any real plan or ways to navigate the site – I was too young. Now it’s only a memory of excitement and a vague sense of vastness, both in the landscape but also in what was possible there. I decide I like it half-complete because it allows that possibility.

Heading back to my car (parked at the pub at the water) in warm sun – it was always sunny there wasn’t it? - I imagine the padded green arms of a massive liver bird hugging me as my face presses into its soft side.                 

Notes

1. Michel Foucault. Of Other Spaces (1967), Heterotopias.

This text, entitled "Des Espace Autres," and published by the French journal Architecture /Mouvement/ Continuité in October, 1984, was the basis of a lecture given by Michel Foucault in March 1967.

http://foucault.info/documents/heteroTopia/foucault.heteroTopia.en.html

How To Survive

The first exhibition offer of the year came in a couple of weeks ago from Trove, who are taking part in the MAC in Birmingham's allotments project. Charlie has invited an artist (Sophie Bancroft) to design a cabinet, and then has invited 3 artists to exhibit works within the cabinet. Trove have used cabinets a number of times before. The other two artists/groups to be invited to share the cabinet with me are Matt Robinson, who we know as he exhibited at AirSpace Gallery in 2007 with his sick cloud installation and Milk and Two Sugars.

The beginning of 2012 has found me feeling tired and a bit uninspired, and I was thinking to myself maybe I need a break from all this art stuff. The past few years has seen me lead on various projects and events, and at times I have felt more like a project manager, and an administrator than a practising artist. This is common amongst practitioners that work similarly within the public realm: and also I believe, artists that are engaged with group development, who provide opportunities for other artists, can sometimes begin to feel a bit lost in the purpose. I have discussed this with other artists in my network, and they feel the same. So then, how to revive the energy? It seems that independent practice, which provides the opportunity to get immersed in research and making for yourself could be the answer. I thought, maybe all I need is a new project to really get my teeth into. And the next day the exhibition offer came in.

For some time now I have been interested in making kits/packs. Now that I come to think of it, over the years I have always made packs for things: Interrogation saw the artists involved presented with a pack containing costume, i.d. badge, notebooks maps etc. For Hallelujah 2 in Glasgow I sent an artist's activity pack, with instructions - for the artists and public to use during the private view. So, knowing that I want to make a 'How to Explore' pack for the residency in Harlech, I decided that 2012 would become the 'Year of How To.' Where each month I will make a 'How To' Kit. I have been thinking a lot about survival recently - the cuts to the arts have already lead to lots of artists reducing the amount of time on their practice. Some projects I was involved in have already been cancelled or not got the funding needed. So a Survival pack for artists, surviving in the age of austerity, with scruples intact, could be a very pertinent thing.
Therefore, the first kit for 2012, which will go on display in the MAC will be the 'How To Survive' Kit.Each kit box will be the same, and be very plain from the outside, with hand printed text on the box.
Then inside the contents will be objects and equipment which help with whatever the premise might be for that month.Each kit will also contain an instruction manual. Some of the instructions and contents of the how to survive kit are a bit daft, but also there are serious ideas being explored. I am quite pleased with how the kit looks.It will be interesting to see how it is displayed. Now what will February's kit be?

How To Explore

In May myself and Andrew Branscombe will be going across to Harlech in Wales, to take part in the Harlech International Residency, with 6 other artists from Austria, Italy, Macedonia and Spain.
The works made during the residency need to fit into a box: 30 X 30 X 60cm dimensions, and needs to be able to be posted, as the works will go in an exhibition in Harlech, and then travel to different European locations to be exhibited there.
There will also be a series of Skyped sessions within the project, aiming to explore connections and networks.
I am really looking forward to going and having a week to explore Harlech: and have submitted a proposal to make a kit for exploring. Here it is:

Anna Francis will create a box full of the equipment needed to explore. The box will contain a range of measuring devices and apparatus needed for excavating, recording, investigating and uncovering a particular place. Site-responsive works will then be made.

Anna is interested in places, and how we pin them down. She is interested in uncovering their peculiarities and particularities, and is interested in engaging other artists and the public in this activity. Exploring new places is fascinating, and Anna will come to Harlech to use the items assembled in the box and do that. Also, Anna will use the week to create a ‘How To Explore Manual’ which will demonstrate how to use the apparatus within the box. The manual will then accompany the box to Stoke-on-Trent, Lodz and Naples where Anna will aim to persuade an artist from each place to use the box and instructions to explore their home. Anna is interested in asking other artists to reframe the familiar; asking another person to look differently at the place that they know very well, in order to uncover something new about it, and using the ‘How To Explore’ pack to make some site responsive artworks.