Interrogation Agent on the Fourth plinth!

Click on the link below to watch Agent Pitt on the Fourth plinth! So exciting!
http://www.oneandother.co.uk/participants/Agent4changeThe Interrogation project is already continueing its life.
also Interrogation was discussed in this months A-N magazine.
Click here to see (if you are a subscriber)

Pic 'n' Mix

This week my Garden Festival Decoupage has been on display at the Burslem School of Art as part of the Pic n Mix exhibition, showing 6 women's photographs, organised by Stoke-on-Trent's Photographer's Collective. The show is on until 9th October, and so go and have a gander. There were limited edition postcard packs of the 6 pictures, with facts about the Garden Festival on the back. Not sure if there are any left now though, as they were very popular.
Thanks to Darren Washington for the documentary photos.

Reportage

This week artists Emma Leach and Natasha Vicars have been sending me written assignments briefs to fulfil, for their project Reportage at KUBE, Poole.
It has been quite exciting. The first one came through on Wednesday and said write a report on a Pool in Stoke. The second one the next day said 'through online research, report on current health concerns in Poole.' and the last one which came through today said 'Report on the resolution of something, include water in your report.'
The artists have set up a temporary newsdesk in the gallery, and have recruited keen reporters to write quick response articles on unusual topics. I like the notion of these things being quick and off the cuff, and I have relaly enjoyed having someone set me something to do, especially as Interrogation has been taking up a lot of time, and has involved me setting things for other artists to do...it feels like a good balance to have someone set me some assignments in exchange.
I wrote about verrucas in shelton pool...patients drinking alcohol gel in hospitals in Poole...a dying man and his gas bill...and poor dead Gilbert the whale. I enjoyed it. Here is the PDF.
Echoes of A_all Pages

INTERЯOGATION: WALSALL starts tomorrow!

Free TV : Ustream
So tomorrow will be the first day of the Residency at the New Art Gallery Walsall, so myself (Agent Francis) along with Agent Greenwood, Agent Brown and Agent Stoker will take up residence in the Artist's Studio at the Gallery, in order to turn the room into 'The Interrogation Room.' The room will be the headquarters for the next month, where we will see groups of artists coming each Wednesday to carry out a series of missions. TOP SECRET: Agent Artists Identities will be revealed on a need to know basis...
In order to extedn the reach of the project a project blog has been set up, and technologies permitting a live stream and video will be transmitted during each Mission Day, and during the final Symposium Day, when we have some really interesting speakers lined up, who will deliver presentations on their particular areas of public realm arts practice, and at the end of that there will be a panel discussion, with the artists involved in the missions, the four speakers, myself and the public.
If you wish to book a place for the Symposium, then you can do so by emailing Agent Brown: chloebrown@multistory.org.uk
But if you can't make it, but would like to be involved in the project/debate, you can follow proceedings and have your say live online.
A twitter account and a special online tv channel have been set up for these purposes.
So go to http://twitter.com/artinwalsall for the twitter feed
or go to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/interrogation-walsall to watch live online during the mission days (which will be 9th/16th/23rd/30th September - 10am-5pm and the Symposium Day Friday, 2nd October 1-5pm).

The Matchmaker

This weekend I will be performing the Matchmaker at a festival. I have just finished making 100 special matchboxes for the performance.
I will post images of what happens when I get back...
UPDATE:
So, I went along to the Festival with the Matchmaker. I was the Matchmaker on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It actually worked very well, though there were a few surprises. First of all a lot of people seemed a bit suspicious when I approached them, thinking I was trying to sell them something. I wondered if I should announce immediately that what I had on offer was free, but I decided it slightly went against what I was trying to do, and I don't like the idea that people would only engage with me if they thought they would get something free out of it, I preferred to tell them at the end that the matchbox was free.I was also quite surprised about the popularity of some of the couples: Richard and Judy were the most popular, and went quite quickly, whereas Gilbert and George were the least popular, but perhaps that was because they were naked?I enjoyed doing the Matchmaker, and seeing people give me and each other a kiss was really heart warming. I hadn't reckoned on the weather though, and the packs kept on blowing away, and some of them got a bit wet in the rain.

Rebirth needs rebooting...

Went over to the New maternity building of the North Staffs Hospital this week to check on the box and see if anyone had filled in the postcards, and replenish the stocks.
On arrival i was quite pleased to note that there was only one postcard left! out of 100! but then on opening the box I was not so pleased at the contents. There were a few blank screwed up ones, one that was blank and folded into a paper aeroplane, a number of indecipherable children's drawings and messages, and then three actual messages. So the project is currently running at a 3% success rate, which isn't bad I suppose. This meant that there were at least 80 postcards that were unaccounted for...so who knows where they have ended up. It is not really a surprise, the image is actually quite intriguing and so perhaps people just want to stick them on their fridge. Also, I find participatory projects of this nature only really work with someone to drive them. Simply putting a box somewhere and waiting for responses seems to me like a pedestrian approach. This is the difficulty of a project like this, as I am not being paid, I cannot really afford to put too much time into it - and therefore it won't be as effective as it could have been, if I did have the time to put into it. Ideally, given the time I would strive to make some connections with the midwives at the hospital, who showed interest at the opening, and I would encourage them to take handfuls of the postcards to distribute to the mums they are working with. I would build a relationship wit them, and hope to find out a way for them to be more involved in the project, and see how they could develop it with me. I know this would be difficult, given how busy they are, but certainly worthwhile. This level of interaction is absolutely imperative for a project like this, and I wish I had the time to do it, but I don't.
At this rate, the project should have generated around 15 out of a possible 500 messages by its completion, which is a shame, but just goes to show - you get out of anything what you put in, or sadly you get (a little bit more than) you pay for. I will contact the head midwife to see if I can find an alternative site to move the box to on my next visit, and see if this encourages any extra participation. She was very encouraging and positive about the art projects in the new maternity wing last time we met, and so I hope this might spur the project on a bit.
Despite the disappointment - the three messages were worth a (long) walk to the hospital.

INTERЯOGATION: WALSALL - CALL TO ARTISTS

I am really excited about the new project that I am working on. It is called INTERЯOGATION: WALSALL and is organised by Longhouse and The New Art Gallery Walsall, and me. It involves bringing artists to Walsall for one of four days which explore the artist's role in the post-industrial world, and looking at the impact that one artist can make on one place on one day. Essentially these 4 days will be professional artist development opportunities for 5 or 6 artists per day. Each will be given a mission to carry out which engages with the public. The programme will then culminate in a symposium, where experts and practitioners in the four topic areas will deliver a 20 minute presentation each and then be involved in a panel discussion. The call for artists is below:

Longhouse is an annual programme of work carried out by community arts organisation, Multistory based in West Bromwich in the West Midlands. Longhouse is dedicated to the professional development of artists working in the public realm and provides knowledge, support and funding to artists to develop their practice.

Call to Artists:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to become a secret agent for a day in order to interrogate the public spaces of Walsall.

Using the New Art Gallery Walsall as a base you will investigate the artist’s role in the post-industrial world through one of four methods:

INTERЯOGATION: ACTION RESEARCH (09/09/09)

INTERЯOGATION: CONSULTATION (16/09/09)

INTERЯOGATION: COLLABORATION (23/09/09)

INTERЯOGATION: INTERVENTION (30/09/09)

INTERЯOGATION: WALSALL explores the impact that one artist (you) can make in one place, in one day.

The programme, organised by Longhouse and the New Art Gallery Walsall, working with lead artist Anna Francis, is designed to investigate the impact of short, sharp interventions within the public realm.

The programme questions how working quickly and responsively feels for the artist, and provides opportunities for artists to work together within public realm spaces.

How to Apply:

To express interest in this opportunity send:

· 100 words describing why you are right for this mission and

· state which of the four methods you are interested in interrogating (

· your C.V. and a maximum of 5 images of your current practice

Please send your expression of interest to: chloebrown@multistory.org.uk

Deadline for submissions:

12pm Friday 28 August 2009

Successful ‘agents’ will be notified on Wednesday 2 September 2009

(Please note that due to the timescale and nature of the project feedback will not be given to unsuccessful applicants)

Each agent will receive a fee of £100 towards travel, time and other expenses, plus £20 on the day of the mission to cover any immediate costs incurred.

Agents must be available for the full day of the mission (dates are stated next to the four interrogation methods above), and on a project symposium day (02/10/09), when the project findings will be disseminated.

Each mission will be documented photographically and with video.

Results will be displayed on the Longhouse website and in the Artists’ Studio at The New Art Gallery Walsall.

For more information go to www.longhouse.uk.com

or to follow the dedicated project blog o to www.interrogation-walsall.blogspot.com