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No Fixed Abode is the artist partnership Terry Slater and Horatio Eastwood. Central to our work is initiating dynamic relations between groups of people whose motive or ethos we see, in some way, aligning to ours. Much of our work involves direct communication towards unspecified outcomes; an endeavor which continually directs us as artists and circumnavigates typified modes of production. Our work aims to investigate the nuances of and the fissures within the hyper-expansion of what might be labeled community art. Through the initiation of temporary structures of communal production we are working towards mapping out a constellation of projects which intersect such issues as self organisation and resistance. Central to our work is the negotiation of our interpretations of home and the global, and the part that our built environment plays in our appropriation of these. |
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June 2008: Caban Unnos: It’s Now-Or-Never, Various Sites, Berlin, German y. Invited artists and other participants to collaborate on building a one-night -house in Berlin during the NEW LIFE BERLIN Festival, executed through a program of workshops an d panel discussions. www.wooloo.org/cacaban unnnnos/
March 2008: Swing that Art Bat, Access Space, Sheffield, UK. A series of four talks and presentations organised by No Fixed Abode, centred around using the metaphor of an Art Bat to reflect on the vicissitudes of artistic activity. The talkers were Ele Carpenter, Hewitt and Jordan (Freee Art Collective), Black Dogs, Penny Whitehead and Daniel Simpkins.
November 2007: Publication: a collection of writing and reflections on contemporary folk culture. Various sites. Completion and release of a publication compiled, edited, designed and distributed by No Fixed Abode.
April 2007: The Mobile Cinema Comes to Sheffield, Various sites across Sheffield, UK. Curation and screening of seven video works take around Sheffield in a mobile cinema.
January 2007: Buskers Concert, Sheffield City Centre, Sheffield, UK. Site specific public performance in collaboration with Sheffield’s busker community.
Aug 2006: No Fixed Abode presents Folk Film, Green Man Festival, Brecon Beacons, Wales. Curation and screening of short film’s aimed at enabling the term ‘Folk Film’.
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Oct/Nov 2008: Rebranding Act s, The New School, New York, USA. Along with a group of Sheffield artists, No Fixed Abode formed a Morris team and set about exploring the English identity through the reinterpretation of one of its most well known traditions.
Sep/Oct 2008: Rebranding Act s, Tina B. Festival, Prague, Czech Republic. Along with a group of Sheffield artists, No Fixed Abode formed a Morris team and set about exploring the English identity through the reinterpretation of one of its most well known traditions.
June 2008: MAKE/SHIFT, S1 Artspace, Sheffield, UK. MAKEKE/SHIFT explores temporalality, impermanenc e and (dis)location in the cont ext of the built. Curated by Charlotte A. Morgan and consists of a series of 8 one-day shows presenting work by emerging artists and collectives based locally and nationally.
June 2008: Eggs, Flour, Milk , Cheese; 25 Ways of Keeping Occupied, 42 New Briggate, Leeds, UK. Leeds based collective Black Dogs opened its base to include twenty more artists and brought their works together for this exhibition. No Fixed Abode sent a representation of their time in Berlin in the form of a camp bed.
Dec 2007: Artgos, The Art Market, Leeds, UK. A selling exhibition of artists’ multiples based on the model of the Argos catalogue store. No Fixed Abode contributed its publication of collated writings on contemporary folk culture, and embroidered patches made for Artists Can ’t Ride Bikes!
Nov 2007: Publication: a collection of writing and reflections on contemporary folk culture. Various sites. Completion an d release of a publication compiled, edited, designed and distributed by No Fixed Abode.
October 2007: PowerPointism, BLOC Space, Sheffield, UK. Participation in an evening of high-impact presentations and bite-sized artworks, using the software package of PowerPoint. The Modern Port of Whitby was created in response to this.
August 2007: Urban Space, FOTOPUB 2007, Slovenia. Exhibition of Buskers Concert photographs as part of FOTOPUB 2007 photographic biennial.
July 2007: Urban Space, Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. New Life Shop, Berlin, Germany. Exhibition of Buskers Concert photographs as part of FotoRio 2007 photographic biennial.
May 2007: Artists Can’t Ride Bikes!, Leeds City Centre and Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds, UK. Video and city-wide live performance for participant-led project for Situation Leeds 07.
April 2007: Modern Times II, BLOC Space, Sheffield, UK. Video work and mobile cinema as part of BLOC Assembly.
Oct 2006: Modern Times as part of Just For Fun, Organised and curated by Robin Close and Webster Gotts. Marble Court Karaoke Chinese Restaurant, Sheffield. Live art event showcasing Sheffield’s emerging and established performance artists.
Images at http://www.wavepeople.com/karaoke/
Oct 2006: Objects in Waiting, The End Gallery, Sheffield, UK. www.objectsinwaiting.co.uk
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art and activism in the public realm - Situation Leeds 07 |
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As part of Situation Leeds 07 No Fixed Abode teamed up with Leeds MAG to develop and execute a project.
Motorcycle Action Group, formed in 1973, is a voluntary organisation focused on defending rider's rights, and improving motorcycle safety and security.
To increase motorcycle awareness, Leeds MAG organised a procession of motorcycles to pass through Leeds city centre on Saturday 19th May. No Fixed Abode joined MAG to film the procession and explore, beyond the boundaries of the organisation itself, the love of, and passion for, motorcycling.
Footage of the procession, interviews and stills combined to create a documentary that looks beyond the biker stereotype, giving an insight into the heart and soul of motorcycling. The documentary was screened to the general public and representatives from local government, motorcycle organistions and art sectors on Saturday 26th May.
The project initially took the form of a series of meetings with Leeds MAG to share ideas on activism, politics and recreation in a collective that operates within multiple and varied networks. In working with a city activist group, No Fixed Abode offered itself as a vehicle for raising awareness of MAG's aims through public performance and, in doing so, disseminate and critique art and activism within the public realm through a process of agreed relational co-operation, between NFA and MAG.
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Cultural Enrichment - Sheffield |
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Sheffield based arts project No Fixed Abode, working in conjunction with Sheffield City Council's mobile library service, toured a mobile cinema around Sheffield for one day only.
The cinema, a converted 1970's Sprite caravan, traveled alongside the usual mobile library service screening a selection of short films at its various stops.
The caravan was on loan from an arts organization based in Newcastle and screened a variety of films from around the UK as well as international films from America, Canada, Belgium and France.
This project was developed in response to the various cultural strategies of Sheffield and the country as a whole. These aim at bringing empowerment for a city's Citizenry through established cultural institutions such as the city's libraries. The Mobile Cinema functions in a very similar way to a mobile library. It has the ability to travel to those areas not serviced by a cinema and bring the cultural enrichment that the contemporary city wishes for all.
The cinema called at:
10.50 - 11.30 - Busk Meadows
11.40 - 12.30 - Firshill Croft, Firshill
1.45 - 2.30 - Manor Park Centre, Manor Park
2.35 - 3.05 - Manor Park Close, Manor Park
3.15 - 4.00 - Benson Road, Wybourn |
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Artist talks and exhibition - Sheffield |
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A series of talks and workshops aimed at discussing cultural practitioners through the representation of the Art Bat metaphor.
What is an "Art Bat"? It is, put very simply, a representation of an artist's practice, allowing the usual language and vocabulary to be circumvented. It need not actually be a bat (nor any other kind of sports equipment for that matter!), it can be any object which represents an artist and their work.
Many factors may decide an artist's weight and impact upon their peers as well as a larger public. Some of these may be their success, ability and reputation, longevity, and renown. It can be argued that the greater the weight of these factors, the greater the sway of the artist. What if the artist could concentrate all these factors into one object, whose weight and size was directly proportional to them. What if you could see an artist's success, ability and reputation in one easy to carry object? What if all artists had art bats?
What if each practitioner wielded an art bat which was the metaphorical carrier of their cultural weight. They might use this to attack, defend, to speculate, induce or intimidate.
This metaphor offers the opportunity to reflect on the vicissitudes of artistic activity in a way that circumscribes the conventional vocabularies and language tools used to these same ends.
The project ran throughout March and included talks by the following speakers:
Saturday 1st March 14:00
Daniel Simpkins and Penny Whitehead present 'Beat Attack Thwack' An exploration of the power structures underpinning contemporary artistic practice. Visitors are invited to bring a bat representing an artist of their choice.
Saturday 8th March 14:00
Black Dogs present 'The Good Life' A presentation on the implications of DIY, punk and self organisation in art.
Saturday 15th March 14:00
Ele Carpenter presents 'The Elephant in the Room' Tensions between object and process in socially engaged new media art.
Saturday 29th March 14:00
Andy Hewitt and Mel Jordan (Freee art collective) present 'How to Bat; How the artists bat enables one to question the popular misconception of art being a universal or disinterested field of practice.'
The exhibition also exists as a BLOG and a collection of bats displayed at Access Space Sheffield.
www.swingthatartbat.org.uk |
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Caban Unnos: Its Now-or-Never |
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art and activism in the public realm - Berlin |
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Caban Unnos: It’s Now-or-Never, demonstrates the outcome of a relationship between an architect, an environmental project manager and No Fixed Abode, which saw the realisation of a contemporary one-night house. Taking as their point of departure a globally standing legislative loophole which offers that if a house can be built between sunset and sunrise on common land, then the erectors hold the right to maintain a residence on that land; they set about initiating the clandestine construction of such a one-night house in central Berlin.
Through a program of workshops and talks during the festival, invited participants discussed the practical aspects of clandestine building, vernacular architecture and issues of land ownership, followed by collaborating to build the one-night-house on Alexanderplatz in Berlin.
Building started at around 22:00 on Saturday 7th June and by 03:20 the finished house was standing with smoke rising from the chimney, as the old law prescribed as the standard for a finished "Caban Unnos". Around 50 participants contributed to it's construction, forming a productive, positive and eager community of interested parties. The spirit and energy of this group was strong and showed the positive effects of what can be achieved through communal action.
The house was designed and developed alongside No Fixed Abode by Architect Tony Broomhead (Amenity Space) and appointed Project Manager Dan McTiernan (Why Waste?).
In transferring the traditional rural one-night house into the modern setting of Berlin the team selected appropiate materials that would be freely available in the city. Palettes and plastic water cooler bottles were chosen as they would provide a standardised, abundant and re-usable building material. Alongside this there were various other scavenged and recycled materials from the various wastelands and empty plots of Berlin. Most notable was the oven and chimney constructed from reclaimed bricks, flagstones, metal and ceramic piping.
The house only stood for two hours before it was inevitably challenged. At 05:30 Sunday morning, Polizei arrived and demanded its instant removal. After a period of fruitless negotiation, No Fixed Abode finally complied and deconstruction of the house commenced at 06:30. Without any sleep or time to reflect on the achievement of the night's work, the house disappeared as quickly as it went up. The house exists as memory, a dream of the nights work. A true one-night house. |
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Sheffield Hallam University |
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