I was "interviewed" for the task, which involved picking one of the 6 artists in the festival, researching them for 30 minutes and then talking about their work for 10 minutes or so.
I picked Clare Twomey, partly because I knew a little about her already (mainly the thousands of ceramic birds that she scattered around the V&A - see later) and partly because she seems very thoughtful, well organised and articulate.
The upshot is that I think I will end up being one of Twomey's helpers in a repeat of one of her previous installations, called "Is it Madness. Is it Beauty."
I decided I ought to do a little more research on Twomey before the event, so here's a rundown of her more notable projects:
Is it Madness. Is it Beauty.
First performed in November 2010.
"Is It Madness. Is It Beauty" was a work commissioned for the
Siobhan Davies Studios that communicated ideas about the futility of human
action. Twomey responded to the repetitive actions of dancers in The Score,
and conceived a performance piece that involved the periodic filling of a large number of unfired ceramic bowls with water; however, as the
bowls were unfired they collapsed, visually emphasising human endeavour and
desire to achieve.
Everyman's Dream
April 2013
Everyman’s Dream was a work commissioned for the exhibition Marking the line: Ceramics and Architecture, inspired by Sir John Soane's house and collections, challenging where and how we view both ancient and modern works of art. For Sir John Soane's Museum in London Twomey asked one thousand men to tell her about their hopes of personal legacy. This is in reference to the legacy that Sir John Soane left in the form of his architectural contributions as well as his collection of artefacts at the Sir John Soane's Museum in London.
Piece by Piece
October 2014 - January 2015
Piece by Piece was staged at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto as part of Scotiabank
Nuit Blanche. Piece by Piece features an army of more than 2,000 ceramic
figurines – all inspired by the Gardiner’s rare Commedia dell’Arte Harlequin
collection – and demonstrates the conflicting emotions of everyday life. The
exhibit also featured an on-site artist/maker creating additional
statuettes to add to Twomey’s ever-growing ghostly white world.
Exchange
June - September 2013
Clare
Twomey's concept for her work, Exchange, was inspired by the acts of exchange
and philanthropy that lie at the heart of the Foundling Hospital -- the UK's
first children's charity and England's first public art gallery. Each day of the
exhibition, ten people were invited to choose a cup from the hundreds laid
out on tables. In exchange for agreeing to complete the good deed, they were allowed to keep the cup.
Trophy
September
2006
Trophy was commissioned by the V&A Museum and played with notions of
value, permanence and the culture of collecting. The artist worked in
collaboration with Wedgwood to produce 4000 small birds made from Jasper Blue
–an historical material created by Wedgwood in the 1800s– that were then
displayed throughout the Cast Courts; the concept was to create a unique
object for the museum’s collections that would be both beautiful and
desirable. Within five hours of opening, the public had stolen each one of
the 4000 birds that made up the collection; although they were not formally
invited to take the birds home, many followed the behaviour of others in the
space.
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Consciousness/Conscience
2001-2004
Consciousness/Conscience was a ceramic installation that
comprises several thousand hollow unfired Bone China tiles laid out on the
floor of the gallery space. The work is installed so that visitors to the
exhibition need to cross the work to encounter other parts of the exhibition.
By walking across the work they effectively destroy the floor to gain access
to other works. The floor tiles record their path within the space.
Consciousness/Conscience is conceptually linked with ideas of human
interaction, social convention and appropriateness.
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