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Kangaroo Kourt in 2008Compiled by Hal Camplin |
Where are we at? In 2007 we set about two projects. One called 'Artcast' which involved a collaboration with Rednile, a group of artists in Sunderland. And due to more favourable funding conditions in the Northeast we managed to put on two 4 day residencies one in Bristol at Windows 204 (link) which is a venue for artists to use for work that may not suit the commercial gallery set-up, often using the space in innovatative and experimental ways. And the other was in a former cannabis factory in Sunderland, Nile Street Studios (www.rednile.org/press.htm).The Arts Council gave zuma, zilch to the effort. The second project was called Street Shrines which was part of the Bath Fringe festival a newly formed FAB (Fringe Arts Bath). It was done on little or no budget but proved to be an incredibly popular idea. But naturally without any payment for costs few are willing to throw much effort in. This is where we find out who the real tough artists are. The ones who innovate outside the money systems and create for the ideas alone. |
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In 2008 Kangaroo Kourt find ourselves in a position of no faith with public funders thanks to cuts due to the Olympics and well apparently because there is too much art in Bristol and Bath! They pat us on the back and love us to keep doing what were doing - but we're fed up with tick box so it's time to turn to the dark side. Private investment, sponsorship yes, sell yourself to the devil...Well not quite we will always do what we want legal or not. |
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Barry the Badger The first of such experiments is Barry the Badger dreamed up during our Artcast project last year to create exposure and by fuck does he do that! CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT BARRY THE BADGER! It involves a man dressed inside a big badger outfit doing stunts and trying to do normal things like playing guitars or goin to the shops. Some people think it's for charity or fathers for justice and are a bit wary but others just take it for what it is : the attempt to disturb normal life. Actually it's a bit like the Smiths and their nice tunes with bitter and twisted lyrics. Barry the Badger is an effective way of creating a sugary pill. He is a moving billboard, interactive and better than any flash ad. We wanted to stream Barry and other artists live over the internet during our Artcast residency in Sunderland but funding support fell through. We produced videocasts but these were not enough. So we have explored another way of doing it with full production support. We put Barry the Badger into a talent show called Upstaged run by Endemol and BBC3 and to everyone's surprise he took it by storm. Acts need to perform for 6 hrs inside a glass box and people vote online. He won three contests in a row and will be appearing in the finals on Thurs 27th March! It is a rare event for such an offbeat act to do so well in a 'talent' show. Barry beat a "down with it hip-hop act", a trendy cooking show and a heavy rock band. 95% of his lyrics and stunts were censored so the show was improvised from start to finish. That is 24 hrs inside a glass box in Bristol 'talking about nothing forever' (so the BBC are now getting all existentialist on our arses!) The Arts council could not pay for it but BBC3 sure as hell could. So... It's not over yet you can still join Barry's crusade against the talent machine. http://upstaged.external.bbc.co.uk/Badgertrap
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It is hard for Kangaroo Kourt to stick to any one thing so outside of TV studios we still battle with new avenues in street art which require minimal cash stash.By street we mean anywhere in the public domain whatsoever. Some are worth getting permission for to allow work a bit more staying power. It helps of course to ride on the back of the dolphin that is Fringe Arts Bath. So expect some street shrines in Bath from 30th May to 15th June 2008 (www.fringeartsbath.co.uk). The StreetShrine project aims, other than to attempt to use street spaces not even thought about are: -to distract from Bath's 'beige city' image The project has been focused in Bath which has dubbed 'beige city' for its legendary conservation policy designed to preserve the spa town tourist disney land. Youth culture and street art have never really had a prescence no surprise.But as in other repressive environments the temptation is just too great. |
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Now there maybe a sense in which these aims conflict i.e. to be discrete will allow the work to last for longer but this plays into the Bath's image makers' hands and helps to conserve its 'beigeness'(blandness?) so short term big impact may be more important to achieve, such as introducing big bright colours. Please feel fee to contact us at kangarookourt@blueyonder.co.uk if you want to get involved. The idea has some origins in the sight of a number of elaborate kitch roadside shrines in parts of Europe and even randomn bunches of flowers by the side of the road in the UK which are often bizarre shrines to murder victims or more frequently victims of roadside accident. |
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In 2007 Hal Camplin led the way with installation 'Graffiti'(a portrait painting placed amongst posters on the street, looking at accepted art forms out of their normal environment) and sculpture 'Shrine to the Anonymous Graffiti Artist'(a reference to the lack of street art graffiti or anything representing popular culture in Bath).
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We also get many performance artists wanting to contribute to the Street Shrines. One last year was Barbara Dean (www.kitchenanticsandappliances.com). She performed a piece called 'The Lachrymal'.. using re-claimed & readymade materials. Passers-by were asked to cut and onion and write a diary note in the shrine about a time that they cried. On religious shrines shrines people don't normally require onions to help them weep profusely. But this is the tactic of artist trying to empower their shrines with emotion. |
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Damage (right) was a piece installed with permission by Joanne Huntley (www.joannehuntley.co.uk) seen from the street inside the old Mineral hospital. A latex and modroc sculpture of a torso poking at Bath's apalling record of pollution and the damage made to its residents lungs: Our beautiful city nestled among the hills |
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Possible Street Shrines to come this May/June 2008 include: Glasgow-based performance artist Kate V. Robertson (http://www.katevrobertson.com) will be participating in the Street Shrines project, whereby she will undertake a series of interventions in public spaces in and around Bath town centre. The interventions, varying from almost invisible interruptions to more intrusive alterations, will knowingly or otherwise, engage passersby and enforce interaction of some kind. Utilising found objects and street debris, as well as performative gestures and text, the work makes reference to art history, in particular debates about art participation and public art, and blurs boundaries between vandalism, graffiti, intervention, art and performance. |
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And The Really Religious... Sheila Broun and Jill Smith (http://www.jill-smith.co.uk) are part of a group of artists who are interested in the native British spiritual tradition - and its focus on re-connection with Nature - how we make the land well, and how the land makes us well. In the native British tradition Bath is the spiritual centre of Britain. The idea for these shrines was inspired by the information that the pavement outside the Temple of Sulis (in the Roman Baths) would have extended out into the courtyard now outside the Abbey. In ancient times Bath was an oracular centre second only to Delphi. Pilgrims would have flocked to Bath - then as now - and there would have been many shrines set up by people to local Deities in this courtyard. They will be setting up one shrine a day around the sacred springs - some at the beginning of The Fringe Festival, and some towards the end. They would provide an opportunity for the public to interact with them, as well as being visually stimulating. So more performance again... |
Even International Collaboration and Comparison... Naomi Smith would like to participate with a photographic documentation/installation based on public places of worship in Naples. Naples has a great historic and contemporary culture of religious street shrines. Here religion overlaps into popular culture and you may find imagery of saints alongside celebrities (footballers,singers and exponents of popular culture) displayed within the location of the many shrines found on almost every street corner. These spaces range from designated historical allocations to knooks and crannies that lend themselves for this purpose in the sides of buildings that are maybe crumbling and eaten by time. You may also find such shrines inside commercial spaces,shop windows, or squeezed in between a row of hanging meat. |
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Back to Invention... Pat Jamieson talks of a small alley with steps going up which do not seem to lead anywhere. He'd like to paste paper images of the grotto piece around the entrance to these steps and chalk some poetry on the risers of the steps. This way the work could make an impact but could be easily washed off or, even better, eroded by the rain. Also a resident of Walcot Street in Bath will allow him to hang a piece, again fragmented images and text, over her front window for the duration of FAB. There are various railings and walls around the Walcot street car park which could accommodate a repeat of the grotto piece too. "There is a strange platform probably belonging to the water companies just a little down from Pultney Weir It is closed off but easy to access, it's a big site but just an eyesore at the moment, I wondered if more than one artist could collaborate to make a work there. It's very visible as the Weir attracts lots of visitors. I want to use scraps of fragmented image, colour, form and text which I will laminate and join together with wire so that they will hang in a curtain which will cascade down." |
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And of Course They Can't Complain, It's Bio-degradable... Alex Stevenson (www.alexanderstevenson.com) wants to cast a sugar replica of piece of archaeology local to Bath: The head of Minerva. This will be presented on an exterior wall. This cast will slowly liquify over the course of about two weeks, and in doing so will gradually loose it's ability to convey visual information, eventually disappearing altogether. This is intended to represent the loss of the original artefact's ability to convey it's full significance and meaning. He wants to place it on a wall somewhere near the Baths. The use of a once revered local deity may be a sensitive issue, despite the specifics of the faith having been absorbed by the Romans, and then relegated to the museum. The ‘Shrine’ will consist simply of sugar and a wooden frame to allow it to be hung from two wall fixings, and will appear as a life size head. The sculpture would produce a delicious sweet smell, and would extremely beautiful throughout it's decay |
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So some artists are clearly wound up on the classical religious roots of the shrine but Kangaroo Kourt would like to hear from artists who make their own art their own religion. kangarookourt@blueyonder.co.uk
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