Proposal for old town carnival week 2006

By Nathan Burr

I am a student studying fine art at Winchester school of art and currently working on a project that I thought might be of benefit to the residents and carnival goers of this years old town carnival week.

 I am currently very interested in art being used within a social framework, integrating directly into society outside of the tradition of the gallery/museum. Events such as the old town carnival have particular interest to me in there way of bringing people together and the ability of strengthening community identity. I see the old town carnival and other events during this festive week as great opportunities for local artists to showcase their work in and around the old town. Through local artist’s work a community can be revised and given a new identity. Though not always directly. The decision to show their work in Hastings particularly during Old town carnival week, wittingly or unwittingly, has an effect on how the work is read. The same is to be read of the place and time which showed the work. An artist whose painting is to be shown in a gallery, for example, should be aware of the conditions of the particular space and lighting the gallery offers. This consideration should by know means stop at the door of the gallery for me; there is the geographical and social situation of the gallery and the types of communities it should represent.

  This understanding becomes integral to the art piece. These considerations I prioritise and push to the forefront of my current practice. For my artwork to become fully realised I need the framework of a location, and interactivity with the local community.

I have been a resident of Hastings for a majority of my life and naturally Hastings and its residents have been a running theme to my work. After finishing secondary school in 1992 (The Grove) I worked as a hairdresser in three salons in the town Krisdees, Toni and Guy and @ hairdressing. Becoming a hairdresser gave me the platform to work directly within the community; I saw my position as not only a creative one but also as an important social role. I was in an invaluable position where I got to know a cross section of the community from all walks of life.

Social interaction is of the up most importance to my work and as I was a born and bread in Hastings myself would like contribute to the old town carnival week with two projects I am currently working on.   

Project

I am currently working on two projects that I feel would work within the framework of the Old town carnival week. The first is my “Bread birdhouse” project.

The bread birdhouse project is designed to work with a local bakery that will provide loafs of bread that I can turn into birdhouses. The loaves of bread are then put in various locations for the birds. Will they move in, will they eat them or just leave them alone? These are some of the initial questions the birdhouses raise. In the context of them being used in the old town for Old town carnival week I believe the bread birdhouses will provide the interaction and awareness of another local community that is usually overlooked even though anybody who lives or ever visited Hastings cannot help but be aware of them. The birds! In Hastings particularly the seagulls.

I know that seagulls are seen as a pest to some people but there is no getting away from them and the proposed week for the piece there will be enough rubbish in the bins for them to scavenge anyway so to involve their inevitable eating of the bread birdhouses as an art piece is making something productive and interesting from a inevitable occurrence. I believe also that the bread birdhouses will only last for a week at the most and I again see the old town week as a fitting time to show the piece with the emphasis on the spectacle and enjoyment. On another level the work speaks of the temporality of events such as these and the importance of them in strengthening community bonds. Hopefully people will take something from seeing the work and as the bread birdhouses are easy to make needing only a loaf of bread and a breadstick (perch) anyone can make one.

 See my artworks as gifts asking nothing more than to subvert the banality of the everyday.

I would also like to propose showing some of my films during old town carnival week. I am enquiring into using the Electric Palace cinema in the High Street as a venue to show them. Again having lived in Hastings for many years I have acquired many interesting short films that may have no other relation to one another than the fact they are all made in and around Hastings. Some are filmed in my kitchen and others in the castle on mayday. Again I hope the context provided by old town carnival week will emphasize and strengthen there meaning.

I have participated twice before in old town carnival week, having two exhibitions in Harris’s restaurant. I believe this proposal is the next logical step for me to take in my practice.

 The work can be mostly carried out independently but would need some technical support in putting the bread birdhouses up. I would find local bakers to provide the bread and be sure to associate them in any advertising.

For my university project I would document the whole event though photography, film and any other medium that captured the spirit of the piece, and would in fact use the documentation as the artwork in a gallery situation. The documentation could indeed be shown in Hastings at a later date as a reminder of the time and place of old town carnival week 2006.

I hope that this idea is of interest to you.

Yours Nathan Burr

Email: nathanburr@hotmail.com

Telephone: 07958446552.

The artist is crying and too sad to tell anyone why. A postcard with the dated note - "Sept. 13 1970. I'm too sad to tell you." - shows Bas Jan Ader racked by tears. Whatever caused the tears to flow (the artist never publicly stated the reason) is ultimately beside the point. And yet Ader reenacted his private sadness, restaged it, photographed it to mail to others. While his piece retains a "real" sadness, it keeps vital the artifice and melodrama inherent in placing himself before his own camera while crying. Almost all of Ader's work pulsates with a crisis of some personal intensity. His sincerity is sincere - until it's not only sincere. Certainly connections exist between the postcard's sad note and the ominous and purely theatrical qualities of some of his early, simple wall texts ("Please don't leave me"; "Thoughts unsaid then forgotten") and carefully chosen titles, like Farewell to Faraway Friends, a photograph of a lone Ader standing on the coast, framed by the setting sun on the horizon - a photo whose sincerity is toyed with by the kitschy, touristy "sunset" colors. To look at this another way, consider for a moment: If I told you that during the month I've been thinking about Ader I cried several times, and that I'm crying right now, would you buy it?

Maybe it's just easier to admire a dead Conceptual artist than a living one, but that doesn't account for the intense, cultlike following of Ader and his work, particularly in Southern California. There's a dream logic in considering that Charles Ray navigates his sailboat in part for Ader. Christopher Williams has hauntingly memorialized the artist in Bouquet for Bas Jan Ader and Christopher D'Arcangelo, 1991. Ader's rigorous poetics can be felt in Martin Kersel's excellent explorations of gravity, attraction, and repulsion. Artist Collier Schorr has written lucidly and lovingly about him. Even much younger artists acknowledge Ader's quiet power. Jennifer Bornstein, whose own complexly simple and mysteriously accurate photos and films recall the best of Ader's gifts, told me: "His subject matter is so banal, but the fact that he does it anyway and how it is transformed in execution continues to amaze. Is it manipulated or is it real? He walks such a fine line."

Ader's obscurity is, at least in part, due to his dying young, at age thirty-three, while undertaking the second installment of a proposed three-part work, In Search of the Miraculous. The first part consisted of still photographs of Ader noirishly wandering the freeways, back alleys, hills, and coastline of Los Angeles at night with a flashlight. Each frame of the nocturnal perambulation contains a line from a 1957 Coasters song, "Searchin'," in Ader's hand. When this initial part was first shown, Ader displayed a bulletin done with the Dutch alternative space Art & Project and had a choir sing sea chanteys - in part as a way of announcing the imminent voyage that would comprise the next stage of the piece: an attempt to sail from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to Falmouth, England, in a thirteen-foot sailboat, a trip he projected would take around sixty days. He planned to document the entire journey. Ader took off on July 9, 1975; three weeks into the voyage, radio contact failed. His brother, Erik, reported the following: "On about April 10 [1976] a Spanish fishing trawler found his boat about 150 nautical miles west-south-west of Ireland. It was two-thirds capsized, with the bows [sic] pointing down. Judging by the degree of fouling, it looked as though the boat had been drifting around in this position for about six months."

At the time of his sailing away, Ader was teaching at the University of California, Irvine. Because of the dual and slyly duplicitous nature of his explorations (is he really crying? is he really sad?), many of his students thought his disappearance at sea was staged. In his foreword to the catalogue accompanying Ader's just-opened exhibition at Irvine, the first retrospective of the artist in the United States, curator Brad Spence relates that when Ader's faculty locker was opened, it contained "a copy of the book The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst. . . . At the time, this text seemed to offer a possible clue to Ader's disappearance, for it gives a non-fictional account of a sailor's attempt to fake a non-stop, solo voyage around the globe and his eventual loss of sanity and life to the sea."

A man sits in a chair next to a small table with a lamp, a glass of water, and a copy of Reader's Digest. He proceeds to read a story about a boy who survived tumbling over Niagara Falls in a small boat, punctuating each line of the story with a sip of water from the glass. When the story is concluded, the glass has been emptied, and the man rises to leave.

Ader presented The boy who fell over Niagara Falls in 1972 at Art & Project; then the props were reduced to the Reader's Digest at the Kabinett fur Aktuelle Kunst in Bremerhaven (documentary photographs show Ader seated next to a moderne table and gallery filing cabinets). The boy who fell over Niagara Falls contains most of what has come to be identified with Ader's mature work, especially his witty use of the pared-down poetic metaphor (the sips of water contain the cataract in a glass; the suggestion of the watery falls recapitulates the pratfalls that make up a number of Ader's best projects as well as the tears he cried, and the ocean he drowned in). Ader gestures toward the mortal risk and failure inherent in any search for the miraculous or experience of the sublime: Just as the boy might not have survived the forces of Niagara, so the glass of water contains the intimate possibility of drowning.

Both Collier Schorr and Jan Tumlir, in his catalogue essay for the retrospective, have focused on Ader's repetition of various gestures and actions. In addition to its performance, The boy who fell over Niagara Falls exists as a series of photographic works; I'm Too Sad began as a group of ideas in one of Ader's notebooks: "Short film 'I'm too sad to tell you' drink tea sadly and begin to cry//Postcard of me sadly crying. On back: 'I'm too sad to tell you'//'The space between us fills my heart with intolerable grief'//The thoughts of our inevitable and separate deaths fills my heart with intolerable grief." He then made a photograph, a film, and the postcard edition. Perhaps more than repetition, Ader was exploring the conundrum of how to document - in language and/or visually - any performance or action. It is as if he were investigating the ontology and epistemology of the then-nascent fascination with performance and its documentation, with a thoroughness eluding any other Conceptual artist. Ader's concerns could be reiterated from work to work, as the video Primary Time, 1974, reformulates Untitled (Flower Work), 1974, a photographic series in which Ader, clad in black top and pants, stands before a red, yellow, and blue bouquet of flowers; in the final image of each of the three rows of photos, the bouquet, carefully rearranged, is composed only of red flowers, then yellow flowers, then blue. While these closely related pieces echo the artist's humorous On the road to a new Neo Plasticism, Westkapelle Holland, 1971, a slapstick meditation on Mondrian and De Stijl, the flower works expand to bloom with memories of Ader's homeland, stereotyped (fittingly enough) with American notions of Dutchness: The bouquet, although resolutely not of tulips, recalls their bright red and yellow and the inattention stereotyping allows.

Born in the Netherlands in 1942, Ader spent most of his adult life in the United States, in or around Los Angeles, although he returned to Holland for many important exhibits. He studied at Otis College of Art and Design, where he met his future wife, Mary Sue Andersen, and received an MFA at Claremont Graduate School. He did postgraduate work in philosophy at Claremont before beginning to teach art at Mount San Antonio College. But for all his educational and philosophical pedigree, there's nothing academic about the work, and the sharpness of Ader's Conceptualism is often the result of his relentless and humorous exploration of the metaphorical, comical, and performative consequences of a single movement: the fall. Almost all his major works make use of the conceit, even when it is not their central theme. In the simple, beautiful early piece Light vulnerable objects threatened by eightcement bricks, 1970, cinder blocks are suspended by long ropes above "light vulnerable objects" - a bouquet of flowers in a vase, pillows, eggs, lightbulbs, a birthday cake - until Ader cuts the cord; tension and suspense over, the cinder blocks fall to collide with the objects below. A brief film in which Ader smashes a group of illuminated lightbulbs by tossing stones on them is called Nightfall (and as Tumlir shrewdly points out, "appears to symbolically extinguish all the enlightenment currents that power the proverbial lightbulb of 'Idea Art'"); his On the road to a new Neo Plasticism deploys the primary colors (red, yellow, blue) associated with the modern Dutch masters but is centered by Ader's splayed, prostrate body, post-fall; even the photographic work, Untitled (Tea Party), 1972, in which he crawls through a wooded area to the makings of a silver-service setting and proceeds to sip tea, only to have a trap box fall over him, relates to falling - not just the literal action of the box that will entrap him but the allusive connections to the Mad Hatter's tea party after Alice has fallen down the rabbit hole. Allowing Ader's metaphorical navigations to make their fullest journey, In Search of the Miraculous may evoke earlier myths of explorers risking the earth's flatness and falling over its edge, punishment for their pride. In one of his notebook entries, Ader jotted an idea for a postcard: "Greetings from Beautiful Ader Falls." More ominously, he wrote, "All is falling."

His greatest fascination was unpowered flight, however, and for years he drew plans for possible man-operated flying machines. In his old age he was allowed to indulge fully his fantasies by the old people's home where he lived in southern Germany. The cellar beneath the home became his workshop, and it was here that he assembled his machines from old poles, umbrellas, tin cans and bicycles. Known locally as the "Icarus of Lauteral", Mesmer became a familiar figure as, wearing complex winged outfits, he rode his bicycle into the wind. His inventions included the "umbrella helicopter" and the "shoulder flap flying device', and although he never lifted himself off the ground for more than a second or so, he never gave up.23 (RAW CREATION -- Gustav Mesmer) (PLATE 24)

The weather as a weapon

I was sitting indoors watching something on TV about something or other, exactly what I don’t remember but I do remember that on this programme two children where playing in the snow. The excitement of seeing and playing in the snow for young children must be universal; there surly can not be a child that would not enjoy building a snowman or throwing a snowball given the opportunity. I remember myself looking out of my bedroom window as a child and seeing the familiar view transformed into a white magical place, it seemed quiet and undisturbed except for tracks left by wildlife passing through my garden. I was soon up wellies on and out there to disturb with my brother.

 I also remember being a young adult walking through a town centre as it started to snow and seeing a young child the same age as I must have been running around picking snow only to be shouted at by his mother for getting his “new shoes dirty” he was swiftly pulled up and marched of down the road by his mother who I heard saying to her friend “I’ll be able to wear those new boots that I brought a couple of weeks ago” as they went into an off licence.

 My point is this; snow is weather which is nature. Children have an instinctive closeness to nature that slowly disappears and is replaced by being an inconvenience. Now what it was on the TV program that started me thinking was when I saw the children instinctively picking up snow and throwing it at each other. These primitive snowballs were the snow being used as a weapon. The weather became a weapon. Now, I thought to myself, if a child can do that what could an experienced scientist do with the weather? Surly I am not the first to see the possibility. There must be examples throughout history of some flights of fantasy and some actual stories of the success of man harnessing the weather for his own means be they used for or against fellow man and nature. The possibilities become terrifying in the extreme.

 One of the major concerns of our times is that of global warming, the melting of the polar ice caps, the growing hole in the ozone layer and the total reluctance of the majority of people to adjust their consumer lifestyles to help the strain on the environment. We are already seeing extreme weather patterns all over the world, the weather is becoming our enemy, turning against us and taking so many lives. I can hardly imagine the potential of the weather being used as weapon against particular countries or areas. I believe the potentials to be far more horrific that any atomic weapon.

 And so I have decided to research and explore any past theories and the possibility of the weather as a weapon, and on the flip side of this any possibility of the harmonising of man through the weather is surly possible.    

Bread birdhouses no.s: 6,5,3,7,8,4

a diary: 21-2-06 to 3-3-06

Am: 21-2-06 No.6- no progress No.5- no progress No.3-no progress No.7 no progress. No rain yet. All still intact and holding the same positions as yesterday. 11:00.Pm: 21-2-06 No.6-no progress No.5-no progress No.3-no progress No.7 no progress clear afternoon. 15:17.Am: 22-2-06 No.6-no progress No.5-no progress No.3-no progress No.7- no progress. A bit overcast with drizzle a few birds in the tree. 10:45 am. 13:09.Pm: 22-2-06 No. 6-no progress (small bird spotted) No.5-no progress No.3-no progress No. 7-no progress. Blue tit spotted in nearby tree. Small bird spotted at 15:30 sitting on top of house! Am: 23-2-06 No.6 branch fallen off No.5 no progress No.3 no progress No.7 no progress sleet and snow this morning. Put two birdhouse’s up at “little green” 1x bread 1x wood with breadstick (white hair inside). Van with skip has driven into tree no.6!! Branch fallen off! bread birdhouse ok. Pm 23-2-06 No.6 no progress No.5 no progress No.3 no progress No.7 no progress + no.8/no.4- new editions. Sleet turned to rain. Am: 24-2-06 No.6 looking slightly soggy No.5 no progress No.3 no progress No.7 breadstick bread soggy from the night but holding shape and position. Pm: 24-2-06 No.6 no progress No.5 no progress No.3 no progress No.7 no progress No.8 no progress No.4 no progress clear day. Spoke to council men in van said their’d give me a hand next week. Am: 25-2-06 No.6 no progress No .5 no progress No.3 no progress No.7 no progress No.8 no progressNo.4 no progress going to work. Pm: 25-2-06 No.6 no progress No.5 no progress No.3 no progress No.7 no progress No.8 no progress No.4 no progress Viv saw a wheater nibbling on loaf in zen garden at little green. Am: 26-2-06 No.6 no progress No.5 no progress No.3 no progress No.7 no progress No.8 no progress No.4 no progress clear day lots of little bird appearing in nearby trees. Pm: 26-2-06 No.6 no progress No.5 no progress No.3 no progress No.7 no progress No. 8 no progress No.4 no progress. Am: 27-2-06 No.6 no progress No.5 no progress No.3 no progress No.7 no progress No.8 no progress No.4 no progress clear breezy day. Pm: 27-2-06 No.6 no progress No.5 no progress No. 3 no progress No.7 no progress No.8 no progress No.4 no progress quite uneventful but lively at little green. Am: 28-2-06 No.6 no progress No.5 no progress No.3 no progress looks like it’s slipped No.7 no progress No.8 no progress No.4 no progress been raining but clear cloudy morning. Pm: 28-2-06 No.6 no progress No.5 no progress No.3 no progress No.7 no progress No.8 no progress No.4 no progress snowing then turned clear again! Am: 1-3-06 No.6 no progress No.5 no progress No.7 no progress No.8 no progress No.4 no progress snow hasn’t affected them to much the one near smoking wall’s perch has a split down the middle. Pm: 1-3-06 No.6 no progress No.5 no progress No.7 no progress No.8 no progress No.4 no progress another snow shower this afternoon. Am: 2-3-06 No.6 no progress No.5 no progress No.3 no progress No.7 no progress No.8 no progress No.4 no progress not many birds seem to be around. Pm: 2-3-06 No.6 no progress No.5 no progress No.3 no progress No.7 no progress No.8 no progress No.4 no progress clear day. Am: 3-3-06 No.6 no progress No.5 no progress No.3 no progress No.7 no progress No.8 no progress No.4 no progress clear morning. Pm: No.6 no progress No.5 no progress No.7 no progress No.8 no progress No. 4 no progress-fallen over a bit. Final day not much happening on the bird front! Keep an eye open for deterioration.