Cedric Price Public Art Project

As part of a cross-school collaborative project, this piece of public art/performance is one of the most important pieces of work I've been a part of in my time at art school. It engages socially, appreciates different parts of the city, and shows that small and inexpensive acts can improve an area, if only for a week in the school holidays.

Brief: actively and critically engage with the city and its’ population using methods you devise. Question access and ownership, rights and responsibilities. Identify a public space and develop an intervention to activate it.

Site where high rise flats at Norfolk Court were recently demolished.

We noticed the paradox between the three stages of building present; the standing high rise flats, the pile of rubble left by the demolition and the vacant area where two high rises once stood. The dust left by the demolition covered the area in a grey smog, negatively affecting the community. We decided to focus on the effects of the dust which was such a prominent issue at the time.

We wanted to create something with the people in the community, rather than impose our ideas on them.

Main Goals:

• Focus on impact of Dust
• Focus on change, evolution, destruction
• Interact with the community
• Create something with the community rather than impose ideas on them
• Evoke emotion and memory
• Reverse dust’s negative impact
• Installation should be impermanent
• Use color to brighten the area

Children from Norfolk Court helped us decorate the playground.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVWxP-0aS6o

We presented the Cedric Price Project at Strathclyde University.

'Let's Knit Together': Performance

Performance as part of COMMON PLATFORM, Group Exhibiton, 21st May 2010, SWG3.

Props = Computer chair, yarn (twine), size 7.5 knitting needles, leather gloves.

Place computer chair 5-10 metres away from a pillar twine can be securely tied to. Tie twine to pillar and unravel to computer chair (leaving enough to cast on and begin comfortably) and cut. Cast on 10 stitches using end of twine, sit down on chair with feet off the floor, and start knitting. As knitting continues and becomes tenser and gradually more difficult, the piece of knitting gets larger, while the knitter and the chair get closer to the pillar (wall).

Images from book of collages

In Writing

Session #4: Stream of Consciousness & Interior Monologue

The second extract we read comes from later in the novel, and illustrates how one thought leads to another by a quick process of association. Stephen Dedalus watches two nuns/midwives walking on the beach. He recalls that one such midwife assisted at his own birth. He glimpses some knitting in her bag and imagines the strand of wool as a navel cord, and the knitting as a “misbirth” “hushed in ruddy wool”. The idea of a navel cord makes him think of the genetic links that connect all human beings, going back to our original “mother”, Eve. “Navel” reminds him of “navel gazing”, or meditation. His knowledge of Greek  tells him the Greek word for navel, “omphalos” Somehow, the “cord” or cable, together with the idea of monks meditating in order to connect with God, gives Dedalus the hilarious idea of telephoning Eden: “Hello. Kinch here. Put me on to Edenville. Aleph, alpha: nought, nought, one.”

Quiet Arguments, Small sounds

The Whole Story

a knitted conversation

artifacts

'Let's Knit Together'

Public Art Project. Tuesday 23rd February.

Panasonic Shop, Byres Road, Glasgow.

3 films of people knitting playing on 11 TVs, 12pm-5pm.

An experienced knitter:

A first time knitter:

Inside the TV shop:

A (very) short film of the work: