Pippa Koszerek project - Out of Office

Out of Office: A free networking day for artists who work in offices  

Artists who feel that their day job intrudes or extends into their artwork and daily life are invited to book a place on this networking event that promises a range of zany solutions for creating art out of the everyday.  Taking blue-sky thinking to a new level, art duo Fitness for Artists (Pippa Koszerek and Anna Pharoah) bring the office outdoors, transforming the formal structure of Mostyn Gardens into a hot-desking environment.  

Drawing inspiration from the processes and rituals of the workplace, the event involves a range of activities to connect with other artists and to find starting points for making new work.  

To reserve a place or make an enquiry please contact info@postartists.com www.postartists.com  

Out of Office promises:
√ Fun
√ Over-loaded information
√ New colleagues for the lone worker
√ Adminovator policies: turning your office work into art work  
√√√√ Participants will gain the opportunity to think about conceptual fitness.    

Part of the exhibition Away Day, supported by Arts Council England and Merton Arts Development. www.postartists.com  Led by artists Pippa Koszerek & Anna Pharoah, who work together as Fitness for Artists.

Pippa Koszerek creates organisations as artworks/curatorial projects such as the Independent Art School (1999-) and The Unasked-for Public Art Agency (2006-). She is interested in blurring the boundaries between art and non-art environments and borrows materials or ways of working from other vocations. She is currently undertaking a commission with the Exhibitions Department at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design that explores artist's non-art trades in which she is developing a series of public interventions based on collaborations with secretaries and office workers.

Anna Pharoah’s practice centres on creating performances and interventions that draw upon an audience, or members of the public. She is interested in engaging people in a process of exchange, and through chance encounters. She experiments with scenario and interaction, working within the boundaries of the phenomena that exist within a location or situation already, and extending these to the verge of what is believable.

Some quotes from Saturday Drive in Event

The artist, Chris Dyson, who had devised this event as part of his ongoing Nine Trades of Dundee project with Michelin Type PLC.  said ‘ I am really pleased, the event exceeded all expectations. I found it really inspiring that people saw the value in getting involved, the audience and organisers all played a part in making it a success. This event comes quite early in my project with Michelin where I have been filming and speaking to staff for a few weeks now. I am going to produce a film from my experiences here which will be finished in the summer.’

Rhona Crofts, one of the Michelin employees who had suggested the film Grease, said ‘ I chose Grease because it’s a good film that everyone can enjoy and it’s a classic Drive In Movie. This really was a fun thing to do on a Saturday night and I thought that the event was really well organised.’

Laura Simpson, who is part of the team running the Nine Trades of Dundee Project with nine artists in workplaces across the city said ‘We planned the event to be a fun and exciting way to engage with culture and it certainly delivered on those elements. It was a very positive experience to see everyone work together to deliver the event in good spirits. Our aim with the project to bring creativity to the heart of the workplace was born out not just through the film selection process but by the inventiveness of the Michelin staff and stewards in the creation of 1950’s Americana themed goody bags with gum, cola and popcorn. Some of the team (including Debbie Richardson one of the main Michelin contacts and Clare Thornton another of the Nine Trades of Dundee artists) dressed up in swirling 1950’s swing skirts and I even saw some girls in Pink Ladies jackets watching the film.

There is a lot going on with the Nine Trades of Dundee project at the moment. We have artists working in fabric factories, offices, hairdressers, recycling depots and bars, you can see more about those projects on the website www.ninetrades.com’

A short documentary about the Michelin Drive In event and representations from the other eight projects will be on show at a free public event called The Final Gathering at Centrespace, downstairs at Dundee Contemporary Arts on Saturday 17^th July.

Press Release for Michelin Drive In Cinema

DUNDEE FACTORY IS THE UNLIKELY SETTING FOR A DRIVE-IN SATURDAY

A taste of 1950s Americana will come to Dundee this weekend when the large Michelin factory plays host to a special, one-off, drive-in cinema event as part of a project to take art directly to the workplace

A special high powered projector will be used to show the film Grease in the grounds of the Baldovie Road factory for Michelin staff and their families. They will be able to view the film from the comfort of their cars on Saturday, April 10th. Grease, which is set in the US during the 1950s, also features scenes at a drive-in theatre.

The Nine Trades of Dundee project was initiated by Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, part of the University of Dundee, to challenge preconceptions about who is an artist.  The nine individual projects are run by artists who have second, non-art, jobs.

Chris Dyson, the artist responsible for organising the event, said the response from staff has been excellent, and that he expected up to 50 cars to descend on the factory’s grounds for the ticketed 8.30pm showing. 

“Everyone I have spoken to has been really upbeat and positive about the drive-in cinema,” he said.  “I’ve spent the last few weeks working with staff at Michelin and asking them to suggest films that we can show.  All the people here have engaged with the idea and I think they like how unusual it is.”

Workers at the factory who have been voting for their favourite movie over the past few weeks and Chris added that it was fitting that Grease was the film chosen to be shown.

Chris (27) is a film-maker and sculptor who also works as a metal fabricator at a workshop in Glasgow.  He now attends Michelin one day a week to film events at the plant and interview workers as he seeks to document life at a modern industrial factory. 

He will also cover the drive-in event and the resultant film will be shown at the conclusion of the Nine Trades project at a public ‘Final Gathering event on the 17^th July at the Visual Research Centre downstairs at Dundee Contemporary Arts.

Originally from Leeds, Chris received a BA (Hons) in Environmental Art from Glasgow School of Art in 2005.  Since then his work has been shown across the UK and internationally.  He says that his experiences of working as a metal fabricator have informed his films and sculptures and this is what interested him in Nine Trades of Dundee.

“I approached Michelin because I was intrigued by the large grounds at the factory and how this opened up the possibility of hosting a drive-in cinema,” he said.  “The company have been very helpful and it has been very interesting to hear the views of the people that work there.

“Whereas only another six people work with me in the workshop, there are 800 at Michelin, and many of them have been there for 30 years or so.  The fact there is such a long-standing workforce means they have a lot of stories to tell that are both funny and reveal a lot about life in a factory.

“Hearing them speak, you understand how big a role that the company has played in Dundee over the years.  The workers have a great deal of affection for the place, and this commitment comes across in their interviews.”

Nine Trades of Dundee is a project initiated by Exhibitions at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design.  It was inspired by the ‘The Nine Incorporated Trades of Dundee’, an organisation that has been operating since the 1400’s.  Originally concerned with commerce and standards of the city it now functions as a charity and is involved in the preservation of heritage.

‘Nine Trades of Dundee’ aims to increase arts access and encourage more participation for non-arts audiences by bringing art activity and creativity to the heart of the workplace.

Ian Peart, Site Personnel Manager, said that Michelin was delighted with the opportunity to work with the Nine Trades of Dundee project as it presented the workforce with a unique chance to share their experiences of life in the plant with Chris. 

“This should provide a fascinating record of the life of the factory through the eyes of the people who work there.  At the same time, it has also given some of our employees, friends and families the chance to see the factory turned into a little corner of the USA by attending the Drive-in Movie set up on site.”

Notes to editors:

Nine Trades of Dundee is a project devised by Exhibitions at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee, with major funding from The National Lottery through the Scottish Arts Council’s Inspire Fund.

Nine Trades of Dundee has also been supported by University of Dundee Graduates Council, The Nine Incorporated Trades of Dundee and Tay Charitable Trust.

The outputs of the ‘Nine Trades of Dundee’ will include nine core collaborative commissions; a ‘Nine Trades Final Gathering’ event bringing together the artists, participants and wider audience; two ‘open door’ tours to see the work in situ; nine ‘Nine Trades Apprenticeships’ for Duncan of Jordanstone students; one ‘Nine Trades’ workshop for a Dundee school; and a linked Creative Learning Resource to accompany the ‘Nine Incorporated Trades of Dundee’ display at McManus Galleries.  

The project will commission nine artists with second non-art trades to lead collaborative art projects with workers from that particular trade, and commissions will be developed to fit the individual artists practice and the working environment and the artist will receive curatorial and peer support as part of the larger ‘Nine Trades of Dundee’ project.

More information is available by visiting www.ninetrades.com.

Cell Projects Space - Art & Labour Summit

Art & Labour Summit: Cultural Workers, Artists, Students, and Interns Meet to Organise, Name Names, and Coordinate Demands  

Thursday April 22nd, 6pm-9pm 

Cell Projects Space 258 Cambridge Heath Road,  London E2 9DA 

Free entry and all welcome  

We'd like you to join us for a special event and organisational party open to all who are interested in the better understanding and active transformation of the way art, free labour, and education work. Crises are moments of great opportunity, as we all know, and those defunding and devaluing our labour have been busy applying this knowledge.  

We invite your active participation in an evening of events:  

1. 'Show and Tell' - bring evidence of your current research, campaigns or projects dealing with art and labour to share with the group.  

2. 'Name and Shame' - collectively create a map of power structures on the wall where we name our exploiters, quantify their exploits, draw the hidden or overt links between them and chart the ideas that legitimise their subsistence.  

3. 'Coordinate Demands' - engage in small group discussions to identify your demands.  

4. 'Publish and Get Organised' - we will end the evening by having a look at what we have created to decide where and how we want to publish a map of our most urgent demands and discuss the experimental, pragmatic and sustainable organisational techniques we can use to co-ordinate the next steps.   

This event has been developed as a response and dialogue with the newspaper and website "Art Work: A National Conversation about Art, Labor, and Economics" recently published by Temporary Services. Pedro from 16 Beaver has brought forty free copies of the paper from the US to distribute to participants at the event in London, but you can also download the newspaper as pdf or read the articles online here: http://www.artandwork.us  

This summit is co-organised by Carrot Workers Collective, Micropolitics Group, Lottie Child, Ecosophy Group, Temporary Services, Free School, Short Term Solutions, Independent Art School, ARTSCHOOL/UK, Sophie Hope and Pedro Lasch (16 Beaver)...  

If you cannot attend the event, but would like to participate in the making of the map long-distance, just send us an email at the addresses below.  For any messages, comments, or questions related to this event, contact Sophie Hope - sophiehope[at]mac.com, or Pedro Lasch - plasch[at]duke.edu   

 

Michelin Drive In - Chris Dyson's event

The Nine Trades of Dundee project team enjoyed being part of our amazing Drive In Movie which took place for Michelin staff at the Michelin Tyre plant in Dundee last Saturday night. Here are some photos starting with artist Chris Dyson in hi-vis:

The movie Grease had been selected by the Michelin employees. 

The Work Office (TWO) is now hiring!, NYC

The Work Office (TWO) is now hiring!, NYC

The Work Office (TWO) - A multidisciplinary art project
Deadline: April 30, 2010

Visit www.theworkoffice.com to apply. We are accepting applications on a rolling basis through April 30th.

The Work Office (TWO) is a multidisciplinary art project disguised as an employment agency. Informed
by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the Great Depression in the 1930s, TWO is a gesture
to “make work” for visual and performing artists, writers, and others by giving them simple, idea-based assignments that explore, document, and improve daily life in New York City. From a temporary,
publicly accessible storefront office, TWO's administrators will hire employees, exhibit work, and
distribute Depression-era wages during weekly Payday Parties.

You are invited to submit an application online, choosing from one of the following assignments:

Build a bridge
Document a need for repairs
Make a regional travel guide for your block or neighborhood
Record an oral history
Reinterpret a newspaper photograph
Design a poster to promote something
Catalog existing WPA structures in New York
Make a mixed CD related to…
Give a concert for your houseplant
Start an American tradition that you’d like to be preserved
Assign yourself

A TWO administrator will contact and interview applications of interest.

Once hired, you will have a week to complete your assignment, for which you will be paid $23.50, the
weekly wage for an artist in the Federal One Project (the arts division of the WPA).

TWO will hold a Payday Party at the office at the end of each work week: April 23, May 7, and May 21.
Employees will collect their wages and the public will be invited to view the week’s works and learn
about the project.

We are accepting applications on a rolling basis through April 30, 2010. Please visit our website
www.theworkoffice.com for details and an application.

Questions? Write us at: apply@theworkoffice.com

The Work Office (TWO) is made possible by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Swing Space
program; project space at 156 William Street is donated by Capstone Equities. Additional funds are
provided by a grant from the Black Rock Arts Foundation and donations from generous individuals.

 

Catch up with 4 Nine Trades artists

It was great to hear about updates on four of the Nine Trades of Dundee artists' projects last night and to make a few introductions across the group.

Pippa Koszerek - had a productive week in Dundee and one of the things she has been focussing on with the secretaries she's working with is shorthand. It truely looks like a beautiful, elegant code and Pippa has been instructed how to write her name. She is also working with the graph and data presentation imagery that the secretaries use every day and following up on how to make this 3D and present within some of the office locations.

David Yu - has arrived in Dundee after another residency in Nigeria (yes I think that there is severe aclimatisation to occur yet). He is working with 6-8 bars and clubs around town and got a warm welcome back from some of the publicans he has been in touch with since his scoping visit in January.

Chris Dyson - this has been a busy time for Chris as he prepares for our biggest event yet, a secret staff-only Drive In Movie event. It will be 1950's themed to fit with the film Grease which was selected by the workers at the factory where Chris is based.

Fraser MacDonald - Fraser has been continuing his work at Friarton Recycling Depot and has several visits in the pipeline. We are hoping that these will include visits from an educational group from Scottish Natural Heritage and a special visit from one of Ange Taggart's workers groups from Dundee Central Library. I thoroughly reccommend a visit to the site, so I know that they will enjoy it.

see more about their projects and the other Nine Trades of Dundee artists on the blogs listed to the right of this page.

Fraser MacDonald exhibits at Generator Members' Show

Last Friday night the annual Generator Members' Show opened with 103 exhibits including one from Nine Trades of Dundee artist Fraser MacDonald. His work was a drawing board full of sketches (by hand and in Google-sketch-up) which illustrated an exhibition proposal. This proposal was for a street scene, complete with Bin Lorry trapped in a one way street and the exhibition is to be viewed by climbing up some steps and putting your head through a man hole!

Alan Grieve magazine

Nine Trades of Dundee artist Alan Grieve and Laura Simpson had a really interesting meeting with designer extraordinaire Tara Wainwright of University of Dundee's Design Print Marketing unit earlier in the year. Alan wants it to have a balance of fashion magazine design, trade skills and humour and had brought along lots of examples of great looking page layouts. Alan has been working on the storyboard for the magazine and will get to grips with InDesign this week. The magazines will be distributed to Hair Salons around Dundee (please get in touch if you want your salon to be included on the list), and will also be available at the Final Gathering event at Centrespace on the 17th July.

See more about Alan's project : http://ninetradesalan.blogspot.com/

Clare Thornton waxes lyrical about waxed cotton

Clare Thornton's project is progressing well and we have been lucky enough to have seen some samples of the waxed cotton that Halley Stevensons produce. Clare also did a presentation to DJCAD Textile Design students in advance of their Craft Festival Scotland project called Craft Interventions. The students art interventions, were specially made for different sites around the college and were unveiled on the same night as the Craft Research Exposition which opened last week: http://craftresearch.blogspot.com/2010/03/future-craft-invite.html

Clare has already met with DJCAD staff and visiting lecturers Frances Stevenson (see her work in the Research Expo mentioned above) and Fiona Jardine (artist based in Glasgow).

More about Clare's visits (including a great post with images from gent's outfitters on Reform Street which was once called Saville Row of the North) at Clare's blog: http://ninetradesclare.blogspot.com/

Ange reaching out from the Library

Its been great speaking to a couple of people that Nine Trades of Dundee artist Ange Taggart has been connecting to through her project. Theresa Lynn from Dundee City Council has been working to engage the folks of Dundee with the arts for years. I have met her a couple of times at art exhibition openings - most recently at the Cooper Gallery show - Moving Images from The Attic Archive. ( http://www.exhibitions.dundee.ac.uk/programmes_current.html ). So its great to hear a bit more about what she does and know that Ange and Theresa's paths will cross over the next few months.
Also I had a very positive conversation with Amina Shah from the exceptional Central Library. The work that they do there is amazing, the librarians look after the people as well as the books, running innovative cultural activity workshops with groups from different parts of the community. Ange has already been introducing her TagTool work to the clients and staff and has an amigo called Alistair who has particularly interested in that side of things. Alistair and Ange will be heading off to Austria to get skilled up with the originators of the TagTool and do some networking with other TagTool users.

Hear more about it on Ange's blog:   http://ninetradesange.blogspot.com/

Final Gathering announcement

Nine Trades of Dundee project team are pleased to announce that our celebratory event - to mark the end of the Nine Trades of Dundee project will be called the Final Gathering and will take place in Centrespace downstairs in Dundee Contemporary Arts. The event will take place on Saturday 17th July 2010 and is open to the participants and artists, their friends and family and also to the general public and others who have helped the project along the way. In short - You are Invited!!!
There will be information and representations from each of the nine projects so you can learn about whats happened in each of the locations.
More details to follow - please put the date in your diary.

David's coming to town

This week will see the return of Nine Trades of Dundee artist David Yu to Dundee. last time he was here he paced the streets and propped up the bars of Dundee, speaking to publicans across the city. Loads of bars were up for working with him and he has selected a good variety of locations. He will be talking to staff and working with them to produce video and audio footage. Editing this footage and including these within physical installations within the pubs is the aim. The footage from each will be swapped with the other pubs.