Common Ground Catalogue

MOYIN SAKA

Immaterial architecture

Borders, spikes, monitored spaces.

Monumental water fountains, sculptures adorned with memory. Holes erupting from tarmacked walkways exposing the city’s raw underbelly. Ancient trackways adorned with newly erected monuments; piles of trash, mulch, a deep growling from below.

Increasingly we are instructed as to where and how we belong. Our city streets and public spaces create a visual landscape which pre-define our collective memory, architecture controls how we act and defines who is of the public. Communities become increasingly immaterial, happening in cyberspace on platforms which simultaneously collect our data and monitor our activity.

How to create a physical community when we do not have autonomy over the spaces in which we gather? Where do we belong?

This work explores sound and listening as a tool to create a temporary community, an ‘immaterial architecture of public space.’ Sound works exposing the underbelly of the city will be broadcast live from The Barbican and installed in the in-between spaces, creating a temporary architecture of sound.

Katie Fiore

Window Shop is an installation taking the storytelling of traders on Columbia Road with the objects they sell and repositioning them

in

the

gallery

space.

Originally conceived as a photography project, market traders shared they felt visitors saw them as if ‘in a museum’, inspiring me to take the project away from a voyeuristic piece and into an installation offering further room for the traders and shopkeepers to tell their own stories, and encourage conversation. The Columbia Road community is a collective of independent artisans

and

collectors.

I draw parallels with the art market, where art is primarily a commodity, to create a community of conscious spectators, who like those coming to the flower market might be excited by the perception of authenticity, but need to invest time into really understanding

the

display.

To consider what relevace perception of value has on our understanding of art and design, as well as challenging the percieved openness of art, which continues to exclude the poorest within society, to think about place and community and create

further

conversation

Maria Goundry 6 Mixed Media pieces on Canvas

OUTSIDER

OUTSIDER

HIVE (a distant hum) performance / installation

Beth Christlow This multi-media installation explores the fragility and vulnerability of existence, challenging our understanding of ourselves and those we share the world with. Inspired by the global decline of honeybee populations, HIVE (a distant hum) enacts tensions between science and nature by considering the ways in which technology interacts with bodies in a modern world.

Sculpture, sound and projection combine to construct a large metallic honeycomb slat, representing a fragment of an industrial ‘hive’. This is a liminal space, part-beehive, part-laboratory, part-factory, in which boundaries between humans, animals and machines blur. The performer attempts to carve out an identity through repeated patterns of living and behaving. We observe a body merging with technology; a body ‘in process’; constantly collapsing, mutating, evolving and remaking itself.

This project was developed through biotechnical research into ‘RoboBees’; pollinating mechanical drones currently being developed in America. Inspired by the biology of real bees, RoboBees have potential uses in crop pollination, environmental monitoring and surveillance. In this work we consider the implications of using biological systems and organisms to develop products.

As bee populations rapidly decline and ecosystems face disproportionate impacts, it seems there is a growing need to reflect on our relationship with nonhuman communities. Perhaps it is time to foster a more mystical and empathetic understanding of non-humans. Enacting elements of sacrifice, alchemy, production and community, HIVE (a distant hum) explores the role of the honeybee within its own colony, the wider ecosystem and human communities therein. www.bethchristlow.com @bchristlow

From Modernism to Postmodernism and Home Again Cosima Cosima Cobley Cobley Carr Carr

The The Bar Barbican bican is is aa monument monument of of brutalist brutalist architecture. architecture. After After the the devastating devastating bombing bombing in in the the Second Second World World War, War, architects architects Chamberlin, Chamberlin, Powell Powell & & Bon Bon (CPB) (CPB) designed designed the the Barbican Barbican to to transform transform the the area. area.

Opened Opened in in 1982, 1982, the the Barbican Barbican consists consists of of 2,000 2,000 flats, flats, two two schools schools and and an an arts arts centre centre with with aa concert concert hall, hall, theatre, theatre, art art gallery, gallery, conservatory, conservatory, library, library, the the Guildhall Guildhall School School of of Music Music and and Drama, Drama, cinemas, cinemas, foyers, foyers, restaurants restaurants and and car car parks. parks. In In the the centre centre of of the the Barbican Barbican sits sits the the exhibition exhibition Common Common Ground, Ground, featuring featuring the the work work of of aa temporary temporary collective collective of of young young artists, artists, all all of of whom whom are are represented represented in in Yagiz Yagiz Akin’s Akin’s work work Divided?

Divided? Through Through aa discussion discussion of of the the works works in in this this exhibition, exhibition, II will will show show aa commonality commonality of of attitude attitude and and approach approach towards towards ideas ideas of of community community that that both both reflect reflect the the Modernist Modernist values values according according to to which which the the Barbican Barbican was was designed, designed, yet yet fully fully acknowledges acknowledges the the significance significance of of postmodernism. postmodernism.11 Like Like much much brutalist brutalist architecture, architecture, the the Barbican Barbican is is formed formed of of repeated repeated modular modular elements elements that that form form distinct distinct zones zones for for public public and and private, private, cultural cultural and and social, social, interlinked interlinked by by aa complex complex of of walkways, walkways, stairs stairs and and lifts. lifts.

Beth Beth Christlow’s Christlow’s work work HIVE HIVE (a (a distant distant hum) hum) mirrors mirrors the the modular modular architecture architecture of of the the Barbican, Barbican, using using aa beehive-like beehive-like structure structure as as aa central central point point in in her her performance performance and and multimedia multimedia installation installation to to address address the the relationship relationship between between bees bees and and technology technology designed designed to to mimic mimic their their behaviour. behaviour. Describing Describing her her work, work, Christlow Christlow states: states: “The “The performer performer attempts attempts to to carve carve out out an an identity identity through through repeated repeated patterns patterns of of living, living, breathing breathing and and behaving.” behaving.” This This work work considers considers the the view view of of community community as as aa series series of of specific specific actions actions and and the the upkeep upkeep and and regularisation regularisation of of these these acts. acts. As As R. R. D. D. Laing Laing states, states, aa group group (or (or community) community) only only exists exists insofar insofar as as 11

Modernism Modernism here here denotes denotes an an approach approach to to art, art, design design and and architecture architecture prevalent prevalent in in the Century, characterised characterised by by aa desire desire to to break break from from traditional traditional the first first part part of of the the 20 20thth Century, and and classical classical values values as as well well as as aa utopian utopian vision vision to to reinvent reinvent the the world world from from scratch. scratch. PostPostmodernism, modernism, aa broad broad term term originating originating in in the the late late 20 20thth Century Century describes describes aa range range of of approaches approaches to to artistic artistic and and academic academic work work characterised characterised by by aadistrust distrust of of grand grand theories, theories, ideologies ideologies and and narratives, narratives, usually usually entailing entailing some some form form of of scepticism scepticism or or relativism. relativism.

a person embodies that group; it does not exist independently from the members of the group, and, in that sense, the “person is essential to the nexus and the nexus is essential to the person”.2 Thus, if people stop acting in accordance with a group, it will dissolve. The individual’s performance of acts is therefore never complete, it must be repeated, and adapt to its changing environment. It is, as Christlow states: “a body which is constantly collapsing, mutating, evolving and remaking itself.”

One action that creates community bonds is gift-giving. Ranura Edirisinghe’s work The Gift, an installation and performance involving offering gifts to visitors to the exhibition, focuses on the act of giving as a way of forming relationships and communities. However, as a result of this, Edirisinghe’s work also forms a divide between those who have received a gift, and those who haven’t, creating a distinction between his community (us) and the rest of the public (them) that is based on material ownership. Another divide is also created through this action: that between the artist with his economic ability to give without reason, and those who receive. As Marcel Mauss states in his influential ethnology of gift-giving: “The unreciprocated gift still makes the person who has accepted it inferior, particularly when it has been accepted with no thought of returning it.”3 Structures of economic power are also explored elsewhere in the exhibition. Maisie Linford, through her documentary photography of shopkeepers, draws a parallel between the relationship between the shop owner, shopkeeper and customer with that of the art dealer, artist and viewer, arguing that there is an “invisible ownership that we often don’t realise of work”. Linford and Edirisinghe’s works not only take social and economic structures as their subject matter, but also show that the artists themselves are not external to such complex social structures.

Laing, R. D., (1967), The Politics of Experience and The Bird of Paradise, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, p.73.

3 Mauss, M., (2002), The Gift, London: Routledge, p.83.

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Structures and relationships of power, as Linford notes, can often be invisible. Moyin Saka’s work, the documentation of an online community she created for black femmes, shows this clearly. As Saka states: “black womxn have historically been denied the license to be vulnerable”. Her online community serves to “create space” for the emotional aspects of their lives, which go unacknowledged or are deemed socially unacceptable. Further, by bringing the documentation of this space into the public, Saka makes the invisible visible. This action, very much in line with the Modernist idea that art can and should transform society,4 seems hopeful in transforming this private online space into one that is publicly recognised. Modernist architect Le Corbusier, who had a great influence on CPB and the design of the Barbican, famously stated: that “Architecture is stifled by custom.”, and that: “A house is a machine for living in.” 5 In other words, we may become so preoccupied by style and tradition, that we create buildings which are in fact poorly designed for the purpose of living in. In this same vein, Saka’s work tries to create a world which accommodates for all aspects of black womxn’s lives. This optimistic political approach is also shown through Katie Fiore’s sound work: Hostile Architecture. Fiore, argues that “Hostile architecture controls how we act in a public space and defines who is ‘of the public’.” In response to this finding as well as her observation that communities are increasingly becoming immaterial due to the influence of technology and the internet, she creates an immaterial architecture through her work and uses “the idea of the collective voice and collective listening to create a temporary community.” Thus, where Fiore identifies an uninhabitable environment of our own creation, she imagines a new one.

Viewpoints that allow power structures to remain invisible and stereotypes remain unquestioned are an inherent consequence of community membership. As Laing notes: “once fundamental structures 4

Wilk, C., (2006), “Introduction: What was Modernism?”, in Modernism: Designing a New World, London: V&A Publications, p.14.

5 Le Corbusier, (1986), Towards a New Architecture, New York: Dover Publications Inc., p.95.

of experience are shared, they come to be experienced as objective entities.”6 Power structures are part of our particular way of life and way of viewing the world. As Michel Foucault states: “power produces reality…The individual and the knowledge that may be gained of him belong to this production.” 7 The phenomenon of gentrification, explored in the work of Maisie Linford and Maria Goundry, illustrates this. Meaning “to renovate inner-city housing to middle-class standards”, gentrification is problematic as it sees progress from the view of a single group in society, without recognising that other viewpoints and values are possible. Of course, we cannot always consciously recognise the subjectivity of every action. As mentioned, even the basic movements of the body may be seen as cultural, indicative of a membership and upbringing in a particular community.

As Mauss states: “There is no technique and no transmission in the absence of tradition.” 8 However, this is not an excuse for wilful ignorance. When building communal structures that involve multiple communities such thinking is clearly necessary. However, what this tension highlights, is that our particular viewpoint and way of life can often seem natural and true/objective, despite our realisation, implicit in postmodernism, that it is culturally constructed.

Community membership, therefore, involves a way of life (including certain activities and language-use) and a way of experiencing the world that seems natural to its members. Further, as Laing states: “Once people can be induced to experience a situation in a similar way, they can be expected to behave in similar ways.”9 Community agreements on acceptable ways to act and a definition of us as a group also infers an agreement on what is unacceptable and the definition of an oppositional group: them. My own work, It’s a Short Walk from the Dinner Table to the Asylum, explores how communities draw Laing, R. D., (1967), p.65.

Foucault, M., (1991), Discipline and Punish: The Birth of a Prison, London: Penguin, p.194.

8 Mauss, M., (1973), “Techniques of the body” from Economy and Society 2 (1), London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, p.75.

9 R. D. Laing, (1967), p.80.

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boundaries between what is acceptable and unacceptable. Focusing on diverse emotional experience, this moving-image work explores how one can isolate oneself through mis-speaking (speaking in a way that is either not understood or is deemed unacceptable by the group) and the isolation and de-humanisation that such a move can entail. The naturalness of our own way of life thus seems to infer that other ways of life are in some sense unnatural. The activity of policing the behaviour of other members of one’s community is also seen as natural. As Laing states: “It is not ‘natural’ if father is neither proud nor ashamed of son, daughter, mother etc.”10 Thus, in order for a community to sustain itself, it is not only required that members are educated according to the way of life of that community, as highlighted through the use of instructional video in my work, but also that the members police each other’s behaviours according to these shared expectations.

The most intensive period of education we experience, and thus the actions and opinions that are most natural to us (whether we later try to fight against them or not), are those we learn as a child. Thus, it is often with those whom we grow up with that we feel most comfortable and behave most naturally. Pietro Bardini, Natasha Thomas and Aroob Sajjad’s work address different ideas of home and heritage. Bardini describes home as a “primitive feeling that accompanies our lives”, arguing that it is “less about memory and more about an active feeling of belonging and safety.” Bardini’s work, a modest structure made from cardboard, inside which sits a pile of soil, a bare lightbulb and the sound of an elderly woman (Bardini’s grandmother) singing, clearly invokes ideas of something basic and natural in us all.

Stephanie Francis-Shanahan questions the lure of such ideas of heritage, home and naturalness in her performance work, An Uneasy Peace of Familial Bliss. Clad in macabre costumes that draw on the language, culture and folklore of her Irish heritage, Francis-Shanahan walks the many levels of the Barbican as an expression of mourning both for the breakdown of family structures, and a coming awareness that the ideals 10 10

R. D. Laing, (1967), p.75.

of one’s heritage may not in fact be a reality. This dual meaning is particularly evident in the Gaelic phrases printed on Francis-Shanahan’s costumes. For example, the phrase “céad mïle fáilte” (a hundred thousand welcomes) seems to be an ironic gesture towards both the welcoming idea of home, as well as the ideal of Irish hospitality.

However, Francis-Shanahan’s work is not merely an ironic commentary, symptomatic of the postmodern condition, highlighting problematic narratives we live by. As indicated by another Gaelic phrase: “Nil luibh ná leigheas in aghaidh an bháis” (There is no remedy or cure against death), Francis-Shanahan’s work shows that something meaningful underlies these traditions and shows a firm belief in the value of human, specifically family, relationships. This is affirmed in Joe Fear’s work, a graphic novel documenting his community’s mourning after his friend’s tragic suicide. This work clearly shows the importance of community bonds, and the humanness and universality of collective mourning.

Thus, whilst acknowledging the social structures and narratives we live by, for these artists, this does not lead, as postmodernism often does, to scepticism. Rather, the artists in this exhibition assert the importance of human relationships and communities. Meaning comes from the way of life we share with others, rather than something beyond this. As Wittgenstein states: “I did not get my picture of the world by satisfying myself of its correctness; nor do I have it because I am satisfied of its correctness. No: it is the inherited background against which I distinguish between true and false.”11 It is with this awareness, and the sensitivity of approach to social structures that postmodernism has brought us, that the artists in this exhibition approach their work and ideas of community. Yet, what is shown is something, in the vein of Modernism, that celebrates the basic importance of communities, and, accordingly, where problems are identified, sees potential to re-invent the cultural space we live in.

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Wittgenstein, L., (1969), On Certainty, Oxford: Blackwell, §94.