Signage, pigeons and a right old party!

Last week I was lucky enough to take part in INTERЯOGATION: WEST BROMWICH which is a series of artistic investigations in response to the regeneration of West Bromwich; exploring the impact than one artist can have in one day. The project is run by Longhouse and lead artist Anna Francis and is based over four weeks, where each week different agents take part in missions which focus on a specific methodology - Action Research, Participation, Site Specific and Intervention. I was involved in the mission 'Site Specific' where our aim was to spend the day undercover as an agent to work quickly and responsively to a specific site and interrogate of the public spaces of West Bromwich.

Having never been to West Bromwich before and being slightly (okay, very) geographically challenged, it took a while to find my way around ... however I finally managed to negotiate my way to the meeting point - Stand F at the Central Bus Station at precisely 09:45 hours as I had been instructed. After surveying the target area from afar, I spotted the INTERЯOGATION agent (recognisable by his beret and moustache) that I had been instructed to meet who was discreetly reading a newspaper to blend in with the public. Little did he know however, I had come prepared with my own disguise for a bit of counter espionage ... a copy of The Times with two little eye holes cut out ... ah ha! Originally, my plan was to sit in the bus stop for about 5 minutes reading my spy-newspaper-disguise

nearby to the Agent (ideally I wanted him to notice) and then get up, inconspicuously stroll around and then approach the agent and deliver my code phrase ... wait for it ... at the same time throwing him with the fact that I wasn't really a member of the public but I had actually been spying on him, playing him at his own game! Anyway, in my head, it was a beautifully romantic notion that would be perfectly executed and I would ingeniously baffle the agent and at the same time gain spy notoriety for my clever game. In real life, however, things don't often go to plan ... particularly when they work so well in your head. Instead, I approached the bus stand with my disguise rolled under my arm and realised that in fact, the agent was leaning against the side of the bus shelter opposite the bins and a huge bus timetable and that all of the benches were quite far away ... and that it just wasn't going to work! Nevertheless, after faffing about in a split second of panic and confusion, I approached him (not so cool and composed as I had planned) and delivered the code phrase I had anonymously received the night before. After confirming my identity as requested, I then received a set of instructions that directed me to the INTERЯOGATION HQ where I deflatedly trundled along and was finally met by Agent Francis to brief us for the days mission.

After getting changed into my uniform - a beret, moustache and t-shirt (yey!) I then got acquainted with the three other agents on the Site Specific mission - Agents Cooper-Willis, Goodenough and Porter.

Throughout the day, we were each expected to carry out a project with a quick response in the INTERЯOGATION Zone which was located in the end of the High Street near the clock tower. We received a masterclass firstly by Agent Francis and then with Agent White who was our specialist mentor for the day which gave us an historical overview of West Bromwich and Site Specific artworks and a contextual overview and framework for the mission.

We had a quick tour around the immediate vicinity of the headquarters and the target area where I familiarised myself with the area and took loads of photos to document anything of immediate interest ...

taking in the view of The Public

kj

There were quite a few things that stuck out for me - the amount of signage there was, from hand-made signs on market stalls to printed one on empty shop units; pigeons (and their poo) everywhere, particularly around the clock tower and statue at the end of the high street which were both things built to celebrate the town and also the bright red balloons that I saw which seemed odd in contrast with everything else in the town. There seemed to be a big paradox whilst I was walking around ... there was The Public, a £54m arts venue and then lots and lots of empty shop units and deserted areas.

From my initial research, I decided to focus on the positive elements of the town and to create a dialogue with the public that tried to find out: What is the best thing about West Bromwich? I asked participants what they thought the best thing about there town was and in return paid them in chocolate money. Many people struggled to find something positive, but they all came up with interesting things. I also focused on the pigeons by creating a sort of secondary project by placing them in different locations around the target zone to get people to think about and celebrate mundane areas of the town they would normally pass by.

I used the information that I collected from people to create adhoc signage from discarded bits of cardboard from some of the market stalls and placed them randomly along the High Street. Earlier in the day, Agent Goodenough and I also identified a common theme of celebrating West Bromwich and decided to collaborate at the end of the mission by holding a party so I also used this opportunity to advertise the party and hand out the invitations that we had made.

The mission became a multi-disciplinary approach, merging different projects so that they overlapped and influenced each other and also collaborating to create a more explicit project and way of creating dialogue with the public. By spreading the word of the party through signage, invitations and by telling all of the participants I spoke to, it was a great success, although some people were wary that we were giving away things that were free and promptly avoided us! We set up a table near the clock tower and had loads of food, sweets, drinks, party poppers and balloons and managed to speak to people quite easily about why they thought West Bromwich was a great place.

All of the information that we collected was put up with other documentation from the day in the wall space in the HQ where we were able to disseminate our findings and reflect on the days activities.

I was really quite sad when I had to take off the beret and moustache at the end of the day! I got such a mixture of looks from people - surprise, confusion, and suspicion and it kind of gave me the authority to do things that would be perceived a pretty weird, such as sticking pigeons all over the town centre or attaching signs to the back of moving trucks! I am planning a post interrogation intervention this Friday before the Interrogation exhibition and conference is open to the public at the Interrogation HQ to extend the ideas that I started so we'll see what happens ...

Happy New Year! (ish)

September always feels a bit like the beginning of a new year; the end of the summer, darker evenings, back to teaching, meeting new students and trying to be more organised than the previous academic year. The summer seems to have gone so quickly but it has been really productive and I can't believe how much has happened since last September ... conferences, exhibitions, textstallations, book-paintings, travelling and research; a right old textual and material journey where sometimes I came to dead-ends, went backwards and in circles but have moved forwards considerably!

I spent the end of the holidays in Manchester and visted the John Rylands Library for the first time ever. I can't believe I've never been there before as it is the most amazing place ... like Hogwarts but better and filled floor to ceiling with loads of beautiful books dating back from hundreds of years ago all in one place - what more could you possibly want?!

It felt really inspiring to be in there; you can study in the big hall and I can imagine I'd get quite a lot of work done there! There was also a small exhibition called Spilled Milk: A Multi-media Storybook by an artist called Johnny Woodhams there which I thought was really interesting.

I liked the use of strips of text in his work which is something I've been exploring in my art practice and how they were used aesthetically in his canvases as well as to create a narrative.

I also went to the Chinese Arts Centre which I'd never been to before. There was a great exhibition with some beautiful Chinese ink drawings and calligraphy by artists Mary Tang and Cathy Wu. I've been using a lot of found text from different languages in my work and really liked the diagrammatic nature of the Chinese text; how they seemed to be in-between drawing and writing when viewed by someone who is unfamiliar with the language. Some of the pieces were also on a massive scale, which made them seem even more abstract and alien.

There an exhibition there as well by Tasha Whittle called Note to Self which I really liked. The work included a site specific wall-based piece and other smaller pieces which were placed at different levels around a corridor space which led to the lower floor of the building. I really liked how the work was exhibited in a space where you had to travel through it to see the work and that it was always seen at different angles and levels as you passed through.

Obviously, being me, I was also drawn to the amazing tea house there where there is one wall just filled with chinese tea where you help yourself to a pot and they top it up with hot water for you! There were loads of different types of teas ... Rose Bud tea, Lychee black tea, Jasmine green tea ... a top notch mixed bag of Chinese tea delights!

I went to see the MA shows at Margaret Street, BIAD and it's crazy to think it was this time three years ago in 2007 when I was having my MA show there as well. The show this year was a triple whammy as it included the MA shows, an exhibition called When We Build Let Us Think That We Build Forever and also an exhibition of work by current staff in a new gallery space in the building. There was a couple of pieces that I especially liked in the MA shows including the pieces below and an installation on the bottom floor which was like being in a chicken coop!

Claire Thomas, MA Art Practice and Education

Anna Tzini, MA Queer Studies in Arts and Culture

Andrew Dundas, MA Fine Art

The opening of When We Build Let Us Think That We Build Forever celebrated the 125th anniversary of the fantastic neo-gothic School of Art building in Margaret Street which was the first purpose built art school in the UK. It was organised by the university's Alumni Association and twas a rather classy affair including complimentary drinks, canapes and even a string quartet! It also included an opening talk by Professor John Butler, Head of the School of Art who talked about the different courses that used to be run in the building including Stained glass making, Enamelling, Embroidery and Weaving and House Painting and Decorating. Its amazing to think the building has survived two world wars and the courses have developed into its contemporary forms such as painting, sculpture, performance, film and interactive digital work!

All of the work in the show was made by former students and staff, some who studied at the beginning of the century! As I was wondering round, I thought it was nice to see a mixture of different work together and also to finally see the beast in situ. The beast stuck out like a sore thumb against the grey walls and the muted colours of the other works, but I quite liked that it visually made an impact because of the colour! After all ... it is the beast. Not sure what to do with the bad boy now though, anyone want to take it off my hands?! Ill pay you! (No, seriously, I am joking).

The exhibition included some sexy books from the Margaret Street archives which were typographically and aesthetically really interesting because of the fragility and intrictate detail of them.

The new space looked really good and replaced what used to be a small canteen. It was really cool to see the staff exhibit their work and it included pieces from my former tutors and also my DoS.

I spent last weekend working at Artsfest in Birmingham where I worked on the Heart of England Galleries marquee. I worked there representing the Shire Hall Gallery in Stafford where I work as a casual Front of House member of staff. It was an intense weekend and despite really achey feet, it was a great experience and I met some ace people from each of the different galleries. I did a free badgemaking workshop on the first day and there was a young girl who must have only been about 10 who made a badge which said 'I'm proud to be a geek'! I thought what a cool kid, I wish I had the balls to be proud to be geeky when I was 10! I wish I'd taken a picture of it but I did tell her it was the best badge I'd seen all day! Our stand was at the top of the fountain in Victoria Square so we were near one of the performance spaces so we got to see the performances including a cool drum band, salsa dancing and some street dancing where we had a bit of a dance whilst doing the workshops! : )

Also, good luck to Rachel Marsden and RJW as they embark on an intense 4 month art and research-based trip around China! Miss you guys loads!!