Tuesday 12 May 2009

Good News Exhibition - OVER: Protest Banner

I am taking part in ‘Good News’, an exhibition of site specific and performance art, which will take place in Alexandra Palace Park, London (in the vicinity of the Lakeside CafĂ©). The exhibition opens on Saturday 23rd May and is open daily until Sunday 31st May, 10am til 5.30pm. The private view is on Saturday 23rd May from 5pm til 8pm.

I have created a new piece of work for the exhibition - ‘OVER: Protest Banner’ – with which I will be performing a solo March, circuiting the lake. The banner will also be on display in the park throughout the show (and the weather).

I will be marching on the following dates:

Saturday 23rd May (during the private view) at 5.30pm
Wednesday 27th May at 11am
Sunday 31st May at 5pm

Please note – my banner will not be in the exhibition on the first day of the exhibition until 5.30pm, when I will perform my first March with it.

The banner is inspired by Suffragette textile banners and, in the context of the recent G20 protests and the death of Ian Tomlinson, is intended as a reflection on the role and meaning of protest. The banner is a development of my more ephemeral text pieces, and features an ambiguous statement – ‘OVER’ – which is intended to be open to various interpretations, to allow the possibility of political and also more personal inferences, and so to reflect on our relationship to protest. I envision the solo march with the banner as a contemplative act for myself, and hopefully a spectacle that will animate the banner and its message. The banner will inevitably endure much weather during the time of the exhibition, and will therefore betray something of its use and history by the time of the final march.

Transport to Alexandra Palace Park:
Overground Train to Alexandra Palace (e.g. from Kings Cross or Old Street station).
Or the tube to Wood Green.
Then take the W3 bus towards Finsbury Park and get off at Alexandra Palace Ice Rink.
The lake and Lakeside Cafe is 5 minute’s walk from there.