APPARATUS

These devices will be used by myself during the performance. While interacting with the handmade apparatus I will try to physically represent the unfair, exploitative inner workings of the capitalist system. Each device has a specific function (from ball cleaners to tube stoppers) playing its own role in the action as a whole. As I am the one who makes it all work it could be said that I am placing myself in the position of "the controller". Using my body as a physical embodiment of capitalism, to expose and confront it.

Upcoming action

Center For Tactical Magic - The Tactical Ice Cream Unit

http://www.tacticalmagic.org/CTM/project%20pages/TICU.htm

CARTOGRAPHY OF ART

The aims of this event:

• to bring people together under the banner of creativity
• to explore the travels of art around the world
  
• to discover patterns in the flow of art that may relate to the larger global power structure
• to investigate the elitism in art
  
• to make space between the drawer and the drawing
• to have fun with experimental mark making
• to provoke lively discussion on the issue of exclusion within art

Lost Property Opening Thursday 13th May 2010

Vestige Park - Glasgow International 10th April - 3rd May

One of the most fascinating and enjoyable visits we had in Glasgow. On arrival, having seen the large reclaimed wooden facade, I did not know what to expect. When inside I was immediately taken in by the fantasy world they had created and felt myself getting lost in my own imagination. It was all inspired by ‘Vestiges Of The Natural History Of Creation’, which was published by an unknown scottish journalist - predating Darwin's Origin Of The Species by roughly 15 years. I imagine that this publication has remained largely unknown. The main thing that I took away from Vestige Park was the idea that an unused "wasteland" could be turned into a place with such an impact. Walking down the street you would never know what crazy things were going on inside. Being interested in transforming unused land for creative acts I was glad have to seen the park. I envisioned myself being part of the team putting it all together. For me being outside, even with the rain, would be perfect - sometimes a studio can be restrictive. Having a bit of secluded land to do as you please sounds good to me.

only a hessian sack

"Lost Property" at the college

Although my live performance is the main piece for the "Lost Property' show I spent a few hours today hanging some additional work in my studio space. Having painted all the walls a perfect gallery white I went on to mess them up again by hanging my oil ridden, ash covered work on them. Simple hanging techniques where used but it came together nicely. Using small nails I chose to display the drawings and every tool/implement used in their making. Crystalized tins, crystalized paint brushes, hand-made marking tools, a piece of hessian with a transfered "Neo-liberalism logo" and test tubes containing the tears. The layout gave an almost "museum exhibit" feel. The viewer may feel as if they where looking at some priceless ancient crafting tools. I also chose to display a piece of writing which i did, it is written from the point of view of the hessian sack which masks my own head. This creative writing adds another dimension to the work as a whole. This small exhibition and my live performance will successfully work hand-in-hand.

interim private view 10.03.10

First of, I was very impressed by the quality of the show catalog. A simple, clear, sophisticated design with all the information needed. Before going to an opening it is extremely useful to have background information on the artists and their work. I can definately say that the show catalog was enticing and drew me into the exhibition.

On arrival I was immediately made aware of the potential difficultly arisen by the buildings layout. Planning an exhibition over 3 floors, with a dominating staircase, could easily bring about lots of problems. However, I feel that the stair case problem was not only successfully overcome, but made to inhance the exhibition as a whole. The conscious decision of having video pieces on the darker bottom floor worked well in the exhibition.

Tears - a state of intense frustration

Tears are a liquid material produced by humans and animals at times of distress, emotional crisis and extreme pain. They are the embodiment of a broken-down mental state. In my work they feature as a representative of "mental regression", the crushed state of a human mind after experiencing a great catastrophe such as a war, a military coup, natural disasters and terrorist attacks. The tear mixture shows human lose, broken families, lost friends, hunger, pain and exploitation. Whereas the charcoal dust shows the environmental lose, ruined homes, destroyed schools and hospitals.

Using water, salt and oil I have created a thick, silky substance which closely looks and feels like real tears. Water, salt and oil are the three main substances found in tears. Although my mixture is not truly accurate it manages to successfully depict real tears.

Interesting place to exhibit

After walking into the Merrion market and being inspired by its other-worldly atmosphere and its ghostly feel I thought that it could be an extremely interesting place to hold an exhibition. When entering you feel as though you have been transported back in time, to a different culture or even to a secret undergone "black market". There are many empty stalls, in all sorts of bright exterior colours, which I believe could be fairly easy to rent and hopefully at a cheap price. I like the idea that holding an exhibition here would force the normal gallery goers out of their comfort zone of the "white cube" and bring them into the everyday life of the outside world. Also it could attract the public simply by catching peoples eyes as they walk past. We could be responsible for making some ones day a lot more interesting through them accidentally coming across some interesting artwork. I really encourage you to go and have a look if you haven't already been! Go to the Merrion market, imagine its the day of an exhibition opening, with lots of people there from different walks of life, some have stumbled upon it and some are invited. I imagine it to be very interesting. I might go and get some pictures to post up on here.

Charcoal dust and "Regression"

For me this black powdery substance holds the meaning of "regression" or "mental reversion". Its broken down, crushed characteristics symbolizes ruin, destruction and disaster. I am comparing the ground state of the charcoal dust to the state of human minds after experiencing a great catastrophy such as a natural disaster. Both the charcoal and the collective individuals have been forced into a messy, hard to reform state. In both cases the basic make-up which makes charcoal and humans truely that has been destroyed, they are no longer like they where before. In this vunerable state they are both highly open to exploitation. Both charcoal and human minds can be crushed and ground.

Encirclement

A documentary exposing the characteristics of Neo-liberal ideology with the help of many renowned intellectuals. It shows the mechanisms used to enforce Neo-liberal polices throughout the world. Picking up on topics such as deregulation, reducing state control over the market place and privatization. An extremely insightful analysis and a stern look at one of todays biggest problems.

"The Shock Doctrine" - short film by Naomin Klein and Alfonso Cuaron

Neo-liberalism and "Free Markets" - Forcing radical economic policies through vacuums left by disaster

Performance/Drawing
Leeds College of Art and Design
Friday 27 November 2009, 10am - 4.30pm

‘Neoliberalism is the defining political economic paradigm of our time - it refers to the policies and processes whereby a relative handful of private interests are permitted to control as much as possible of social life in order to maximize their personal profit’ Noam Chomsky

‘Designed not only to exploit the resistant source’s internal conflicts and induce him to wrestle with himself but also to bring a superior outside force to bear upon the subjects resistance ....... all coercive techniques are designed to induce regression’ Kubark Counterintelligence Manual 1963

‘Shock and Awe are actions that create fears,dangers and destruction that are incomprehensible to the people at large, specific elements/sectors of the threat society, or the leadership. Nature in the form of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, uncontrolled fires, famine and disease can engender Show and Awe’ Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance, the military doctrine for the U.S war on Iraq

Surrounding me (the subject, interrogatee, country or population) is a seemingly unsoild boundary. A piled line of charcoal dust. This is infact an impenetratable wall, it is the embodiment of the great neoliberal force which is holding the economy hostage. The line of charcoal dust has many metaphorical meanings. One being that its crumbled, grinded texture has a similar state to the fragmented human mind during regression, also to the collective ground-down state of a country experiencing regression immediately after a disaster. Both have been crushed into a messy, hard to reform material which has become highly vunerable and open for exploitation. My attempts to communicate during my time of forced sensary deprivation are stutted and broken, showing the disorientation of both the individual and a whole nation experiencing an extreme catastrophy. This state of regression is the key feature under which neoliberal economics can proceed in forcing its radical polices. In the same way as the handing over of information during interrogation will not happen without regression. Throughout history this has been proven - without a chilean military coup Pinochet could not have forced through his neoliberal policies, without the Falklands war Thatcher could not have undergone her mass privatization agenda, without the terrorist attacks of September 11 the Bush administration could not have masked the privatization of the war under the facade of the ‘war on terror’.