ANDREW WILSON
IT TAKES A LONG TIME TO LEARN HOW TO DO NOTHING PROPERLY
CALL OUT TO INTERESTED FOLK
Andrew Wilson and The Woodbine Allotment Artist Residency programme would like to invite you to take part in their up-coming closed-door performance piece; It Takes a Long Time to Learn How to Do Nothing Properly.
The performance which will be curated/hosted by artist Andrew Wilson in collaboration with the chosen applicants who will be asked to shake off the usual daily business of the town, the city or the village by fully immersing themselves into the surrounding environment of The Woodbine allotment for a period of 24 hours.
Awake time and Sleep time are the usual parameters by which we, the civilized human being, organize the 24hour period of a single day. Where Sleep time is accepted as a period of suspended sensory or motary activity, it is simultaneously work ethic and the ever progressive desire to be entertained that dominate the period of Awake time.
In doing nothing for a whole period of 24hours, to deny oneself of sleep, of activity, of entertainment is to deny these usual parameters by which we, the civilized human being, organize our already limited number of 24hour periods. In the denial of such ethic as work or sleep one hopes to fully encounter oneself and the ever present 24 hour daily cycle.
Andrew Wilson and The Woodbine Allotment are inviting submissions for collaboration from those who may have encountered the peculiar difficulty of doing nothing; from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines prompting a varied collaboration of insight and practice, be it activist, spiritualist, artist and everything in-between.
Successful applicants will be issued with a brief introductory and instruction book for reference throughout the collaborative performance, which itself will be followed by a post event group discussion.
4-5 persons max
WHEN
The event will begin at Woodbine Allotment from 6am on Saturday 10th of October until 6am Sunday 11th October. THIS IS A CLOSED DOOR PERFORMANCE – PARTICIPANTS ONLY PLEASE.
APPLY
Forward a completed proposal form (see attachment WOODBINE_Form) direct to the artist at drevil_stump@yahoo.co.uk
Deadline for applicants is Wednesday 30th September
In the case of any outstanding questions feel free to call the artist directly on; 07719589598
THE WOODBINE ALLOTMENT ARTIST RESIDENCY
The Woodbine Allotment Artist Residency which has been in operation since May 2009 is in association with 25 Stratford Grove, a space for artists to make work, think about making work, talk about work and showing work.
ARTIST PRACTICE
The Work of Andrew Wilson exists in a twilight zone where the borders between artist and artwork are not easily distinguishable. Where performance butts up against the artist’s very being, and however extreme and deadly serious the notion may be one is never far away from the humble and the humorous. Through privation and loneliness, through walking and drawing, through social conversation and drinking Andrew instinctively collects and sorts much material from many different sources. They manifest themselves visually in the form of numerous prints, drawings, books and/or durational performance. An example being the 2008 publication How are We Supposed to Die, a screen-printed hand bound book made using recycled materials. Produced in an edition of 150 over a short but immensely busy period of three weeks it proposes neither a question nor an answer to the title’s implications, but more a meditation on our everyday activity of staying alive.
Recent performance work includes;
• Riding an exercise bike, a device of western origin consisting of saddle, handle bars and pedals used for lower body muscular building, whilst wearing a burkha, an outer garment worn by women in some Islamic traditions though not specifically mentioned in the Quran, for the duration of two well populated live art events.
• Having produced an instruction book How to Draw while on residence with Allenheads Contemporary Arts, Andrew engaged with the implications that the title suggest, by immersing himself (mind, body and spirit) into the surrounding environment and its entities heightening his connection. As The Draughtsman embraced by the creative impulse within a small and abandoned hut for a period of 22 sleepless hours he maintained that all entity be it a rock, a blade of grass or a human being encompass energy. How receptive The Draughtsman is to this energy will determine how he is affected; which will determine the manner of the drawing produced.
