Mission: Action Research

The INTERЯOGATION: ACTION RESEARCH Mission is now complete, and I can therefore reveal the identities of the 5 Action Research Agents. They are in reverse alphabetical order:

The agents arrived at the New Art gallery Walsall at 10:00 hours on 09/09/09.

On arrival they had to meet their contact and deliver a top secret code phrase, which cannot be revealed here, for security reasons. Below, Agent Semp making contact.

Below Agent Vaughan making contact.Below Agent Cooper-Willis making contact.

Below: Interrogation Room.

They were then given directions to the Interrogation Room, where their info packs and uniforms were waiting for them. Various formalities were carried out, as the transformation from Artist to Agent was carried out, and then the serious business of the Mission was introduced.
I cannot go into too much detail, as it would compromise security for the other missions, but suffice it to say the Agents took to their new roles like hippos to mud (CLUE)
The Agents were then led on a whistle stop tour of the gallery and immediate environment.
We had a fast look at Neal Rock’s show, and Gordon Cheung’s, and a very quick look at the Garman Ryan collection, we whizzed by.The artists had a good look at the target area, and explored the canal basin area.
They explored the front and the back of the gallery.Looked at the stripey floor, and the new chequered floor.And the bit where Urban Splash have bought a bit of land. They climbed on the hillocks.And they lounged on the concrete chez lounge, for a photo.Then they went inside for lunch and to plan. Before emerging an hour later, full of sandwiches and fantastic ideas. Agent Cooper-Willis and Agent Semp had formed an alliance during the planning session, and so regrouped in Gallery Square to discuss tactics. Their approach to the action research project was to be fairly experimental and playful. Trying out various tactics to activate and interfere with the Gallery Square, findings ways to halt or change the movements of the public through the space. One of their tactics involved chalking various markings onto the floor. For example, the interrogation zone, where Agent Semp would encourage members of the public to stand in the zone, and then Agent Cooper-Willis would interrogate them on various points relevant to the square, and its uses.Another of their methods involved Agent Cooper-Willis responding to the public’s tendency to ‘hug’ the wall – taking a route through the square which kept them as far away from the gallery as possible, and as close to the old Woolworths building as possible. Agent Cooper-Willis carried out an experiment to see how far away from the wall she could stand, in order that the public would have to walk around her, and step out of the usual routes. She found that she could be 3 steps from the wall, before her physical force-field would be interrupted by brave souls, venturing between her body and the Wooloworths wall.Agent Semp also used a Pepsi Challenge style conceit as a way of engaging the public in conversation about the area, public art and the square. He would ask them first to guess which of three cups contained bottled water, tap water and canal water, and then would open the conversation out from that point.Agent Vaughan responded to a piece of work which he saw within the gallery where the Garman Ryan Collection is held. The curator of the Garman Ryan likes to slot in works by contemporary artists amongst the collection on display, creating interesting conversations between art works. One of these is in the landscape/cityscape room, where a photographic exploration by Richard Wentworth is displayed. This piece looks at the detritus of everyday life, and items discarded in public spaces, but treating them as though they are a traditional still life. Agent Vaughan was compelled by this idea to carry out a photographic investigation on the streets outside the gallery. He picked up on discarded objects, weeds and dog poo. His idea was to document the objects, and then replace the actual object with the photographic representation of itself. The object would then be brought into the gallery, and exhibited as part of the Interrogation documentation. Agent Vaughan was interested in exploring the question of exchange of value suggested by this activity.He then took the idea further, by photographing features that might otherwise have been overlooked, like drain covers, stains and patterns in brick work. This time placing the photographic representation over the original, and leaving it in place – creating just a slight jarring of everyday life.
Agent Koszerek became an urban gardener, and went to the waste ground at the back of the gallery to investigate the types of weeds that could be found there. She documented these using sun paper, and collected a good sample, which she then took to back to gallery square to find some participants.
She found two participants who were quite willing to help her to plant the weeds up into window boxes, returning to the waste site to collect more, and get some stones. They watered the weeds and made some further cameraless photograms with the sun paper.Then Agent Koszerek brought the window boxes inside, to a ledge overlooking the Garman Ryan Collection, which she had noted during the tour. The idea was to bring some flora and fauna into the space, due to the collections strong influences and themes of nature (there is a flora and fauna strand of the collection.)The resulting display worked very well with the wood work of the gallery.
Agent Bethell chose to respond to a particluar piece from the Garman Ryan collection. He was interested in the impact and importance of a collection of this kind on the town of Walsall, and the idea of allowing the collection to leak out onto the streets. The piece that he focused on was The Weary Ploughman, by Samuel Palmer. His first task was to try to get the materials he would need to build his plough. He found himself on a challenge Anneka style dash through the streets of Walsall, trying to find what he needed, without much joy. Luckily he came across some helpful policeman, who directed him to the nearest wood merchants. He was surprised by the friendliness of the merchants who gave him the wood for FREE! and also surprised by the reaction of some members of the public to his Uniform, he received funny looks, and was called ‘Hitler Lover’ by a group of youths – in response to his moustache, which he then removed.Once his plough was built he took it out to the sauare in order to plough the concrete. He used the markings left by artists Catherine Yass and Richard Wentworth (who designed the square) as guides. The idea here was to plough up the stark concrete in order to create fertile ground for creative future uses for the square.The performance lasted around 25 minutes, and received a good deal of interest from passersby, one group of youths telling Agent Bethell that ‘You can’t plough Concrete’ which of course would be true if you were using an ordinary plough, but this was an idea plough, and therefore capable of anything. Another passerby asked ‘Are you having a nice day?’
To which we all replied, YES!