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a.a.s featuring AuntyNazi and Calum F.Kerr
4 – 16th January 2011
The New Art Gallery Walsall
Free – all welcome.
Do you dream? Do you have a vision for the future? Xe54 will enable you to discover your true path as an explorer of The Other Place…
Even opening yourself for a short time to these experiences will be beneficial, and you can take part for as much time as you wish. This is a time of drawing together, this is a time of focus. Many have been called by the lure of The Other Place, and although there are differing interpretations, all agree that something is shifting. The signs say that events in Walsall during the first two weeks of January will be instrumental in bringing about a transformation, that this world will be overlaid with the other, and that we will be able to move freely into a place of new potential.
Over the last two months, we have been using ‘The Cage’ as a base for our experiments. These have included Remote Viewing and Lucid Dream Training, as ways of creating portals to The Other Place – a space of dreams and ideas, a space of the future, a space of potential.
We have previously been exploring this zone by establishing temporary groups with participants, re-interpreting and re-imagining sites and experiencing our environment with ‘new eyes’. Now the moment has come for these various groups to meet together in The Other Place and you are invited to join us.
Xe54 is a performative project that will develop and change over a two week period. Participants in the project will help to explore this parallel universe and inform how the narratives and discoveries unfold. Participants can take part in taster sessions, join for a few hours or multiple days depending on availability. Drop into the Artists’ Studio located on Floor 1 or contact a.a.s prior to your visit to the gallery.
The first week of the project (4-7 January) will train participants to be able to encounter The Other Place, make use of new skills with the help of more experienced guides, and play around with their perceptions of Walsall.
Dedicated participants will be ‘inducted’ by a.a.s and grouped into various teams on Saturday 8 January and Sunday 9 January. Each induction session will last approximately 40 minutes and will involve a series of encounters that will guide you to The Other Place. Places are limited and pre-booking is recommended (see contact details below).
In the second week of the project, participants will be working together, finding coincidences and repetitions in everyday occurrences, interpreting signs and splicing them together, to build a collective ‘making strange’ of Walsall.
On Saturday 15 January, participants will develop a series of ritualised actions to create a quantum sacred event. Reality is fractured and during a ceremony on Sunday 16 January the dream universe that is Walsall will be restored.
Follow the Other Place blog to witness the events unfolding:
http://theotherplaceportal.net/blog
To sign up or for more information please contact:
aas@aasgroup.net
07806 50 27 26
http://aasgroup.net
Dreamachine enhanced remote viewing
Over the past few months a.a.s have been exercising their extra sensory perceptions by practicing Remote Viewing.
Originally developed by the US government to spy on enemies during World War II. Remote viewing involves trying to see objects or situations remotely, through the eyes of the person in the location you are trying to view. To practice, we send one or two people away into Walsall, while the rest of us stay in The Cage and try to see what they’re seeing. There are variable methods, the most common method is to concentrate on images and shapes that might come into your mind and draw them, eventually these shapes can begin to represent real objects. It takes some practice to be able to accurately remote view, but we have been trying some methods to help induce more vivid images in the mind.
Firstly, practicing in The Cage helps to block out any interfering signals. Secondly, we’ve been using a Dreamachine to enhance our visions. The Dreamachine has been made to artist Brion Gysin’s design. It spins around a bulb, producing flickering light. The pulsating light stimulates the optical nerve, so when looking at the Dreamachine with your eyes closed, you can experience bright, complex patterns.
Combining these elements has enabled us to remote view more vividly. As we practice we noticed more commonalities between the things we have drawn and the images of the objects that were being sent back from the people who had gone out into Walsall. These kind of skills all help us to access The Other Place, if we are able to remotely view other locations within this world, we will be able to clearly see into The Other Place.
Lucid Dream Training
We’ve all had dreams where you wake up and wish you could have done something differently, or that you could go back into it and explore the dreamscape further. In a lucid dream, you are aware that you are dreaming, and have some control over your actions, the direction the narrative takes, and the setting and atmosphere.
Lucid dreaming is an important part of experiencing The Other Place. To develop our skills, we have been experimenting with developing psychic connections and accessing the archaic, group mind. During the lucid dream training we will be building on this by attempting to dream collectively, trying out different methods and making notes and drawings based on this. We will be explaining and preparing for lucid dreaming beforehand, and discussing experiences afterwards.
Come and join us for one hour sleeping sessions, experimenting with Lucid Dreaming in The Cage.
Sunday the 5th and 12th, and Tuesday 14th December 2010
Sessions at 12pm and 2pm
Please come dressed comfortably, at least half an hour before the session.
For more information about how to lucid dream, visit The Other Place blog
a.a.s. instruct you to…
a.a.s. have been busily creating new instructions for visitors to follow based on the books in our exhibition The Cover of a Book is the Beginning of a Journey. .
You can see them each week on the balck board in the exhibition and on Saturday 27th November you’ll have the opportunity to act some of them out with the artists. Drop into the artists studio or contact them on aas@aasgroup.net if you’d like to join in.
Here’s a few they’ve come up with already…
Experiment 001
The Binaural balance treatments were well received this weekend. We observed positive changes in most participants and are hopeful that the treatment has primed participants, opening their minds to The Other Place.
visit The Scientist’s blog to find out more about Binaural Balance Treatment.
Eppy Daddy Battle Bot, The Life of the Mind and Esther’s Law
Hello all – there’s been frantic activity in the Epstein Archive over the past few months. I haven’t posted anything in a little while, so we have a lot of ground to cover…
Firstly, some good news. We were delighted to hear that we’ve received funding to extend the project for another 6 months, taking us to September 2011. A huge thank you to the Museums Association and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. This will give us the opportunity to create a lasting legacy for this unique project.
Eppy Daddy Battle Bot
The colossal Eppy Daddy Battle Bot was the product of Bob’s residency at the gallery in September. Bob began constructing Eppy Daddy in his studio in Ramsgate and worked on the painting of it in Walsall. A reimagining of Jacob Epstein as a large robot, Eppy Daddy will be displayed in the foyer of the gallery as part of The Life of the Mind exhibition, which opens on the 21st of January (more info below). Bob states that “Jacob Epstein invented the robot” – a nod to Epstein’s famous sculpture Rock Drill. Eppy Daddy tells the story of Epstein’s career and specifically the trials that he faced particularly with some of his earlier work.
I travelled down to Ramsgate to collect Bob and the sculpture and we made a little road movie. Enjoy.
The Life of the Mind
The opening of The Life of the Mind exhibition fast approaches – 21st of January 2011. For those that don’t know anything about the exhibition, which is being curated by Bob and Roberta Smith, I’ve included a little descriptive blurb below:
Inspired by Jacob Epstein’s sculpture of his then 15 year old daughter Esther in which she seems to be resisting the artist’s gaze, The Life of the Mind seeks to expose the myth of the great male artist who has special insight into the minds of his more frail female subjects. This exhibition will look at predominantly female artists who give form to the interior world. Each artist resists easy interpretation and in Bob’s words, “sticks a sharp pair of scissors into the soft underbelly of male hegemony.”
We have some really amazing artists confirmed already for the show, Louise Bourgeois, Helen Chadwick and Sarah Lucas to name but a few.
Esther’s Law
From the ideas surrounding Esther Garman that Bob has been developing for much of the residency, Esther’s Law has been born. Esther’s Law is Bob’s vision of truly proportional system of government, where every part of society is fairly represented in parliament, what Bob has referred to as ‘real proportional representation.’ There is much more to follow on this one, so get behind Esther’s Law!
My Russian Binocular rage and Eppy Daddy Battle Bot
It’s been a while since my last Epstein Archive entry, so I thought it best to give you a little update. As you may have seen, I had a ‘moment’ the other week (which can be viewed here) but I’m ok now. Fully calmed down. That whole thing started quite a few months ago when Bob and I were going through a load of miscellaneous items in the archive and some of it was, frankly, absolute rubbish. I know the archivist is supposed to remain impartial about the subjective value of any item, but if anyone requests a research visit to view Beth Lipkin’s hoover warranty, I will eat my shoes.
Anyway, I was having a bit of a moan to Bob about it all and one particular item, an advert for Russian binoculars, was, I thought, a totally pointless thing to keep. From then on, ‘the Russian binoculars’ became a bit of a buzz word for anything rubbish, or anything that irritated me – not that I’m a particularly irritable person or anything. And, eventually, the film was born.
But now, after some time has passed, the advert for Russian binoculars has taken on a whole new meaning – I wouldn’t dream of speaking ill of this little newspaper clipping now. It has relevance because we gave it relevance. I think that’s one of the most interesting things about having an artist involved in a collection – really unexpected connections and items can come to the fore.
So, to Bob’s residency. I spoke to Bob a few days ago and his latest creation, Eppy Daddy Battle Bot, is being built as we speak in Bob’s new studio is Ramsgate. Eppy Daddy Battle Bot is a reimagining of Jacob Epstein as a 5 metre high 1950s style robot. We’ll collect him just before the residency and then you will see the final stages of Eppy Daddy’s creation in the Arists Studio during the last two weeks of September.
If Eppy Daddy were to speak – what would he say? Answers on a postcard.
Bob and Roberta Smith residency
The second episode of Bob’s residency at the gallery. The 3rd will follow soon…enjoy.
New artists’ books…
Our collection of artists’ books in the library is slowly developing -i’ve added a few new editions this week:
Me, Myself and I by Kelly Large is a book of transcriptions documenting three open studio afternoons that the artist organised as part of her residency here at the gallery in January 2008. Kelly invited various people she had previously worked with to give a presentation about their understanding of her practice. The book explores the notion of the artist-in-residence and Kelly’s practice within this context, the artistic process and audience participation. Kelly has produced three copies of this book for the Gallery; one for the Library to be used as a resource, one to be acquisitioned as an artwork in the collections, and one as a document for the Gallery archives.
I’ve picked up a few other artists’ publications this week:
I bumped into Robin & Harry of An Endless Supply who were handing out their latest issue at the Ikon preview. They’ve upgraded their paper and have a new printing press, so it has a slightly more luxurious feel to it!
At the Eastside Projects Abstract Cabinet Show opening last night Freee were handing out copies of their 2nd Manifesto The Free manifesto for Guerilla Advertising (After the Revolution) -an inspiring read on my way to work this morning!
Also featuring in this exhibition is the collaboration between Laureana Toledo and John Taylor (yes that’s right, John Taylor of Duran Duran!) to produce a film and a newspaper exploring both Birmingham and Mexico City.
Eastside Projects and An Endless Supply will be taking part in Publish and be Damned this weekend. I went to this last year -well worth a trip to London if independent publishing is your thing.
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