CURRENT:
SUSTAINING PRACTICES:
WORKSHOPS IN SEPTEMBER 2007
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 15
C.H.E.E.R.S!* COLLECTIVE PRESENTS:
*CLUBS HANGOVER EVENTS & ENGAGEMENTS RE-ANIMATING SOCIABILITY
1.00pm - 6.00pm
inaugural meeting-bee & collective commons day
On Saturday September 15th, the conference room of the Meat Market Arts House in North Melbourne will be filled with trestle tables upon which you are invited to put anything that you might like to show and share with a group of like-minded enthusiasts. Objects/publications/texts/films/materials etc. Either made by you or anyone else.
Think: school fete, swap-meet-meets zine fair and you’re starting to get a kind of picture.
The C.H.E.E.R.S! COLLECTIVE has initiated this event as a way of inaugurating a free-form series of discussions/events/gatherings/forums sparked by that which sustains the interest of individuals.
This initial meeting is to test the potential of facilitating open, informal arrangements to bring together artists, architects, writers, designers and friends to meet regularly and discuss whatever it is that needs conversation.
This event has developed from the idea that things happen when people converge to produce a kind of public space - potential possibilities/possible potentialities can emerge in the process of collective engagement!
So – come to the Meat Market in North Melbourne at 1pm, with stuff to display on a trestle table. Food and drinks will be provided.
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PLUS!
Also on the dame day a performance by James Deutscher and Hao Gao
HAIRCUT NO. 6: 'HAIR CIRCLES'
4.00pm - 6.00pm
We have been giving each other haircuts as performances since 2003 and we want you to join us now. They are about many things for us, a way of locating ourselves in particular points of time, to chart change and give us a sense of working together toward something. An ever changing context and freedom of movement for each other, from grooming to loaded references. We have developed a co-exhistent self sufficiency built of mutual trust and generosity. We are preparing a frame of mind for the coming short future and doing it together.
An invitation to buzz-cut (No.1) your whole head or part of your head as part of a collaborative performance and video work. We hope to have as man people as possible, each with a seat and pair of clippers, sitting in a circle giving a haircut to the person in front of them. All the haircuts will be done as a simultaneous process of give-and-take. Those who are not involved in the haircut are asked to record or document the performance in any way possibly; still camera, video, mobile phone video etc...
After the performance has taken place we will capture all of the documentation to laptop computer and edit it to make a video. If you bring your own recording device, please bring a USB cable connector so we can capture the documentation and compile it.
*We will collect as many sets of hair clippers as possible, please e-mail us if you intend to cut-and-be-cut or have access to clippers, so we don't fall short on the day. Please contact us for any further info. or questions.
contact: jamesdeutsher@hotmail.com
Directions to Meat Market
3 Blackwood Street (near corner of Courtney st)
Gallery A, Arts House, Meat Market, North Melbourne
Melways reference: Page 2A, Ref 9A
tram:
Catch the # 19 or 59 tram up Elizabeth Street and get off at the large roundabut where it splits into Royal Parade/Flemington road
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SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 22
SUPER SUPER
A conversation around financial issues facing artists - including invited guests from the field. Stay tuned for times and speakers......................................................................................................................
INITIAL SUSTAINING PRACTICES
WORKSHOPS IN MAY 2007
co-ordinated by Terri Bird, Cate Consandine, Bianca Hester, Laresa Kosloff, Spiros Panigirakis, and Jude Walton
Sustaining Practices is an ongoing workshop-event which aims to develop conversations about creative practices and the interventions, perhaps even inventions, that might enable them to be sustained more effectively. We ask whether it is possible to consider the way art is practiced so that it has a more fruitful and productive impact on the general sustainability of life? Implicit in this aim is a questioning of the sustainability of current art practices. CLUBSproject wishes to examine these conditions in order to reconfigure the relations within which art is practiced, presented and disseminated.
A conversation day was held on Saturday May 26th at the Meat Market in North Melbourne. Participants to this initial conversation included:
Saskia Schut, Christopher Hill, Torie Nimmervoll, Mary Peacock, Helen Walter, Suzie Attiwill, Scott Mitchell, Cate Consandine, Bianca Hester, Julie Monro-Allison, John Borley, Lisa Kelly, Rory Hyde, Melanie Irwin, Fiona Mac Donald, Kim Donaldson, Melanie Upton, Starlie Geikie, Simon Maidment, Justine Clemens, Thea Rechner, Lyndal Jones, Mira Gojak, Lily Hibberd, Alex Rizkalla, Jill Orr, James Deutsher, Mick Douglas, Andrea Tu, Utako Shindo, Marcus Bergner, Adrien Allen, Charlotte Craw, Jude Walton, Robyn McKenzie, Lucas Ihlein, Terri Bird, Spiros Panigirakis, Laresa Kosloff, Julian Raxworthy, Nadine Christensen and John Meade. Students from the VCA assisted on the day and included Mia Salsjo, Jodie Nunn, Mutsumi Nozaki, Tricia Lim, Ayako Oshima,, Michelle Sakaris and Amelia Johannes.
Julian Raxworthy presented a paper titled “Free Ranging LA” and the wonderful Lucas Ihlein hosted the day's events.
Prior to the meeting, CLUBS identified 4 areas of interest that orientated the initial discussions, these include notions of exchange, structure, dissemination and networks.
exchange
including all fields connected to the economies of practice such as: alternative financial arrangements including: barter, subscription, trusts, not-for-profit organizational structures, Australia Cultural Fund, fund-raising, philanthropy, etc. As well as the possibilities of exploring ways of redirecting money towards artist initiated projects from benefactors and patrons or accessing funds from ethical corporate sources.
structure
including all fields concerned with the physical support of creative practice such as: building, architecture, landscape, environment, food production, resources. How might we develop more multiple, sustainable situations and sites, which support sustainable practices? What do we need in order to do this? Do non-institutional small scaled situations, such as, lounge-rooms or social clubs, open up other possibilities?
dissemination
including all fields involving the discussion of ideas such as: websites, recording technologies, blogs, wikis, writing, journals, conversation, theory, publication development and other related skills.
networks
including all fields that generate connections and sustain dialogues with other groups of people nationally and internationally. Groups such as 16beaver, notanalternative, camp for oppositional architecture, Copenhagen Free University, etc.
It is hoped that the resulting conversations between participants will develop new ways of producing and disseminating various modes of artistic practice, new contexts for critical thought and political actions, and ways of exploring and achieving artistic autonomy. See above for information regarding workshops that have emerged from these conversations.
LISTEN HERE! for a link to the audio file of the 'speed dating' session depicted in the above images where particiants were allowed 2 minutes for blah about what their particular concerns and interests for the day were. Thanks to Lucas Ihlein for posting this link! x
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CLUBS in WORKSHOPNONSTOP
co-ordinated by Lisa Kelly at LOOSE Projects in Sydney
CLUBSproject : Bridget Currie : Kate Fulton : Christopher L G Hill : Lucas Ihlein : Lisa Kelly : OSW [Terri Bird, Bianca Hester, Natasha-Johns Messenger + Scott Mitchell] : Spiros Panigirakis + guests & collaborators
Taking the modes of workshop & continuous self-organisation as broad starting points of reference, workshop.nonstop invites practices that propagate their own working contexts & conditions - via projects, spaces, blogs, networks, publications, critical writing & making- to a project that will unfold as an open, multidimensional diagram of a workshop. Developing throughout february and hosting a range of dynamic interstate and local practitioners, workshop.nonstop will fittingly explore just how loosely a project might be devised, coordinated and realised...(text by Lisa Kelly)
installation view at LOOSE.....................................................................................................................
CLUBS COLLABORATIVE DIAGRAM : COMING SOON!
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BETH ARNOLD
THE DISCARDED OBJECT POSTER PROJECT
check the project website for details and updates
map launch at BUS Passenger Studios on November 28th
Have you ever seen a single shoe in the gutter, a beanie on the road, or a glove on the tram, and thought about whom the object may have belonged to, and how it got lost?
Embedded within the creases and stains of these objects is a human history that speaks of usage and ownership.
Discarded Object Poster Project involves photographing lost objects and making the images into posters that will be posted around the CBD. The shift in context of the object, especially in contrast to the expected advertising image, will reflect it as a trace of a person the remnant of an action or routine.
A map outlining the posters locations will be produced and launched at Bus Passenger Studio Space on November 28th. The map will help access the work and create a permanent record of the posters.
Discarded Object Poster Project invites you to submit an image of a discarded object, which will then be made into a poster. Next time you see a shoe/glove/sock (anything!) simply photograph it and send it to discardedobject@hotmail.com (as a jpeg image, 300dpi or higher if possible) including the location of where it was found. Please note that submissions for this round of posters close November 14th. You can see some of the submitted images and get more info on the project by visiting the project website: www.discardedobject.com
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MIRA GOJAK PUBLICATION
This project was the first of a series of 'peer productions' in which CLUBS dedicates funds to supporting the work of an admired practitioner. CLUBS developed this program to acknowledge their generous contribution to the local context over time. Mira's project last year in 2005 (titled time and time again: see archive November 2005) has been supplemented by a catalogue with an essay by Andrew McQualter. This publication was launched in conjunction with wall works II at the Tounge + Groove Furniture Store in March 2006.
DOWNLOADABLE PDF OF THIS CATALOGUE IS NOW ONLINE!
EVERYWHERE + NOWHERE pdf catalogue for Mira Gojak with essay by Andrew McQualter
Download the text only document by Andrew McQualter
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MORE NEWS!
LOOSE is a new project in Sydney involving David Haines, Philipa Veitch, Carla Cescon, Mark Titmarsh, Lisa Kelly, Anne Kay, Jane Polkinghorne, Alex Gawronski, Bronia Iwanczak and Ryszard Dabek.
Check it out at http://www.looseprojects.net/index.html
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DEDICATED TO THE PERPETUALLY PROVISIONAL!
PRESENT SITUATION: 2006
CLUBSproject Inc. is an artist initiated project which was initially resided above the old Builders Arms Hotel in Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia. We developed our program from this site for three and a half years between September 2002 – August 2005. Since the closure of this pub, coupled with the force of gentrification in the local area, we encountered a difficult political struggle with the new landlords, it became untenable to remain on these premises.
This situation opened up the possibility for us to become a more nomadic project. No longer having a fixed address, CLUBS is currently operating as a more event based outfit which finds temporary landing-sites within which different projects can be pocketed for brief moments of time (stay tuned for an update of our archive which outlines what’s been happening in 2006). So far we have inhabited a variety of spaces ranging from the balcony of a shop, the rooms of a local furniture store, a container, and the Ocular Lab artist space. We have also published a catalogue for Mira Gojak (see link above) and launched a book for local artist Stuart Ringholt at Journal café in the CBD.
MODEL
CLUBSproject aims to facilitate the diverse possibilities of art and related practices. CLUBS focuses on the way art comes about, and is made public, experienced and mediated. CLUBS endeavors to be a project that provides a flexible resource where individuals and groups can meet to discuss, experiment with, produce and make their practices public.CLUBSproject views itself as experimenting with the conditions of production and the relationships they have to organisational structures.
From one-day meetings to year-long projects; forums, events, meetings, performances, classes, collection facilitation, publishing, feedback-sessions, curatorial experiments and exhibition, CLUBSproject has, and continues to develop a project which is structurally and discursively responsive to the diversity of practice. CLUBS encourages new ways for the public actualisation of art practice. We invite communication, interaction and critical dialogue. We are dedicated to artist-determined practice via an expanded program of events. We are interested in building long term dialogues between practitioners and aspire to developing a generative model for autonomous and sustainable artist initiatives.
THE COMMITTEE
We currently organize as a committee of 8 artists who meet regularly. It is a flat management situation; roles within the committee change according to time constraints, areas of interest and the requirements of CLUBS at the time. We regularly invite people to be involved in the committee, bringing their expertise and experience for a period of time or to particular projects. CLUBS is currently coordinated by Terri Bird, Nadine Christensen, Christopher Hill, Cate Consandine, Bianca Hester, Laresa Kosloff, Spiros Panigirakis and Michelle Ussher.
WEBSITE
CLUBSwebsite is an expanding resource. It operates as an introduction to CLUBSproject as well as providing opportunities for publishing, forums and web-based projects. The website is a platform for ongoing publications and networks. Please contact us if you would like to publish web based forums or would like to make links to our site.
FEEDBACK SESSIONS
CLUBSfeedback is convened by CLUBS whereby a small group of diverse practitioners are invited to discuss work at the completion of a project. CLUBSfeedback focus upon on the means by which the work in question exists in the space of its presentation/actualisation. It is an attempt to develop an engaged reading or analysis of work through focused and extended collaborative dialogue. Go to http://www.clubsproject.org.au/feedback.php for a more detailed discussion of how we run the sessions.
ARCHIVE
CLUBSsample is an archive of activities of CLUBSproject. CLUBSsample aims to become a resource of both text and object based media that can be accessed and utilised for research purposes by audiences and peers. We plan to open this archive twice a year (or by appointment), curated according to a specific concern or current project.
PUBLICATIONS
In June 2003, we launched our inaugural publication, volumeveryone. It is a limited edition collection of page-work by all those who had participated in CLUBS since opening in September 2002. Since then we have published catalogues in relation to our major or collective projects. We currently have publications for the projects: Theres a Hole in The Bucket, multipleMISCELLANEOUSalliances, 24 Hour Love, volumeeverything, and the recent publication for Mira Gojak with essay by Andrew McQualter.
