FrenchMottershead Shops

FrenchMottershead
Shops
Rebecca French & Andrew Mottershead
84 John Kennedy House
Rotherhithe Old Road
London SE16 2QF
UK
+44 (0)7951 537012
[email protected]
www.frenchmottershead.com
FrenchMottershead—Shops
"The piece balanced the risk of failure inherent in the likelihood of no-shows, with the strikingly
beautiful photographic results..." Frieze
“The best of FM’s work empowers and confuses its audiences in equal measure. The social is
dissected and discovered to be just a set of arbitrary practices, techniques of the body adopted
because they were ‘convenient’ quickly become conventional with repetitive use. For once, it is art
that actually achieves the popular ideal of raising your awareness of everyday life.” Art Monthly
The photographs in the series SHOPS are documents intended to explore relations between
cultural uniformity and individual identity, by uncovering communities formed by local independent
shops. The groupings are brought together over a few days by instructing shop staff to invite
everyone making a purchase, to return at a specified time and date for a group photo shoot
outside their shop. The photographs are directed by us and shot by a local photographer, and are
permanently on display at each corresponding shop. During the photo shoots, usually scheduled
back-to-back over 3-4 hours, returning customers become the focus of the street, with the impact
of the event visiting different areas of the location. In all instances, if no one returns at that
particular time and place, the photograph is still taken.
We choose to work with small networks of shops in each location, which speak of the potential of a
diverse, localised culture rather than the mainstream that tends towards homogenised identities.
SHOPS constructs a situation that allows for a stronger experience of being present, where
becoming complicit in making the artwork forces buyer and seller to renegotiate their daily
encounter, as well as providing a context for people to see themselves as a real - but fragmented community. With the photographs exhibited in different parts of a local retail landscape, people are
encouraged to enter unfamiliar shops and view images they are not part of. Supported by a list of
items that customers visited the shop in order to buy, these images document the point when the
buyer - seller relationship changed, and enable the viewer to imagine the possible relationships
between person and purchase.
SHOPS is an ongoing project with plans to visit more cities in Europe, Brazil, and China
FIVE SHOPS, 17 September 2005, ANTI Festival, Kuopio, Finland
Kalakukkoleipomo Hanna Partanen (Bakery) 10.30am
Kalahalli Kauppatori (Fish Market), 9.45am
Maailmankauppa Elämänlanka (Fair Trade Shop), 11.45am
Kirpputori Kontii (Second Hand Shop), 12.30pm
Levykauppa Äx (Record Shop), 1.30pm
SHOPS, 19 August 2006, Tract Festival, Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance, UK
Rosevean News, 1.00pm
DV8 Body Piercing, 1.45pm
Ian Lentern Butchers, 2.30pm
Malin's Pet Foods, 3.15pm
Archie Browns Health Foods, 4.00pm
SHOPS, 27-28 October 2006, Liverpool Live 06, Liverpool Biennial, UK
Lee, Echo (Newspaper) Vendor, 5.05pm, 27 Oct 06
Reid of Liverpool (Bookshop), 12.30pm, 28 Oct 06
Ten Till Ten (Off Licence), 1.15pm, 28 Oct 06
Resurrection (Vintage Clothing), 2.00pm, 28 Oct 06
Cricket (Designer Wear), 3.00pm, 28 Oct 06
SHOPS, 8-9 June 2007, EASTinternational 2007, Norwich, UK
Churchills of Norwich (Specialist Tobacconist), 5.00pm, 8 June 07
Spiceland (Asian & Afro Caribbean Food & Groceries), 11.15am, 9 June 07
Secondhand Land (Electrical Goods), 12.00pm, 9 June 07
Tombland Antique Centre (Antiques and Collectables), 1.00pm, 9 June 07
Beaujangles (Fashion Jewellery & Accessories), 2.00pm, 9 June 07
Thorns (DIY Department Store), 3.00pm, 9 June 07
Sinsin's (Love Store), 4.00pm, 9 June 07
FRENCHMOTTERSHEAD:
Rebecca French & Andrew Mottershead | +44 (0)7951 537012 | [email protected] | www.frenchmottershead.com
FrenchMottershead, Shops – Spiceland (Asian & Afro Caribbean Food & Groceries), 11.15am, 9 June 07,
performance for camera, EASTinternational 2007, Norwich.
(C-Type print and mixed media, 50cm x 40cm)
FrenchMottershead, Shops - Cricket, (Designer Wear), 3.00pm, 28 October 2006, performance for camera,
Liverpool Biennial.
(C-Type print and mixed media, 40cm x 30cm)
FRENCHMOTTERSHEAD:
Rebecca French & Andrew Mottershead | +44 (0)7951 537012 | [email protected] | www.frenchmottershead.com
FrenchMottershead, Five Shops - Kalakukkoleipomo Hanna Partanen, Bakery 10.30am, 17 September 2005,
performance for camera, ANTI Festival, Kuopio, Finland
(C-Type print and mixed media, 40cm x 30cm)
FrenchMottershead, Five Shops - Levykauppa Äx, Record Shop, 1.30pm, 17 September 2005, performance for
camera, ANTI Festival, Kuopio, Finland
(C-Type print and mixed media, 40cm x 30cm)
FRENCHMOTTERSHEAD:
Rebecca French & Andrew Mottershead | +44 (0)7951 537012 | [email protected] | www.frenchmottershead.com
FrenchMottershead, Shops – Beaujangles (Fashion Jewellery & Accessories), 2.00pm, 9 June 07, performance for
camera, Tract EASTinternational 2007, Norwich
(C-Type print and mixed media, 50cm x 40cm)
FrenchMottershead, Shops - Mailin’s Pet Foods, 3.15pm, 19 August 2006, performance for camera, Tract Festival
of Live Art, Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance
(C-Type print and mixed media, 40cm x 30cm)
FRENCHMOTTERSHEAD:
Rebecca French & Andrew Mottershead | +44 (0)7951 537012 | [email protected] | www.frenchmottershead.com
FrenchMottershead—Biography
Rebecca French and Andrew Mottershead create live work that specifically explores
ideas of identity, social ritual and the everyday public and private realms in which they are
played out. Through performative events, photographs, instructions and maps they
subvert sites and engage audiences complicitly in the creative act.
Recently, FrenchMottershead showed their interactive performative event Club Class at
Tate Modern and Tate Liverpool, and their site-based photographic work Shops at
EASTinternational 2007, Liverpool Biennial and Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance. They
were also Artists in Residence at the 2006 National Review of Live Art. Recent
commissioners include Peckham Pier, Arnolfini, Arts Council England, Colchester Arts
Centre and Finland's ANTI Festival. They are current ‘Thinkers in Residence’ at the
Live Art Development Agency.
Other selected projects:
The Post Echo – a photographic journal featuring the people of
Leeds echoing situations reported in the local newspaper,
created, published and distributed in May 2007. The
photographs in this journal were taken during five days of
roaming Leeds city centre. We stopped people and asked them
to consider a list of people in situations taken from the text of
news stories in the previous day’s Yorkshire Evening Post.
Participants were then invited to choose a situation they felt they
could empathise with and embody it, right there and then, on the
street, for camera. All the resulting 122 photographs ,
accompanied by captions of the selected situations, were
brought together in a 20 page full colour tabloid newspaper The
Post Echo. Newsagents and vendors were involved in
distributing 5,000 copies of the publication. Commissioned by
East Street Arts.
Club Class – a performance experience that invites participants to
explore the unwritten rules that govern social conduct. Participants attend
one of four ‘micro-classes’ led by experts in bad behaviour, clothing,
surveillance and body language. Here they devise a very personal
performance changing the way they look, feel or normally behave, which
are played out in the given social context. Previously presented within a
gallery context at Tate Modern and Tate Liverpool to critical and public
acclaim, Club Class is a subversive take on the cultural obsession with
personal development and the connections between art, performance
and everyday life. During 2007, it has been presented by the ICA, London
and on the streets of Brighton. Financially assisted by Arts Council
England through Grants for the Arts.
Thinkers in Residence – hosted by the Live Art Development
Agency, FrenchMottershead are considering the challenge of
performative events – events that in their conception are
dependent on the actions of the audience/participants for their
meaning, without the artists necessarily ‘performing’ themselves –
and are exploring ways in which events such as these can be
further represented in and supported by the Live Art sector.
FrenchMottershead’s ongoing tenure includes a ‘performative
event’ especially for the Live Art Development Agency and the
contribution of a Study Guide for the Agency’s Library referencing
relevant material from across contemporary art that has an
inherent performative element.
FRENCHMOTTERSHEAD:
Rebecca French & Andrew Mottershead | +44 (0)7951 537012 | [email protected] | www.frenchmottershead.com
Artists in Residence – in 2006 Rebecca French and
Andrew Mottershead took up residence throughout the
National Review of Live Art. They made three new works
facilitating creative exchange between audience, artists and the
locality. Reflections on the three works Local Review of
Necessary Amenities, A Daily Ritual to Capture the Presence of
Everybody and Now that’s an idea! Are published in
Jennie Klein’s ‘Micro-Interventions into Everyday Rituals’, Art
Papers July/Aug 2006, and Mary Brennan’s ‘Touching what’s
special in the everyday’.
Borrow Me – an event that offered users of London’s Peckham Library a
collection of performances titled after library items and activities. During
regular opening hours, labelled performers stood amongst the shelves of
books and CDs, making themselves available for browsing and
borrowing. As each performer was checked out by their borrower at the
main desk, their designated barcode was scanned and loan history
updated. On a short or long loan, the one-on-one interactions were
played out amongst the aisles, tables and chairs, lending a human twist
to the everyday life of the library hall. Commissioned by Peckham Pier for
Camberwell Arts Week 2006.
Reviewing IBT – a short performance written over the five days
of the Inbetween Time Festival 2006. “We’re interested in you,
IBT’s audience. From the start, we’ll be amongst you, watching
and listening. In the privacy of our hotel room, we’ll write, re-write
and pull it all together. At the end, we’ll stand up in front of you
and deliver our review.” FrenchMottershead continued their
exploration of active audiences, by subjecting IBT’s audience to
close scrutiny and in a reversal of customary reviews, examined,
evaluated and critiqued audiences, not artworks.
The People Series – is an interactive microperformance game
that trades social interaction as a commodity. Designed for art
festivals, galleries and social events, the work adapts the
technology of the business card to create an experimental social
milieu. Each version of the game is site-sensitive with the
instructions on the cards depending on the nature of the event
and venue. Presented, amongst others, at the National Review of
Live Art, Fierce Festival, Duckie, Arnolfini, Arts Council England
at the Edinburgh Festival and Performance Studies International
#11, Rhode Island USA.
Sonic Game – commissioned by Colchester Arts Centre to
design and deliver four weekly microperformance games; played
by gig-goers, band members, bar and front of house staff at the
venue’s ‘Full Bleed’ experimental music festival, November 2004.
The games changed the dynamic of attending a “music gig” by
delivering subversive instructions via everyday technologies:
putting players in the position of performer and documenter.
Prepared during on-site idea-labs and using gig-going rituals as
both inspiration and backdrop – the noise, watching, touching, the
trips to the toilet and bar – the games encouraged all to subvert
their behaviours and question the roles they play. Supported by
Arts Council England, Eastern.
FRENCHMOTTERSHEAD:
Rebecca French & Andrew Mottershead | +44 (0)7951 537012 | [email protected] | www.frenchmottershead.com
MicroTampa – a location-specific live art experience that
breached the wall between art and real life. Presented with
unannounced one-on-one ‘microperformances’, visitors to a North
Tampa pool bar were invited to question who’s creating
performance art and who’s just hanging out. Microperformances
for this project were developed on-site during a residency in 2003
at the University of South Florida
One Letter – was a writing competition held in 2003 in which the winning
entry would inspire a new artwork. Londoners of all ages were asked to
write One Letter—a letter of love, blackmail, condolence, complaint or
suicide. What letter would you write? And who (or what) would it be to? In
response to the winner, FrenchMottershead published a mail art work
‘TEN TO DO’ delivered to all competition entrants, containing instructions
and materials for small, irreverent performances, suggesting ways to live
at liberty with London. Commissioned by Spread the Word literature
development agency, with support from Awards for All, Borders, London
Arts and BBC Radio London.
My Word is My Bond – a series of weekly microperformance
events in 2002 working with the spirit of a Friday night in the City
of London. Held in an opulent restaurant & bar in the shadow of
the Stock Exchange, the work emphasised a place where
offerings can no longer be taken at face value.
Microperformances for the project generated and developed
through a series of in-situ workshops encompassing individuals
living or working in the City of London, from former homeless to
employees of major blue-chip and city-based companies.
Supported by London Arts, Combined Arts Unit
Social – drew on the landscape of members’ only clubs to create
a platform for performance that invited participation. How do
expectations shape experience? At what point do we question
whether something is real or performed? Convened late 1999,
and hosted by London’s Surdoc Social and Latvian Welfare
Clubs, Social took on each venue’s characteristics and added
subtle interactions activating audience and performer, including a
marriage, Latvian Folk dance lessons, a stripper and many other
exaggerated social behaviours. The actions were performed by
FrenchMottershead, the staff and members of each venue,
collaborating artists Robin Deacon, Laurence Harvey, Rosie
Thwaites, Matthew Walmsley, Mark Wayman, and students from
Goldsmiths and Central St. Martins.
FRENCHMOTTERSHEAD:
Rebecca French & Andrew Mottershead | +44 (0)7951 537012 | [email protected] | www.frenchmottershead.com
Awards:
Artist Links England-Brazil programme, ACE/British Council, 2007-08
East International commission, Norwich, 2007
Situation Leeds commission, East Street Arts, 2007
Platform commission, Newcastle, 2007
Creative Growth Grant, CIDA, 2006
Grants for the Arts Award for ‘Club Class’ national tour, ACE, 2006
Live Art Development Agency, Thinkers in Residence, London 2006
Liverpool Live commission, Liverpool Biennial, 2006
Art Surgery and Newlyn Gallery commission, Penzance, 2006
Peckham Pier commission, London 2006
Inbetween Time Festival commission, Bristol 2006
New Moves International, Artists-in-Residence National Review of Live Art, Glasgow 2006
ANTI Festival commission, Kuopio, Finland 2005
Edinburgh Festival commission, Independent Theatre Council & ACE, 2005
Arnolfini Gallery commission, Bristol 2005
Network Bodies Project Award, 2005
Bow Festival commission, London 2005
PSi #11 commission, Rhode Island USA, 2005
National Review of Live Art commission, Glasgow 2005
Grants for the Arts Award, Arts Council England, Eastern 2004
Colchester Arts Centre project commission, 2004
East End Collaborations commission, London 2004
You Are Here Festival commission, Nottingham 2004
Seen Festival commission, Leicester, 2004
University of Exeter commission, 2004
Grants for the Arts Award, ACE, to support professional development, 2004
Chisenhale Dance Space Artists’ Development Programme, 2003
University of South Florida, residency and commission, Tampa 2003
Awards for All, 2002
Spread the Word commission, London, 2002
CIDA / Live Art Development Agency Award, 2002
Collective Gallery, residency and performance, Edinburgh, 2001
London Arts, Combined Arts, Research & Production Award for My Word Is My Bond, 2001
Recent Presentations & Workshops:
Exhibitors, PIP2007, China Pingyao International Photography Festival, Sep 2007
Intervention, New Work Network 10th Birthday Party, London, Sep 2007
Visiting Lecturers, Wimbledon College of Art, Aug 2007
‘Play Station’, PLAY: Experience the adventure of our cities URBIS, Manchester, UK, Jul 2007
Castle Mall Workshop leaders, Contemporary Art Norwich, Jul 2007
‘Microperformance & Site’ 6-day Winter School, New Moves International, Glasgow, Mar 2007
Speakers at ‘Rules and Regs’ Platform, 22 Mar 2007
Tutors/Mentors, Queen Mary University, London, Feb-Jun 2007
Artists’ Talk, Sheffield Hallam University, Feb 2007
‘Borrow Me’ workshops, Peckham Library, London, Jun 2006
Artists’ Talk, Performer Stammtisch, Berlin, Apr 2006
‘Being part of it’ Artists Talk, Brunel University, Mar 2006
‘Everything you wanted to know about live art, artist talk, Queen Mary University, Sep 2005
‘FrenchMottershead Toast’, site-specific event for home’s Church Ale Festival, Jul 2005
Speakers at ‘Up the Garden Path’ Artists Networks symposium, Baltic, Gateshead, 16 Apr 2005
Site specific performance project, University of Winchester, Mar - Apr 2005
Microperformance Lab at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama, Glasgow, Sep 2004
‘Grants for the Arts Meeting’, Live Art Advisory Network, London, June 2004.
“Livin’ it” Creative Solutions Lab Event, British Council, Feb 2004
Keynote speakers and panellists, ‘Between You and Me’, University of South Florida, Sep 2003
‘Microperformance is…’ workshop, Chisenhale Dance Space, Jun 2003
Artists Talk & workshop, Exeter University, Feb 2003
Microperformance workshop, University of Leeds, Dec 2004
Chaired discussion Seen Festival, Leicester, Apr 2004
FRENCHMOTTERSHEAD:
Rebecca French & Andrew Mottershead | +44 (0)7951 537012 | [email protected] | www.frenchmottershead.com
Selected Media reviews / interviews
•
FrenchMottershead, SHOPS, Control Magazine, Issue 17, July 2007
•
Wilsher, Mark, FrenchMottershead in Profile, Art Monthly, Dec/Jan 2006-07
•
FrenchMottershead, Artists’ Story: Touching what’s special in the everyday, AN magazine, Aug
2006
•
Klein, Jennie, Micro Interventions into Everyday Rituals, Art Papers, Jul/Aug 2006
•
FrenchMottershead, NRLA 06 Interview by Jennie Klein, www.newmoves.co.uk, Feb 2006
•
Butterworth, Cathy, Civil Disobedience, British Council, On Tour - Issue 27, Feb 2006
•
Johnson, Dominic, ANTI Festival, Frieze - Issue 97, Mar 2006
•
Lewis, Laura Cameron, Strawberry deaths and hide and seek, The Scotsman, Feb 2006
•
Mills, Corrie, NRLA, The List, Feb 2006
•
Jones, Sarah, Crocodiles & diaries under review, Scotland on Sunday, Jan 2006
•
Lawlor, Ann, Redefining "Live Act", nyartsmagazine.com, Sep/Oct 2004
•
Edwards, Susan, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Tampa Weekly Planet, Sep 2003
•
Kimbell, Lucy, My Word is My Bond, AN magazine, May 2002
•
Stanier, Philip, My Word is My Bond, Live Art Magazine, May 2002
•
Kimbell, Lucy, Stage Fright, FT Weekend Magazine, Mar 2002
•
Sofaer, Joshua, Friday Social Evening, Live Art Magazine, Apr 2001
Background
Rebecca French graduated in 1998 with a BA in Fine Art from the University of Wales Institute,
Cardiff, having specialised in Time-Based Media. Prior to collaborating with Andrew Mottershead,
Rebecca performed, installed and improvised her work at the European Media Arts Festival,
Osnabrück, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff and London's Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). She
was invited to be Assistant Festival Director for the Cardiff Art in Time (CAT) Festival 1999.
1995-98 BA (Hons) Fine Art—First Class, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff
1994-95 Foundation—Distinction, Camberwell College of Art
Andrew Mottershead graduated with a Site-Specific Sculpture MA from Wimbledon School of Art
in 1995. Since then he has developed and produced artworks that experiment and actively engage
with urban social and cultural infrastructures in cities across the UK. He began staging site-specific
performance events in 1997, creating a social space to explore interventionist possibilities thrown
up by the technology of the Karaoke machine, venue context and geographic realities of London,
including London's Institute of Contemporary Art, a Hospital, a bus and a Thames sailing barge.
1993-95 MA Site-Specific Sculpture—Commendation, Wimbledon School of Art
1988-91 BA (Hons) Fine Art, Sheffield City Polytechnic
FRENCHMOTTERSHEAD:
Rebecca French & Andrew Mottershead | +44 (0)7951 537012 | [email protected] | www.frenchmottershead.com
FRENCHMOTTERSHEAD:
MICRO INTERVENTIONS INTO EVERYDAY RITUALS
Essentially, we invite the audience to engage complicitly in the creative act. In time it has become a flexible
format. We’ve developed different ways to devise and prompt microperformances, from performing them
ourselves, to large-scale projects incorporating research, workshops, and live events that activate local
constituencies as microperformers, to distributing performance instructions using objects, text messaging,
and verbal delivery in a variety of social frameworks. The outcomes vary in response to the context—which
is key to our work.
—FrenchMottershead1
24 ART PAPERS
TEXT / JENNIE KLEIN
Performance or live art was initially theorized as the end game of the mod-
object from the ground without allowing their "bums" to stick out. In so
ernist quest for abstract art, with the pure—and commodity-resistant—
doing, they politely ask the participant to reconsider her or his actions in
actions of the body replacing the object, which itself had reached abstract
relation to the social conventions that shape those actions. Forewarned, par-
purity. Thanks to the conceptual performances of Fluxus, Art & Language,
ticipants know to expect the unusual, often to the degree that all that occurs
Black Market Collective, and other collectives, and theories of engaged and
during the course of the event into which FrenchMottershead intervenes is
performed activism posited by thinkers such as Guy Debord, Peggy Phelan,
interpreted as performative, whether or not that is actually the case.
and Judith Butler, live art has been re-theorized in the recent past in terms
In spite of the proclaimed death of the author and birth of the reader in
of how local, or micro, actions can disrupt political and institutional struc-
academic circles, the art world has understandably been slow to relinquish
tures on the macro political level. The UK-based performance duo
the association of objects and actions with an authorial identity. The work
FrenchMottershead, whose moniker is derived from the combined last
of FrenchMottershead is unusual in that it is dependent upon the actions
names of its two members Rebecca French and Andrew Mottershead, facil-
of the audience/participants for its meaning.2 Prior to working together,
itates actions that expose the conventions that govern daily social inter-
Mottershead and French realized that they were simply not interested in
change. Eschewing the traditional "black box with raked seating" theatrical
making a spectacle of themselves. Instead, they wished to work with the
space which usually hosts contemporary live art, FrenchMottershead has
skills that people already had. Sociologists in action, FrenchMottershead
taken to the streets, the clubs, the bars, the local stores, and the public
observes body language and social interactions at the micro level and
queues in order to interrupt business as usual by asking people to do the
uses this knowledge in order to expose the way in which conventional
unexpected—such as come back for a group photograph or pick up an
social behavior is in fact a series of small, micro performances that accrue
details of Five Shops, performance for camera, ANTI Festival, Kuopio, Finland (© FrenchMottershead 2005; photos: Pekka Mäkinen); left: Kalakukkoleipomo Hanna Partanen—
Bakery, 10.30am, 17 September 2005; RIGHT: Levykauppa Äx— Record Shop, 1.30pm, 17 September 2005 / ABOVE LEFT: A Daily Ritual to Capture the Presence of Everybody, Thursday 9 February
2006, photograph from performance for camera, National Review of Live Art, Glasgow (© FrenchMottershead 2006; photo: Neilson Photography); RIGHT: details of Club Class, 2005, interactive microperformance club; TOP: documentation of the Club Class social arena, 19 June 2005, Great Eastern Hotel, London, with microperformers mingling and trying to maintain their
altered identities; BOTTOM: image of the Ready To Wear micro-class with Marsha Roddy, London (© FrenchMottershead 2005) (all images courtesy of the artists)
OPPOSITE:
ARTPAPERS.ORG
25
until they have amassed a historicity that is difficult to challenge.
people angry or uncomfortable. No one is asked or expected to engage in a
FrenchMottershead intervenes in that process by asking, reminding, gently
performance or become a microperformer without her or his consent—it is
prodding, and sometimes chiding people to re-perform everyday actions—
always possible to simply walk away, although surprisingly most people
a process they have termed microperformance.
choose not to. In Five Shops, 2005, programmed by the ANTI Festival in
In one of their earliest actions, Social, 1999, FrenchMottershead pre-
Kuopio, Finland, customers at five city shops were either given a handbill,
sented two one-night events, mixing an art audience with the membership
whispered instructions, or a stamped receipt that contained an invitation
of two very different venues, London’s Surdoc Social Club and the Latvian
to "come be part of our picture." Customers who returned to each shop on
Welfare Club. In each case, Social adopted the characteristics of its host—a
Saturday were placed and posed by the artists, who had a professional pho-
working class club for dock workers and a club where Latvians can enjoy
tographer take the photograph, which was in turn donated to each shop. In
many different types of vodka—while programming interactions to acti-
a review of the ANTI festival that included a discussion of Five Shops,
vate audience and performer, including a (fake) marriage, Latvian folk
Dominic Johnson suggested that "the work showcased here will sit uncom-
dance lessons, a stripper, and other subtle or exaggerated social behaviors
fortably with audiences nurtured on spectacle, amounting to a perform-
such as intrusions on people’s conversations or chatting people up before
ance aesthetic almost stripped of the live, carnal body that has been
moving on to their friend. The actions were documented by the partici-
performance’s key mainstay."3
pants, who were given disposable cameras for the task. In a more recent,
FrenchMottershead has departed from the tradition of the live, carnal
ongoing performance, The People Series (first premiered at the Floating IP
body for good reason—the work would simply not be successful if the bod-
Gallery in Manchester in December 2003), FrenchMottershead has
ies that belonged to the artists were front and center. Much of
designed an event for festivals and other large gatherings based on the
FrenchMottershead’s work has been predicated on the meaning and
ubiquitous business card. Players/participants are invited to select a card
deployment of surveillance. Anonymity is crucial for the success of their
containing instructions for a microperformance to be performed at their
projects, which means that they are sometimes difficult to find. Live art
discretion and documented with a red dot placed on the spot. The stickers
events and festivals are well established and astonishingly numerous in
correspond to a "key" on display at the venue that lists all of the instruc-
Europe and the UK—unlike in the United States. FrenchMottershead’s con-
tions. At the end of the evening, the "performances" are documented
tributions to many of them often involve some sort of audience manipula-
through a constellation of red dots, which map the otherwise ephemeral
tion. For The Enarelay, performed at the National Review of Live Art (NRLA)
actions.
in Glasgow in 2005, FrenchMottershead positioned the audience as creator,
Unlike many other artists whose public work depends on a non-art
performer, and documenter. As audience members, whose hands had been
audience, FrenchMottershead is not particularly interested in making
previously stamped with WORK or PLAY, went to the toilet, queued for
ABOVE, LEFT: publicity image for Artists in Residence, 2006, National Review of Live Art, Glasgow (© FrenchMottershead 2006; photo: Manning Photography); RIGHT: details of The Enarelay,
2005, interactive microperformance, National Review of Live Art, Glasgow (© FrenchMottershead 2005); TOP: detail of documentation wall after an interactive microperformance; BOTTOM:
selecting instructions during an interactive microperformance game
26 ART PAPERS
performances, or had a drink in the bar, they were presented with lucky
dips—two boxes, one labeled WORK and one labeled PLAY—that contained
pieces of paper with performance instructions such as "stress your achievements to the queuer ahead" (WORK) or "slip your hand in their back pocket"
(PLAY). When the newly minted microperformer had completed his or her
task, the performance was documented by sticking the paper on the wall. For
the Inbetween Time festival presented at Bristol’s Arnolfini Gallery in
February 2006, FrenchMottershead moved as unobtrusively as possible
through the audience, making notes of their observations and presenting the
results on the final evening. Interestingly enough, audience members who
recognized FrenchMottershead often approached them to reveal salacious
tidbits, some of which were too risqué to share in the final presentation.
Artists-in-residence at this year’s NRLA, FrenchMottershead took a more gentle approach to the audience. Their three interactions were designed to make
the festival less intimidating for first-time attendees, and facilitated creative
exchange between audience, artists, and local residents. Local Review of
Necessary Amenities, a meticulously detailed map printed on the back of the
daily schedule, gave useful directions to NRLA attendees such as where to get
a cheap lunch or a deep fried Mars Bar, or commit suicide quickly. A Daily
Ritual to Capture the Presence of Everybody required audience members to
assemble each evening for a group photograph, which was printed overnight
and added to a growing exhibition. In an effort to unite past and future NRLA
attendees, FrenchMottershead contacted all of the artists who had ever participated in the festival and asked them to submit a favorite and anonymous
text for Now That’s An Idea. On display for the duration of the festival, the
texts were distributed on the last day.
FrenchMottershead’s work has a significant pedagogical dimension. It
frequently takes the forms of lectures and workshops. Not surprisingly, these
are somewhat atypically structured. FrenchMottershead is currently touring
Club Class, an artwork where distinguished experts—people involved in the
theater and entertainment industries—help participants transform themselves in some small but significant way. Participants subsequently step into
the social arena, mingling while attempting to maintain their altered identities. Aspiring microperformers will have the opportunity to participate in
Club Class at the Tate Modern in 2006 and the ICA in London in 2007.4
Jennie Klein is a contributing editor for ART PAPERS. Her profile of Athens, Georgia,
artist Michael Oliveri appeared in ART PAPERS 30:1 (January/February 2006).
NOTES
1. Interview with author, February 12, 2006.
2. FrenchMottershead seldom use images of themselves in their work, their website,
or in reviews and articles about their work. As artists-in-residence at the National
Review of Live Art, however, they made a postcard with their images, partly
because this context required them to be seen performing their role.
3. Dominic Johnson, "Anti-Festival," Frieze 97, March 2006, 164-165,
http://www.frieze.com/review_single.asp?r=2388, accessed on March 22, 2006.
4. See www.frenchmottershead.com for information on other artworks and events
created by FrenchMottershead.
ABOVE, TOP TO BOTTOM:
publicity still for Borrow me, June 2006, Peckham Library, London, UK (© FrenchMottershead 2006); detail from Local Review of Necessary Amenities, 2006, print
published with the National Review of Live Art 2006 daily programme, 420mm x 297mm (© FrenchMottershead 2006)
ARTPAPERS.ORG
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