REMARKABLE AND CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS

ANN RAPSTOFF

Ann Rapstoff, Deep in the forest, (2009)
An action in the woodland of Harcourt Arboretum,
Residency 2009

Ann Rapstoff, Hypo-Locate,
dowsing for the immaterial imagined
A residency at Harcourt Arboretum

Ann Rapstoff
Office for the Dissemination of Sympathy, (2008)
OVADA Gallery, Oxford

Ann Rapstoff's practice crosses art forms and is often context and site responsive. She is interested in the interface between artist and audiences, exploring ways of engagement and unsettling known structures. Her recent work has tended to be dialogue based, including investigating ways of making art through the possibility of social interaction and creative collaboration with people and communities.

Ann often constructs situations, dialogues and collaborations; her work is often process based, taking the form of projects, workshops, events, interventions and situations. She may appear explicitly or anonymously in the work. She has worked with people in a variety of settings, with artists and non-artists from other professions and experiences. In negotiating particular situations and sites she attempts to engage and facilitate further possible histories related to identity, myth, narrative and ritual.

Ann worked on a project entitled Office for The Dissemination of Sympathy. This work was built around strategies of exchange, exploring how art can be used to create social bonds and facilitate acts of kindness. The work critiqued the notion of self help and the human potential movement. Ann searcheed for bonds and moments of community with an idealised objective of living in a world that focuses on relationships rather than the money market as a place of exchange. This performative exchange went beyond language and engaged the audience through the sense of touch, smell, voice, action, and giving.

Ann works with Kay Sentance and Barry Reeves at ArtWash, and completed work on Home Delivery, in which five artists were delivered to hosts who opened their homes for the delivery of an artist in November 2009. She co-founded Kitchen Antics and Appliances (2005), a collaborative performance group of three artists. Her ongoing collaboration with Hilary Kneale, involves researching the theme of water in preparation for a residency in 2010. Ann has a coaching and mentoring practice, which includes working with artists across art forms and life experiences.

She has shown work widely in the UK and Europe.

Ann Rapstoff's website
the ArtWash website

ANN RAPSTOFF'S CONVERSATIONS AND INTERACTIONS: