Remarkable and Curious Conversations

Curated by Cally Trench
The Remarkable Shed Party (2012)

Remarkable and Curious Conversations

The Remarkable Shed Party took place at Sophie's Shed, London on Sunday 15th July 2012. This was the finale for Remarkable and Curious Conversations. It was curated by Cally Trench and hosted by Sophie Loss.

Sophie's Door

Cally Trench, Sophie's Door

The Remarkable Shed Party was a one-day exhibition with events and interactions at Sophie's Shed, London on Sunday 15th July, 2-6pm

Artists: Tineke Bruijnzeels, Marco Cali, Alison Carter Tai, Claire Deniau, Judy Goldhill, Jane Grisewood, Joanna Hill, Ingrid Jensen, Philip Lee, Sophie Loss, Valérie Mary, John McDowall, Steve Perfect, Alan Prosser, Ann Rapstoff, Brigitte Ritschard, Duncan Sellar, Kay Sentance, Joan Skelton Smith, Cally Trench, and Mary Yacoob. Curated by Cally Trench and Sophie Loss.

• Alison Carter Tai and Alan Prosser, Off the Wall Conversations. Making an exhibition of ourselves through our wide-ranging and wild and fanciful topics of conversation.

• Ingrid Jensen, Interface. Ingrid writes: Drawing is feeling one's way around the object with eyes remotely linked to pencil, so it's almost like running the pencil all over the subject, exploring every part. Interface is about doing away with the pencil. It's also about exploring the personal space between people - we often think it's OK to explore people's personal topography provided we don't touch them. In Interface, participants are invited to imagine they are "drawing" each others faces by gently running a finger over the facial surface and features.

• Cally Trench, Lucky Dip.

• Ann Rapstoff, Philip Lee and Cally Trench, Pelican Zebra Cross. As part of their ongoing research into zebra crossings (which they like), Ann Rapstoff, Cally Trench and Philip Lee invited visitors to join them on a visit to a nearby pelican crossing.

• Steve Perfect, Places (book) (2010-2011). Steve asked for collaboration on a project that starts with a selection of photographs of places. Look at the pictures, choose one, and write down any memories, reflections or sensations that it evokes. Steve also led a discussion session on the work.

• Claire Deniau and Valérie Mary, Colexquis (2011-2012). The project started with a flat support, dimensions 18 x 14 cm. One of the artists started colouring it (no further rules), put her initials and date on the back and posted it to the other artist, adding the image on the blog. The other artist picked up a colour from one of the edge of the image, and indicated the position on the back with her initials. Then she replicated the colour and its position on a new work (adding her name and date at the back of it). Then she created a whole new image that she sends back, keeping the first work, etc... The marks at the back of the successive works help define the final display as a visual exquisite corpse. Claire and Valérie also led a discussion session on the work.

• Philip Lee, Window Slip. Philip Lee stood in the subterranean area outside, in front of the large barred kitchen window, while clay slip poured onto him from above.

• Jane Grisewood, Drawing Philip performing.

• Marco Cali, Quiz.

• Sophie Loss, All is Red.

• Joan Skelton Smith, Mladic; Crossfire; PVV; and Oil Spill, BP Tate. Papel Picado banners, tissue paper cutouts based on newspaper photographs suggested by other Remarkable artists (Alison Carter Tai, Carol Coates, Tineke Bruijnzeels and Cally Trench).

• Jane Grisewood, Mapping Blindfold Slip (2011), Three time-based drawings tracking the movement of performance artist Philip Lee while performing Blindfold Slip I (The Old Truman Brewery, London), Blindfold Slip II (The Nunnery, London) and Blindfold Slip III (Stone Squid Experimental Art Space, Hastings). The drawings are a response to his performances and attempt to record the virtual trajectory and traces of his body moving in time and space through seismic-like marks on the paper.

• Ingrid Jensen and Steve Perfect, A Last Bit of Loving Care (2011), video. A reluctant farewell to a significant building.

• Marco Cali, Rope (2011), ink on paper, £400 framed. 'The whole image is a collage of drawings. Each individual drawing is framed as per the camera-shot at a given instance, so that taken as a whole, the set is reconstructed as seen by the camera. The film in question is Alfred Hitchcock's Rope , a film that is peculiar in being shot as if on a single take so that the camera seems to be continually recording the scene(s). During a conversation with other Remarkable and Curious Conversations artists at Mary Yacoob's house on 9th March 2011, I presented drawings from a previous project based on a different film (Tiger Bay ). These drawings precluded colour, being black ink on a plain tracing paper. It was suggested that the addition of colour might be suggestive of certain films (the 50s and 60s technicolour movies) and that the framing device was suggestive of an investigation or scrutiny of the film as a whole.' [Marco]

• Alison Carter Tai,What does an artist wear? (2010) photographs.

• Claire Deniau and Mary Yacoob, C&M Plate Exchange (March 2011- June 2011) Series of 8 etchings each 25 x 25 cm. An etching plate is posted back and forth between London and Paris, each artist adding, erasing, modifying, and extending the work she sees on the plate until a 'final' print is made.

• Judy Goldhill, Philip Lee and Cally Trench, Camouflage (2009-2010), photographs.

• Joanna Hill, Orange (2010), video and Claire Deniau, The Orange Painting (2009), oil on linen. 'The starting point of our collaboration was for me to produce an orange painting. It took me a few months to produce The Orange Painting . I thought it was going to be really easy. It has actually been a real challenge to think about orange as the painting's main colour, raising questions about vision's subjectivity, colour perception and colours interactions. It became obvious to me that orange couldn't be the only colour ...' [Claire].

• Philip Lee and Cally Trench, Blue Home Grown (2011), book.

• Ann Rapstoff, Zebra Crossing Gestures (2012), photographs. At the Office for Zebra Crossings in Remarkable Place in March 2012, Ann Rapstoff conducted research into people's experience of zebra crossings. These photographs show people re-enacting their gestures and expressions to drivers.

• Brigitte Ritschard and Tineke Bruijnzeels. 3D Conversations (2012), book. Brigitte and Tineke had a series of conversations in 3 dimensions. The starting point for three of the conversations was a ping pong ball inserted with strands of wavy metal wire, made by Tineke. Brigitte responded to the piece, Tineke replied, and so on.

• Duncan Sellar, Self-Critical Badges (2010). Remarkable artists were invited to submit criticisms of themselves to be made into badges. Choose one and wear it for a while.

• Kay Sentance, Getting to know you in a matchbox (2012). Boxes by Lis Mann, Cally Trench, Roger Perkins, Lis Mann, Philip Lee, Joan Skelton Smith and Ann Rapstoff.

• Cally Trench, Remarkable Bookshelf (2010) and Remarkable Bookshelf 2 (2012). Find out what the Remarkable artists have been reading.

101 films. Showreel of films each lasting 101 seconds by Remarkable and other artists.

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Cally Trench

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Cally Trench

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Cally Trench

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Cally Trench

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Cally Trench

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Cally Trench

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Philip Lee

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Philip Lee

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Philip Lee

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Philip Lee

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Mary Yacoob

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Mary Yacoob

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Mary Yacoob

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Joan Skelton Smith

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Joan Skelton Smith

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Joan Skelton Smith

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Joan Skelton Smith

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Philip Lee

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Joan Skelton Smith

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Joan Skelton Smith

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Mary Yacoob

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Joan Skelton Smith

Remarkable Shed Party - Photo Jane Grisewood

Photographs by Cally Trench, Mary Yacoob, Philip Lee, Joan Skelton Smith and Jane Grisewood.


Alison Carter Tai: The Remarkable and Curious Conversations project has proved to me that artists are, above all, individuals who have a commitment to their art, who have a wealth of ideas, and who push boundaries intellectually, and who by coming together to work as a group can spark off each other to develop some of their ideas. In my opinion the spirit of experimentation and mutual support within the Remarkables did in the end have the power to move the thinking of those who came into contact with them and their work on to new viewpoints, and we who took part have all benefitted enormously from the experience.

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