TBC Artists' Collective: A Message To... Houston

Charley Peters, A Message To... Paul Neal 'Red' Adair (2011), Folded Paper on Wall

TBC's latest project, A Message To... Houston has now been completed and images of the installation of the works by myself, Laura Davidson and Beverley Bennett are now available at 12-pages.com.

My collaboration with Davidson was inspired by research into the firefighter 'Red' Adair. Davidson interpreted a set of instructions supplied by me relating to a series of drawings made from folded paper for the project (above), which are installed in my studio in London. On the 25th of August Davidson recreated the works in Houston, Texas, and scattered their subsequently burned remnants along the park in the middle of Heights Boulevard, which divides the lanes of traffic travelling across town (below). The work is the latest in TBC's ongoing exploration of drawing as performative, interventionist or documentary medium, moving the act of solitary mark making out of the studio and into a collaborative, interactive environment. For more information about the project click here.

Laura Davidson and Charley Peters, A Message to Paul Neal 'Red' Adair' (2011)

A Message To... Houston

As part of TBC Artists' Collective, I will be taking part in the A Message To... Houston project during August. My piece of work is inspired by the legendary firefighter 'Red' Adair, who, during his career extinguished and capped oil well blowouts, both on land and offshore. The project will involve a collaboration between myself and TBC's Laura Davidson, based on Laura's interpretation of a set of instructions I supplied her with relating to a series of my drawings made for the project. The instructions and my drawings - made from folded paper, reminiscent of flame forms - are below. The second part of the project will be documented on the TBC Online Project Space, 12-Pages, at the end of August.

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A Message to... Paul Neal 'Red' Adair

I have made six drawings out of folded paper.

The drawings are now on the wall of my studio in London.

On sheets of white paper I have recorded each fold as a line, thereby producing six new line drawings.

I have given these line drawings to you and they are to be taken to Houston, Texas.

In Houston the lines should be turned into folds and the original drawings recreated.

The six recreated drawings should be burned and their ashes scattered in Houston Heights, the area where Red Adair spent his childhood, to commemorate his career extinguishing hazardous oil well fires until his retirement at the age of 77.

Charley Peters, A Message to Red Adair (2011), Folded paper on wall

Project News: Altered States on TBC Online Project Space

Charley Peters, DS329-1/DS9-5 (2011), Hazard Tape on Canvas

“A revolutionary action within culture cannot have as its aim to be the expression or analysis of life; it must aim at life’s expansion. Misery must be pushed back everywhere.”
Guy Debord

Available on TBC Artists' Collective's online project space is Issue 8 of 12-Pages, a publication of contemporary drawing. July's issue, Altered States, edited by TBC member Laura Davidson, asked contributors to consider art as a catalyst for change. It was important that these ideas were considered in the widest possible sense, to bring a sense of plurality to a changed state. As we know too well, the drive for a reformed state in Europe post WW1 lead to in Germany, Italy and Spain the spectre of Fascism and in the East of Europe the steel face of Communism. Such extremes of belief today seem less significant in the age of Web 2.0, where multiple states of exchange between individuals can seemingly co-exist. As 12-pages’ editorial remit is to create a discourse around contemporary drawing practice and its definition, the featured outcomes additionally challenge the ‘drawing’ in some way.

For Altered States, I submitted the work DS329-1/DS9-5, a drawing made by stretching hazard warning tape over a canvas. The title refers to the pantone references of the yellow and black of the tape, colours synonymous with danger, emergency or violent criminal activity. Altered States editor Laura Davidson wrote about the work, 'Removed from its original signifying concept the tape has been used to make marks, instead of warning of imminent danger. This removal of signifier through drawing practice gives an engaged process based response.'

Altered States can be seen at: http://www.12-pages.com/2011/07/altered-states.html

Project News: Altered States (Coming Soon)

Coming soon on TBC Artists' Collective's online project space is Altered States, a publication featuring newly commissioned work from a range of international artists. Altered States will be edited by TBC member Laura Davidson and will be available on 12-pages.com later this month.

Project News: A Message To...

A Message To... Ann Oakley (2011)

A Message To...

On 22 January 2011 members of TBC Artists' Collective - Beverley Bennett, Laura Davidson, Paul Mendez, James Tuitt and myself - travelled to Oxford to complete the first part of a long-term project, 'A Message To...' 

Each artist made a piece of interventionist work inspired by someone who has contributed to the cultural life of Oxford. My work, a drawing in dirt for sociologist Ann Oakley, who has written extensively about women's experiences as housewives and mothers, was installed in a display cabinet in the Pitt Rivers Museum. 

The cabinet, on the first floor of the museum, is directly underneath a vitrine containing ethnographic objects relating to marriage. Oakley graduated from Somerville College, Oxford in 1965, where she is now a Fellow.

 

The site of the dirt drawing intervention in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford

Trace Elements

Trace Elements opens on 20th November as part of The Show London. TBC Artists' Collective's latest exhibition project, Trace Elements will continue to develop the themes outlined in Delineation, exploring drawing through erasure, repetition, accumulation, trace, memory and the interruption of surfaces.

Project News: The Show / Trace Elements

Along with my fellow TBC artists Beverley Bennett, Laura Davidson and Paul Mendez, I will be participating in The Show. The exhibition of drawings, 'Trace Elements' selected by curator Eddie Otchere will open 20th November as part of The Show's cultural events programme on Millbank.  The Show presents 'the freshest concepts and objects amongst the spectacle of art, music and magic' (theshowlondon.com)

More information to follow...

Jim Mooney - Critical Responses to Delineation

Dr Jim Mooney in conversation with members of TBC Artists' Collective

On Sunday 31st October TBC was joined in The Crypt Gallery by Dr Jim Mooney, Reader in the Theory and Practice of Fine Art at Middlesex University, who led a discussion based on his responses to the exhibition Delineation, Contemporary Dialogues with Drawing. During the afternoon Jim shared his critical observations of the curatorial policy of the show and led the artists through the gallery in order to give a close reading of each work and identify underlying shared concerns among the exhibiting artists.

TBC would like to extend their thanks to Jim for his insightful and generous contribution to the exhibition programme. A transcript of the discussion will constitute part of the catalogue for Delineation, Contemporary Dialogues with Drawing, which TBC will be writing over the forthcoming months. This publication will also contain a transcript of yesterday's panel discussion led by artist John Timberlake and featuring TBC members Beverley Bennett, Charley Peters, Laura Davidson and Paul Mendez, as well as a collection of critical essays addressing current concerns in artists' drawing practices.