| Tract Live A rt |
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| Site specific live art and performance in and around Penzance, Cornwall, over three weekends. Summer 2006 | ||||||||||
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| Information on this site will be updated as part of the Tract Live Art Programme | ||||||||||
FrenchMottershead
Wednesday16
to Monday 21 August
Shops
Shops invites customers and staff of selected Penzance shops to participate
in an artwork. Customers
will be provided with an instruction after each transaction - whispered
by sales staff or stamped on
receipts –specifying a time to return to be part of a group photo,
which will be exhibited later in each shop.
 FrenchMottershead, Five Shops - Kalakukkoleipomo Hanna Partanen, Bakery 10.30am, 17 September 2005, performance for camera, ANTI Festival, Kuopio, Finland, (courtesy of the artists; photo: Pekka Mäkinen) |
 FrenchMottershead, Five Shops - Levykauppa Äx, Record Shop, 1.30pm, 17 September 2005, performance for camera, ANTI Festival, Kuopio, Finland, (courtesy of the artists; photo: Pekka Mäkinen) |
Rebecca French & Andrew Mottershead collaborate on the creation of live work that
specifically explores ideas of human identity, physicality, interaction, social ritual and
the everyday public and private realms in which they are played out.
Often physically absent from the work, they invite participants to engage complicitly
in the creation of unique performance experiences. Through the use of objects, instructions,
maps, photographs and actions, they gently subvert sites and the way contemporary art is
produced.
FrenchMottershead were Artists in Residence at the UK's National Review of Live Art 2006,
Glasgow and recently completed commissions for Peckham Pier, London, Arnolfini, Bristol,
Arts Council England, Colchester Arts Centre and Finland's ANTI Festival and appeared at
PSi#11 at Brown University, Rhode Island, USA.
Upcoming FrenchMottershead shows include Club Class at Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and
the ICA, an interactive microperformance club designed to change the appearance, behaviour
and identity of all that attend. FrenchMottershead are current Thinkers in Residence at the
Live Art Development Agency.
Recent press includes a profile in Art Papers (www.artpapers.org July/Aug 2006 issue), On Tour
(British Council magazine, Feb 2006 issue #27) and Frieze magazine (March 2006 issue).
www.frenchmottershead.com
Archive
FrenchMottershead: Shops
Performed Wednesday16
to Monday 21 August Penzance
Town Centre
Operating in the centre
of Penzance, Frenchmottershead organised group photographs of the customers
of each of around
5 shops. Each shop-owner had been briefed to ask them back at a pre-arranged
time, on the understanding that after it
had been developed the photo would be signed, framed and returned back
to them for displaying behind the counter.
The process of taking the photo was very public, and became the most visible
aspect of the performance, as traffic was
diverted and slowed and cameras clicked. All the photos were taken within
a three hour interval on the Saturday of the
second tract weekend, and each took place as part of a very tightly choreographed
sequence.
Whereas normally shops are taken for granted and seen as utilitarian places
where transactions of money for goods
occur, the work, called ‘Shops’ seemed to force both buyer
and seller to reconsider their relationship to each other.
Photos: Steve Tanner
Archie Browns Health
Foods
DV8 Body Piercing
Ian Lentern Butchers
Malin's Pet Foods
Rosevean News Newsagent & Confectioner