The Art Trail 2007
April 27th, 2007 by rui
This year artworks spread from their hill spot to occupy the whole festival site with a mix of large and small scale commissions drawing on and playing with the festival experience and its landscape. Artists included: Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey, Ben Blakebrough, C6, Sherrilee Cooper and Brendan Coates, Godfried Donkor, The Magnificent Revolutionary Cycle Cinema, Semiconductor, Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich. Curated by Alice Sharp and Tanya Skillen.
Ackroyd and Harvey grew the National Theatre’s fly tower with seedling grass on London’s South Bank in May 2007. They are acclaimed for their groundbreaking work creating complex images in seedling grass by exploiting the light-sensitivity of this growing medium. Ackroyd & Harvey photographed people outside The Big Chill Bar in Brick lane and then created their portraits in grass. Sited by the main stage, the piece faded as it was exposed to light and touch.
www.artsadmin.co.uk
In ‘Celestial Radio’ Walker & Bromwich reawakened the spirit of pirate radio on a glittering voyage to uncover life’s big questions. They created new sound/light waves on their yacht The ‘Celeste’, with its 50,000 mirror tiles as well as hosting their own radio show. Dawn and dusk saw DJ’s playing their sets in collaboration with the artists from the decks of the boat for Big Chill FM.
www.walkerandbromwich.org.uk
Blakebrough’s ‘Winged Self’ hovered like a flying carpet on the village green. Controlled by the artist’s body movements. It is a real flying platform created by Blakebrough, based on the 1950s vertical flight experiments of Charles Zimmerman proving the feasibility of a simple aircraft flyable by anyone capable of riding a bicycle.
Donkor’s full sized ‘Financial Times Mud’ Hut was constructed in the traditional African method sourced from local materials. On the inside it was wallpapered with Financial Times Newspapers, with a floor design inspired by traditional Ghanaian patterns. On the outside a sound system picked up the nights vibes.
donkor.net
Semiconductor combine experimental film with animation revealing our physical world in flux; cities in motion, shifting landscapes and systems in chaos. Their film ‘Earth Moves’ was projected at the top of the Eastnor valley, giving a distraction from the steep climb. It started out as 5 photographs then by taking field recordings in each of the locations, they used the audio as a tool, to sculpt and re-animate the landscape.
www.semiconductorfilms.com
The Magnificent Revolutionary Cycle Powered Cinema is the only UK off-grid, sustainable and portable cinema that is powered by bicycles. It arrived on bicycles from Cambridge. The audience were invited onto the bicycles and the films started to roll.
cyclecinema.wordpress.com
Flames of False Economy by C6 was a fireside interactive situation examining the bureaucracies of exchange. C6 invited Big Chill festival goers to join them by the camp fire for a cup of mint tea that costs £2300 – that’s C6 pounds! You could sign up for an account, withdraw C6’s hand printed currency and make the choice whether to part with your artists edition note for a cuppa.
c6.org
Cooper and Coates were a living photo booth wandering the festival and delivering drawings of peoples portraits x4.
Art Trail photographer: Simon Phipps
