A message on the move

Preston Street Union | Anyone may come and go | Live installation at RAMM Exeter | Photo: Jonathan Price

On Saturday 15 February, in the courtyard of at Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Preston Street Union took a 15-metre length of red wool and folded it into a wrapper for display in the museum's Making History gallery. It was the culmination of eight months of collective research and making for our commission Anyone may come and go.

The brief live action, of parading then folding the wool, made the link between this new work and our previous outdoor work for the museum SERGE/SURGE, in which the same length of fabric breached Exeter's city wall at various points during the course of one day. This red carpet of welcome was carefully cleaned and re-rolled after each action, with many hands tending to the work. Now those same hands prepared it for a more traditional static display.

Having brought the fabric back inside the museum, we are now continuing the idea of trade and movement by distributing an edition of digital posters far and wide, all bearing the message 'anyone may come and go'.

#anyonemaycomeandgo

More details 

Enacting historic processes of labour

Preston Street Union | Anyone may come and go - launch event 15/02/20 | Photo: Tim King 

On Saturday 15th February 2020, Preston Street Union presented the second of two commissions on the theme of migration for Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum: Anyone may come and go.

For the past year, we have been investigating the flow of people, artefacts and ideas that have enabled Exeter to prosper. Our new work centres on the construction of tillet wrappers used in the city’s historic wool trade.

It consists of a pearwood and redwood printing block, carved by master woodcarver Saena Ku from an original, collective drawing by Preston Street Union; 15 metres of red woollen serge; and a painted, printed and stiffened tillet wrapper. The show is accompanied by a digital print on paper, distributed free around Exeter and beyond.

Yet, for me, the most significant aspect of this project isn't the finished objects we've produced, but the processes that led to their creation. This exploration of trade, industry and labour has been enacted -- through a collective approach to thinking and making. 

A significant chunk of our time was devoted to using our practical skills to interrogate research by local historian Michael A Patrick. His new findings challenge the accepted narrative about how tillet wrappers were produced and used.

This interrogation meant creating our own version of a printed tillet wrapper, and included the testing of a range of materials from fabrics to glues, primers and paints. It's important to note that, when working together, Preston Street Union don't make objects (beyond a few simple props) -  until now. So we had to invent a collective making process. As individuals we might have adopted tried-and-tested methods - for example to mix colours or manage registration in printing. But as a group, we evolved a much more organic way of working.

As we started to make, we became itinerant, relying on borrowed studio space and carrying our materials, tools and work from place to place. Different hands and minds tackled tasks during different working sessions, and communication wasn't always faultless. Therefore each new working session began by looking at what had already happened and improvising from there. Those who turned up had to solve the problems that had arisen, not try to unpick what had already happened just because it hadn't been done 'the right way'. It was messy and time-consuming and often exhausting, but it had its own kind of logic. And ultimately, it produced results.

So we have not done any of this perfectly, but we have done it. The process and the tensions within the making touched on themes such as improvisation versus technique, imagination versus research, resistance versus consensus...there's still so much to unpack. Ultimately it's been about the difficulties and rewards of collaboration and connection -- of doing work together. And, as I said in a previous blog entry, it all feels very appropriate to our subject matter -- and the times we find ourselves in.

Anyone may come and go, Making History galleries,  RAMM, Queen Street, Exeter EX4 3RX
Saturday 15th February - Sunday 29th March 2020

Preston Street Union would like to thank: Saena Ku (master woodcarver), Michael A Patrick (historian), Simon Ripley & Double Elephant Print Workshop, Lara Goodband and Tom Cadbury (RAMM curators), Kathy Norris (Exeter Phoenix), Topos Exeter, Exeter Custom House, Topsham Museum, Ebdon's Refreshments.

RAMM's contemporary art programme is supported by Arts Council England

Inhabiting the pigeon

pigeon Steps | Intervention at Walking's New Movements conference, University of Plymouth 2019 | Photo: Claire Hind

pigeon steps

walk heel to toe, alert to the peripheral
gravitate with others to potential gifters

continue to inhabit a state of expectancy

pigeon steps was devised by myself and Megan Calver to investigate the walking movements of feral pigeons. It was first presented as a participatory provocation at the 'Walking's New Movements' conference, University of Plymouth, 1-3 November 2019.  

We kitted out a group of around 20 willing delegates (plus ourselves) with elastic knee straps (to constrict gait) and masks made of modified sandwich boxes (to emphasise peripheral vision). The group then set off in search of food, indicated by the rustling of paper bags.

Wearing the sandwich-box masks was sweaty, claustrophobic and disorientating. Walking in tiny steps was challenging. We weren't really like pigeons at all - and yet... There was something about disruption to gait and perception that took you out of the human body. We began to follow cues from each other as much as the sound of rustling bags - and became a very convincing little flock of expectant foragers. 

The kit was made with a nod to pigeons. For example, the sandwich boxes were chosen as masks because of the signals they give pigeons about food sources. We had hoped to attract some avian role models - or at least spectators - but bad weather meant the activity had to take place indoors. We were also riffing off some half-remembered ideas from Bruno Latour about the need for prostheses to facilitate interspecies communication. (Risky to riff around so many academics, but no one seemed to mind.)

It was an ephemeral, light-touch work, but our thoughts about expectancy and gifting were serious ones. Feral pigeons and humans live closely interconnected lives, but they usually watch us far more closely than we watch them: perhaps because we are potential predators as much as providers.

With thanks to Phil Smith, Claire Hind and Helen Billinghurst, who organised the Walking's New Movements conference, and Exeter Real Food Cafe, who donated the compostable sandwich boxes.

Negotiating a collective aesthetic

Preston Street Union | Work in  progress| 2019

I’m working with Preston Street Union on the second of two commissions for Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum on the theme of migration.  Our last piece for RAMM – SERGE/SURGE  – took place outside the museum walls and consisted of a series of live actions we had devised together over a number of months. This time, the curator specifically requested something with a more physical and enduring presence in the museum building – but also something made by us…quite a challenge for a collective with a largely performative approach.

Preston Street Union is a group of artists with widely varying levels of experience, diverse practices and different aesthetic approaches. Committing to physical processes and objects meant moving away from a situation where we are making work in a way none of us would have used individually, to a situation where we are reliant on the drawing, print-making, digital, research or textile experience of different members in order to create the work. And where we must negotiate a fixed collective aesthetic rather than one that comes and goes in the moment.

For this next piece of work, we are drawing on and complementing new research by local historian Michael A Patrick. We're using our making skills to investigate the construction and production of decorative tillet wrappers used in Exeter's historic wood trade (and so, we hope, to add something new to the museum’s understanding of related objects in its collection). Processes so far have included making a collective drawing and a joint prototype design in fabric. Progress has been slow, often painful, and definitely very stretching for everyone. But at its heart is the need to get along, to exchange expertise, to integrate skills and to make different approaches work cohesively together. It feels very appropriate to our subject matter: the way that Exeter’s prosperity was built on cooperation between people of different backgrounds, cultures, skills and expectations.

Preston Street Union's new work Anyone may come and go will be launched at Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum on Saturday 15 February 2020.

Rustly paper bags provided

I'll be presenting a short, participatory provocation - pigeon steps - with Megan Calver at Walking's New Movements, University of Plymouth, 1-3 November 2019. Details and booking.

A house of leaves

Gabrielle Hoad | A house of leaves (after Alison Knowles) - detail | Made for ‘Building Proposals’ by Nick Davies | 2019

A house of leaves, by a river, using all available lighting, inhabited by friends. 

I'm thrilled to be included in a new limited edition box publication by Nick Davies of Loophole Projects. Made to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Fantastic Architecture, a landmark book by Dick Higgins and Wolf Vostell, this publication features new work by 22 contemporary artists and one architect. They are: Chris Agnew, Sovay Berriman, Ricardo Bloch, Simon and Tom Bloor, Paul Carter, Stuart Crewes, Ryan Curtis, Nick Davies, Polly Gregson, S Mark Gubb, Gabrielle Hoad, Evy Jokhova, Scott King, Sean Lynch, Alex Murdin, Emily Speed, Simon Starling, Mark Titchner, Charlie Tweed, Paul Unett, Ian Watson, Bedwyr Williams, Sam Venables.

My own contribution A house of leaves connects with Alison Knowles’contribution to the original publication, which was a computer-generated poem that described numerous permutations of a house and its inhabitants. My work reflects just one of those permutations.

I had come across some dead Gunnera (‘giant rhubarb’) leaves in the formal gardens of the Dartington Estate in Devon. They were being used to give frost protection to the plants but it struck me that they would be big and strong enough to shelter human bodies -- and that they resembled some sort of encampment. This 'natural' architecture allowed me to tie the built environment back to my personal interest in landscape.

https://www.nickdaviesworks.co.uk/building-proposals

Unruly materials

Preston Street Union | SERGE/SURGE | 28 May 2019 | Photo: Jonathan Price

Maps of voting patterns published just after the 2016 EU referendum and the 2017 General Election show Exeter as a tiny island of red in a sea of blue. Proudly Remain and perennially Labour, it stands in stark contrast to its Devon neighbours. Modern Exeter may not be the most multicultural of cities, but its long-standing overseas connections mean its positive attitude to European trade and migration is nothing new.

Migration used to be a relatively neutral word that described the movement of people, animals, information or ideas from one place to another. But in the context of a historical museum collection, where the provenance of many objects is tied up with empire-building, colonisation and war, it’s a highly charged concept. Add a sprinkling of Brexit uncertainty, and you’ve got yourself quite a hot potato.

We presumed the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) was aware of migration’s potential spikiness as a theme when it commissioned Preston Street Union (PSU) to work on it in relation to the museum collections. For our part, we thought that by focusing on Exeter’s history – its historic wool trade, its ancient city walls – we could discuss migration, but in a cooler-headed way. Of course, in the current climate (including anti-Trump and Extinction Rebellion protests), any organised public action will be read as overtly political. But making live work in public spaces is what PSU does.

We were initially inspired by First Nations artefacts in RAMM’s World Cultures collection, which incorporate fragments of red woollen cloth produced in the south west of England. They seemed like potent material traces of complex international trade relations. Originally used to build relationships with indigenous peoples, the cloth ultimately became an incentive, along with the promise of protection, for handing over ancestral lands to colonisers. Eventually, the cloth fragments found their way back to Britain as part of these First Nations 'collectors' items.

Wanting to show Exeter’s connectedness with the wider world, we devised a dramatic breaching Exeter's city wall with of 15 metres of red woollen fabric. We knew this ‘surge’ of serge could suggest incursion, defence or escape. That red could read as the socialist ‘red flag’, as a claim by an invading force, or even as blood and death – and we encouraged this ambiguity in the face of migration's complexity. But, most of all, we intended our unfurling fabric as a red carpet of welcome.

We not only raised and released the generous bolt of fabric from on high, we cleaned and re-rolled it after it had fallen to the ground, working carefully and diligently in relay as a team. And, dressed in an improvised uniform of caps and knee-pads, we carried this awkward, weighty, comment-provoking object across the city in an untidy march. At the next site we would signal it in, directing attention with paddles and whistles like train conductors or marshals on an airport runway. Throughout our actions, the fabric always moved outward and onward, extending itself into the world. The fabric was the star-turn – often taking its own surprising route as it spilled over the wall and hit the ground with a satisfying thump. We were merely its enablers.

After its final surge we carried the length loose to a waiting table under a shady tree, where we served warm Exeter Pudding, made from a historic recipe. We’d embroidered the serving cloth with a tribute from the nearby statue of Thomas Acland that commemorates his “generous heart and open hand”.

In an unexpected turn, the gathered crowd descended on the table before our red carpet of welcome could be properly laid at their feet. They had spied the Exeter Puddings on offer and, unable to wait for the hosts’ invitation, were already tucking in.

SERGE/SURGE is the first of two works on the theme of migration to be produced by Preston Street Union for RAMM. It was commissioned by Lara Goodband, Curator of Contemporary Art at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum and supported with funding from Arts Council England.  

PSU also acknowledge the kind support of Sovay Berriman, Topos Exeter, Exeter Phoenix, Exeter Castle and Jonathan Price. Exeter Puddings were researched and baked by Ebdon’s Refreshments. 

Review by Leigh Curtis, Exeter Observer

Review by Trevor H Smith, a-n