Barbican and MDF

On Saturday I went to the Barbican to see the Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown and Gordon Matta- Clark exhibition. I've always loved Matta- Clark's work, but I'd never seen Anderson's or Brown's work. It was the best exhibition I've been to in a long time. One of the most talked about thing about the exhibition is Trisha Brown's piece 'Walking on the Wall' where a group of people walk horizontally around the walls of the gallery. It was pretty amazing, but I thought Brown's performances were bought down a bit by one called 'Floor of the Forest'. Maybe I didn't enjoy it because I was standing on the lower floor of the gallery. The piece was 2 people on this sort of rack of clothes and each person got dressed and undressed while crawling around the rack. I think you had to be standing on the balcony overhead to truly understand it.

Trisha Brown 'Walking on the Wall' 1971

source: http://whitneylive.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/trisha-brown-walking-on-wal.jpg

Floor of the Forest, 1970

Source: http://www.artnet.com/Images/magazine/reviews/robinson/robinson6-15-07-4.jpg

The bits of the exhibition which I found most inspiring were the 'Food' Restaurant set up by Matta- Clark and other artists from the downtown New York scene and Trisha Brown's advertisements for her fearless performances.

Food was set up in 1972 as an alternative space to eat, work and for the creative community to exchange ideas. There were some great videos of the " restaurant" (I don't really think I sould call it a restaurant as prices ranged from about 25 cents to 1 dollar). It made me feel so frustrated- I wanted so badly to be living and working in New York in the 70s. I love the way artists gathered together and arranged events among themselves. Like Trisha Brown's "Fearless Dance Concerts". My favourite of her pieces was one where a man attached to a harness walked down the side of a building.
I was really struck by the flyers and posters made by Brown and her dance group. It made me want to make my own poster and try and encourage people to get involved in my revival project.

A flyer for one of Trisha Brown's performances.

source: http://whitney.org/image_columns/0025/9020/skymap_brochure_cover_240.jpg

Here is my poster for the Crouch End revival project. While working on this poster I realised that the street patterns spreading outwards from the clock remind me a bit of a human heart surrounded by arteries an veins- quite fitting for a planned revival.

I'm going to email my friend's ( in the spirit of Matta-Clark, even though he would have writted letters) and tell them about the project and ask them if they could help me out on Sunday when I plan to set up the piece.

Today, I traced my massive crouch end map ( 4 sheets of A0) onto 2 sheets of MDF and cut out the shapes with a jigsaw. I really like the effecton  and I can now more clearly visualise my outcome. I need to fix the MDF sheets together with a piano hinge. On Sunday I will open out the sheets and then brace them, by screwing in planks of wood on site.

My map template.

Tomorrow I'm going to paint the MDF with white emulsion and I might start organising how the event on sunday will run.