The Manifesto of the Wall, Fringe Arts Bath 2015

This year at Fringe Arts Bath I showed as part of The Manifesto of the Wall. The show was curated by Sveta Antonova, who also wrote the manifesto.

The Manifesto of the Wall:

1. The Wall has its history, respect it.

2. Do not exploit the Wall – it works with you and for you.

3. Find a direct method to include the Wall into your artwork and vice versa.

4. If no.3 is not applicable, you made the wrong piece for this space and may stop here or restart.

5. The term ‘to hang something’ is not an option in this context.

6. Don’t add.

7. Include.

8. Adventures are accepted.

9. Once the artwork is ‘up’, you added a new piece of history to this Wall.

10. Same principle for the Floor & Ceiling, just in case someone asks.

I created a text work, different to anything I have shown before. The Wall was a booklet 130 x 130mm which was bound by hand, with canvas. The booklet was presented on a shelf, with a poster asking viewers to pick up a booklet and walk around the space whilst reading it. See below for images and the text in full.

The show was successful, there was positive feedback as I was invigilating & it was good to see people really engaging with the works. The show suffered a little for not being in the main FaB venues; we were in Little Southgate. However this meant we had a few people popping in who wouldn't ordinarily see any of FaB. I had a few really good, and unexpected, conversations with different groups of young lads (maybe between 12-14 years old) who came in out of curiosity when they saw us from the skate shop opposite.