Natasha Vicars

Ed Tech Creative Collective & Me

2012-01-18T07:48:00.000-08:00

I've signed up to take part in the Ed Tech Creative Collective led by Colin Maxwell.

So, this is a post to introduce myself:

I'm an artist who works with the social sphere creating projects that are centered on participation, I sometimes describe my artworks as socially-engaged. Recently I've become interested in Twitter and worked with a group of writers to develop a performance for Twitter called #dawnchorus.

I also work in the Learning & Partnerships team at Modern Art Oxford, a public art gallery in Oxford. Including working on the following project and developing public engagement events that relate to it: John Gerrard, Legacy Fellowship and a new youth programme.

I previously worked in Technology PR, and try to keep an eye on what's happening in the field of art that engages with technology and social media.

Longhouse publication - due January 2012

2011-12-15T01:07:00.000-08:00

Longhouse is a professional development programme for artists from Multistory in West Bromwich. Read more about the Action Research Project.

Free Gifts at Present in Public, Liverpool

2011-11-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

Present in Public, a development programme for new gift-based public works / interventions for six artists facilitated by Tim Jeeves, is pleased to show these new performance works throughout the city of Liverpool as a part of Giving in to Gift on Saturday 12^th November.

See programme here
Includes my new performance installation in the Hub at the Bluecoat, described below...

Free Gifts

A range of the artist’s possessions are on display and up for adoption; these things are surplus for her, no longer wanted. She seeks responsible new owners and will interview anyone willing to take an object home.
In a culture where consumerism is commonplace and there is an absence of effective systems of repair or recycling, the work examines the legacy of a purchased or gifted object, and the strange hold our possessions can have on us.

Giving in to Gift, Liverpool

2011-10-29T08:39:00.001-07:00

As a meeting point between artists, their peers and the public, Giving in to Gift begins a conversation around ideas of generosity and reciprocation and how such themes manifest.

It is an examination of the contradictions present in the giving of gifts, with a particular emphasis on how they may interact with the changing economic landscape, whilst at the same time providing an opportunity for differing modes of collaboration to be explored.

Final event: 12 November 2011

Venue: central Liverpool / the Bluecoat

Web: www.givingintogift.org

Small gift actions, Liverpool

2011-10-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

As part of the weekly meetings in Liverpool the participating artists have been offered various prompts and exercises to explore ideas of gift. Here are some of the resulting impromptu actions.

Street Sketch Gift, Church Street, central Liverpool:

Overtly recycled presents, Liverpool:

text: hope you like & enjoy these overtly recycled presents & feel free to RETURN them if not.

Street scene, London

2011-10-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

POST Artists at Exchange Project Space, Hackney

2011-10-18T06:53:00.000-07:00

Here's an image showing a collaborative performance to video, as installed at Exchange Project Space for the exhibition 'Broken Telephone', 1st September 2011.

Performance video by Katie Gilman, Helen Jacobs, Jenny Rolfe-Herbert and Natasha Vicars

Further information on POST Artists and the research visit with OgreAttend in Athens that lead to this work and the exhibition.

#dawnchorus - tweeting the dawn

2011-10-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

#dawnchorus - tweeting the dawn - was performed at dawn on Sunday 16th October 2011 (approximately 5:35am to 8am UK time) on Twitter.

See all tweets here on Twitter

Participating writers are: Joanna Brown,Tiffany Charrington, Eddy Dreadnought, Sally Labern, Tamarin Norwood, Mary Paterson and Natasha Vicars.

#dawnchorus is conceived by Natasha Vicars and developed in collaboration with Mary Paterson and the writers, as part of the Live Art Development Agency's DIY8 programme. For more information, email Natasha Vicars or see us on Twitter.

Hackney Dawn Watching

2011-05-05T11:10:00.001-07:00

Hackney Dawn Watching took place on 21 May at St Augustine's Tower, Hackney Central, Off Mare Street.

Photographs and research blog here

Longhouse Bursary project

2011-04-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

Dawn Pilot

With Scott Farlow and the other bursary artists, David Boultbee, Laurence Payot, Theo Price, Elaine Speight at West Bromwich city centre and on the top floor of the West Bromwich Premier Inn, in December 2010.

I timed the event by the phases of dawn twilight, of which there are three:
Astronomical twilight, Nautical twilight, Civil twilight.

The times for these are shown on timeanddate.com

So we met at at 5:45am towards the beginning of Astronomical twilight and went for a walk around the central area of West Brom! It appeared completely dark, but this period is when it is first possible to measure a lightening of the sky, even it isn't really perceptible. This phase starts with the sun 18 degrees below the horizon.

The aim of the walk was to observe the town outside of our regular waking/working hours.

Longhouse Bursary project

2011-04-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

Dawn Pilot

After a frosty walk around West Brom crossing paths with a few early workers, but mostly seeing the streets deserted, we returned to the Premier Inn and repaired to a warm room at the top corner of the building.

The high windows formed an L-shape giving a views over an 180 panorama, and looking down onto a main road into the town centre... and with Birmingham central on the eastern horizon. We tilted open the windows to be able to follow the changes outside better - to hear the outside, and feel the temperature of the air.

But as we settled in to watch from 6:20am through to an 8am sunrise we were glad not to be outside for the next two hours at temperatures not much above 0'C.

Longhouse Bursary project

2011-04-13T09:19:00.000-07:00

Dawn Pilot

Nautical Twilight is the next phase of dawn - starting with the sun 12 degrees below the horizon and spanning light conditions from being able to start to make out outlines of objects outside and getting lighter but not getting to the point of easily being able to work (or play sports!) outside. Sometimes referred to as 'the blue hour' by painters and photographers. Street lights are still on for this period.

On 9 December this phase was from 6:31am to 7:14am

We watched, drank tea, photographed, noted changes... the many shifts in the colour and lighting of the sky, shop lights coming on, traffic picking up. A dark cloud seemed to rest right across the horizon, but the breaks in this deep blue block framed the lightening sky dramatically. Photos below at the time of transition from Nautical Twilight to Civil Twilight.

Longhouse Bursary project

2011-04-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

Dawn Pilot

Images: Shifting light and increasing illumination of the sky, photographs taken during the pilot dawn watching gathering, December 2010.

Click on an individual image for a close up.

Longhouse Bursary project

2011-04-11T02:32:00.000-07:00

Dawn Pilot

Civil Twilight and Sunrise: On December 9th 2010, civil twilight started at 7:14am and ended at 7:54am with sunrise.

Civil twilight is the final phase of the dawn, with the sun now 6 degrees below the horizon. In this time the horizon becomes clearly visible, and ground objects progress to becoming visible too, and during this period there starts to be sufficient light to undertake activities outside, and street lights may be timed to switch off during this time.

We were surprised to see how much change took place after sunrise. The red glow on the horizon was just after sunrise - the time when the upper edge of sun becomes visible over the horizon - but this soon faded to a sky of greys, and then, around half an hour after this there arrived pinks, yellows, turquoise blue sky... the colours one typically associates with sunrise. Photos below taken at: 7:45am, 7:47am, 7:54am, 8:27am

Longhouse Bursary project

2011-04-11T01:00:00.000-07:00

Shifting cloud cover at 7:30am during the period of Civil Twilight...

Applauding the Dawn

2010-09-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

Here are some video clips from YouTube of a localised tradition, a spontaneous action that happens sometimes on Ipanema beach at sunset:

I'm interested in instigating a gathering to see the dawn, and to welcome it with applause.

What is the experience of rising to watch the daybreak? Of welcoming it - joining with others to give it applause even? I'm interested in the experience of stepping out of one's daily routine to contemplate a natural event in an urban setting, making a link to Romanticism and its focus on a sense of wonder at nature, but also - influenced by the applause on Ipanema beach - on a group action.

I'm now planning a publicly advertised gathering to watch the dawn through to sunrise - to take place in London.

Flowers for the Sea at ARTSIDE 2010

2010-08-03T08:29:00.000-07:00

Photo credit: Priya Saujani

Flowers for the Sea was a public intervention on the beach at Southend-on-Sea.

The work:
Passers-by that approach an impromptu flower stall are invited to select a flower that they can take to the water's edge and - looking silently out to sea - think of their wish and simultaneously throw the flower into the waves. The work displaces a tradition from Brazil of offering flowers to the sea.

At ARTSIDE:
During the afternoon of 17 July 2010 over 100 participants received flowers which they individually threw into the waves. During it's progress, interest in the action spread around the area by word of mouth and attracted more participants.

The flowers washed up gradually along one stretch of beach.

Thanks:
To Derek's Florist for support and donation of flowers.
And Coexist Arts for organising the ARTSIDE programme, supported by Southend-on-Sea Town Centre Partnership.
And Priya Saujani for working with me on the stall.

Video montage produced by Michaela Freeman at Coexist Arts.
Archive of ARTSIDE 2010 programme

snap - a conceptual photography relay race

2010-05-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

snap is a work in development

Responding the work of Doug Huebler, and the use of the camera by artists to automate image-making and bring in elements of chance.

Two competitors each receive a disposable camera and - within 24 minutes - take a set of 24 photos to most exactly replicate my photos of 24 arbitrarily selected buildings taken nearby. I immediately develop/print the films. The most accurate photographer of the pair wins; the new photos form the starting point for the next competitors.

‘snap’ functions on various levels. It emphasises lack of authorship – I do not make an aesthetic decision but randomly photograph 24 buildings in the surrounding area. The subject matter of buildings is arbitrary. Participants are more ‘camera operators’ than photographers; asked to re-enact the taking of photographs I started, which may mean copying those of another participant. In effect, the participants are asked to act out a live version of a reprint, with inevitable approximations.

The images produced in each round could be used to fabricate sets of 'snap' card games, where the pairs in the game are each a 'not quite' match due to the process used to create the duplicates.

Found Objects, London - research

2010-05-28T06:12:00.000-07:00

Research project - objects found on street in London

Further research

Full series here

Selected images:

Ropery Street

Bow Common Lane

Cockspur Court

High Road, East Finchley

Exploring collecting / hoarding

2010-04-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

A sketch: 169 similar sized objects from my collection.
Initial exploration to develop a further live event continuing from Kept Objects pilot at Arnolfini.
Background research

My paintings - Re:Orientation series

2010-03-02T12:53:00.000-08:00

I've just completed a new painting in the series, which I'm showing at Chilterns MS centre fund-raising exhibition this weekend. I have created a blog with some images of older works...and with a more low-res image of part of the new work.

Re:Orientation painting series

Side by Side Show at Fete Encounter

2010-03-01T13:35:00.000-08:00

Images of Side by Side Show from LIFT Molten, August 2009

Thanks to Jen Walke for inviting me to take part and to Adi Lerer for performing with me.

KUBE residency - Echoes of a

2009-10-14T10:48:00.000-07:00

As part of their three day residency at KUBE Gallery, Natasha Vicars and Emma Leach recruited reporters locally, assigning them topics for quick response articles that connected with their experiences of Poole. The resulting ‘newspaper’ draws together different voices, and explores what it means to tell a story.

Download the publication

A collaboration with Emma Leach www.emmaleach.co.uk

BAC Scratch - Three Keys

2009-10-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

A scratch performance experimenting with ideas of chance encounters/found objects.

The participant walks with me through the building towards a locked room, as I explain that they have a chance of entering the room, and that if they do that there will be an object there for them. I was interested both in finding new homes for keepsakes of mine - and in what these chance encounters might spark in others.

Background research

Index print

2009-06-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

I've been reading about a Surrealist interest in 're-filing' ideas and objects according to the logic of the unconscious e.g The Office for Surrealist Research proposing creating a card file index of all the 'ideas that occurred to us concerning every question which will be raised by our entire group'.

It's an interesting idea that a collection of items could be called an archive while not being ordered in a rational manner.

I'm interested in developing a previous work - Kept Objects - which sought responses and chance connections with others, when I gave away some of the many belongings I collect around me without making active use of them.

I am interested in links made by early Surrealists like Andre Breton and Max Ernst between chance encounters and the unconscious. Breton described a 'found object' as an external answer to a question in your mind that you did not know you had asked.

I want to explore what my kept belongings mean to me, and what connections they could spark in others.

References:
Sven Spieker, The Big Archive (2008) MIT Press.
Previous work 'Kept Objects' shown at Arnolfini Live Art Weekender

Position Unpaid

2009-06-24T14:45:00.000-07:00

Position Unpaid is a collaboration between Emma Leach & Natasha Vicars. The project asks awkward questions about arts internships, and moves towards some constructive answers.

A manifesto developed by arts interns within this project can be viewed at:
www.position-unpaid.blogspot.com

Initial action presented at RCA within Friends of the Divided Mind

The project was also featured in Labour Practices from the Live Art Development Agency as part of the wider show At Your Service from the David Roberts Art Foundation

LIKE WHEN YOU, Vyner Street

2009-06-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

LIKE WHEN YOU is a two-week research project into the process of making artwork, using a collaborative studio space to generate ideas, artwork and discussion, lead by Tamarin Norwood.

I interviewed artists about the role of coincidence and accident in their practice, using the game pictured above to select from my pre-written questions by chance. One response from another artist is sampled below:

“I say I embrace chance as part of my practice – but I embrace it in a control-freakish way! It happens and then I take it into my power instead of letting it continue to be something that I can do nothing about. For example, I was doing a piece of performance work in a lecture theatre, and some one had drawn something on the white board and left a note saying ‘please leave’. So I thought, ‘oh, it’s going to have to be part of my performance now.’ So I put out a note saying: ‘Please contact me as soon as you see this, I need to have an interview with you’… I need to record it, I need to turn it into a transcript, I need to justify it in my sketch book, I need to reflect on why it was part of my performance… So already something that was – that I could have left to be - accidental and unexplained, had become rationalised within my process.”

LIKE WHEN YOU, what it is to make an artwork

Photo credit: Tamarin Norwood

Pecha Kucha: A broken record

2009-05-24T12:58:00.000-07:00

Using the Pecha Kucha format I presented a word-image performance using my photographs from revisiting a former home in Eltham, at a peer group showing event hosted by Red Gate Gallery in Camberwell.

"There are changes though, I didn't expect changes somehow. Though of course the Woolworths has gone. Replaced with a '99 pence store' that's having an opening event today. A new Lidl on the high street. The library's reopened... seeing that time has passed here, seeing people living here; it had stood still for me. It had existed as a closed tomb. It had existed as both a time and a place. That 10 months with her seemed interwoven with the fabric of these streets. The routes we walked together. This path to Sainsburys. The shoes at 'Fashion World'."

Side by Side Show, Petticoat Lane Market

2008-11-17T10:29:00.000-08:00

Further details at: Side By Side Show website

Borrowing elements from Victorian fairground entertainment, Side by Side Show tells a story peopled by playing cards and animated by the artist's hands. A live yet mediated performance which questions relationships including that of audience to performer.

Previously shown by Whitechapel Gallery's Street Project in November 2008.

Locomotion

2008-09-01T11:18:00.000-07:00

Locomotion, Crewe Railway Station, England
performed as part of Station/Stationary

"Highlighting dance, live music and film, the station will be pulsing with over 150 performers including professional dancers, first time performers and local groups of young and older people from Crewe and the wider region."

Locomotion was a collaboration between performers Ania Bas, Rachel Jane Dean, Patricia Derrick, Hannah Pantin and Natasha Vicars, inspired by the classic film Brief Encounter (1945), the group gave a subtle performance on parting in the railway station's halls, corridors and lift.

Portraits by Ania Bas & Natasha Vicars

Curios and Wonders of the Barge

2008-08-13T16:46:00.000-07:00

A version of a peep show where the performer's hands animate found objects from Battersea Barge, the location for the show.

Format:
A show for one person to view at a time; the performer greets visitors to the stall inviting them to contribute a small object of theirs which would appear in the show, before entering the stall - a kind of make-shift booth. The brief performance in the booth sets the objects as characters within a simple narrative animated by the performers hands.

The photos above are of the nooks and crannies in the barge, referring to places the 'found objects' came from.

Each viewer was presented with a card showing a detail from these photos.

My Site | In Space 3, Battersea Barge

Curios and Wonders of the Barge was presented at a site-specific performance workshop and showing event curated by Switch Performance, held on Battersea Barge in Vauxhall.

Switch Performance website

Whitstable Biennale, Telling Cards

2008-06-24T16:19:00.000-07:00

In Telling Cards, individual visitors are invited to sit at a roadside stall and select a sequence of specially made cards. Each card is read as a visual mnemonic, based on stories harvested by Vicars from different sources. Moving between sites around Whitstable, she uses the format of a card teller to entice passersby and release these surprisingly specific tales, each belonging to an absent other. Chance plays a part in deciding whether a story holds personal significance for its target – whether they find or reject the potential connections that lie in every tale.

New work commissioned as part of the Performance Programme at the 2008 Whitstable Biennale.

Whitstable Biennale

My interest:
In turning the stories/memories/anecdotes I had collected from other people into a pack of cards, I was generating a way that audience could pick them out by chance as part of a kind of game. I was interested in what connections the audience might find or elaborate from the stories as I told them.
Playing cards have a history of use for gambling, fortune telling and as means of organising knowledge, and all these aspects engage my interest.

Image: Four cards from the series (Photo: Natasha Vicars)

Dressing-Up Box

2008-05-07T14:22:00.000-07:00

A participatory performance piece where the artist's collection of dressing up clothes and accessories were displayed and offered to visitors to Cannizaro Park in Wimbledon. Vicars worked with an assistant to staff the stall and introduce passersby to the collection, while inviting them to try something on.

This image shows the setting of the small hut from which the piece operated, when presented within the exhibition PARK06.

A video clip from Hyde Park, where the Dressing-Up Box was set up guerrilla style. This also shows the artist & assistant interacting with participants.

Kept Objects

2008-04-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

Raffle of artist's kept objects, Arnolfini Live Art Weekender

Enquiry:
I was aware that I had many possessions that I was keeping and found it hard to let go of, despite the fact that they were sometimes kept out of sight in an attic or took up space in my room without being an active part of my life. In this project I picked 50 objects and offered them in exchange for participants reflections about holding on to things.

The objects included:
my running spikes from when I was 15
a cambridge university calculator from my first degree
my long-term collection of shells and pebbles
a set of miniature turtles in marble that was a 17th birthday present
a length of special printed fabric from a Brazilian carnival group

Some responses from participants are quoted below

"In my room at home - the room which I had as a kid - I still have a small pair of blue clogs painted in an attractive design, that I bought on a school trip to Valkonberg in Holland when I was 11 years old. It was the first ever school trip that I went on, and I felt incredibly grown-up as I had spending money and I made sure that I bought presents for all of my family. And I bought myself a baseball hat and pair of blue decorative clogs. And I still have the clogs…they're sat on a small shelf in the corner of my room.
For me, they are a souvenir in the genuine meaning of word -they can kind of remind me of that point when you feel far more grown-up than you actually are, but without any of the adult anxieties. I think I probably keep a lot of things from that period."

"I have about 145 old minidisks that I bought before the whole CD thing really picked up because I thought that minidisks were going to be the next big thing. And it turns out that they weren't. Although they are very useful for recording things. I have about 145 that I'll probably never ever listen to ever again, but they're all there. Like tapes - a lot of them have been made for me by other people, and they're quite special. They're covered in dust and I don't have a reader to play them in any more. But they're all there in alphabetical order in boxes. Under my bed."

Description of work:

A raffle table is set out, offering a range of the artist's possessions. In order to enter the raffle, each participant is asked to think of something he/she is holding onto - and to record an audio interview about this. The participant then picks a ticket and wins the corresponding object as a prize. This often led to further conversation about why the artist had been keeping that object.

Cubicle, 10x10 projects, Camberwell

2008-01-13T14:56:00.000-08:00

Cubicle was a context-specific audio installation, using recorded interviews with cafe visitors.

Enquiry:
A response to boundaries set by curator Ashleigh Pearson, to produce a work that fits within a cube of 10cm side. The work would be displayed on a mini gallery area within a working cafe.

I asked cafe visitors to talk to me about 'being in a small space', recorded these interviews and presented sections of the audio track as an installation.

My interest was seeking a response to my experience through eliciting others' stories and memories. I was also interested in relating to the location as a social space.

http://ashleighpearson.com/projects.html

Residency: Out of the Box, at The Junction, Cambridge

2007-09-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

In September 2007 I took part in International Workshop Festival's week long Site-Specific performance residency in and around Cambridge's Junction Theatre. The programme was lead by Janice Perry and involved daily workshops and collaborative work with other artists and performers.

Image: Baggage, solo performance

Frost

2007-09-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

A collaborative performance about distance and connection devised as part of Out of the Box at The Junction, Cambridge.

Photo credit: Ania Bas

Interview, Chisenhale Biennale

2007-09-16T12:20:00.000-07:00

Interview

A one-to-one performance for an exhibition private view. Participants are admitted into an office for the interview, which takes place seated across a desk from Natasha Vicars. The participant is asked a series of pre-planned questions relating to their role at the private view, and their status in the art world. The interview concludes with the participant being categorised as a hot/warm/cool contact and offered a appropriate coloured label to wear for the private view.

Chisenhale Biennale 2007

DEGREE WORK: Tea series

2007-05-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

Tea Maze

Crystal Palace Park maze

A pilot piece where a participant receives instruction on serving tea and appropriate host etiquette from an audio guide and is then asked to serve tea to an 'examining guest'. The guest has clipboard and form with various sections to give critical feedback.

DEGREE WORK: Tea series

2006-12-07T12:33:00.000-08:00

A performance featuring 320 small cakes

A performance video from 2006. First of a series of works from my final year.