‘I will talk with anyone who will talk with me’
is project by The City Gallery in Pedestrian Arts Gallery at LCB Depot
LCB Depot, 31 Rutland Street, Leicester LE1 1RE
Dates: 18th July to 2nd September 2011
Open: Monday to Friday 10am – 5pm
An insignificant extension in space and a considerable extension in time, Graham Hudson, 2010. Steel, Timber, light an Fendi Archive, 15m x 4m 5m.
Over the summer the Contemporary Visual Arts project; ‘I will talk with anyone who will talk with me’, will host an exhibition, performances and a series of conversations in the new Pedestrian Arts Gallery at LCB Depot.
The project addresses the nature of conversations, the creativity that can come from the gaps, stutters or breakdowns in speaking and the spontaneous production of new ideas that can occur when people meet for conversation and collaboration.
Contemporary Visual Arts are working with artist Graham Hudson to create a new installation work. Graham creates installations that act as spaces for activity; at a gallery in Austin, Texas he created a space that was used as a rehearsal space by local bands, in Milton Keynes Gallery the space he created was used to host young peoples workshops. For our project he is creating a space for conversation. The installation will host an exhibition of other artists work, the City Gallery’s summer office space and a space to hold discussions, talks, meetings and performances.
Other works in the exhibition include David Blandy’s ‘Duels and Dualities, Battle of the Soul’, an arcade game based on Street Fighter II where all the characters have been replaced by Blandy’s own. Featuring characters from Blandy’s films, that in turn were alter egos of Blandy himself, the game allows you to fight out which alter ego will triumph. Two early film works by Blandy are also being shown, ‘What is Soul’ and ‘Emotional Content’.
Rebecca Birch has re-cut a film originally shot in 2007 of a meeting with Canadian artist Robert Sinclair in a cafe on the top of Sulphur Mountain, Alberta. Over a cup of orange pekoe tea they discussed making drawings of the mountain, and the benefits of concertina-folding notebooks. In 2010 Rebecca Birch described her conversation with Robert Sinclair at a talk at Five Years Gallery, London. The video exhibited in the show is a conflation of both of these occurrences and the third version of the conversation with Robert Sinclair.
Imogen Stidworthy’s film Barrabackslarrabang was shot in two Liverpool pubs (The Vines and The Lion Tavern) – locations strongly associated with informal chat and the birth of the railway, respectively – with speakers of a local underground slang, Backslang. The film draws upon the history of adaptation in language and pronunciation with berth of the railways, consumer capitalism and Standard Pronunciation on one hand and the secretive Backslang designed to protect risky speech from being overheard on the other.
Launch:
There will be an evening of activities to celebrate the project on Friday 5 August from 4pm-7:30pm
Visit the exhibition, listen to live music, and take a ‘Pub Quiz’ with performance artist Yara El–Sherbini.
We are teaming up with ABC (The Alternative Bar Crawl) to provide an evening of art and entertainment across the cultural quarter and beyond. Linking up with the launch of Leicester Fringe Festival at Phoenix Square (from 7:30pm) and a new exhibition, ‘Thirty Five Milliseconds’, launching at The Great Central Gallery & Studios from 10:30pm. Visit the ABC Facebook event page for more information: http://on.fb.me/ABCtgc
Conversations:
Throughout the exhibition the curatorial team will be available for conversation over a cup of tea and some biscuits (subject to availability). To book a time for a conversation visit: http://doodle.com/iwilltalkwithanyone
Artist Talks:
There are a series of artist talks during the project.
David Blandy will be talking about his work ‘Duels and Dualities: Battle of the soul’ and his characters featuring in it on Thursday 11 August from 6pm at LCB Depot.
Rebecca Birch will be having a ‘conversation with drawings’, talking about her work over recent years with the aid of drawn descriptions as she talks with the audience on Thursday 18 August from 6pm.
Graham Hudson is talking about recent commissions and working in collaboration with other activities on Thursday 25 August from 6pm.
All these events are free and bookable here: http://iwilltalkwithanyone.eventbrite.com/
For up-to-date information visit our blog: https://iwilltalkwithanyone.wordpress.com
And follow the project on twitter: @iwilltalkwith
I will talk with anyone who will talk with me 