Bryony Gillard

Untitled (Portraits): Version 2

2011-11-15T17:15:00.004Z

Between 18.00 and 20.00 hrs on 14th September 2011, and between 13.30 and 16.00 on 15th October 2011, a live 12 ft Burmese python was present in the gallery space at Exeter Phoenix.

Visitors were permitted to hold or interact with the animal and have their photograph taken (if they provide a camera/camera phone)*

Semi- autobiographical, Untitled (Portrait) investigates the artist’s relationships with her family and emotions evoked when our loved ones may be in a dangerous situation.Alongside the performance outlined above, two small, loaned, photographs depict relatives of the artist posing on separate occasions with dangerous animals on ‘family outings’.

The artist's brother is pictured in 2001 on holiday adorned with two large snakes, and the artist’s grandmother and cousin are shown 'petting' an adult tiger at an animal sanctuary in Thailand in 2008.

This photograph is kept in her grandmother's handbag as a proud trophy of her achievement and bravery. A risk assessment for the performance written by the Curator, is presented next to the photographs. (see blog post - Untitled (Portraits) for images of this ephemera).

Influenced by works such as Huang Yong Ping’s Theater of the World (1993), and Beuys’ I like America and America Likes me, Untitled (Portraits) explores the potential neutralization of danger of a wild animal in an artificial or staged environment.

By placing a live python in the galley space, the work questions both the union between the natural kingdom and the realm of artificiality, and our human desire to portray ourselves in control of situations with dangerous or exotic animals.

With thanks to Hana Evans and Quang Li.

Welcome Drinks (For Nowhereisland)

2011-05-02T19:07:00.000+01:00

Welcome Drinks (For Nowhereisland)

April 2011

Plymouth Arts Centre commissioned me to create a performance for the Nowhereisland Open Meeting event, on 7 April 2011. Nowhereisland is a large scale contemporary art commission and the winning project of Artists Taking the Lead for the South West England, part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. It is led by artist Alex Hartley and produced with Situations, at the University of the West of England, Bristol.

To welcome Nowhereisland, I collaborated with a team of mixologists from Avenue Bars to create bespoke, island themed cocktails for the Open Meeting event.
The Batter Street studio at Plymouth Arts Centre was transformed into an intimate cocktail bar with a smartly dressed cocktail waiters and trained mixologists. By drinking the specially created cocktails guests were unwittingly participating in the work. A text piece accompanying the performance will be printed on coasters in the space, and as the evening progressed rings from glasses left a physical trace of the event on the coasters.

Each cocktail, or artwork, was titled after an event or notion that related to Nowhereisland in some way:

1. Ny Oppdagelsen (4 lemon juice, 5 gin, 2 gomme, 2 blue curacao)

Translates as 'New Discovery' in norwegian.

2. Project Habbakuk (3 pineapple, 3 lime, 6 rum, 1 gomme, 1 orgeat)

A failed plan by the British in WW2 to construct an aircraft carrier out of pykrete

(a mixture of wood pulp and ice), thus creating artificial ice-islands.

3. Islomania (12 Apple juice, 2 Vanilla gomme, 2 Lemon juice)

A craze for or a strong attraction to islands.

The condition was first identified by Lawrence Durrell in his book Reflections on a Marine Venus (1953).

Welcome Drinks also explores what it means for an artist to finance a decadent or frivolous gesture, particularly at this point in time, and the idea of creating a pleasant or even luxurious experience for a ‘durational’ performance audience, referencing works such as Klein’s La Vide; and the craftsmanship, aesthetic frivolity, nostalgia and celebratory atmosphere serving cocktails create.

Untitled (Portraits)

2011-05-02T16:22:00.000+01:00

Untitled (Portraits)

March 2011, diptych and performance

Commissioned for the exhibition, Risk Assessment, at The Viewtube, East London.

Between 18.00 and 20.00 hrs on Thursday 3^rd March 2011, a live 9 ft albino python was present in the gallery. Visitors were permitted to hold or interact with the animal and have their photograph taken (if they provide a camera/camera phone)*

Semi- autobiographical, Untitled (Portrait) investigates the artist’s relationships with her family and emotions evoked when our loved ones may be in a dangerous situation.Two small, loaned, photographs depict relatives of the artist posing on separate occasions with dangerous animals on ‘family outings’.

This photograph is kept in her grandmother's handbag as a proud trophy of her achievement and bravery.

Alongside these two images is presented a risk assessment for the performance described in italics above.

By placing a live python in the galley space, it questions both the union between the natural kingdom and the realm of artificiality, and our human desire to portray ourselves in control of situations with dangerous or exotic animals.

*the above performance did not take place as the python attacked the handler before arriving at the gallery and through risk assessment, the situation was deemed unsafe. This work is an ongoing series.

TOAST

2011-02-06T15:16:00.000Z

Images from TOAST performance

Collaborative toasts written between 1pm and 4pm and given approximately every 20 minutes.

Information card given to each visitor with champagne in crystal glassware.

TOAST

Informed by the etiquette of toast making and the traditions of ‘Toastmasters’, and investigating

the dynamics of social gatherings; exhibition visitors were to contribute to a collaborative public toast.

Births and Deaths, good news or a moment of reminiscence, the traditional toast marks the

signposts of a life; often the toast itself can turn into a miniature-biography.

Smartly dressed wine waiters served guests champagne in crystal glasses. By accepting a drink,

guests are already participating in the performance.

Those present were invited to contribute to a continuous 'toast' that occurs every 20 minutes - brought to attention by the clear, crisp sound of metal against crystal.

Anything could be toasted – from something monumental and life changing, to a good meal, an individual who deserves to be celebrated, or a political issue.

The structure and composition of the toast changed throughout the duration, becoming

longer as guests contribute, forming a collaborative celebratory monologue, and at times more concise as similarities appeared in toast information provided.

1.39 Kilometres of Water

2011-01-09T16:33:00.008Z

Presenting participant Barry Sykes with a Drakes Island Swim Award badge and certificate.

Presenting participant Penelope Golding with a Drakes Island Swim Award badge and certificate.

On 19/11/10 I performed the act of swimming 1.39 kilometres of water (the exact distance to ‘Drakes Island’, Plymouth), as part of the exhibition —The Sutton Youth Initiative, at The Gallery, Plymouth College of Art.

*The Sutton Youth Initiative presented work by five young artists (also the Directors of Project Space 11), bound together by a formative journey. Through their diverse practices, the group explored a range of responses to this significant collective experience. Over time, the shared event has consciously and subconsciously influenced each artists practice; the shadow of the event becoming mythologized by itʼs repeated referencing in both their individual and collaborative work.

Word of mouth, rumour and visual re-imaginings, not only demonstrate the malleability of oral and visual history, but also emphasise the concept of myth surrounding The Sutton Youth Initiative.*

The event endeavoured to address the relationship between art and leisure, and honours the legacy of ‘open water’ swimmers in a perhaps farcical way. I collaborated with fashion designer, Jenny Welwert-Gil on a special ‘cod-skin’ swimsuit and cap, as a futile attempt to make me a better and more ‘natural’ swimmer.

I invited the general public to join me in this act, either by swimming or spectating. Those that completed the swim were accredited with a ‘Drakes Island Swim Award’.

This work continues - anyone that completes the distance can be claim the ‘Drakes Island Swim Award’ by contacting me at bryony_kate_gillard@hotmail.co.uk

All photographs credited to Beth Emily Richards

http://e-leven.co.uk/ http://gallery.plymouthart.ac.uk/index.php

Love Song to Fluxus!

2010-09-17T13:00:00.012+01:00

Love Song to Fluxus A love song dedicated to Fluxus, chosen by an audience and played on the Kazoo/A performance as way of thanks to Fluxus for influencing my practice.

Delegates to a symposium were given kazoos and asked to choose from one of three of the most 'popular love songs of all time' to dedicate to Fluxus -

Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
The Carpenters - Close to You
Bryan Adams - Everything I Do (I Do it For You)

The chosen love song - Bryan Adams - Everything I Do (I Do it For You), was then projected as a karaoke video to accompany the kazoo-ists. Love Song to Fluxus was part of the Fluxus Now? Symposium at The Exchange, a two day event presenting live art performances with speakers and discussion, looking at the legacy and ongoing influence of the international Fluxus art movement. Participants included: anti-cool, Pete Davies, Bryony Gillard, Roddy Hunter, Tim Knowles, Mark Waugh, Rebecca Weeks, Ian Whitford, Kath Wynne, Zierle & Carter. Curated by Art Surgery and The Exchange as part of the Tatsumi Orimoto exhibition, in collaboration with A Foundation, Liverpool. Photographs by Graham Gaunt.

Nail Art

2010-09-17T12:24:00.009+01:00

Sol Le Witt

Jackson Pollock

Pierre Mondrian

Claude Monet

Jackson Pollock, Yves Klein, Pierre Mondrian, Sol Le Witt

Nail Art

Between 12 and 3pm on 21^st August 2010, amongst a Farmers Market in Falmouth, Cornwall, members of the public were invited to have their nails manicured in the style of one of five famous artworks. Amanda Carey, a locally based nail artist, created the participant’s chosen style, and instead of purely performing a service, she discussed the specific artist’s work with each participant.

The activity aimed to explore the divide between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art, inversions of hierarchies and the translation, transference and value of knowledge.

Participants not only left the activity physically altered, but contributed to an ongoing dialogue about the artists chosen for the designs. These designs combine the visual languages of Art and the cult craft of ‘Nail Art’ and pose the question of the role of the Artisan within contemporary society. The hierarchy between the client (participant) and technician is reversed, as the technician provides the additional role or service of instructor/teacher.

Nail Art was part of Art Hub, a Live Art event investigating social connectivity, curated by Rachel Entwistle (UCF).

http://arthubfalmouth.blogspot.com/2010/07/bryony-gillard.html

Try to Explain Something You Don't Understand in Five Minutes

2010-08-09T11:38:00.003+01:00

Try to Explain: Entropy

Try to Explain: Gravity

Try to Explain: How to lead an organised life

Documentation of
Try to Explain Something You Don't Understand in Five Minutes
Part of Free School. Lecture Hall.
Bethnal Green Library Lecture Hall
17 June 2010

Celebration Sculpture 5.6.10

2010-06-21T19:45:00.005+01:00

Celebration Sculpture 5.6.10

Celebration Sculpture is an ongoing series of work which attempts to utilise social celebrations as an arena to make and show work.
From March of this year- indefinately, I will attempt make a piece of work for every celebration I attend.
The work is directly informed by relationships and situation, often a collaboration with those present.
The resulting sculptures, performances or activities sit somewhere between uncomfortable exploitations of relationships and jointly owned artworks.

2010-06-08T17:42:00.002+01:00

Try to Explain Something You Don’t Understand in Five Minutes
17 June 10.00 – 11.30, Free School. Lecture Hall - Bethnal Green Library Lecture Hall

Try to Explain Something You Don’t Understand in Five Minutes is a participatory lecture led by Bryony Gillard, as part of Free School. Lecture Hall organised by Edward Dorian (Five Years) and Ladies of the Press.

Engaging with the notion of peer learning and exploring ‘interest matches’ raised in the writing of Ivan Illich, members of the audience are invited to attempt to explain a concept or methodology that they do not understand for a five minute period.

Any means can be used to describe the subject; image, gesture, action, or the speaker may simply wish to express themselves through frustrated dictation of text or spoken ramblings. The emphasis will be on the description of a subject that the individual wishes to understand - something that they feel would enrich their life or (if appropriate) artistic practice.

Each explanation will be followed by a five minute ‘micro-discussion’, where, as a group, we will endeavour to assist the speaker and/or each other in understanding the issue.

Subjects or questions that the participants may discuss could be anything from Marxism, what powers a heart? The Soviet Union, how do we remember and understand time? Gravity, or even, how to lead an organised life?

The notion of the impossibility of this task and its almost inevitable failure is intrinsic to the activity. Rationally, it is obviously unlikely to be able to fully understand a (possibly complicated) concept in five minutes. Try to Explain Something You Don’t Understand in Five Minutes strives to questions our perception of ‘understanding’ and conventions of the ‘act of learning’. The activity also intends to contemplate the link between creativity and curiosity, given the contemporary art canon of the lecture series.

If you would like to take part in the lecture, please email bryony_kate_gillard@hotmail.co.uk, with your chosen topic by 15 June.

Bethnal Green Library Lecture Hall, Cambridge Heath Road, London E2 0HL

2010-06-07T19:28:00.001+01:00

Soon to open: Project Space 11

Opening in June 2010, Project Space 11 is an artist-led initiative situated in the heart of Plymouth City Market,

supported by Plymouth City Council, Arts Council England and Plymouth College of Art.

The setting of a traditional indoor market - a microcosm of Plymouth culture and unique in its architecture creates an unusual and challenging arena for visual art.

Coordinated by five Plymouth based artists, Project Space 11 strives to critically engage with artist-led practice regionally, nationally and potentially internationally;

creating a platform for artist activity in the city.

The programme intends to be larger than its physical home; a small market place unit, operating as a Hub for artist led activity, with a rolling programme of events,

exhibitions and happenings. Alongside this will be regular opportunities for artist networking, critical discourse and discussion.

Project Space 11's Meet and Greet Picnic

Tuesday 8 June, 12.00 - 15.00

Come and meet the artists behind the project in our market space, hear about the programme, share your views and enjoy some

lovely refreshments sourced from the market.

How to Look?

23 June - 22 July

The Hut Project, Thorsten Knaub, Craig Barnes and Townley and Bradby

Four exciting new artist commissions explore the role of the viewer, and how artists can provide a key or tools to assist the audience in

engaging with their work.

Visit www.e-leven.co.uk <http://www.e-leven.co.uk/> for more details on the launch programme

Project Space 11 are: Lucy Brennan, Scott Daniels, Bryony Gillard, Ben Langworthy and Beth Emily Richards.

______________________________

SOCIAL SCULPTURE

2010-03-17T14:23:00.000Z

Selected for Transition 9 - The Exchange, Penzance, Daniels and Gillard’s Social Sculpture aimed to explore the relationship between art and social function.

One social sculpture was produced per day for five days, for five different social groups of people. The sculptures took the form of action, object, text or activity, with a different group invited each day to interact, explore and discuss the social sculpture produced specifically for them. Each work was informed by stereotype, assumption and general facts about the groups that took part.
These groups were:

Penwith Community Radio

UCF MA Curatorial Practice

Cornwall College Book Binding Group

Two additional social sculptures were constructed for unknown and unsuspecting participants. The Mobile Outreach Social Sculpture took the form of an action carried out in the public realm. ‘POLISH’ [verb] was a Social Sculpture aimed at gallery visitors, assumedly of a more middle-class demographic.

Each Social Sculpture became a platform for discussion and debate, exploring issues surrounding art and social function, and the relationship between art, artists and specific social groups we worked with.
The gallery space became an active workshop, an arena for interaction with the social sculptures and a static space for the resulting documentation. One A0 size black and white print was produced after each social sculpture, as a physical document of the interaction and also an artwork in its own right.

Social Sculpture

2010-03-17T13:46:00.000Z

WORK AS TEAM TO TRANSMIT NEWS HEADLINES THROUGH DEVICE/ DEVICE REQUIRES SENDER, RECEIVER & TRANSMITTER

Social Sculpture with Penwith Community Radio
Scott Daniels & Bryony Gillard

FEB 2010

SOCIAL SCULPTURE

2010-03-17T13:37:00.000Z

JOIN A QUEUE FOR 180 SECONDS/ GIVE YOUR PLACE TO THE PERSON BEHIND YOU

Mobile Outreach Social Sculpture

Scott Daniels & Bryony Gillard

FEB 2010

SOCIAL SCULPTURE

2010-03-17T13:09:00.000Z

CURATORS & ARTISTS SHELL PEANUTS TOGETHER/ DISCUSS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ARTIST-CURATOR-SOCIAL FUNCTION/ FEED PEANUTS TO WILDLIFE

Social Sculpture with UCF MA Curatorial Practice

Scott Daniels & Bryony Gillard

FEB 2010

SOCIAL SCULPTURE

2010-03-17T12:56:00.000Z

BUY SHOES FROM A CHARITY SHOP/ INCREASE VALUE/ RETURN TO A DIFFERENT CHARITY SHOP
Social Sculpture with Gallery visitors

Scott daniels & Bryony Gillard

Feb 2010

SOCIAL SCULPTURE

2010-03-17T12:38:00.000Z

USE RADIO TIMES TO CHOOSE RADIO PROGRAMME AS GROUP/ TAKE ONE TRANSISTOR RADIO EACH/ TUNE INTO PROGRAMME/ LISTEN AT FULL VOLUME INSIDE & OUTSIDE GALLERY

Social Sculpture with Cornwall College Book Binders

Scott Daniels & Bryony Gillard

Feb 2009

some drawings

2010-03-07T19:50:00.000Z

Untitled drawings

watercolour

2009

Hats

2010-03-07T19:27:00.000Z

Hats

watercolours

2009

Seats for not sitting on

2010-03-07T19:17:00.000Z

Seats for not sitting on

watercolours

2009

Buzz the Wire

2010-03-04T20:02:00.000Z

(Ipod) Buzz the Wire
copper pipe, copper wire, speakers, Ipod, wood
2009

Drag-Back-Pull-Forward

2010-02-26T12:14:00.000Z

Drag-Back-Pull-Forward

2009
Performance walk

Cornwall

The Red Band

2010-02-21T17:12:00.000Z

The Red Band

Performance for Fragmented Orchestra

2009

Newlyn Art Gallery

Cornwall

The Red Band works on the principle that anyone able to acquire a red musical instrument can join the band.
Collectively the group cover, write and compose music inspired or about things of a red nature. Covers so far include UB40's 'Red Red Wine' and 13th Floor Elevators 'Scarlet and Gold'.

Secret Hoods

2010-02-21T17:01:00.001Z

Secret Hoods

2009

Out of Bounds

The Exchange

Cornwall

LAF: The End of the Line

2010-02-21T16:54:00.000Z

Party

The End of the Line

Performance games

Collaboration with Lois Wild

Live Art Falmouth 2008

Bryony Olympics: Swing Cake

2010-02-21T16:47:00.000Z

Swing Cake

Bryony Olympics

2008

The End of the Line: New Works

The Exchange

Cornwall

Bryony Olympics: Knee Ball

2010-02-21T16:37:00.000Z

Knee Ball

Bryony Olympics

2008

The End of the Line: New Works

The Exchange

Cornwall

Bryony Olympics: Bun Tug

2010-02-21T16:27:00.000Z

Bun Tug

Bryony Olympics

2008

The End of the Line: New Works

The Exchange

Cornwall

Bryony Olympics: Back-to-Back Races

2010-02-21T16:10:00.000Z

Back-to-Back Races

Bryony Olympics

2007

The End of the Line: New Works

The Exchange

Cornwall

Auto Italia

2010-02-21T16:00:00.001Z

Tug-Trap

2007

pvc, rope, plastic

Keeping Your End Up

Auto Italia

East London

Peddle-Cage

2010-02-21T15:55:00.000Z

Peddle Cage

2007

wood, plastic, rope, cake

Open Wide Say Art

Trinity Buoy Wharf

East London

See-Four

2010-02-21T15:41:00.000Z

See-four

wood, scaffold, foam, pleather

2006

Fine Art BA degree show

University of East London

one, two, three

2010-02-21T15:37:00.000Z

one, two, three

scaffold, wood, chain, velvet

2006

AVA Gallery

University of East London

Swingtime

2010-02-21T15:24:00.000Z

Swingtime

2006

(scaffold, wood, chain)

Commissioned for Mayfest

University of East London