Holding Space

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25th March 2017 from 18:00

The Brick Cube, Hunts Wharf, Leaside Road, E5 9LU

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For one night only, in a vacated factory, on a plot destined for property development, in an era of conspicuous imposition, a programme of site-specific film, video, sound and performance.

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Featuring new work from:  Amy Dickson, Nicky Hamlyn, Jamie Jenkinson, Deniz Johns, Jennifer Nightingale, Simon Payne, Gareth Polmeer, Francesco Tacchini & Oliver Smith, Hannah Taverner, Andrew Vallance, Laura Wilson.

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Installations

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Com-optination Nicky Hamlyn (16mm film with optical soundtrack, looped).

A work made and shown in-situ, by filming surfaces which have the potential to generate an optical sound-track.

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Yucca Yucca Yucca Jamie Jenkinson (Yucca plant, wobble board, DLC projector).

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Crossing Simon Payne (site-specific video projection ).

A two-channel video installation involving projected black and white wipe patterns re-videoed by a camera positioned across the space and simultaneously projected on another surface. The piece expands a formal graphic sequence to encompass the site in which it's shown.

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Triple/Double/Distance Gareth Polemeer (two screen video, looped).

Continuing considerations of light, colour and ephemera, this piece, composed of pixel-width lines, develops images into a process of shifting patterns and forms. Developing aspects of an earlier piece, the video also reflects connections to East London, and has been made for the Holding Space show.

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Offshore A—Z  Oliver Smith and Francesco Tacchini (sand, towel, stolen data).

Offshore A—Z is an endless public index of companies registered in twelve tax havens and a series of algorithms that speculate on their forms and connections. The data was scraped from the online company registers that tax havens keep as an empty gesture towards transparency. These records were compiled into a single database in an attempt to identify patterns and links. Beneath the white sand, the installation searches the database for suspicious patterns and coincidences, shedding light on companies it suspects of illicit financial activity.

 

Untitled Hannah Taverner (two-screen video).

Site-specific iPhone video that explores the relationship between the physical body, technology and space.

 

In Country Andrew Vallance (audio/video, looped).

Seen from a train, before dawn, perspectives are disorientating, as the relentless track, a form of compass, leads ever onwards towards unknown territory.

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Screening

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Crocheting a Line Jennifer Nightingale (16mm film 1’30’’).

 

A performance for camera piece. A film shot during the day, in the space, on 16mm black and white negative the film, developed and screened during the event. The film will use a similar system of production to ‘Knitting a Frame’ (2006) to reflect issues of time and pattern, exploring analogies between artists’ film/animation and textiles. The film intends to extend the notion that the construction of the film/and or fabric can be reliant on programming, controls and human gestures outside of their respective conventions. In the production of the film a single frame animation method will be used, whereby a performer crocheting, who we will see in the image, instigates the exposure of each frame. The wool, also seen, is looped from the performer over the single frame release of the camera and back to the crochet; when a crocheted stitch is made the wool is pulled taught and because of this a single frame exposure is made. A photograph taken in (1907) showing one of the Lumiere brothers crocheting will appear at the start of the piece to further emphasise the analogies explored.

 

Live Performance

 

Reed Screen Amy Dickson

Holding space is situated on the periphery of Walthamstow Marahes, one of the last expanses of semi-natural marshland left in London. Yellow-brown reedbeds are formed by stands of vertical Common Reed (Phragmites australis). Regular cutting of the reeds ensures optimised support for a variety of wildlife. The performance uses reeds and a thermochromatic screen. 

 

The Golden Stairs Laura Wilson

A performance made in response to the unique architecture of the building. 

A group of people descend the staircase to the rhythm of the strike of a match.

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Media Blackout II Deniz Johns

Media Blackout II is part of a series of works that Deniz is currently undertaking as part of her practice-led research which revolves around modes of political aesthetics and filmic constructions in experimental film and video. The series is inspired by actual media blackouts in Turkey following several suicide attacks that took place in Istanbul and Ankara.

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