Beauty Things | A workshop by JL Williams in response to the work of Anne-Marie Copestake

Writer and poet JL Williams led a writing workshop in response to Anne-Marie Copestake's exhibition Looking in either direction the whole street was filled with people, some singing, moving towards x... at Cooper Gallery 15 March – 13 April 2019. Below are some of the responses.

a set of five poems addressing the speaker on the back wall, left hand side
Jamie Donald

speaker

something about all the shades of white nearby

upset the perspective

the wire that connects you

to the rest of the room

appeared momentarily suspended in open space

I see now that the perpendicular line is held

not by gravity, but

by wall and pins

and somebody else’s

eye for detail

speaker

you are mostly quiet

and wait your turn

the others seem more

involved, project more

maybe if I sat closer to you

I would hear something else

speaker

you are part of a wider discourse

that spans at least the room

it goes on next door

and also downstairs

and hopefully outside

speaker

you don’t speak at all really

you hum and you click

or pop

some kind of mouth sound

similar to a pen sound

like the pop of the lid

when you are meant to be writing

but don’t know what comes next

speaker

you are a white cube

a grey circle

and otherwise nondescript
_____

Exquisite Corpse

I have a sudden impulse to calculate the number of floor tiles

Everyone was so good looking and fresh in the 90’s

Turning on the spot like a merry go round

Church music starts again

Blue, purple, peach and white paper lies in front of me.

He asked the room awaited an answer to the unspeakable question

An octopus or a railing, a bag of nails…

How can one leg stretch so far?

Nine, five layers, 10 poets? 9 players.

Sat in a circle, paper in the middle, 9 people crumple while I’m thinking about the fiddle,

It would take a lot longer to find, and count, all of the shades of brown

I heard Mark Leckey called the Tate a shit factory whilst sitting on the toilet – it was cut

His service lasted 31 years and for that we’re very grateful

Singing fills the room.

The artwork is shining, blinding my eyes

Nothing lasted as long as it used to, she found peace with that

The way it began, the way it always ends

They are clicking, they are…

I forget what I just told you but know that I meant it

Some of the tiles must be siblings or cousins or themselves

Billy Childish is everything.

Falling… falling… falling in… falling in…

Can’t stop looking at the chipped mug with roses [/noses]

Strong and sweet liquorice is what I crave.

There was nothing left to do, everything had yet to begin.

A hopeful brightness… sensation…

In my mind the birds can’t stop flapping their wings….

Arr! That light is brightly burning in my eye!

Production lines are never straight lines, but they never seemed like circles.

Like the sausage rolls I imagined I was as a child

I loved the video with the ceiling and the soft flowers

When I hear things like those my heart swells and throat aches

Suspense sounds.

I want to go home now.

A little unsure always.

Something that has yet to be spoken of, an elephant in want of a room.

Holy and shining, the water never stopped falling…

Hm, hmhm, hm, hum hum hum… [note symbol]

Lost in numbers, trying to share a letter, scribbles keep on while the sound gets better.

I am glad to have tempered my empathy

New erotics and corn fed egotism

And I’m never going back to that place

[indecipherable] Too many thoughts

The end.

This room is making me thirsty.

A breath hitched in their throat as the door revealed more than a cool breeze, he had arrived.

A sequence of pink bubbles and iridescent pillars…

One cool chair, the other is just a chair

The sound left but we’re all still here.

To the point that looking at the floor doesn’t fill me with tragedy

The air in here smells sweet

So don’t worry, because it happens to the best of us

The paper will be unfolded now.

The music sounds like we are in a church.

I keep seeing red today. It’s warning.

Sunflowers seemed to shrink that day, never had summer seemed so sombre

Only the millionaires will remember the time of the llamas…

I only know 2, now I know 1, soon I will leave.

Will there be enough for this.

And imagining their perspective can be a distanced task.

Hand delivered letters

And to all a good night!

Hard floors make your body against them flat

The room is filled with sound of letters being passed through

We are starting to write faster and faster.

Looking out the window, a calm epiphany came to her

In situ or out, we couldn’t bear to recede…

Is he gonna steal the art?

We’re just about a round, sat circular, shepherded by sound.

Though I sit very close, knees and elbows pressed into them

Nine people writing spherically

Humming and clicking – I will miss the sounds later when I can’t remember the rhythm

Like the feeling of wetness after rain’s fallen

A man with a bag just walked through the door

This ink smells against the rules but nice.

The sky was grey with worry.

Not because she could not love, but because the light was so perforating…

That wall is too white.

‘Exit’ says something to me…

I feel very little, but an impulse to count.

_____

Looking for you I walked through the gallery with a pen in my x…
JL Williams

I’m not

I don’t wanna

What’s not write

To swallow

                  The perforated shadow on the wall

                  The outline of her headphone-clasped head

Reflective

Absorb contemporary drift

                  Three women writing with authority

                  On the gallery floor, rocking

Egomaniacal lap-dancing

Rebel

                  Laid down

                  Sat on a wooden bench

                  In a triangular shadow

Fashion

And shit

                  Light split by a concrete

                  Brick-like wall

Ideal

Ideal

Art galleries

Car park

                  Beyond the headphones his voice beyond his voice her voice beyond her voice her voice beyond her voice…

 _____

Beauty Things | A workshop by JL Williams
22 March 2019

Beauty Things was organised by artist and DJCAD Professor Tracy Mackenna and took place within and in response to Anne-Marie Copestake's exhibition Looking in either direction the whole street was filled with people, some singing, moving towards x... at Cooper Gallery 15 March – 13 April 2019. 

Response to Bow Gamelan Ensemble Great Noises that Fill the Air by Saskia Singer

Having just joined the Student Curatorial Team, receiving an email looking for students to participate in a workshop involving experimental sound and performance, I was really excited by this prospect. It included many ideas that I had recently been thinking about, but had been unaware of how to start without any real experience.

We met as a group with Anne and Richard, to look around the exhibition and to get a feel for their ethos. The documentation in the upstairs gallery, provided a really fascinating insight into the energy that would be experienced at one of their performances in the 80’s. I felt inspired by the hectic chaos of the mass of photos and bright lights flashing with the sudden burst of sound shaking the room from wide, industrial thunder sheets. This was the most passionate I had felt from any of the exhibitions that I have seen in the Cooper Gallery so far, and couldn’t wait to see how the next two days would unfold in the lead up to the performance.

We had two days to practice together using an array of children’s toys and creating a ‘semi’ set list involving lighting directed by ourselves using strobes and torches. The DIY accessibility of it all was genius and made me ask, ‘why haven’t I thought to do this?’ Giant weather balloons filled with luminous, neon green glow sticks with harmonicas attached becoming instruments in themselves. A collection of glass funnels suspended with vibrators and torches attached, making the most beautiful sounds as they rattled off each other.

   W0B, Nalemag 2, 2018. Performance with DJCAD students Conor Gray, Calum Ingram, Julian Larrainzar, Jek McAllister, Stella Rooney and Saskia Singer. Photo by Eoin Carey.

The overall experience was extremely provocative, nerve wracking, and stimulating in different ways. Performing on the night in front of a packed room, knowing that we hadn’t went through the performance entirely and had no idea of how it would look or sound for their retrospective was terrifying. But as soon as the first sounds started, it went stunningly and was incredible to watch it evolve. The ideas have massively influenced my practice and has given me the confidence and push to incorporate the use of sound in my own work.

W0B, Nalemag 2, 2018. Performance with DJCAD students Conor Gray, Calum Ingram, Julian Larrainzar, Jek McAllister, Stella Rooney and Saskia Singer. Photo by Eoin Carey.    

Saskia Singer
March 2019

Bow Gamelan Ensemble Great Noises That Fill The Air took place at Cooper Gallery 27 October – 15 December 2018.

Response to Bow Gamelan Ensemble Great Noises that Fill the Air by Jakub Stepanovic

Around ten years ago, I was researching how large industrial complexes transformed cities and cultures in general. To enhance this process, I made a few visits to places like steel mills, coal mines, harbours, and power stations - which left me with an unexpected attraction to the strange beauty of these sites. Not just visually; many of the heavy machinery created colossal levels of noises, a perfect companion to the raw, often dirty shapes of the locations. While I am not doing active research of these fields anymore, the joy of this slightly odd palette of sounds and structures never left me. Unfortunately, not many people were ready to accept such attitude, and my stories about concerts made by hundreds of wagons on a large freight railway terminal, where the traditional guitar and drums were replaced by rumbling diesel engines and squeaking suspension, never generated much of understanding. So when I learned that the Cooper Gallery is about to open an exhibition named Great Noises That Fill The Air, I got properly excited. The show was a retrospective of artist collective Bow Gamelan Ensemble, (Anne Bean, Paul Burwell, Richard Wilson) who used found objects, often from bare materials like iron and glass, to generate performances.

A visitor browses panels showcasing the Bow Gamelan Ensemble work, such as posters, sketches, and snippets from newspapers. The materials were installed on welded frames and fitted with bulbs of many colors, to enhance the viewing experience.

Discovering the Bow Gamelan Ensemble multidisciplinary approach through a well-curated display would be enjoyable enough, as seeing and meeting a collective of others who share these concepts of sound perception was rather pleasant; but the gallery also held multiple events to accompany the show, many of an interactive nature, which elevated the experience. Visitors were able to engage in discussions with Anne Bean and Richard Wilson, who shared many experiences of creating the projects, and behind-the-scenes stories. Their insight on a cross-disciplinary practice – in the context of contemporary age when everyone seems to seek the ultimate niche market – was immensely inspirational.

Richard Wilson and Anne Bean speak about the origins, values, and adventures of making the Bow Gamelan Ensemble. “If they never heard someone playing on a car’s door before, they can’t say that you are doing it wrong.”

The interdisciplinary thinking was also reflected in the gallery’s symposium Scoring Noise, where artists, philosophers, and musicians debated the true and abstract meanings of noises around us.

Dr. Rob La Frenais presents his performance 'Close To The Water', during the 'Blades to Bow' segment of the Scoring Noise Symposium.

In another event, A Noise Evening, members of the public were invited to submit their sounds to reflect on the show. For the occasion, the exhibition space got fitted with chairs and pillows to allow visitors to relax while listening to detuned synthesizers, distorted samples, echoed voices, and plenty of other kinds of experimental music. This was also a good opportunity to network within the community of like-minded people. The show ended with A Sonic Meditation, a workshop led by Ariki Porteous about relations of sounds with visuals. Visitors were encouraged to jam on prepared musical instruments and find balance with screened films. Overall, it was a pleasure to have this exhibition at our doorsteps, as it offered plenty of chances to explore new audiovisual sources of inspiration and relaxation, but also to get an insight into the professional development of the artists. Neat curating details, such as invitations and information leaflets printed on grey, recycled paper to resonate with the show's theme were icing on the cake.

Jakub Stepanovic
March 2019
All photography by Jakub Stepanovic


Bow Gamelan Ensemble Great Noises That Fill The Air took place at Cooper Gallery 27 October – 15 December 2018.

Response to Bow Gamelan Ensemble Great Noises That Fill The Air by Elizabeth Ann Day

The collection of performance art: a critique of Bow Gamelan Ensemble at Cooper Gallery

After first viewing Bow Gamelan Ensemble’s Great Noises that Fill the Air at Cooper Gallery I was struck by the exhibits distinct links to an issue I have been researching in my own practice for the last year; can we collect performance art?

The exhibition itself has two clear sections. One focuses on the new iteration of Bow Gamelan (known as W0B) wherein Anne Bean and Richard Wilson, accompanied by DJCAD students, performed on the show’s opening night, whilst the other looks to the past. The larger space on the gallery’s upper level is focussed on ephemera, with some of the earliest pieces on display dating back to the group’s inception in 1983.  Accompanying these physical objects are CRT monitors displaying footage of past performances as well as a mix of interviews from Bean, Wilson, and past member Paul Burwell (1949-2007). A new piece sits with this ephemera, titled Bow Lines (2018) it attempts to bring this material into the present by rattling large metal sheeting at seemingly random intervals. This naturally shocks the viewer, making them view the displayed ephemera in a slightly tense manner as their body attempts to anticipate the next thundering noise.

On December 7th I had the privilege of hosting a workshop within the gallery space wherein myself and student participants could discuss the issues of collecting and displaying performance art. Walking around the show during this discussion, the group dissected some of Bow Gamelan’s interviews. Burwell states in one that he “falls between two stools” when it comes to his practice, he is neither an artist nor a musician in his own eyes. As a group, we discussed whether this would still be the case. It seemed clear to all of us that Bow Gamelan Ensemble, in 2018, could be considered a group of performance artists. However, this relation to the traditional music scene meant that Bow Gamelan had the opportunity to perform in a wide variety of locations usually unavailable to visual artists. The ephemera on show backs up this idea as we see Burwell, Bean and Wilson performing at music festivals with loud, dancing audiences, as well as the white cube gallery more commonly associated with artistic practice during the group’s core activity (1983-1991).

If we consider Bow Gamelan Ensemble as performance artists, and if we consider the footage and ephemera on show at Cooper Gallery documentation, then how do we truly collect and display performance art? I am still struggling with this idea; however, the workshop participants came to the conclusion that if you can sell performance then you can collect it. How very prudent, I personally had never considered such a logical solution.

Elizabeth Ann Day
February 2019

Bow Gamelan Ensemble, Bow Lines, 2018.
Installation view Cooper Gallery, 2018. Photo by Eoin Carey.
Thundersheet (pictured left) Bow Gamelan Ensemble Archive (pictured right).

Bow Gamelan Ensemble Great Noises That Fill The Air took place at Cooper Gallery 27 October – 15 December 2018.

Ceremony | Phil Collins suggested reading

Artist Phil Collins shares a list of suggested reading material as part his exhibition Ceremony at Cooper Gallery, 18 January – 16 February 2019.

Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England, 1845. London: Penguin Classics
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, 1848. London: Penguin Classics
Eric Hobsbawm, How To Change the World: Tales of Marx and Marxism 1840-2011, 2011. London: Little, Brown.
Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, 2009. Winchester: Zero Books.
Vickie Cooper and David Whyte (eds.), The Violence of Austerity, 2017. London: Pluto Press.
Jamie Woodcock, Working the Phones: Control and Resistance in Call Centres, 2016. London: Pluto Press.
Tristram Hunt, Frock-Coated Communist: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels. 2009. London: Allen Lane.
China Mieville, October: The Story of Russian Revolution, 2017. London: Verso.
Peter Weiss, The Aesthetics of Resistance, Vol. I., 1975. Durham & London: Duke University Press.
Gavin McCrea, Mrs. Engels, 2015. Melbourne / London: Scribe.
Walter Greenwood, Love on the Dole, 1933. London: Vintage Books.

Study Area for Phil Collins, Ceremony, 2018. Installation view Cooper Gallery, Dundee, 2019.
Photography by Sally Jubb. Courtesy Shady Lane Productions. 

Cooper Summer Residency | Paul Noble suggested reading

For Cooper Summer Residency [online] Paul Noble shares a suggested reading list ahead of his upcoming exhibition, Politics of Small Places, with works by Patrick Geddes at Cooper Gallery in September 2018.

Paul Noble suggested reading:

Nawaal El-Sadaawi, God Dies by the Nile, 1985
Heinrich von Kleist, The Earthquake in Chile, 1807
Svetlana Alexievic, Second Hand Time, 2013
Jean Joseph Goux, Oedipus, Philosopher, 1993
Michel Serres, Statues, 1987
Samuel Beckett, Malone Dies, 1951
Samuel Beckett, Mercier & Camier, 1970
Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1953
Gerrit Achterberg, Ballad of the Gasfitter, 1977
Franz Kafka, The Burrow, 1931
Thomas Bernhard, Gargoyles, 1967



During the residency artist Paul Noble and Architecture Reader Lorens Holm engage in a public conversation shared across Cooper Gallery’s websites and social media.

Cooper Summer Residency 2018 [online]
Lorens Holm + Paul Noble
2 July - 13 September 2018