Action Art Now Event 2 : O U I Performance

Action Art Now Event 2
Saturday 12th November 2011, Space 109 Walmgate, York

Performances

Gillian Dyson (UK) | 'Site Unseen'

Gillian Dyson makes thought provoking and engaging live, video and installation art that address issues of site, body and memory. Based in Hull, East Yorkshire, Dyson has performed and exhibited throughout the UK and worldwide. (Including Vivid, Birmingham; Taidehalle Helsinki; Arnolfini Bristol; Art Space Sydney; Asiatopia Bangkok; ANTI Festival Kuuopio).

Whilst Dyson has presented in the ‘white box’ of the gallery, and the ‘black box’ of the studio theatre she is often commissioned to respond to the specifics of international performance festival, and frequently works in a site-specific condition; responding to the history and ambience of particular spaces and sites. Dyson’s own creative work is informed by her professional engagement with members of the public in community contexts, her practical projects with and mentoring of students and her management of exhibitions and events.

Paul Hurley (UK) | 'Untitled Actuation 2011'

Since 2001, Paul Hurley has performed and exhibited in galleries, theatres and public spaces internationally. Inspired by the action art tradition as well as by queer theory and post structuralist philosophy, he creates performances (live, and occasionally for video and photograph) that operate on the level of sensation and the visual, that are to be experienced more than understood. As well as solo performance, his work has involved collaborative works and participatory projects with other artists, including Kathe Izzo, Manuel Vason, Anushiye Yarnell, Uninvited Guests and Caleb Parkin. In 2009, Hurley was awarded a PhD for his thesis ‘Reconfiguring the human: the becoming-other of performance’ from the University of Bristol, as part of an AHRC collaborative doctoral award with Arnolfini Gallery, where he was also an Associate Artist between 2008-2010. He has given talks, workshops, lectures and been published internationally, and has been involved with numerous artist-led projects both in Bristol and in Cardiff, where he was previously based.

Poppy Jackson (UK) | 'Untitled Performance'

Poppy makes action-based work using sticks, blood, earth, flags and birdsong. The crossing of thresholds within celebratory rites of transition is embodied live, in pieces exploring transformative states. Painting and drawing underpins her practice, providing a fulfillment for concepts that cannot be executed live.
Poppy was born in Norfolk in 1982, where she later studied Foundation at Norwich School of Art & Design before completing her BA (Honors) in Visual Performance at Dartington College of Arts in 2005. She relocated to Belfast, then Los Angeles, and is now based in the Evidence Room of a Police Station turned Art Centre. She acts as a mentor for recent graduates trying to gain visibility in London. A short film for Bafta award winning band Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo Poppy was commissioned to write and direct has just been released. Since graduation her work has been shown at Project Arts Centre (Dublin), 18th Street Art Centre (Los Angeles), The Detroit Museum of Modern Art, Black Box (Belfast), Arnolfini (Bristol), and The Barbican and Whitechapel Galleries (London).

Christopher Mollon (UK) | 'Spuren-Graben'

Based in Ravenscar, North Yorkshire, Christopher Mollon makes performance actions. His work is interdisciplinary and ranges through forms of site-specific practice that infuses live art and performance art, to sound sculpture and multi-media performance installation. His work often considers time as material in durational performance and through this, his practice allows for investigation into the specific, the purposeful and the accidental trace of post-performance. Currently, Mollon is interested in working with naturally formed and found objects from site-specific areas across Northern regions of England (UK). He is developing images and a vocabulary of objects that seek to act as transcendental markers in performance.
He holds a degree in Performance Studies which he attained whilst at York St John University and is co-founder of RIG (Rural Intervention Group); and a member of P.A.I.R.S (Performance Action Improvisation Research School).

New Work Yorkshire

Bryony Pritchard is an artist from Leeds. Tonight she is here on behalf of New Work Yorkshire; a network made up of artists and practitioners in Yorkshire, whose practices vary from live art, theatre, contemporary performance, video/film, cross-disciplinary work, sound art and experimental music. Tonight you can chat to Bryony about how to become a member. The network has been in existence for about 8 years, it's free to join and there are lots of opportunities all year round for members. These include collaborating with other practitioners, discussing, developing and promoting practice, keeping up-to-date with what's happening in the region including opportunities to present work, commissioned / paid work and some cracking socials too.

External Links
Gillian Dyson (UK)
Paul Hurley (UK)
Poppy Jackson (UK)
Christopher Mollon (UK)
New Work Yorkshire

Action Art Now is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

1/22

Paul Hurley
Photo: Tim Hunt