Spaced 3: North by Southeast - Week 2

08 July 2016

WEEK 2: DEVELOPING PRODUCTS (july 2016)

Within this context, the workers inhabit a state of dual-consciousness, their labour becoming both process and product, embodied and disembodied. (DP)[1]

image: Meditation glass

After the first week of workshops and exercises this week became more focused upon ideas development and then creating a product. The idea of product was discussed and pulled apart. The product didn’t need to be a tangible object, although in the end everyone created at least 1 glass product. It was hard to resist the pull of the molten glass especially as Rejmyre is one of last surviving glass factories in Sweden. Daniel and Sissi had negotiated with the management that each artist would have an opportunity to work with the master glass blower John. We could work with him for a limited 2-hour session at a set hourly rate. To effectively work with the glass blower we had to develop a very clear concept that could be discuss and completed with John—one artist per day in the 2 hour session. This was creatively challenging for all; firstly for the artists’ to resolve a strong idea and for John to interpret and technically produce the work in glass within such a short time frame – pressure was on.

Much research was undertaken during the week. Ulf the owner of the factory supplied us with many historical books. One that I spent a lot of time with was titled Glass: The Miracle Maker – from 1940’s; the Rejmyre factory remains frozen in this time zone so this book was relevant to the space.

In the second week the performance studies scholar Ioana Jucan joined the group as ethnographer-in‐residence. She conducted an ethnography of the labour at the Rejmyre Glasbruk, while the artist-as-guest-workers developed the product. This entailed discussion and feedback sessions with all the workers in the factory during the Performing Labour residency. These interviews where recorded and will assist in Ioana’s conclusive report.

Towards the end of the week many of us needed supplies to complete our products. We made a trip to Norrkoping’s amazing electronics supplies Kjell&Co. Ardino boards, discrete mp3 players and small headphones where purchased. In the limited time available I decide to use a ready made sound systems but intend to develop a specifically programmed ardino board for the next phase—the residency in 2017.

Quote of the week

I am happy to hear you are doing fine [2]

1 Excerpt from Daniel Petz’s proposal for the residency/workshop

2 From the Roy Andersson’s film A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Swedish: En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron) 2014

The glow form the furnace

Spaced 3: North by Southeast - Week 1

02 July 2016

WEEK 1: ArtLAB Rejmyre Glass Factory

Artist Residents

Sissi Westerburg - SWE; Daniel Peltz - USA/SWE; Alex Auriema - USA, Filip Olszewski - USA; Robyn Backen - AUS.

We had a very intensive week in the factory starting each morning at 6.15am with the glass workers. We positioned ourselves in a very orderly fashion behind the tourist view space. We are there to be viewed and observed by the tourists, glassworkers and management.

The days have been filled with group exercise/workshops, meditation, conceptual challengers and collaborative discussion about each persons proposed product development. Nothing is out of limits and there is so much opportunity to develop ideas individually as well as through the supportive critical feedback of the group. Slowly we are starting to get to know the glassworkers and this allows for an opportunity to understand from the other side.

RESEARCH PROJECT SYNOPSIS

Performing Labour

…the site, an industrial glass production factory in Östergotland that, like many contemporary industries, has turned to auto-exhibitionist tourism practices to supplement a struggling economic position. Within this context, the workers inhabit a state of dual-consciousness, their labour becoming both process and product, embodied and disembodied. They enact functional craft gestures and produce industrial products, while simultaneously producing a tourist spectacle that renders their labouring bodies, and gestures, as pure aesthetic products. This research considers how a conceptual performance of labour, about labour [in the context of these hybrid industrial/tourist factories], might be used as a strategy to invoke a parallel state of dual-consciousness in a group of artistresearchers. The research explores understandings, of the complex role of contemporary human labour, that might be glimpsed from assuming this position.

(an extract from ArtLAB synopsis)

Spaced 3: North by Southeast

01 July 2016

Robyn Backen selected for the Spaced 3: north by southeast project. Spaced 3: north by southeast is a program centred on an artists’ exchange between Nordic and Australian visual artists, managed by International Art Space in partnership with key Nordic and West Australian organisations.

The program will span three years (2016–18) and comprise 12 residency-based projects that will take place in regional, remote and outer-urban locations in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Western Australia. Nordic artists will undertake their residencies in Western Australia, whilst Australian artists will be placed in the Nordic region. These residencies are positioned as the means to develop new works that will be created by each artist in response to their engagement with the social, environmental and historical contexts of the host communities.

Selected artists are: Robyn Backen (NSW), Keg de Souza (NSW), Deborah Kelly (NSW), Danius Kesminas (VIC), Sam Smith (NSW), Dan McCabe (WA), Gustav Hellberg (Sweden), Hulda Ros Gudnadottir (Iceland), Tor Lindstrand (Sweden), Linda Persson (Sweden), Michelle Eistrup (Denmark) Heidi Lunabba (Finland).

Selection by Marco Marcon (director of spaced3) and ArtLAB (Daniel Peltz & Sissi Westerburg) for Rejmyre residency

Spaced3 North by Southeast Website

Exposure performance - 2011

EXPOSURE 2011

There are many unused rooms in the Rejmyre glass factory building but this room invited engagement. It is a room without light, only a slight spill at the entrance. When I entered this room it offered potential. The darkness suggested prosaic questions: Is it empty? Is it full? What was the space used for? This room asked for disclosure and with subtle performative intervention the room will be exposed to the senses of the audience.

(Statement supporting the performance presented in 2011 at the end of the short residency period link to my website)