The Walking Encyclopaedia's Walking Artists of the Day - Garrett Hansen, H.R. Fricker, Helen Stratford & Idit Nathan and Ian Penna

In a continuing series throughout the duration of The Walking Encyclopaedia, we'll be highlighting, daily, the works of four practitioners who employ the walk within their practice. Each of the highlighted artists and artworks were submitted for exhibition to The Walking Encyclopaedia. In each case alongside their artist statement, a link to the artist's website is provided for further exploration.

The Walking Encyclopaedia is a co-production between AirSpace Gallery and the Walking Artists Network.

#41 - Garrett Hansen

These images are from numerous trips to Japan and each roll of film represents a walk I took while there. I shoot a roll or so per walk and, rather than cut them up, keep each roll intact. For me it offers the viewer a more direct way of engaging the process of movement and discovery.

Website - http://www.garrettohansen.com/index.html

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#42 - H.R. Fricker - Aufnehmen beim Abnehmen

Last year I realized an art project on facebook with the title „Aufnehmen beim Abnehmen“ (record for losing weight). Each day I made a long walk, which was documented by photos. I was putting my daily reports including an image block consisting of nine images on my  facebook account. The photos provided informations about the distance  I had walked, in addition, I gave hints of my thoughts which I had during my walks like for example thoughts on walking and losing weight. Overall, I made 110 walks under the motto recording for losing weight.  In may 2014 I will exhibit the 110 posts in form of framed prints in  the Museum für Lebensgeschichten (museum of life stories). In using a traditional form of an art exhibtion my project will be accessible also for an audience outside Facebook. The usability of new medias for artistic projects will hopefully be visible and comprehensible for an audience which is unexperienced with internet art. Since my artitsic career I am interessted to find ways and possiblities to conquer open spaces for creative activities. A retrospective of my work was shown in the Kunstmuseum Thurgau 2011/2012 and a catalogue  was published. 

websites -

www.erobertdiewohnzimmer.net

www.conquerthelivingrooms.net

www.placeofplaces.com

www.facebook.com/hrfricker

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#43 - Helen Stratford & Idit Nathan - Play The City

'Play the City Now or Never! is a self-assembly die designed to solicit playful and critical engagement while walking in the city. Each side of the die contains poetic prompts that playfully and productively disrupt people’s everyday routines and environments provoking them to see, perform and experience their surroundings afresh. We believe that walking has an important role to play in ensuring that our cities remain ours. And playing within the city, which we want to see become part of walking, has long been acknowledged as a tactic. It is a way to overcome and contest restrictions and limitations that our cities are inflicted with; a way of making them our own.

http://playthecitynowornever.wordpress.com/

'Play the City Now or Never! has been recently exhibited at 'Walks in Your Pocket' part of 'Walking in the City' Parlour Showrooms, Bristol, (2013), University of Hertfordshire Galleries, St Albans (2013/14) and Cambridge Artworks gallery, (2013).

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#44 - Ian Penna ‘Two Mile Walk’ 2009 (activist/political)and others

Ian Penna’s work is predominantly three dimensional and of an emotional range. The found, collected, recycled and purchased materials are manipulated and transformed into something more intriguing, mysterious and unexpected. The materials along with other elements, formulate a dialogue within the works overall concept. His way of articulating ideas through mediums, materials and their physical properties allows him to create forms of choice whilst combining the themes and issues that interest him. The work produced is an insight of his personal experiences, inventiveness, vision, ability and sense of humour.

‘Two Mile Walk’ 2009

Image of 19meter public land art installation

This awareness collection of 183 dog faeces in plastic bags collected on a two mile walk and then reconfigured in a line stretching 19 metres in length, underlines this problem in society. These objects were found in the landscape on a two mile walk around England’s seconded largest nature reserve in March 2009.

Collared' 2009
Wall relief:
 183 laminated photographic images documenting the journey of evidence that forms the sculptural relief artwork 'Collared'.

Still image/postcard print ‘Entrap’2009

This bag of dog faeces has a history. This bag/image is number 167 of 183 from the ‘Two Mile Walk’ 2009 documentation of evidence.

‘Entrap’ 2009

Film: 9.03 minutes

The naturally animated film ‘Entrap’ 2009 captures the motion of a readymade object in the landscape on a two mile walk. This object utilized the natural phenomena of wind, as well as depicting human mentality. This semi-transparent, flexible, kinetic sculptural object is held in position by the weight of its inner contents, dog poo. Its irregular form and movement resembles a creature that has become trapped and agitated. This collaboratively created two fingered gesture also gradually reveals within its form the profile of the human head. This bag of dog faeces itself is No. 167 of 183 from the ‘Two Mile Walk’ 2009 awareness collection of evidence. This unedited digital film imitates stop motion animation. The stop motion technique of making a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own, by moving the object in small increments between frames, creates an illusion of movement when played in a continuous sequence. This technique has been naturally captured and conveyed on this film. The sound of the wind matches the movements of the bag, a dog’s chain rattling and its owner calling the dog confirms the film is unedited. This provides a balance to the slightly disorientated camera movements to this already thought provoking, mesmerizing film.

‘Bio Bed’ 2010

Installation:

2240 coloured bio-degradable dog poop bags, 315 black plastic dog poop bags

The surreal installation ‘Bio-Bed’ 2010 forms an abstract piled arrangement of semi-transparent, scented, coloured, bio-degradable dog poop bags. The scale of the work represents an average dog owner’s yearly usage of dog poop bags whilst out walking their dog. Each individual slowly degrading, shiny bag has been hand tied and lacks continuity, suggesting naturally degrading forms and is emphasised by the title. The scented smell of the bags also suggests pleasant flower like smells from nature rather than the nasty smell usually associated with this object. The depth of this installation can be clearly seen through the glass from outside the gallery. From within the gallery this link is emphasised in the glasses reflection of the work, forming an illusionistic pyramid form and plays with the idea of inside and out.

‘Walker’ 2009, Sculpture, Lead dog poo bag with foot print

My current project based practice expresses the ability to integrate critical, practical and performative processes that are inspired by a synthesis between environmental psychology and phenomenological approaches. Evolving from various contemporary permutations of site-specificity, place bound identity, senses of place and place identification, the resulting artworks form a tension between

child-like playfulness and adult creative practice, leading to a more serious social, environmental, political, personal response to place. I respond creatively through a multitude of media including sculpture, painting, drawing, film, sound, print, photography and text. Resulting artworks become fragile poetries and of an emotional range. Historical and geographical inquiries also give the context and my practice an interdisciplinary aspect.

Website - http://www.containerarts.org/artists/ian-penna/


http://www.nsanewlyn.com/newlyn-society-of-artists/ian-penna

ianpenna@msn.com