A Teachers’ Guide to:

Rose EnglishA Premonition of the Act

Florian Roithmayrwith, and, or, without

12 December 2015 — 6 March 2016

#CACeducation

This guide aims to engage and support teachers to explore and develop practical responses to the current exhibitions at Camden Arts Centre.

Outlined are exhibition notes, exhibiting artists’ biographies and short gallery-based activities which can be adapted for Primary, Secondary and SEN groups.

Camden Arts Centre offers a limited number of subsidised Ceramics and Mixed Media workshops for all age groups. Schools can also book the Drawing Studio at the Centre (free of charge).

See the Planning your Visit section at the back of the guide for more details.

Purpose

Cover: Florian Roithmayr, Endstart No.07, 2015 Courtesy of the artist and MOT International

Camden Arts Centre is a Registered Charity (Number: 1065829) and our extensive education programme is entirely dependent on our fundraising from individuals and organisations. To find out more, or to make a donation, please contact Camden Arts Centre’s Development Team on +44 (0)20 7472 5500.

About Rose EnglishRose English (b. 1950, Hereford) lives and works in Britain. She has been writing, directing and performing her own work for over thirty five years in venues as various as Tate Britain; Royal Court; Queen Elizabeth Hall; the Adelaide Festival and Lincoln Center, New York.

English’s reputation for humorous and highly analytical performance began within Britain’s vibrant feminist scene in the 1970s. An influential figure for many artists, her work has crossed boundaries between performed installation, vaudeville, film, spoken drama and opera in a mix of philosophical, aesthetic and political commentary. Her productions feature a diversity of co-performers including musicians, dancers, circus performers, magicians and horses.

Rose’s shows range from her site-specific performances and collaborations of the 1970s including Quadrille, Berlin and Mounting, her acclaimed solos of the 1980s including Plato’s Chair and The Beloved, to her large scale spectaculars of the 1990s including Walks on Water, The Double Wedding and Tantamount Esperance.

Rose English

A Premonition of the ActA Premonition of the Act is an exhibition that reveals the elements of a performance in a deconstructed way, relating to a work in progress. Throughout each of the rooms English reconfigures glass works, a storyboard, video and a sound installation. These many different elements are seen to operate as a whole within the space and can be considered a chamber opera, an art installation and a circus.

The exhibition portrays a relationship between objects and the body. The use of glass within the performance alludes to the body both as a vessel to make the glass through breath and as an instrument to balance a fragile material. This is highlighted through the way the acrobats use their energy to delicately handle the glass works, to captivate the audience through their movements.

At the core of the show is a new operatic sound work called Lost in Music, scored by composer Luke Stoneham. This sound piece is comprised of words that have been taken from English’s previous performances, exhibitions and objects between 2006 and the present, compressed into one singular libretto. It acts as an ‘aural diagram’ of the work; describing the actions and movements of the acrobats through song, making sound a physical material in itself.

Key Themes Performance Collaboration Installation Theatre Object Sound

About Florian RoithmayrFlorian Roithmayr (b. 1976, Germany) initially trained in Germany as a set designer before studying Fine Art at Slade School of Fine Art. In 2005 he graduated from the MA Fine Art program at Goldsmiths College and currently lives and works in London.

Roithmayr is interested in labour that renders itself invisible upon completion and has undertaken intensive internships, shadowing engineering specialists such as a car surface decorator and a concrete beautician, who manipulate materials to perform beyond their physical expectations. Learning from the meticulous attention to detail in these processes, with, and, or, without is deeply embedded in the micro-processes of Roithmayr’s own studio practice as maker.

Recent solo exhibitions include: SERVICE, MOT International, London (2015); Matter of Engagement, Site Gallery, Sheffield (2014); Treignac Projet, Treignac, France. Selected group shows include: Things That Tumble Twice, Tenderpixel, London (2015); The Influence of Furniture on Love, Wysing Art Center, Cambridgeshire (2014).

Florian Roithmayr

with, and, or, withoutFlorian Roithmayr presents a new body of sculptural works in Gallery 3, which observe material transformations in the processes of making. Capturing the unexpected gestures that occur in the interstice between mould and cast, the sculptures embody the consequences of one surface, material or body yielding another. The sculptures in the show act not as discrete objects but as representations of an accumulation of research, process and production.

The show questions moments of production to reveal how the pieces might have been made. Layers are peeled back to reveal further layers in a perpetual unsatisfied curiosity of the unknown. Liquid concrete competes with injected expanded foam as each solidifies in unison, whilst itinerant cast objects act as the syntax of the installation, activating and reordering the space between works. Suspended, stacked or resting on one another, carefully balanced tensions and pressures hold the sculpture in form, drawing attention to the constant yet invisible states of flux at play in the materials Roithmayr employs.

The configuration of the exhibition will change daily at the inclination of the front of house team as Roithmayr sets up parameters before relinquishing control of the works.

Key Themes Materiality Gesture Object ResearchLabourProcessProduction Agency

Questions & Activities

A Premonition of the Act Explore the exhibition and use the below points to start a conversation.

• Does the sound make you think differently about the artwork? • Is the piece of work ‘by’ the artist if several other people contributed to it?• Let the music guide you around the room, can you hear any words that you can see in the material on the wall?

Activity

• Think of an object you use at home or in the classroom, now select three words from the key words page. How would you combine the words and objects to create a performance?• Discuss with a partner how the acrobats balance the glass with their bodies in the exhibition; think about other types of materials you could balance with your body.• Create a collaborative artwork: in teams, work together to balance as many balloons as you can with your bodies. Think about how you will work together and look at examples of other teams.

with, and, or, withoutFlorian is interested in connections between materials and other uses for them, explore the exhibition and use the below points to start a conversation.

• Do the artworks remind you of something else? • How do you think they were made?• What materials has the artist used?• What else could the materials in the work be used for? • Discuss with the group the different materials used in your school and find out what sort of processes the materials have undergone.

Activity

• Select three words from the key words page. Use these words to make a ‘gesture’, now in your group combine each other’s gestures and discuss how it could be turned into an artwork.• Think of an object you use at home or in the classroom. How would you re-imagine them – change the way it looks? Give it a different function?• Look at the objects around you and research which processes were used to make them. Explore how different processes enable the making of different shapes and forms.

Rose English Key Words

Florian Roithmayr Key Words

Events

Our programme of events expands on ideas within the exhibitions, residencies and projects. Events are free unless stated; please book a place online or by calling +44(0)20 7472 5500.

Talk: On the One Hand and the OtherSaturday 16 January, 2.00 – 4.30pmIn this afternoon of talks, artist-in-residence Sam Belinfante invites artists, musicians and academics to think about the voluntary and involuntary movements between sound, music and gesture. Tickets: £7 (£5 for Friends and Conc.)

Live: Sam BelinfanteWednesday 27 January, 7.00 – 8.00pmSam Belinfante presents his current research around audio-visual technologies and the choreography of the sensory experience. Tickets: £5 (£4 for Friends and Conc.)

Talk: Rose English and Grainne SweeneyWednesday 3 February, 7.00 – 8.00pmRose English and Grainne Sweeney, independent curator and Associate Curator, MIMA, reflect on English’s new commission, Lost in Music, in the context of her earlier work Flagrant Wisdom. Broadcast live on our website with thisistomorrow.info Tickets: £5 (£4 for Friends and Conc.)

Postscript1 – 13 March Postscript offers an afterword to the exhibitions and residency with a series of live acts, films and talks responding to gesture and breath. It will include live performances of Rose English and Luke Stoneham’s Lost in Music and new commissions by Florian Roithmayr and Sam Belinfante as well as works by other artists.

Exhibition Tour: Jenni LomaxSunday 6 March, 3.00 – 3.45pmJenni Lomax, Director of Camden Arts Centre, gives a curator’s tour on the final day of both exhibitions.

Youth Collective Saturdays, 2.30 – 5.00pm and the last Wednesday of every month, 5.00 – 7.00pmThe Youth Collective invites young people aged 15 – 25 years to meet regularly to create, discuss, experience and encounter the visual arts. Young people have the opportunity to gain Arts Award Gold, meet artists and staff, programme events and develop their art practice.

Make & DoSundays, 2.00 – 4.30pmEvery Sunday throughout the exhibitions families can drop in to the Drawing Studio to take part in creative and fun activities, led by artist Renata Bandeira. The activities are suitable for all ages, materials are provided.

Family Activity BoxAsk our Front of House Volunteers for a Family Activity Box, full of creative ideas and materials to use in the galleries.

Images

Rose English, Ornamental Happiness, 2006 Photo: Alastair Muir

Images

Rose English, Flagrant Wisdom, 2009 Photo: Colin Davidson

Images

Florian Roithmayr, loose tension, 2015 Courtesy of the artist and MOT International

Images

Florian Roithmayr, Endstart No.04, 2015 Courtesy of the artist and MOT International

Camden Arts Centre offers a range of activities for School groups including:

• Ceramic and Mixed Media artist-led workshops for Primary, Secondary and SEN groups • A Teachers’ Tour or Workshop for each exhibition• Free 10 minute exhibition tours led by our Education Team• Use of our Drawing studios free of charge for self-led workshops such as those included in the Teachers’ Guide. (Bookings can be on Tuesdays, Wednesday and Fridays, subject to availability)

LunchGroups are welcome to use the Drawing Studio (subject to availability) and Camden Arts Centre’s garden to have their lunch.

StaffingAdult to child ratio (not including Camden Arts Centre staff) must be:1:5 for under 5 year olds1:10 for 6-11 year olds1:15 for 12–16 year olds1:20 for 16–18 year olds

ParkingDisabled parking is available for disabled visitors. Please telephone the bookshop on +44 (0)20 7472 5500 to book this space.

How to find usCamden Arts Centre is based in North London on the corner of Finchley Road and Arkwright RoadCamden Arts Centre, Arkwright Road, London NW3 6DG camdenartscentre.org+44 (0)20 7472 5500

Underground: Finchley Road, Hampstead. Overground: Finchley Road & Frognal. Bus: 13, 268, 82, 113

Regular Gallery ToursWednesdays & Saturdays, 12.00 – 4.00pm Drop in for free, short gallery tours lead by our Volunteer Front of House Assistants.

Education BlogFollow us for updates from the Education team and find out how to get involved.camdenartscentre.tumblr.com

For more information and bookings please contact Amelia Martin amelia.martin@camdenartscentre.org / + 44 (0)20 7472 5515

Planning your visit