Pippa Koszerek and Anna Pharoah, Out of Office, Mostyn Gardens, 2010

Next week VerySmallKitchen curates The Writer’s House, a three day long series of art writing residencies as part of AWAY DAY, at Wandle Park in Colliers Wood, south London. For information about the full programme of events, see here.

The Writer’s House invited five practitioners to devise day long projects that utilised the house/ tent as a studio for a writer in residence, yet  also took account of the public and interactive nature of the AWAY DAY event. What happens to the writing when it takes place in the social and natural environments of Wandle Park? What – where – who- when – how-  if – then – was/is/will be writing?

Projects – by Bram Thomas Arnold, Rachel Lois Clapham (in collaboration with Antje Hildebrandt), Marianne Holm Hansen, Tamarin Norwood and Mary Paterson, each begin as a score (below) with varying relations to what might happen in the park itself. 

Such scores function as self instruction, an invitation to others, an announcement, a conceit, an observation, hope and warning, attempted seduction, and/or an intuition towards multiple possible activity. They inhabit the conceptual and physical geographies of Wandle Park via their own.

Here are the scores: 

BRAM THOMAS ARNOLD

a walk with a compass, a measurable step,

try and avoid the stream,                               somehow,

losing myself in the reeds,

losing myself in the rhythm,

losing myself in the recall,

….an experiment performed as though the landscape were a canvas for the imagination and footsteps were a rhythm for thoughts, language a plane for misinterpretations and translations, mistakes and conversations. 

MARIANNE HOLM HANSEN: For the Record

 We don’t speak much about how we truly feel – so, we will write. 

For the Record will collate two collaborative lists of words pertaining to the emotions that may occur  in relation to the park. The lists will be subsequently filed as documentary evidence of the day . To ensure accuracy, please come along to place your feelings on record. 

For the Record is an ongoing project by Marianne Holm Hansen. For more information see here. 

Tamarin Norwood, Works on Paper, Room 212 Gallery , Bristol, 2007

TAMARIN NORWOOD

C  A  N     Y  O  U     S   E   E     M   E     T   O   O ?

Tamarin Norwood presents a day of reciprocal portraiture

1. Be a person or an animal or an inanimate thing.

2. Sit for a written portrait as you write a portrait of the writer in return.

Rachel Lois Clapham, READERS WANTED, Colliers Wood, 2010

RACHEL LOIS CLAPHAM in collaboration with Antje Hildebrandt

READERS WANTED to share an intimate (w)reading performance for two. This is a little game, a small exercise in trust and a live cursive encounter. You can decide how long it might take. Two minutes is good though. Bring a + 1 with you if you like.

Please come. I’ll be waiting.

(Suitable for all ages)

A score for READERS WANTED

Nb. I am waiting for you
You set off on from your home
Nb. I am waiting for you
You arrive in the park
Nb. I am waiting for you
You find me
Nb. I am waiting for you
You take your shoes off and come inside
Nb. I am no longer waiting
We blindfold one another
I whisper to you
We might touch
We (w)read together
Then we look at what we have made
You leave me
You return home
Nb. I am still waiting for you

Mary Paterson, MEMORY EXCHANGE, 2010

MARY PATERSON

MEMORY EXCHANGE is an experiment, a model for participation, and a document of memory in public and private. 

Instructions for the Memory Exchange:

1. Welcome to the Memory Exchange.

2. Please write a memory on a memory card.

3. Submit your memory to the memory archive. This is now the property of MemoryExchange and will be donated to another person.
Forget it.

4. The archivist will give you a new memory. This is now your memory. Remember it.

*

Scores will be performed between 12-6pm on Sat 29th May (Bram Thomas Arnold and Marianne Holm Hansen); Sun 30th May (Tamarin Norwood) and Mon 31st May (Rachel Lois Clapham and Mary Paterson).