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1mile²

 

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About 1mile² 1mile² is a residency programme in which international artists create and connect interpretations of a place, its people, its ecology and diversity, devising ways for art to exist within both cultural and public infrastructures. The artists spend up to three months in a defined area, working collaboratively on a process of creative mapping with local artists and an ecologist and local residents through workshops and field sessions.

The international artists who have worked on 1mile² projects so far have come from a range of practice backgrounds. Their work has engaged with different aspects and themes of the project in response to their interrogation of a new physical and cultural environment.

 

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International artists in the UK

 

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Xu Zhifeng (Shaw) 1mile² London Borough of Waltham Forest

Lives and works in Shanghai; proposed by Neil Webb and Simon Kirby, British Council, Shanghai.

Shaw uses architecture, photography, sculpture and video to explore neighbourhoods and stories of people. His works often culminate as interventions within the social sphere, focusing on communities in transition. His residency in LBWF and the borough’s relationship to the Olympic Park connected to earlier works he had made around the site clearance for the Shanghai World Expo 2010, funded by BC Shanghai.

Shaw’s residency in LBWF was hosted by ACME studios. ACME provided not only an international artistic, social and networking context for Shaw to work within but also gave support to the ambition of his proposal. This involved defining a circle of residential houses in Cann Hall, Cathall and Leytonstone area of East London. Simultaneously echoing and contrasting the nature of the Olympic Site, Shaw’s ‘ring’ highlighted the individual and personal lives within this area. Working with local artists he asked residents to participate in written recordings of their lives and commemorate by the raising of white balloons attached to their chimney pots.

Mapcodes 4053

 

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Circle, 22 Nov 2009

Homewalk leaflet

 

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Balloons No. 25 – 15

Balloons No. 25 – 25B

Balloons No. 56

 

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Chen Hangfeng

1mile² Bradford City Council

Lives and works in Shanghai; (proposed by Neil Webb and Simon Kirby, British Council, Shangahi. Chen Hangfeng’s practice explores issues of commercialisation, environmentalism, globalisation and cultural transmutation into which he incorporates a range of media but especially materials that express particular associations with China, such as paper cut and found disposable objects. His time in Bradford allowed him to showcase previous work which acted as a platform to create new actions with the community. These included a short film as a portrait of Muslim faith, Talking to the Wall, a Christmas Tree Decorating Event and working in collaboration with an ecologist to produce a Tea Ceremony, brewing the drink from found roots and leaves.

Film still Talking to the Wall (2009)

 

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Free Christmas “We bought a tree with root to put on our stall during the Christmas market, asking people to bring their own re-cycled material to decorate the Christmas tree, in return they were offered a choice of free herbal tea which had been hand picked by our group The Santa’s Little Helpers film also showed at the stall. “ 5-6 Dec, 2009, Darley Street, Bradford Installation, performance and interview

 

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In addition to the Bradford residency, Hangfeng was invited by Kate Gray at Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, to present work. Chen Hangfeng showed Santa's Little Helpers, a documentary made in Zhejiang Province, China where 50% of the world's Christmas decorations are made by hand, along with a multi-coloured, site-specific piece made up of snowflakes composed from different brand logos, titled ChristMASSProduction.

Film still Santa’s Little Helpers

 

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Sreejata Roy and Mrityunjay Chatterjee

1mile² Edinburgh, Scotland

Sreejata Roy and Mrityunjay Cahatterjee live and work in Delhi, India.

Hosted by Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, Sreejata and Mrityunjay’s work examines the relationship between people and a shifting urban ecology, employing a wholly socially engaged arts practice they often utilise print and digital media forms. The Collective residency culminated in a newspaper titled ‘Publik Booth’, containing stories and personal memories, as told by residents, of a changing city and the public sites of local commerce. The artists’ investigations reveal how places can function as social and cultural sites where new relationships can be made.

 

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Arif Mahmood

1mile² Smethwick, Birmingham

Lives and works in Karachi, Pakistan.

Arif Mahmood concluded his residency in Smethwick with a publication: Invisible Boundaries a photo essay which focuses on the different cultural mix of the communities living in Smethwick. In its introduction Arif Mahmood notes: “Smethwick is an isolated town, an environment where many cultures and many religions hibernate in their cocoons. The communities living here have stuck to their own clan. A gathering of Sikhs is a huge family gathering, the Muslims, Hindus and the Christians have their own space. There are boundaries amongst them which can only be looked at minutely at a close distance. I do not want to generalise what I felt but still the people do live together but in general all are conservative in their mingling. The 1mile2 project required me to map or document a certain area of the town. I was lucky to get a feel of the town in the six weeks or so. My work has been done mostly on the streets or getting into religious places for a feel of the ritual areas in each faith. The images you will see have been done on a very spontaneous level which in the final edit has taken a certain undertone of these barriers which are maybe quite common in many locales. But so many cultures in such a small place are rarely seen. Thus one feels the intensity of the boundaries. Photography is always an intrusion into the others life, my eye is always greedy to capture something which I feel strongly about. If the subject is willing to be captured within the domains of a viewfinder the hunt begins for the next for the next link. This feeling is a very common one if one does not plan or have knowledge which is extensive of the place one is thrown into. The instinct of the mind is a more powerful tool than a pre-planned idea of the place for me. It is just the way I work. It's a more personal comment on the area. It could be termed conceptual to a certain extent. But I feel good about the compilation; it has energy of its own. In my opinion Smethwick can easily become a photographer's paradise if windows into the communities start opening up. I am greatly indebted to all my subjects who let me into their space even if it was a brief moment in their lives. Maybe the rest left undone can consent to be documented on another visit.”

 

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No. 13

 

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No. 01

No. 57

 

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UK artists overseas

 

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Richard Layzell

1mile² Shanghai, China

Richard Layzell is an established UK artist whose work encompasses many approaches to art production and audience.

Richard used the residency as an extension of his work, celebrating and embracing the role of being a foreigner in Shanghai while simultaneously adopting a Chinese life style, adopting the name of Li Cha De and riding a bicycle. Writing, performance and participative action are central to his practice and were directed to the people and places he encountered during his time at E Arts, concentrating in the area surrounding the South Station Terminal. His engagements, interventions and connections involved many different sectors of the Shanghai workforce including commuters, gardeners, taxi drivers, police and train station cleaners, the latter group becoming part of a work that celebrated the station toilet as a cultural icon and culminating in being made guest of honour in an official school visit. Workshops with students from schools and universities and performance lectures were also core to Richard’s time there.

 

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Fish to the River

 

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Image of the Day

 

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Toilet Warden with Newspaper

 

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Standing Still 1

Standing Still 2

Standing Still 3

 

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Andrew Dodds

1mile² Tehran, Iran

Currently in Tehran on a research visit for 1mile²

 

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Sandra Hall and Lee Griffiths

1mile² Johannesburg, South Africa

Sandra Hall and Lee Griffiths are co-directors of Friction Arts. They are UK artists based in Birmingham who create socially engaged artwork which takes the form of performances, installations, interventions and publications. Listening and talking openly with the people they meet is always the starting point for their work with the aim of translating thoughts and ideas into artworks or actions that have the ability to communicate to a wider world, whilst remaining true to the voices of the people they originate with.

Their work in Johannesburg involved several public interventions and installations.

Move the Nation was focused around an outdoor boxing ring in Hillbrow, - ‘the most unpleasant place in South Africa’ as the artists heard it called - referencing the daily struggles of people living there, and how they overcome them. Flowers were gathered from the wealthy suburbs and used to adorn the boxing ring, creating a dialogue between the privileged and the under classes. Beer bottles were used as vases for the flowers referencing the issues with drugs and alcohol which blight the area.

“The ‘dance workshop’ where local kids taught us to dance created an inversion; it empowered the youth who are normally powerless.”

 

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Grow the Nation Part 1

Intervention 4

 

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Kelda Free and David Brazier

1mile² New Delhi, India

David Brazier and Kelda Free are a UK artist and landscape architect working in collaboration. They work site specifically, engaging directly with the public while exploring cultural, aesthetic and natural systems. In Delhi they are interested in investigating conditions at the edges of the metropolis, where spaces normally defined as urban or rural and public or private interface.

Their work in New Dehli has consisted of a series of interventions investigating the abstractions of space and the global/local nexus. Below are detailed some of their interventions, which are relayed via YouTube and are available on wwwsquare-mile.net Their residency concluded at Khoj with an exhibition featuring the Khirkee Satpula Dam Super Series cricket match, with live commentary recorded by a professional comentator, Mr Zaidi.

 

 

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Khirkee Satpula Dam Super Series

Cricket has come a long way from its introduction to India by the British as a tool for colonisation. Today India has well and truly made the game its own. It is a national obsession; crossing divides of class, ethnicity, language and region. It is pursued with a local fervour that removes it from its Victorian origins to such an extent that it has become symbolic of decolinisation.

For the Satpula Super Series Dave and Kelda facilitated a game of cricket between two teams of local children played behind the ancient Satpula Dam while a professional commentator called the game. The series has been adopted as an annual event.

Installation: Satupla Super Series

 

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British Company Logos

Bitu, a sign painter who works from his stall on the side of the road in Malviya Nagar, was commissioned to paint the logos of iconic British Companies that outsource business processes to India. From left to right (top) British Council, Royal Mail, BBC, (bottom) National Rail, British Telecom, British Airways.

New Clothes

Dave and Kelda had their ordinary western clothes replicated by local tailor, Satish, of SM Tailors in Saket.

Installation: Britsih Company Logos and New Clothes

 

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Mr Sunil Kumar, artist and sign-painter

“Throughout our time here we’ve been interested in the idea of flipping the power of representation so that rather than us representing the community, members of the community represent us.”

Community Art Signs

“We’re intrigued by the signs that clutter every lamppost in the neighbourhood. It seems that if you have a service to provide, from homemade tiffin meals to an ayurvedic clinic, you get a sign made and put it up. We’re interested in what happens if we advertise our services as community artists using the local vernacular.”

 

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Virtual Employee

Within the square mile there are several business process outsourcing (BPO) and call centre interview centres, promising jobs to India’s 350 million English speakers. Dave and Kelda outsourced the residency to a company called Virtual Employee who specialise in providing Indian based workers to US and UK companies. Virtual employee Ashish has taken up the role of international artist for the project.

Virtual Employee Contract

 

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Syra Miah

1mile² Dhaka, Bangladesh

Syra Miah is based in the UK. Syra is an artist whose photographic work has evolved from an initial interest in the way people live out their lives in an ever-changing world. Her work in 1mile² Dhaka explored the different perceptions of young people in the city’s slums through photography and craft-making workshops using recycled and found materials, in collaboration with local craftspeople.

She ran a workshop making kites using recycled and found materials in old Dhaka using the theme of portraiture. The children made portraits of themselves on kites which then flew up high, making the invisible faces of children visible. During her residency, Syra has developed several photographic projects and made connections with local artists and film makers. She is planning to curate a show in the UK of contemporary Bangladeshi artists.

 

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Tukai Portraits

Tukai are the litter collector kids found all over Dhaka and the major towns in Bangladesh. Although vulnerable and having to work in order to eat, they have formed a society of their own in which girls and boys form close bonds, working together, looking after each other, playing when they want and dress using found clothes and accessories.

These portraits illustrate their individuality and style, redolent of teenagers at the other end of the class divide; having the freedom to express themselves.

 

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1mile² a Visiting Arts programme delivered in partnership with: