No one is safe

Ha and you thought you were just coming round for dinner.

Marina Abramović

Rhythm 2, 1974
As an experiment testing whether a state of unconsciousness could be incorporated into a performance, Abramović devised a performance in two parts.
In the first part, she took a pill prescribed for catatonia, a condition in which a person’s muscles are immobilized and remain in a single position for hours at a time. Being completely healthy, Abramović's body reacted violently to the drug, experiencing seizures and uncontrollable movements for the first half of the performance. While lacking any control over her body movements, her mind was lucid, and she observed what was occurring.
Ten minutes after the effects of that drug had worn off, Abramović ingested another pill – this time one prescribed for aggressive and depressed people - which resulted in general immobility. Bodily she was present, yet mentally she was completely removed. (In fact, she has no memory of the lapsed time.)

Some of the institutions I have called have said that their residents are in various mental states, so probably not able to participate. Many elderly people are given catatonic drugs, to keep them quite therefore not making the staff's lives difficult. Also many are wrongly prescribed anti-psychotic drugs, which then creates a psychotic impulse upon the patient. All that aside, should you give up on an elderly person because they have psychosis, do they not have the right for more able people to try and make their lives which are probably lonely and frightening, a little more joyful and supportive?

Getting into Institutions

This project has been very eye opening for us. One of our aims was to connect the isolated to the community. But trying to reach them is so hard. I have spent all morning calling old folks homes, nicely explaining our project. Often I was met with hostility and suspicion, they needed to get line managers permission, but they would call me back. With the exception of one organisation, I have had no response. What about getting permission of the elderly? Why does living in an institution mean that all your freedom is removed? Why do you have to have a CRB (which incidentally I do) to visit people inside these buildings. They take several months to arrive, cost nearly 100 quid, and Ian Huntley had a CRB, and it did very little to protect his victims. It worries me that care institutions are so hidden from the public, the residents should be a valid part of our community and be given a voice, and listened to.

Canary Wharf

We needed a sign

And now we look a bit like scientologists.

Camberwell Green Bus Stop

This was a great place for us to stand, we met so many nice people. I also felt that some of the people who drew for us, maybe were a bit lonely. So it was nice to fool about with them a bit, they said we had brightened up their day, so that was one aim fulfilled. It was so nice the effort that was put into the drawings, the lady in the hat spent about an hour doing hers.

Brixton Market

It's important to us that we have a wide demographic of people for our experiment. Some areas are more profitable than others.

Westminister Anti- War Village

Here is a great example of a community. The anti- war protestors having been camping at Westminister since Britain went to war with Iraq. We set up shop next to them, and there presence really drew a crowd for us. It's been really nice chatting to people, sometimes about their core values, or just having a laugh.

Joseph Beuys

Joseph Beuys actively promoted the idea that art can positively change and shape society. Because artwork includes human activity, it can create thought, action, ideas, and communication amongst groups of people. Beuys was motivated by a utopian belief in the power of universal human creativity, and was confident in the potential for art to bring revolutionary change.

What is a community, and why should we strive for it?

A community is a group of people who share solidarity, commitment mutuality, and trust. Community plays a crucial symbolic role in generating people’s sense of belonging. Sadly just because people live near each other, doesn’t mean they have anything to do with one another. But if we create interaction and communication, we can share expectations, respect, and tolerance. Living in a strong community can improve achievement, health, happiness and reduce crime rates. We need to gain control, for most of us control can only be gained collectively.

Our Aim

The aim of our group project is to go into our community and encourage people to have a go at drawing their alter egos, which will then appear on an online art gallery. Our goal isn’t to gather amazing art works, but to create connections with the people that occupy our local space, to remove the elitist attitudes towards artwork, and smash the idea that you have to be trained in order to participate in creative endeavours. We also want to generate a few minutes of fun.
As a group we were interested in 'outsider art'. Typically outsider artists have little or no contact with the mainstream art world or institutions. So it seemed obvious to set up workshops on the street, but also visit institutions that are normally hidden from the public gaze; old people's homes, prisons, mental health units.