Photo by Olivia Fink 
Photo by David Hoffman | Long Time Passing |
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For a year from September 2004, Anne Bean hung 365 second-hand flowery dresses in an abandoned garden in Southwark Park as part of Reap The visceral traces of previous habitation of both the dresses and the garden created a deeply reflective space for the artist and the many visitors to the installation. Listening to reactions to the work, particularly from women, Anne was inspired to create a new piece which distilled this strong sense of unknown but distinct presences conjured in a space. "As an experiment, I went to a psychic medium (called psychic detectives) known for working on certain cases with the police to reveal unknown forensic evidence from personal items. I took several of the dresses for ‘readings’ of the past wearer and then used the dresses in a work at OVADA, Oxford called Skins Between Worlds (2005) in which I whispered the information about each woman as I cut flowers from the dresses suspended on helium balloons and then released them." As part of Shoreditch Festival 2007, Anne invited twenty local women aged from 13 to 60 years to join her in Shoreditch Church to create a durational performance again involving flowery dresses suspended on helium balloons. The women, from many different backgrounds, each continuously sang a lullaby from their childhood whilst cutting flowers from the dresses leaving garlands strewn on the floor. The remaining lacy forms, released from their earthly flowers, gently floated off the ground and finally ascended to the ceiling. The drone of tuned harmonicas, played by huge weather balloons, harmonised with the voices and the church bell marked time. The piece, Bells of Shoreditch, lasted four hours. In Autumn 2007, Anne was invited by Artrole to Kurdistan-Iraq to meet local artists and devise ideas for artistic exchange. In May 2008, Anne returned to Kurdistan and made MASS with 15 women in a disused Ba’thist prison compound. Anne is now developing the London and Iraq works for different locations and communities as Long Time Passing. She has recently shown work Piel Muerta (Dead Skin) in Cistella, Spain and in Summer 2008 she travelled to Staglinec, Croatia to be part of a performance event organised by the artist Vlasta Delimar for which Anne created Undress. Long Time Passing was last shown at Les Halles de Schaerbeek, Brussels as part of Supervoisins on Sunday 14 June 2009. |