photo by Trish Crummay 
Photo byTrish Crummay 
Photo by Ezra Rubenstein 
Photo by Ezra Rubenstein 
Photo by Anne Bean 
Image courtesy of Franklin Furnace Archive | TAPS |
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Improvisations with Paul Burwell presented by Matt's Gallery at Dilston Grove, Southwark Park London SE16 Friday 17 - Sunday 19 September 2010, 2pm to 7pm Paul was an artist whose radical, passionate and collective practice since the 60's, sparked multifarious, challenging works and, as one of the pioneers of free improvisation, fused music, film, dance, poetry and performance art, choosing to collaborate with musicians and artists alike throughout his prolific practice. "I can’t help thinking about the events that were yet to come and the realisation of ideas he had told me about, and the developments that would have followed. I was really looking forward to the work of the future. The work of the past is now in the past, performances and events only last as long as their actual duration, despite documentation and memories and reviews, and that is as it should be. Art is about movement - doing and being." Obituary for Stephen Cripps (1953-1982), pyrotechnic sculptor, by Paul Burwell in Performance Magazine. I felt this was a brave and radical piece of writing. It suggested new collaborations with Paul using the way in which some arcane antennae strongly sense an absent being and death becomes just one more force-field, no different to any other absence. One can authentically still work with that visceral knowing and push the work on into a new space. The TAPS project is more an examination of these dynamic ideas and impulses, the fugacious strategies and the approach to life rather than any kind of homage, retrospective, memorial, celebration or tribute. It is a project about energy exchanges and has proved a huge catalyst for numerous reconnections with people and ideas, instigations of new works and the crossing of disparate journeys. I worked with Paul for 30 years and feel this is an inevitably ongoing process. TAPS is a two screen composite film of over 80 collaborators who worked with Paul. Each contributor was given the text of his poem Adventures in the House of Memory, to use in whatever way they wished, to make a short film or audio work, as a new collaboration for, about or with Paul. Fragments of these now make a collective totem, with this text as an underlying armature. All are available, in their full duration, on Vimeo at www.vimeo.com/user4308724 The poem Adventures in the House of Memory initially arose from improvisations by Paul and myself in preparation for William Burroughs's Final Academy at Ritzy, 1982. I improvised words and, unusually for us, Paul wrote them down and shaped the text. Originally, the words were written on huge pieces of flash paper which we burnt as they were sung. This poem was the last work Paul recorded, with myself and Chris Gladwin, two months before he died in 2007. Like Beowulf, the text is a saga about 'those others who were ourselves.‘ It is a narrative of instances, as ‘those who became those, who became those, who became those’ momentarily inhabit the space. The moments have the glimpsed sharpness that the two ravens, Observation and Memory, (Huginn and Muninn) in their daily flights around the worlds, might have reported to Odin at Valhalla nightly. The new composite film work for TAPS resonates with the poem’s innate episodic chronicles as slivers interleaf together. Old connections are rekindled and re-vitalised and new connections are animated in a series of duets. Various voices have become the narrators. There is an indifference to time as chronology. Past and present mingle in one composition and the dead and living are indefinable, populating the saga with lyrical moments, grim tragedy and even grimmer comedy. As in all epics and sagas, no distinction is made between myth and history, what is and what might have been. The film is projected as part of an installation that embodies this sense of inter-connectivity, as the screen itself becomes a part-player in the final act of the saga. The performances in the space will echo this, as pieces by people known and unknown to Paul reference his practice. The film, installation and live works were realised by Robin Klassnik, Richard Wilson and myself and came initially out of discussions with Brian Catling, Sylvia Hallett, William Raban and David Toop, who is writing an essay for a TAPS publication with drawings by Paul McCarthy. The film edit, worked on with Chris Bishop, will remain fluid until the end of 2011. If anyone feels they have collaborated with Paul (in whatever way they wish to define the word) and they wish to be part of TAPS, please make contact via Artsadmin. Film contributors include: Aaron Williamson, Adalet Garmiany, Alan Tomlinson, Trace Collective: (Phil Babot, Lee Hassall, Eddie Ladd, Tony Schwensen, André Stitt), Anna Thew, Anne Bean, Ansuman Biswas and Mary Genis, Ashleigh Marsh, Borbetomagus: (Jim Sauter, Don Dietrich, Donald Miller), Brian Catling, Brian G Gilson, Brian Routh aka Harry Kipper, Carlyle Reedy, Toy Killers: (Charles K. Noyes and Mark E. Miller), Charlie Hooker, Charlie Morrissey, Chris Galdwin, Dan Maurer, David Medalla with Guy Brett, Alma Tischler and Marko Steponova, David Toop, Elliott Sharp, Evan Parker, Ezra Rubenstein, Gioia Meller Marcovicz, Hannah O’Shea, Harald Uccello, FoTyArT ORG, Hermine DeMoriane, Hugh Metcalfe, Jacky Lansley and Fergus Early, John McKeon, Kaffe Matthews, Kim Creighton, Kirsten Reynolds with The London Dirthole Company: (Ashley Davis, Wajid Yaseen, Nick Brown, Neil Fraser, Kevin Younger, Rob Lewis, Elvina Flower, Roger Carne, Terry Edwards), Lee Merrill and David Ellis, Lol Coxhill, Lurca, Maggi Nichols, Marega Palser, Marie Yates, Mark Anderson with Nick Sales and Jony Easterby, Martin von Haselberg aka Harry Kipper, Max Eastley, Mike Cooper, Mimi Westernhagen, Miyako Narita, P Jeck and Mary Prestidge, Brown Sierra: (Paddy Collins and Pia Gambardella), Patricia Wells, Paul McCarthy, Peter Davey, Peter Cusack, Phil Minton and Roger Turner, Phil the Messanger, Rembrandt, Rev Nagase, Richard Wilson with William Raban and David Cunningham, Rose English, Sean Dower, Shaun Caton, Simon Finn, Steve Beresford, Steve Noble, Steven Berkoff, Susanna Ferrar, Sylvia Hallett,Terry Day, Tom Recchion, Viv Corringham, Yol, z’ev. Helen Petts collaborated on several films. Other appearances include: Stephen Cripps, Bob Cobbing, Bastiaan Maris, Swarup Menon, Thames Steam Co, Helen Ingham, Espen Jenson, Bob Levene, Glynes Neslen, Martin Dodds. TAPS event programme Friday 17 September Continuous film screening, 2pm to 7pm Performances by Melissa Castagnetto 7pm, Oren Marshall &Steve Noble 8pm, Yol 9pm. Saturday 18 September Continuous film screening, 2pm to 7pm Performances by Shaun Caton, 2pm to 7pm, William Cobbing, 7pm, Kaffe Matthews 8pm, Juneau Projects 9pm. Sunday 19 September Continuous film screening, 2pm to 7pm with intermittent performances by Ryuzo Fukuhara. Closing View with final event including performance by Ansuman Biswas, 6pm to 8pm. www.mattsgallery.org/artists/burwell/exhibition-1.php TAPS is a Matt’s Gallery project at Dilston Grove supported by a Legacy: Thinker in Residence Award to Anne Bean. Legacy is a collaboration between the Live Art Development Agency and Tate Research, financially assisted by Arts Council England and the Live Art Development Agency. Legacy acknowledges the outstanding bodies of work of two artists who have influenced the development of the Live Art field by supporting them to think about the legacies of performance in art historical contexts and examine the processes and challenges of archiving live work. The Legacy recipients are Anne Bean and Tim Etchells. Further information www.thisisliveart.co.uk
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