We Are Toomanyartists

Monday, 7 May 2007

BETWEEN FIELDS AND BOUNDARIES WE EXCHANGE VALUES, 2007

Environmental Art Project, Big in Falkirk
Between Fields and Boundaries We Exchange Values was commissioned in Spring 2007 as part of The Environmental Art Project for the arts festival Big in Falkirk. The annual two-day festival is set in the grounds of Callendar House (Falkirk) and is one of Scotland’s largest free outdoor cultural events. The work TOOMANYARTISTS created was inspired by the various boundaries that once surround the park when it was privately owned. Situated under a bridge that crosses over a dried out moat, the work incorporated the use of sculpture and video to create an interactive installation. The artwork was concerned with exploring spatial divisions and also intended to blur the boundaries between audience and participant, the observer and the observed. Large intersecting screens that initially appeared to create a barricade offered a narrow corridor that redirected the viewer through the space and subsequently, into the projected videos. Through the creation of silhouettes and shadows, the viewers bodies then became part of the projections. These projections consisted of footage from within and across a multitude of boundaries and territories filmed in different cities, counties, countries and continents. Exploring political, cultural and spatial divides. Throughout the day the projections responded to the changing light conditions allowing the contents to gradually reveal as the night grew closer. The looped videos intentionally fell in and out of synch creating a continually shifting dialogue of both conflict and harmony between the two screens.

Friday, 27 April 2007

Manifesto

Toomanyartists is an ever expanding group of artists acting as one collective consciousness. We were born out of an attempt to downsize an increasingly overpopulated art world by collating numerous individuals into one super-artists. Our individual skills and knowledge are utilized by the group as a whole. We believe that the identities of our individual components are of little importance and as such they remain anonymous. We are a generic manifestation of an Orwellian figure. We are toomanyartist. We are more interested in the creation of experiences than the objectification of artwork, as such we consider the tangible artwork that we produce to function as catalyst for (or be a relic from) social engagement. We want you to interact with the work and each other. We wish to blur the boundaries between spectator and participant. We want to take you to new places, aesthetically, conceptually and physically. We use interventionist devises to hijack culture. We believe that everyone should enjoy the fruits of human culture and we wish to rebuild the art-world from within. We promote play in art and life and regard our practice to be primarily explorative. We believe that the creation of art work is sometimes more important than its consumption. We are not afraid of contradicting ourselves and this manifesto is subject to change.