Transvoyeur Programme 2007

Transvoyeur Associate Artists in Eight Days a Week Liverpool/Cologne Research Performance.

April 2007

Tony Knox and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney affiliate artists to both Transvoyeur and Eight Days a Week (Liverpool/Cologne) research arts and culture in city of Cologne (Germany) in the urban space and gallery context (Martin Turck Galerie, Cologne).

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Research of Art and Culture in Germany: Artists Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney and Tony Knox.
12 April 2007
Written by Lucia Andrea Sweeney.
Photographs from artists (copyright Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney and Tony Knox).

The artists Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney and Tony Knox in late April 2007 are going to Cologne (Germany) to research contemporary arts and culture in the city. During this time, they will platform and produce a series of art and performances from their visit.

This is in association with Eight Days a Week, who have an established history with Liverpool and Cologne artists (www.eightdaysaweek.org.uk) and part of the current research for Transvoyeur (www.transvoyeur.co.uk).

Eight Days a Week: Liverpool and Cologne
An arts exchange programme founded 1988. The events are headed by Pete Clarke in Liverpool (England) and Georg Gartz in Cologne (Germany). For nearly a decade, artists from either city have shared in an array of creative projects, learning about the respective culture and new modes of thinking. By 2008, it will be a decade Eight Days a Week was established. It has one of the longest running histories in the city of Liverpool as an arts collective with a track record of exceptional collaborative projects.

Transvoyeur
Formerly set up with Liverpool and New York based artists, it was founded by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney (England) and Michael Ricardo Andreev (US) in late 2003. It is a hybrid of previous initiatives on similar ethos of cultural exchange with an emphasis of research and development in contemporary arts, culture and society. Transvoyeur is in its fourth year and in 2007 due to migrate in the restructuring of its activities and objectives.

Sweeney and Knox are contributing artists to both these groups in the city of Liverpool and is one of mutual learning and shared professional development. The history and expertise from Eight Days a Week provides insight of art in the different constructs of urban spaces in Liverpool and Cologne. From the differences and similarities of each artist and art groups in a place and globally, the creative process of mutual exchange enables new and wonderful experiences and art to be conceived.

For more information on the research and events of Sweeney and Knox go to:

Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
Tony Knox www.tonyknox.org.uk

More information on the professional activities of each art group go to:

Eight Days a Week www.eightdaysaweek.org.uk
Transvoyeur Website: www.transvoyeur.com

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Press Release: Tony Knox and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, Curiosity (Live Art) at Galerie Martin Turck, Cologne, Germany, 25 April 2007.

Tony Knox and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney in
Curiosity
a live art collaboration
at Galerie Martin Turck
Glasstraße 65 50823 Köln
on 25 April 2007, 8.15 pm onwards
Part of Eight Days a Week Liverpool/Cologne Exchange Programme

www.tonyknox.org.uk
www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
www.eightdaysaweek.org.uk

Galerie Martin Turck

Primary research to establish proposed research and collaboration programme with
Transvoyeur and Eight Days a Week
in Cologne/Liverpool/New York for Summer 2007.

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Review: Tony Knox and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, Curiosity (Live Art) at Galerie Martin Turck, Cologne, Germany, 25 April 2007.
Written by Martin Turck (Galerie Martin Turck, Glasstraße 65 50823, Köln, www.Galerie-Martin-Turck.de, Martin.Turck@gmx.net).
Photograph by Tine Wille.
28 April 2007

(German)

Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney und Tony Knox haben am Abend des 25. April 2007 den Galerieraum in der Glasstraße auf seine Reize getestet und im Schaufenster - wie auf einer Bühne - eine überraschend flexible live-art-Choreographie entworfen.

Die Künstler setzen einer Ästhetik des formlos Legeren, wie sie vor allem von zeitgenössischen jungen britischen Künstlern propagiert wird, eine mit sicherem formalen Gespür entworfene Komposition einer subtil kontrollierten Transformation entgegen.

Im Verlauf der Inszenierung entledigt Sweeney sich Stück für Stück eines Wrestling-Kostüms mit Maske, Shirt und Hose, und hängt die Kleidungsstücke an eine über die Breite des Schaufensters gespannte Leine. Knox wiederum nimmt die Trikotteile und legt sie an. Die Zuschauer verfolgen die Szenerie im Schaufenster von der Straße aus. Bedingt durch die Distanz ergänzen im öffentlichen Raum unbeteiligte Passanten und passierende Fahrradfahrer und Automobile unbewusst die Handlung.

Kostüm und Maske des Wrestlers – des Athleten und Schauspielers der in England äußerst populären Show-Sportart – sind die zentralen Ausstattungsstücke einer Präsentation, deren Symmetrie von Entkleidung und Einkleidung, Identitätskonstruktion und Identitätswechsel, Metamorphose und kreativem Bodybuilding Bilder freisetzt, die sinnlich und symbolträchtig den menschlichen Körper als skulpturales Werkzeug begreifen.

Eine im Formalen gebannte Mechanik von Rollenspiel und Rollentausch scheut die Definition und konfrontiert das Publikum des life-projects mit der Anspielung auf identitätspolitische Erkundungen performativer Konzepte jenseits von extravagantem Stilgefühl, exzentrischer Vision und Illusion.

(English Translation).

On the eve of the 25th of April 2007 Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney and Tony Knox tested the perimeters of the Gallery. Making full use of the spatial potential, they staged a live art performance in the shop window.

The artists counterbalance the current trend of a casual, unstructured aesthetic, (which is particularly) advocated by so many young, British, contemporary artists with a subtly, developed composition marked by convincing, formal qualities.

During the course of the performance, Sweeney removes item by item the mask, the shirt and trousers of a wrestling costume. One by one, she hangs these on a washing line stretched across the width of the shop window. In turn, Knox takes these items of clothing and puts them on. The audience watch the performance in the shop window from the outside. Unwittingly passing by pedestrians, cyclists and motorists become involved, accidentally turning into spectators.

Costume and mask of the wrestler – the athlete and actor of a sport which is very popular in England – are the central props of this performance. The symmetry of dressing and undressing, of construction and deconstruction of identity, of metamorphosis and body building suggests an imagery which turns the human body into a sculptural tool.

The mechanism of role play and role reversal tied to a formal language defies definition. In confronting the audience, the interplay alludes to gender political explorations within the context of performance art and goes beyond extravagant notions of style, eccentric vision and illusion.

Statement of Live Art, Curiosity, by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney and Tony Knox.
Written by Lucia Andrea Sweeney (Written with consultation from Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney).
Photograph by Tine Wille.
26 April 2007.

Tony Knox and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney presented a live art collaboration at Galerie Martin Turck in Cologne on 25 April 2007. This was titled 'Curiosity' and a fusion of the concepts from their independent art practices. This live art was associated to the Eight Days a Week Liverpool/Cologne Exchange Programme, managed by Pete Clarke and Georg Gartz respectively.

Knox and Sweeney, who both explore the concept of gender politics in performance art. Knox embodied in his own alter ego the idiosyncratic character of Mothman derived from his creative research in wrestling culture. In contrast, Sweeney, whose art is set on the temporality and spatiality of body politics in the post modern environment, institutional constructs and the canon of the body.

The performance was researched in response to the gallery space. The artists chose to platform the performance in the window and had to be viewed from outside. A washing line with pegs was visible across the window and two long sheets on either outer edge attached hung. The window itself was sectioned by a band of frosted glass. The two artists entered the window space. The female unrecognisable, her gender concealed by the hybrid costume of the Mothman attire. The male was naked. Each artist took position in the window. The male on the left, behind the white sheet, only his head visible, like a portraiture. The female in the male wrestling persona on the right and similar behind another sheet.

The Moth(wo)man walked to the centre of the window area. She momentarily took the stance of a wrestling hero, motionless, as if on a press poster advertising the symbolic of a wrestling protagonist. She removed the mask and fixed it to the line to reveal her long hair and face made up with cosmetics. Next came the leather shorts and then the rest of the body suit. Her naked flesh was concealed by the translucent glass. She returned to the right behind the sheet and faced the male. She un-pegged the white sheet, wrapped it around her body and over her shoulder. She took a pose cognitive of sculpture from antiquity with the folds of sheet falling as a robe and imbued a character from Greek mythology, Hestia; her body poised and arm stretched upwards.

The male moved from the left to the centre. Although naked, his exposed body was obscured by the costume on the line and frosted gallery window. He removed the full costume first and slowly dressed. Then moved to the leather shorts and put them on. The last was the mask and he pulled it over his head. Similar to the onset of the position adopted by the Moth(wo)man, he takes a pose of wrestling hero. He then steps down from the ledge of the window. The female, who has remained in the iconic position of Greek statue moves to the centre. The Mothman then lifts her and departs. The male defined as the dominant and the female the submissive.

This is an visual analysis of the concept of hero from the precepts ingrained in conventions and representations in post modern society and culture from the historical canons. Although there have been transitions in gender politics of equality and redefinition in the roles, the performance concludes on the common knowledge the stereotypical positions of male and female still pervade in 21st century portrayal’s of gender relationships and equally imbued in mass media.

This event was supported by the Curator, Martin Turck, of the gallery and Georg Gartz, who co-ordinates and manages the Cologne groups of Eight Days a Week.

Further information can be viewed on the artists and Eight Days a Week at:

www.tonyknox.org.uk
www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
www.eightdaysaweek.org.uk

Galerie Martin Turck

During their time in Cologne, Knox and Sweeney had the opportunity to meet with other Eight Days a Week and Cologne artists.

From left to right: Martin Turck, Tine Wille, Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, Georg Gartz,
Bernd Ikemann, Anja Hoinka, Tony Knox and Angelika Schubert.

Martin Turck (Curator, Writer and Professor).
Tine Wille (Visual Artist in abstract paintings and performance).
George Gartz (Visual Artist in abstract paintings and Director of Eight Days a Week in Cologne).
Bernd Ikemann (Visual Artist).
Anja Hoinka (Visual Artist).
Angelika Schubert (Performance Artist and Associate Founder of Kunstwerk).