Amalgum

Turbine Hall

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 08:10:35 BST

Tate Modern Turbine Hall
Installation Proposal
London Bus

Amalgum, in collaboration with the artists Richard Wentworth and Joseph Smith, propose to to install a London Bus, parked in the middle of the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. The bus would be ?open? to visitors to the gallery. All the windows of the bus would be etched with pictures in the manner of the graffiti that appears scratched into existing bus windows. Visitors could experience these from inside the bus and outside within the gallery itself.

Tate Modern Turbine Hall
Installation Proposal
Cardboard Concorde.

The proposal is to enlist a group of volunteers to create an exact replica of the supersonic aircraft; Concorde, entirely from recycled cardboard boxes and suspend the resulting sculpture from the ceiling of the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. The boxes would remain unadorned or decorated in any way, and should reveal their original origins.

Tate Modern Turbine Hall
Installation Proposal
Dafen.

Proposed collaboration between Amalgum and volunteers. Dafen takes it's name from the village in China that specialises in the making of large numbers of replica oil paintings. The turbine hall will be filed with easels, canvases, painting equipment and reference materials laid out in a regiment manner to enable participants to copy works from the Tate collection. Each week the paintings will be removed and sold allowing the space to be reset and the next set of reproductions to be made.

Shrew Trap Gallery

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 08:08:56 BST

Proposal for a site of creative activity, the artists inhabit the brain space manufacturing products to be displayed in a small shop sized gallery outlet.

Mšbius Strip

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 08:07:52 BST

Two typewriters are installed opposite one another on a table or desk. The typewriters are fed with a Mobius strip of paper which travels through one machine, across the table and then through the other. Two participants are invited to begin typing at the same time. As the event progresses the participants will eventually begin to type over the other?s text, ultimately obliterating it. The text typed is optional.

Hillaballoo

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 08:06:27 BST

The art collective, Amalgum, propose the following event for Hillaballoo at Telegraph Hill Park.

We want to create a community collaborative colouring-in newspaper. The idea is that, in the weeks leading up to the day itself; local schools, invited local artists, and neighbours would be asked to contribute line drawings, on the theme of growth and ecology, to form pages in a 12 page newspaper.

These contributions would be collated and a 12 page newspaper produced in a run of 2000 copies. Each ?drawing? would be credited to its creator, though we want to only use names, not ages.

On the day itself, Saturday 18th July, newspaper stands, and volunteer vendors, will hand out the newspapers to participants in the event. The newspapers will contain instructions and a rationale explaining the project. We propose to run a drop in ?studio? on the day, where people can access materials. Completed, coloured-in, images can be deposited here, or photographed and uploaded.

After the event has finished, we propose to collate the completed images and create an online gallery.

The proposal is intended to celebrate both the theme of this year?s event, as well as promote a sense of community through the production of a shared product and exhibition.

Comments Room

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 08:05:23 BST

We propose to create an installation that results in a collaboration between the public and Amalgum in response to this year?s Turner Prize. Replacing the current formula ? of a comments room, where members of the public write their thoughts on cards ? our proposal consists of three distinct elements.

The three areas are: A set of four video recording booths (in the manner of record your own voice booths of 1950?s record shops) ? one for each of the shortlisted artists; A constantly changing graph on a large screen, reflecting the changing number of responses to the artists; A wall featuring 4o monitors, screening ?talking heads? 15 second videos of public response.

Upon entering the comments room, visitors will be invited to select which of the four artists they want to respond to. Once they?ve made their decision they enter the relevant booth (or join the queue to do so). Inside the booth they will find a set of instructions ? explaining what the participant needs to do. A 15 second recording of their comment is then made. Each booth also triggers another unit on the relevant artists? graphical representation on the projected graph. Every time a participant enters a booth it adds another unit to that artist.

The second element of the installation consists of a large screen/projection of a constantly changing graph showing all four artists and the number of public responses they have generated.

The third element in the installation consists of a bank of 40 monitors covering the wall. Each monitor screens the 15 second responses ? recorded by the public ? in a random arrangement or order. Each booth will be a different, distinct colour (corresponding to the graph). At times the wall of monitors could all turn one colour ? everyone responding to the same artist. Each monitor will also have sound, creating a wall of overlapping sound from the 40 responses.
Tate Britain asked Amalgum to propose a new way to use the comments room for this years Turner Prize, unfortunately our proposal was not used.

Blackboards

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 08:01:05 BST

Blackboard performance. Inspired by the Samira Makhmalbaf film ?Blackboards?: The artists act as itinerant teachers. Armed with portable blackboards ? strapped to their backs - they go out in search of subjects to teach. Location will be key, as will the topic/area/theme to be covered. This could potentially operate as a political work with the location and theme overlapping to create a significant statement.

Lesson Learned

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:58:04 BST

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Lesson Learned is a film work by Amalgum consisting of 5 films, each one depicting a series of post-it notes upon which groups of young people from progressively older age groups, were invited to record one thing they had learnt in their life so far.

Shanty Town Studios

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:56:06 BST

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This project was first run in May 2008. A classroom studio was converted into a complex warren of cardboard rooms, each one becoming a unique temporary studio space. The installation lasted for a week in which different groups were invited to occupy the spaces, sometimes individually and sometimes in pairs or small groups. The participants were free to collaborate with one another by sharing ideas and visiting one another?s spaces.

Sunday Painters

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:53:33 BST

Fascinated by the practice of making art; Amalgum are keen to do it whenever and where ever they can. Conceived as a way to claw back "Sunday Painting" from the hobbyist, Amalgum frequently travel to the countryside to document their collaborative experiments in watercolour.

Photograms

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:52:40 BST

Acutely self-referential, these collaborative photograms are constructed by subjecting silver gelatin paper to light, crumpling and folding making portraits of the paper's own bends and folds.

ICA Reading Room

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:46:56 BST

Amalgum were invited by the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in London, to run an event at the launch of a new space ? the Reading Room. The event consisted of a live critique of work created in the room itself, by a group of art students, during the day prior to the evening?s launch. Visitors to the event were encouraged to participate in the critique of the work.

Amalgumgrams

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:34:59 BST

Amalgumgrams are the by-product of our exploration of both collaborative practice and our interest in analogue and digital equipment. The scanner camera we use is a slow and unwieldy combination of a vintage Kodak bellows camera, flatbed camera, laptop and string. The machine requires two operators; therefore it is an ideal machine for collaboration