Massive Tiny Art Shanty. Part of For The North. Generator Projects, Dundee, 23rd September - 15th October 2006
For this exhibition of Leeds-based artists, Black Dogs developed Massive Tiny Art Shanty (a collaborative project devised by Andy Abbott and Dave Ronalds in 2005) by adding a performance where the 'shanties' contributed by participants of the project were auctioned off at the preview. Some of these shanties were contributed by 'celebrities and artists including Michelangelo Pistoletto, Patrick Stewart and Ricky off of Kaiser Chief’s brother'.
From the Generator press release:
"For The North brings together a selection of Leeds-based artists for an exhibition of work in the Generator gallery space as well as off- site projects including a live performance event in the City Function Suite. Black Dogs' audience-guided artwork aims to make the viewer part of the production process. Throughout the local community they have distributed a series of postcards each featuring a set of tiny building blocks with which the recipients can create buildings and townscapes before installing their unique creation in the gallery. Will all the packs of postcards be transformed and brought to the space to create a sprawling cardboard metropolis, or will they end up in the bin and leave a small-scale nuclear wasteland with a couple of sad cubes? All returned structures will be auctioned off at the preview, with all proceeds going to charity..."
SELECTION OF DESCRIPTIONS OF SHANTIES CONTRIBUTED BY CELEBRITIES USED IN AUCTION:
Includes celebrity contributions from:
DAVID WILSON. RICKY OUT OF KAISER CHIEF’S BROTHER
“I think it says a lot about me/him”
Location: Keighley high street.
Charles Richard "Ricky" Wilson (born January 17, 1978 in Keighley, West Yorkshire, Great Britain) is the lead singer of Leeds based band the Kaiser Chiefs. After junior school he attended Leeds Grammar School. Wilson taught at the Leeds College of Art and Design. He was quoted on Soccer AM as being "a hard art teacher".Wilson is known for his sense of style, particularly his stripey blazers, waistcoats, turn-up jeans and winklepickers for which he won the 2006 NME Award For Best Dressed Person. His greatest talent is his ability to "pogo" about the stage frantically whilst simultaneously playing either the cowbell or the tambourine.
David is Ricky’s elder but no less talented brother. When asked at his place of work in Subway in Keighley to produce a contribution to massive tiny art shanty ‘Dave’ responded without hesitation, ‘Yeah, if Ricky (my brother who’s out of Kaiser Chiefs) made a house it’d have to have a little room out in the back for him to rehearse his pogoing and try on shoes. He loves that. So mine would be like that, seeing as my brother is Ricky out of Kaiser Chiefs.’
MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO: ARTE POVERA ARTIST
“I am busy skiing so I used mirrors and symbols. Grazie.”
Location: Turin, Italy
Michelangelo Pistoletto was born 1933, in Biella, in the Piedmont region of Italy. In his self-portraits of 1960–61, he covered his canvases with grounds of metallic paint, and subsequently replaced the canvas completely with polished steel. His photosilkscreened images of people, life-size, on reflective steel were intended both to integrate the environment and the viewer into his work and to question the nature of reality and representation. Mirrored surfaces would recur throughout Pistoletto’s oeuvre. Since 1967, when the term Arte Povera was coined, Pistoletto’s work has been included in gallery and museum exhibitions devoted to that trend. Pistoletto announced the creation of Progetto Arte in 1994, a program intended to unite the diverse strands of human civilization through art. To further this goal, he established Cittadellarte, Fondazione Pistoletto—a center for the study and promotion of creative activity—in Biella in 1998.
Pistoletto’s contribution to massive tiny art shanty draws on his lifelong love of the mirror as a metaphorical object, and his new work entitled ‘the third paradise’; a symbolic representation of the paradigmatic shift we are currently at the precipice of, visually uniting the ‘first paradise’ of the natural world and the ‘second paradise’ of the technological world. Pistoletto has added some tin foil to one of the cubes and drawn a maths symbol in the ‘garden’.
JACK ENGLISH: THE 20TH GREAT GRANDSON OF ROBERT THE BRUCE AND WILLIAM WALLACE.
“I am the 22nd great grandson of Sir James Douglas, a fascinating man! “
Location: North Carolina, USA
Robert I, (Roibert a Briuis in mediaeval Gaelic, Raibeart Bruis in modern Scottish Gaelic and Robert de Brus or Robert de Bruys in Norman French), usually known in modern English today as Robert the Bruce (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), was King of Scotland (1306 – 1329).
Although his paternal ancestors were of Scoto-Norman heritage, his maternal ancestors were Gaelic, and he became one of Scotland's greatest kings, as well as one of the most famous warriors of his generation, eventually leading Scotland during the Wars of Scottish Independence against England. He claimed the Scottish throne as a great-great-great-great grandson of David I of Scotland.
His body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey, while his heart is buried in Melrose Abbey. His heart was to be taken on crusade to the Holy Land but only made it as far as Spain.
Jack English (20th great Grandson of Robert the Bruce) was kind enough to ship his contribution to massive tiny art shanty all the way from North Carolina, USA. When questioned on the nature of his contribution Jack explained that his dream house would have a McDonalds on the top floor as, due to his Scottish heritage, that’s the only place he eats. He also clarified the addition of a bottle cap to the top of the structure as being necessary for extra historical television channels due to the lack of a cable network in the highlands.
