Art Wednesday

At AW HQ, we’re big fans of [Details on Request], the London-Fields-based curatorial group whose modus operandi is to bring art – over a number of highly flexible genres, including performance, spoken-word, and installation – closer to the public, both by making it infinitely more accessible and, perhaps crucially, by making its processes more transparent. Here, co-founders Eloise Jones and Amber Ablett explain to us in their own words what [DoR] stands for, what the team has achieved this year, and just what we can look forward to from them in 2011.

[Details on Request] are a curatorial team run by a group of practicing artists in East London; it was founded by Amber Ablett and Eloise Jones, in response to the lack of opportunities for recent graduates in the commercial art world. The exhibitions and events [DoR] holds cover the whole creative spectrum, but we place great importance and emphasis on the production and process rather than the outcome, and what we do aims to highlight this.

[DoR] seeks to encourage connections and collaborations between different artists, art practitioners and the public, and we have a particular interest in the use and development of new media. Rather than conforming to traditional exhibition formats, [DoR] work closely with a number of venues to curate exciting events to introduce new audiences to live art. This has ranged from showcasing work in bars, clubs and festivals to more corporate events, including collaborating with Art Wednesday on an interactive music and live art club night, TAGO MAGO.
Throughout 2010 [DoR] has held a number of exhibitions and workshops bringing together all areas of the art world, from students to established artists, provoking and encouraging discussions about art and creative practices. For 2011, we will be following this with a program of innovative exhibitions and projects including –

TAGO MAGO London
Another night of music, live art and interventions.

Primary Vs Secondary Bristol
Exploring performance through documentation.

Auto London
An exhibition that morphs, changes and deteriorates over the course of the show.

Round Table Program London
Bringing together a group of recent graduates to inform and discuss each other’s work.

The Advisor of the Young Telemachus, London
Artists early in their career take on the challenge of producing an exciting piece of work, using only a conceptual description provided by an established artist.

Our highlights from 2010 included –

Loot and Everything Else
For Loot and Everything Else, [DoR] transformed a Victorian terrace house in Hackney into an exhibition space showcasing the collections of a group of musicians, artists and designers. We delivered Loot and Everything Else in response to the human urge to collect material and inanimate objects and the justification attached to these collections – a human’s inherent need to find meaning in life can be seen in the way in which emotions are attached to objects. The objects we choose to collect and place together are only symbolic to us.

The exhibition was comprised of a series of ‘material portraits’, which consisted of collections that had been assembled both intentionally and accidentally. ‘Purposeful collections’ are acquired when similar objects are knowingly sourced and kept together, whereas ‘accidental collections’ occur when objects are collected out of pleasure, without a necessary function. These can take the form of belongings that have similar qualities but not a defined intention – the possessions that create the interiors of homes, for example. Each material portrait included a transcript of an interview between the curator and the collector, where the significance and origin of the collection was discussed.

Stephany Pollard, an illustrator and prop designer living and working in Stoke Newington, designed the Loot and Everything Else poster, a limited edition of screen prints were available to purchase.

Book Swap and Art in The Park
One sunny weekend in August, [DoR] held two events promoting engagement with the local community, and initiating discussion about live art and literature. On the 27th August [DoR], together with a small group of supporters, spent a day on foot in East London handing out bananas and books to the public. People were invited to choose a book to read on their lunch break, swap their favourite book with someone else’s and discover good books to read; we were also grateful to work with the outstanding spoken word artist Lance Boreham who read his best loved stories aloud for all to hear.
On the 28th August, [DoR] descended on London Fields Park to facilitate an open performance and live art event, bringing together artists in an informal setting to showcase their work. The event existed to encourage the public to become further interested and involved in watching live art and allowed the rare opportunity to experience and learn about performance art in a familiar and communal environment. A highlight of the day was watching the The Illegible Bachelor, James Buxton, whose work encompasses a wide range of styles, from dramatic verse in the vernacular, to poems that parody language and rhetoric, to compositions that seek to record the precise feel of things as they pass.

Eloise Jones is a founding member of [Details On Request]. For more information about the events organised by [Details On Request], see below. Images are from Tago Mago, London.

Details On Request (Click Here)