“Art for Art’s Sake”
10cc 1975, 7″ vinyl Mercury Records

I started this blog by letting my mind wander through the possible connections of no wave and nae wave. lntroducing New York post punk references to the performance art of Muscles of Joy to the depths of sonar manipulations by Glasgow’s newest electro aqua crunk scene, but after two glasses of wine thought I should stick to the point. Which is to welcome sonic artist Damien Marchal to Glasgow and introduce the work of both artists undertaking residencies as part of Social Landscape. There is a whole other piece of writing required to explore some of the brilliant experimatial music/sound/performance art currently being made in Glasgow alone, for instance by artist/musician Raydale Dower and ‘Tut Vu Vu’. We hope they and others on the scene will have an impact on our journey as Damien starts his three month residency in Trongate 103. Katy Dove started the partner residency in Rennes at the end of January.

In September 2008, Larys Frogier the Director of La Criee Centre D’Art Contemporain Rennes asked me to make a proposal for its Contemporary Art project in European Cities on the Atlantic Arc, starting a new cycle of cooperation with European curators. The project Social Landscape is the first in this series and aims to create a link between the cultural sectors in Rennes and Glasgow.

A fascination in the convergence of sound and visual art resulting in installations and performance is really the basis of the selection of  two artists who approach their work from opposite ends of the spectrum. Katy Dove uses traditional media to make delicate intuitive drawings, watercolours and works on paper. She animates them by scanning, cutting and pasting often repeating the layers echoing sound also written or gathered then performed by the artist. The animations are often projected to form larger installations and or performance. Damien Marchal’s drawings or source material is generated by machine/s. The sound of the scanner reading the material is recorded and remixed. This is an industrial sound which is remixed again and performed live with mucisians improvising with the rythyms and frequencies. The conceptual looping generated by the art of sound, visulising sound and it’s representation is explored by many movements in art history; for example Fluxus.

Social Landscape gives each artists the opportunity to make new work and think in a completely different setting. The nature of the exchange also creates distance and a fresh look at the things around us informing our work. Looking at two contemporary artists at the same time from different cities and the way the experience impacts on their work, to what degree/if at all? adds another layer to the way the artists think about their work. Will it alter the artists points of view, generate new references or change anything in their approach to presentating their work to the public? Only time will tell. My own research gathered during site vists to Rennes and nearly twenty years in Glasgow sets the scene for meetings and potential collaborators, introducing Damien and Katy to new artists, musicians and innovative people in each city, further recommendations are welcome.

Damien Marchal lives and works in Rennes. In 2007 he was part if a group of young artists who set up set up the studio VIVARIUM he is also a Lecturer at the National Superior School of Architecture of Britain in the field of sound in the context of art.

Katy Dove studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art. She has exhibited internationally including Venice Biennale (2003) and Prague Biennale (2003) and has been selected to be part of the ‘Artist Statements’ with Hales Gallery, London in Art Basel 2005. She has exhibited at Tate Britain as part of their Lightbox, Art Now series (2003) and has had solo exhibitions at Transmission, Glasgow (2002) and Collective Gallery, Edinburgh (2000). She lives and works in Glasgow.

Katy Dove is a member of the band Muscles of Joy an eight member, all singing, instrument shifting, art into pop group Muscles of Joy are Anne-Marie Copestake, Ariki Portoeus, Charlotte Prodger, Jenny O’Boyle, Katy Dove, Leigh Ferguson, Sophie Macpherson and Victoria Morton. They have performed at DCA, Le Weekend Festival, CCA among others.

For Gi 2010 (Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art) Social Landscape will appear as a one –off event held at Stereo on Sun 18th April, beginning at 4pm with a performance by Muscles of Joy featuring new animations by Katy Dove created during her residency in Rennes. Visual artist and band member Sophie Macpherson will create a new sculpture taking the form of a stage set also incorporating Katy’s projections. This will be followed by a performance by Damien Marchal working with new collaborators from the city.

We have listed some of Damien’s influences below:
Xavier Veillant uses digital photography, sculpture, public statuary, video, installations or even the art of the exhibition, Xavier Veilhan builds his work around the same axis: the possibilities of representation.

Alva Noto is the stage name of sound artist Carsten Nicolai who uses art and music as complementary tools to create microscopic views of creative processes. Another alias he uses is Noto. He is a member of the music groups Signal (with Frank Bretschneider, AKA Komet and Olaf Bender, AKA Byetone) and Cyclo. (with Ryoji Ikeda).
Paul D Miller aka DJ SPOOKY is a composer, multimedia artist and writer.

Ryoji Ikeda is Japan’s leading electronic composer/artist. Ikeda focuses on the minutiae of ultrasonics, frequencies and the essential characteristics of sound itself.

Otomo Yoshihide is a Japanese composer and multi-instrumentalist.
He first came to international prominence in the 1990s as the leader of the noise rock group Ground Zero, and has since worked in a variety of contexts, ranging from free improvisation to noise, jazz and contemporary classical. He is also a pioneering figure in the EAI-scene, and is featured on important records on labels like Erstwhile Records. He plays guitar, turntables, and electronics.

Most of all we would like to invite you to meet Damien in the visiting artists studio at Trongate 103. If we don’t see you there don’t forget all the brilliant music, sound, art events coming soon like Kill Your Timid Notion, The AV Festival, Gi, Hinterland and Glasgow City of Music for every other colour of music event.

Patricia Fleming, Curator
email:studio@patriciaflemingprojects.co.uk

Visit Patricia Flemming Projects on MySpace.
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Mix-Blog: A bit like a mix-tape but with blogs instead. Read more from the series here.