These were the ingredients for Art/Roc/Doc, a fly on the wall documentary that followed Glasgow band Isosceles on an adrenaline-fuelled road trip to uncover the London art scene during Frieze Art Fair 2009.

Along the way Isosceles headlined PLUS, 72 hours of non-stop artists, exhibits and music, featuring Douglas Gordon, Matt Collishaw, Sarah Lucas, Gavin Turk and Sam Hasler.

Members Tom Ducan and Dasha jumped on board to film ad photograph the event, designer Ruth Parker was set with the task of creating a cardboard caravan and together they created a whirlwind short film which premiered at The Glasgow Film Festival 2010.

“…Things got crazy… The event was packed, incredible exhibits abounded  with work from the likes of Tracy Emin and Damien Hirst on show as well as performance artists in-situ, a fashion show, burlesque and the bands.”

“We had a plethora of interviewees and after our diligent producers snagged bit-name artist Gavin Turk we were more than satisfied with the content…”
/ Tom Duncan

“The film managed to capture not only the beautiful journey between Glasgow and London, but between visual art, music and film. Art/Roc/Doc is testament to the potential of the creative sectors working together.”
Patricial Fleming (curator, Volume/PLUS)

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See the final film here
See Dasha’s pictorial here

And here are some blogs to go with the visuals:

Thoughts from Tom [Shooter]:
Art/Roc/Doc
Art/Roc/Doc Day 2
Art/Roc/Doc Day 3
Art/Roc/Doc Finale

Thoughts from Ruth [Set Designer]:
How  to build a cardboard living room in 24 hrs – Pt 1
Pt 2
Pt 3
Pt 4

Thoughts from Andy [Editor]:
Thoughts from  the art/roc/doc chop shop 1
Art/Roc/Doc: The Countdown Continues

Thoughts from Paul [Exec Producer]
Feedback on call for a Shooter

Thoughts from Patricia [Curator, PLUS]
Art/Roc/Doc

We really enjoyed re-visiting our mentalist PLUS exhibition at the screening in CCA on Sunday. It’s hard to believe it was only last October! Many thanks also to all of the artists, bands Isosceles, The Mutlings, and The Cyclones, the models and the 2000+ visitors who put us firmly on the the London art map during Frieze and Zoo (not an easy task!).

The film managed to capture this energy and not only the beautiful journey between Glasgow and London, but between visual art, music and film.

Art/Roc/Doc is testament to the potential of the creative sectors working together. We are looking forward to seeing the next piece of magic conjured up by Central Station – Paul Welsh is certainly a skilful director, and not just of traffic…

Congratulations everyone.

Patricia Fleming

With the Glasgow Short Film Festival (GSFF) launching TOMORROW (Fri 19th!) at the CCA, we are delighted to have worked with Central Station to present the preview screening of Art/Roc/Doc, shot in London at Frieze 2009 and featuring Glasgow based band Isosceles as they play their way round the country’s best known art fair.

This will be screening alongside the best new work submitted by Central Station members…

Lu Sisi – ‘Digital Analogue’

Craig Wilson – ‘Press That Down/Union of Knives’

Chris Leslie – ‘Paddy’s Market’

Kate Rowles – ‘My Wonderland’

Andy Brown – ‘Storm’

Please join us to celebrate the best of recent work from Central Station members at GSFF at 5pm on Sunday 21st Feb at the CCA, and stick around for a drink or 2 post screening to meet the teams behind the films.

Tickets from www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk/shorts

17 days to go until the CCA presses play. Scary.

I have advanced quite a bit since we last spoke and I am now sitting with an almost full timeline begging me to hurry up and finish. In the next week or so, the audio is going away for a mix, we’ve got graphics coming in and might even get some nice folk to do a colour grade too! So this really is the epitome of what Central Station is about, bringing everyone together for one big creative hug! (did i just write that?)

Some interesting footage amongst the ten tapes. From weird art installations (pyramid made out of soil) to people talking about endangered bats, to taking photos in a makeshift bath/shower and asking box office staff out for a dance Art/Roc/Doc is shaping up to be a certified chin scratcher.

Tomorrow I am meeting up with Paul Welsh from DigiCult to fine tune some more sequences… We’re going to work on editing some new bits to music and probably drink lots of tea.I think we have this Sunday pencilled in to tie up the loose ends and lets hope we have an almost-finished-but-lets-export-it-anyway export.

Remember, Sunday 21st February at 17:00hrs inside the CCA.

Have a look at my little portable studio:

The following day, ( three days before the event) after much deliberation and wild fantasies about how to create a space in an environment in which theres is no room to even swing a cat and the sound conditions of a bomb exploding , it is decided that actually our best option is to create a space on the street outside the exhibition space. But how exactly???????????

So I am decided I need a transit van and shit loads of cardboard, and I’ll drive around the street of London for as long as possible scarvaging bits and bobs and making a few wise buys form brick-a-brack stores. By 5 pm on Thursday I have amassed a collection of cardboard, and I now official have 24hrs to make the final set, so I get out my PVA glue and begin the laborious process of making cardboard look like furniture. I while away the early hours and then come the morning it all systems go.

The van gets picked up. Borrows, begs and steals whatever it can on route to The PLUS gallery. Once camped down in position, the van gets decked in its outter shell of cardboard and the interior slowly transforms in to a cosy living room with a cocktail area. It all become blurry at this point, and thanks to lots of willing and helpful hands the van is completed… and its nice to think that Gavin Turk had a little sit down and enjoy.

After a strange night of dreaming about caravans and beautiful retro camper vans decked out in carefully considered props with artist and models walking around in soft focus, I realise that I have to crush the fantasy and wake-up to the cold hard facts: I need some sort of container in which I can build a space by five o’clock today at the latest. So the equation basically boils down too no time and very little money, and lots to do. So of course know its time to go too a meeting in brick lane to tell Central Station my finding… yikkees!

Normally I would say that London is a great place but after hours of traveling to have meeting with people equally pushed for time, the glamor quickly wears off. I feel exhausted having traveled for ages just too tell worried looking people I am not entirely clear on what we are going too do, but that I am sure it will be fine. However the endless bus journey’s and the sights they give me, do lead to masses of inspiration. I love the fact that were ever you look around you see the creative types of the city burrowing, scrapping and scrounging things around them in an attempt to create something, maybe its not perfect and maybe that not how you would go about it if you had cash to splash around, but things get made and generally there always interesting and sometimes they are truly beautiful. And it reminds me of the ethos of the film, one person finds another and then it leads into something else and sometimes a great event lies at the end.

So in a way thats my decision made, I want too make a set out of the things that have been discarded in the city. To find things left on the streets and give them a new purpose, and a temporary home for central station.

Well I guess I’ll take you back to the beginning and try to explain the creative process that lead to the mamouth task ahead.

I was approached by Central Station to create a space/set in which they could film during the opening of the PLUS exhibition, which would be the culmination of there Art/roC/dOc journey. The idea was to create a space that showed the spirit of the documentary and that could also be used practically to interview artists that were attending or exhibiting in the show. At this point with 4 days until the event, I foolish thought what could be easier and signed myself up for the task. So with my camera on my back I toddled down to Southwark to have a look at the space. Although the space was still in construction and with only about a third of the artwork installed, it soon became very apparent that this was going to be a really impressive exhibition with some real big hitter of the art world involved. But what also struck me was despite this quite imposing white space filled with famous works, there was an amazing atmosphere of everyone mucking in and working towards something that they really seemed to believe in, which was also exactly the nature of the filming, so i really wanted to capture this idea in the set as well.

The space was been transformed by Kerry Ryan of Neon & Signmakers, originally intended as a shop, it had just laid empty for months on end, so one conversation lead to another and an exhibition was planned. Kerry had been supporting up and coming artist for years, helping them to produce work on the cheap and then often buying pieces of them, those all important sales when you trying to find a way in the art world. Because of this (and his amazing eye for spotting talent) he had amassed an amazing personal collection and the best little black book of names you could imagine. And so PLUS was created, originally starting as thirty artist for one day, word spread and it took on its own momentum, leading to 70+ artist in 100+ hours.

The fact that so many people were exhibiting was amazing but it did lead to a bit of a quandary about how the hell I was going to build a set in there. Literally every wall was covered and every floor space was going to be filled with audience.

So to rewind a little bit, Friday was a big day for the shoot.  Of course the band were performing in the evening and the Central Stn team were putting together our stall at the venue but we also had to cram in a private tour of a new opening.  It had come up last minute and was an interesting insight into how some people have an incredible knack for sourcing space and resources to pursue their creativity.

We also hit the ZOO art festival and Jack, Isosceles’ lead singer, bumped into a few familiar faces and did some great interviews amidst the more commercial side of London’s contemporary art scene.

We had planned to reach the venue quite early to give us some time out and a solid soundcheck.  The van had other ideas.  A clapped-out battery prompted numerous attempted push-starts but it was no good and the AA were called.  I left the band to try and catch the build up at the venue.

By this time, we’d been going pretty flat out and with sporadic meal times and LOTS of walking, energy levels took a big hit.  My mood definitely dipped prior to the event at Volume and I took a bit of time out to grab fish and chips in preparation for a long night ahead…

It was just as well I did because things got crazy.  The event was packed, incredible exhibits abounded with work from the likes of Tracy Emin and Damien Hirst on show as well as performance artists in-situ, a fashion show, burlesque and the bands.

Speaking of bands – Isosceles were nothing short of sensational.  They lifted everyone’s energy with a stonking set which made me feel pretty damn lucky to have spent so much time in their company over the past few days.  Their quirky danceable pop-rock had everyone talking and this worked brilliantly for me as I began the interviews at the Central Stn booth.

The booth was outrageous!  Ruth, Shantha, Rennie and Fernando worked flat out and down to the wire producing a courageous cardboard contraption which merged with the pavement and welcomed guests into a home away from home.  We had a plethora of interviewees and after our diligent producers snagged big-name artist Gavin Turk we were more than satisfied with the content.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the blogs so far and again, apologies for not updating you all sooner.  I’m now back up home in Moray and will be in contact with the Central Stn team regarding logging/editing the piece so you can all see what we got up to.

If you’ve got any questions and comments etc – please stick them up and I’ll do my best to respond with another post in a day or so once I’ve had a chance to breathe!

Thanks to all the crew, the band and the people of London for an incredible week.

Tom.

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