Documents, Alternatives #4

Various login views of the self-curating exhibition, 2020

The on-line exhibition ‘Documents, Alternatives #4’, curated by Angela Bartram, aims to isolate, address, find and utilize appropriate means to translate a diverse range of practice digitally whilst remaining true to its artistic intent. It offers a series of responses through the format of an on-line exhibition of ephemeral artworks, that is designed to self-curate with each user visit. The artworks have undergone physical and conceptual change as they have travelled through each of three gallery situated exhibitions as part of the series already, with this being the fourth. Each iteration is an integral part of a conversation, with the artworks adapting and transforming with each exhibition to form a continuing dialogue. With the three previous gallery-based ‘Document, Alternatives’ exhibitions, this online, self-curating (in that it selects the view each viewer gets when loaded),  version sets the agenda for how the ephemeral artwork is re-staged via non-tangible means to produce a document that is both virtually static and physically unfixed.

This is #4 in the series of interlinked physical and virtual exhibitions.  The archive for the whole project can also be found on this site, including: #1: Airspace Gallery, Stoke on Trent, 17 November – 16 December 2017 #2: Verge Gallery, Sydney, 18 January – 24 February 2018 #3: BSAD Gallery, Bath Spa, 20 April – 1 May 2018.

link to the online exhibition and project archive

Artcore Gallery, online, 2020

The exhibition ANTONYM: Life With and Without Animals presents the work of eight artists from the UK, USA and Iceland. Each makes artwork that engages with the more-than-human world, reflecting on contemporary threats to nonhuman life as well as on the pleasures of our relationships with other species. The exhibition coincides with the online conference Life With and Without Animals at the University of Derby, and both events are organised and curated by Steve Baker and Angela Bartram.

exhibition link

Nottingham Forest Recreation Ground, 2017

Dog walking is often a solitary experience, a time to be alone with one’s fur-coated companion in the park or when treading the pavements. It provides a chance to find clarity, composure and calm, and a space to think and connect with oneself, with the environment and our chosen pet dog. Yet the experience additionally presents opportunities for connection with others, those who may equally be enjoying the same activity, or who may just like animals, interactions that would otherwise perhaps not take place. An open hand offered to a stranger in greeting is a familiar and acknowledged expression of warmth and conviviality, and dogs are often the recipients of such a tender and friendly gesture. For many it is difficult to resist a dog’s approach for affection, and the experience allows for pleasantries and informality between people. For a wet canine nose and wagging tail invites the welcoming touch of a stranger’s hand, and this contact initiates conversation with the humans present. The experience connects more than just human and canine strangers, as it allows people to meet and talk who may not otherwise have had the opportunity. 

Dog Walking for Talking is a project to connect those who would not normally meet to talk around a particular theme or subject. This includes artists, local communities, specific demographics, and specific genders, amongst others. We meet, we go for a walk, we talk ;  people and their dogs. 

Human School (Be Your Dog!) was a two day event at Animals of Manchester as part of Manchester International Festival 2019. It took place 20-21 July 2019.

Inspired by her own dog, the artist Angela Bartram turns the concept of the dog school around. Here, she asks the dogs to be the teachers, showing us how to become a part of the pack, connect across companion species and to be more ‘dog.’ On the first day of Animals of Manchester (including HUMANZ) students of the Human School are bringing their own dogs to explore their relationship on a connected and empathetic level. On the second day, Angela has invited dogs from Dogs4Rescue for human students to experience companionship with and to get to know.

Photo credit: Lee Baxter

Photo credit: Chris Payne

A lecture to dogs about dogs in art

Performed as part of Tempting Failure 18 festival (Croydon UK)

Still image, 2018

Angela Bartram Tempting Failure 18

50 of 366 prints from the plate ‘366 Breaths’ installed at Airspace as part of Documents, Alternatives (#1) 2017

61 of 366 prints from the plate ‘366 Breaths’ installed at Airspace as part of Documents, Alternatives (#1) 2017

Detail of number 1 of 366 prints from the plate ‘366 Breaths’ installed at Airspace as part of Documents, Alternatives (#1) 2017

Detail of number 21 of 366 prints from the plate ‘366 Breaths’ installed at Airspace as part of Documents, Alternatives (#1) 2017

Detail of number 61 of 366 prints from the plate ‘366 Breaths’ installed at Airspace as part of Documents, Alternatives (#1) 2017

For the leap year of 2016 I exhaled on an etching plate every day. 366 breaths layered on the same surface, in the same place, and at roughly the same time. The accumulative breaths charted the process of isolating and capturing those layered singular exhalations, and now the act is being reversed through repetitive laborious methods. ‘366:366 (eventually)’ is a work in process, a series of prints made from the etched plate to match the number of breaths which scored it’s image. The work is unfinished and in a state of process itself, growing as more prints are added during its time in a gallery,  reaching the full 366 eventually. But will come later, elsewhere, for the work leaves the  gallery as much in process as when it entered until it is complete. 

Etchings, 2017-18

Untitled (Speaks for Itself)

Performance for photograph (edition of 5)

10cm x 10cm

2011

366 Breaths

Captured daily on an A5 etching plate over 2016

2016