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| CURATED BY SUE COHEN FOR OCCUPY MY TIME. MARK BELL, SUE COHEN, RAIMI GBADAMOSI, LUCY STEGGALS, ALIA SYED, TANYA SYED. INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED ARTISTS PRESENT WORK IN THE GREENWICH FOOT TUNNEL. |
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| Exhibition: 14th October- 25th November 2006. Workshop show: 27th-30th November 2006. | ||||
| Opening Hours: Work presented in the lift: Monday to Saturday 7.00am-7.00pm.Sunday 10.00am-5.30pm. All other work can be viewed over 24hours. | ||||
| Admission: Free. | ||||
| Address: Greenwich Foot Tunnel. Cutty Sark Gardens. Greenwich London SE10 9HT. | ||||
| Transport: DLR: Cutty Sark, Island Garden Station. Greenwich. Bus: 177,188,180, D3, D7, 199, 286, 386. | ||||
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Enquiries: 07931 536327 or suecohen@ntlworld.com |
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| Stand in the middle of the Cutty Sark Gardens in the centre of Greenwich South London with its backdrop of magnificent buildings and gaze around you at this location of overwhelming history, Confront the famous Tea Clipper the Cutty Sark with the Royal Navel Collage on the right now housing The University of Greenwich and The Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Look up and find the Royal Observatory perched on top of the hill in Greenwich Park. The Maritime Museum sits at the foot of the hill with the Queens House to the right. Surrounded by such grand history its every tourists dream. If you walk across the gardens towards the river you are faced with a small domed building, which somehow fits in with the surroundings. Enter this building and walk down the stairs and you enter the atmospheric world of the subterranean, for this is Greenwich Foot Tunnel. Built in 1902 it hasn't changed since it was first constructed and as you walk down the stairs looking down at your feet as you go so not to loose your balance, you get the feeling that you are going down to the very soul of Greenwich, a subterranean world where you once could leave your secrets as you left one side of the London for another. The tunnel is full of mystery and intrigue it can seem more lonely and desolate than anywhere else in London. London has a history of living underground a cavernous world of the poor, traps of damp and darkness where vagrants or drunks or debauches had access to a secret life. Today all the human traffic that passes through the tunnel from 7am-7pm can be viewed on TV's watched by the attendants working in both identical lifts at each end of the tunnel. You have no consciousness of the external; time becomes eternal and the weather inconsequential. This once infamous tunnel is full of folk lore, the group Fury Furnaces have even recorded a song about the tunnel called, Leaky Tunnel on the Gallowsbird's Bark album. Release in the UK in 2003 it describes going down to the leaky, leaky tunnel. It is here in the foot tunnel that UNDERGROUND invites the audience to engage on a direct level with art pieces that will range from performance, film and visual arts over a 24-hour period 7 days a week. Presenting the work of six internationally acclaimed artists; MARK BELL, SUE COHEN, RAIMI GBADAMOSI, LUCY STEGGALS, ALIA SYED, TANYA SYED, that explores our relationship with our response to physical and emotional events that besiege this unique space; poignant messages presented will encourage the audience to ask intriguing questions. The experience will be as challenging as the journey. The show has been curated by Sue Cohen for OCCUPY MY TIME a non-profit making organisation that presents art in temporary spaces/sites in which to attract a diverse audience. UNDERGROUND presents a challenging flux of ideas that considers the human traffic that passes through the tunnel; the audience is unsolicited and will be challenged to stop in their tracks as they commute each day. Mark Bell has been working on sheet aluminium since 1989. The work in this show is a departure of sorts from his usual social commentary. It is primarily concerned with aesthetic values; organic shapes influenced by plant, rock and coral surface and texture suggest forest and aquatic environments. Lucy Steggals will present a piece that explores the audience reaction to tasks that interfere with their behaviour while they go about their everyday lives. The actions that interrupt our routine can play important roles in the way we continue with our agenda over the course of the day. On your way down the stairwell Alia Syed will show a new site specific piece recording the passage of light across the Woolwich ferry as it traverses across the Thames. A rhythm is maintained. Passengers, cargo all matter surrender to the pull of the river. Tanya Syed will be presenting a miniature cameo of a ritual dance. Projected into a hatbox the film echoes early cinematic experiences. This piece is located in the lift, offering an intimate screening for the audience as they travel up and down. Raimi Gbadamosi will be presenting a new sound piece called Tunnelling By Numbers. As a regular user of the foot tunnel Raimi finds himself counting his footsteps as he walks through from one side to the other. He is interested in the process and how it is affected by his moods or urgency. For UNDERGROUND he will record himself counting his own footsteps as he travels through the tunnel from North to South and back again. He will then ask 10 people to do the same recording them as they count out loud. At each entrance to the tunnel the recordings will be played back to the passing audience. The traveller, listener, and participant all become important active contributors to the piece. Half way through the tunnel Sue Cohen will present a new site-specific piece called 'if walls have ears'. Exploring the notion of movement and sound penetration the work will present cast life sized ears. The tunnel is covered in white glazed Edwardian tiles, which deflect sound, at certain intervals the tiles have been damaged and removed, these areas absorb the sound penetrating through the plaster through the thick walls and out into the undercurrents of the River Thames. These small life size sculptures will be placed in these random areas absorbing the sound, snippets of conversation, secrets, lies, gossip, love, anger, children screaming, bikes being ridden and prams being pushed. All the sounds of human movement absorbed into the walls and kept forever. Working with the aims and objectives of OCCUPY MY TIME workshops will run for two local groups located on each side of the tunnel. Lewisham Youth Offending Team and On the One Tower Hamlets. This interaction will provide direct exploration of ideas in the production of creative and personal confidence bringing people together from different cultural backgrounds to make a positive contribution to the local community. |
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| Mark Bell Untitled 3, Watercolour on Aluminium, 2006 |
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| Alia Syed | ||||
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| Tanya Syed Incantation, Installation, Film and Readymades, 2006 Incantation will be screened in the lift Thursday- Sunday from 11.00am-5.00pm. |
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| Raimi Gbadasomi: . Tunnelling By Numbers, Sound Installation, 2006 |
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| Sue Cohen I Feel Like a Stranger, Installation, Wax/readymades, 2006 |
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| Sue Cohen If Walls Have Ears, Plaster, 2006 |
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