DUST at Hovel

Here is a sample of pictures from DUST, my exhibition/intervention at Hovel in Camberwell, South London in 2009.

For full details about DUST, including visiting times and the DUST Pamphlet, please see the earlier posts below.

DUST Haircutting Performance

For the private view of DUST I gave a Haircutting Performance.

The performance was unnanounced, taking place in the living room of Hovel, amidst the exhibition.

From the DUST Table Collection I removed a reel of white cotton, a pair of hairdressing scissors and a pile of tiny brown envelopes. I then pulled forward the chair, which was against the wall. I sat, in silence, and put the envelopes on the floor to my right, the thread and scissors on my lap. I then separated a lock of hair from my head, took the scissors and cut it off. I bound the end of the lock of hair with thread, and tied it. I leant forward, picked up an envelope from the pile, and placed the lock inside it; licked and sealed the envelope. I then placed it to my left, on the floor. I repeated this process, cutting locks from my hair and placing them in an envelope, forming a pile of filled envelopes. The process was slow and laborious; it was unclear how long it would take to complete the task. From time to time I shuffled through the filled envelopes, counting and neatening the pile. The people present watched in silence and stillness. The sound from two films in the exhibition played, repeating; sounding like waves, water, or sometimes trains. When I had cut enough hair locks to create a substantial pile of envelopes, and consequently had altered the appearance of my hair, I counted through the filled envelopes. I put down the cotton thread, scissors and unused envelopes, rose from the chair, then gave an envelope containing a lock of my hair to each person in the room.

Here are some still frames from a film of the performance.

DUST table collection

Heap/Hole film
Scissors
White flower
Two small keys...
Stone with hole
Dust and fluff
Plastic twist
Wire/flex fragment
Tiny envelopes
Cassette tape fragment
Used Rawl plug
Text on cardboard
Broken spectacles
'Road gems'/broken glass
Headache pill packaging
Ink drawings...



...crumpled paper
Broken plaster sculpture - ankles
DUST pamphlet with ribbon
Dust ball from the floor...

DUST - some pictures

Some pictures from DUST, in the living room - see earlier posts for details of the exhibition








Ink on paper, oil on canvas, watercolour, printed text.

DUST - Artificial Limbs

Some pictures from DUST at Hovel.










Ink on paper

DUST at Hovel

DUST
Gail Burton
The sixth intervention by an individual artist at Hovel

Exhibition open from Saturday 7th November until Sunday 22nd November 2009
Private View on Sunday 8th November, 4pm to 8pm
Opening hours:
Saturday and Sunday 12 to 6pm
Weekdays by appointment
Hovel is located in Camberwell, South London. For the address, or to make an appointment to visit, please phone 020 7703 6337 or email hoveltenant@googlemail.com


Dust, the Victorian term for all manner of waste or rubbish: a valuable substance that told the story of the lives that produced it; a heap to be carefully categorised and searched through; a point in a process. For the sixth intervention at Hovel, Gail Burton has created a collection of paintings and mixed media works exploring the connections between looking (looking for, looking at), the unseen and memorialisation. A narrative of dirt, of contemporary London's invisible dust-economy, interweaves with portraits of long dead people, painted from miniature Victorian photographs on mourning jewellery. The names of the Victorians who mourned, and were mourned, are lost, but their images connect us to the act of remembering. As a traditional ballad, 'The Housewife's Lament' sings 'There's nothing that lasts us but trouble and dirt'. Dust and dirt remember us; we live on in unseen ways.

DUST Pamphlet

As part of my intervention at Hovel I produced a pamphlet entitled 'DUST'. The pamphlet contains a sequence of short texts I have written regarding the bin scavengers, whom I have observed, and other reflections on filth. The text is interspersed with illustrations, which connect my observations of dirt and searching with loss and memorialisation. The pamphlet is A5 size, printed on 95g acid free paper and is hand stitched. It is printed in an open edition, each copy signed and numbered.

Hovel Residency

For the next two weeks I am undertaking a residency for Hovel, a project created in a domestic space in Camberwell, South London. My residency will result in an intervention in the space, culminating in an exhibition. I have been preparing for my intervention by creating a series of paintings, which respond to a collection of Victorian mourning jewellery, and developing ideas of the rubbish heap, both of 'olden' and contemporary times. I will post full details of the exhibition, when my residency is underway.

In the meantime, I would like to announce that the exhibition will open on Saturday the 7th of November 2009, until Sunday the 22nd November, and there will be a private view on Sunday the 8th of November, from 4pm until 8pm. Feel free to email me for further information at gailburton2@hotmail.com.

Recriminations/Menacing Napkins

I made a set of ten Recriminations/Menacing Napkins for Hovel, Michael Curran's new project. In the aftermath of Hovel's inaugural event, The Birthday Party, (during which my first set of ten Menacing Napkins were distributed/destroyed/grubbied with cake) artists returned to the space to deposit and install new work for the forthcoming Hovel Exhibition.
You can see my first set of Menacing Napkins on earlier blog posts, and more images of Hovel events on my flickr site

Nothing Left Napkin

You've Had It Napkin

Take It Away Napkin

Over Napkin

That's The Last Slice Napkin 2