OVER: Protestation Banner at Showflat Annuale

OVER: Protestation Banner installed for Showflat 7 - The Annuale (details of the exhibition can be found below, in previous post).

For details of the Banner March, performed with the banner in May 2009, please scroll down to earlier posts from May/June 2009, e.g. OVER Banner March/26th May













This is a work in the Showflat 7 exhibition by one of the other artists, Marlene Harring.

Showflat 7 - The Annuale

I am taking part in the first group show of the Showflat artists - 'Showflat 7, The Annuale', which marks a year of Showflat exhibitions. The exhibition runs from Saturday 25th July to Sunday 2nd August 2009, daily from 10am to 6pm, in a house in Mile End, London. The opening Flat Party is on Friday 24th July from 7pm to 12am. Please contact me at gailburton2@hotmail.com for more details, or visit Showflat

‘Showflat 7 - The Annuale’ is the first group show with all of the Showflat artists, who have had individual Showflat exhibitions over the last year. Whereas each of those exhibitions took place in the artist’s own flat, 'The Annuale' will take place in the house of Nathaniel Clark, the Showflat curator (Showflat is conceived and created by Mario Borza, who will also be exhibiting).

For my piece in the exhibition I am installing OVER: Protestation Banner. The banner has endured ten days in the outdoors and three marching performances; I hope that coming to rest for a week during The Annuale it can exist as a relic of its role and uses so far. The banner will be hung in the style of a ‘church banner’ in the high space of the stairwell. You are invited to process up the fifty stairs to the top of the house – up the five flights to the fifth floor – to witness the ‘OVER: Protestation Banner’. Relic of Three Banner Marches, created to reflect on the role of protest - in the light of the death of Ian Tomlinson, the Global Financial Crisis, and more personal resonances – the banner now resides at the top of the stairs. Endure the five-flights’ procession to view the banner and interpret its ambiguous message in the context of Showflat 7: The Annuale.

Route of the Banner March

Banner March 1
Saturday 23rd May 2009, at 5.30pm
Clockwise

Start at Alexandra Palace, in the Ice Skating Rink car park, walk down the hill past the funfair on the right, turn right along the hedge, take the last entrance into the lake, turn left at the lake and continue walking around the lake, with the water on the right hand side. Circuit the lake until the point just after the second-from-last bench before the café. Place the Banner down here, and tie it to the railings, which are on the left-hand-side perimeter of the lakeside area. Walk away.

Banner March 2
Wednesday 27th May 2009, at 11am
Anti-clockwise

Approach the banner from the opposite direction to when it was deposited, by walking anti-clockwise around the lake, with the café on the right hand side, to the point just before the second bench after the café. Untie the Banner from the railings where it is tied on the right hand side perimeter of the lakeside area. Begin walking around the lake, with the water on the left. Complete one full circuit of the lake and deposit the Banner back where it was.

Banner March 3
Sunday 31st May 2009 (Whit Sunday), at 5pm
Anti-clockwise

Approach the banner from the café side of the lake, as in the second march, and untie it from the railings. Circuit the lake, with the water on the left, and exit at the last exit on the right, before the café. Turn right and continue walking towards the Palace, re-tracing in reverse the beginning phase of the first march, turning left up the hill past the funfair and into the Ice Skating Rink car park, and disperse.

Third Banner March

My third - and final - Banner March will take place at 5pm on Sunday 31st May 2009, starting near the cafe by the lake at Alexandra Palace Park. Please come along to see the March, and to inspect the 'OVER: Protestation Banner' after its ten days outside in the park. Full details of transport and times are in the posts below.

Film: Banner March 1

You can view my film of Banner March 1 on You Tube. The film was recorded by Gimpo of my performance on Saturday 23rd May 2009 when I marched around the lake at Alexandra Palace Park, carrying my 'OVER: Protestation Banner'. If you would like to see a high quality version of the film please contact me at gailburton2@hotmail.com

OVER Banner March

At 11am on Wednesday 27th May I will be performing my second Banner March around the lake in Alexandra Palace Park, carrying my ‘OVER: Protestation Banner’. The March will begin from the Cafe side of the lake. You are welcome to come and spectate, and to view the other works in the ‘Good News’ Exhibition, which are situated around the lake. The Banner will remain in the park for the duration of the exhibition, whatever the weather. The exhibition closes on Sunday 31st May, when I will be performing my third March at 5pm. I hope you can join me. Please see the posts below for further information on the exhibition and transport details.

Banner March:
Wednesday 27th May at 11am
Sunday 31st May at 5pm

Here are some photos from the first Banner March, circuiting the lake at Alexandra Palace Park, which took place on Saturday 23rd May at 5.30pm. The first four photos were taken by Barnaby Hewlett and Clare Qualmann.

The route of the March began at the top of the hill, by Alexandra Palace, and processed down past the Funfair towards the lake, entering at the entrance nearest the Cafe, then continuing round to the left to circuit the lake, and ending at the Cafe side of the lake by the railings, where the banner was deposited, attached to the railings.

Good News Exhibition - OVER: Protest Banner

I am taking part in ‘Good News’, an exhibition of site specific and performance art, which will take place in Alexandra Palace Park, London (in the vicinity of the Lakeside Café). The exhibition opens on Saturday 23rd May and is open daily until Sunday 31st May, 10am til 5.30pm. The private view is on Saturday 23rd May from 5pm til 8pm.

I have created a new piece of work for the exhibition - ‘OVER: Protest Banner’ – with which I will be performing a solo March, circuiting the lake. The banner will also be on display in the park throughout the show (and the weather).

I will be marching on the following dates:

Saturday 23rd May (during the private view) at 5.30pm
Wednesday 27th May at 11am
Sunday 31st May at 5pm

Please note – my banner will not be in the exhibition on the first day of the exhibition until 5.30pm, when I will perform my first March with it.

The banner is inspired by Suffragette textile banners and, in the context of the recent G20 protests and the death of Ian Tomlinson, is intended as a reflection on the role and meaning of protest. The banner is a development of my more ephemeral text pieces, and features an ambiguous statement – ‘OVER’ – which is intended to be open to various interpretations, to allow the possibility of political and also more personal inferences, and so to reflect on our relationship to protest. I envision the solo march with the banner as a contemplative act for myself, and hopefully a spectacle that will animate the banner and its message. The banner will inevitably endure much weather during the time of the exhibition, and will therefore betray something of its use and history by the time of the final march.

Transport to Alexandra Palace Park:
Overground Train to Alexandra Palace (e.g. from Kings Cross or Old Street station).
Or the tube to Wood Green.
Then take the W3 bus towards Finsbury Park and get off at Alexandra Palace Ice Rink.
The lake and Lakeside Cafe is 5 minute’s walk from there.