Honesty Box at Camberwell Arts Festival

On Friday 26th and Saturday 27th June 2009 I will be showing Honesty Box, with Clare Qualmann, as part of Camberwell Arts Festival. Drawing on the tradition of makeshift roadside stalls selling jam or home-made produce, crockery or oddments, the 'Honesty Boxes' will be located in and around Camberwell, London. Each Honesty Box will consist of a cardboard box filled with drawings on Kleenex tissues and a jar for money. The boxes will be labelled 'Drawings for sale £1 each' and left in public places for people to look into, leaf through, buy, steal, destroy or ignore.

Come to Camberwell and see if you can locate the Honesty Boxes – call Gail on 07814 812 338 or Clare on 07782 271 989 for up to date details of their location. Camberwell Green will be the base for our Honesty Box excursions. The boxes will be sited from 10am til 4pm.

You can see pictures of previous Honesty Boxes on the Honesty Box website where we will be documenting the new Camberwell box. For information about previous festivals visit Camberwell Arts Festival website.

You can see pictures of my contribution to the 2008 Camberwell Arts Festival at Sober Rizlas

Honesty Box
Friday 26th and Saturday 27th June 2009
10am - 4pm

For more information about Clare's work visit Clare Qualmann's website

Miniature Land Art

Here are some more of the artworks in the 'Good News' show at Ally Pally. All of the pieces are by The Miniature Land Art Foundation.


'Styrofoam Spiral Jetty'



and again, with a duck to indicate the scale.




'Partially Buried Hornby Woodshed'



'Das Roden Crater'



...and a detail of 'Das Roden Crater'

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.

Handkerchief Show at Cecil Sharp House

Here are some installation shots of 'Flash Company: A Handkerchief Show at Cecil Sharp House' (see my previous posts for more details). There is a catalogue of the show on the Flash Company blog, where you can see full details of all the work.




Clockwise from top left, handkerchiefs by: Gwen Brunton, Adam Rompel, Matthew Cowan, Gail Burton, Bishi & Giles Pearson, Sam Lee, Mami Fujita, John Lawrence.


OVER: Protestation Handkerchief, by Gail Burton



Flash company....been the ruin of me, by Bishi & Giles Pearson



Handkerchief from the series 'love spray', by Matthew Cowan.

Killimangina by Serena Korda






Untitled handkerchief by Clare Qualmann




'One thing. Anything. Two things. Many things.' (A playground chant recorded in Bethnal Green in 1972 by Mike Talbot.) by Mike Berners-Winters.











Brown Spotted Mouse by Billy Childish.

Over: Protestation Handkerchief

I made this Protestation Handkerchief for a group exhibition called 'Flash Company': a handkerchief show at Cecil Sharp House, curated by Matthew Cowan. The exhibition is open from 30th April 2009 until 28th June 2009. There is more information about the exhibition on the Flash Company blog. The English Folk Dance and Song Society news page also has information about the exhibition, and EFDSS generally.

Unfolding 'Over: Protestation Handkerchief'

Balaclava Women and Other Portraits

A selection of my drawings and paintings - 'Balaclava Women and Other Portraits' - is currently being exhibited at Bishopsgate Dental Care, 36 Spital Square, London, E1 6DY (phone 020 7377 6762)

My recent series of drawings – the Balaclava Women – are portraits of women wearing balaclavas and other head coverings (see blog entries below). I’m interested in how women conceal and reveal themselves, and the cultural ambiguities of wearing a headscarf, hat or balaclava. These portraits are drawn with pencil on ‘Rips’ cigarette papers – I use this ephemeral and fragile material, at a tiny scale, for many of my drawings as it underlines the intimacy and vulnerability of the subject matter. Also represented at Bishopsgate are two drawings from my series of Suffragette Portraits, a subject that, for me, resonates strongly today, particularly in the violence conducted with and to women’s own bodies. Two miniature oil paintings of women with bird-feather-like hair and downcast eyes simultaneously attract our attention, but also exclude us. My work explores an ongoing interest in portraiture used to convey the conflict between our public and our hidden, inaccessible interior life.

Portrait eyes down (blue), oil paint on board.




Portrait eyes down (red), oil paint on wood.




Anonymous Suffragette, pencil on paper, framed.




Anonymous Suffragette (blue), coloured pencil on paper, framed.

For pictures of the 'Balaclava Women' exhibited at Bishopsgate Dental Care see my earlier posts of 'Balaclava Women', or click on the label 'balaclava' in the label list.

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