task – left

Each artist was asked to provide Manuel Vason with a task that would bring him closer to the respective artist’s practice. These task scripts are provided here below.

 

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Ernst Fischer

RECIPE 1: PASSION/FLOWER
Location: Indoors/outdoors
You will need: 6 drawing pins; 3 flesh coloured plaster strips
Execution: Push 2 drawing pins through each plaster strip (from the padded inside outwards)  and attach one strip each to the three ‘middle’ fingers of your right hand (unless you are left-handed); remove your shirt or blouse and – placing your left hand palm down on the back of your right one – proceed to rhythmically beat your chest until it begins to bleed; continue for at least 15-20 minutes longer, then put your shirt/blouse back on and leave.

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Franko B:

Spend one hour every week,  any time in the day standing up  facing a white wall  without talking to anyone, without moving at all and without using the wall as a support . Do this for 11 years non stop.

Why ? One does not understand the reason of this action. And is not important to look  for a reason  in this case .

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Helena Goldwater:

The language and vocabulary of practice is learned over time. We all have our own, which we discover over years of making. This makes it problematic for me to reduce it to a simple equation of ‘do this, then do that’ and ‘you will make a personal enactment of Helena Goldwater’s work/methodology’. What I can offer as a preferable action is to consider what your own vocabulary is, break it down into components then re-configure it. If you really want to approach the Goldwater-way then you need to get into a milk bath – basic ingredients are hot water mixed with skimmed milk – and stay there for 3 hours. Perhaps ask someone/several people to visit you every 10 minutes (maximum). Then you will have the beginnings of the experience of pleasure and longevity involved, as well as the sense of loneness and sociability.

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Rita Marcalo:

Find another person and find a studio space.
Each person leaves the space (on separate directions) for a 30 minute walk: it could be an outdoor or an indoor walk through offices, etc.
During the walk each of you gather any interesting objects you find on the walk. Try not to think too much about why they appear ‘interesting’ to you: just go with your instincts.
On return to the studio space, divide the space into 2 distinct areas: one for you, and one for the other person.
In their allocated spaces, each maker arranges the objects into a formation.
Each of you choreograph a pattern of interaction with the objects.
Share your choreography with one another.
Now swap spaces. Your task is to stick to your choreographed pattern but resolve it in relation to the other person’s object formation.

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 Oreet Ashery:

– minimum 3 people  discuss together what  democratic sound means for them.
– choose a soundimage/text from this discussion and create it digitally
– same one or more people are naked, taking a battery charged laptop with the sound/image/text showing on full screen and walking with the laptop in their hands, showing the screen, in a public space that feels relevant to the  chosen  sound/image/text

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 jamie lewis hadley:

have cannula inserted into forearm and have one/multiple vile/s of blood removed – find a use for it.

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Alexandra Zierle & Paul Carter:

Ingredients:

• A material of personal significance (minimum amount to cover two heads easily)
• Two performers
• A place that frames the action well
• An assistant

Preparations:

• Please each choose on a material of significance: the material’s texture/feel/smell/taste/sound must be of importance and/or the aesthetics are appropriate. Even more important is what your personal connection/association with your chosen material is.
• Each find a quiet place and hold your material with both hands, connect with your breath for a few minutes and become aware of how the breath moves your body, then in your mind’s eyes let the breath flow out from your hands into the material you are holding. Bring all your attention into your hands and explore the material as if your breath has just brought the material ‘alive’. Breath into it and explore it through your five senses in whatever way it feel appropriate at the time. Let the material become an extension of your body and start a dialogue with it. Think of ways you could wrap, drape, bind, hang, etc. the material around your head to make a head disguise for each other that completely covers each other’s head and ideally obscures your vision. You might need assistance for the second head cover, unless you want to do some of it without sight.
• Find a suitable starting point for each of you some distance away from each other, allow yourself to be led to this place by your assistant.

Actions:

• In order to fully arrive/being present at your starting point, allow yourself a few moments of stillness and connect with your breath and with the feel of your head disguise as you have done before when exploring your material for the first time. Direct your attention outwards as you prepare to move, becoming aware, through all your senses of your immediate environment. Your vision will be very likely obscured  by your head disguise and possibly your hearing and sense of smell muffled too. In order to take your first steps forward, use your breath and project it through your mind’s eye in the direction you are going to start moving. You now have to work intuitively navigating your environment using your inner and outer senses. You are now travelling slowly towards your performance partner, your aim is to eventually meet each other.
• Once you have found each other, bring all your attention to this encounter and allow a dismantling process of each other’s head disguises to unfold. You may agree on certain rules beforehand, in order to set a frame work or let the process unfold in a completely improvised way. Stay present through all its different stages and observe what actions, intensities, emotions, thoughts arise. Develop your actions as a form of language to communicate with each other as you slowly reveal each other’s ‘true’ identity through this process of peeling away, tearing up, pulling down, piercing through, dissolving, etc.,  responding to the unfolding development of your relationship together, and equally, to the relationship with the material you are working with.
• Once your heads are fully cleared of the disguises, find a way to acknowledge each other and come to an end.

A few things to consider:

• Dress code: The type of clothing (or no clothing) can make a big difference, not just to the image you are creating, but also to how you feel when you perform.
• Role of your assistant during the performance: Where do you want your assistant to be and what is her/his role? Do you need someone to hold your space, and/or safe guard you? Should your assistant leave the space or stay somewhere still in reach?
• How long do you want to engage in this action? What is realistic? What happens if you keep missing each other? Depending on your chosen site and initial distance between each other, what frame work do you need to set up to be able to complete the actions?

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The Vacuum Cleaner:

Title – You are shit, and you know you are.
Description/Action.
Sometimes we get hate mail and death threats because of the work we make. Here is an example. http://www.thevacuumcleaner.co.uk/hatemail
Imagine you are a closed mind person, a person who is frightened by new ideas and fearful of changes in the world around you.
Send me a piece of hate mail or death threat from the point of view of such a person. Send your diatribe to [email protected]

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Elvira Santamaría Torres:

A lonely walk

Tie an inflated ( with helium gas) plastic bag to your hair/head, let it float about a foot distance above your head and go for a walk on your own in the streets of your neighborhood.
Don´t tell anybody what you are planning.
If somebody on the street ask you what are you doing, never say it is art.
Don´t take photos or video of it, this time.
Feel the experience and think about.

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Sinéad O’Donnell:

Walk for as long as you can
Only look down to the ground
See what objects of use and function enter your path
They will be just sitting there as if they were placed there for you to find them
Decide if you need them
Decide if you don’t need them
Decide why you need them
Decide why you don’t need them
Go home not looking at the ground
Sleep
Dream
Repeat

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Rajni Shah:

Cancel all appointments, turn off all the phones and the computers in your home and office. If you need to, put a holiday message on your email and a voice message on your phone saying you will not be contactable for a week.

Spend five full days starting from listening – and when you find it, follow your desire. You can do whatever you feel like doing, alone or with others, as long as you stay offline and your time is not determined by appointments or existing plans. You must spend this time in your home town or city, but it is up to you whether you stay indoors or go on adventures. Do not make any decisions about how to spend your time in advance. Nothing should be pre-determined.

At the end of this time, open up your home* for a full day, and invite everyone you love and admire to come over and meet each other. You may want to send out invitations before you begin your week – however, do not ask people to RSVP, do not send out any reminders, and be happy to welcome whoever shows up.

*this can be where you live, or somewhere else you are happy to call home

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Marcia Farquhar:

– Make a catwalk and model your own clothes on it. Talk about them one after another until you run out of garments or time.

OR

– Run a full bath, put on a lot of make up and pearls, undress and lie down under water with your eyes open. Get someone to photograph you.

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Michael Mayhew :

Daily

Live, as you need to daily.
Engage with unknowns daily.
Ask what ‘matters’ daily.
Learn daily.
Play daily.
Be inspired daily.
Meet a stranger daily.
Change the rules daily.
Listen anew daily.
See anew daily.
Question anew daily.
Experience anew daily.
Stretch reality daily.
Laugh daily.
Cry as you need daily.
Learn what it is to be human daily.
Fuck up in the most glorious way daily.
Go on an adventure daily.
Don’t compromise daily.
Listen to music daily.
Dance daily.
Find time daily.
Cook a new dish daily.
Be artist daily.

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Joshua Sofaer:

You go about your day in as ordinary a way as possible. You get up. You brush your teeth. You make breakfast. Later you to to the supermarket or call a friend. You do all these things just as normal. Now imagine that you are being watched. Not by the secret service or the unknown enemy but by an audience. Every movement you make is witnessed as part of a performance. What happens?

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Mad For Real:

1. Find a friend and go somewhere such as a busy high street, a gallery or museum, a hill or mountain or in a rural field.
2. Stand in the middle of that space and scream loudly for five minutes with your mouth wide open looking straight ahead, keeping your breath steady to release your ‘qi’ or inner energy

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Eloise Fornieles:

Trust a stranger.

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Nando Messias:

Find yourself something inappropriate to wear, something outrageous. Ideally, something you wouldn’t have been allowed to wear as a child. Something that would make you stand out if you were to wear it in public.
Put this item of clothing on. Go for a walk. Take public transport. Go somewhere crowded.
Now become an observer. Watch people watching you. How are they reacting? Take notes. Perhaps use your phone as a camera to record them.
Use the material collected to create a performance for the stage. Wear the garment from your experiment as a costume.

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Aaron Williamson:

‘Out of the Way’
When trying to shade your way through a situation that involves a person who is employed to be ‘in the way’, try pursing your lips, frown heavily, form a ‘gun’ hand-shape with the index and middle fingers of one hand, and press it over an earhole (hand and ear, same side of body). Shake your head, do not speak. Surprisingly often, the person who is ‘in the way’ will abandon the task of explaining their position, shrug and move to one side, standing ‘out of the way’. Really seasoned go-through types such as myself, can even achieve this outcome without the hand/ear business, simply by looking deeply confused and deploying body language that communicates polite servility. It doesn’t always come off, but entering into verbal discussion or arguing rarely ever works. Some situations to try which I’ve had various successes in: thwarting guest lists; receiving concessionary rates; entering exclusive parties; avoiding queues; escaping fines; being refunded; receiving assistance, an escort or even conveyance to elusive destination. There can also be exceptional, unexpected outcomes to flashing the gun-hand to ear gesture whilst not-speaking, such as the time I was awarded a flight upgrade and the occasion when a restaurant bill was made ‘out of the way’ by an unknown diner who paid it for me.

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Katherine Araniello :

Go to a restaurant with someone
Order fish and mashed potato
Order champagne with a straw
Instruct the feeder to feed you your entire meal. I.e. putting the fork into the food and putting it into your mouth.
Drink the champagne as you would normally but though a straw with the feeder always lifting the glass up to your mouth when you initiate.
Pay the bill and go.

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Ansuman Biswas:

Allow yourself to be pounded, torn, burned, pierced, sanded, broken, and moulded without resistance.
Remain clearly conscious.
Continue to do this for twenty years.
In your free time make art.

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Nicola Canavan:

Insert a hook (you may need a professional) and attach that hook to a secure place on a wall/ceiling. Cover your eyes with a blindfold, close off your mind and quiet you inner thoughts and pull your body away from that hook for a minimum of 20 minutes. Be at peace with your pain.

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