APT : August Collectives
Whilst it may appear to be a recent phenomenon there is a surprisingly long history of collective art-practice – fifty years and more. In the 1960s the art world bristled with collectives with a political mission while groups like Fluxus and Art & Language began to rewrite the rules. If there is a resurgence of such practice now, what makes it tick?
In 2018 APT launched the first August Collectives to gain a better insight into how collaborations can develop in our spaces and how we can support such projects at their early stages. Last year, four artistic collectives and artists were invited to take over APT’s Gallery for one week each: Cleave and Deptford island Disco who came together for this project; South Speak, a gathering of poets; and the BOAT collective.
The first project was Cleave, by Cash Aspeek, Karen Byrne and Anno Mitchell. Strangely, the word ‘cleave’ can mean either to ‘split or sever’ or ‘to come or be in close contact’. Using a large collection of bed-sheets donated to the project by family and friends the group explored this apparent duality transforming them through a collective reimagining – moving through the space, dividing, folding, bundling and wrapping both the sheets and themselves.
Image: cleave.art, Moving through the space as it gets divided (>Instagram)
The second week’s project was Deptford Island Disco, a creative festival organised by Lauren Pennycott, with contributions from Rosie Whiting, Elizabeth Prentis and Laura Moran-Morris. The gallery was transformed into a living disco adorned with palm trees and mirror-balls. These formed the context for a series of events including D.I.Y dinosaur building workshops for children, breakfast clubbing, a life-drawing workshop called Beach Bodies and a Castaway Cabaret as part of Deptford Pride.
South Speak was an exploration of the intersection of the spoken and written word with visual and performative art. Artist Samuel Petherbridge curated a though-provoking series of multi-sensory poetry readings, writing workshops and intimate Q & A sessions that allowed the audience (not all of whom were writers) to test the boundaries of the words they use.
The final week saw a project by the BLOAT Collective entitled Float - another useful word. ‘Float’ can be used to test an idea, to save a life, to travel from one side to the other or to showcase a performance. For this project, Bloat explored different ways to create floating devices which might perhaps be seen as aids to enlightenment. All such aids were then tested post-residency at a site nearby.
The response from those that participated in the August Collectives project was excellent, both from established collaborationists and newcomers to the process. Ideas were stretched, new horizons explored and a great deal of fun was had – so much so that APT decided to continue the event from year to year as part of our mission to encourage creative dialogue. Sadly for us, Covid has made that rather difficult but we are determined it will be back in 2021.
LINKS
www.instagram.com/augustcollectives.aptgallery
augustcollective2018.wordpress.com
www.instagram.com/poetandprophetess
www.sampetherbridge.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/bloatcollective
Image: cleave.art, Cash rolled up (>Instagram)
Image: cleave.art, Overnight tumble Day 4 (>Instagram)
Image: deptford.island.disco
Image: bloat.collective
Image: South Speak
