Archive - 2010

RESIDENCY: Sheila Farrell

SOME OBJECTS

October 25th - November 6th 2010

Worcester-based artist Sheila Farrell brings together narratives and images collected as part of 'Some Objects', a work-in-progress in which people have been invited to share stories based around an object of their choosing, small enough to be held in their hand(s). Photos from the event here.

film SCREENING: What's New Pussycat (Donner, Talmadge, 1965)

Friday 22nd October 2010

Introduced by Marie Deans

A playboy who refuses to give up his hedonistic lifestyle to settle down and marry his true love seeks help from a demented psychoanalyst who is having romantic problems of his own. Written by Woody Allen and starring Peters Sellers and O'Toole.

The MEANTIME Multiplex - A Cheltenham Film Festival Fringe Event

29th September - 22nd October 2010

Role Diffusion

Understood as a democratic medium, video offers a vehicle to explore a multiplicity of possibilities. Using an economy of means, MEANTIME presents an exhibition of artists' videos which suggest a negotiation of role, identity and/or representation through complex fictions and characterisations, from cinematic constructions to filmed performance and documented actions. Including recent work by Bruce Allan, Helen Benigson, Louisa Fairclough, Richard Layzell, Simon Ryder, Cynthia Whelan, Richard and Michael Whitby, and Alexandra Zierle & Paul Carter.

MEANTIME Cultural Interrogation #1

Thursday 23rd September 2010

MEANTIME fund-raiser based around the idea of a pub-quiz but with better, more constructive questioning set by our very own Cultural Attaché. Cocktails, diplomatic immunity and hot drinks served, with musical interludes, and sushi-making demonstration from Chie Konishi.

SCREENING: F FOR FAKE (Orson Welles, 1974)

Saturday 18th September 2010

F for Fake focuses on Elmyr de Hory's recounting of his career as a professional art forger; de Hory's story serves as the backdrop for a fast-paced, meandering investigation of the natures of authorship and authenticity, as well as the basis of the value of art. Introduction by Richard Davies.

Works With Sunlight: Tests and Demonstrations

1st July - 1st August 2010

Dave Lynch, Ralph Macartney, Rob Mullender, Dominic Thomas

Curated by Gavin McClafferty

New work from artists for whom sunlight becomes an active agent in their work, incorporating sculptural installations and town-centre mobile light projections. More information on artists' projects here. Photos from the opening event here. Video of late-night solar-powered rickshaw here.

SCREENINGS: Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (Johan Grimonprez, 1997) and Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog, 1992)

Wednesday 30th June 2010

"Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y blends photographic, electronic, and digital images, reportage, clips from science fiction films, found footage, and reconstituted scenes filmed by the artist to investigate the politics behind hijackings, unwrapping our own complicity in the urge for ultimate disaster."

Lessons of Darkness: "In the aftermath of the [first] Gulf War, retreating Iraqi soldiers left the oil-fields of Kuwait a raging inferno. Herzog arrived on the scene to film the carnage, an apocalyptic vision of hell."

RESIDENCY: Anna Bunting-Branch

5th - 30th June 2010

Using the materiality of paint, cardboard structures and the space itself Anna created Maiden, a body of work that reflects a sense of place and provokes dialogue, drawing on ideas of the relic, museum display, and the theatrical prop to explore the mythic iconography of St Joan of Arc – warrior, heretic and martyr. Photos here.

Notions of the Political Body: an amateur symposium - an afternoon of reading groups, short papers and staged performances proposed by invited contributors, envisaged as an open forum for debate and performance, reflection and discussion situated amongst works produced during the residency. The idea of the ‘amateur’ emphasises the importance of engaged discussion driven by interest rather than expertise. Photos here.

Contributors: Anna Bunting-Branch, Rebecca James, Helen Benigson, Fancy Sounding Dress, Oliver Fuke, Sarah Beeby

LIVE MUSIC: The Magic Lantern + Men Diamler + special guest

Friday 11th June 2010

"The Magic Lantern take their inspiration from the heartfelt stories of folk, the spirit of jazz and the experimental openness of contemporary chamber music before filtering it through their own lyrical and narrative sensibility, wringing emotion from the strangest places, sounding happy, sad, frustrated, and vulnerable, often at the same time."

SCREENING: Winstanley (Brownlow and Mollo, UK, 1975)

Friday 4th June 2010

"1649. With poverty and unrest sweeping England, a group of impoverished men and women, known as the Diggers, form a settlement on St George's Hill, Surrey. Inspired by the visionary leadership of Gerrard Winstanley, the commune's tireless, yet peaceful attempts to assert their right to cultivate and share the wealth of the common land, are met with crushing hostility from local landowners and government troops." BFI

LECKHAMPTON HILL GUIDED WALK with Mike Ward

Sunday 16th May 2010

Leckhampton Hill is a geologically impressive escarpment forming the southern edge of Cheltenham. This excursion expanded on the ideas proposed by the Mark Out II project, looking the industrial and political history of the Hill relating to quarrying and land rights. Mike Ward, a Hill enthusiast, took us on his favoured route, demonstrating evidence of pre-historic settlement, centuries of quarrying, industry, tramlines and railways, 'secret' wartime buildings, and most especially, the rare orchids and strange invertebrates that now populate the area. More photos here.

DISCUSSION: Are We Ok?

Friday 14th May 2010

Are We Ok? was a half-day public forum that took place at MEANTIME which asked groups and individuals with an interest in the field of art production to consider the current conditions in which creative practice is operating, and to discuss the value and function of critical enquiry in the context of, but not limited to, a town such as Cheltenham.

Attended by artists, individuals, Martin Horwood MP, and representatives from local arts organisations and institutions, the open debate centred on the need for more space and a new arts centre for the town, whilst recognising the value of the MEANTIME project and its support of critical artistic production over display and consumption. Co-ordinated by Sarah B and Chie Konishi. More photos here.

PROJECT: Mark Out II - The Politics of Landscape and Place

Onya McCausland, Patrick Adam Jones, Simon Barker

3rd - 30th May 2010

Mark Out II was a location-specific project developed through collaborative dialogue responding to the physical, social and political landscape of Cheltenham. The artists, linked by individual drawing practices, have worked with material collected through processes of engagement with place, individuals and local institutions, exposing different layers of knowledge of the ‘landscape’ driven by different working methodologies. Photos here.

SCREENING: Funny Games (Michael Haneke, AUSTRIA 1997)

Tuesday 4th May 2010

The original version of Michael Haneke's exploration of screen violence. Employing the conventions of the thriller genre, Haneke directly challenges the expectations of the audience, forcing viewers to question the complacency with which they receive images of casual violence in contemporary cinema. Introduced by Nick Pride.

RESIDENCY: Debbie Locke

5th - 18th April 2010

Debbie Locke continues her investigations into mis-mapping using a GPS receiver to record the position of the MEANTIME building. Over time the technology will report that the building has ‘moved’, recording a multitude of locations due to annomalies in the GPS system which ensure pinpoint accuracy cannot be achieved - system errors due to changes in the orbital characteristics of satellites, atmospheric conditions, and relativistic effects on the on-board clocks due to the high speed at which the satellites are orbiting the earth.

The mapping data was collected and co-ordinates plotted three-dimensionally, allowing the viewer to inhabit the dislocation between technology and sensation. More photos here. In association with The Open West.

SCREENING: Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR 1979)

Thursday 1st April 2010

Stalker is set in a small town on the outskirts of "The Zone", a wilderness area which has been cordoned off by the government. The Stalker works as a guide to bring people in and out of the Zone, to a room which is said to grant "the deepest, innermost" wishes. Residual effects of an unnamed previous occurrence have transformed an otherwise mundane rural area scattered with ruined buildings into an area where the normal laws of physics no longer apply...

EVENT: JIM BROOk

CLOSE TO YOU: FILM AND LIVE SOUNDTRACKS

Thursday 25th March 2010

In his research into movement and gesture in relation to the performing body, Jim Brook has been documenting improvised performance workshops at the University of Gloucestershire that address a set of questions through a series of possible narratives. During the screenings of these films, the soundtracks were performed live. Musicians include: Stuart Wilding, Mark Unsworth, Jim Brook, Julia Price, Ron Davies, Troy Hewson and Pete Robson.

RESIDENCY: Helen Sturgess

DARK MATTER

8th - 20th March 2010

Attracted to its 'stupid' properties and playful associations Helen Sturgess works black plasticine onto architectural structures, dislocating surfaces with slivers of uncanny or sublime substance. At MEANTIME, Helen created something akin to a grotto, transforming the upper space into an unfamiliar other-world of silhouettes, giant paper forms, plasticine eruptions and intricate forms where as a viewer you are at once gigantic and miniaturised. More photos here. In association with The Open West

SCREENING: Black Rain (Kuroi Ame) (Shohei Imamura, JAPAN 1989)

Friday 5th March 2010

A deeply moving story about a small community of Hiroshima survivors centred around a young woman, Yasuko, and her family's attempts to find her a suitor. Introduced by Mike Ward.

RESIDENCY: Chie Konishi

8th - 27th February 2010

Proposing a project with no fixed structure, an ambivalence towards biographical and other details, and relying on spontaneity and chance, it was always possible that Chie Konishi would come unstuck. In the event, the artist wrote a script extrapolated by three performers, concerned with the ethical, environmental and practical considerations of making and unmaking art objects, a looping, durational exercise in making sense of contemporary practice. Performers: Sian Hemmings, Olga Przysuszynska, Jaime Cantera. Photos here.

SCREENING: MANUFACTURING CONSENT - Noam Chomsky and the Media (Mark Achbar, Peter Wintonick, 1992)

Saturday 6th February 2010

Introduced by Stuart Wilding

"In an energetic fusion of images and ideas, Manufacturing Consent explores the political life and ideas of the controversial author, linguistic scholar, radical philosopher and activist, Noam Chomsky."

LIVE MUSIC: The Horse Loom, Men Diamler and Brown Torpedo

Friday 5th February 2010

http://www.myspace.com/horseloom

http://www.myspace.com/mendiamler

SCREENING: EDWARD SAID:The Last Interview (Mike Dibb, 2004)

Saturday 30th January 2010

Introduction by Manzu Islam Syed

Documentary profiling the cultural theorist, Edward Said.

NATASHA HOUSEAGO

Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th January 2010

Rosegarden Project

Natasha experimented with form, materials and motion for a forthcoming outdoor project, embedding found-objects and high-strength magnets in wood. More photos here.