After four successful missions carried out in West Bromwich High Street, this year’s INTERЯOGATION programme will come to a conclusion this Friday 1st October with a conference looking at the programme’s findings.

these mission days test the agents to the limits – their reserves of energy, enthusiasm, creativity, ingenuity and ability are put under the severest scrutiny. so their thoughts at the end of the day are always enlightening and give us a window into the agent’s soul.

AGENT GOODENOUGH


“thanks west brom for letting me party in your streets. i enjoyed your conversation. hope you enjoyed my cakes.”

AGENT TAYLOR

“a lot of people were a bit wary of us giving away ‘free’ stuff (and maybe the moustaches), and one lad even asked me if the sweets had drugs in! in retrospect we found out a lot of info, mostly from dialogue with people at our party”

AGENT COOPER-WILLIS


“as of 3:30 today the Public now has competition – the Private. enter  & save. ”

AGENT PORTER


“panic, trepidation, enjoyment.

started the day with panic and listened to the orders with trepidation. what happened next was a spontaneous reaction to the challenge and was thoroughly enjoyed.”

the agents’ projects have been going on all afternoon – with distinct approaches taken to the subject of site specific. how did the agents bridge the public realm gaps?

agent porter looked at the derivation of the name West Bromwich. Bromwich comes from the yellow plant, the broom. he purchased three wooden brooms and sprayed them yellow – and then placed them in a series of situated positions. the use of the brooms also offered ideas of “new broom – sweeping away the old” and in that way – regeneration. the idea would be that the public would notice them almost subconciously.

agent taylor pursued a similarly positive approach – finding ways to make people smile and notice and celebrate their surroundings. she made some ad hoc signs promoting the town and found unusual places to display them. her slightly absurd pigeon factory signs and associated pigeons referenced the areas most sociable inhabitants and offered a slightly different, more positive slant to the normally vilified birds.

early in the day, both agents identified a common desire to be positive about the town and more importantly to give its inhabitants a forum to express their feelings about west brom in a positive way. they decided to have a party. but this would be no ordinary party – but a positive party. invitations were made up and given out, inviting people to congregate by the clock in the target zone at 3pm. the ad hoc congregation took the chance to indulge in the free party fayre and engage in talk about their town giving their opinions which may ordinarily remain unheard.

no good work is done on an empty stomach and for these agents, the lunch session means sandwich-fuelled inspiration.

agent Taylor shows off her newspaper-spy-disguise – ingenious

Each week, the agents are assimilated with their target zone – particularly here – the eastern gateway of West Bromwich high street. The whole programme looks at how artists can help to bridge gaps in the public realm – and in particular here in West Brom, how to bridge the particular geographical gap between the two ends of the centre.

The tour is also the first exposure for the newly hirsutely-disguised agents to venture into the public space and test out their new-found agent status.

inform

document

record informed discover

for my next trick

engage

remnant

subject best practice Posted by: Anna Francis No Comments » INTERЯOGATION – AGENT WHITE = MASTERCLASS Posted on September 22nd, 2010, by Anna Francis Agent White takes the agents on a series of best practice examples of how artists work in and most importantly with  particular locations and places. he touches on artists such as mike nelson, richard wilson, doris salcedo. and issues like “how do i create a feeling or a mood with my work, to grab the attention of the public and help induce an engagement.?” the second part of agent white’s masterclass proceeds to look at his own practice – including cardboard life-size construction of a submarine and … …his attempt to help northampton bus station grow in an organic way. this provoked questions from the public who wondered if the building was falling down – agent white would mischievously offer the prospect of his work actually holding the building up. Posted by: Anna Francis No Comments » INTERЯOGATION:WEST BROMWICH – specialist artist – RICH WHITE Posted on September 22nd, 2010, by Anna Francis Each week’s INTERЯOGATION:WEST BROMWICH missions are overseen by lead artist Anna Francis, but are led by specialist agents, hand picked for their expertise in the particular field. Today’s SITE SPECIFIC expert agent and specialist artist is RICH WHITE.  As part of his duties today, Agent WHITE will be delivering a masterclass presentation on the subject of site specific in the public realm to the assembled artists, using his myriad experiences as a base. Agent WHITE has been active in the field of site and location art in the public realm for many years. His website tells us - ‘My current work involves physically altering (or appearing to alter) existing architecture in public and exhibition spaces. These architectural interventions are developed specifically for their location through research and site visits; responding to the architecture, history and current happenings in the area. ‘Through this I create a narrative or story that I feel evokes the collective subconscious – a visual reference that seeks to provoke thoughts about the location by drawing on elements of the locale. The final work often takes a simple form or pattern of structure which is intended to resonate with the viewer through its unexpected familiarity. ‘The work is built on-site often from materials found or reclaimed in the vicinity and integrated into the existing architecture. Afterwards the materials are recycled or returned for reuse. This conveys a connection to its location and influences its development. The work is at the whim of the materials I can find and at the mercy of their limitations. ‘It is about making it work, about adapting ideas to changing situations, and creating an inspiring experience for the viewer which challenges their perception and causes them to question what they see.’ Posted by: Anna Francis No Comments » INTERЯOGATION:SITE SPECIFIC – agent images Posted on September 22nd, 2010, by Anna Francis the site specific agent interrogators have arrived and have taken their places at the table to be assimilated with crucial local information – information which will open up their target areas. there are four site specific agents. agent group Agent Taylor Agent Porter Agent Cooper-willis Agent Goodenough Posted by: Anna Francis No Comments » INTERЯOGATION:WEST BROMWICH – MISSION 3 – SITE SPECIFIC Posted on September 22nd, 2010, by Anna Francis day 3 , week 3 of INTERЯOGATION:WEST BROMWICH means it’s Site Specific – led by ANNA FRANCIS with the expert support of RICH WHITE – more about whom later. Site Specific according to theorist Gillian McIver is still controversial in artistic circles as there is still dissension as to whether it applies to work made specifically for a site (eg a public art sculpture such as Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North, or whether it’s work made in response to and encounter with a site. Today we’ll be going some way to looking at this central question and to see whether the public of West Brom will appreciate our four agents’ attempts to look at this method of artistic practice in their public realm. Posted by: Anna Francis No Comments » thoughts from the agents Posted on September 15th, 2010, by Anna Francis a really successful afternoon’s artistic interventions has led the agents to these considered thoughts… Agent Brereton – What’s the largest living thing in West Bromwich? is it the public? Agent Lima – When in West Brom, be a baggie. Carry a nail for West Bromwich Agent Branthwaite – i can’t believe how many people talked about what they could see through the telescope that they could have said by just looking. Agent Goldsworthy – interrogation was refreshing as an artist to try out new spontaneous ideas. our project “what is your vision?” brought out a range of positive and negative comments about west bromwich town centre and surprised me with how many people have never looked up and around at the interesting architecture Agent Flanagan – having looked at the traders in West Bromwich i decided to set up my own stall that dealt in commissioning the public to take a photo on my 35mm camera in the designated chalk area. These photos and position of feet are conjoined with reasoning of their photo, age and what free item they chose to take. by conversing in such a way it allows people to reflect on west brom in an alternative way and make them the temporary artist, whilst also bringing people together. 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