A neon sign by one of the winners, Tim Etchells. Pic: Tim Etchells
The inaugural winners of a cutting edge art agency’s 'Thinker in Residence' awards have been commissioned to spend a year challenging and creating within the live art field.
Sheffield artist Tim Etchells and Zambian-born Anne Bean have been selected from 49 competing artists for the prize, each receiving £30,000. A panel of more than 50 UK curators and critics chose them as “two brilliant artists who speak to the present condition and the history of performance in distinctive and powerful ways.”
Quizoola! A Forced Entertainment show. Pic: Hugo Glendinning
They have now been appointed by The Live Art Development Agency and Tate Research to address the legacy of performance art and live work, with a research mandate throughout 2009.
“These are pioneering awards which will mean that that the legacy of live art can be thoroughly examined by two outstanding practitioners,” explained Nigel Llewellyn, Head of Research at Tate. “I have no doubt this research will yield extremely valuable material which will not only shed light on current practice but also form a basis for future thinking in this area.”
12am: Awake and Looking Down by Forced Entertainment. Pic: Hugo Glendinning
Lois Keidan, of the Live Art Development Agency (LADA), said: “Live Art is often an ephemeral and fleeting experience. It raises many questions about what it might leave behind and poses challenges for the artist, the archivist, the art historian, the scholar and the audience alike.
“Legacy: Thinker in Residence Awards will provide Anne Bean and Tim Etchells with the unique opportunity to examine these issues."
Bloody Mess was one of the shows Etchells created with his Forced Entertainment theatre show. Pic: Hugo Glendinning
Etchells, who formed his provocative, innovative Forced Entertainment theatre company in 1984, revealed he was “thrilled” to have won the award.
“I'm interested in archive as a live process – not something fixed or fixing, but as something playful, mutable and changing,” he said, hinting at the kind of experimentation which has seen his company present improvisational performances that weave through multitudinous stories, inviting their audience to observe, join in or come and go at any given point.
“The chance to think around performance, archive and documentation really chimes with a whole strand of my work and my thinking over the years. I think LADA is an amazing institution and I'm really excited that they've partnered with Tate to create this scheme. I’m really glad to start this process in the company of an inspiring artist like Anne Bean.”
His accomplice is an equally adventurous tinkerer of the boundaries between performance, art and sensory experimentation. Since 1970, Bean has been known to use breath and laughter as profligately as paint or textiles, smearing honey on glass with her hair in between projects referencing local history in countries as disparate as Croatia, Iraq and Spain.
She was most recently seen creating a video based on Darwin and four musical installations as part of the Capital of Culture year.
