Royal College of Art
School of Fine Art
Gorvy Lecture Theatre
Dyson Building
1 Hester Road
London SW11 4AS
Travel information: www.rca.ac.uk
www.rca.ac.uk/schools/school-of-fine-art/visual-cultures
RCA Visual Cultures Lecture Series
Current Modes of Artistic Production
Christine Borland and Brody Condon
Daughters of Decayed Tradesmen
Tuesday 11 February 2014
6:30–8pm
Free event; no booking required but early arrival advised.
For the latest in the RCA Visual Cultures Lecture Series, Christine Borland and Brody Condon will present their collaborative installation Daughters of Decayed Tradesmen, commissioned by the Edinburgh Art Festival and exhibited in August 2013.
Daughters of Decayed Tradesmen explores the oral histories directly and indirectly related to Edinburgh’s Trades Maiden Hospital. The resulting work is created from punched cards, as used on a Jacquard loom, upon which these oral histories are encoded. The chains of cards are suspended within the burnt out watchtower of the New Calton Burial Ground, which was erected by the incorporated trades of the Calton area. The tower itself was build to address a growing problem in early 1800s Edinburgh: how to foil so-called ‘Resurrectionists’ or bodysnatchers—those who secretly disinterred recently buried bodies in order to sell them to the Anatomy School.
Brody Condon‘s recent work is focused on the creation and documentation of performative group encounters. Enamored with collective dysfunction, it explores live role-playing, group psychotherapy, and the obsession with fantasy in contemporary culture. Brody Condon has recently exhibited at MoMA/PS1, New York (2010); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2010); and the Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, New York (2011). He is currently working on the long term collaboration Circles of Focus with Christine Borland, with whom he also made Daughters of Decayed Tradesmen for the 2013 Edinburgh Art Festival.
Christine Borland‘s works introduce the aesthetic and imaginary to scientific and medical research methods and processes, both historical and contemporary. Her research in these contexts has rendered visible, inaccessible people and practices. Her most recent solos shows include Cast From Nature at Glasgow Sculpture Studios (2010) and Camden Arts Centre, London (2011) and Divine Imperfect at Pier Arts Centre, (2012). Christine Borland is BALTIC Professor at Northumbria University, Newcastle and is working on the long-term collaboration Circles of Focus with Brody Condon, with whom she also made Daughters of Decayed Tradesmen as a 2013 Edinburgh Art Festival Commission.
Introduction by Professor Jo Stockham, Head of Printmaking at the Royal College of Art.
Forthcoming Lectures:
25 February: Laure Prouvost
4 March: Ulla von Brandenburg
11 March: Thomas Hirschhorn
The Royal College of Art Visual Cultures Lecture Series, under the title Current Modes of Artistic Production, invites artists to investigate various aspects that contribute to the production, circulation and reception of their work. Through in-depth focus on a specific project of each guest speaker, the series aims to give an insight into the complex fabric of artistic production and explore what it means to work as an artist today.
RCA Visual Cultures Lecture Series:
www.rca.ac.uk
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