SUPERDREAM Gateshead
The Windmill Hills Superdream event was a series of artist-led performative public works shown for Gateshead International Festival of Theatre (GIFT) in May 2014 in Windmill Hills Park, Gateshead.
In the week running up to the launch of GIFT 2014, artists Sean Cotterill, Lindsay Duncanson, Marek Gabrysch, Stephen Hobbs, Martin Hylton, Mariam Rezaei and Wideyed Collective collaborated to make creative interventions in the park, interrogating ideas around the role art can play in public space. The artists used video projections, dance, audio and photography to spectacularly transform the park for one evening only.
Work produced for the Windmill Hills Park event was exhibited as part of a major public event in Jeppe Park in Johannesburg on 19th July 2014, and was shown alongside work produced by South African artists.
ARTISTS
Sean Cotterill, Polyfield
Polyfield is a 4-channel audio and visual installation that uses recordings captured throughout Windmill Hills Park. This sensory data is placed into a four-direction distance sensor, which is activated by the presence and density of people around it, who both incidentally and purposefully create audiovisual compositions from the park, unifying sensory perception of the park's identity.Laptop, Arduino Mega 2650, Sensor shield, 4x HC-sr04 ultrasonic proximity sensors, 4x LED lights. projector.
Lindsay Duncanson, Au_(From the founding of the city)
Lindsay Duncanson’s work explored gold and gold leaf via video work and interventions. Duncanson worked with contemporary dancer, Andrea Masala who through improvised movement explored the transformative effects of gold, gilding the human body, creating statuesque abstract video work. Duncanson also worked with a group of young people to gild parts of the park with gold dust as a simple way of making a positive interaction with the park, expressing its value and adding significance-poetry to the prosaic.
Martin Hylton, Shadows past
The thought of public parks at night conjures up eerie characters hiding in the shadows waiting to pounce. Martin Hylton wanted to create a performance that explored these feelings, while also showcasing the serenity and beauty of a shadow and the darkness it exists within. The performance staged at dusk was a duet by two faceless dancers, reenacting the movement of various shadows that were once presence in the park.
“As an artist I am interested in what dance performance leaves behind. Once the dance is complete and the space is empty, what are the traces left behind? Is it energy, does it reside in the viewers’ memories alone?”
- Martin Hylton
Mariam Rezaei, ARK, Length: 17:29min.
ARK is an installation piece initially designed for Windmill Hills Park in Gateshead. Bringing together the composer’s childhood memories of playing in the park, toy instruments, piano practice and favourite films, ARK explores the necessity and importance of public spaces and child safe parks. ARK asks the audience to consider the history of the park, the history they had with parks as children and to help write a positive future that can be purposefully designed for new generations using parks. The ARK installation was created using a 8 channel audio mix split through vibration speakers attached to differing sonorous points in the children’s play park and a Fisher Price toy turntable.
Richard glynn, Wideyed
Richard Glynn set up a makeshift portrait studio in Windmill Hills park and photographed passersby - the large format photography was at once a performance, a participatory experience, and a means of collecting material for the next Superdream event in Jeppe Park, Johannesburg.
Lucy Carolan, Wideyed
Walk in the park inspired by Google Street View, this work-in-progress is a simple looped stop-motion animation produced by walking Windmill Hills Park on foot with a camera and photographing the view from the footpath every 5 paces.
Richard Glynn and Lucy Carolan are members of Wideyed, the artist-led collective they founded in 2008 with Louise Taylor. Their practices span several decades, and they have been working together since they met in 2004. They have taken part in international art and photography fairs and festivals, received awards and bursaries, completed residencies, worked on commission, and exhibited from England to India.
In the week running up to the launch of GIFT 2014, artists Sean Cotterill, Lindsay Duncanson, Marek Gabrysch, Stephen Hobbs, Martin Hylton, Mariam Rezaei and Wideyed Collective collaborated to make creative interventions in the park, interrogating ideas around the role art can play in public space. The artists used video projections, dance, audio and photography to spectacularly transform the park for one evening only.
Work produced for the Windmill Hills Park event was exhibited as part of a major public event in Jeppe Park in Johannesburg on 19th July 2014, and was shown alongside work produced by South African artists.
ARTISTS
Sean Cotterill, Polyfield
Polyfield is a 4-channel audio and visual installation that uses recordings captured throughout Windmill Hills Park. This sensory data is placed into a four-direction distance sensor, which is activated by the presence and density of people around it, who both incidentally and purposefully create audiovisual compositions from the park, unifying sensory perception of the park's identity.Laptop, Arduino Mega 2650, Sensor shield, 4x HC-sr04 ultrasonic proximity sensors, 4x LED lights. projector.
Lindsay Duncanson, Au_(From the founding of the city)
Lindsay Duncanson’s work explored gold and gold leaf via video work and interventions. Duncanson worked with contemporary dancer, Andrea Masala who through improvised movement explored the transformative effects of gold, gilding the human body, creating statuesque abstract video work. Duncanson also worked with a group of young people to gild parts of the park with gold dust as a simple way of making a positive interaction with the park, expressing its value and adding significance-poetry to the prosaic.
Martin Hylton, Shadows past
The thought of public parks at night conjures up eerie characters hiding in the shadows waiting to pounce. Martin Hylton wanted to create a performance that explored these feelings, while also showcasing the serenity and beauty of a shadow and the darkness it exists within. The performance staged at dusk was a duet by two faceless dancers, reenacting the movement of various shadows that were once presence in the park.
“As an artist I am interested in what dance performance leaves behind. Once the dance is complete and the space is empty, what are the traces left behind? Is it energy, does it reside in the viewers’ memories alone?”
- Martin Hylton
Mariam Rezaei, ARK, Length: 17:29min.
ARK is an installation piece initially designed for Windmill Hills Park in Gateshead. Bringing together the composer’s childhood memories of playing in the park, toy instruments, piano practice and favourite films, ARK explores the necessity and importance of public spaces and child safe parks. ARK asks the audience to consider the history of the park, the history they had with parks as children and to help write a positive future that can be purposefully designed for new generations using parks. The ARK installation was created using a 8 channel audio mix split through vibration speakers attached to differing sonorous points in the children’s play park and a Fisher Price toy turntable.
Richard glynn, Wideyed
Richard Glynn set up a makeshift portrait studio in Windmill Hills park and photographed passersby - the large format photography was at once a performance, a participatory experience, and a means of collecting material for the next Superdream event in Jeppe Park, Johannesburg.
Lucy Carolan, Wideyed
Walk in the park inspired by Google Street View, this work-in-progress is a simple looped stop-motion animation produced by walking Windmill Hills Park on foot with a camera and photographing the view from the footpath every 5 paces.
Richard Glynn and Lucy Carolan are members of Wideyed, the artist-led collective they founded in 2008 with Louise Taylor. Their practices span several decades, and they have been working together since they met in 2004. They have taken part in international art and photography fairs and festivals, received awards and bursaries, completed residencies, worked on commission, and exhibited from England to India.