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    Exhibition I Am Not Tom Pope, You Are All Tom Pope

    September 11, 2015  by tom  |  Blog, Tom Pope's Blog

    It’s my pleasure to invite you to my new solo exhibition, I Am Not Tom Pope, You Are All Tom Pope, taking place at The Old Town Police Station, 11 Royal Square, St Helier, Jersey. There will be a private view 6pm Thursday 17th September.

    A participatory performance will take place in the exhibition space at 6pm Thursday 24th September: Terminating Martin Parr’s Liberation Photographs: a collaborative project between Tom Pope, Martin Parr and Archisle.

    The performance offers you the chance to destroy a Martin Parr photograph and potentially save one! If you’re interested in destroying a Parr photograph, for more details please visit: http://www.archisle.org.je/terminating_martinparrs/

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Pushing the Boat Out: The Route

    July 13, 2015  by tom  |  Tom Pope's Blog

    If your planning on joining me at some point during the performance on Thursday, here are some ways of finding and contacting me and some of the film crew. Below is a map of the planned route, click on the map to open it in Google. It’s impossible for me to estimate where we will be and at what time, we are setting off at 05.30 in the morning and I’d like to think we will be in St Ouen before sunset.

    If you would like to contact me at any point my number is: 07700717601, it’s highly likely that I will be tied up with things like pushing a boat up a hill. In this case you can contact either Gareth or Karen of Archisle Project, they will both be on hand for the vast majority of the shoot and should be able to give you details with regards to our current location.

    Gareth – 07797732794

    Karen – 07797818028

    If you are considering joining me to help push, film, general support or simply coming along for a walk, you can email me on tom.pope@societe-jersiaise.org and I can add your details to the crew list. Please feel free to invite your friends and turn up and participate in the making of the film, everyone is welcome!

     

     

     

    A New Film: a call for participants

    July 3, 2015  by tom  |  Blog, Tom Pope's Blog

    I am in the midst of completing the pre-production for my new film. The film will see me, with the help of the Jersey community, push a 13.7ft boat across the island and out to the Atlantic ocean.

    On July the 16th, starting from Gorey harbour i will set off with the boat heading West to St Ouen’s Bay. The underlying principle of the film is centred on how it’s an impossible task for me to complete alone. As a photographer and performer it will not be viable to record the process of pushing the boat across Jersey while actually doing it. I will require assistance from the public if i want to succeed in moving the boat and recording the performance. The resulting video footage will be used to create a 20-25minute film.

    Photo by: Albert Smith 1924-34

    The people of the local community become actors and crew in this film. Their contribution, by way of offering methods to move the boat, physical participation and recording of the event, is fundamental to how the performance progresses and the final film plays out. Everyone is welcome to help and support the event. It should make for quite an interesting day.

    Jersey is around 9 miles wide, as the crow flies. Starting in the East and heading West, I estimate the distance travelled will be around 13 miles.

    The boat we will be pushing out is a 13.7ft Skiff. I purchased in Jersey from the local auction house. Here i am leaving the auction house with it:

     

    Photo by: Philip MorelLaurens (A small boat on a set of wheels being horsedrawn to launch)

    Naturally, a first point of reference for this is Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, as an absolute classic film i’m not intending to remake it. There is no untouched rubber territory where i’m heading. In the instance of this performance i’m interested in the act of undertaking something without knowing how the event will unfold. Once i set off from Gorey Harbour i have no idea what will happen. Serendipity and spontaneity will be fully embraced. Why go to all the pains of taking a boat from one harbour, pushing it over land, only to push it back out to sea. Maybe this will become clearer upon completion, maybe not.

    1953 (Three children carrying small boat)

    The event of pushing the boat out will take place on 16th July, starting at 5.30am from Gorey Harbour. If you are in Jersey and would like to participate in helping film, moving the boat or assisting with the shoot then please do not hesitate to come and join in. I envisage the performance taking the entire day to complete. You are welcome to join me for the entire shoot, or for a shorter amount of time.

    The film will be made up of footage shot by the people of Jersey and a cameraman. It would be wonderful if you send me any video footage you have recorded that you would like to be considered to be in the resulting film.

    To get in contact with me you can find me in my studio at the  Societe Jersiaise or email me: tom.pope@societe-jersiaise.org

    The (Alternative) Island Games

    June 26, 2015  by tom  |  Tom Pope's Blog, Uncategorized

    Saturday 27th June – 3rd July sees the 2015 Island Games take place in Jersey. The Island Games takes place every other year, with 25  islands contributing. There are 14 different sports including: table tennis, swimming, cycling, volleyball and golf.

    With a large part of my residency here focusing on play, i will be using the island games as an opportunity to shoot. Although, my interest differs from formal games as i’m not so interested in structured game play and sports where boundaries confine the players to a court or pitch. I will be instigating improvised play and spontaneously creating absurd sporting events during the island games in all manner of locations.

    On Tuesday the 30th I will be holding a limbo competition in the Games Village. This event will form part of a larger body of work that juxtaposes the High Jump with Limbo. If you are about during the games and fancy your chances roll along to the Games Village between 10am -8pm.

    Workshops

    June 25, 2015  by tom  |  Tom Pope's Blog

    Good afternoon,

    i have been pretty busy over the past month, having completed a week long photo academy, and a number of workshops at schools and colleges in Jersey. The photo academy saw 8 students challenge themselves and individually step outside of their comfort zone and experiment with new strategies of image making.

    Here are a few of the results from the photo academy workshop:

    Photo by Olivia

     

    Photo by Alfie

     

    Photo by Sam

     

    Photo by James

     

    Photo by Robyn

     

    Photo by Oscar

     

     

    Photo London

    May 19, 2015  by tom  |  Blog, Tom Pope's Blog, Uncategorized

    As the evening presses on, I have finally got around to penning this update. Tomorrow sees the Private View of Photo London, a new Photography festival based at Somerset House, London, that from the looks of things will not be to dissimilar to Paris Photo.

    I will be performing at the Royal College of Art Stand at 2pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

    I will also be giving a reading of Rut Blees Luxemburg and Alexander García Düttmann’s book The Academic Year on Saturday from 1pm till 1.30pm at Ruts installation The Teaser.

    The college where I studied my Masters in photography, the Royal College of Art, will exhibit a selection of 9 alumni from the past 4 years. I have been invited to perform potentials, a performance I was commissioned to develop by TimeFrame; On The Legacy of Performance, a symposium and exhibition examining the recording and documentation of performance art.

    Potentials.01

    The performance exists for the act of capturing its own existence, yet with the potential of it never being able to achieve this.

    60 apples are thrown at the cable release. Each apple has the potential to hit the cable release and produce a photograph, and yet the possibility remains that every attempt may be futile. These performed photographs highlight concerns with documenting performance using photography.

    Potentials.01 mechanism

    Above is a picture of the mechanism I would throw my apples at. This DIY aesthetic generally occurs because I am ill equipped with regard to a workshop when fabricating props. I also enjoy the sport of kitchen table building.

    Rather than re-perform Potentials, and also due to the decision made by the powers that be that I probably shouldn’t be throwing 60 apples around at an art fair, I decided to further develop the performance.

    One of my main concerns with Potentials is the visual vs conceptual balance, as a conceptual work, it floats, but the visual for me just doesn’t excite me anymore. So for Potentials.02 I wanted to capture the object being thrown. I was also eager to create a process where the more successful I am the more I disrupt the image I have strived to create.

    And so came some research. Firstly, into a system where I could store energy, so I wouldn’t have to throw something in a hard manner at the mechanism to fire the shutter of the camera (in the original performance, I needed to throw the apple with a great deal of force, so the cable release would fire the Hasselblad), I found that a cross bow mechanism might play a part here, where I could store energy an use substantially less energy to release it.

    Secondly, was thirst for a method of disrupting the image if I was hitting the target. So came a sheet of Marlon, a variant of strengthened Perspex used on boats.

    Potentials.02 test

    By subverting the crossbow mechanism and adding a sheet of Marlon that I will throw objects at I was set. Design’s were drawn up on odd scraps of paper, but mostly this kind of thing exists in my head, and I have to try my best to describe it to those around me from whom I seek council with such odd builds.

    The Crossbow mechanism

    I’m happy with the finished mechanism, built partly in London, shipped to Jersey, completed on the island and now ready to be flown back to London to be used in my performance. The addition of a sheet of clear Perspex, adds another layer to the achievable/graspable and ungraspable, it’s like walking down Sloane Street, the fashion shops glass is maintained to an intense degree of clearness, to at once invite us in, allow us to reach forward and touch the product, live the life, yet, just as we come to grasp it, alas the pain of glass keeps us out, blocks us. We are left unable to see due to the build up of mist from our breath on the window. Suiting for a contemporary art fair I’m sure.

    Build in progress

    Build in progress

    Build in progress

    Build in progress

    Build in progress

    Build in progress

    Although I had bigger plans for the mechanism, currently the performance works in a way that when I hit the Perspex a photo is made and the object disrupts the image. I would prefer to have it work in a way that when the object hits the Perspex it stays attached to it, so as the performance progresses, visibility becomes less clear. I think this will be worked into the design for Potentials.03.

    About Potentials.02

    Potentials.02 sees the artist throw an object at a sheet of Perspex that sits in front of the camera lens. If the artist is successful in hitting the Perspex, it will trigger a firing mechanism that results in a Polaroid being shot. Within each successful image, we see the fine lines of the clear Perspex within the frame, and also the object thrown frozen in the image. Through chance the object will obstruct and disrupt the image. If the artist is triumphant in recording his success in the performance, he also has the chance of destroying the image that records that very performance. With each performance there will be a potential of 10 Polaroid’s being shot to record the event, yet there is also the potential of no images being shot, and no record of the performance existing.

     

    Potentials.02 Test

    Workshops

    May 11, 2015  by tom  |  Blog, Tom Pope's Blog, Uncategorized

    During my time on the Island I shall be running a series of workshops to a wide demographic of Jersey people. Taking place in schools, colleges and youth centres, the workshops will explore performed photography and play. Through a series of activities, we will look at the roll chance and failure can play in the image making process.

     

    Here I am demonstrating one of the activities with a student from Highlands College.

    By performing the act of making an image, the photographer no longer remains still movement is required. Many of the activities borrow concepts from sport and theatre.

    Here is an image a student made playing catch with another student using an orange.

     

     

    Come Play With Me

    May 5, 2015  by tom  |  Blog, Tom Pope's Blog, Uncategorized

     

    Come Play With Me

    We can play games, invent new games or just play. Generally, a game has a clearly defined structure and set of rules. Whereas play, can spontaneously exist without the need of regulations. Ad hoc contests, office games and challenges invented and played once; all are forms of play that can exist within the everyday.

    I am inviting you to play with me and create photographs in the process. It could be anywhere and at any time. I have developed a series of games that we can play, but would like to invent new games and ways of playing with you.

    Through play and collaboratively invented games, chance can be encountered and in the moment anything can happen. Rules can be made and even broken. The potential for what happens in boundless.

    To take part or find out more, please email me: tom.pope@societe-jersiaise.org

    The Arrival

    April 27, 2015  by tom  |  Blog, Tom Pope's Blog

    Good evening, I’m Tom Pope a London based photographer and film maker and this years International Photographer in Residence at Archisle. Archisle is an international photography programme organised and run by the Société Jersiaise. I have been commissioned to create a new body of work that records Jersey in my style of shooting photographs and film, a solo exhibition of these works will take place in Jersey in September. Alongside this I will be leading a series of workshops for the people of Jersey.

    I intend to use this blog to keep you updated as to my progress while also using this platfom to invite those people based in Jersey to participate with the works i make. Taking inspiration from the Société Jersiaise’s extensive archive, photographs and films will be created through improvised game play and orchestrated situations.

    “We must develop a systematic intervention based on the complex factors of two components in perpetual interaction: the material environment of life and the behaviours which that environment gives rise to and which radically transform it. …Our action on behaviour, linked with other desirable aspects of a revolution in mores, can be briefly defined as the intervention of games of an essentially new type.”

    Guy Debord, Report on the Construction of Situations and on the International Situationist Tendency’s Conditions of Organization and Action, June 1957