Filed under: They Are Here
They Are Here is a London-based multi-disciplinary collective led by Harun Morrison and Helen Walker. Different projects involve the participation of various artists and non-artists, including associates: Joe Bell and Anne Jonsson. Their combined disciplines include net and interactive design, writing, sound, film, body-based practice and spatial design. They have presented work at South London Gallery, LIFT, Whitechapel Gallery, Battersea Arts Centre, online and in the streets.
They are here demand a high level of interactivity on the part of their audience/attendees. They often take populist systems or experiences (Myspace, a launch party, a haunted-house) as a framework for ideas. Constructed-situations/performances may involve the participants engaging with a narrative or game external to the event itself to unlock it. Projects evolve from constantly shifting collaborative models; exploring group dynamics, the division of power, the balance of authorship between participant and artist and the effects of temporary engagements with other artists or non-artist specialists.
In Becoming the Alien (South London Gallery, 2006), for example, participants imagined themselves as extra-terrestrials who have landed in Peckham to explore indigenous flora and fauna. Punning on the American use of ‘alien’ to mean immigrant, participants’ extra-terrestrial personae were drawn from the gestures they observed from local immigrant communities during the workshop process.
Links to other recent or ongoing projects:
Millipede in association with Lift Festival 2008
http://liftfestival.com/stratford-events_1296.aspx
http://liftfestival.com/Southbank-Centre_1336.aspx
Halfway House (Man and Eve Gallery 25.10.07 – 09.11.07)
http://www.manandeve.co.uk/exhibitions/Halfway-House
Ayo and Oni Oshodi: we are collaborating with these constructed twin personae. Find out more about them via their residency at South London Gallery or their Myspaces
http://www.myspace.com/ayoyoueverything http://www.myspace.com/iamtheoneandoni
http://www.southlondongalleryemptyspace.org
Becoming the alien (South London Gallery, 01/08/06-27.08.06)
http://www.southlondongallery.org/docs/exh/exhibition.jsp?id=129&view=past
You can contact us by email at theyarehere@live.co.uk
