Bed-in @ The Margate School: Stop the War
Performance: Saturday 23rd May, 9:00pm
UKD is undertaking a Beuysian performance in Margate as part of the project Bed-in at The Margate School: Stop the War which commenced on 8 May. UKD grew up in the same district as Beuys in Germany. Beuys’ concept of Social Sculpture had a profound influence on UKD. The project combines sculpture, poetry, protest and also sound performance with a number of artists and others contributing
(see list below).
About The Performance:
The raven has landed casting a shadow over the ocean of love we could offer in response to the crisis, the horizon remains that what it is, an unattainable line we can never cross. We need to be patient and await mediation critically reflecting on our next deeds. Whatever the resolution it will be transformative.
The performance seeks to demonstrate how the crisis is an opportunity to reflect on our human condition with love at its centre and that we need to move towards an understanding of the process of mediation, transformation and the potential of healing.
The performance will take place on 23 May at 9.00 p.m. at The Margate School, two months after lockdown in the UK. It will last approximately 20 - 30 minutes. It will combine the bed-in installation and the sculpture together with the artists performing and a short collaborative sound piece by sound artists Jacob Calland and Cam Griff in response to the installation.
Cam Griff and Jacob Calland have, in response to the work undertaken by UKD during the bed in at The Margate School, created a sound piece that attempts to encapsulate the varied themes explored during the intervention. Incorporating field recordings taken along Thanet’s coast, elements of sounds from the films of Yoko Ono, recordings of found objects and Poe’s narrative poem “The Raven”.
The creation of the work has been procedural, process based and at its heart collaborative. The architecture of the building was used to feedback parts of the piece creating resonant passages of Poe’s poetry sculpted by the building. The poem’s structure and meter were used to create free rhythmic passages. Field recordings used to fix the piece in space, and the sonic palate was produced from found
objects mirroring that used in the sculpture itself. The narrative of the piece reflects on loss and hauntalogical memory.
The piece has been, not only a collaboration between artists contemporaneously, but also Poe, physical material, the architecture of TMS, and Margate itself.
The performance will be live streamed on The Margate School facebook page. People can also come to the School to view the performance through the front window as long as social distancing advice is being observed.
Artist Statement:
“Bed-in @ the margate school
Stop the war
On people, society and nature
Freedom
For what?
Peace
But for all
Body and mind
Time to reflect
What do we do?
Did we do?
The raven has landed
His shadow cast
Into the future
May love be still in patience
Still give glimmer in the dark
Last year was the 50th anniversary of Yoko Ono’s and John Lennon Bed-ins for Peace in Amsterdam and Montreal. Anthony and I planned to create a bed-in then but illness and other things got in the way, yet with-out Anthony’s nod I wouldn’t have held onto the bed-in idea. With the COVID-19 pandemic the joint venture was now an impossibility and I pushed it to the back of my mind.
Then a raven appeared in a dream, and it prompted me to push ahead with the idea, despite all the other pressures and little time to hand, I was now determined to pursue this, what one might call, creative challenge. Poe’s poem immediately came to mind, a poem about lost love but I think also a poem about humanity and destiny. It is the basis of my undertaking that commences on Friday 8 May, the day we celebrate Victory in Europe. The Bed-in will last approximately one week preceded by the making of a raven sculpture.
History weighs heavily on young slender shoulders and the freedom gained bloodily, yet victoriously turns out to be fragile, especially among the most vulnerable in our society. In our victory, have we inherited (possibly held onto) the idea of a “total war”, within which resides the real possibility of total destruction of self and everything around us, the opening of battles on many fronts simultaneously, against mind, body, the people, society and nature? The raven has landed and has cast upon us a state of permanent crisis. May love and hope be the naive building blocks for a future of possibilities. Let the future become an invitation to our children. UKD, 7 May 2020
About The Sculpture:
Since 7 May the Raven sculpture has been emerging patiently and peacefully, his depth will be his wisdom, his silence the deadly potential of casting judgement as we need to critically reflect and make a judgement as to what is happening to us and around us and how we need to act. In one way or another a decision will be made with us or without us. Potentially our creative engagement can contribute to the healing of
the many wounds inflicted on us and by us, on society and nature alike. The raven is represented in many cultures, often mediator between life and death.
The sculpture is made from mainly recycled materials, timber, metal and tissue paper, some found in the space of The Margate School, which was formerly the Woolworths building. The Raven sits on a piece of timber that formed part of an old shipwreck but came apart and was retrieved several years ago.
Event details:
23 May — 9.00 p.m.
At The Margate School, 31-33 High Street, Margate, CT9 1DX
The Margate School, Margate's Art School