Kneel, Mulholland: Drive!: March 2010

Artist book Unveiling: Rocket MT2010, 48 pages, edition of 500, tells a linear narrative with layered visual meaning. It features images created and compiled by Andro Semeiko, and texts specially written by Neil Mulholland and JJ Charlesworth. It is edited and published in collaboration with Basement Art Projects.

Unveiling
Andro Semeiko

3 April -23 May 2010

Opening: Sat 3 April 2:00-4:30pm

Book launch Unveiling: Rocket MT2010, Sat 15 May 2:00-4:30pm
Free copies will be available at the launch and from: www.androsemeiko.com/unveiling

Andro Semeiko has made the body of work to document the secret creation of a space rocket designed to fly to Mars. Built by a secret society, work began underground in the 17th Century and has been ongoing for three centuries to meet the launch date sometime this year! The secret society has employed experienced miners from the Forest of Dean, who had previously helped the English to capture Berwick-upon-Tweed from the Scots in the thirteenth century. The miners have dug tunnels that stretch under the river Tweed to the village of Spittal, which is to be the actual point where Rocket MT2010 has been constructed. Specially trained rhinos were also shipped in from India to help out with the excavations. The final preparations for the first flight of the Rocket MT2010 are about to commence. The secret society will select fifteen lucky people from Berwick-upon-Tweed to man the rocket on its maiden voyage. They will experience the lovingly crafted Mock Tudor rocket, where things are on a miniature scale but have a grand appearance! Every detail of the rocket has been considered by the secret society. For example, the crewmembers' urine will be reworked into a delicious drink and their nail clipping will be processed into spacey porridge. The secret society has integrated itself into all levels of the community, enabling them to deny and cover up any rumours that the chimney at Spittal point is in fact the tip of their rocket. Can anyone stop the launch of this Mock Tudor rocket? What is the secret society's unknown quest to Mars? And why are the people of Berwick-upon-Tweed being offered this unique experience?

Project Unveiling consists of an installation in the Gymnasium Gallery and an artist book publication. The installation contains paintings, sculptures, drawings, blueprints, models, a slideshow and several items from Berwick Museum and Art Gallery. It operates in contemporary art context by using mechanisms of archival documentation as well as theatrical methods of delivering a narrative. The blueprints of the Rocket MT2010 are developed in collaboration with Pierre Maré Architects. Life size model of the rocket is built in collaboration with aircraft engineer Simon Heald.

Andro Semeiko is a Georgian artist living and working in London. Exhibition Unveiling is part of his Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship 09/10. Semeiko studied at Tbilisi State Academy of Arts (1998), HKU, Utrecht (2000), Goldsmiths College (2001) and Royal Academy of Arts, London (2006). He has exhibited in New Contemporaries 2001, Camden Arts Centre and Sunderland Museum (2001); Shine, The Lowry, Manchester (2002); Sotheby's Auction, London (2007); Two Hopes, Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre, Georgia (2007); Kunstvlaai, Amsterdam (2008); Expander Painting, Prague Biennale (2009). He was awarded Kunstanjer 2000 (NL) and British Institution Prize 2004.

Berwick Gymnasium Art Gallery
Berwick Barracks
The Parade
Berwick-upon-Tweed TD15 1DG

Opening times: 11am - 5pm, Wednesday - Sunday
Tel: 01289304535, Email: gymnasiumgallery@hotmail.co.uk

The exhibition is made possible by: Matthew Walmsley, Curator of Berwick Gymnasium Art Gallery; Judith King, Curator for Contemporary Art at English Heritage; Anne Moore, Curator of Berwick Museum and Art Gallery; Jim Herbert, Cultural Development Officer at Northumberland County Council. The Berwick Fellowship programme began in 1993 and is awarded annually to selected professional artists who have demonstrated an ongoing commitment to developing their practice. This period of reflective time is intended to give artists an opportunity to produce a new body of work in response to this extraordinary border location.

www.androsemeiko.com

Noise

with Torsten Lauschmann, Dr. Martin Parker, Dr. Robert Dow and Dr. Neil Mulholland

Noise happens ... in music, in art, in life. Composers, artists and performers join together to discuss sound and hearing across creative practices that recognise sound has moved beyond the concert hall, the recording studio and the gallery and into all aspects of our creative lives.

Torsten Lauschmann is an independent composer, sound artist and film maker based in Glasgow. Martin Parker is a composer, sound artist, improviser, director of the University of Edinburgh's MSc in Sound Design and recently premiered his opera for cinemas, "Songs for an Airless Room", featuring Phil Minton and Joby Burgess. Robert Dow is a composer of acousmatic music and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Neil Mulholland is Director of eca's Centre for Visual and Cultural Studies.

Wednesday 10 March 2010, 4.30-5.30 pm
eca research seminar series details available on this link.

Main Lecture Theatre (E22), Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9DF

Just the facts, ma'am