31 July: the journey so farThis week we continued our journey to Alloue in the Charentes region, then south west across the Bordeaux region for a couple of days at the beach, then back East, into the Perigord Noir region, along the Dordogne and finally over into Haute Corrèze, which is where we are now, in Saint Angel, parked in the grounds of artists Phil Illingworth and Natalie Dowse's home. Phil and Natalie are in the midst of self-building from a stone ruin, doing most of the work themselves, including the roof! They are incredibly resilient and very patient, and still manage to keep their respective art practices going. Chapeau. Also guests here are Jan and Chris of the Caravan Gallery. Another hard-working, hard-travelling couple who use their caravan as an kind of art vehicle too, in more ways than one. A happy coincidence and lots to talk about! I've met them before of course, but never had the pleasure of so much time to talk. Jay is pictured below wearing Phil's trousers after ripping his own trying to climb out of the bathroom window after getting locked in...Delphine is tackling a banana that is almost as big as she is. 21 - 31 July: more in-situ shotsSome of the other places we parked this week, sometimes just for a few minutes, sometimes overnight... 21 July: Haiti via AlloueOur 15 mins of fame...in the national newspaper of Haiti: http://lenational.ht/?p=4067, courtesy a young writer Dangelo Néard who is currently in residence at La Maison du Comédien Maria Casares, Alloue, France (Charentes), and who we had the pleasure of meeting on 21st July. Jay did an artist residency here in May 2013, so it was good to go back, chat to the programme director and stay in the same room too! Lakes, rivers, oceans, castles and factoriesThe river Lot, the Dordogne, some lakes and ponds, the Atlantic, where Delphine had her first experience of the ocean, plus some promontories of the rocky and also man-made variety... Life in the vanThe everyday stuff, sleeping, playing, storage, washing, peeping toms, resting under shady trees... 25 July: The pervertWe had a rather bizarre experience with a pervert...who knows though, he could be a serial killer too...we had stopped for the afternoon in a peaceful and shady forest picnic area by the roadside, frequented by other families too, so it looked fairly innocuous. We ate lunch and made some work, but gradually the type of visitor changed and the mood became a little sinister. A strange man in a car was staring at us, for at least 10 minutes. Jay suggested we move on, but I was busy finishing some work and hadn't really noticed this, Then the man walked over to us and stood much too close to me. Very uncomfortable. Very weird. Trying not to panic I casually mock-swatted some mosquitoes to create some space and begin to pack up our things to leave. By now back on the other side of the car park, the man stood next to his car, still watching us and waving something in his hand. As we drove off we saw it was a 50 euro note!?!?!...we were relieved to be back on the road. About a km down the road we had to pull over briefly to close a cupboard in the back that we had overlooked in our haste to get away. At that point we saw the same car pass us. Oh no. When we drove on we saw him pulled up ahead, waiting for us. He followed us relentlessly for several more kilometres and we couldn't shake him off. The sun was slowly setting and it was no longer funny; we needed to find somewhere populated and safe, quickly. After what seemed like endless empty road, we pulled into a small village called Damazan. All looked deserted, apart from the main square, where we pulled to a sharp stop in front of a bar - L'Escapade Damazanaise. The blue car stopped behind us. Jay got out and confronted him, immediately the curious locals, our handy witnesses, joined in. I filmed, photographed and called the police to report the incident and number plate. But after a few minutes, the man, who was unfazed and in complete denial, drove off. One of the local families kindly offered us their drive to park in for the night, as well as coffee and their warm hospitality. The next morning they gave us a generous breakfast of croissants and pains au chocolat. The father was a fireman and the two boys Leo and Louis loved our van because it looked like a pompier van, so I drew them a little souvenir to say thanks. Nonetheless a very strange night indeed. Cultural stuff and art and all that...If you want to see more about things we've seen, thought and made this week, aside from perverts, cruising spots and getting locked in toilets, visit our individual pages: Chiara's page is here, Jay's page is here. We are getting ready for a pop-up exhibition somewhere soon.
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This selection of road trip photos covers our journey from 12 - 20th July, from Calais to the Charentes region. We have been following small roads through even smaller villages, stealth camping along the way and visiting a few friends. We had wanted to blog daily, but poor wifi/signal has necessitated a different approach. In each place we stopped, we also began the process of making work in our own very individual ways, work in progress can be found on our respective pages in Stealth Studio. July 15 Montreuil d'Argile July 15 Les Aspres Jul 16 La Bazoche Gouet July 17 Rille July 18 between Rille and Richelieu July 18 Chateux de Gisieux July 19 chez Fabrice et Sylvie near Angouleme Sculpture 2
date: 15 July 2015 location: Ste-Gaiuburge – Ste Colombe abandoned ELF station The conversion of the van 4-split screen Converting the van is a BIG job. My DIY skills are on a scale from 1 - 10 at about 2. Chiara's skills however make up for my low score. She is somewhere between 9 and 10. When converting a van you either do it right or not. There is no in-between. I think there is. There is always an in-between. But hey, I am not alone in the van. Insulation and fresh air are important. Condensation is a killer. Hackney Wick, Fish Island: Den-city 1, curated by Rebecca Feiner Den-City 1 allowed us to carry out preliminary tests to determine the parameters and logistics of our road trip: Holiday adventure in a van camper van art residency (living) sculpture performative journey mobile exhibition social experiment The first idea was to work on the conversion of the van into a mobile road trip unit / camper van during the event as a practical performative action. During the work the van became a sculpture. It wasn't just a van any more. This opened up the questions of what the van actually is. Is it simply a van? Is it a sort of art mobile? A gallery? The social aspect of the project has become my main focus, especially at a time when rents are going through the roof (in London) and the affordable housing is something like 80% of the market value according to Boris Johnson. Here we have it all: a place to live, to work and show off what we think should be hanging on the walls of people who consider 80% of the market value (GBP800.000 for a three bed room flat!) is okay. work-in-progress installation/sculpture 26 June work-in-progress installation/sculpture 27 June The beach shelter we installed on the second day has a very practical purpose: sun protection for Delphine. It is the perfect marriage of art and pragmatism. various found objects, a drawing and work materials/tools for the conversion of the van The book and the clock are from our former house mate Amy, the box of chalks used to belong to Chiara's grandfather. The beautiful diagram-drawing by Chiara reminds me of my other project By-product. The remaining tools are all used for cutting foam etc. The two books are part of my on-going hand-written diaries. There is also a piece of foam we use for the insulation of the van. There is also a ruler as you can. I enjoy creating arrangements of things. I like creating order and have things perfectly line-up. Another project of the same kind is Archive of a Thousand Lives. Chiara drawing a diagram of the layout of the van. This is a trial set-up of how we can work and show work at the same time. Chiara breastfeeding in the van. This drawing highlights the beginning of my search for identity, functions problematics of Stealth Gallery.
People do not seem to understand what Stealth Gallery is. Most people think we are a gallery and do not know what we are doing. To me personally our presence at Den-city was an ephemeral sculpture that represents migration and movement, the very nature of who and what we are. We travel and settle down and then move on. |
AuthorsJay Rechsteiner Archives
August 2016
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