Baggage Claim rides again...

As noted in the post below Baggage Claim is back, although reduced  to 3 rather than the 10 suitcases originally installed in the Vestry House Museum Garden in 2009.

It is featured in a show called WITH(OUT) which addresses issues of migration and identity in terms of the tension and interplay between the 'within' of the human migrant and the 'without' of the changing physical location and environment.

The show has been put together by a group of 5 young curators each based in a different country and collectively known as Something Human. Reflecting this curatorial internationalism Baggage Claim was found online by a curator living in Singapore who was searching for artists and work that would reflect the thematic subject of the show.  What is also very interesting about this project is that it takes place in a residential house transformed temporarily into a new pop-up gallery space  in Brockley, South London.

It opens on December 30th and I will post up more pics and comment about the whole show later but in the meantime here's a preview of what's in the suitcases. Unfortunately, most of the original exhibition ended up in a skip so the only work that has been exactly replicated is this one:

What is nice about this version of Baggage Claim, however, is that I have been able to incorporate a subsequent exhibition into one of the recreated cases. In 2010 I did an installation called Random Library in which part of my collection of international, and often bi-lingual, poetry books were wrapped in Japanese chiyogami paper.  This obscured the titles of the books so that viewers had to  make selections based on the appeal of the paper the book was wrapped in, rather than a judgement about its content.  These books now fill the second case.

The third case is the Case for Art. All those materials that get carried around from place to place  when you're not sure what's coming next, not sure exactly what you will find there and not sure how much money you're going to have. You may not always use them but it's reassuring to know they are there....

Catching up with myself..

This blog hasn't had much happening for a while. This doesn't mean I'm not doing anything ... it just means that I haven't adjusted yet to doing everything on a phone rather than on a laptop. A lot of stuff is compatible with a small hand held device but I generally have more to say than I can fit in a tweet and a lot of images to edit and upload. Also I am more interested in the blog as archive rather than opinion. A degree of historical coherence is always useful.

Anyway... this 4 monthly update is basically going to consist of a bunch of pics from the epic 'Survival of the Fittest' which ran from early August and was so cool it was extended through to mid October. Some great feedback for this show and Mr. Team MSK was a huge hit with just about everybody except one kid a few days before the show ended who decided to pull him over.

I wasn't there but it was quite a drama apparently. The Waterworks management had to remove Mr. MSK to placate the parent of the completely freaked out kid who narrowly avoided being pinned down to the floor by the skeleton that he had insisted on provoking. What is amazing is that the skeleton has been pulled and poked and spun and stroked by hundreds and hundreds of adults and kids alike over the past 3 months and hasn't moved an inch. The force which this kid must have put into ensuring his downfall is really quite something. Eyewitnesses confirmed that parent half heartedly told child not to pull the skeleton after which child redoubled efforts and ended up scaring the shit out of himself as skeleton attacked. Good ... serves him right!!! Skeleton completely unfazed by whole experience.....

Big thanks to Tim Vine for the images and an extra big thanks for this one.......

More sooner than later as the next show opens at the end of this month. It's called WITH(OUT) and is a curated show in the Brockspace in South London. I will be revisiting 2009's Baggage Claim  for a show by international artists about international itinerancy.....