At The Elephant Rooms

Here, In and Around The Elephant Rooms

Together, At The Junction
PRESS RELEASE
PV I 29.07.09 I 6-9pm
30.07.09 – 02.08.09
A R A R I Investigation Three I Leah Elsey & Sonia Uddin I Matt&Ross/Grizedale Arts I Paul Teigh &
Martin Russell I What They Could Do, They Did

Together, At The Junction explores the relationship between collaborative art practice, community and public space. The Elephant Rooms invites jottaContemporary to facilitate artist engagement with a space in transition through live performances and site-specific works. The group exhibition will occupy The Elephant Rooms, a new roving art space in the Elephant and Castle Shopping centre founded and supported by Corsica Studios. The failed relic of a once promising 1960’s architectural structure will be the stage for a series of performances, live sound pieces and art works, in both the exhibition space and in the communal foyer space within the centre.

a r a r sound experiments occupy the gallery space with a live performance at the Private View and then venture into the Shopping centre’s communal space on Saturday the 1st of August at 2pm. Investigation Three conduct a sound recorded walk within the area at 2.30pm on Saturday the 1st of August.

jottaCONTEMPORARY identifies young and emerging artists who utilise varying discourses and disciplines. By creating an online profile of artwork on http://www.facebook.com/l/;jotta.com artists are given a platform for their work to be viewed, discussed and interacted with; encouraging artists to explore diverse projects and new approaches to exhibiting. jottaContemporary selects artists from within the jotta community, as well as showcasing artists who are still studying, recently graduated and working with young collectives all over London.

THE ELEPHANT ROOMS is a new transient art space which will pop-up at different locations throughout The Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre bringing art into vacant shops made available by St. Modwen, regeneration specialist and owners of the iconic building. Having built their reputation by establishing creative platforms in areas of regeneration, these days, Corsica Studios, is more likely to be known for hosting some of the most cutting edge live music in London. The Elephant Rooms will herald a return to their artistic origins providing a dedicated space in the heart of the community for arts and performance. South London has always been home to some of the most vibrant underground tendencies in both art and music. It has produced a succession of noteworthy art collectives and artists who, in the best traditions of DIY, have taken their fate into their own hands and set about finding less styled spaces in which exhibit their work. The Elephant Rooms will create a highly visible everyday context and provide the environment for these groups to converge and engage with new and different audiences.

Private view: Wed 29 July 2009, 6 -9 pm
Exhibition: 30 July – 02 August 2009 | 12 - 6 pm
Entrance: The Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, Unit 316 Lower Ground Floor

Participant Feedback Soundwalk 04/07/09

Walking through Elephant and Castle shopping centre with a soundrecorder changes everything about your perception of space.
Hearing the sounds around you amplified 'equalizes' them, every sound takes on the same value, whether it is children running around or the sound of your own footsteps. All hierarchy is gone and at first this can be quite confusing. I was never aware how much hearing influences your spatial awareness.
Listening to your surroundings this way removes you from the sound-sources and submerges you in them at the same time.

The sound in the shopping centre contrasted with the sound in and around the estate. Walking up a stairwell the sound of the road next to it came in and out of focus. There were a lot fewer sounds directly generated by people, the only two I came across were a man working on his car and two boys playing football in a garden. Although most of the sounds I recorded were either manmade or industrial there was also birdsong, wind and rustling leaves.

After walking around the almost deserted estate we met up again and a man who noticed us started talking to us about the area. It was interesting to hear his perspective on developments in the neighbourhood.

Walking on past South American cafes and establishments there was music and the sound of people interacting in different languages and of children playing.

Most of the people on the walk seemed to be interested in politics at different levels. For me this emphasized that the sounds themselves were a-political. It was my way of listening to them that added any political colour.

Going on the walk changed the way I listen and the way I thought about the recordings I had heard at the opening of the related exhibition at Raven's Row Gallery. It made me more aware of the sounds a community generates and how these sounds are part of everything that disappears when a community disappears. And all of us are part of the soundscapes that surround us.

Maartje

I thought it was a very unique experience, and couldn' expect that sound would allow such a deeper vision of a space. That way, I found also interesting to hear about Elephant & Castle's history. It is rare to take time to discover the different "layers" of places in a city like London.

Roxane

Thanks for this fantastic experience.

Gautier

Soundwalk July 4th 2009

A sign on one of the car garages at Heygate Estate.

Heygate Estate

Chris getting ready to talk to the group about the park, his book and Elephant & Castle