An artist and a writer talk about collaboration (2016-21)
On 21 December 2016, an artist (Cliff Stevenson) and a writer (Joe Pierson) met in the 6th floor functions room of the Tate Modern London for a discussion about collaborating on an art work.The discussion that ensued, the whole of which was filmed, lasted for around 100 minutes.
One of the conclusions reached that evening was that the discussion itself was an art work. However, neither the artist nor the writer felt that the discussion in itself was an art work sufficiently resolved to be presented in its raw form. Instead, the discussion was seen as a raw material from which a joint art work would be made.
The material was disassembled into 8 components which are presented as separate films indicated below. In addition, summary and conclusions have been provided which gives a basic understanding of what was discussed and the conclusions that were reached.
The summary and conclusions can be seen as one version of the final work.
It is not necessary to watch all 8 components. They are provided as back-up materials providing more in-depth resources to experience the work in a more intense way.
Links to the summary and each of the 8 components are provided below:
8 COMPONENTS (for background reference only)
Component 1 (23'23') - the whole conversation split into four and screened simultaneously. Best listened to on stereo headphones.
Component 3 (10'12') - this component extracts the major spaces between the spoken text.
Component 2 (6'25") - this component further disaggregates component 1 so that 16 clips of the conversation are screened simultaneously. Best listened to on stereo headphones.
Component 4 (21'25") -1734 words were used in the conversation. The words were used to create a poem according to two rules a) the words are ordered by the number of times they were used in the original conversation b) for words that were used the same number of times, the words are ordered alphabetically.
Component 5 (5'47") - The same list of 1734 words, ordered according to the same rules as component 4, was used to create a play. This film records a read through of the play by the artist and the writer. The read through took place on 16 September 2021 in the same room as the original conversation five years earlier. The play has not yet been performed. The script is available if anyone would like to have a go at staging this play.
Component 7 (1'12") - The writer also made his own recording of the words which he then interpreted as a dance.
Component 6 (5'01") - The writer interpreted the words as a dance as they were read out by the artist.
Component 8 (4'33") - The artist composed a song using the words from the discussion. Partially inspired by 'The Cold Song' by Henry Purcell. The song is set to short clips of the movement that occured when the filming was paused for comfort breaks and in order to move the table and chairs within the room. (Best listened to on stereo headphones)