Bristol Arts Festival 2014

The Bristol Arts Festival 2014

Annika Kahr's Concert with the Birds 
& Jeremy Deller's English Magic.

On Monday, there was an overwhelming variety of exhibitions and art installations happening in Bristol to celebrate the Bank Holiday Arts Festival. From a waterslide down Park Street to pop-up Slow Food restaurants, inspirational talks and performance art there was so much to choose from. Its times like this when I am so intensely grateful to be studying Art in a city bursting with such an eclectic range of culture. Our highlight of the Arts Festival was experiencing Annika Kahr’s ‘Concert with the Birds’ in the intimate venue of the 13th century Lord Mayor’s Chapel, Park Street. The idea of watching a pianist and dozens of domesticated caged birds singing in collaboration sounded too enchanting to miss. It was hauntingly beautiful - a very emotional experience. 

The piano music was the recital composer Franz Liszt's melodic 'Preaching to the Birds'. Liszt, the 19th Century Austro-Hungarian pianist and composer, took the literary legend of the Saint as the model for his virtuosic piano piece. This story, which is often illustrated in the arts and has become a form of religious folklore, tells of the following episode: Francis of Assisi, the beggar-friar and founder of the Franciscan Order, gave a sermon before a flock of birds that he came across in a field. As he came closer, the birds didn't fly away, but rather remained in situ, reacting to his words. What is of significance in this story is that Francis thereby believed that not only did humans have souls, but also the entire animal and plant worlds. The consequence being, that each creature had a conscience and was blessed with the ability to understand. Liszt translated this narrative into the language of music, which serves as a model for universal understanding.

At times the high notes of the piano blend with the birdsong and you cannot distinguish between the bird or instrument. The audience sat shoulder to shoulder in tight little pews surrounded by cages of gorgeous white doves, parakeets and a plethora of colourful songbirds. They were delightful, curious creatures that fluttered around their cages, putting on a show for the audience. As we left, we both felt there was a strangely humbling feeling that came from the overwhelming sense of being at one with nature as they sang - despite the lack of spontaneity a walk in the woods might hold. Outside the chapel protestors held signs declaring ‘birds sing in trees, not cages’, but until I find I piano in the forest, I hope many more people can have such a an awe-inspiring, sensory experience. 

We then moved on to see ‘The English Magic’ by Jeremy Deller at the Bristol City Gallery. The exhibition was originally shown in the English Pavilion at ‘La Biennale di Venezia’ and was seen there by more than 350 000 people. Deller’s compilation of art focuses on the roots of British society, making an idiosyncratic, convoluted comment on its cultural and political history, its people, icons, folklore, icons and events. The concepts of real and imagination blend and diverge as you move through the exhibition. He does this by collaborating with a range of British people from prisoners to bird sanctuaries, musicians to archeologists.

At one point you’re faced with wall-mounted rows of Neolithic and Palaeolithic hand axes before being faced by drawings by former soldiers in UK prisons. Some of which are violent and harrowing and reflect the contemporaneous scenes of Northern Irish rioting bomb damage scenes in his photographs, which juxtapose those of David Bowie’s 1972 Ziggy Stardust tour. Bowie himself was looking at the relationship between flamboyant creativity and social change through the idea of ‘character’; for eighteen months between January 1972 and July 1973, he toured the UK as Ziggy Stardust.

 On the wall of room six, a map by Scott King traced the tour's progress in red lines across a thin black outline of the British Isles. This room’s paradox really makes you consider your place in this world as the audience and how your moment of euphoria at any given time could be juxtaposed with other people’s intense suffering elsewhere. The notion of paradox is key to his work.

For us, the exhibition raised the question of role of the contemporary artist in conceptual art, because crucially, Deller has not physically made any of the art, but instead brought it together as his own compilation. Yes, this is similar to the methods of Damien Hirst for example who employs teams of artists to put his ideas together, but at least he’s even involved in the creation process, unlike Deller. 

I discussed how I struggled with this concept with my Professor this morning and we came to the conclusion that in order to understand Deller we must draw parallels between his role and the role of a theatre director who directs the actors, but does not actually have any part in the final presentation of their combined efforts. After all, Deller studied History of Art at the Courtauld and is an academic not a painter, so why not use his skills to create a beautiful compilation of other people’s Art even if he cannot make his own? His genius lies in his skills as a curator, as a collector rather than his own technical ability.

Our favourite part of the exhibition was the film ‘English Magic’. To watch it you are encouraged to lie sprawled over the wreckage of a Range Rover from the film and as the lights go down the music of the Melodians Steel Orchestra from South London comes on at a slowed pace. In slow motion powerful footage of birds of prey taking flight silences you. 

What follows is a rather perplexing jumble of shots of varying from elated children on bouncy castles to the strangely apocalyptic images of Range Rovers being gradually crushed. The slow motion footage combined with the heavy music was intensely provocative and stirring, it had a very physical effect on us.