About the residency:
Throughout April 2012 we lived in and worked from in a former prison in the picturesque village of Cushendall, Antrim, Northern Ireland, built in 1820 by the eccentric Francis Turnley as 'a place of confinement for idlers and rioters' and as a central panoptic structure from which a curfew could be enforced across the village at the sounding of the tower's rooftop bell.
Today the Curfew Tower is owned by former KLF money burning provocateur and visual artist Bill Drummond who has opened it up as a residency space for occupation by artists/rioters. Its front doorway serves as a hangout for local teenagers and the side of the building is the main meeting point for boy racers from surrounding villages. The tower has a large collection of artworks produced since 1999 through the residency programme, which has been locked in its dungeon by Static Gallery for the duration of 2012.
Further Information:
-Visit the Static website-Visit the Curfew Tower website
Context:
Static Gallery programmed the residencies and set in place a number of provisional curatorial rules and structures:- Residents representing a range of disciplines (artists, architects, musicians, academics, curators, writers etc) will be invited to stay in the tower from 3days - 3weeks.
- Each resident must make an audio 'field recording' on a Tascam Multi-Track Cassette Recorder (or similar). - Throughout the year Static Gallery will compile the recordings and produce a record in a run of 50 copies (25 signed, 25 unsigned, some with different signatories).
- The records will be sold through an e-bay auction exactly 3 days before the ONLY ever live broadcast of the piece (in its raw state) which will be transmitted from the tower as a radio broadcast. At the exact time the e-bay auction finishes the live radio broadcast will begin.
- As there is no budget offered for the residencies, all artists will be expected to keep a time sheet and to calculate the value of their labour-time which is congealed in the work they produce.
- the accumulative cost of all the artists' labour will determine the value of the record before it goes to auction. This may be translated and imposed as a minimum auction price or it may be left open to the (il)logic of the free market.
This residency at The Curfew Tower, Cushendall, Northern Ireland is part of a year-long series running throughout 2012 selected and curated by Static Gallery, Liverpool on behalf of In You We Trust.