Sarah Cole and Coram Young Parents: Smother

Went to see this latest Artangel Interaction commission at a unique triangular-shaped empty house on Farringdon Street. The work was created by Sarah Cole in collaboration with young single mums at a drop-in centre. Cole populates the house with an eerie combination of installation, performance, sound and lighting that makes the space feel like a faded memory that refuses to be exorcised. The small cramped floors and large bright windows play with the internal/external of space, memory and storytelling. Its excellent to engage the stories of lives that are not often heard...


An Artangel Interaction Commission
13 May - 5 June 2010
Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings only; 5-8 pm
Starts from Clink Hostel, 78 Kings Cross Road, London, WC1X 9QG

Conceptualised and developed with a group of parents from age fourteen to mid-twenties and their children, Smother encapsulates the vastly different experiences of these young mothers and fathers as they pass through weekly drop-in sessions at Coram.

Smother has been developed over nine months through a series of workshops and discussions. Artist Sarah Cole worked with composer Jules Maxwell and the young parents to direct an experience that offers the audience a rare invitation into an honest and intimate personal space.

The Coram Young Parents drop-in is a weekly opportunity for young parents to share experiences and find support with a wide range of issues whilst their children can play in a stimulating environment.

Hans Rosling's new insights on poverty

Why you should listen to him:
Even the most worldly and well-traveled among us will have their perspectives shifted by Hans Rosling. A professor of global health at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, his current work focuses on dispelling common myths about the so-called developing world, which (he points out) is no longer worlds away from the west. In fact, most of the third world is on the same trajectory toward health and prosperity, and many countries are moving twice as fast as the west did.

http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html

Youth Visions Documentary Screening in Ghana, West Africa

Screened the documentary of the project Youth Visions we created two years ago, a collaboration between myself and Sebastian Fuller who was working with Youth Development Alliance in the Northeastern region of Ghana. We merged my arts practice with his public health work to create a new model of disseminating the HIV/AIDS prevention material. We worked with two different schools, one in a village and one in a city to create a mural and a performance. Participants also went on a radio programme hosted by DJ Kimo of URA Radio Bolgatanga, Part of the project was documenting the process with the students who helped film their work. It was delayed two years but finally thanks to the work of filmmaker Malina de Carlo the footage was edited and a story created from the piles of footage.

Returning to show the film was intense. A 10-day tour that included screenings in three different locations, including an outdoor projection on the side of the school in the village of Kongo, where dry thunder came overhead whilst the movie played to a host of villagers who arrived to see the event... (pic above)

Most of our students were in their last year of school when we ran the project so after two years many had moved to other cities, gone to university, gotten married and had kids and so forth.. But we did have a couple attend, one student Lucy bused into Accra for four hours to attend a screening. She wore the Youth Visions t-shirt we gave them on the last day, it was stark white and new, she had saved it for the two years awaiting our return as we had promised we would. This really filled me with happiness to be able to return and deliver an impressive film marking a great project. Our facilitators flew in from California and China to be there for this as well! Was intense all around...

Read more about the project here: link

See photos here: link

Movie will be screened at the Brunel University School of Arts Postgraduate Researching the Arts Conference on Wednesday May 19, 2010 throughout the day. link