About
Cannizaro Park has hosted this annual art event for over 3 decades, and this year presents sculpture, installation, painting, sound and performance produced by students of Wimbledon College of Art. This unique event provides an opportunity to develop new ways of working in response to the public context and specific surroundings of the park.
As in previous years, PARK 11 takes place over a single weekend. Having been made especially for the occasion, much of the work in this year's show will afterwards be dismantled or destroyed. The temporary and site-specific nature of the event presents each artist with the challenge of envisaging their work well in advance of making it, and deciding how best to record it in the long term. From the beginning, careful consideration has been given to what kind of information should accompany this year's show - in its preparation and promotion, during the event, and in terms of subsequent documentation.
Each student has a page within http://park11.tumblr.com/, which contains plans, drawings, diagrams, found text, research, photographs and other material which has been produced during - or has informed the production of - each project. After the event, this site will become a lasting record of the weekend's activities, with documentation added to each page. The question of what kind of information should accompany the show itself was more complicated. A map was considered, but it was felt that this would not suit several proposals occupying diffuse areas within the park, and would remove the possibility of surprise. As Stacey Young's proposal involved plotting a route between each artwork, this meant that each work could be found by following a line drawn within the park itself rather than on a printed page. There was also a consensus against didactic text labels and any explanatory text in favour of a direct, unmediated encounter.
The image on this year's poster was suggested by Julia Villard, and is taken from Orchesography; or, the Art of Dancing by Characters and Demonstrative Figures, Raoul-Auger Feuillet, 1715. Such notation tells you nothing about the appearance of the dance, but seeks to describe its route and sense. A plan produced for PARK 11 similarly does not illustrate the work, but seeks to accompany each piece on parallel lines.
Wimbledon College of Art would like to thank Merton Council and the Friends of Cannizaro Park for their invaluable support and assistance with PARK 11, and Nicholas Cullinan, Curator of International Modern Art at Tate Modern, for selecting this year's show.
Curated by Juliet Haysom
