Once we had settled on looking into the idea of community spirit and how people can be brought together through happiness, good news, outrage and bad news.
One of the main artists I looked at in relation to this was Jeremy Deller. He is a visually conceptual artist who works with installation performances. He is mostly famous for his performance Battle of Orgreave (2001) – which is a reenactment of the same battle its called after, which occurred during the mining strikes.
More recently he has also worked on a project entitled It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq (2009).
Over a six-week period at the New Museum in New York, (February 11–March 22, 2009) British artist Jeremy Deller has invited journalists, Iraqi refugees, soldiers, and scholars to share their memories of the last decade in and out of Iraq. In one-on-one conversations with New Museum visitors, their stories will elucidate the present circumstances in Iraq from many points of view. At the end of March, “It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq” will travel across the country from New York to California, with conversations conducted at more than ten public sites along the way. Sergeant Jonathan Harvey, an American veteran of the Iraq War, Esam Pasha, an Iraqi citizen, and Deller will be aboard a specially outfitted RV, along with Nato Thompson, Creative Time Curator, who will document the journey. Expanded versions of “It Is What It Is” will take place at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, in April and May of 2009, and at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, in October and November of 2009. (Hoptman, Mackie, Thompson, N.D)
This is was about his 2009 exhibition and a description of what it entailed. Not only does Deller create work on political issues like Iraq and the Mining Strikes, but also about communities and how people support each other throughout times of hardship. Despite the areas of investigation being terribly horrifying for some people, it is still ‘nice’ to know that some people still come together when needed.
That is what community spirit is all about, and that is what we began our performance making process with. The idea of community spirit. The concept of a community coming together to support each other.
Work Cited
Hoptman, Mackie and Thompson, (N.D.) Project Description, Online. Available at: http://www.conversationsaboutiraq.org/description.php (Accessed on 10th April 2013)