Emma Rushton and Derek Tyman
23 Apr - 16 May 2015
EMMA RUSHTON AND DEREK TYMAN
Dread of Scarcity, Fear of Abundance
23 April - 16 May 2015
Once the crops have been removed, then the straw is taken from
the ground and we are left with the earth. We must leave the earth
fallow, rotate the crops and not be greedy in what we take.
Abundance will undoubtedly lead to Scarcity. Didn’t the English Diggers
and the Levellers know this? *
The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the geese from off the common
But lets the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose *
Drawing on history, whilst making connections with prevalent issues and politics of the present,Rushton and Tyman’s recent projects have focused on ideas of work and labour, leisure, the commons and the ‘good life’. For Simultanhalle they present three elements in their exhibition, Dread of Scarcity, Fear of Abundance. A massive theatrical curtain, shiny foil red, sits in front of Simultanhalle’s facsimile of a stage. Acting as a façade, beyond its beauty, it appears to have no function. In front of the curtain stands a scarecrow, of sorts. Dressed in the wrong clothes and personified with attachments: a goatee beard, the nose of a witch and the red scarf of the scapegoat – is it a Hodmedod or Murmet, a Tattie-Bogal or Mawkin. A number of straw bale’s, stacked and piled upon one another, hold weight and the words: ‘The World Turned Upside Down’.
* The Diggers and Levellers were related radical groups who emerged from around the English Civil War in the 17th century. Both groups believed in economic equality. Where the diggers attempted to farm common land the levellers aim was for all in society to be on the same ‘level’ but the name was also given to those who ‘levelled’ hedges in enclosure riots.
* From an English folk poem, circa 1764.
Emma Rushton and Derek Tyman work collaboratively and are based in Manchester, England.They have been working together since 1997. Recent solo exhibitions include: Fear of the Surplus, The Tetley Centre for Contemporary Art, Leeds, UK (2014); LIAR, Sub Urban Video Lounge, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2013); The Argument Is Not Finished And The Stage Is Still Being Built, Argument Vertoningsruimte, Tilburg, Netherlands (2012); The Good Life, Lanternhouse Art Centre, Cumbria, UK (2011); The Wild, Crescent Artspace, Scarborough, U.K. (2009); Flying Down To Moscow, Neues Kunstforum, Cologne, Germany (2009). Rushton and Tyman have also completed a number of artist’s residencies, in Hong Kong, China in 2006 and 2007 and Cumbria, UK, 2011. In 2014 their work was included in ‘Where do I end and you begin’, Edinburgh Art Centre, Edinburgh Festival. To coincide with the 800th anniversary celebrations of Magna Carta they are artists-in-residence in Lincoln, UK, to begin, they have invited the left-wing US historian Peter Linebaugh to deliver a lecture in Lincoln’s former Victorian Prison housed within Lincoln’s 11th Century Norman Castle.
Dread of Scarcity, Fear of Abundance
23 April - 16 May 2015
Once the crops have been removed, then the straw is taken from
the ground and we are left with the earth. We must leave the earth
fallow, rotate the crops and not be greedy in what we take.
Abundance will undoubtedly lead to Scarcity. Didn’t the English Diggers
and the Levellers know this? *
The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the geese from off the common
But lets the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose *
Drawing on history, whilst making connections with prevalent issues and politics of the present,Rushton and Tyman’s recent projects have focused on ideas of work and labour, leisure, the commons and the ‘good life’. For Simultanhalle they present three elements in their exhibition, Dread of Scarcity, Fear of Abundance. A massive theatrical curtain, shiny foil red, sits in front of Simultanhalle’s facsimile of a stage. Acting as a façade, beyond its beauty, it appears to have no function. In front of the curtain stands a scarecrow, of sorts. Dressed in the wrong clothes and personified with attachments: a goatee beard, the nose of a witch and the red scarf of the scapegoat – is it a Hodmedod or Murmet, a Tattie-Bogal or Mawkin. A number of straw bale’s, stacked and piled upon one another, hold weight and the words: ‘The World Turned Upside Down’.
* The Diggers and Levellers were related radical groups who emerged from around the English Civil War in the 17th century. Both groups believed in economic equality. Where the diggers attempted to farm common land the levellers aim was for all in society to be on the same ‘level’ but the name was also given to those who ‘levelled’ hedges in enclosure riots.
* From an English folk poem, circa 1764.
Emma Rushton and Derek Tyman work collaboratively and are based in Manchester, England.They have been working together since 1997. Recent solo exhibitions include: Fear of the Surplus, The Tetley Centre for Contemporary Art, Leeds, UK (2014); LIAR, Sub Urban Video Lounge, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2013); The Argument Is Not Finished And The Stage Is Still Being Built, Argument Vertoningsruimte, Tilburg, Netherlands (2012); The Good Life, Lanternhouse Art Centre, Cumbria, UK (2011); The Wild, Crescent Artspace, Scarborough, U.K. (2009); Flying Down To Moscow, Neues Kunstforum, Cologne, Germany (2009). Rushton and Tyman have also completed a number of artist’s residencies, in Hong Kong, China in 2006 and 2007 and Cumbria, UK, 2011. In 2014 their work was included in ‘Where do I end and you begin’, Edinburgh Art Centre, Edinburgh Festival. To coincide with the 800th anniversary celebrations of Magna Carta they are artists-in-residence in Lincoln, UK, to begin, they have invited the left-wing US historian Peter Linebaugh to deliver a lecture in Lincoln’s former Victorian Prison housed within Lincoln’s 11th Century Norman Castle.