Brighton, May 2006
MCH was one of over 40 artists contributing to City Running.
The project
The project was devised and curated by artist Greg Daville for Brighton Fringe Festival 2006 and involving practitioners working in a wide range of disciplines. Each contributed an initial piece of work for an exhibition at Phoenix Gallery in Brighton; then, on the following Saturdays over a five week period, a number of the contributing artists would set out from the Phoenix Gallery at 11pm to "complete a reconaissance, gather material, or execute an intervention". At around midnight the City Runners returned to base and had two hours to create a piece of work inspired by what they had seen and experienced. The contributors then presented this work to any peers and public that were in the gallery from around 2am right into the early hours, allowing discussion of the work and its creative processes. A new exhibit represnting the work created during the city run then replaced the initial exhibit so that the exhibition gradually transformed itself throughout the project.
MCH contribution
Mark exhibited recently revised text from his long poem, scrublands, which was applied to the wall messily in inks and other materials on hand-made paper or directly onto the gallery wall. During his City Run, Mark filled a notebook with fragmentary observations, recording and documenting the sights and sounds of the city and his interaction with late night revellers, returning to the gallery at midnight to recreate his experience in detail from the disjointed notes. The original exhibition was replaced in the gallery by the notebook used during the 'run'.
The book of the project
A 100 page richly illustrated full colour book about the project, designed by Greg Daville, is available print-on-demand from Lulu.com for £16.00. the first half of the book is made up of documentation and feedback; the second half features the artists who took part in the project, each having their own page in the publication. Visit the Lulu website to purchase the book online.
In memoriam, Greg Daville
To the great sadness of all who knew and loved him, Greg Daville died in April 2007. The project, City Running, which Greg planned to develop in a range of ways, is now being continued by his former partner, artist Rowena Easton, and marketing consultant, Cara Courage. Visit the website: www.cityrunning.org