The Common-all Games is a collaborative project which will take place in the Live Art Bistro (LAB).

* About the Common-all Games

* Taking part in the Common-all Games

About the Common-all Games

East Street Arts are pleased to be working in collaboration with the Comm(o)nist Gallery to develop a new project for Leeds in June 2012 responding to current issues including the impact of large cultural events on the people who live and work in the hosting cities and countries.

Spreading across the city the Comm(o)nist Gallery acts as a hub to attract and capture dialogue and artistic exchange. This simple format is designed so engagement is at the core of activities and can be accessed by all.

The project will explore how alternative cultural space might be sustained, how artistic practice acts as a form of social discourse, and in this instance how the people of Leeds can express their thoughts and feelings about their environment and the large events that take place in their public spaces.

We welcome artists Andrew Cooper, Anne Robinson, Jon Traynor and Charlie Fox who are representing the Comm(o)nist gallery. They will be based at Live Art Bistro (LAB), a temporary art space in Leeds continuing their involvement in the pop up movement.

As part of the Common-all Games East Street Arts has commissioned two artists based in Yorkshire to develop their artistic practice within the project theme and its aims of engagement.

Alice Bradshaw will develop an exhibition based on the idea of Trophy. Trophy is derived from the Greek tropaion, translating as ‘of defeat’ or ‘for defeat’. In ancient Greece the winners of the Olympic games initially received no trophies except laurel wreaths.

Nowadays there are trophies for many things including trophy wives and trophy art. Trophies are status symbols that can be bought rather than earned.

This exhibition brings artists work together that responds to the broad and often conflicting notions of trophy.

The Institute for the Preservation of Bad Art collective (Graeme Murrell and Alex Feather ) is curating a participatory exhibition Vinyl Tat.  A cumulative exhibition (showing on 30th June) and evening of tragic record sleeves and the sonic wonders that hide within them.

This exhibition needs your involvement and builds on East Street Arts fascination with vinyl through its series of Socialist Juke Box events that has witnessed the enjoyment of sounds from bygone eras, the breaking of records and the stories behind our collections.

Taking part in the Common-all Games;

1) Make and share a film with the Comm(o)nist Gallery

Deadline is 24th June

The Comm(o)nist Gallery starts with an Open Call to regional artists to:

• Make a one minute film (Olympads) in response to the histories and assumptions of large-scale cultural events
• Submit 2D works no bigger than A3

How to submit work HERE

Work will be shown across sites in Leeds and the LAB

2) Learn to make a film with the Comm(o)nist Gallery

12 – 4pm and 6 – 9pm Tuesday 26th
and
12 – 4pm Wednesday 27th

Everyone is invited to come and take part in a collective film-making experience with the Comm(o)nist Gallery workshops. Learn about making pictures move with : animation, scratch film, sound, performance, editing and effects. You don’t need to have any prior experience and the workshops are fun, friendly and free. MORE

3) Show and tell at the Trophy exhibition*

Curated by Alice Bradshaw, artists have responded with their own interpretations of ‘trophy’. We welcome your responses to the work and your stories about trophies and awards you have won. MORE

4) Take the Vinyl Tat challenge (in the taste-free zone)*

Join us in assembling a truly terrible collection of vinyl record covers, and finish the week by helping us choose which ones deserve to be listened to in the safety of a special taste-free zone in the heart of Leeds. Come on, fess up. We know you have records in your collection with artwork that is just plain dull, substandard or naff (oh yes you do). But do you have some real Vinyl Tat? MORE

5) Or just take a grandstand seat…*

…being a spectator and stroll through the Live Art Bistro ‘Pop Up’ venue, taking in the Comm(o)nist Gallery 1 minute wonders, the Trophy enclosure and the Vinyl Tat procession… along with other surprise visual and aural encounters! MORE

*Times and dates: 1pm – 7pm – Tues 26th – Thurs 28th // 1pm ’til late – Fri 29th and Sat 30th June

For more information on the specific events which make up the Common All Games programme, please visit the following links:

• Comm(o)nist Gallery
• Trophy – Alice Bradshaw
• Vinyl Tat – Graeme Murrell