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Disobedience, after VALIE EXPORT: Stand Up, Sit Down 1989 © Elina Brotherus

Creative Canvas

A 30m2 blank canvas to display visitor responses to the festival’s event scores.

We love event scores – they’re playful, fun and a great way of discovering the work of other artists!  But what exactly are they?

Essentially event scores are an instruction from an artist, based on their work, for others to interpret – an artistic prompt, a call to action and a source of inspiration.  Their origins lie in performance art, but as we’re all about photography, our PhoGlo event scores are inspirational prompts to respond to the work in the festival.  Many involve making a photograph in response to an instruction; others entail any sort of creative response (collage, drawing, the written word) and we have some that involve the spoken word.

Heroine, Elina Brotherus, is the queen of the event score and we’re delighted that we have a life size copy of Disobedience for the Creative Canvas and a box of her score cards Playground in our collection.

Playground will be on display during the festival, but it’s not just for looking at!   We want festival-goers to participate and respond to Elina’s work (and the other event scores around the festival) in creative ways and display the work on the Creative Canvas.  Don’t worry if you don’t have a camera, you can use your phone, borrow one of ours or create a non-photographic artwork … and we’ll even provide nail varnish and oranges, which is not as random as it sounds!  Visit the Glitter & Glue Pod to get involved.

We can’t wait to see how the Creative Canvas evolves!

PS.  We also have a copy of The Marina Abramovic Method: Instruction Cards to Reboot your Life.

Event Score Example

In 1989, VALIE EXPORT created a work Stand Up, Sit Down (phone snap below and original work via this link ).  In 2018, Elina collaborated with VALIE EXPORT to create Disobedience her own interpretation of Stand Up, Sit Down

Event Score Example

One of our favourite scores is Elina’s own prompt Bad Camouflage.  Our work placement students had a lot of fun with this earlier this year, and we’re looking forward to sharing their results on the Creative Canvas.  Meanwhile, here’s one that Haley created with HH mascot, Annie.

Event Score Example

On International Women’s Day, we combined two scores:  Elina’s Bad Camouflage with Dorothee Richter’s Secret Feminist Meeting. It was hard to organise a secret meeting in a public restaurant and so we created the secrecy by camouflaging ourselves as Historical Heroine, Marie Høeg. Heads up … we have a special Marie Høeg event score for the festival.

“do your own versions, play the game go ahead … “Dump a bushel of lemons in a Northern forest in winter”!  (From Playground)

About Elina

Elina Brotherus is a Finnish artist who works with photography and moving image. Her career as an artist began after she graduated with a master’s degree in Chemistry, and realised that her job was not fulfilling her need for introspection and emotional expression. Her recent work is based on Fluxus and the movement’s event scores, which Elina has taken as a starting point and developed in her own inimitable style. “This series keeps me curious, takes me to new territories, and lets me make discoveries, while continuing to do what I know best”. (From Playground)