Still from Wu Xiao Kang's photographic project presented by A Dose of Light
This Saturday Bonkersfest! and the South London Gallery will present four new visual and live art commissions, as part of a free, annual one-day summer arts and music festival. Inspired by madness, these new installations and performances will be taking place in and around Camberwell Green during Bonkersfest!
Rakshanda Khan and Sophia Yadong Hao
Spin Cycle is an interactive one-day live artwork and installation at a launderette close to Camberwell Green that will take place during the festival. Spin Cycle explores obsessive or addictive forms of self-expression that offer albeit temporary relief from stressful experiences and painful memories. Khan and Hao will perform a repetitious ritual of washing hands which refers to the phrase "to wash one's hands of" as a metaphor for a cathartic process of erasing painful memories. In Spin Cycle, the audience is invited to participate in a ritual of cleansing and washing away. Sophia Yadong Hao is a live artist based in Manchester. Her work attempts to break down boundaries in personal space through interaction and improvisation. Rakshanda Khan is a graphic designer based in London currently working on a graphic novel about Self Injury aimed at the mental health sector. Spin Cycle will take place in the Tumblewash Laundrette on Camberwell Church Street.
Lucy Panesar
For Bonkersfest! 07, artist Lucy Panesar has developed a live artwork disguised as a market research exercise. Good Vibrations will invite the public to test the marketability of the vibrator as an electro-therapeutic device for treating hysteria and other female stress related disorders. The device is presented as a faux therapeutic treatment from NFHC International Inc, the fictional faceless corporation created by Panesar. For the past year, Panesar has been researching, developing and presenting live artworks in response to the current national interest in improving mental well-being, therapy culture, the self-help industry and the transformation economy. Early outcomes include The Smile Test and Fill my shelves, Transform my life which were both performed in the Camberwell area, responding to Southwark's history of being a 'City of Transformations'.
Orly Orbach
Artist and workshop facilitator Orly Orbach has developed a series of new drawings for Bonkersfest! 07 that convey ideas and experiences of madness. This series of drawings will be inserted into newsagent advertising panels around Camberwell Green. In addition, Orbach will lead a participatory drawing workshop on the Green during the day. Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2003, Orbach has worked on personal, collaborative and research-based projects. In 2006, Orbach was awarded the Association of Illustrators Gold Award in Design for her project Burnt Book Box, an arts and health commission about smoking. Recently, she has also realised drawing projects with the Welcome Trust and the Hayward Gallery.
A Dose of Light: Wu Xiao Kang 1979-2005
Singapore-based collective A Dose of Light will present a photographic project by their friend Wu Xiao Kang. The series of haunting images are the final roll of film taken by Wu Xiao Kang before he committed suicide at the age of 26. The photographs lead us through the deserted mental hospital where Xiao Kang had previously received treatment. The building was documented by Xiao Kang repeatedly in his work and the images reflect his associations with the institution and his desire for escape. Excerpts from Xiao Kang's diary are interspersed with the images. A Dose of Light is a visual arts collective base in London and Singapore that aims to promote contemporary photography from Singapore to an International audience.
Bonkersfest! is a free, annual one-day summer arts and music festival, promoting creativity, madness, individuality and eccentricity; combating stigma and promoting good mental health.
BONKERSFEST!
VISUAL AND LIVE ART COMMISSIONS
Saturday 2 June
12 - 9pm
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