Taps
Improvisations with Paul Burwell Paul was an artist whose radical, passionate and collective practice since the 60’s, sparked multifarious, challenging works and, as one of the pioneers of free improvisation, fused music, film, dance, poetry and performance art, choosing to collaborate with musicians and artists alike throughout his prolific practice.
This project, an exploration of what legacy is in a practice based on innovation and improvisation, and particularly in Paul’s wide range of connections and concerns
Anne Bean sent each contributor the text of his poem Adventures in the House of Memory, to use in whatever way they wished, to make a short film or audio work, as a new collaboration for, about or with Paul. Fragments of these now make a collective totem, with this text as an underlying armature.
All are available, in full duration, on https://vimeo.com/user4308724/videos
“The poem Adventures in the House of Memory initially arose from improvisations by Paul and myself in preparation for William Burroughs’ Final Academy at Ritzy, 1982. I improvised words and, unusually for us, Paul wrote them down and shaped the text. Originally, the words were written on huge pieces of flash paper which we burnt as they were sung. This poem was the last work Paul recorded, with Chris Gladwin and myself, two months before he died, in 2007. For TAPS I drank whisky ‘with’ Paul in the caravan he had lived in, playing music we had listened to together before his death, such as Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, Baby Dodds and Vera Hall. Richard Wilson and I also improvised a work by the Maunsell Forts where the Bow Gamelan had wanted to do a large-scale event in the 1980’s”
Anne Bean The video is of the last night of TAPS featuring Richard Wilson’s self-destructing screen, Butoh dancer Ryuzu Fukuhara and musician Ansuman Biswas responding and ending with Anne Bean’s lighting work, moving flares outside the windows causing shifting shadows through the dust and smoke.
Further information about TAPS, naming over 100 contributors to the project, can be found by downloading the PDF of the DVD booklet. The DVD was launched at Cafe OTO and can be purchased from Unbound. www.mattsgallery.org/artists/burwell/exhibition-1.php
http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20121205050232/http://www.annebean.net/past-projects/2011/181
http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20121205050346/http://www.annebean.net/past-projects/2011/178
http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20121205050047/http://www.annebean.net/past-projects/2011/177
TAPS was a Matt’s Gallery project at Dilston Grove supported by a Legacy: Thinker in Residence Award to Anne Bean. Legacy was initiated by the Live Art Development Agency with Tate Research.
