Caveman Bill at Climate of Change

Bill’s cave

In an ongoing collaboration with Yukon resident Caveman Bill, British artist Tom Wolseley has produced a remarkable work, from which this photo was taken. It goes on show tonight for the first time at the Climate of Change exhibition, in London.

Wolseley took a slow 360° panning shot of the inside of Bill’s cave, where he has lived for the past 12 years. It is one of hundreds of works in a show which is a snapshot of artists’ response to climate change. Climate for Change opens tonight in a massive warehouse in back of London’s South Bank.

On the accompanying audio track, Caveman Bill narrates the stories of all the objects we see in the cave. There is a cool-box, for example, he found floating down the Yukon river; and a stove he inherited from a carpenter friend – 2by4 Bob. The stories and readings of the image “both confirm and deny romantic interpretations of Bill’s life in the far north,” says Wolseley.

Created from materials found in the streets around a disused office block near the Tate Modern, Wolseley made an installation for his video that is half way between a viewing booth and another version of Bill’s cave. As the text explores the representation of the objects in the video, the viewing booth/cave explores the functionality and aesthetics of its own construction.

CLIMATE OF CHANGE, 235 UNION STREET, LONDON SE1, FROM NOVEMBER 10th.

Paul ‘Marko’ Markevicius adds:
The non-curatorial, open invitation, non-elitist approach has been a welcome change for many artists, with the event being entirely determined by them and how they have chosen to interpret the theme of ‘Climate of Change.’ As someone who has simply given their time to help make the project work, it has been intriguing to witness how this more fundamental approach has been received by artists, realising they can literally find a space within the building themselves and build or hang their own piece themselves. ‘What – I don’t need an agent or a gallery representing me or a special invitation? How original and liberating in these modern times.

As many people who have set up arts events in disused buildings will know, the challenges lie in how the artwork is presented usually with very limited resources and in making the building workable and serviceable for members of the public to attend. The Climate of Change building had the guts ripped out prior to our arrival, with two dead birds, welcoming visitors to the first floor, now part of an installation and concrete dust everywhere and of course no facilities or utilities, which are all now fully functioning, courtesy of ASC.

Within the first day the building opened to receive artists submissions, Tom Wolseley responded to the opportunity to build an installation on site with great gusto. His energy and positive response was inspiring for artists and organisers alike. He kept this up for a number of days and weeks, finding and building from locally sourced recycled materials. Installations by their very nature help to give an event its own organic identity as they slowly take shape and impose their own presence and creative signature on the space they occupy.

As each day progressed, Mark Hammond and Paul Wynter, together with Paul Sakoilsky, a fellow non-curator, editor of Dark Times, the resident live-in artist, philosopher and donut eater, with a sweet-natured guard dog named Reg, would scavenge local skips. Bit by bit, what to the untrained eye appeared to be bits of wood and urban discarded paraphernalia, started to become the infrastructure for the event; a stage for performing artists made from pallets, walls for presenting artwork and an identification of clearly designated functional areas within the building.

This behaviour became very infectious, and it wasn’t long before I found myself half immersed inside the skips belonging to the LDA- London Development Agency, diagonally opposite our building. What a find and what a huge extravagant waste of resources. Some kind of re-fit within the building had made what looked like brand new LED light fittings and their particular style redundant. An estimated value of £100-200 each, we found about twenty of them! They were used primarily to light the stage and some of the artist’s installations. As they were low energy and so close, it seemed like we were somehow destined to have them.

This curious piece of luck seemed to continue from what we worked out during one of the more enlightened conversational moments sitting around a circular table, converted from the large wooden cable holder (obviously), was all to do with the positive energy the event was creating from all the people involved. How else would it be that in the first week of working in the building, the sculpture college on Union Street was relocating and we could pretty much take what we found to help build the infrastructure of the walls for our event?!

Huge pieces of chipboard for walls, wood for building the frames of the walls and many disparate items that are now part of many artists work was all found in the college building. The Southwark recycling Gods had smiled on us and rewarded our endeavours by serendipity and ensuring the surrounding area never ran dry of quality materials. It’s shame Southwark Council haven’t been able yet to provide recycling bins after numerous requests and lost references for requests. Sounds familiar to anyone?

How the building itself used energy was always a priority and fortunately, Tim Siddall of electricpedals.com has helped set up pedal power for the PA for performance artists. We are also working on trying to get Solar Century to provide photovoltaic panels for the roof, so that we can run off grid as much as is physically possible. A positive meeting with them, seems to have stalled a little, with the pressures of other commercial work naturally being a higher priority. Come on Jeremy, lend us a hand – or some panels, please!

There are also a number of activist groups taking part on the ground floor of the exhibition – The Christian Aid Climate Bill Campaign for example, The Big Green Gathering, and a hemp organisation promoting the use of hemp use as a more environmentally friendly multi-usage super crop amongst others, including a certain N Rosen who will be doing a book signing at the venue on launch.

Throughout the exhibition running to the end of the year at least, there will be lectures, workshops and discussions on climate change and are actively inviting suggestions for speakers and ideas in this regard. Please feel free to contribute ideas.

For further information on the event please email basia@londonart.co.uk.