Simon Faithfull
Limbo
To launch the project the artist will embark on a residency on a Dover-to-Calais cross-channel ferry, from 14–19 May 2011. Without ever leaving the boat for the whole six days, Faithfull will make drawings recording the endless crossings of this week at sea and these will be delivered as live dispatches from a watery no-man’s land between countries.
Limbo delivers Faithfull’s drawings from all over the planet through the iPhone app, the website, Twitter and Facebook. From the streets of east London to the remote landscapes of Antarctica, these drawings create a personal atlas of the world on an ongoing basis.
Limbo makes this entire back-catalogue of drawings available, and delivers new sketches live to the user, the moment that they are made. This digital, instantaneous platform not only mirrors the process by which Faithfull makes the drawings, but is also one of the first artist’s projects made especially for this format.
Limbo is part of an ongoing series of web-based artworks commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella, and is supported by Cuttlefish, and ArtSway, where Simon Faithfull is an Associate artist. The cross-channel residency is orchestrated by artconnexion.
Simon Faithfull (born 1966) lives and works in London and Berlin. His work often centres on journeys, whether proposed or actually undertaken. These are made in a variety of media, including digital drawings and online projects, as well as film and video.
Faithfull travelled to Antarctica with the British Antarctic Survey on an Arts Council fellowship, sent a chair into space with a live video feed and has recently completed a major permanent public art commission for the city of Liverpool which documents a trip from Liverpool, UK to Liverpool, Canada. He has exhibited in many venues internationally, with solo presentations including British Film Institute Gallery and Chisenhale Gallery, London; Stills, Edinburgh; and CCA, Glasgow. His work has also been shown at LABoral, Spain; Haus Am Waldsee, Berlin; and Kunsthalle Freiburg, Switzerland. Faithfull is represented by Parker’s Box, New York and Galerie Polaris, Paris.
Film and Video Umbrella commissions, curates, produces and presents film, video and other moving-image works by artists that are staged in collaboration with galleries and other cultural partners. Limbo is part of Web Commissions 2011, a series of new artworks commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella, which utilise and engage with online platforms as sites for making, viewing and participating in contemporary art.
artconnexion is an independent non-profit organisation based in Lille. Since 1994 it has been responsible for the production of an extremely diverse and influential series of contemporary art projects, working both locally and internationally.
Cuttlefish is a creative web design and multimedia company based in Loughborough, in the UK’s East Midlands. Since 2001 the company has been creating media-rich content managed websites and apps for clients ranging from large plcs and councils through to local businesses, community groups and arts organizations.
ArtSway is a unique place in the New Forest National Park on the south coast of England to see, discuss and engage with contemporary visual art of international standard. ArtSway’s Associate Artist programme is an innovative approach to legacy support for artists, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
*Image above:
Copyright the artist and courtesy Parker’s Box, New York and Galerie Polaris, Paris.
