Kirsten Reynolds
Encyclopedia
Kirsten Reynolds is a British artist who makes works using a wide variety of media. She often works with sound and light and uses electronics, video and found objects to make artworks. Her practice also encompasses drawing, painting, sculpture, collage and print-making. Kirsten Reynolds has often worked in collaboration with other artists and musicians, a working method that began when she joined Bow Gamelan Ensemble
in 1990 and worked with artist Paul Burwell
making and playing scrap metal instruments and drums.
In 1995 Kirsten Reynolds and Ashley Davies formed the 'bleakly titled collaboration' Project Dark an experimental art and music group. Project Dark were invited by writer, musician and curator David Toop
to participate in Sonic Boom an international sound art
exhibition that took place in 2001 at the Hayward Gallery
London.
In her work Reynolds seeks the extraordinary in the everyday, a fascination that can be seen in the work Ex Memoria that takes discarded, old-fashioned standard lamps from the charity shops of her home town of St Leonards-on-Sea
and combines them with speakers and control systems enabling the recycled lamps to be 'fitfully engaged in squeaky electronic chatter' according to Robert Sandall.
, Cheshire
in 1968. She gained a BA in Fine Art Sculpture at Kingston Polytechnic (now Kingston University) graduating in 1996. In 1995 Reynolds moved to Limehouse
in London’s East End and met Paul Burwell
who lived and worked in the nearby area of Bow. The week after she graduated she began working with Burwell making sculptural instruments and learning drumming in preparation for a series of performances at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith. Reynolds continued to work with Burwell for many years, and collaborated on a large performance during his residency at the Midlands Arts Centre in 1992.
Through this work she met artist Mark Anderson and Anne Bean
who she has worked with on many projects including the ongoing Power Plant events. Power Plant was first commissioned by Oxford Contemporary Music and the University of Oxford Botanic Garden
where the first Power Plant event took place in September 2005.
Power Plant was also shown in Calderstones Park
Liverpool for the European Capital of Culture
event in 2008 and as part of the British Council
showcase at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
during the Edinburgh International Festival
2009.
Kirsten Reynolds has been collaborating with painter Alan Rankle
since 2008 and their first major joint exhibition On the Edge of Wrong took place at the Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy in February 2010.
in Hackney, London had the dual function of an audition and rehearsal for a 5 week European tour during which long hours traveling in the group van provided the time and boredom for Kirsten Reynolds and Ashley Davies to create the experimental duo Project Dark.
Operating as an art record label, Project Dark created limited edition 7-inch singles made from human hair, circular saws, tree sections, and biscuit. These discs formed the basis of a live DJ show using discarded record decks and gramophones
. Project Dark showed a selection of their catalogue of unusual discs alongside other disc-related works by Marcel Duchamp
and Christian Marclay
and in the group show Groove: Artists and Vinyl at the Huddersfield Art Gallery in 2002.
A live show Excited by Gramophones was presented at the invitation of legendary radio DJ John Peel
during his Meltdown 1998 festival at the Queen Elizabeth Hall
, South Bank Centre
, London. The pair tested the limits of health and safety regulations by ending the show with a rocket-propelled record that finally exploded destroying the acrylic lid of the record player.
In 2002 Kirsten Reynolds and Ashley Davies co-founded the art and music label Phono Erotic releasing limited edition records and related artworks. In the same year between Christmas and New Year in a tiny studio in a railway arch in Camden, London Reynolds and Davies recorded an EP entitled Stand Up or Give Up under the moniker Dirthole. Within weeks this duo had become a 10-piece garage punk band with 4 stand-up drummers and had changed its name to The London Dirthole Company.
Since then The London Dirthole Company have released four 7-inch singles and two vinyl albums and play regularly in London and in 2008 toured in the US collaborating with American musicians for shows in Nashville, Memphis, New York and recorded a WFMU radio session in New Jersey.
, Peter Callesen
, Katherine Ærtebjerg and Danish artist group Paint Over.
Bow Gamelan Ensemble
The Bow Gamelan Ensemble were a group of musicians in Bow, London, England, who used elements of gamelan music. Formed in 1983 by Richard Wilson with Paul Burwell and Anne Bean, the group was disbanded in 1990. The ensemble created a theatrical experience, going beyond the normal definitions of...
in 1990 and worked with artist Paul Burwell
Paul Burwell
Paul Dean Burwell was a British thaumaturge and percussionist, influential in the fields of free improvisation and experimental art....
making and playing scrap metal instruments and drums.
In 1995 Kirsten Reynolds and Ashley Davies formed the 'bleakly titled collaboration' Project Dark an experimental art and music group. Project Dark were invited by writer, musician and curator David Toop
David Toop
David Toop is an English musician and author, and as of 2001 was visiting Research Fellow in the Media School at London College of Communication. He was notably a member of The Flying Lizards. He was a prominent contributor to the British magazine The Face. He is a regular contributor to The Wire,...
to participate in Sonic Boom an international sound art
Sound art
Sound art is a diverse group of art practices that considers wide notions of sound, listening and hearing as its predominant focus. There are often distinct relationships forged between the visual and aural domains of art and perception by sound artists....
exhibition that took place in 2001 at the Hayward Gallery
Hayward Gallery
The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre, part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames, in central London, England. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings and also the Royal National Theatre and British Film Institute...
London.
In her work Reynolds seeks the extraordinary in the everyday, a fascination that can be seen in the work Ex Memoria that takes discarded, old-fashioned standard lamps from the charity shops of her home town of St Leonards-on-Sea
St Leonards-on-Sea
St Leonards-on-Sea is part of Hastings, East Sussex, England, lying immediately to the west of the centre. The original part of the settlement was laid out in the early 19th century as a new town: a place of elegant houses designed for the well-off; it also included a central public garden, a...
and combines them with speakers and control systems enabling the recycled lamps to be 'fitfully engaged in squeaky electronic chatter' according to Robert Sandall.
Biography
Kirsten Reynolds was born in MacclesfieldMacclesfield
Macclesfield is a market town within the unitary authority of Cheshire East, the county palatine of Chester, also known as the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The population of the Macclesfield urban sub-area at the time of the 2001 census was 50,688...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
in 1968. She gained a BA in Fine Art Sculpture at Kingston Polytechnic (now Kingston University) graduating in 1996. In 1995 Reynolds moved to Limehouse
Limehouse
Limehouse is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is on the northern bank of the River Thames opposite Rotherhithe and between Ratcliff to the west and Millwall to the east....
in London’s East End and met Paul Burwell
Paul Burwell
Paul Dean Burwell was a British thaumaturge and percussionist, influential in the fields of free improvisation and experimental art....
who lived and worked in the nearby area of Bow. The week after she graduated she began working with Burwell making sculptural instruments and learning drumming in preparation for a series of performances at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith. Reynolds continued to work with Burwell for many years, and collaborated on a large performance during his residency at the Midlands Arts Centre in 1992.
Through this work she met artist Mark Anderson and Anne Bean
Anne Bean
Anne Bean is an internationally-known installation and performance artist whose work is managed by Artsadmin.-Life:She is resident in the UK...
who she has worked with on many projects including the ongoing Power Plant events. Power Plant was first commissioned by Oxford Contemporary Music and the University of Oxford Botanic Garden
University of Oxford Botanic Garden
The University of Oxford Botanic Garden is an historic botanic garden in Oxford, England. It is the oldest botanic garden in Great Britain and one of the oldest scientific gardens in the world. The garden was founded in 1621 as a physic garden growing plants for medicinal research. Today it...
where the first Power Plant event took place in September 2005.
Power Plant was also shown in Calderstones Park
Calderstones Park
- External links :* * * * *...
Liverpool for the European Capital of Culture
European Capital of Culture
The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by theEuropean Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension....
event in 2008 and as part of the British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
showcase at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Originally founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies four sites across Scotland — Edinburgh,...
during the Edinburgh International Festival
Edinburgh International Festival
The Edinburgh International Festival is a festival of performing arts that takes place in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, over three weeks from around the middle of August. By invitation from the Festival Director, the International Festival brings top class performers of music , theatre, opera...
2009.
Kirsten Reynolds has been collaborating with painter Alan Rankle
Alan Rankle
Alan Rankle is a British artist, born in Oldham, Lancashire, England in 1952. He studied at RochdaleSchool of Art , and Goldsmiths, University of London . He is one of the leading artists of his generation to explore social and environmental issues of the day through Landscape Art...
since 2008 and their first major joint exhibition On the Edge of Wrong took place at the Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy in February 2010.
Music
After playing with The Bow Gamelan, Kirsten Reynolds went on to join the multiple drummer, multiple bass player band Headbutt. A two hour rehearsal at The Premises StudiosThe Premises Studios
The Premises Studios is a music studio complex based near Hoxton in Hackney, London. The studio complex contains ten commercial rehearsal studio spaces, one acoustic recording studio, one mixing studio, and various private long let rooms and office spaces....
in Hackney, London had the dual function of an audition and rehearsal for a 5 week European tour during which long hours traveling in the group van provided the time and boredom for Kirsten Reynolds and Ashley Davies to create the experimental duo Project Dark.
Operating as an art record label, Project Dark created limited edition 7-inch singles made from human hair, circular saws, tree sections, and biscuit. These discs formed the basis of a live DJ show using discarded record decks and gramophones
Phonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
. Project Dark showed a selection of their catalogue of unusual discs alongside other disc-related works by Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
and Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer.Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film...
and in the group show Groove: Artists and Vinyl at the Huddersfield Art Gallery in 2002.
A live show Excited by Gramophones was presented at the invitation of legendary radio DJ John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
during his Meltdown 1998 festival at the Queen Elizabeth Hall
Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is a music venue on the South Bank in London, United Kingdom that hosts daily classical, jazz, and avant-garde music and dance performances. The QEH forms part of Southbank Centre arts complex and stands alongside the Royal Festival Hall, which was built for the Festival...
, South Bank Centre
South Bank Centre
Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, UK, on the South Bank of the River Thames between County Hall and Waterloo Bridge. It comprises three main buildings , and is Europe’s largest centre for the arts. It attracts more than three million visitors annually...
, London. The pair tested the limits of health and safety regulations by ending the show with a rocket-propelled record that finally exploded destroying the acrylic lid of the record player.
In 2002 Kirsten Reynolds and Ashley Davies co-founded the art and music label Phono Erotic releasing limited edition records and related artworks. In the same year between Christmas and New Year in a tiny studio in a railway arch in Camden, London Reynolds and Davies recorded an EP entitled Stand Up or Give Up under the moniker Dirthole. Within weeks this duo had become a 10-piece garage punk band with 4 stand-up drummers and had changed its name to The London Dirthole Company.
Since then The London Dirthole Company have released four 7-inch singles and two vinyl albums and play regularly in London and in 2008 toured in the US collaborating with American musicians for shows in Nashville, Memphis, New York and recorded a WFMU radio session in New Jersey.
Curatorial Projects
In 2006 Kirsten Reynolds began a curatorial collaboration with Line Rosenvinge creating the This is Not a Pen project. Subtitled The Gallery for Your Pocket, the project commissions artists to design a work within the format of the float pen; a tiny space with a single moving part. This is an ongoing series and to date pens have been produced by Mat CollishawMat Collishaw
Matthew "Mat" Collishaw is an artist based in London, and one of the Young British Artists.-Career:Collishaw attended Goldsmiths, University of London , alongside Damien Hirst and other YBA artists....
, Peter Callesen
Peter Callesen
Peter Callesen is a Danish artist and author. Callesen is renowned for his exceptional talent in combining the minimalism of a big crisp white sheet of paper with the complexity of meticulously cut and folded paper and uses the two to build out some really beautiful compositions...
, Katherine Ærtebjerg and Danish artist group Paint Over.