Postcard To Brooke is a film based artwork by British artist and writer Oliver Guy-Watkins that began in April 2008

Outline

Since April 2008, Oliver Guy-Watkins

Oliver Guy-Watkins

Oliver Guy-Watkins is a British writer and artist.- Background :Guy-Watkins was born and raised in Gloucestershire, England. He attended Beaudesert Park School and St. Edwards School in Cheltenham, before moving onto Gloscat to study English and Drama...

 has undertaken to film an unlimited amount of individuals reading the poem Doubts by Rupert Brooke

Rupert Brooke

Rupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially The Soldier...

. Guy-Watkins describes the work as a quest, and filmed near two hundred people in the projects first six months.

Exhibitions and screenings

The first public event associated with Postcard To Brooke took place on June 6, 2008 at The Art Car Boot Fair at The Truman Brewery on Brick Lane in London. Oliver Guy-Watkins filmed fifty-six people during the six hours, and also instigated The Box Of Doubts for the first time. This would entail individuals writing their own doubts on a blank postcard.

On June 24, 2008, Oliver Guy-Watkins would screen the eighty-nine readings recorded up until that date, at the newly opened Miss Micks venue in Berlin. He would also be joined by the artist Tom J Mason to host a Discussion Of Doubts, relating to the postcards which had been used at the Art Car Boot Fair.

Over the weekend of August 23/24 2008, Oliver Guy-Watkins would attend the Flat Lake Festival in Clones, Ireland where he would film a further 52 individuals, before screening two short edits in the cinema tent on Sunday evening. He would also give a talk regarding the quest.

In March 2009, Guy-Watkins held the first of two 'Evening Of Doubt' events at Shoreditch House in East London, where he was joined by Art Car Boot Fair Founder Karen Ashton, artists Boo Saville

Boo Saville

Boo Saville is a contemporary artist. She currently lives and works in London.- Career :Saville graduated from Slade School of Fine Art in 2004, then worked at a make-shift studio in Pimlico in the front room of her friend Elisa Roche's apartment...

 and Jessica Voorsanger

Jessica Voorsanger

Jessica Voorsanger, born in New York in 1965, is an American artist and academic, living and working in London. She studied Fine Art at Rhode Island School of Design in Rhode Island before gaining an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London....

 and gallerist Hannah Watson of Trolley Gallery

Trolley Gallery

Trolley Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Shoreditch, east London, which emerged independently and alongside the already established Trolley Books in 2003. The gallery exhibits the work of new, emerging artists and is often host to first solo shows...

 to discuss the contents of the postcards that have been contributed with individuals person doubts written on. The second event is due to take place on April 19, 2009 where the guests will include writer Damian Barr and comedians Charlotte Reather

Charlotte Reather

-Personal life:Educated at Cheltenham Ladies’ College, Reather went on to study English Literature at Kingston University. Charlotte currently lives in the Cotswolds and often plays polo...

 and Paul Foot

Paul Foot

Paul Mackintosh Foot was a British investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party...

Readers

Notable individuals who have contributed to Postcard To Brooke include -

Nobel prize winner, Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...

; comedians Dylan Moran

Dylan Moran

Dylan Moran is an Irish stand-up comedian, writer, actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his sardonic observational comedy, the UK television sitcom Black Books , and his work with Simon Pegg in Shaun of the Dead and Run Fatboy Run...

, Ed Byrne

Ed Byrne

Ed Byrne is a Perrier Award-nominated, Irish stand-up comedian, voice over artist and actor. He has presented television shows Uncut! Best Unseen Ads and Just for Laughs, and is a regular guest on various television panel games...

, Tim Key

Tim Key

Tim Key is an English actor, comedy writer, and performance poet. In 2009, he was the winner of the Edinburgh Comedy Award and was also nominated for the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality.-Edinburgh Fringe:...

, Richard Herring

Richard Herring

Richard Keith Herring is a British comedian and writer, whose early work includes his involvement in the double-act, Lee and Herring...

, Chris Neill

Chris Neill

Chris Neill is a British comedian, producer and writer who features regularly on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland. Performing also as a stand-up comedian on the UK circuit, he has presented five solo shows on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe since 2002.-Early career:Chris Neill began his career...

, Tony Allen

Tony Allen (comedian)

Tony Allen is an English comedian and writer. Best known as one of the original "alternative comedians" Tony Allen's artistic career had taken many radical turns before he temporarily abandoned his Speaker's Corner "Full-Frontal Anarchy Platform" in May 1979 for the stage of London's Comedy Store...

, Angus Lindsay, Tony Green, John Seagrave; authors Patrick McCabe, Damian Barr, Victoria Mary Clarke, Karen Ashton, Ciarán Carson

Ciaran Carson

Ciaran Gerard Carson is a Belfast, Northern Ireland-born poet and novelist.-Early years:Ciaran Carson was born in Belfast into an Irish-speaking family...

; Lady Mary Archer; Jodie Harsh; actors Ryan Sampson, Adrian Barnes, Cecilia Colby, Glen Conroy; artists Marc Horowitz

Marc Horowitz

Marc Horowitz is an artist, actor, writer, filmmaker, comic, and internet celebrity based in Los Angeles, California....

, Jessica Voorsanger, Adham Faramawy

Adham Faramawy

Adham Faramawy is a London-based artist of Egyptian descent. He studied at both The Slade School of Fine Art and The Royal Academy and is affiliated with the !WOWOW! group....

, Patrick Brill

Patrick Brill

Patrick Brill, better known by his pseudonym Bob and Roberta Smith is a British contemporary artist.-Life and work:Brill graduated from University of Reading, Brill was awarded a scholarship at The British School at Rome while still an undergraduate...

; photographer Craig Cowling; and Brooke Society chairman Lorna Beckett.

Alongside the notable names are individuals from many walks of life, including firemen, doctors, care workers and the homeless.

Guy-Watkins has stated that the first section of the quest was autobiographical with him filming friends, family and work associates. The second part would be based around researching the life of Rupert Brooke, and the third would be to document a number of social groups and stereotypes that exist in the early 21st Century.

Social documentation

As well as having filmed a number of individuals who belong to certain social groups on a one of basis, Oliver Guy-Watkins has recently announced a series of events in association with organizations that represent those who are governed by specific social restrictions. The first of these events runs in conjunction with GEAR projects, Gloucestershire's only homeless shelter. Guy-Watkins intends to document both the staff and patrons of the charity by filming the reading Doubts, as well as inviting them to contribute their own doubts on blank postcards.

External links

• Postcard To Brooke http://www.postcardtobrooke.blogspot.com
• Oliver Guy-Watkins http://www.oliverguywatkins.com