PRESENT PACKAGED
ALMA
A Contemporary Art Event
Friday 21st & Saturday 22nd April 2017
7pm to 11pm
London
www.wearealma.com
ALMA was a contemporary arts event featuring powerful and moving work from leading London based creative practitioners Aoife van Linden Tol, Sean Rogg, Gui Pondé and Ana Lumack as well as We Are Alma, a performance collective formed as a direct response to the project.
Held at The Alma, a derelict public house in the heart of the East End, this unique event allowed the artists breathe life and fire into the building one more time before it was razed to the ground for development.
ALMA was conceived as a unique opportunity to bringing diverse multi-disciplinary practitioners together to display their video, movement, installation and explosive works over four separate floors in this inspiring Victorian building. At once visual art exhibition, performance space and experimental playground for the artists. The public were invited to wander through the building and experience ambitious works presented in the context of its crumbling frame.
The bar served two specially commissioned beers, blended from the exact 1854 brewer's recipes recovered from the Alma archives, created using replica yeast strains and matching water content.
Aoife van Linden Tol developed the site specific explosive installation, Present Packaged, on the first floor of the building. Using the footprint of the largest room, where many of the interior walls had already been torn down, as the structural starting point she hung seventy two delicate botanical shapes constructed of copper. Each contained a muslin package of spices and herbs sourced from Brick Lane market. Over the two days of the exhibition the Installation of small copper pods of seeds and spices sourced on Brick Lane exploded allowing their contents to fall to the floor bringing to mind the colourful Rangoli designs created with friends at Diwali during the artists childhood. Rangoli is a Hindu tradition used during religious events, or to mark an auspicious occasion such as celebrating the opening of a building or a special event. It is an artistic expression often shared with westerners and used to encourage acceptance and dialogue between cultures. Influenced both by chaos and order, the combination of the purposeful positioning of the pods and the random behaviour of the explosions will determine the fete of the design. Inspired by the wisteria pod and other exploding seeds, these packages, so full of flavour, smells, stories, of crossing of cultures, of history, immigration, of ancient trade, of colonisation, of family and memories, tell part of the story of the history of the area, and cultural present of the space and place the Alma occupies.
PRESS RELEASE
A Contemporary Art Event
Friday 21st & Saturday 22nd April 2017
7pm to 11pm
London
www.wearealma.com
ALMA was a contemporary arts event featuring powerful and moving work from leading London based creative practitioners Aoife van Linden Tol, Sean Rogg, Gui Pondé and Ana Lumack as well as We Are Alma, a performance collective formed as a direct response to the project.
Held at The Alma, a derelict public house in the heart of the East End, this unique event allowed the artists breathe life and fire into the building one more time before it was razed to the ground for development.
ALMA was conceived as a unique opportunity to bringing diverse multi-disciplinary practitioners together to display their video, movement, installation and explosive works over four separate floors in this inspiring Victorian building. At once visual art exhibition, performance space and experimental playground for the artists. The public were invited to wander through the building and experience ambitious works presented in the context of its crumbling frame.
The bar served two specially commissioned beers, blended from the exact 1854 brewer's recipes recovered from the Alma archives, created using replica yeast strains and matching water content.
Aoife van Linden Tol developed the site specific explosive installation, Present Packaged, on the first floor of the building. Using the footprint of the largest room, where many of the interior walls had already been torn down, as the structural starting point she hung seventy two delicate botanical shapes constructed of copper. Each contained a muslin package of spices and herbs sourced from Brick Lane market. Over the two days of the exhibition the Installation of small copper pods of seeds and spices sourced on Brick Lane exploded allowing their contents to fall to the floor bringing to mind the colourful Rangoli designs created with friends at Diwali during the artists childhood. Rangoli is a Hindu tradition used during religious events, or to mark an auspicious occasion such as celebrating the opening of a building or a special event. It is an artistic expression often shared with westerners and used to encourage acceptance and dialogue between cultures. Influenced both by chaos and order, the combination of the purposeful positioning of the pods and the random behaviour of the explosions will determine the fete of the design. Inspired by the wisteria pod and other exploding seeds, these packages, so full of flavour, smells, stories, of crossing of cultures, of history, immigration, of ancient trade, of colonisation, of family and memories, tell part of the story of the history of the area, and cultural present of the space and place the Alma occupies.
PRESS RELEASE
WARNING
Please beware of uneven surfaces when moving around the building. There will be fire and smoke.
For your own safety, please keep your distance from the explosive installation
as instructed AT ALL TIMES. If the smoke becomes uncomfortable you will be allowed to leave.
If you are asthmatic please inform the steward and follow their advice.
Materials may be used in the installation which could stain garments.
Please beware of uneven surfaces when moving around the building. There will be fire and smoke.
For your own safety, please keep your distance from the explosive installation
as instructed AT ALL TIMES. If the smoke becomes uncomfortable you will be allowed to leave.
If you are asthmatic please inform the steward and follow their advice.
Materials may be used in the installation which could stain garments.
