12-50 Barriedale

MANA YAMAGUCHI and XIE SHANGYI

12-50 Barriedale

20 Wooden Cases in a Pushcart

These 20 wooden cases contain the documentation of the artist’s generous gesture, illustrating the process of designing and giving out a special and personalised gift to the neighbours staying on Barriedale Street.

Coinciding with current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron’s Big Society campaign as the step forward towards a better living environment, the gift is a friendly reach out to the neighbours, which attempts to construct a community identity and in turn encourage the households to take more responsibility for their communities.

The totem-alike gifts are visual translation of houses 12 - 50 along Barriedale, London SE14, based on observations recorded down on prescriptive survey forms. The characters mimic the process of mascot designing whereby they took references from the architectural forms of the houses, i.e. the gate design, number of locks and curtain designs, to create a personalised charm for the family.

These characters are then burnt onto wooden blocks with pyrography, resembling Native American totem poles, creating an interesting clash between pop images and tribal traditions. These totems are given names and a fictional background, taking on a made up life. They are then left on the frames of individual household gates as gifts with an anonymous note that says, “It protects those who believe.” This generous gesture is said to be an aggressive act as it creates a threatening atmosphere despite being nicely packaged. What the household has given in return for this gift is the possibility of being watched and becoming subjects of the creative process. The totems now being installed on the architectural structure of the house in replace of a plinth, takes on a magical mission.

ARTISTS

"Collaboration happens because we can appreciate each other’s creation, yet it is the moments that we cannot understand each other’s point that push us forward. "

This project is a collaboration between two very different cultural backgrounds, artistic practices and unique individuals, Mana and Shangyi.

Mana was born in Japan, currently studying in Goldsmiths College, University of London. She works primarily with miniature sculptures and fictional story writing, which are uniquely Japanese in nature. She is interested in the idea of containment and condensation of information within written documents and sculptural objects, thus is attracted to the clipboard forms designed by Shangyi and this attraction begins the journey of collaboration.

Whereas, Shangyi was born in Singapore and later studies in Goldsmiths College, where they met. She usually works with interactive installations and participatory presentation and is interested in observing the architectural spaces around, constantly tempted to upset the boundaries between private and public spaces. Hence now took on the role of a stalker on a mission to people-watch and records these observations onto forms designed for such purposes.

Hence, it is interesting to see how such clashes in identity, thoughts and culture, negotiating with the unfamiliar European surroundings, can blossom.