SWING THAT ART BAT IMAGES

Many factors may decide an artist’s weight and impact upon their peers as well as a larger public. Some of these may be their success, ability and reputation, longevity, and renown. It can be argued that the greater the weight of these factors, the greater the sway of the artist. What if the artist could concentrate all these factors into one object, whose weight and size was directly proportional to them. What if you could see an artist’s success, ability and reputation in one easy to carry object? What if all artists had art bats? The Art Bat metaphor offers the opportunity to reflect on the vicissitudes of artistic activity in a way that circumscribes the conventional vocabularies and language tools used to these same ends. No Fixed Abode, along with Access Space, developed this month long exhibition of talks, presentations and workshops. The event occupied the online space of the Blog www.swingthatartbat.blogspot.com and also the physical place of Access Space, Sheffield. Throughout there was a programme of talks which were as follows:

Friday 29th Febuary 18:00-20:00 Meet + talk to no fixed abode and drink booze

Saturday 1st March 14:00 Daniel Simpkins and Penny Whitehead present ‘BEAT ATTACK THWACK'; an exploration of the power structures underpinning contemporary artistic practice.’ visitors are invited to bring a bat representing an artist of their choice

Saturday 8th March 14:00 Black Dogs present ‘The Good Life; a presentation on the implications of diy, punk and self organisation in art’

Saturday 15th March 14:00 Ele Carpenter presents ‘The Elephant in the Room: Tensions between object and process in socially engaged new media art’

Saturday 29th March 14:00 Andy Hewitt and Mel Jordan (Freee art collective) present ‘How to Bat; How the artists’ bat enables one to question the popular misconception of art being a universal or disinterested field of practice’

Friday 4th April Closing Event: Talk by No Fixed Abode presenting an overview of the project and sharing of the chocolate elephant