GRIT / SALT - Paul Conneally 2017

GRIT / SALT

Paul Conneally

Dronfield Woodhouse

July 2017

"In 1957 Canada's National Defense Research Service carried out an experimental study into boredom, in which subjects were isolated in a hermetically sealed environment (a constantly lit cell with clear walls, furnished only with a comfortable sofa, rigorously devoid of sound, smell or variations in temperature). Extensive behavioral disturbances were noted by researchers. In the absence of external stimuli the brain was incapable of remaining in the state of regular excitement necessary for its normal functioning. They could therefore conclude that boring surroundings have a negative influence human behavior. This would certainly explain the unpredictable accidents that occur in monotonous labor, which would no doubt increase in frequency with the extension of current forms of automation."

Situationist International Issue 1 1958

YOU CAN'T BLAME THE YOUTH

Walking with no aim I come across a green bus shelter with the name of Peter Tosh graffitied on it. I'm immediately hearing The Wailers in my head and carry them with me for the next few hundred yards.

I've no idea if this scrawled 'Peter Tosh' was in homage to the great Peter Tosh or just some local youth inscribing himself into the very white very middle class seventies urban landscape at least until the next council paint over job but it raised the spirit of the the Bush Doctor in me and up the Gosforth Valley Road.

You can't blame the youth

You can't fool the youth

You can't blame the youth of today

You can't fool the youth

Paul Conneally

June 2nd 2017

ANOTHER CITY FOR ANOTHER LIFE

ANOTHER CITY FOR ANOTHER LIFE

"The increasing dissatisfaction that dominates the whole of humanity will arrive at a point at which we will all be forced to execute projects whose means we possess, and which will contribute to the realization of a richer and more fulfilled life."

Internationale Situationniste #3 (December 1959)

Photograph: Pentland Road Dronfield Woodhouse Drift May 2017 Paul Conneally

Petrol and Coffee

"Until the environment is collectively dominated, there will be no individuals — only spectres haunting the objects anarchically presented to them by others. In chance situations we meet separated people moving randomly. Their divergent emotions neutralize each other and maintain their solid environment of boredom. As long as we are unable to make our own history, to freely create situations, striving toward unity will introduce other separations. The quest for a central activity leads to the formation of new specialisations."

Guy Debord

Critique of Separation 1961

Photograph: 'PETROL & COFFEE' - Paul Conneally - Dronfield Woodhouse - May 2017

Foan Hill to Balm of Rakasiri

Leaving the Robin Hood pub Russ Ralph and I set off not knowing exactly which way to go and choose to go up Foan Hill. I'm not sure of the origin of this word 'foan' it might be an old name for a moor or a bog, well that's what just one reference on the internet told me. I also found a map showing the distribution of the word foan as a surname which seems to be mainly in the south and south west of the UK. Maybe the hill is named after someone. The first thing that crossed my mind was 'fawn' a young deer and the 1911 census tells us that at that time there were in Swannington four houses with a Fone Hill address and one with a Fawn Hill address. The Swannington History Society believes all these houses were on the same road and it is not known when the spelling standardised as Foan Hill. The spellings in the census could just be due to the way the forms were filled in by individual householders.

Walking up the hill we come to the Incline Kennels named after the Swannington Incline, part of Stephenson's Swannington Railway, one of the earliest railways in the Midlands and used to transport coal from the local mines to Leicester.

From behind the fence unseen dogs bark at us.

Russ and I both agree that we are not big fans of dogs but that some are okay and make you think maybe having a dog like that wouldn't be so bad.

Later, still intrigued by the name Foan Hill I search it on Google and it somehow takes me to a page in 'THE DRUGGIST'S RECEIPT BOOK' and to Balm of Rakasiri which was 'Oil of Rosemary dissolved in common gin'. It was made by the Jordan brothers in Canon Street Road, London, who marketed it throughout most of the 1800's as a cure for nervous diseases but actually without saying so openly as a cure for venereal diseases. They were outed as quacks but were still trading through till the 1860s. Oil of Rosemary in gin sounds quite interesting and maybe worth trying not for its 'restorative' properties but for its beverage qualities if it has any.

Any point on a vague walk can lead us to new discoveries, emotions and stories true, half-true and false. Welcome them all.

Paul Conneally

Swannington

Leicestershire

May 2017

Morning Rush

Morning Rush

From around 7am market traders arrive in their white vans and transits to start setting up for the Thursday market in Loughbohemia's town centre market place.

There's not quite room for all the vehicles at the same time and so thee are moments of calm amongst all the activity as stall holders wait for their workmates to get in with the produce, be it women's fashion, men's socks, fruit and veg or kettles.

morning rush

an on the move coffee

and a bunch of tulips

Paul Conneally

Loughbohemia

May 11 2017

Selling Hats - Paul Conneally, Cannes, 2014

'Selling Hats'

Paul Conneally

Cannes 2014

INVIGILATOR : MALVERN - Paul Conneally and Nikki Pugh

INVIGILATOR : MALVERN was the 6th splacist intervention in the ongoing INVIGILATOR series by artists Paul Conneally and Nikki Pugh. It was commissioned by MECA in 2009 and has informed and continues to inform the practice of Conneally and Pugh, separately and together.

Both artists continue to explore space place and time via what some call psychogeography but they refer to as 'splacist' methodologies.

INVIGILATOR forms part Conneally's overarching Walk To Work series of interventions, works and exhibitions.

"THE GALLERY OF THE STREET IS OPEN" - Paul Conneally
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Cannes From The Hip 'Seated One'

Cannes From the Hip 
'Seated One'
Paul Conneally
Cannes 2016

Head Walking

As part of my workshop piece 'The Gallery of the Street is Open' participants spend time blindfolded visualising their walk / route to work drawing directly in a process I call 'head walking'.

It's interesting as although the lines and marks do not generally resemble any conventional map the drawer, when the blindfold is removed, is able to label the line with shops, landscape, urban features, feelings and words.

Paul Conneally
Leicester, June 2016

Ghosts

Around the end of a chain link fence, a dark place of rushing water.

The Stonebow Bridge, also known as the Monk’s Bridge for this is the path they used, off to tend their livestock in the days before the dissolution of the monasteries.

We listen for ghosts.

acorns


on the old stone bridge


she fastens his coat

Paul Conneally


First World Haiku Festival Ginko

Loughborough, 2000

Still Hungry

still hungry
after the full English
a hole in the road
the knowing that October
is followed by November

Paul Conneally
October 2015
Leicester

'INVIGILATOR : DERBY' PAUL CONNEALLY at Pecha Kucha Coventry

Pecha Kucha Coventry | Vol 8 | Paul Conneally from MINDRIOT PRODUCTIONS on Vimeo.

Artist and Cultural Forager, Paul Conneally, talks in Coventry, UK, on his psychogeography / splacist exporation in partnership with artists Nikki Pugh and Kev Ryan 'INIVIGILATOR : DERBY'.

 

Photo: Kev Ryan

'Claustrophobia' - Paul Conneally - limited edition print

'Self Portrait Great Malvern Priory Road North Car Park' 
Paul Conneally 2009

A new edition of 20 prints of this self portrait car park ticket by artist Paul Conneally from INVIGILATOR : MALVERN (2009) on used envelopes is now available.

Each numbered and signed print is on a different sized and type of used envelope and although an 'edition' each is essentially unique.

Price unframed including delivery is £15 - click below for PayPal

 Contact: Love and Barley at LoveandBarley@googlemail.com

Walk the Line - Changing Landscapes

WALK THE LINE - Changing Landscapes 

This video shows people of Kings Norton 3 Estates taking part in Changing Landscapes 'Walk the Line' a Public Artwork comissioned by Birmingham City Council.

Artist Maurice Maguire with Rob Colbourne surveyed the route of the Wast Hill canal tunnel that passes under the Kings Norton 3 Estates Birmingham UK and marked it with blue on the surface. Residents were then invited to meet and join Maurice, Rob, Paul Conneally, Rob Hewitt and others to 'walk the line'.

During the walk participants were encoraged to engage with their surroundings and the canal below them via short talks from Maurice Maguire that gave an insight on the history and importance of the canal tunnel below the estate on the landscape and spaces of the 3 Estaes today. Paul Conneally introduced walkers to haikai ways of seeing everyday things, writing haiku and sharing them back with others in the Kings 3 Cafe after the walk.

Changing Landscapes is an artist led project conceived by Maurice Maguire
Changing Landscapes is curated by Maurice Maguire and Rob Hewitt.


This movie is part of the collection: Community Video

Director: Paul Conneally
Producer: Paul Conneally
Production Company: haikumania
Sponsor: Changing Landscapes - Birmingham City Council
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: Maurice Maguire; Paul Conneally; Rob Colbourne; Rob Hewitt; Kings Norton; 3 Etstates; psychogeography;transliterate; haiku; haiku hike; mapping; art; performance art; 

One Upright Arm

We move together along the disused railway track towards the top of the Swannington Incline.

"Don’t look the dog in the eyes. He don’t like it”

one upright arm
sustains the cheek
come walk with me
when things go wrong
there’s always the hedgerow

Paul Conneally 2011

From ‘Health Walk’ Paul Conneally with Nita Pearson ‘Whitwick to Swannington and Back’ May 2011

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Notes The line: 'one upright arm sustains the cheek’ is a fragment from “HOW RICH THAT FOREHEAD’S CALM EXPANSE” by William Wordsworth. Wordsworth tells us that the poem HOW RICH THAT FOREHEAD’S CALM EXPANSE was inspired by a print at Coleorton Hall, North West Leicestershire. Mrs Wordsworth’s impression was that HOW RICH THAT FOREHEAD’S CALM EXPANSE was also written at Coleorton Hall despite William’s note that it was written at Rydal Mount in the Lake District.

Gonzo Splacist Walk - London Sunday May 23rd 2010

The Strand Ley - A London Ley Line terminates at Arnold Circus site of Paul Conneally and Tim Wright's For A Better World Play Golf On The Moon golf tee.

This Sunday 23rd April Digital Guru Tim Wright will join Gonzogeographer Gordon Joly on a splacist exploration from Pudding Mill DLR Station (12 noon) to Arnold Circus. You could join them FREE.

Proposed Exploration:

• Meet at Pudding Mill DLR station - 12 noon, Sunday May 23rd, 2010


• The Olympic Park - The View Tube


• Greenway


• Hertford Union Canal
  
  
  
  • passing Victoria Park, where the walking events for the 2012 Games will take place.


• Regent's Canal


• Mile End Park
  
  
  
  • Ecology Pavilion
  
  
  • Art Pavilion (last day the current exhibition)


• Meath Bridge - crossing the Regent's Canal


• The Cranbook Estate


• Bethnal Green - Weaver's Fields


• Arnold Circus

After the walk, the brand new Shoreditch High Street Station is the closest station for departure home by train (Overground). Buses - various including 8 which goes to Liverpool Street.

The new Dalston Junction to West Croydon starts on Sunday 23rd May!!

On 23rd May, the Baishakhi Mela will be held in Brick Lane and Weaver's Fields. There will also be an event at the Bandstand in Arnold Circus.

• Baishakhi Mela


• Arnold Day – in honour of Arthur Arnold, social campaigner – with the Pavilion Brass Band