Image caption: A Future Tinsley viaduct, Daniel Simpkins, 2007
Introduction by BLOC:
BLOCassembly#7 featured work by artists from Sheffield, London, Cardiff and Birmingham. Each of the artists selected produced work relating to the theme of Time. As well as artists from Sheffield (Daniel Simpkins), Birmingham (a.a.s.), London (Matt Roberts and Elizabeth Gossling) and Cardiff (Micheal Cousin), BLOC invited three recent graduates from 2007's Sheffield Hallam Fine Art degree: Eve Flanagan, Charlotte Durkin and Matt Thomas.
The Dissemination of (Re)Evolutionary Ideas
By Daniel Simpkins
The social nature of the BLOCassembly invites discussion between a large proportion of Sheffield's art community; inviting anecdotes, story-telling, the sharing of news, and gossip.
For the BLOCassembly#7, titled Time, I invited a series of small-scale interventions by a number of 'regulars' - those in regular attendance to art socials and openings, selected for their active and invested interests in current, local affairs.
The interventions took the form of rumours and fabricated anecdotes negotiated between the 'regulars' and I around a range of relevant issues. I did not prescribe the rumours but I did request that they shed a positive light on a potentially negative situation, thereby setting in motion aspirational discussion for the purpose of change: (re)evolutionary in nature.
Set amongst BLOC's rapidly changing economic, architectural and cultural environment, the assembly provided a unique platform for the conjecture, construction and manipulation of information.
Rumours included:
- a reversal of the brutal monopolisation of land ownership in the cultural industries quarter by Sheffield Hallam University, including the relocation of the art school
- the saviour from demolition of Sheffield's proposed Angel of the North, the cooling towers, activated by protest from Anthony Gormley
- a dystopian, derelict Sheffield on Second Life (the 3D online virtual world) in which Sheffield City Council's co-opting of the arts has had an extreme degenerative, rather than regenerative, effect.
- the democratisation of the selection of the culture board (responsible for Sheffield's regeneration and the outlay of public funds) and meetings open to artists for input in strategic decision making.
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