The Ballad of The White Ship

The Ballad of The White Ship, Serf, Leeds, July 2018, in collaboration with Chris Alton

The Ballad of The White Ship by Chris Alton & Liam Geary Baulch was their first collaboratively produced exhibition. It builds upon the ongoing dialogue that exists between their practices, drawing out various commonalities. These include; recourse to popular and folk culture; humorous engagements with power; and a range of reoccurring political concerns, such as; climate change, notions of ‘Britishness’ and the commons.

The original White Ship was a vessel that sank in the English Channel on 25 November 1120. Amongst those who drowned was the heir to the English throne, William Adelin. His death led to a succession crisis and a period of civil war known as the Anarchy. A ballad concerning the sinking was written by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and published by the Kelmscott Press (1893-94).

Throughout the exhibition, The White Ship serves as a metaphor for that which catalyses change. In their banners, drawings and posters, Alton & Geary Baulch look to other monarch-less moments throughout British history and the radical ideas that arose from these periods of civil unrest.

Their punk cover (by the Deptford punk band Etc.) of Rossetti’s ballad ties the 12th Century Anarchy to The Sex Pistols; debut single, Anarchy in the U.K. (released 26 November 1976). Their next single, titled God Save the Queen, was an anti-monarchy anthem, which attacks the hegemonic structure of monarchy; an emblem of British class hierarchy.

The Ballad of The White Ship retreads various points throughout British history with a view to articulating this country’s future, be it a utopic punk republic or an island steeped in colonial nostalgia. Alton & Geary Baulch are interested in how these moments intersect, collide and inform each other, and how they might be used to imagine the world that we inhabit in new ways.

Watched Over, Tryptic, Pencil on paper, by Liam Geary Baulch. On display at The Ballad of The White Ship, Serf, Leeds.

The Ballad of The White Ship, 2 min 29 seconds, Original text: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1881, Arranged by: Liam Geary Baulch and Chris Alton, 2018, Music written and performed by: Etc. (Edu, Tom and Colm)

William Drownded, 2018, digital print by Liam Geary Baulch and Chris Alton
900 years of anarchy in england, 2018, digital print by Liam Geary Baulch and Chris Alton
Playing at being men (after black annis womens morris side), pencil on paper, Liam Geary Baulch, 2018

This Air Is Toxic

Costumes and Creative Protest designed by Liam Geary Baulch for Stop Killing Londoners
THIS AIR IS TOXIC, window display for solo show

An exhibition and week of events in a shop front on New Cross Road to coincide he release of a study showing that New Cross Gate and Deptford are up to six times above the world health organisations limit for the small dangerous PM2.5 air pollution particles.

A serious problem which is being faced all across London, and affects poorer and BME communities the hardest. Liam collaborated with local academics, artists and activists to create a week of free art and discussions about air pollution in the local area. Something Liam learnt more about while working with the group Stop Killing Londoners to design creative protests.

As you walk, cycle, take a bus, or drive along New Cross Road you may notice a new sign, it reads as a warning to all who pass it, “This Air is Toxic”.

You might not expect a road with schools, a university, health clinics and local pubs to be the 48th most polluted in the UK. However the study, published earlier this month by Goldsmiths Professor Jennifer Gabrys, who led the Citizen Sense research team. They found that between October 2016 and September 2017 highs of 150 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic metre of air were recorded by citizens from October 2016 to September 2017, who used ‘dustbox’ monitors to collect air samples. The recommended amount of PM2.5 is 25 micrograms per cubic metre, and the EU legal limit is 40 micrograms.

The new findings show a rise since 2012 when New Cross Road was named the 48th most polluted in the UK – 101 micrograms per cubic metre. The results are above Lewisham Council’s own records, which may be because the council are not taking nearly as many readings as regularly as the local people and organisations who helped create this new citizen sense study.

Despite the statistics, the Mayor of London has failed to include Lewisham in his new special budgets for tackling air pollution across the city. Campaigners and activists in London are currently pressuring the mayor to do more to tackle the problem. Mums for Lungs have been writing letters to the government, and 4 members of the group Stop Killing Londoners were recently put in prison for protesting about the issue. Representatives from both groups along with local school and parent campaigns spoke as part of the event to promote action locally.

Members of the public could even wear some of the art works in the form of Totobobo masks designed to protect people from the worst effects of air pollution.

Air pollution symbols drawn on Totobobo air pollution masks
Air pollution poster designed for Stop Killing Londoners and given away at the exhibition

Three Sheets to the Sea

Event at The Beneveolent Association of Excellent Solutions, November 2016, Ivan Robirosa

Three Sheets to the Sea takes its name from the nautical expression ‘three sheets to the wind’, meaning to not have command over a vessel because one had lost control of the sheets or lines’. It is an evening in three parts, responding to the Remembrance Day for Lost Species, which happens on 30th November each year.

Taking on the theme of islands and seas, we shall weave through the story of a long extinct sea algae that created the conditions for other species to thrive, whilst making the climate inhabitable for itself. This is presented alongside everyday tales of humans and other beings intertwined in capital-climate-crisis.

Performative-poem-talk drags us on a multisensory journey from the early evolutionary life of sea organisms, to our present condition, and onwards to a future of robotic sea dwellers. This is followed by a participatory workshop exploring our experience and emotions as we take part in ritual remembrance for lost and forgotten sea species. To close, we will hold a wake together, with probiotic and oceanic foodstuffs, to feed and facilitate a shared discussion around the themes of supply chains, climate change, extinction and our place within it all.

Jules Varnedoe and Liam Geary Baulch

julesvarnedoe.com lostspeciesday.org thebenevolentassociationofexcellentsolutions.co.uk


Categories Art

We Will Not Stand

Video Still from We Will Not Stand,July 2016, Elvia Teotski and Marie-Claude Gendron

We will not stand. (We will sit.)
We will not stand still. (We will travel.)
We will not stand for this. (We will travail.)

On residency at Est-Nord-Est in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli a town which despite its idyllic countryside setting is spread along a busy road, which all sorts of heavy goods vehicles, mobile homes, motor bikes and even houses travel along each day. Artists Jeremy Laffon and Liam Geary Baulch collaborated in an intervention which responds to this and their individual practices.

Categories Art

Sea Squad

Performing in La Biennale de Sculpture, Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Quebec, July 2016, Jeremy Laffon
Sea Squad at Visions in the Nunnery performance festival, October 2016, Orlando Myxx
I am the Sea You’re Surrounded by Me, Performance Lecture at ONCA gallery, Brighton, April 2016

“The sea is a mass. A network of molecules which move together. Mass = Volume x Density. The seas density is affected by temperature and salinity, therefore as the planet warms the mass of the sea increases. The masses are rising.

Unlike many species, Humans have the ability to change within one lifetime. Some will adapt as the sea levels rise. Will we wait for the rising of the masses, or the rising of the sea levels before we act.” From draft essay on cheerleading against climate change.

The Sea can be seen as a Cheerleading Squad, and Cheerleaders could give the Sea a voice around climate change, colonialism and capitalism. The Sea Squad, cheerleading against climate change, is open to all to join and can be followed at seacheerleader.tumblr.com

 

Categories Art

Ten Years Thames Whale

20160121_076
Lewis Henderson and Liam Geary Baulch organised a Memorial March for the Tenth Anniversary of the death of the Thames Whale. The event was contributed to by many in the form of placards, performance, speeches, songs, puppets and people. The event was mentioned by TV, Radio and Newspapers. The memory of an important news personality, Londoner, and Northern Bottlenose; the Thames Whale (Diana, Princess of Whales), and the Londoners that came together in support of her and nature, lives on.
Special thanks to: Bob and Roberta Smith, The Whale Song Orchestra, Lizi Watts, Nick Harris, Charles Verni, Hattie Godfrey, Jack Bodimeade, Fiona McAullife, Emma Northcott, Emily Woolley, Rhoda Boateng, Bridie Tyler, John Graham, Clive Baulch, Leo Taylor, Holly Hunter and many others who helped make the march possible.
London Live
Categories Art

All Around My Hat

“All around my hat I will wear my right to protest, All around my hat I will wear my fear with pride, And if anyone should ask you the reason why I’m wearing it”

sharp action crop
All Around My Hat, intervention at the London Stock Exchange in Paternoster Square

“you tell ’em I’m from London, and that I’m here to stay”

 

“Capitalism is Crazy” Kinetic Costume from All Around My Hat

“you tell ’em I’m a nutter, who should be locked away”

All Around My Hat at Performative Acts at the Royal Academy as part of Ai Weiwei’s show

“You may applaud Weiwei, I’ll raise a glass to his health/
but will you stand for your people, will you fight for yourself?”

All Around My Hat, at the Averard Hotel as part of Soft Apocalypse

“You see, what I’m saying, basically, is… you can’t make an omelette without cracking a few eggs… and humanity is just a cracked egg… and the omelette stinks. It’s cracking up! The freedom bell is cracking up!!”

All Around My Hat, at Lewisham Art House as part of Once More With Feelings

You snooze you looze. You work, we improve. All for one, percent.

All Around My Hat was a piece of performance, writing, and kinetic costume creation in 2015

Categories Art

Direct Action Dance Workshop

Performance, Sound and Video, Participants

First performed at Reclaim the Space, DIG, Lewisham, 19.4.2014

da dance workshop 1

da dance workshop 2

Dance workshop, learning dance movements with a significance or practical use for political direct action. A high energy, fast paced way to learn about, explore and discuss creative direct action.

For groups of 10 and above. Can be made to work for different ages, abilities, interests or amounts of time available. Contact for bookings.

Categories Art

Deptford Shanty Crew

Formed upstairs in the Amersham Arms, New Cross, 22.10.2013

Deptford Dockyard (Off in the Hands of the London Mayor)

Video and Sound, 2014

A weekly meet up in Deptford to learn and sing sailors’ working songs. Started at a time when Deptford’s history is being washed away by gentrification. The flyer highlighted the loss of the Anchor from Deptford High Street which has become a symbol of this. The group decided to write a shanty about the local struggle to hold on to Deptford’s community and history.

The Deptford Shanty Crew have performed in Deptford Lounge, the Dog and Bell pub, and they have been asked to sing on a BBC documentary about Deptford’s history. Contact for use of any songs or recordings.

whats-missing-from deptford

Categories Art

CV + Upcoming Shows

UPCOMING SHOWS

TedXEastEnd – Sea Squad, Hackney Empire 2, 3.15 and 5.45pm on Sat 25th Feb

You’re Surrounded By Me – Turf Projects, 9th Sept – 21st Oct

EDUCATION

2015 BA Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, University of London, First Class Honours

2012 Foundation (Fine Art, Drawing) Camberwell College of Art, UAL

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

Est-Nord-Est Artist Residency, supported studio practice, Quebec, Canada, 2016

Space, City, Land, Sea: ONCA performance residencies & artist mentoring, Brighton, 2016

The Elke Lacey Award for Textiles, 2015

EXHIBITIONS

2016
Thylacine Night, ONCA gallery, Brighton

Three Sheets to the Sea, The benevolent association of excellent sollutions, London

Soft Apocalypse, The Averard Hotel, London

Visions in the Nunnery, Bow Arts, Nunnery Gallery, London

Sunday Funday, Performance Cabaret Event, Fat Relic, London

La Fete des Chants de Marins, Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Quebec, Canada

La Biennale de Sculpture Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Quebec, Canada

Residence d’artiste, Est-Nord-Est, St. Jean Port Joli, Quebec

Have A No at Limbo, Performance and Party Night, Limbo, London

I am the Sea, Performance, 7.30-9.30pm 15th April, ONCA, Brighton

Space City, Land, Sea: ONCA performance residencies, Brighton

Ghouls, Gateways and Gatekeepers, The PAD, London

2015

Bon Fire, Laines Organic Farm, Cuckfield

Once More with Feeling(s), Lewisham Arthouse, London

Performative Acts, Ai Weiwei, Royal Acadamy of Arts, London

Goldsmiths Fine Art Degree Show, New Cross, London

2014

Direct Action Dance Workshop, Woodcraft Folk Camp, near Bradford

Rounds, in conjunction with Art Licks Weekend, DIG, London

Reclaim the Space, DIG, London

Art Music Politics Must Meet, Bussey Building, London

DEL+REW, Postgraduate Art and Curatorial Studios, Laurie Grove, New Cross, London