Matt Stokes: "These Are The Days" WILFRIED LENTZ - ROTTERDAM, Holland

Matt Stokes These Are The Days 29 May – 10 June 2010 Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam http://www.wilfriedlentz.com The fourth and last show in our May program – a weekly program featuring a performance or installation by a visual artist that centers on the use of recent historical music or sound – presents these are the days (2009), a work by Matt Stokes (GB, 1973) that explores the efficacy and actuality of Punk Rock as a widespread subculture in Austin, Texas, USA. Commissioned by Arthouse in Austin, these are the days was one of two works produced by Stokes as a result of his close work with the Austin music scene and extensive research into anti-establishment musical genres within the city, particularly Punk and Hardcore. The show consists of a large two-channel film installation, which was made by staging two separate events. During the first, Stokes filmed the audience at a free, all-ages gig he organised with a young Punk music promoter, held at Broken Neck, an informal skate and music venue. The second part of the work brought together five members of different Austin-based Punk and Hardcore bands to create a soundtrack for the silent film shot during the gig. This track was filmed during a session at a recording studio. Both elements are shown side-by-side, as a kind of diptych. While the Punk crowd is seen reacting and dancing on the left screen, the band plays the improvised soundtrack to it on the right screen. A reversal of roles between audience and performers, the film installation examines the concept of response, and portrays a musical subculture that challenges notions of causality, originality, tribute and circularity. Matt Stokes' artistic practice is marked by anthropological enquiry and an interest in events or informal movements that bind people together. Taking a variety of forms—from organizing events and assembling archives to making films and creating sculptural installations—Stokes' works are often collaborative in nature and frequently take place outside the traditional gallery space. Music subcultures have been central to the development of his most recent projects, which have focused on their ability to shape lifestyle, beliefs and create community. Acid House and Black Metal are among the genres of music he has explored, poetically revealing music's intrinsic ability to create communal experiences, devotion and fellowship through the quasi-religious experience of dance. Amongst Stokes' most noted works to date include Long After Tonight, a 16mm film that conveys strong emotional and spiritual content of British communities associated with the Northern Soul scene. Matt Stokes was born in 1973 in Penzance, England and currently lives and works in Newcastle/Gateshead, England. He received his BA from Newcastle University in 1997 and was the 2006 recipient of the esteemed Beck's Futures Prize, awarded by the ICA in London. Forthcoming exhibitions include a solo show at the Fridericianum (Kassel), group show at Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung (Hohenlockstedt), and film programme of the Tatton Park Biennial. Past exhibitions include venues such as 176 (London), Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead), Lentos Kunstmuseum (Linz) and Witte de With (Rotterdam). The opening will be on May 29th from 8 till 10 pm and the show is running through June 10th. The gallery is only open by appointment.

Richard Rigg: "Cage Mix" Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK

CAGE MIX: SCULPTURE & SOUND A group show featuring works by Sam Belinfante (b.1983) Graham Gussin (b.1960) Christian Marclay (b.1955) Jeremy Millar (b.1970) Katie Paterson (b.1981) Paul Ramirez Jonas (b. 1965) Katja Strunz (b.1970) Richard Rigg (b.1982) BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art SATURDAY 29 MAY - SUNDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 2010 BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art presents Cage Mix: Sculpture and Sound, a group exhibition featuring work by eight contemporary artists. Opening on Saturday 29 May it precedes and compliments the Hayward Touring Exhibition John Cage: Every Day is a Good Day which opens at BALTIC on 19 June. The eight artists featured in Cage Mix: Sculpture & Sound bring together works that imagine and explore sound through scores, graphic notation and other forms of translation. All these artists are associated with the expanded possibilities opened by John Cage's radical writings, lectures and creative experimentation; their art traversing what might be called a universe of sound stretching across time and space. Artist and composer John Cage (1912-92) was unconventional in so many ways, questioning the boundaries of composition with his rethinking and re-presentation of the score. His lectures on music in the 1940s and 50s were catalysts to entire series of new movements in art such as Fluxus and happenings and continue to be significant to contemporary artists working today. One early work of his which acts as conceptual focus for this show is Fontana Mix, from 1958; a graphic notational score, made through the superimposition of transparent sheets. Consisting of twenty pages covered with a mix of curved lines and dots the performer constructs the score by layering these sheets through chance operations. Once completed the performer is left with a series of time-brackets where action(s) may take place. Radically, in Fontana Mix, Cage created both a composition and a means for making new ones: a site where performance and direction is both overlapped and confused. Several of the artists in this show also use ideas of chance and create a role for viewer engagement. Central too is the notion of the mix and the power of juxtaposition, all relevant to an experience of contemporary urban life. Cage Mix: Sculpture & Sound includes work by New York based artist Paul Ramirez Jonas; with Paper Moon he has created a scaled version of the moon comprising 165 individual sheets of paper. The sentence 'I create as I speak' is repeated over and over again, as one long text. A lone page, a fragment of the image, is removed from the wall and left on a lectern while the public is invited to read this piece of the moon either out loud or to themselves. Katja Strunz has a constellation of components arranged on the slate floor comprising a series of brass and steel rods and parts from left over musical instruments, circular cymbals and the horn of a trumpet. Like sentinels marking time they appear associated with the production of sounds and form a bridge to astronomical listening; an aerial station of weathered instruments, the sounds of origins, and the source of the big bang. Newcastle artist Richard Rigg has created a visual conundrum with Before Interruption (2010) by creating a glass bell jar containing a brass bell. The bell is attached to a simple device that allows it to chime however the intermittent actions of a vacuum pump, suspends the sound of the bell leaving us with a bell that moves, but that we can no longer hear. Graham Gussin shows three works, including a large wall drawing in blue ink. Here sound has been put through a software program that translates it into image, producing a kind of audio map or territory, a new landscape of peaks and troughs. Another work, Vortex Mix, uses the cover of five vinyl records, placed on spinning devices on the wall. Cage Mix: Sculpture & Sound is curated by Alessandro Vincentelli. GALLERY INFORMATION: BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art Gateshead Quays South Shore Road Gateshead NE8 3BA UK Website: www.balticmill.com ADMISSION FREE Opening hours: Monday - Sunday 10.00 - 18.00, except Tuesdays 10.30 - 18.00 image: Richard Rigg Untitled, 2010 (detail) Ink on Paper Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Peter J. Evans and Richard Rigg: "The Glass Delusion" National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK

The Glass Delusion National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK. http://www.nationalglasscentre.com 21 May - 3 October 2010 Artists include: Meris Angioletti, Celia Baker, Alan Bennett, Malcolm W. Browne, Annie Cattrell, Attila Csorgo Katharine Dowson, Peter. J. Evans, Thomas Florschuetz, Helga Griffiths, Carla Guagliardi, Susan Hiller, Christoph Keller, Jorge Macchi, Cristiano Mangione, Anne Vibeke Mou, Matt Mullican, Joao Penalva, Roger Penrose, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Richard Rigg, Fred Sandback, Beryl Sokoloff/Clarence Schmidt, Jana Sterbak, Vedovamazzei, Alfie West. Artefacts and objects from: Beamish Museum, Co. Durham, Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums, The Science Museum, London and Great North Museum Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne. The Glass Delusion was the name given in the late Middle Ages and Baroque times to a form of depression. The syndrome evokes a psychological separation between reality and imagination. Sufferers were obsessive, compulsive, driven by irrational fears and envisioned themselves to be made of glass, hence delicate and vulnerable to scrutiny. More than any other material glass lends itself to speculations: as a transparent membrane it separates and connects, magnifies yet shrinks, reflects and deforms; it is a barrier, yet allows light to pass through it, it can be delicate as well as deadly and its attributes are appropriated in many symbolic ways: the Glass Brain and the Glass Man; mirror image, alter ego, Doppelganger, and split personality all come to mind. It is this duality, the ability to combine opposites, that is the inspiration for this exhibition of contemporary art, artifacts and scientific objects that tell the story of human attempts to reconcile the physical and mental worlds. Curated by Grainne Sweeney, National Glass Centre and guest curator, Alessandra Pace. Images: (above) Peter J. Evans The universe and you IV, 2004 Graphite on Paper 64 x 88 x 5 cm (PJE0006) courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK (below) Richard Rigg Weighing Scales, 2005 2 x Weighing Scales 42 x 35 x 68 cm (RR0004) courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Mike Pratt: "Captain of all Pleasures" EMBASSY Gallery, Edinburgh, UK

Captain of all Pleasures Richard Cook Mike Pratt Derek Sutherland Chris Walker EMBASSY Gallery, Edinburgh http://www.embassygallery.org/ Preview: 21.05.10 7 - 9pm 4 Artists brought together by a polarised sensibility, four artists channel the waves of dystopic transcendentalism shooting out from a 21st Century dialectical sense of living. 22.05.10 - 05.06.10 Thursday - Sunday 12-6pm EMBASSY 2 Roxburgh Place Edinburgh, EH8 9SU image: Mike Pratt I'm With Stupid, 2009 Acrylic, Gloss and Spray Paint on Canvas 231 x 162 cms Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Matt Stokes: "One Thing Leads to Another - Everything is Connected" Art on the Underground, Stratford Underground Station, London

Exhibition at City Hall 14 May - 10 June 2010 Nadia Bettega, John Gerrard, Dryden Goodwin, Richard Long, Daria Martin, Matt Stokes, Goldsmiths MFA Art Writing students Launch Event Wednesday 19 May 2009 6.00 - 8.30pm 6.45 speeches Venue City Hall The Queen's Walk London SE1 2AA Underground Station: London Bridge or Tower Hill Please RSVP art@tube.tfl.gov.uk 0207 027 8694 tfl.gov.uk/art Getting to City Hall One thing leads to another - Everything is connected' is an exhibition at City Hall. It brings together a new series of artists' works commissioned by Art on the Underground for the Jubilee line. The exhibition provides a glimpse of the projects on the line, and presents other works by the commissioned artists. It takes its title from a print by Richard Long that was given away to thousands of Jubilee line customers. The print shows an image of the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland, where the artist made a solitary walk, capturing features and elements that he encountered en route. This image contrasts significantly with the landscape in which London Underground customers encountered the final print at stations, from Stanmore to Stratford. This interplay between travel and place is a fitting starting point for the exhibition. It provides an insight into the connecting ideas between each artwork and the complexities of the Underground network in which they are located. The artists were invited to make new works at a variety of locations on the Jubilee line, which was first opened in 1979. Since June 2009, they have been investigating ideas such as time, economics and travel and our changing relationship with them over the last 30 years. Each work brings a new understanding to these concepts in the context of the Tube. They provide insights into how we use our time when we travel, what broader ideas influence our reasons for travel and the nature of our individual and collective relationships with time and the network. John Gerrard's real-time digital projection Oil Stick Work (Angelo Martinez / Richfield, Kansas) at Canary Wharf Underground station links the daily labour of the eponymous Mexican-American to our above-ground speculative world of shares and commodity values. Other projects in the series draw upon the individuals and communities that influence, inhabit or work on the Underground. In Linear , Dryden Goodwin has created an intimate and diverse social portrait of Jubilee line staff, through 60 pencil portraits of employees at work, and 60 films recording conversations and the drawings being made. Nadia Bettega and young people from Brent Youth Inclusion Programme went on a week-long journey to explore portraiture and place through photography. Daria Martin undertook a survey to research customers' daydreams on the Jubilee line. Matt Stokes worked with East End performers to create a new multi-channel film work and intervention for Stratford station that draws from the heritage of entertainment in the area . Finally, six artists and writers from Goldsmiths MFA Art Writing programme were "in residence" at London Bridge Underground station and have developed a collection of new writing inspired by their experiences and observations about travel. By working with world-class artists to reveal unique aspects of the London Underground for its diverse customers, Art on the Underground delivers an award-winning programme of projects by contemporary artists. These commissions further London Underground's role as a leading patron of art over the last century, forming the newest layer in a unique history of exciting artworks that connect Londoners with London.

Sophie Lisa Beresford & Laura Lancaster: Longlisted for "Northern Art Prize 2010"

Northern Art Prize 2010 Workplace Gallery are pleased to announce, that Sophie Lisa Beresford and Laura Lancaster have been long-listed for this year's Northern Art Prize. Breda Beban, Sophie Lisa Beresford, Simon Blackmore, Laurie Burt, Matthew Crawley, Gina Czarnecki, Rhodri Davies, Graham Dolphin, Alec Finlay, Leo Fitzmaurice, Lubaina Himid, David Jacques, KMA (Kit Monkman and Tom Wexler), Kevin Laycock, Laura Lancaster, Sue Lawty, Ian Macdonald, Haroon Mirza, James Quin, Qasim Riza Shaheen, Matt and Rob Vale and Diane Welford   The longlist will be cut down to a shortlist of four artists this summer with the winner announced on 20 January 2011. An exhibition of the shortlisted artists work will be on display at Leeds Art Gallery from 26 November 2010 until 6 February 2011. The decision of who will make the shortlist and ultimately walk away with the £16,500 prize money, this year falls to a panel of expert judges: Richard Greer, Collector Susan Hiller, Artist Mark Lawson, Journalist, broadcaster and author Andrea Rose, Director of Visual Arts, British Council Tanja Pirsig-Marshall, Curator of Exhibitions, Leeds Art Gallery Images: (above) Laura Lancaster Untitled, 2010 Photocopy and Correction Fluid 42 x 29.7 cm (LL0335) Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK. (below)  Sophie Lisa Beresford The Adidas Mermaid, 2009 Lamda Print 31 x 44 cm edition of 10 plus 1 artist's proofs (SLB0019) Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK.

Mike Pratt: "Cumberland Sausage" Solo Exhibition, Extraspazio, Rome, Italy

Mike Pratt   Cumberland Sausage Thursday 20th May 2010 7.00 pm until 16th July Monday to Friday 3.30 pm to 7.30 pm and by appointment e x t r a s p a z i o via San Francesco di Sales 16/a I - 00165 Roma tel / fax 39 06 68210655 info@extraspazio.it www.extraspazio.it e x t r a s p a z i o gallery presents Cumberland Sausage, the first solo show in Italy by Mike Pratt (Sunderland, Great Britain, 1987; he lives and works in Newcastle). The works engage with frank and simple imagery, they stand as a remark; there is nothing sentimental or worldly, just a curiosity into the processes of making. The surfaces of the paintings are caked with layers of mixed paint types, from Gloss to Oil to Spray. Each action obliterates the last until the 'right' gesture has the final say. (Mike Pratt, 2010) Mike Pratt therefore proceeds by successive layers. Each action cancels out the previous one. The last coat is the one that commands and is the statement. But it is worthwhile adding that the artists final gesture does not wholly obliterate the earlier passages and that the statement speaks rather of a work that is self-aware, that questions its own raison d'etre and ambiguities. The final work is, if not provisional, a sort of rind full of furrows that leaves a glimpse of the traces of the work's entire architecture. Without hierarchies and sentimental or mundane implications Pratt samples the everyday that surrounds him: manners of speaking, abbreviations, expressions of recent and less recent art, utensils and foodstuffs. Transferring his notions with syncopated gestures and several reprises onto large format canvases or in installations. A merry sense of the absurd leaps out of his work, the liberating idea that we can't oppose the world around us but we can take note of its lack of meaning, its ambiguities, and make use of them. Amid enamels, oils and sprays we also get a glimpse of the philosophical notion that says no work of art exists if not as an individual step in the infinite creation of an infinity of works. If we tried to ask confirmation from an artist who hangs up the word ON in an exhibition, in such a way that we might also read it as NO, he would probably answer such a philosophical question with the title of another work of his: LOL, acronym of Laugh Out Loud. Let's not take offence: we can always interpret it as Lots Of Love. In this sense, Con Molto Amore. Guido Schlinkert, 2010 Mike Pratt was born in Sunderland, GB in 1987; he lives and works Newcastle. His work was presented at Satellite Gallery, Newcastle (HUBBA HUBBA, 2009) and at Fourth Floor Gallery, Northumbria University, Newcastle (Paint It Black and Give It a Name Show, 2008). He participated in the group exhibitions: Psychic Geography, Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, 2009; JAMBON, Cobalt Studios, Newcastle, 2009; Some People Deserve Everything They Get, Royal Standard, Liverpool, 2009; Orifice, Foyer Gallery, Northumbria University, Newcastle, 2008; Collaboration, Foyer Gallery, Northumbria University, Newcastle, 2008; A Place to Think, Gallery North, Northumbria University, Newcastle, 2007. In 2009 he was awarded the Paul Masson Sculpture Prize.

Richard Rigg & Fang Fang: "Ballade Op 23 Without Words" Workplace Gallery, 15th May 2010

Richard Rigg & Fang Fang Ballade Op.23 (without words) Saturday 15th May 2010 8.10pm & 9.20pm (Gallery open from 7pm - 11pm for refreshments) Richard Rigg's 2007 work Piano (a piano tuned entirely to Middle C) is played by concert pianist Fang Fang in a special performance for Tyneside's 'The Late Shows'. Richard Rigg's sculptures look directly at paradox and conundrum through seemingly uncomplicated interventions or reworkings of objects. Rigg undermines our prescribed knowledge and conventional understanding of things; with simple actions he seems to undermine science, mathematics, and the foundations of culture, subverting them and proposing an ulterior route through our ontological understanding of the world. To this end his practice is destructive yet it remains faithfully optimistic in its address. Through Ballade Op.23, Rigg's sculpture resolves its implied usage, activated by a classically trained concert pianist yet with each note of the keyboard set at 'Middle C', Rigg sets up an impossible challenge. The term 'Ballade' (as opposed to Ballad) was originally applied by Chopin to a group of piano pieces in 1836. A radical shift away from the conventions of a Ballad, Chopin removed the human voice. In titling his instrumentals 'Ballade' Chopin implies a narrative through music or a or 'story in sound' where variations in harmonic arrangements, each phrase altering the next, offer a dialogic dynamic in the works, without words. With the introduction of Print, Ballades were able to have a rich tradition in popular music. Though during the middle ages Ballads were used primarily as narrative works, the Ballade was a step away from it's historical connection with singing, dance and their folk foundations. As a genre of verse the ballad can be briefly described as an anonymous narrative involving legendary or historical events, there is generally a tragic outcome and ballads are frequently associated with violence and the supernatural* The crashing of a defiant act, followed at the end by retribution is articulated through a mediated distance via the Piano, interpreting and leveling its impact. By distilling the lyrical and dramatic narrative qualities into a rhythmic approach, there is an attempt to reclaim the essence of the 'Ballade' to its etymological folk origins. * (F. E, Kirby 1995) Music for Piano - A Short History Ballade Op.23 (without words) is part of The Late Shows, Concurrent events will also be taking place in Gateshead Town Centre at The Shed and The Old Town Hall. For more information visit: http://www.thelateshows.org.uk image: Richard Rigg Piano, (production photograph) 2007 Piano Entirely Tuned to Middle C (RR0012) Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Darren Banks and Ant Macari: "No Soul For Sale" Tate Modern, London

Darren Banks and Ant Macari are both taking part in No Soul For Sale Tate Modern Turbine Hall 14 - 16th May 2010 Darren Banks will be exhibiting with Auto Italia South East http://www.autoitaliasoutheast.org Ant Macari will be exhibiting with PSL (Project Space Leeds) http://www.projectspaceleeds.org.uk No Soul for Sale: A Festival of Independents Tate Modern  Turbine Hall Free, no booking necessary Friday 14 May 2010, 10.00–00.00 Saturday 15 May 2010, 10.00–00.00 Sunday 16 May 2010, 10.00–18.00 To celebrate Tate Modern's 10th anniversary, the gallery will host No Soul For Sale – A Festival of Independents. For this free arts festival, Tate Modern is inviting 70 of the world's most innovative independent art spaces to take over the Turbine Hall. The festival will fill the iconic space, as well as the Starr Auditorium, with an eclectic mix of cutting-edge arts events, performances, music and film on 14-16 May 2010. The gallery will stay open until midnight on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 May for free late night performances by artists and musicians including Cosey Fanni Tutti, DJ Spooky, Jeffrey Lewis, Kaffe Matthews, Long Meg, patten, Martin Creed and his Band, Skin Jobs, Temperatures, and Thurston Moore and Eva Prinz. No Soul For Sale is a festival that brings together the most exciting non-profit centres, alternative institutions, artists' collectives and underground enterprises from around the world. The participants are encouraged to show whatever they choose, be it art, performance, video, publications, or simply themselves. Neither a fair nor an exhibition, No Soul For Sale is a convention of individuals and groups who devote their energies to art they believe in, beyond the limits of the market and other logistical constraints – it is a celebration of the independent forces that animate contemporary art. The festival is an exercise in coexistence: organisations exhibit alongside one another without partitions or walls, creating a pop-up art village. No Soul For Sale – A Festival of Independents is curated by Cecilia Alemani, Maurizio Cattelan and Massimiliano Gioni, and produced by Tate Modern. The first edition of No Soul For Sale took place in June 2009 at X initiative in the former Dia Center for the Arts in New York. Independent arts organisations taking part in No Soul For Sale include: 2nd Cannons Publications (Los Angeles), 98weeks research project (Beirut), Alternative Space LOOP (Seoul), Arrow Factory (Beijing), ArtHub Asia (Shanghai/Bangkok/Beijing), Artis - Contemporary Israeli Art Fund (New York/Tel Aviv), Artists Space (New York), Artspeak (Vancouver), Auto Italia South East (London), Ballroom (Marfa), Barbur (Jerusalem), Black Dogs (Leeds), Capacete Entertainment (Rio de Janeiro), casa tres patios (Medellín), Cinématèque de Tanger (Tanger), cneai= (Paris-Chatou), Collective Parasol (Kyoto), Dispatch (New York), e-flux (Berlin), Elodie Royer and Yoann Gourmel - 220 jours (Paris), Embassy (Edinburgh), Filipa Oliveira + Miguel Amado (Lisbon), FLUXspace (Philadelphia), FormContent (London), Galerie im Regierungsviertel / Forgotten Bar Project (Berlin), Green Papaya Art Projects (Manila), Hell Gallery (Melbourne), Hermes und der Pfau (Stuttgart), i-cabin (London), Intoart (London), K48 Kontinuum (New York), Kling & Bang (Reykjavík), L'appartement 22 (Rabat), Latitudes (Barcelona), Le commissariat (Paris), Le Dictateur (Milan), Light Industry (New York), Lucie Fontaine (Milan), lugar a dudas (Cali), Mousse (Milan), Next Visit (Berlin), New Jerseyy (Basel), Not An Alternative (New York), no.w.here (London), Or Gallery (Vancouver), Oregon Painting Society (Portland), Para/Site Art Space (Hong Kong), Peep-Hole (Milan), PiST/// (Istanbul), Post-Museum (Singapore), PSL Project Space Leeds (Leeds), Rhizome (New York), Sala-Manca & Mamuta (Jerusalem), Sàn Art (Ho Chi Minh City), Scrawl Collective (London), studio1.1 (London), Swiss Institute / Contemporary Art  (New York), The Mountain School of Arts (Los Angeles), The Museum of Everything (London), The Royal Standard (Liverpool), The Suburban (Chicago), The Western Front Society (Vancouver), Thisisnotashop (Dublin), Torpedo - supported by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA), Tranzit.cz (Prague), Viafarini DOCVA (Milan), Vox Populi (Philadelphia), Western Bridge (Seattle), White Columns (New York) and Y3K (Melbourne). For a complete schedule of events, please visit the No Soul For Sale website. See a list of performers for the Live Acts on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 May. image: Darren Banks Palace Collection (Detail) 2010 Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Marcus Coates: "A Ritual for Elephant and Castle" 17th Biennale of Sydney, Australia

Marcus Coates A Ritual for Elephant and Castle (2010) THE BEAUTY OF DISTANCE: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age The 17th Biennale of Sydney. Artspace 43 - 51 Cowper Wharf Road Woolloomooloo NSW 2011 Sydney Australia www.artspace.org.au 12th May / 1st August 2010 www.biennaleofsydney.com.au Marcus Coates presents a new installation, A Ritual for Elephant and Castle (2010), at Artspace. The piece involves footage of a live musical performance with London-based music collective Chrome Hoof in 2009, alongside scenes of Coates, accompanied by a stuffed buzzard and a trombone, responding to redevelopment plans in the area of London's Elephant and Castle. We see him engaging with the local inhabitants in a shamanistic act of comic yet sincere public service. image: Marcus Coates Vision Quest with Chrome Hoof, Heygate Estate, London, 2009 digital c-type print 115 x 163 cms, 45.31 x 64.22 inches (MC0102) Photography: Nick David,  Produced by Nomad Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Catherine Bertola: "Unravelling the Manor House" Preston Manor, Brighton, UK

Unravelling the Manor House sees twelve artists and makers using or subverting the notion of craft in extreme and conceptual ways. Each of the artists is developing new artworks specifically for the exhibition. The work responds to the house and will bring the existing collection at Preston Manor to life. We have included a broad cross section of artists working in a variety of media and at various stages of their careers. We are aiming to provide a high profile showcase for contemporary artists and makers and engage artists with historic houses and stimulate practical craft activity and debate. Selected artists Gavin Fry, James Hunting, Maria Rivans, Matt Smith, Louise Batchelor, Laura Splan, Kira O'Reilly, Penny Green, Catherine Bertola, Ingrid Plum, Emma Moloney and Caitlin Heffernan The exhibition will open at Preston Manor, part of Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove in May 2010. One of the five sites under the care of Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton and Hove, Preston Manor evokes the atmosphere of an Edwardian gentry house both, upstairs, and downstairs. Dating from c.1600, rebuilt in 1738 and substantially added to in 1905, the house and its contents give a rare insight into life during the early years of the 20th century. Visitors can explore more than twenty rooms over four floors, from the servant's quarters, kitchens and butler's pantry in the basement to the attic bedrooms and nursery on the top floor. The Manor also has walled gardens and a pet's cemetery. For more information on the house please visit the Preston Manor website at http://www.prestonmanor.virtualmuseum.info/ http://www.unravelled.org.uk/ image: Catherine Bertola If She Is Not, 2010 Pins and Pillow Case Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Marcus Coates: "Artist's Body" Coreana Museum, Seoul, South Korea

Artist's Body Coreana Museum, Seoul, South Korea, 6th May - 30th June 2010 Coreana Museum presents an international exhibition which explores the theme of the artist's body, its trace, action of identity, role as a shaman/mediator, as well as artists' visions of the post-human body, the painful body, and the body as a resistance to power featuring artists; Marina Abramovic Stelarc Pipilotti Rist Annee Olofsson Marcus Coates Mikhail Karikis Markus Hansen Hyungkoo Lee Janine Antoni Julie Jaffrennou Seung Wook Koh Miru Kim Nikki S. Lee Kanghyun Ahn Ium Jaye Rhee Jia Chang image: Marcus Coates Radio Shaman, 2006 HD Video Installation 09:31 mins Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Marcus Coates: "Grand National" Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Vestfossen, Norway

Grand National/ Art from Britain 8th May 2010 1:30 - 9pm Annie Attridge, BANK, Glenn Brown, Lynn Chadwick, Spartacus Chetwynd, Chrome Hoof, Marcus Coates, Keith Coventry, Shezad Dawood, Jeremy Deller, Jack Duplock, Angus Fairhurst, Saul Fletcher, Gwen John, Paul Graham, Douglas Gordon, Dryden Goodwin, Isaac Julien, Derek Jarman, Emma Kay, Le Gun, Andrew Mania, Alastair Mackinven, Cornelia Parker, Rebecca Warren, Mark Wallinger. Curator: Charles Danby 9th May - 3rd October 11pm - 6pm daily (except 17th May) post@vestfossen.com www.vestfossen.com image: Marcus Coates Vision Quest, a ritual for Elephant & Castle, 2010 10 channel video installation featuring Chrome Hoof and Le Gun Produced by Nomad Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery Vision Quest is a documentary film set in the South London neigbourhood of Elephant & Castle. The film follows Marcus Coates as he endeavors to locate animal spirits to guide a local community presently experiencing a disruptive and failing redevelopment scheme. For this unlikely urban adventure, a group of residents from the iconic Heygate Estate, local politicians and the psychedelic doom rock orchestra Chrome Hoof, collectively embark on a journey into the depths of Elephant & Castle, presenting an alternative and entertaining approach to dealing with contemporary social issues.

Matt Stokes: "Long After Tonight" Screening as part of Live Weekend, ICA, London

ICA, London 6th - 9th May LIVE WEEKEND 1 - PERFORMANCE etc David Gryn, director of Artprojx, presents four days and nights of live art/expanded theatre events, screenings and music at the ICA. Each day features different artist projects, kicking off on Thursday 6 May with David Blandy and Ninja Tune DJ's. Friday 7 May presents two evening performances of Tai Shani's Screentest: R-R-Rhine Peacetime 82 plus there will be an open rehearsal in the afternoon giving audiences a unique opportunity to uncover some of the process. boyleANDshaw perform on Saturday 8 May and to finish this first Live Weekend there will be performances by Brian Catling, Terry Smith and Aura Satz accompanied by screenings of Tony Grisoni films. Each day will feature artist projects throughout the day and night: David Blandy (Thurs 6 May) Tai Shani (Fri 7 May) boyleANDshaw (Sat 8 May) Brian Catling, Terry Smith and Aura Satz (Sun 9 May) From 2pm on Thursday 6 May and from 4pm on Sunday 9 May the following films will be screened from the Artprojx archives. A shorter selection will also be screened between 2pm and 4.30pm on Friday 7 May. Ashish Avikunthak Kalighat Fetish Shoja Azari Windows David Blandy My Philosophy Brian Catling & Tony Grisoni Vanished, A Video Séance & The Cutting Mark Leckey Cinema-in-the-Round & Shades of Destructors Lynne Marsh - Plänterwald Jo Mitchell Concerto for Voice & Machinery II Damon Packard - The Untitled Star Wars Mocumentary Francesco Stocchi & Nadine Dogliani - The only good system is a sound system Matt Stokes Long After Tonight www.ica.org.uk www.artprojx.com image: Matt Stokes Long After Tonight, 2005 Super 16mm Film and Audio transferred to DVD

Jo Coupe: "Crystalline Energy" Rio Tinto Alcan Aluminum Plc, Lynemouth, Northumberland, UK

Jo Coupe Crystalline Energy Location: Rio Tinto Alcan Aluminum Plc, Lynemouth, Northumberland Dates of exhibition: 1-7th May 2010 Artist's talk: 7.30pm Tuesday 4th May at Longhirst Hall, Morpeth. Jo Coupe's residency at Rio Tinto Alcan, one of the world's leading suppliers of bauxite, alumina and aluminium began in 2007, initiated by public art and design initiative, Inspire Northumberland. This residency offered the artist unprecedented access to the fascinating work of Rio Tinto Alcan at their smelter in Lynemouth, Northumberland. In response to this extraordinary environment, Jo Coupe has researched and developed a new body of work, centred around the powerful electromagnetic fields that are a unique by-product of aluminium manufacturing. The conclusion of Coupe's residency will be a showcase of this new work on site at the Lynemouth Smelter. This exhibition will include a temporary site-specific installation in the basement of the smelter and an exhibition in a converted shipping container. The exhibition in the shipping container, near the entrance to the Lynemouth site will be open 10am - 5pm, Saturday 1st, Tuesday 4th, Weds 5th, Thursday 6th and Friday 7th May. Access to the temporary installation in basement of the potrooms is restricted and is strictly by appointment. Artist-led tours are available on Saturday 1st May (1pm and 3pm), Tuesday 4th (4pm and 5.45pm), Weds 5th (11am), Thursday 6th (1pm and 3pm). Places on these tours are very limited and are available on a first-come-first-served basis. To book a place, RSVP with your preferred tour(s) to crystalline.energy@hotmail.com by Wednesday 28th April.  You must read the attached safety information before making a booking. The work I have produced during this residency explores the tension between scientific realism and magic, addressing our desire for wonder in the face of the rational. My research has focused on exploring the electromagnetic fields in the potrooms, where the actual smelting takes place. What intrigues me about this environment is its ability to produce phenomena (levitating objects, keys sticking rigidly from walls and photographs with strange auras) which might, in a different context, be seen as evidence of supernatural activity This residency was commissioned by Inspire Northumberland and funded by Rio Tinto Alcan, Arts & Business, Inspire Northumberland.