I make multidisciplinary installations and performances. Allegorical syntheses of traditional and new media; folk tale, parable and contemporary culture; drawing and dance performance..
You can come and visit me at the 'Royal Standard' in Liverpool where I have my studio (http://www.the-royal-standard.com/).
(above : "DUNGBEETLE AND SISYPHUS", my most recent project, a performance in public spaces.)
Commissioned for the exhibition 'The Baltic Frame' / Independent Liverpool Biennial, curated by Tony Smith for Arena Gallery, 25th September to 9th of October 2008
Group exhibition with: Birgit Deubner, Nick Fox, Britta Bogers, Claus Dieter Geissler, Tine Wille, Andrew Bracey, Nick Sykes, Bernard Georgeson, Susie Macmurray, Lesley Halliwell, Anna Ketskemety, Dagmar Schmidt
(above) "Through the Forest with Virgil"; commissioned for the exhibition 'Meet me at Sunset' / Independent Biennial Liverpool, curated by Nicole Bartos / 18th October to 30 November 2008
(above) 'In the forest with Virgil' (Mysore, India, 2007. materials: bamboo installation, dimensions variable, suitable for outdoor and indoor)
"Through the Forest with Virgil" - a fragile ascent...
an outline: From Babylonian times man has striven to reach the skies, to equal or rival divinity. So we continue to climb today still. Be it to reach goodness in life, be it in arrogance in the belief of our individual or collective supremacy (political for example, also see Babel as a reference…), be it in the hope that things will improve from bad to better or good to greater. We may seek love or status in society, godly/ divine blessing. The aim is always upwards, ascent. The ladder describes an unstable, un-secured journey, the higher one reaches on it, the more risky, the more treacherous the fall, a journey, also, that at it's end may lead to nothing… or to the heavens… this is open to interpretation. The ladder is the most immediate vehicle to ascent and in the way that I use it I also think of it as signifying the growth of trees, I make the ladder the tree in a forest which is created throughout our lives. (…) To achieve an abstracted folk tale/ dreamlike/ readable but non-direct narrative with references to today's society's focal points as well as to those of past times.
"DUNGBEETLE AND SISYPHUS"
“Searching for inherent and interpreted purpose in daily activities.”
A project in two parts to coincide with the Liverpool Independents Biennial.
The Artist uses Mythological Characters, insect life and Folk Tale Protagonists and brings them together in a place they have never met before. This could be a conversation, a play, a dialogue or monologue, but Birgit Deubner creates an unusual performance for the public realm, for an unsuspecting audience; and a film for exhibition in gallery contexts as well as waiting rooms and all manner of public spaces that are frequented and lingered in.
In this instalment of the project the setting was the architecturally and heritage rich part of old Liverpool. Private View: 25th September. 4 Jordan Street, Liverpool. Curated by Tony Smith.
Part two was performed and filmed in rural Germany. Curated and commissioned by Vanessa Bartlett, for exhibition at RED WIRE Liverpool. Private View: 14th November 2008.
A great thank you to LEON SETH for the camera work on both project parts and for his project development support !!!
(Sisyphus : punished in Hades for his misdeeds in life by being condemned to the eternal, futile, hopeless task of rolling a large stone to the top of a hill, from which it always rolled down again.)
Repatriation Program for Parakeets & A New Media Gallery for Birds
Recent project/Research-Project: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2009/06 'In or Out with Parakeets' a performance intervention, Richmond and Richmond Hill Hotel, London
2009/05 'In or Out with Parakeets' a performance intervention, Bereznitsky Galerie Berlin
2008/01 Research-Journey
Departure by train on the 1st of january, traveling to Istanbul via Cologne, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade and Sofia. En Route: drawings, sound-collections, photograph.. Seeking artists/ galleries, storytellers and buyers along the way. Return to England: 31 days later.
2009/05 Reliquaries of Empires Dust, Museum Man hosted by the BEREZNITSKY GALLERY Berlin
2009/05 Devotional Choreography I and II (re-edited), at QUAD in Derby
2009/05 Pause and Eject, at the Rag Factory, Brick Lane, London
2009/02 BBC Screen, daily for the entire month, every 30 to 60 minutes: 3 minute sections from "Dungbeetle and Sisyphus I", Liverpool
2009/02 'Fear and Optimism', curated by Josh Tennant, exhibiting Dungbeetle and Sisyphus I & II ; Workstation & Block Gallery, Sheffield Touring group exhibition curated by Red Wire/ Josh Tennant
2008
2008/11 'Slowness' curated by Vanessa Bartlett, "Dungbeetle & Sisyphus II", Red Wire Gallery, Liverpool Independents Biennial
2008/10 "Through the Forest with Virgil", Nicole Bartos's Gallery, Independent Biennale, Liverpool
2008/09 'The Baltic Frame' curated by Tony Smith, "Dungbeetle & Sisyphus I", Arena Studios Gallery, Liverpool Independents Biennial
2008/06 "Big Hope", Hope University, invited to show "Devotional Choreography / Khoreia", 5 channel video installation.
2008/06 'The Liar, the Witch and the Wardrobe' group exhibition, curated by Vanessa Bartlett, showing "Devotional Choreography", 2 screen- cine-film installation, Bridewell Gallery, Liverpool
2008/06 "The Watchers / 7 Giants", Installation in St.Luke's church/warmemorial, Liverpool
2007
2007/09 “Journey with Virgil”, large installations in public space in Mysore, India
2007/09 “Questions about the fall of Icarus”, poster action in Mysore, India
2007/05 “Devotional Choreography/ Khoreia” 5-screen cine film installation,
Anglican Cathedral Liverpool, solo show.
2007 /03 “Babel”, public installation of a Bruegel like clustered arrangement of staircase sculptures, with light, Mysore, State Karnataka, India
2006
2006/11 “Devotional Choreography I” (digital film), 3-channel video display/ installation. Presented by ‘Mercy’. Liverpool Independents Biennial. (http://showmercy.co.uk/bracketthis/)
2006/11 ‘Grizedale Open Salon’, “Journey with Restraints”, film, during the Independent Biennial, A-Foundation, Greenland Street, Liverpool
2006/10 “Journey with Restraints”, public performances of journeys wearing wings of lead, during the Liverpool Independent Biennial.
(2003-2006 sale of drawings, on commission.)
2002/06 “Requiem for a Dream”, John Moores University, degree show installation
2001/04 Exhibition of drawings at the Unity Theatre
2000/07 “And all is Always now”, Victoria Buildings, Liverpool University, installation with performances.
Events (recent): . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2009/03 Taxed / presentation at the A Foundation Greenland Street. "The Other Xeno-epistemic (taxed off Sarat Maharaj’s workshop at Test Site, Rooseum, Malmö in 2002) is the second in the series, TAXED, regular events for, and by, Liverpool based artists. This session involves a sideways reading of the Rhizome chapter from Deleuze & Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus, with participants each being assigned a footnote to research in advance. On 20th March, participants will gather at A Foundation to assemble and discuss their collected findings, notes and ideas, generating what Maharaj describes as “the kind of crazy-paving reading that makes [artists] ‘dodgy’ from the ‘doctoral’ point of view".
2009/02 Taxed / Slip & Slide Slam, talk at the A Foundation; http://www.afoundation.org.uk/afoundation/news.php
2008 working with singer Steve Boyland on "Khoreia/ Devotional Choreography"
2007 Collaboration with “Lost Voices” (3 classical and improvisation musicians: Steve Boyland, Jonathan Raisin and Ray Dickaty) with events in May and November, in the Anglican Cathedral; St Bride’s Church and The View Two Gallery, Venues in Liverpool.
2006 “drawing practice”, at a Fracture event (improvised orchestra); with Cellist Adam and live projection of waveform directed by myself.
Sales/ Commissions/Fees: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
please contact me if you are interested in any of my work
current commissions include illustrations for a children's book
and related printmaking.
Prices for work are negotiable and I work for the daily artist rate as set by the Arts Board of England, I am flexible for longer term projects or interesting projects that lack funding.
"Dungbeetle and Sisyphus" - rough edit, of the end of a 3 hour 'performance' through Liverpool City. (September 2008. For exhibition in "The Baltic Frame" curated by Tony Smith, during the Independent Biennial Liverpool. Camera work: thanks to to Leon Seth !)
this clip is of "Dungbeetle and Sisyphus", about 2/3rd into the performance. Location: Crosshall Street / Victoria Street, Liverpool, UK. Camera: Leon Seth.
...The work below is documentation of a part of a project I did during the Liverpool Independent Biennial 2006. Strapped to my back on a walk through the city are a pair of wings made from lead.. this was the 2nd of 2 performances
PHOTOGRAPHY BY PETER HAGGERTY
..about the fall of Icarus..
............................................. ABOUT THE ARTIST BY CRESSIDA KOCIENSKI :.....................................
"Birgit Deubner creates rich multidisciplinary installations and performances that explore notions of mythology and folklore, and the concepts of drawing and choreographed movement as parallel languages. She has spent many years in the exploration of an expanded notion of drawing which includes the mapping of dance through choreographic notation, and the visualisation of sound through the live projection of soundwaves. She has collaborated with members of the Liverpool Philharmonic orchestra and professional dancers, and has worked on projects in Morocco, India and Cambodia.
Birgit's film works eschew the convenience of the digital format for the sensuous flicker of cinefilm, often using silhouettes projected onto sculptural objects or environments – cities, forests and staircases in whose shadowy world exist these dreamlike signifiers of human fears or desires. She works consciously with sculptural materials which are haptic: the permeating smell of beeswax, the chill of ice, and the sombre weight of lead are absorbed into her rich language of signification, which has much in common with the totemic use of icon(ic)-materials of Anselm Kiefer and Joseph Beuys.
Although she is aware of her relationship to this bicephalus paterfamilias of German Art, her exploration of Devotional Choreography has perhaps wealthier resonances with Goethe's Weltliteratur. Like Goethe she seeks to promote empathy and mutual understanding through documenting the ways in which people from different faiths use repeated movement in their relationship to the Divine. She seeks the personal in the universal, but hers is not a biographical gaze – their distillation from the greater cultural context allows each faith to resonate with the visual poetry of those around it.
We are asked gently to consider the evolution and transmission of these gestures of devoted submission, which move through generations and across continents. Faiths wander and diverge with populations, but are rooted to each other and their own history in these 'dances'.
Their inscriptions are impermanent, but become timeless through their constant reinscription."
I was invited by the A Foundation to respond to a footnote of the Rhizome chapter of Deleuze and Guatari. This was for their second TAXED event, a series of events stolen from other events..
..after reading Deleuze and having had cause to consider rhizomes, dipoles, arborescent forms.. formal thought and more...
I thought about translation, as I tried to translate this text into something that resonates, I thought about a tale I have long wanted to tell and about images that I have for a long time wanted to make into a film reminiscent of La Jetee.
Dipoles seemed to describe the relationship I see between these images and the tale. A dictionary definition of dipoles is this: a pair of equal and oppositely charged or magnetized poles separated by a dista
Moin Moin! Leben mit Jesus war sehr angenehm. Kann ich für die Dauer von 50 Tagen nur empfehlen. Angenehmer wahrscheinlich, als Flügel aus Blei ... Really good work that!
lovely new works... seems like you are discovering new heights... and masses... The Dungbeetle/Sisyphus concept is excellent... keep me posted on videos!
