Black Dogs
Black Dogs is an artist collective (including Lumens James Islip & Stuart Banister) with a fluid and dynamic membership whose activity spans formal exhibitions, publications, events, interventions, workshops, social engagement and curatorial activity. The collective includes members living in various locations in the UK and internationally with a core based in Leeds who meet regularly.
Formed in Leeds in 2003 as a means to conduct artistic activity in the city at a self-organised level, Black Dogs subscribes to a DIY ethos of not-for-profit motivation and ideals of active participation. It is the group’s aim, through its artistic activity, to understand and facilitate a transformation from a passive-consumer ’society of extras’ through to a stronger, more participative form of social organisation.
Recent projects include a series of interventions and events based on the Tower Works site in Holbeck, Leeds; initiating an ‘autonomous learning project’ (Free Art School) using unused office space in Leeds, building a pub in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall in which to discuss tensions between self-organised and institutionalized art activity and designing a dialogue-facilitating event for Bankside residents as part of Tate Modern’s 10th year anniversary celebrations.
black-dogs.org
Upcoming Projects/Events:
Audio Almanac:
The Audio Almanac is a compilation of songs, music, recordings, collages and aural oddities produced by individuals with varying degrees of affinity with the epithet ‘artist,’ compiled and produced by Leeds-based artist collective Black Dogs.
Whilst not every contributor can be said to be wholly comfortable with their individual works framing as a piece of art, Black Dogs are keen to point out that the enjoyment and attention spent in the close-listening to and immersion in this product could be considered an artistic act. Whereas in the past they have described the books produced by the collective as an exhibition between covers, in this instance you are invited to imagine the record as an exhibition on a turntable.
