Tombstone (let’s get over this), 2015
Collaborative performance

Keith Harrison presented Tombstone (let’s get over this), a collaborative performance work, at each of the Acts of Making venues. The work was developed and performed at two indoor skate parks, Dynamix Skatepark and Prime Skatepark, as well as a public skate event in Bilston town centre.   

The performance:
The work, which was developed for the festival, was a collaboration with skateboarders to create a live skate performance that produced a new sculptural stone bench.  The work gave the skaters the freedom to use street furniture that is normally out of bounds.  

The benches changed shape and character as they were sculpted by the skills of skaters at a special skate jam performance event.  By placing the skaters centre-stage in these performances, Harrison is paying tribute to their skills and creativity. As a trained ceramicist Harrison is interested in the unpredictable ways in which different materials can be manipulated; skaters and chance, not the artist, influenced what was produced at the end of the live performance. 

Exhibition:
At Plymouth College of Art, the benches from the previous two festival venues in Bilston and Gateshead, were displayed alongside the preparatory artistic sketches and technical drawings that were used to develop the blank stone benches.  

About the artist:
Since 2002 Harrison has been involved in a series of process-based experiments, in which chance and unexpected outcomes have played an important part. Through his knowledge of form, materials and making, he sees his role as being that of creator of new objects, opportunities and experiences.

Harrison has realised large-scale works for public galleries and museums including the Jerwood Space and Camden Arts Centre in London. In 2013 he was Ceramics Resident at the Victoria & Albert Museum, where he created a series of works sited alongside the permanent collections.

Other artists in Acts of Making;

Catherine Bertola
Owl Project
Mah Rana
Clare Twomey
Richard William Wheater