Socially Distanced Picnic and ‘How to Make a Happening’ Workshop (Brighton and online – 25th August 2020)

On the 25th August, the Exploding Appendix Avant-garde Art Practice and Research Group  will be meeting in an undisclosed location near Preston Park 7pm until 10:30pm (Email us for more details). The session will be running simultaneously online. The outside meeting will be weather dependent and socially distanced to ensure that people are safe in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. The event is free and anyone is welcome. Knowing number, however, is very important. If you would be interested in being involved please RSVP to explodingappendix@gmail.com.

We will open with a picnic, this will be followed by the opportunity to discuss and share projects we are working on. Following this Bradley Tuck will lead a presentation and workshop on ‘How to make a Happening’. For more details on the workshop see below:

Drawing upon Allan Kaprow’s ‘How to make a Happening’ and examples from the work of Yoko Ono, Carolee Schneemann, Red Grooms, Robert Whitman, Jim Dine, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Delford Brown, Lucas Samaras, and Robert Rauschenberg, we will run a practical session on how to create a happening.

Below are some quotes from Kaprow’s text.

“Forget all the standard art forms. Don’t paint pictures, don’t make poetry, don’t build architecture, don’t arrange dances, don’t write plays, don’t compose music, don’t make movies, and above all, don’t think you’ll get a happening out of putting all these together.”

“You can steer clear of art by mixing up your happening by mixing it with life situations”

“The situations for a happening should come from what you see in the real world, from real places and people rather than from the head.”

“Break up your spaces. A single enactment space is what the theatre traditionally uses.”

“When you’ve got the go-ahead, don’t rehearse the happening.”

“Perform the happening once only.”

For this session we will be running both a small private outside event based in Brighton (UK) and a parallel Zoom session.  We will be engaging and interacting with people online and in person. The event is free and all are welcome, however there are limited places available to the Brighton based event and we do require you to book in advance. To reserve a place at the outside event please email me at explodingappendix@gmail.com. The live outside event will be weather permitting and will start at 7pm.

This session will be run as part of the Exploding Appendix Avant-garde Art Practice and Research Group’s fortnightly meetup, which will be taking place online via Zoom.  (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7317698673) The meeting ID is 731 769 8673. This session will be run by Bradley Tuck and take place on the 22nd September from 19:30 – 22:30 (British Summer Time). If you would like to join us for the session, or have any questions please message me at explodingappendix@gmail.com