Heather and Ivan Morison Heather and Ivan Morison's artworks convey the simple pleasures and passions of their own endeavours and of those they meet, from amateur floristry to beekeeping. Their seemingly straightforward observations belie the meticulous attention to detail and consuming effort they take in acquiring new knowledge and skills. The formal outcomes of their investigations include postcards sent to a growing mailing list of interested parties, LED displays of text messages, slide shows, LP recordings of conversations, radio broadcasts, special one-off events and science-fiction novels written whilst in transit. Many of these blend factual recall with fictionalisation, merging information into a shifting narrative that builds on the mythology of Heather and Ivan Morison's lives and the lives of the people they encounter. The two artists work from their overgrown allotment in Birmingham, though increasingly they roam more widely afield in a manner that recalls the nineteenth-century grand tour, but in a way that is conversely more attuned to the mundane than the epic. They make remarkable the everyday occurrences on the edge of people's public lives, where obsession and eccentricity have space to flourish. Text messages from their work Global Survey - where chance suggestions directed their travel itinerary - are used to develop a narrative on an outdoor LED display with their frequency and content reflecting the pace and intensity of the Morison's distant lives. The Morisons made the audio installation Two Java Sparrows while transporting their new birds across Beijing on the back of a bike. Later, when they were on holiday, the birds were eaten by a yellow weasel, having been left hanging outdoors in their cage whilst in the care of their neighbour, Mr Han. The event is recounted on one of their postcard artworks and recurs in the slide piece Chinese Arboretum. This work clicks through images of 100 special trees that the artists sought out across China, and included narrative titles. This format of presentation is likely to be adapted for the artists' planned encounter with Chilean rose farmers in 2005. The Morisons' tendency to present their observations in matter-of-fact, domestic scale formats is in tune with a past age of amateur pursuits, enjoyed as individually-motivated intellectual challenges, rather than pure leisure or professional activities. Written for the catalogue to accompany the British Art Show 6, 2005 | |
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