Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Cumbria
Opus Magnum: Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum.
A spectrum of collaborative work originated and directed by Robert Williams, that has explored alchemical and supernatural tropes at the radical pedagogical institution Mildred’s Lane Projects in Pennsylvania. Opus Magnum: Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, a long running project (first public output in 2008), has at its core the development and construction of a building and collections that embody alchemical principles. The project focused on two major outcomes manifesting as art residencies. The practice, best regarded as a constellation of outcomes, includes seminars, workshops, public talks, exhibitions, installations and performance, some on-site, others at external venues such as local publically-engaged spaces (Honesdale & Narrowsburg Complexities) to major contemporary art institutions (MoMa).
Mildred’s Lane Projects is an experimental and experiential pedagogical context for the development of new modes of art practice. At its core, is the idea that art practice is collaborative, discursive, pedagogical, interdisciplinary, participatory, and can be an agent of social change (Thompson 2012:146). In terms of my collaborative practice, this now extends itself to a wider group – not only with colleagues from the Mildred’s Lane Project, Mark Dion and J. Morgan Puett, but also extending to the graduate Fellows participating in the two Mildred’s Lane Projects sessions known as the Alchemist’s Shack (I, 2009 and II, 2012), and all the artists and visiting speakers who contribute to immersive and demanding research-through-practice residencies.
The most recent manifested research outcome is the 2013 Dis Manibus: A taxonomy of ghosts from popular forms co-authored with German cultural sociologist Dr. Hilmar Schäfer. These art-works, photographs and texts articulate a series of practices and discourses with Mildred’s Lane Fellows in 2012 which investigate cultural tropes detected in the image and behaviour of the ghost in popular cultural forms. This work was also supported by an exhibition at The Mildred Complex(ity), Narrowsburg NY in March 2013.
