Output details

The Institute of Beasts

'The Institute of Beasts' – the first phase of Dutton and Swindells collaborative 'The Institute of Beasts project' – consisted of an exhibition, a conference paper and a journal article following an Arts Council England-funded international residency.

Context:

The initial inquiry was developed over a three-month artist residency at Ssamzie Contemporary Art Space in Seoul (January-March 2008). The open-call residency was awarded to the collaborative practice of Dutton and Swindells, who shared responsibility for the entire project.

Process and Insight:

The research resided in the exploration of artistic production through the application of ‘unruly’ methodologies, where animals and human-animals inhabited the artists’ studio and exchanged pathologies. Adopting an ‘animal’ sensibility of perceived unpredictability began to challenge dominant habits and modes of production of both the artists and the artworks themselves, and thus to challenge understanding of knowledge and art production by subtly altering the position of the maker/thinker.

Following the residency, Dutton and Swindells delivered a conference paper that articulated their thinking and sought to embody and demonstrate the findings in its own production, thus becoming both a work of dissemination and a work of production.

Sharing:

The artists delivered their paper at 'Writing Encounters' Conference, York St. John University (September, 2008), which led to an article for the Journal of Writing in Creative Practice (double blind peer review by Writing PAD), Volume 2: no.1, Intellect Publishing (July, 2009).

The public Installation of 'The Institute of Beasts' was a large-scale exhibition at Kuando Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei (20 June-2 August, 2009). The exhibition took the form of a sprawling installation of collaged objects, processes and materials consisting of over fifty artefacts including photographs, prints, vinyl wall texts, sound works, digital video and animations. The exhibition was reviewed in Photonet magazine (South Korea), The Work of Dutton and Swindells, January 2010.