day 28 / a good friday
The centre of this city at midday, at the end of the first month of its lockdown… capital / centre / midday [Gran Via] and capital /
a work in five episodes
This week we are opening the doors on to The sky was clearer in those days / El cielo era más claro en aquellos días… The work is the culmination,
somewhere to look out from
We are stepping into the final phase of our The sky was clearer in those days / El cielo era más claro en aquellos días process in Madrid. And have
collecting skies
Beginning to process the many and varied skies – or more precisely, the sky colours – that we collected while in Chile… To find a graphic form for the shifts
autopsy #1
We are ending our research and development work here in Chile with a couple of exploratory public events. The first of which was our first public car autopsy… A day-long
walking a world already past
Our final days in the Atacama, and as far and as high into the mountains and desert here as our bodies would allow, we reached these salt flats. A national
a very big hole in the ground
The first phase of our work on The sky was clearer in those days… is ongoing, with a two-month period of research and development in Chile – facilitated in collaboration
the problem with choosing
The problem with choosing is that it just goes on, moment by moment, for an entire lifetime, and happens without reason. I guess I just still want to feel that
we are the asteroid
This new year is beginning with a shift of focus, as we turn our heads to a new large-scale piece of work. We have been commissioned by Naves Matadero in
together and alone
I’m sure I’m not alone in wondering how to discuss things at the moment; when opposition is dismissed as ‘fake’, and arguments and information are replaced with slogans designed to
wild scenes in Cardiff
We are in Cardiff completing the final stages of Storm.2, the second public work of The Storm Cycle, that we have titled Things come apart. We are trying to activate
a thing done
A five minute extract from reference footage captured of the burning tree, as it happened during the opening performance of Storm.1: Nothing remains the same – Pontrhydfendigaid, Cerdigion, February 15th…
things told, and things done
The first public step and proposition of The Storm Cycle, designated Storm.1, and titled Nothing remains the same, has taken its place amongst the possibilities of the real – and
there is a storm coming…
I’m setting out on the path of a new collaboration and relationship with National Theatre Wales (NTW), that we hope might allow us to more openly explore some of the
grey line [twilight]
Tomorrow we perform Grey Line – an interventional new public art work for radio, that Rosa Casado and I have been developing since spring, and that has turned out be
iliad [compressed]
With the slightly refreshed perspective provided by a few months of hindsight, I have finally had a little time to start sorting through some of the documentation gathered during our epic
no matter how many people believe in it
Here are a handful of photographs taken during our performance of What if everything we know is wrong? within a cleared out floor of Alhóndiga in Bilbao last weekend. This
small pieces of paper
Characteristically, while thinking about bigger and more complicated things, I’ve been drawing again – and accumulating a series of small pieces of paper, marked with drawings of small pieces of
a crowded room
I have just left Cardiff, after finalising the structure and animation of an immersive performance environment for the new production by my old friends Earthfall – which they will be
in the beginning…
Today sees the public launch of ILIAD – our new large-scale collaboration with National Theatre Wales. The project is our third work for NTW, since the company’s inauguration. It continues our attempts to reactivate classic
holiday
nearly a third and almost a quarter [ La Laguna 18/07/2014 ], pair of digital photographs, dimensions variable, Mike Brookes 2014 – from the ongoing small pieces of
about 1000 people
Your browser does not support the video tag. untitled [ Spanish-Moroccan border, Melilla, 23:54, 16/12/2013 ], one minute of found infrared surveillance footing, modified and looped, dimensions and
hindsight
The last still and silent trace of ‘what if everything we know is wrong? – as we performed it tonight, here in this cleared and appropriated Madrid studio –
autumn in New York
untitled [ West Broadway 29/10/2013 ], digital photograph, dimensions variable, Mike Brookes 2013 – from the ongoing small pieces of everything series.
…almost time to leave
untitled [ Firglade Avenue 23/10/2013 ], digital photograph, dimensions variable, Mike Brookes 2013 – from the ongoing small pieces of everything series.
walking
As our final public work here in Providence, Rhode Island, today we walked the now ascent shoreline of the natural cove that shaped the original geography of this city –
introduced birdsong
Today we conclude our Historic parking lots of Providence project, highlighting thirty of downtown Providence’s surface level parking lots that – contrary to assumptions that they are spaces of transition,
chorus
As the low evening sunlight floods the studio, we are opening its doors, for the first public prototyping of some of our introduced birdsong boxes. Installed, in this case, simply
greetings from Salina
Wrapping up one thread of our engagement with aspects of this city’s past and present – as both a playful exploration of the shifting character of downtown Salina, and an
bison stew, beer, and entropy
Closing the fourth week of our residency here in Salina, we have spent this weekend with the Land Institute – a small but world renowned agricultural research centre sitting just
still thinking about parking lots
Fountain Street and Mathewson Street, pen and watercolour on paper, 100cm x 175cm, Mike Brookes 2013 – from the parking lots of Providence series. Further details from the
postcard from the past
Greetings from Salina [looking north on Santa Fe Avenue], one of a series of twenty digital images adapted from archived postcards depicting 20th century views of Santa Fe Avenue
thinking about parking lots
For the first time in quite a while, I find myself drawing as I think. I have never really sketched works, unless I need to describe them to someone else.
here we are…
Eighteen months after the last public work in the series – in which we ‘revisited’ the now absent buildings of the former Euskalduna Shipyard in Bilbao – we have shifted
drawing for a small boy
el coche [requested drawing], pen and watercolour on paper, 15cm x 20cm, Mike Brookes 2013 – from the requested drawings series.
speaking of art
Gathering with our colleagues from NIDO here in Madrid, we have now initiated the Hablando de arte (Speaking of Art) audio and radio project, after a year of periodic
party
untitled [ Peroblasco 14/8/2013 ], digital photograph, dimensions variable, Mike Brookes 2013 – from the ongoing small pieces of everything series.
but it will turn out wrong
For as long as I can remember, the flow of my work has been punctuated by periods of disengagement. Moments when, for one reason or another, I find myself stepping
the dyas sisters / the reading room
Emptying my camera this morning, after returning from an intense and possibly overdue Quarantine gathering in Manchester, I first pulled out this short series of monochrome images. Together for ten
confessions of a justified sinner
After eighteen months of preparation Paul Bright’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner by Untitled Projects, co-produced by National Theatre of Scotland – my third collaboration with Stewart Laing – has
village hall dance
untitled [ Abercych twmpath 11/05/2013 ], digital photograph, dimensions variable, Mike Brookes 2013 – from the ongoing small pieces of everything series.
neighbour
untitled [ Llanon 22/04/2013 ], digital photograph, dimensions variable, Mike Brookes 2013 – from the ongoing small pieces of everything series.
the salon revisited
A few days in Glasgow, with Stewart Laing and Untitled Projects, where we had all gathered to reopen the doors of The Salon Project. Originally realised in Edinburgh almost eighteen
merry go round
untitled [ Plaza Mayor 21/12/2012 ], camera phone image, dimensions and proportions variable, Mike Brookes 2012 – from the ongoing small pieces of everything series.
things we do
Continuing to follow the proposition and possibilities of the perfect human (and the things we do), across its various manifestations – most recently including our occupation of the striped out
a pool of water
My last day in Glasgow, of this visit, where I have been lighting the teaching pool room of a recently derelict WW1 period public bath house in the city’s south side
bits of somewhere far away
While considering possible futures for our ongoing What if everything we know is wrong? project, Rosa Casado and I have been sorting through the remnants of its recent past – here are just
screens and headphones
Giving myself a little time and distance to reflect on the realities of our run of Coriolan/us last month, I have been spending some of my days slowly reviewing and combining
an emptied place
Before more detailed traces and remnants of our Coriolan/us project begin to gather, I thought that I would mark its completion with a quick camera phone image, snapped across that
danger
danger of death 1.1 + 1.2, graphic image work, modified found sign, dimensions and colours variable, Mike Brookes 2012 – from the ongoing small pieces of everything series.
Houston, we’ve had a problem
Yesterday saw the latest version of our initial work from What if everything we know is wrong? – performed under soft early evening sunlight, within one of the large empty
quiet queen
Your browser does not support the video tag. five minute queen [silent], video fragment captured on mobile phone, sound removed, dimensions and proportions variable, Mike Brookes 2012 – from the
what if everything we know is wrong?
Last weekend, commissioned to perform the initial work from our developing What if everything we know is wrong? project, Rosa Casado and I stepped into a large clear room in
hangar 858
Today the site for our production of Coriolan/us this coming August has officially been announced – Hangar 858 – a decommissioned WW2 aircraft hanger in St Athan, South Wales. Built in
some things happen, some things don’t
At the heart of any event – memorable or otherwise – something concrete is happening. An obvious statement in itself, but still an acknowledgement that has engaged my thoughts a
b
Last year I was approached by the Swiss company Trickster-p, and asked to design a proposal for the second work within their ongoing trilogy of theatre installation pieces, structured as
lifeguard
A few short days in Glasgow, catching up with old friends and new – discussing Lifeguard, a new work with Adrian Howells and the National Theatre of Scotland, planned for
are we there yet?
I always look forward to site visits. Even when they are likely to end in disappointment, they are still revealing. The collective decision to step beyond the theoretical that provokes
¿todo bajo control? [ everything under control? ]
Rosa Casado and I [foreground] snapped at a successful ‘bring your own wine and headphones’ silent concert experiment in a small Madrid apartment last weekend – courtesy of colleagues Gichi-Gichi
located or camping?
As Mike Pearson and I simultaneously turn up the heat on our Coriolan/us process with the new year, trading thoughts over distance for little while longer, it seems that we
looking for something
As a busy and productive year comes to an end, and having finally landed on my own sofa for a while, with a little space and time to think, I
standing still in cities
Here are three short fragments of video I have been revisiting – from CCTV surveillance footage recorded by South Wales Police during work that Mike Pearson, Ed Thomas and I
time lapse
Three photos of the just a little bit of history repeating site in Bilbao – firstly the working Euskalduna shipyard and docks, then its subsequent dereliction, and the present (the Guggenheim
visiting absent buildings
Rosa Casado and I are back in Bilbao, a city that we have begun to form a bit of a relationship with over recent years, having been awarded two separate
entitled
Tonight sees the final performance of this year’s tour of Entitled – my eleventh collaboration with old friends and long-term colleagues Quarantine. “…devised with three technicians (Greg Akehurst, Chris Whitwood
the salon project wardrobe
…a couple more shots from The Salon Project, Edinburgh, but this time from the other side of the salon walls – amongst audience members at the beginning of their evening,
the salon project
I have just left Edinburgh, after opening The Salon Project – my second collaboration with Stewart Laing, and his company Untitled Projects. We have built and structured somewhere, a specifically temporary
twenty five thousand words, spoken one at a time
A day in Cardiff. Mike Pearson and I met a cast of fourteen actors, with colleagues from the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre Wales, for an open cold reading
can everyone see me if I stand on this chair?
Last night Rosa Casado and I performed the first public work from our What if everything we know wrong? project, under the chandeliers and crystal wall lights of Brown’s Alumnae
unnecessary activity in a room
Over this past week it has become increasingly clear that the work we are trying to propose here is simply a visible public attempt to construct one place, from collected
an act of representation
Today I am packing for a month long residency in the States – an invitation split between New York and Rhode Island, culminating in an event at Brown University. The
a title recycled for works containing nothing new
As I head off to Bilbao to meet ex-workers from the Euskalduna shipyards, who have kindly agreed to work with Rosa and I on the next work from our just
one thing leads to another
As a small detail and taster of mine and Rosa’s intervention in Olot last weekend – a model cement town laid out in public space from 1500 individually cast small
enactment + autopsy
THE ASSASSINATION OF LLWYD AP IWAN BY THE OUTLAWS WILSON AND EVANS A couple of months ago, picking up threads from our recent conversations, Mike and I proposed a
welcome
Following the success of our located production of The Persians, within the landscape of an MOD range in the Brecon Beacons, for the 2010 inaugural session of National Theatre Wales;
