'Origins of the Island' reached its funding goal on 19th August 2011, exceeding its £1000 target by raising £1100 from 37 donors.
My name is Molly Palmer, I’m an emerging London-based artist and on the 21st of September I will present a series of site-specific works in the neighbourhoods that border the Eastern shores of the Bosphorus in Istanbul.
The project is titled Origins of the Island and forms part of a trail exploring Kadikoy and Moda - ordinary local communities that are seldom visited by tourists but are full of surprises and contradictions. The city and the sea provide the building blocks for an imagined island, whose rituals, mythologies and narratives bring together observations of Istanbul with traces of other cities that I have inhabited in reality or imagination.
Origins of the Island will be presented in four parts exploring the historical and emotional effect of the body of water that divides Istanbul. These include a composition for foghorns that I will perform daily on a stone platform by the Bosphorus, a fabric banner installed in a disused ticket hut with a written work about the imagined island of the title, a series of paintings installed in the hollows of trees and a fabric banner hung in a derelict schoolyard.
However, all of this takes place in Istanbul, and though I have self-funded the production and material costs so far the logistics of simply transporting the work to Istanbul are overwhelming. I desperately need extra funds to make it possible. The work will take place far from my usual audience and each piece will only exist for four days, so great photographs and video documentation are absolutely essential to the project, which will continue online after the trail finishes. I have found a wonderful photographer in Carol Sachs, who is willing to document the project for free, but I need help to cover her airfare and accommodation during the trail.
By helping me to fund the documentation of this work you will ensure the longevity of this project, which will feed into subsequent exhibitions and the creation of new works back in London. Through photographs and video footage I hope to capture the atmosphere of each site in order to build a series of works that evoke not just Turkishness or my encounter with it, but a broader sense of the way we make meaning from our surroundings - how each new place forms another dimension of the imagined landscapes we carry within us. The footage will become part of an ongoing web project, and the video documentation will accompany repeat performances of the foghorn composition in London.
I also hope to exhibit the fabric banners, photographs and video at the Turkish Cultural Center on Goodge Street next year in collaboration with Dial Zero as a record of our project in Istanbul. Paintings and images from the show will be published as a limited edition artist's book, distributed throughout the U.K. and available as a reward for this campaign!
ABOUT US:
Molly Palmer works with painting, sculpture, choreography and film. She graduated from Goldsmiths in 2007 and has gone on to participate in group shows and performance events at spaces including POSTED projects, Whitechapel Gallery, Royal Academy, Auto Italia South East and South London Gallery. Recent solo shows include Soft Systems at Supine Studios, London and Amphibia / Double Life at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California where she completed a six-month residency in 2010. Origins of the Island is part of an arts trail curated by Dial Zero in conjunction with the 2011 Istanbul Biennale.
www.mollypalmer.net
www.dialzero.org
Carol Sachs is a young Brazilian photographer living and working in London. After graduating from an MA in Photography at London College of Communication and some time travelling, Carol settled in São Paulo, where she began working commercially for magazines, fashion brands and private commissions with clients including Vogue, Wallpaper, Vice Magazine, and various Brazilian magazines. Meanwhile, Carol has developed an impressive portfolio of theatre and cinema photography, working with directors and theatre companies to produce beautifully composed and enigmatic stills.
www.carolsachs.com
www.nakedeye.carolsachs.com
The rewards offered to 'Origins of the Island' funders were:-
An original drawing by Molly Palmer from the project proposal or performance storyboard- £50.00
An original preparatory painting by Molly Palmer from the ‘First Find’ series- £60.00
A limited edition two colour A1 screen print- £70.00
A small original painting by Molly Palmer- £150.00
