JUNEAU/PROJECTS/: Woodcraft Folk
11 January - 10 February 2007
In 1925, nineteen year old Leslie Paul established the youth organisation The Woodcraft Folk as an alternative to the militaristic overtones of the Scouting movement. Inspired by the nature groups Kindred of the Kibbo Kift and Woodcraft Indians, The Woodcraft Folk’s initial pagan anti-capitalist tendancies evolved into a movement that works towards building a better socety through the ideals of peace and equality.
In Woodcraft Folk their second solo exhibition at f a projects, Juneau/Projects/ draw from their own experiences in the group, to explore ideas of tradition, evolution, consumerism, youth, and amateurism in popular culture. Appropriating not only the title of the movement but the attitudes and aesthetics associated with similar social groups, Woodcraft Folk draws comparisons between the activist origins of The Woodcraft Folk and the contemporary attraction of the Emo subculture.
Woodcraft Folk will showcase a new body of work, Emotional Modernism, a series of computer generated simulated wood carvings that depict portraits of teenage Emo bands. Originating in Washington D.C in the mid eighties, emo, emocore or emotional hardcore is a sub-genre of hardcore punk music in which bands impulsively and naturally express strong emotions during gigs. From its obscure beginnings emo has become a mainstream voice of contemporary youth and refers to an array of ideals, styles and technologies. Drawing on emo fan memorabilia publicised and exchanged through networking technologies, Emotional Modernism makes reference to the importance of symbols and codes as tools of both identification and exclusion in social groups.
Woodcraft Folk will also present Hollow Heart, an installation piece featuring a smashed guitar reassembled and digital images of the Birmingham based punk group ‘Birdland’ on wood panels. Hollow Heart recalls the tumultuous history of the teenage band who shortly after forming in 1988 were hailed in the music press as the saviours of rock n’ roll for their onstage antics, feted debut “Hollow Heart” and savvy Warholian image only to self implode by the early nineties with little media coverage of their demise.
The exhibition will also feature carved wooden samplers featuring text from Juneau/Projects/ recent computer games; meditative images on nature’s harshness and savagery made from pressed flowers; intricate perches for birds of prey; and a number of handcrafted instruments that will be used in a performance by the artists.
The domestic scale of the works signals a shift from the artists’ previous installations, which have often used scale to immerse and unnerve the viewer, towards a more intimate interaction. Juneau/Projects/ ambiguous stance on nature and technology both celebrates and critiques the central character of technology within our every day life, and in Woodcraft Folk leads us to question not only how our relationships are maintained through such vehicles but how many of them are direct consequences of our engagement with such technology.
In 2006 Juneau/Projects/ exhibited in Reckless Behaviour, at The J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Filmperformance, Modern Art, Oxford; and Echigo-Tsunari Triennial, Japan. Their solo exhibition The Black Moss, which originated at the IKON Gallery, Birmingham, is touring throughout Britain and Ireland in 2006-2007. Other recent exhibitions include Art Sheffield 05, Spectator T, Sheffield; the British Art Show 6, a Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition; All For Show: UK Video Works, an international touring exhibition; the solo shows Will I See Another Highway, Blackpool Museum of Contemporary Art, and Stag Becomes Eagle, RSPB Aveley Marshes, Essex (all 2005); and the solo shows Driving Off The Spleen, f a projects, London; motherf**king nature, The Showroom, London; and the touring exhibition Romantic Detachment, at P.S.1, New York and Chapter, Cardiff (2004).