News Blog Books Textiles Posters Workshops Undercurrent Gallery About us

Sunday 12 July 2015

The adventure of the Minesweeper ~ by Camden McDonald

THE FIRST TIME I heard about the Minesweeper was when a friend of mine, Nick StClare called me.
"Camden, I'm thinking of buying a boat. Will you come and check it out with me?"


This was summer 2002. 
 
Nick had recently come into some money he wanted to invest, and he knew I'd been crew on The Yankey in Manhattan.


"Ok," I said, "Where's it at?" "Greenwich." "How much?" "Ten Grand. All wooden, ex-minesweeper." I was expecting something interesting.


We got there about 11 o'clock on a nice summer morning, and eventually found the Minesweeper tucked away behind an Industrial estate on Deptford Creek. We were greeted by Rainer Cole and Nick Chow who showed us around. The story was that they'd got some friends together to pool money and resources, salvage the vessel which had been abandoned on the river, and turn it into a venue. Their project had been stalled for the past two years and the members had drifted away, so they were thinking about cutting their losses and passing it on to someone else. We were impressed. It's the kind of shipbuilding you don't get anymore on that scale - 110ft long, 21ft wide with a draft of nearly 6ft. Price: £10,000.


Flashback to summer 1954 Poole, Dorset. 
 
Jack Bilson is getting worried. The hull is completed - triple carvel construction larch with several thousand hot copper rivets holding it fast, each one hammered in by hand by two men – one outside the hull, one inside. But the ship still didn't have any engines. Jack went back to the office, and called Geoffrey Bone at Ruston & Hornsby in Lincoln.


"Mr Bone, I suppose you know why I'm telephoning you. I can't complete construction of the rear deck of M2706 until we get those engines. Our launch date was scheduled for 17th June, it is now Monday the 17th of May."
Geoffrey took a puff on his Capstan cigarette and sat back in his chair, "Jack, how much are the Royal Navy paying you for this ship?"
Jack made a face, "Geoff, I'm looking at a pile of bills from the foundries, from the British Electricity Authority..."
"These Paxman's are customised for each vessel, they have to be balanced with one another in a twin-screw configuration - that takes time, if you want it done properly."
"Half a Million pounds, Geoff. Half a million."


In summer 2002 Nick StClare was chewing it over. 10 grand was all he had, it was a big project, the back end needed alot of work, he didn't think he could do it on his own, and Nick was the kind of guy that liked to do things on his own - his way. On top of all that, his father advised him against investing in a wooden boat. He backed out. Towards the end of the summer I got a call from the other Nick, Nick Chow. They'd decided not to sell after all. They were thinking of getting someone in to live aboard and revive the project in return for a share in it. Did I know of anyone? At that time I was being egregiously ripped off by a landlord in Shoreditch. "Well, yes. Me. I might be interested." "Yes? I hoped you might say that. Ok, think it over and write us a letter laying out a proposal." The proposal was accepted, so I went over to Deptford Creek again to look the Minesweeper over in a different light. How was I going to finish the rebuilding? and how was I going to make it livable in the mean time?




To be continued...

Friday 10 July 2015

Minesweeper Magazine : Summer Issue !!!


So many things to publish, to write, to discover, to enjoy !!! WE NEED more & more PEOPLE ! Get involved wink emoticon
~ Residency : Serenase Percena & Wonder Barbee
~ Undercurrent Gallery : Robin Stratton & Jacob V Joyce
~ Metamorphosis book
~ The adventure of the Minesweeper by Camden McDonald
~ Journey in Gambia by Raul
~ Illustrations by Andrew the Terror
contributions :
~ Great photographies by Jérémy Chausse
~ Scum text by George F.
etc.


Wednesday 8 July 2015

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS - 10 sept 2015

For the 2nd year, the Minesweeper Collective organises an experimental music & arts & crafts festival (september 2015 - Deptford, London) !
Performances in a "secret" place / Exhibition at The Birds Nest.
It is a CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS ! deadline : 10th of September

...event on facebook...

BE INVOLVED !
(thank you for sharing)


Submit :
~ experimental music
~ performance
~ visual arts, arts & crafts, photographies, etc, all kind of production as an experiment & music connected
~ experimental poetry
~ experimental fiction
~ texts, theory, art review

*

The Minesweeper Collective is very pleased to organise, for the second year, an experimental music & art festival.

This year the festival falls under the sign of a dual requirement :
~ the connection between visual & sound productions
~ the creation as an experiment & an experimental being-in-the-world (Dasein)

« desires & disasters »...
...what does not follow the on-way of the language.


We have invited MAXIME MANAC'H which works fully meets our theme.
Maxime Manac'h, if we want to describe his activities, is a performer, musician & visual artist.
http://maxmanach.com/
http://solstices-project.com/maxime-manach.php

Other artists involved :
~ Andrew (visual artist & DIYer)
~ Illustre Feccia (visual artist)
~ Camden McDonald (writer & so much)
~ Marketa Senkyrikova (visual artist)
~ Rodolphe Gauthier (writer)

& Elektriza (experimental music)

We hope we'll find lots of people who have the same concerns.
Everybody, artists as DIYer, are welcomed.

For further information & submissions, please send a mail to :
rodolphe.gauthier@laposte.net

*

Few of our references are :
~ Theodor Adorno
~ electroacoustic music → François Bayle, Francis Dhomont, Denis Smalley
~ Michel de Certeau (The pratice of everyday life → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice_of_Everyday_Life)
~ John Cage (Black mountain College, Fluxus)
~ pragmatism (John Dewey, Richard Rorty)
~ Nieztsche (music is not a mimesis)
~ dodecaphonism (ideas are sounds)
~ Deleuze, Derrida...

& so one

BE INVOLVED !
 

Monday 6 July 2015

DIY Book Workshop at I'klectik

The Minesweeper Collective organizes a DIY Book Workshop 
sat 11 & sun 12
One Market Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest !!!

For ADULTS & CHILDREN 

(£10 -> email-us for booking) ! 

Learn to do a book 
(papercut, screenprinting, bending & binding) !

Have a look

 

Sunday 5 July 2015

Indignata Jones & Wonder Barbee in Residency !!! (June 2015)

"Passion & Pain"


We were so pleased to welcome two great artists in residency aboard the Minesweeper : Wonder Barbee & Indignata Jones.

Wednesday 10 June 2015

Journey in Mexico ~ Chapter Three ~ Joe Fur Long

San Cristóbal de las Christmas (part 2)
The Revenge of Don Juan”

The time ticked slowly on as I sat alone silently sipping my mezcal and munching my borderline burnt baguette. Now that all the work was done, I felt slightly lost. Was I happy, relieved, nervous? I remembered the exact same feelings from our first show at the Undercurrents – was it enough promotion?, there´s loads of things on this weekend, are the bands gonna show up? (classic one). I looked around the room for the hundredth time to make sure the images hadn´t fallen down and the dodgy double sided tape (no blu-tak in Mexico) was doing it double-sided mission of both sticking to the wall and my highly valued - but still pretty cheap in Stoke Newington if you supply your own watercolour paper - portfolio prints that were definitely NOT for sale. What was for sale however was more crazy hats (which I managed to sell four of as I was waiting for 200 pesos each). I also had my drawing cards I use in London for donation or exchange.
The exhibition itself was a varied show. I had my favourite drawing and photos of murals completed in the years before at festivals etc, featuring also the body art work I do with Happy slap Boutique at Boomtown Fair Festival. As well as this was some of the works from Tulum and the solitary months in the Caribbean to try and expose a contrast between the London inspired themes and works before I knew of places as beautiful as Mexico, crossed with the work done here away from that world. The difference I could now see was that clear in the older pieces yet not from new stuff was I focussed more on subject matter and trying to prove a point with the work, less attention to graphic detail but more on impact and surrealism. The topics, which always carried some weight back home when hung here heralded the tone of a deathbed repenter, trying to scream at the world rather than exhibit inside it. The work completed here I noticed for the first time carried a more inquisitive nature, more attention the construct of the piece and playful, seemingly made by someone humbled and in awe of life rather than trying to mess with it. After some serious chin-stroking I suddenly had no time to ponder this as suddenly, magically, crowds started rolling in to the venue, scarfs pulled over red noses and peering into the gallery space
Relief is my favourite human emotion. Love is pretty good of course, and hope etc, but pure, raw, un-cut, RELIEF really hits the spot for me. Probably because I am such a stress-head. I felt this miraculous emotion in all its soothing sexiness as I saw the jolly groups of people who´d chosen to come down and check out the weird güerro´s art show and adjoining live music which turned out to be one of the most popular acts in San Cristóbal de las Casas – phew…
I got to work on the Live Art and socially explaining the pieces as best as I could as my Spanish was still pretty bad. My translated explanation of the Minesweeper project however was gaining attention and was causing those who read it to look closer at the work and pull friends over to see also. Everything was rolling. For a bit or variety I wanted to do a free-style live art piece, without much subject matter but more as some fun for the crowds around me. Anyone who spoke to me I asked to give me something to draw into the piece and with ideas ranging from an old tree to a superhero who does not know why he is a superhero with no superpowers, the piece had the desired effect and created many nice talking points. A beaming smile was hanging from ear to ear as I knew already it was a turning out to be a success. My first foreign solo show. Good vibes, and it still had more days to run!
Another collective was invited for the night and was running a stall at the front of the venue with stickers, screen-printed books and posters all on donation. I liked them immediately, really nice crew called Tapatista from Guadalajara in the middle of the country. Their work was political and shared the same DIY dynamic as Minesweeper – they ran a self organized social centre in their city where they lived, worked and printed as well as organizing local events for the community. After chatting a bit I learnt that they have an event coming up, the second installment of ZINFUTURO a DIY , auto-prodiction festival in the same vein as Crack! Festival in Rome. They invited me to come and show my work and print at one of the studios nearby . I accepted.

The music had started and the party was going full on in the other room, live dubstep and reggae-hophop styles from Macka B da local Mc with da dreads down to his knee. Turntablism too and a really great female vocalist but I can remember her name… The crowd were cool to full of boozed-up Christmas cheer and I was happy to see lots of locals there too not only travelers. That’s what I like about this venue, due to its political and socially minded events it bridges the gap which was always quite apparent to me between tourist/traveler/eurohobo and the local communities who lived in these beautiful places. I was dancing my arse off, was a wicked set and I could tell the venue were happy also with how it all went. Was an interesting Boxing day! Was a great feeling, basically everyone I knew and many of whom id given a flyer too that I didn’t know before were there, and all the effort felt 100% worth it. After this point in the evening I can´t remember too much more of what happened in any real detail as there was a lot of mescal flying around but all went really nicely, I think we went to an afterparty but I might be confusing that with new year… What´s important however remains – the show was a triumph and the venue were happy to continue. Yes mate.

The days after were very pleasant, dipping in and out of the venue to say high and straighten things etc and wander around in the post-Chirstmas-pre-New Year bubble of alpine Chiapas. I felt like doing some new things. I had heard about a shaman called Don Juan who lived in the surrounding mountains and had Temazcal ceremonies (and others) on his land. Now I had heard a few things about this man before, a friend of mine saying he had seen him make rain stop by throwing his coat at the clouds and another telling me he was also a black belt in Kung Fu. Intrigued, I decided to mission up to the land on New Years eve with some guys I had met in town who were from the notorious northern bordertown of Juarez (one living in Juarez, studying in El Paso USA). The more experienced of the two claimed that this shaman had changed his life and he was now his disciple, the other had never done this before either so I decided to stick with him as we approached the land. The idea of a temazcal is this. You and many other people cram inside a hand-made mayan sauna and through the intensity of the hot coals, really load chanting and expression of inner feelings ( as well as some un-described “medicine” that gets burnt on the coals) your spirit, mind and body are completely cleansed – Just in time for New Year! ¿Sounds great, No?
After an hour or so of walking we arrived at the compound and a small group was already there chanting and collecting firewood. The lad was beautiful looking over the town and the rugged beauty of the mountains all around made me feel very happy to be there. There were huge stones in the middle of the pit and the well-crafted flames engulfed them turning them red hot. The structure of a small hut was standing close to us and I helped everyone cover it this with multiple layers of very thick fabric. A truck approached down the hill and everyone around became hushed and excited. It was him. I was imagining some kind of priest -like figure with a pet eagle or something like that but he was actually just quite normal looking. A small man with a big ranch hat and boots climbed out and approached us. He definitely had a presence though I´ll say that. He walked over, blessed the fire and started talking about a large rock as if it was a large turtle - I suppose it did kind of look like a turtle. I didn’t quite understand but everyone else seemed to smiling, but after he blessed us all and the place in general he went away to my disappointment. I asked myself why, but I guess I just wanted to see some magic deep down but I was left with a very clam and controlled feeling over me as we all stripped down to our underpants and crawled inside the hut.
What followed was really, really intense. I imagine most saunas have limits on how hot they are are but even after about 5-10 minutes after introductions were made this grew to be so stiflingly hot that I thought my skin was melting and my finger nails curling and burning off my finger tips. With the chanting, talking (which to be honest I could really understand which didn’t help much) and whatever it was burning on the coals the whole time (my diagnosis: salvia) my mind in the pitch black started going into some very strange places to escape the heat. I had the strange sensation I was switching dimentions in order to get myself into a more powerful position to handle the environment I was in, but in a fashion a bit like a pre-teen girl skateboarding for the first time. When it came to my turn to speak I sweatily babbled something along the lines of “thank you for accepting me inside this mountain and I have no problems but some questions with the life today” and started chanting, curling in a ball and kneeling upwards to try and gain cool air that was not there – this lasted a VERY long 2 hours, with the door occationally being opened so more coals could be brought in, in case we ran out. By the last half an hour, I had accepted in my delirium that I was probably about to die here in this sweat lodge and that there is no way at all my foreign system will ever recover from this ordeal and the burns inside my nostrils and eyelids would ever heal back to the way they were. Everyone around me, young and old were screaming, crying, shouting or praying in the darkness – I was screaming too, tongue flailing toward the roof, I couldn’t take anymore! This was it! The end of Joe´s weird life in an even weirder situation: Sweating to death in a salvia trip in my boxer shorts!!… But then, miraculously, the door opened and it was over. I WAS TO LIVE! I crawled out, my eyeballs rolling in my head still as I neared the fire to cool down. As I stood up felt faint and nearly fell over. Everyone started hugging each other, probably elated as I was that they had also survived and we all ate fruit and dried off). I sniffed the foul liquid that had been sucked out through every poor pore of my body. It smelled of London, cheap alcohol, pavement, cigarettes, stress, free parties and boats. I was a new man! I was high like snowtopped mountains are however so I could not really figure out what the effects on my reeling mind were in any kind of long term cleansing sense but I can say I felt really good to be out of that odd hut… I shook hands and thanked the guys who invited me there . “We´re going to another one tommorow, man, 4 hours this time! Wanna come?” . “Fuck that!” I replied beaming and slowly, after saying my goodbyes, I edged slowly down the mountain and made my way home.

I did learn something else about temazcal effects first hand though that New Years Eve. It resets you in a strange way. Also tolerances… Of course, being new year, I did drink a hell of a lot of Mezcal and partied till the next day – but strangely my normally resolute body rejected this totally and I was sick like a dog the next day. Like a REALLY sick dog! My body could not handle any liquid of any kind, I had a raging fever to the point I was hallucinating in my bedsheets begging the stars for just one drop of water to stay in my cursed body for more than 5 minutes!! This continued for about 5 days, it was really cold too. I went to see a healer in the town and she asked me about the days previous... I explained about the temazcal and the heavy duty New Year also and she looked at me as if I had just poured salt in my coffee. It turns out that intoxication of any kind after that ordeal is a really bad idea. She explained you are supposed to rebuild yourself again into a stronger being than before slowly as you have been brought back to square one in many senses, otherwise it can have a bad effect on you (as I experienced…). I wonder if this was what Don Juan was saying to the turtle rock…
After that wore off I went about my business as usual, and arranged to have the exhibition extended for another two weeks which the gallery were happy to do. With this bonus I quickly jumped into Guatamala with Raf for a 5 days to renew our Visas and came back safe and sound (bit of a brutal edit there but yeah was mainly hiking and horse riding, some dickhead stole my coat but to be fair I did leave it on a chair, Guatamala is really beautiful though…)
There were other art related events on too in San Cristóbal on our return and I went to check out what was happening in a new project slightly apart from town called ´Arteria´. It was a beautiful piece of land with two large house built onto it divided into two gallery spaces with workshops, live music, dance and food downstairs served in the beautiful courtyard. It was a foreign money place and amazingly well spent! The theme was African dance and abstract artwork but what was really cool was the carved jade skulls and sculptures on show around the venue. The project had only been open a very short time and this was one of the first events, but clearly years of effort had gone in to turning this place into a real art palace, it had space for stone turning specifically as well as a huge kitchen and workshops for young people also. Really beautiful and I left wishing to be able to come down and see what could be possible in this space another time. But we had missions to continue: on to Guadalajara! Three days drive away in the state of Jalisco. The proud home of tequila and the noble blue agave, as well as the beginning of the barren deserts of the north of Mexico. I did one last temazcal just to freshen up before I left (seriously! and stayed sober afterwards for a week! much better) and after saying our quick but heartfelt goodbyes to this beautiful town which had been home for 2 very happy months we packed everything into the trunk of ol´Jetta and got the funk out of there…

To be continued…