We got up around 5.30 to take the mobile cottage to meet up with the Deborah Curtis and Gavin Turk's House of Fairytales at Zoo Art Fair, Royal Academy of Art, Burlington Gardens, London.
At first the cottage was really pulling on the car and we were worried that we would be too slow for the hills on the M40 into London. Closer to Oxford, the cottage seemed to loosen up a bit and started towing well, so we drove ahead onto the M40 and into London. It was surreal driving in and across West London with a tudor cottage behind us. We were happy to be exposing it to many different types of architecture as its temporary neighbors when we stopped at lights or jams.
When we arrived at Zoo, The house of fairytales couldn't stop the horseboxes engine from running, even though the keys were out. Gavin Turk got under the truck and tried to disconnect the battery. We washed the mud off the cottage with spring water we had collected from the hills.
We drove the cottage round the block and into its place.
Inside the cottage we collected stories from people about four leaf clovers and their experiences of looking for them, sometimes finding them, often not. Many people told us how they had been told by their mother or grandmother to look for one. We posted the stories onto the wall of the cottage alongside others we had collected at Cell project space in 2005. The amount built up over the day.
Thanks to Sally Lemsford and Sveta Stamenkovic for assisting us throughout the day. Sally for her great selection, thoughtfulness and hospitality and Sveta for his dry humour and stunning photographs.
artworks hung in a horsebox, a tudorized caravan crammed full of people fascinated by 4 leaf clovers, a workshop in the gutter, real live snakes and a puppet show of sorts. Back to the cottage... I was in my element inviting people in to share personal stories, draw pictures on postits, laugh, discuss the serious issue of marriage superstitions and breast feed even hide! Sally Lemsford 2008.
We opened the cottage up to anyone who wanted to come in.It was a place to sit down, to talk, to swap stories, to feed babies and to hide. It was used by the Zoo staff and by fair goers, curators, artists, and people walking by. We couldnt offer tea because both us and the house of fairytales had run out of gas.We put four leaf clover clones in 7 stands on the art fair for people to hunt for or stumble upon, thankyou to:
ICA, London
Riflemakers, London
MOT International, London
Eastside projects, Birmingham
Brown,London
Workplace Gallery, Gateshead
Blancpain Art Contemporain, Geneva
So people did actually finf=d them and come to us to find out more.
If we met people who were single we offered them a four leaf clover to put in their right shoe, according to folklore, if you do so you wil marry the next eligible person you meet.
Piff the magic dradon, House of Fairytales, studying four leaf clover clone.
Workshops happened in the gutter and around the grand pillars.
We left at 7pm and returned home at Midnight.Thanks to the House of Fairytales for their open ended approach to the project and their generosity in allowing us to get involved so last minute!
