TAPS:
Improvisations with Paul Burwell

Matts Gallery, Dilston Grove, London, 17-19 Sept 2010

Having received a TATE research/LADA Thinker in Residence award, Anne Bean decided to explore how legacy can be recognised in a practice based on innovation and improvisation. Paul Burwell had recently died and she decided to attempt a work that was both dynamic and alive as well as capturing the trajectory of his life.

Anne invited over 80 people who had collaborated with Paul in a range of contexts, to work on a video as though in collaboration with Paul, using the text of his song/poem Adventures in the House of Memory as an underlying armature. This was edited into an hour long double screen work shown over several days with live performances. Finally on the last night of TAPS Butoh dancer Ryuzu Fukuhara and musician Ansuman Biswas played live as Richard Wilson’s screen with circular saws hidden within the structure started to rip the screen to pieces, as Anne Bean's lighting work of moving flares outside the windows caused shifting shadows through the dust and smoke.

Invited artists from all manner of performance disciplines contributed films and audio works which were infused with the expanded vision of reality that was Burwell’s project...
It’s an extraordinary work that needs to be seen.

Phil England, The Wire, Nov 2010

TAPS live Performers:
Ansuman Biswas; Melissa Castagnetto; Shaun Caton; William Cobbing; Ryuzo Fukuhara; Juneau Projects; Oren Marshall & Steve Noble; Kaffe Matthews and Yol.

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Film

TAPS (19 Sept 2010) final event night

by Anne Bean
Performer: Ansuman Biswas
Screen installation constructed by Richard Wilson

Publication

Improvisations with Paul Burwell

Newspaper publication published by Matt’s Gallery to accompany the event, with essay by David Toop and drawings by Paul McCarthy.

View/download here (PDF 7.6 MB / 24 pages)