Woolgather Art Prize 2011

Hip hip hooray everybody......With Love From The Artist has been shortlisted for the Woolgather Art Prize! Click here to read all about it.

My proposal for the competition was: to present a documentary display of the project so far in the exhibition, and more importantly, to be present in and around the gallery and Leeds city centre for the duration of the show, leaving garments for the public to find.

The exhibition opened on Friday night, and I took the opportunity to begin my distributing at the private view.

As I only had a little handbag on me and wanted to be as discreet as possible, I started with a bundle of pretty scarves.

Number one - a pale blue silk scarf tied around a speaker upstairs in the space, just opposite my photos.

Number two: this heavily pattered orange and green scarf, tied around the door handle of the exhibition space.

Number three : a blue white and pink scarf on the middle landing of the stairs, next to Nikki Hafter's drawing game. (slight blurriness of images here suggests that at this point the wine may have been flowing).

Another pale blue silk scarf, this one with paisley pattern in red and pink. I left this on a shelving unit in the corridor upstairs which leads to the toilet. (wine theory reinforced here).

This pink scarf tied to the bannister downstairs. I can confirm that the bottles in the corner are not an installation, just further evidence of the fun times being had by all at the opening.

It must have been getting late by this point. One final pale blue scarf, tied to the bench outside the exhibition. I have no idea who these bare feet belong to!

parting gifts

just before catching a plane back to the UK, I left two little gems for some lucky Toulousains to find.

this sweet little vintage t-shirt with yellow flower details, on a door opposite my favourite cafe on Place Roger Salengro.

and then hanging from a derelict shop front on Rue Saint-Pantaleon, this pretty fluttery red and purple floral dress.

I wonder if I'll hear from these last two french offerings. As always all I can do is keep checking my inbox with fingers crossed, and keep daydreaming about what might have become of the things which have vanished without trace.

Last week I received this message from one of the students I've been teaching in Toulouse; it turns out he was with Alexandre Lapostolle when he found my beige dress, and they had in fact taken the pictures together.

I am basically anonymous in the process of withlovefromtheartist, and my student found out by accident that theperpetrator of the dress and his teacher were the same person. By this time I had just finished working at the school, so our dialogue about this has taken place through email - with the same kind of mysterious remove as other WLFTA interactions. Seems kind of fitting.

This gave me insight into one unexpected coincidence which had arisen as a result of the project. I love the idea that he and I had sat in a classroom together and interacted, unaware that we had essentially collaborated artistically.A really cute message - enjoy.

WithThankfulnessFromTheCoincidences

	Inbox		X

Reply

Dimitri ALBANESE to me

show details Apr 20 (7 days ago)

Hello Jo,

my name is Dimitri, I was in class with you this Wednesday morning.

I'm not sure you'd given to us your adress in order we write to you whereas we're not in England.

So, I'm sorry if this e-mail seems unpleasant.

I only would tell you I'm aware of your artist work and that I was with Alexandre Lapostolle when we decided to bring back the beige dress at Place de la Bourse in his house to take photos. At this time, I was totally unaware that "withlovefromtheartist" was yours.

Alexandre Lapostolle sent to me the explanations you'd given to him about your artistic project. I found the concept very interesting, but even at this moment I didn't know you were the intelligence of this work. However, Alexandre told me the founder of "withlovefromtheartist" was English, and it made me think about Tracey Emin and the presentation you'd made to the classroom.

A few days before the exposition at L'Hôtel Du Barry, Alexandre sent me a video coming from your blog where you're explaning some of yours artistic projects (the one about forgotten socks you're photographing after is great!).

Thanks to this video, I realized the founder of the blog and you were the same person!

Thus (maybe this word is more used in commentaries or class works...) I imagined the encounter between two persons, who had found one of yours aristic clothes, and you although you were not aware of our part in your artistic way. I think it is interesting because it gives the impression artists and nobodymen can cross their path without recognizing each other inside the artistic pattern - they create coincidences between people, through the clothes you're leaving on your way and curiosity.

Alexandre was invited to the exposition - he is the tall fair hair boy I stayed with. He was a student of Mme Pacaud the last year.

Right now, I'm a little disappointed insofar as I wasn't able to say it instead of writing it.

Thanks you for classes you've given to us!

PS: Sorry for mistakes!

Goodbye,

dimitri.

...first french response...

...last Saturday I received this inventive pair of images from Alexandre Lapostolle, who found my beige dress at Place de la Bourse...

...incredible. Merci Alexandre.

three more in Toulouse...

last week I left this lacy yellow shirt, hanging in the changing rooms in H&M on Rue Alsace Lorraine...

...then yesterday this beige dress hanging on a leafy sculpture at Place de la Bourse next to American Apparel complete with belt in pocket...

...I witnessed a few people stopping to read the label before carrying on their way without taking it, about half an hour later it was nowhere to be seen....

...finally yesterday was this green and lilac floral dress, being expertly held by a brass door knocker on Rue de la Bourse...

nothing Toulouse....

After several months spent static, the With-Love-From project resumed activity today, this time in the pretty French city of Toulouse. Location one was the train station, Gare Matabiau, as pictured above.

Item one was a coral pink petticoat with lace trim, which I left hanging coyly inside a photo booth. From the outside you could just see a sliver of lace peeping out from under the curtain.

Item two - this rather floaty green dress, left hanging up on platform T with a rose in her buttonhole, looking a bit lovelorn as though waiting for somebody to arrive on a train. I wonder who did arrive and take her down...

...just as I was was about to walk off, I realised I'd inadvertently hung the dress right underneath a speaker, which was blasting out some flutey type music...all very atmospheric and ceremonious seeming...

...here ends the documentation of MY clothing gifts for the day, however,

I came across something very interesting whilst I was walking around town earlier:

..a vintage faux fur coat, hung up outside a shoe shop on Rue Saint Rome, attached to a hand written note which read 'emmenez-moi', which means 'take me'! p.s.....

...never one to disoblige, my friend Caylin followed the instruction....taking the coat on a trip round the town before we later redistributed it in a little alleyway, complete with its instruction for somebody else to take it on the next stretch of its journey.

....I took the fur coat incident to be a good omen for the Toulouse leg of WithLoveFrom, clearly I'm in good company here.

Will I get replies from the train station dresses? I'm not sure. Either way, I'm going back out tomorrow for round 2...stay tuned.

withlovefromtheartist

x

p.s. here's the translated message tag I'm attaching to the clothes I leave here:

with love from a long lost bag...

Back in July I carried out my first covert mission as with love from the artist - leaving handbags around the Ymuno Festival in Wales. This exciting first 'drop' consisted of six vintage bags.
I was so excited about having actually started the project, and surprised at how much fun I had sneaking items into places where people would notice them, but wouldn't notice me leaving them there. I had so much fun infact, that I was only mildly disappointed when I didn't get any replies from the Ymuno bags....

...until now that is...

...anybody remember this?

...the lovely navy blue bag I left on a shop door handle? Well last week I finally received news from the bag and it's new owner, and my goodness was it worth the wait...Here are the six (yes, SIX) wonderful photos of the blue bag with it's new fairy owner, in a beautiful setting, and clearly having the time of its leathery life...

...the emailer informed me that the bag is now filled with fairy stationary...