intimate~INTIMATE
		Presented by Blackout Arts 26th January – 9th February 2006 tollgate house & tollgate car park

INTIMATE MENU: intro | main installations | inaugaration~one | inaugaration~two | credits

 

LOCATION

Tollgate House and Tollgate Car Park, River Street, Bristol, BS2 9DJ.

 

DATES

First Launch Event: Thursday 26th January 2006
First Installation: 26th January - 1st February 2006
Second Launch Event: Thursday 2nd February 2006
Second Installation: 2nd February - 9th February 2006

 

THE EVENTS

For two weeks one of Bristol's former landmark buildings, Tollgate House, was turned into a giant canvas and project space by Blackout Arts. Commissioned by Bristol Alliance as part of its £500m city-centre redevelopment scheme, the project creatively re-used the condemned building and the adjacent multi-storey car park for two public events and two super-scale audio-visual installations during demolition works.

intimate~INTIMATE used giant video projectors exhibiting images on three sides of the 18-floor, 9-sided towerblock, which had been completely covered in white scaffold wrap. Two bespoke installations of striking and provocative moving images transformed the appearance of the building and the surrounding area in the city's night-time landscape, presenting a unique and dynamic vista to audiences across the city. It Is All Around Us was created by Roderick K Maclachlan and I Dream A Tower was created by Jem Noble, both in conjunction with Chiz Williams – the three partners comprising Blackout Arts.

The reach and power of the project was enhanced by its own dedicated FM radio station, Tollgate Transmissions, which delivered synchronised soundtracks to the video content of each installation. By day, the facility was used across the duration of the project for a live sound installation, broadcasting in real-time the sounds of demolition work gradually reducing Tollgate House to rubble. This piece was created by artist Jem Noble as part of his Displace series of sound works.

Each of the two week-long audio-visual installations was preceded by a launch event on the roof of the adjacent multi-storey carpark. Events comprised live, integrated audio-visual performances, specially commissioned short films and car park installations, all involving projection of images on to the giant canvas of Tollgate House. Works included 'scratch' animations by pupils from two neighboring schools in conjunction with Kari Nygaard, live performances by Vi and Flicker and a film by Joe Magee, as well as a giant slide show incorporating images of the tower taken by the public, managed and edited by photographer Adam Faraday.

 

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