Category Archives: Artist

Interviews with artists

Helen Ottaway talking walking

Helen Ottaway is a musician and composer, and Frome resident for 22 years, who has been invited to curate LISTEN: A Season of Sound Art taking place in Frome from the 20 July until Sound Walk Sunday on the 1 September, 2019. In this episode, interviewed midway through the LISTEN, Helen explains how it came to fruition, its breadth of events taking place, and how she particularly wanted to include a listening walk and a geo-located sound walk. Helen herself, has been involved in creating sound art outdoors and is keen to include more walking in her future work.
21’24” 10MB

Listen: A Season of Sound Art runs until Sunday 1 September – check the programme of events here

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Photo credit: Frances Ottaway

Simone Etter talking walking

Swiss artist Simone Etter’s ‘Walk Book’ is full of techniques to disorientate you, not necessarily to get you lost, but to muddle your thoughts, even on a familiar route.  Andrew Stuck, producer of Talking Walking, and Simone set out on a walk together towards a campsite beyond La Romieu in south west France, where they have been attending Made of Walking. They know where they are aiming for but don’t know the way to get there, and once they are there, they are not sure as to how to return via a different route. Along the way, Andrew is convinced that Simone is applying her techniques, as he becomes increasingly more disorientated as to the route – his only hope is that you as a listener can follow it too. 16’38” 7.8MB

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Simone Etter’s WALKBOOK is currently only available in German at the University of Art and Design Basel.

Alban Low talking walking

Lesley Cartwright – “Love tokens & Bad pennies” 2019

Alban Low is the curator of an unusual art exhibition involving more than a dozen artists and as many writers, called “Love Tokens and Bad Pennies“, which you can explore by walking the streets of London in February 2019.  He tells Andrew Stuck, producer of Talking Walking, he is like an absent party host, arranging experiences and artistic interventions in public space for everyone to enjoy, while himself, keeping to the shadows. A publisher of chap books, illustrator and cartographer, he has a lot of projects on the go, for which walking and walks are integral. 15’39” 7.3MB

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Discover some art on the streets of London – seek out work by more than a dozen artists and writers in “Love tokens & Bad pennies” curated by Alban Low – happening all through February 2019.

Carolyn Affleck Youngs talking walking

At the time of the publication of “Walking to Japan”, Andrew Stuck, producer of Talking Walking, was lucky enough to catch up with Canadian Carolyn Affleck Youngs in London; she had co-authored the book with her now deceased husband, Derek Youngs.  Carolyn took a walking holiday on the Camino de Santiago, in northern Spain, where she met and eventually fell in love with Derek Youngs, himself a long time pilgrim, who walked for peace.  Carolyn has quite a story of long walking of her own, but we also discuss the power of pilgrimage and she and Derek walking together, and how simply putting one step in front of the other, can have profound meaning to an individual as to society as  a whole. Behind us is bustling Bermondsey and Bankside. We had to stop several times as the ambient noise of traffic and construction became too intrusive. 18’25” 8.7MB

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Photo credits: Darrin Steinkey & Brandon Wilson

Listen to Carolyn Affleck Youngs 20×20 Vision of walking in 2040

Stefaan van Biesen talking walking

Andrew Stuck (in cap) and Stefaan van Biesen walk a muddy track in La Romieu.

Walking in silence and stepping lightly on the ground are two rules with which Belgian artist, Stefaan van Biesen frequently asks his companions and participants to comply.  Today’s walk is an exception as Talking Walking‘s producer, Andrew Stuck and Stefaan step away from the activities of Made of Walking in La Romieu in south west France, for which Stefaan is one of the organisers.

Eschewing the car since 1994, and travelling lightly and slowly through Europe, Stefaan styles himself as a ‘flaneur’, observing human movement and interaction.  Walking is what he does, whether it is running daily errands, making artwork, or allowing his mind to relax. 22’44” 10.7MB

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Photo credits: Annemie Mestdagh

Listen to Stefaan’s 20×20 Vision for walking in 2040

ARTIFACTS talking walking

Leena Raudvee and Pam Patterson in conversation with Andrew Stuck

Andrew Stuck is sitting with Pam Patterson and Leena Raudvee in a woodland glade, on a rough track that curves towards a rural road, a couple of miles beyond La Romieu in south west France.  They have just performed a collaborative piece entitled “Listening: On the Architecture of Aging” as their contribution to the Made of Walking gathering of artists in August & September 2017.  The two of them have been working independently as solo artists and their collaboration as ARTIFACTS for more than 30 years.  Both have mobility issues, and Leena is also visually-impaired; they have differing experiences in using a cane to aid walking.  The discussion explores aspects of collaboration, creativity and reflection, as we explore how their collaborative practice has evolved.  The recording begins with Leena speaking. 24’14” 11.4MB

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Listen to Pam Patterson‘s 20×20 Vision of walking in 2040

Listen to Leena Raudvee‘s 20×20 Vision of walking in 2040

Bibi Calderaro talking walking

Participant on a sensory walk

On a Skype call, Andrew Stuck talks to Bibi Calderaro, an Argentinian artist and forest therapist, living in Brooklyn, USA, who has recently devised a number of sensory walks on behalf of the US National Park Service in 2015/6. She explains her own practice and how it has evolved, and what are the key elements that she includes in her sensory walks, that tackle the urban maladies of stress and anxiety, and the reaction of participants to them. Such has been the demand for her walks, she has been recommissioned to devise more. Our conversation also explores ‘shinrin-yoku’ the Japanese healing practice of ‘forest bathing’, that as an accredited forest therapist, Bibi has been incorporating in her practice. 23’20” 10.9MB

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Grace Adam talking walking

On an icy December day, walking with a friend in Queen’s Wood in north London, Andrew Stuck came across an intriguing set of pedestrian signs on which were written lines of poetry, lyrics, and instructions. His curiosity got the better of him, and when he got home, he tracked down Grace Adam, who had created the signs.

Returning to the wood in January, when the muddy ground was as slippery underfoot, Andrew interviewed Grace Adam to find out what had been her motivation, in creating the installation called “Out of the Woods…Words to navigate by”. 20’05” 9.5MB

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If you are reading this entry before the Spring Equinox (20 March) 2018 then you will still find Grace’s work in Queen’s Wood.

Listen to Grace‘s 20×20 Vision for walking

Maggie O’Neill talking walking

Maggie O’Neill is a leading academic researcher in criminology and sociology.  Walking is a key element of her ethnographic research into the lives of asylum seekers, the homeless, refugees and sex workers in England’s northern cities.

Maggie walking on Lindisfarne

A recent recipient of a Leverhulme Scholarship, she invited those she had encountered through her research to walk with her, along and across borders of significance in their everyday lives.

Andrew Stuck caught up with Maggie on a brief visit of hers to London. Just as they set our for a walk, the heavens opened, and they sought shelter, so the interview took place in a crowded hotel lobby. 20’05” 9.4MB

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Julie Poitras Santos talking walking

Chatting to Julie Poitras Santos, you can’t help but be enthused by her sheer exuberance about her work in bringing people together to walk and tell each other stories. A lecturer at an art school in Portland, Maine, on the east coast of the United States, she has travelled a lot to embed herself in many different communities.

Map & Universe (photo Josima Quintilier)

She is currently exploring people’s sense of getting lost and the techniques they use to find their way again, both physically and metaphorically. In part she uses a labyrinth, and in our conversation, we discuss how group walking of labyrinths can bring clarity in thought and a strong sense of camaraderie, amongst strangers. We are walking on a warm summer’s day in La Romieu in south west France, one of the entry points to the long distance pilgrimage route known as the Camino de Santiago. 24’ 31” 11.5MB

The interview was recorded in August 2017 as part of “Made of Walking” at La Romieu in south west France. Published in December 2017.

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Listen to Julie’s 20×20 Vision for walking in 2040

Geert Vermeire talking walking

 

 

 

 

As the five day 2017 Made of Walking event in La Romieu, south west France drew to a close, Andrew Stuck had an opportunity to talk to Geert Vermeire, it’s organiser and a walking poet and philosopher, in his on right.  We sat in an ‘echo-ey’ dining hall, in front of a small audience of Made of Walking participants, a couple of whom contribute to the interview by asking questions.  Throughout Made of Walking, Andrew had been trying to pin Geert down for an interview, but he was never still for long enough, so on the off, Andrew wanted to explore his role and how he came to make Made of Walking happen. 26′ 12″ 12.3MB

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Duncan Speakman talking walking

Duncan Speakman, modestly describes himself as an ‘outsider artist’ and a ‘jack of all trades’ with no formal arts training and experience gained as a composer, sound engineer, documentary post production, digital artist and now writer.  His ‘walking pieces’ have delighted Talking Walking producer, Andrew Stuck, who thought he might describe them as immersive taking you away from your surroundings, Duncan likes to think that his work is making you more present in the city, using sounds and music in ways to shape our experience.  Andrew was lucky to catch him between ‘performances’ of his latest work, “It Must Have Been Dark By Then” which was being played at the British Library. We tried to find some quiet streets away from the busy Euston Road, covering much of the territory that this latest walking piece may draw you through. 11.5MB 24’29”

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