THE VIDEO

Auto Cavalcade

Auto-cavalcade is a journey of celebration, an event-spectacle that challenges popular notions of public art. A procession of cars combined at night to interact with two cities in the UK [Sheffield and Hull] over one weekend in the spring of 2003. Each vehicle was internally lit and decorated, every vehicle broadcast an individually composed sound track, the tracks combined to create one soundscape.
Auto-cavalcade is a celebration of its own sculptural form, a pure interaction with the city and its people. Places were made available in the cavalcade for passengers to experience the event. Many more vehicles joined auto-cavalcade as the night went on.
The event was documented; all the cars were fitted with video cameras, which created a video record in sequence. As auto-cavalcade travelled around these cities, it was interacting and recording simultaneously. The event existed as a host for the film-document, and the film, in turn, interpreted the event. A multi channel video installation has subsequently been exhibited. The audio tracks were composed and played by Simon Janes, [a composer, producer and musician for Ninja Tunes]

Background information
In the spring of 2002 I went to a wedding in Marseille. The ceremony took place in a registry office, located in the city park. Other wedding parties where arriving in time for their designated ceremonial slots. Later we saw these cavalcades speeding off through the city, all noise and decoration. That's how I travelled there, in the back seat with cars beeping their horns, people in the streets and in other cars joining in. The cavalcade sped through the urban topography with an infectious air of inclusiveness. This was only the second cavalcade I had been in.
My first Cavalcade I experienced was for my father's funeral, in 1993. This was very different from the wedding: more hermetic and deliberate. On the journey to the funeral a passing vehicle collided with the car I was in. Nobody was seriously hurt. The crash felt unreal, cushioned, like this exterior force had tried to disband our cavalcade. In a spatial sense, the proximity of the vehicles in the cavalcade evoked a companionship for me, exclusive to the vehicles interiors and the people therein. The collision temporarily punctured that ritual.

As public rituals go, both cavalcades were seminal experiences.

THE ARTIST

TC McCormack,

works as a solo artist and in collaboration under the name: mccormack+gent. His practice is defined by its social and spatial engagement, and its site specificity. Frequently process based, his interdisciplinary approach has involved re-enactments, live experience and time-based media.

Education
1997 - 1999 University of East London, MA Art in Architecture [Distinction] London
1992 - 1995 Falmouth School of Arts, BA [Hons] Fine Art, Falmouth, Cornwall
1990 - 1991 Kingston School of Fine Art, Foundation Studies, Kingston University London

Forthcoming exhibitions

SHIFT # 4 av-arkki, Helsinki, Finland.
April 2004

SHIFT # 3 art gene, Barrow-in-Furness UK
March 2004

SHIFT # 2 Foro artistico, Hanover, Germany
February 2004

Exhibitions

Park'n'ride Salon at S1 Artspace
Video Sheffield 2003

Old habits die Hard Sparwasser HQ,
Video Berlin, Germany 2003.
Group show

SHIFT Arteppes, Centre of contemporary art,
Video installation Annecy, France 2003.
Group show

Art Sheffield 03 S1 Artspace, SHEFFIELD-03
Event-installation-film Sheffield 2003

FiftyfourDegreesNorth Arts festival, various locations
Event-installation Hull 2003.

Visions of Space and Sanctuary The Brunswick Centre
Site specific installation & performance London 2003.
Group show

WishYouWereHere Static, Liverpool Biennial
Audio work Liverpool 2002.
Group show

-03- a Fordham retrospective Whitechapel Project Space,
Drawings London 2002.
Group show

Deptford X CBA Project space,
Site specific installation London 2002.

9e Biennal Of Moving Images Centre pour L'image Contemporaine,
Film Geneva, Switzerland 2001.

Exhibitions continued

Imagespassages Le Musee d'Annecy
Film France 2001.

Motor Show Proof Gallery
Video installation London 2001.
Group show

Monitor Atrium Gallery, PriceWaterHouseCooper
Installation London 2001.

Clubland Clubland complex, SE5
Site specific installation London 2000.
Group show.

Les Enfants Terribles Fordham Gallery
Video installation London 2000.
Group show.

Place in the Air Fordham Gallery
Video installation London 2000.

Deptford X CBA Project space
installation London 2000.

Stolen Summit University of East London -Gallery
Installation London 1999.

THE SPACE/COLLECTIVE

S1 Artspace

S1 Artspace is an artist-led organisation established at the current Sheffield premises in 1995. We provide studio space for 15 artists with a contemporary, critical, fine art practice and enable contemporary art projects within the city.

In 2002 S1 Artspace was successful in achieving Regional Arts Lottery Programme funding from Arts Council England Yorkshire to develop a pilot scheme to establish S1 as an agency for commissioning and curating contemporary art projects in Sheffield. S1 artists appointed Michelle Cotton as Project Co-ordinator in May 2003 and we are have recently launched S1 / projects, a series of exhibitions and events from November to May 2004. In 2005 S1 will receive core funding from Arts Council England Yorkshire.

S1 Artspace does not have a dedicated exhibition space, nor do we operate a gallery-based programme. Our temporary project space is primarily used as studio space for four Sheffield-based artists. The temporary project space is available as a platform for testing out ideas and enabling contemporary art projects. A curatorial committee considers proposals from artists and curators twice a year.

S1 Artspace is located in the Devonshire Quarter of Sheffield, a former light-trades industrial area of the city centre and currently the focus of intense gentrification and re-development. As an agency without a fixed venue for projects, frequently working in the public realm or in partnership with other venues S1 aims to facilitate a response to our locale and focus critical dialogue amongst contemporary artists in Sheffield.



S1 Artspace Artists

Conroy & Sanderson
Steve Dutton & Steve Swindells
Hewitt & Jordan
Andrew Leslie
Helen de Main
Dan Matthews
Ryan Mosley
Bob Partridge
Ben Pettican
Jim Prevett
James Price
Heidi Schaefer
Matthew Smith
Andrew Tebbs
UTK
Christina Wade
Julie Westerman



For further information or to join the S1 mailing list contact Michelle Cotton (info@s1artspace.org). For details of our programme see our website.

Contact:
Michelle Cotton
Project Co-ordinator

S1 Artspace
Units 4a-6b Trafalgar Court Milton Street Sheffield S1 4JU UK

+44 (0)114 2493386
info@s1artspace.org
http://www.s1artspace.org