Issue 55 / May 2015

24
Bido Lito! May 2015
Reviews
AD HOC CREATIVITY
Words: Jennifer Perkin
Illustration: Marco Lawrence / marcolawrence.com
Imagine how many works of art were never crafted, how many
pieces of music were never written, how many creative business
ideas never came to fruition because the people involved were
too busy trying to pay their rent? It’s probably fair to say the Ad
Hoc Property Guardian scheme has saved at least a few of them.
Ad Hoc connects the dots between unused properties across
the country – churches, flats, sports halls, stately homes – and
people who would like to live in them, at low cost. By putting
these buildings back into use, their programme of pairing-up
Property Guardians with these empty spaces provides a service
that is of benefit to both property owner and those looking for
low-cost accommodation. Even though the guardian scheme isn’t
specifically aimed at people working in creative industries, it has
naturally attracted a very diverse collective of them, from circus
performers to architects to some not insignificant musicians.
Richard O’Flynn, of Liverpool’s latest musical darlings All We Are,
has been an Ad Hoc Property Guardian in a disused building in
Toxteth for a number of years, capitalising on the freedom given
to him by turning part of the space into the band’s rehearsal-cumrecording
studio.
The scheme has given rise to a buoyant artistic community
within Ad Hoc properties across the UK and Europe, creating a
world of new ideas within re-imagined spaces. To this end, Bido
Lito! have collaborated with Ad Hoc to set up AD HOC CREATIVE,
which celebrates the talents of some of these guardians across
the country via a series of profile features on adhoccreative.
co.uk. And on 28th May we are delighted to announce that
we’ll be hosting the first of our Ad Hoc Creative Expos, bringing
to life an exciting and unique artistic collaboration in one of
the more interesting properties involved in Ad Hoc’s guardian
scheme. The beautiful Mansion House in Calderstones Park
will be the setting for this first Ad Hoc Creative Expo, hosting a
remarkable multimedia collaboration between the crown jewel
of Merseyside music, BILL RYDER-JONES, and London-based
artist and screenprinter MARCO LAWRENCE. The main focus of
the event will be an interactive musical and visual piece created
jointly by Ryder-Jones and Lawrence, which will be presented
in the form of an immersive installation in one of the Mansion
House’s gallery spaces. Since 2012, the collection of Grade II
listed buildings that surround the neo-classical Mansion House
have been home to The Reader Organisation, an award-winning
charitable social enterprise working to connect people with
great literature through shared reading. They have developed
their Centre for Reading and Wellbeing into an internationally
renowned initiative dedicated to sharing the joys of reading in
the community. By way of connecting these two great schemes,
we have tasked Bill and Marco to take the inspiration for their
collaboration from a piece of literature selected from one of The
Reader Organisation’s core anthologies.
Ryder-Jones, who first came to fame as guitarist with The Coral
and has since gone on to great acclaim as a solo artist, composer
and producer, will be composing a unique piece of music especially
for this event, and his enthusiasm for the project is clear. “The
world I’m in is fantastic and I love my job, but it can get stale if
you don’t change things up every now and then. I’ve been jumping
between producing, playing shows and working on the next album
for over a year now, so I’ve been hoping something like this would
turn up. The chance to revisit a different way of writing – and also to
indulge a side of myself – was too good to pass up.”
Marco Lawrence, who heads up London’s Print Club studio
and whose personal style includes colourful geometric prints, is
also excited to experiment with this collaboration. “I’m always
interested in incorporating rhythm and narrative in some way
into my work, so I’ll be seeking to expand on these themes. And
I’m interested in what this new platform allows me to achieve.
Equally, I’m excited to be making work with Bill Ryder-Jones. His
work is beautiful, thought-provoking and even eerie sometimes.
It’ll be tough to match and marry visuals to his audio, but I’m
looking forward to it.” When asked for a hint of what we might
expect, Lawrence is cagey: “Well I can’t reveal too many secrets,
and it’s still early in the project, but I reckon we can be sure of a
rich mass of geometric, flexing, sliding-pattern work.”
Lawrence has been an Ad Hoc Property Guardian for over five
years, and is currently guardian of an ex-council flat near Old
Street in London. “I’ve come to value the freedom to make the
buildings I’ve occupied homes in a way you just can’t do as a
traditional tenant,” he tells me of the scheme. Having lived in four
houses since being a guardian, Lawrence describes the role as
“unlike that of owner or tenant. You have a responsibility for the
building you occupy that gives a sense of belonging. Often the
buildings are condemned, so just how you decorate or modify
your living space is entirely up to you. This combines to give a
homely feeling in some quite surprising places.”
For a creative person the reduced costs of Ad Hoc properties can
provide a degree of freedom, as can the unique spaces available.
Many guardians use the properties as studios as well as dwellings.
The questions of how much financial realities can stand in the
way of an artist being able to create is an interesting one. “I think
it’s a sad reality that we don’t respect or reward creative output
as we should,” says Lawrence on the subject. “The benefits of a
vibrant artistic culture are too intangible to be deemed worthy
of the same monetary investment as other sectors or industries.
This means that to make a living as a creative you have be very
good and very lucky. Most artists support themselves with jobs
unrelated to their creative work and sacrifice time and energy
in doing so. Reducing financial burdens like rent hopefully
makes things a little easier and allows more talented people to
concentrate a little more time on their creative endeavours.”
Balancing artistic endeavour with provision for living is an
ages-old dilemma, to which Ryder-Jones adds his own perspective
from within the music industry: “I often tell people who ask that
it’s best not to view it as a career, you’ve got to need to do it
because there’s few people who get the chance to make it work
as a living. On the other hand, I think it’s a real shame that art isn’t
given more importance in this country. The benefits of expression
can’t be understated, and I think if it was respected more then
there would be more money in it for honest musicians.”
There must be hundreds of buildings standing empty in
Liverpool, creaking monuments to their own glory days of
usefulness; and we know for a fact that this is a city teeming with
makers, doers and creators. The breadth of creativity incubated by
a scheme such as Ad Hoc’s is testament not just to the amount of
talent in this country, but to what can be achieved when working
towards the same goals.
The first Ad Hoc Creative Expo, featuring exclusive work by Bill
Ryder-Jones and Marco Lawrence, takes place on 28th May at the
Mansion House, Calderstones Park. The event is free to attend, and
register now via bidolito.co.uk
adhoccreative.co.uk
bidolito.co.uk