In Search of a Studio Space in Berlin 2015

After an extended break from my work I am now searching for a studio space in Berlin from January 2015.  I am looking for a clean, warm, light, self-contained space in which to continue my work, re-group, research and develop my practice. For any hints, tips or leads please write to philippajeffery@gmail.com. Many thanks in advance.

Sheep Psychiatry

I have decided to share this short video which was made during a residency in Berlin last summer.

I see this piece as a work in progress, which was made very quickly and with the most minimal of equipment. The piece entitled "There is a Monster in the Attic" is a collaboration between Philippa Jeffery, Joao Vilnei, and Aixa Sacco, as well as the five artists we invited to collaborate with us and who improvised their roles in response to a prop we gave to each one.

It is also a virtual collaboration with Chris Dooks who very generously allowed us to use his music.

I personally would like to see the film shortened by 10 minutes and to improve the sound quality, but here it is, as it is for now and is really a reflection of the quality of time and of the undercurrents felt during the three month residency at Homebase Lab, Berlin in the Spring and Summer of 2013.

Many thanks to Joao Vilnei, Aixa Sacco, Rafael Machado, Elena Dhal, Jules Treverton, Adrian Brun, James Budd Dees and Chris Dooks who all contributed so much to the making of this short video.

Back in Blighty

After spending 3 months in Berlin, Sheepwoman and I are now back in England for a little while.  A number of new projects and collaborations were made during the last three months, not least Sheepwoman's first short film which was made in the last three weeks of the Homebase Residency.  

Many thanks to Joao Vilnei and Aixa Sacco for working with me in the making of this film, it could not have happened without the context of the Homebase residency and the wonderful people I met there.  Thankyou to Rafael Machado, Elena Dhal, Jimmy Treverton, Adrian Brun and James Budd Dees for willingly giving their time and responding inventively to the props we gave them.  Many thanks to Chris Dooks who gave permission to use his music for the film.  

Video still of "The couple with the Sausage" Adrian Brun, James Budd Dees and Sheepwoman

The film is currently being edited for a second time and will be screened in a number of locations in the autumn, see this blog for more details.

On set without the mask    

Sheepwoman at Suicide Circus

Sheepwoman hit the dance floor at Suicide Circus, Berlin last night and danced till the sun came up.  Watch this space for future collaborations with these legendary party people.

http://www.suicide-berlin.com

Sheepwoman at K77 Hoffest 22 June 2013

If you were to look carefully amongst the party revellers last night, Sheepwoman could be seen handing out golden thread to the children and adults celebrating 21 years of artistic community living on Kastanienallee.

Home to LichtBlick Kino, a ceramic studio and dance studio famous for it's history of contact improvisation, and to the large group of people who have made this place home over the past twenty years. 

The many young children were very gentle with sheepwoman, stroking her face with leaves, and handing her rose petals in exchange for golden thread; a midsummers exchange.

Thankyou you to Leopold, Nina and Richard for inviting Sheepwoman to such a special place, a shining example of Berlin communal living and a place that has withstood the many changes  and challenges the squat scene has been through since the 1990's.

Sheepwoman was very touched by the beautiful young man she encountered, he gathered up her golden thread and gently wrapped the thread around her hands, momentarily caught in her web as the moon shone down, and the music played.  If only she could see him again!

Thankyou to Aixa Sacco for taking these photographs.

Rot Beige

This photograph taken by Christoph Neumann documents a rehearsal for "Seven" a new piece in development whilst here at Homebase Residency, Berlin. 

"Seven" was made in collaboration with Joseph Patricio in response to an invitation to make a performative work in the basement of the old Engelhardt brewery on Thulestrasse in Pankow.  The performance was shown during the month of performance art in Berlin.

 

The work  attempts to take the audience of one on a journey across a threshold and into the world of the collective unconscious.  

Selected by a guide in a sheep mask, seven people one at a time, are led through a dark tunnel, sweeping the way with a broom, sheepman crosses a darkened room leading to a smaller inner sanctum.    

A woman seated on a white chair at a white table holds a black book in her hand and invites her guest to be seated.  A candle lit encounter takes place, the sharing of stories perhaps real, perhaps imagined.  Stories of life and death are shared:  a woman who had been living with a dead body in her house for 21 years.  The discovery of a secret room and a very thin man with the key.   A visit to Einstein's laboratory which causes the body to break down into sub-atomic particles.  The ability to spin straw into gold,  the size and weight of the soul, and the sheep cafe were amongst the stories, shared and encountered in the dark basement.

New Drawings at Homebase Lab, Berlin

I have started the first of a new series of drawings in my studio here at Homebase Lab. 

My drawing seeks to merge my night time dreaming adventures with my waking hours; encounters, conversations, impressions both visible and invisible from the experience of living communally with 16 other artists here in Berlin. 

The drawing is constantly shifting, like an animated facial expression.  Fellow resident artist Elena Dahl has started to photograph this process for me as the work shifts and changes.  I hope we will create an animation from this collaboration.  

I seem to be pointing to the "Sheep Cafe" a place I visited in a dream last April.  

Swedish Wolf

In search of seeds for the garden, and for a bicycle, Diego and I wandered through the city of Berlin.  We followed our intuition and our feet and after several hours we found ourself in a Scandinavian quarter not far from our home at Homebase in Prenzlauerberg/Pankow.  On Kopenhagener Strasse we discovered a bicycle shop named "Wulf" and in the window was a sheep skull.  

On close inspection you can see that I am wearing my "swedish wolf" bag.