Locus Project

We are looking for a volunteer administrator to join Art Refuge

2011-12-21T21:23:00.001Z

ArtRefuge Committee Administrator Volunteer Post (Portsmouth - South East)

Who we are:

ArtRefuge’ is a group researching and organising arts projects involving refugees and asylum seekers in Portsmouth. We aim to reduce the social isolation of these groups, increase their emotional well-being and aid their integration into the community by developing and organising innovative arts projects.

‘ArtRefuge’ is managed by a Steering Committee.

The management of the project and all decisions are made by the Steering Committee.

What we want the volunteer to do:

We are looking for an administrator for ArtRefuge's Steering Committee. That would mean that you come to the monthly meetings and:

• Take the minutes of the meeting (i.e. a record of what was said and the actions agreed at the monthly meetings)

• Type up the minutes & action points

• Distribute these minutes to the steering group at least one week before the next meeting

• Commit the time each month to complete these tasks

• Undertake other occasional general administrative duties that may arise.

You?

• Self-motivated and willing to learn new skills

• Good listening skills and the ability to write in English

• Basic PC knowledge i.e. Word documents

• Willingness to take on additional tasks if necessary

Attitude is important; we are looking for someone who is willing to try new things. In return we will support you to get the very best from your experience, and develop skills and knowledge useful for the job market. This opportunity would suit a non-native speaker.

This is an unpaid post but we cover travel costs and other agreed expenses.

More information:

If you would like to talk this opportunity through in more detail then please contact/text Ania Bas on 077 3150 9854 or email aniabas{at}gmail{dot}com

If you are interested, please contact Ania by the end of January 2012.

Counterpoint @ Platforma Festival - press, interviews and feedback

2011-12-12T22:06:00.005Z

The soundscape of the game and an interview about the game can be now found on Platforma website!

Please also read an excerpt from the article by Erica Scourti about Platforma Festival that talks about Asylum Seekers game:

Some work invited an element of audience participation, like Ania Bas & Les Monghan’s Asylum Seeker game, emblazoned with the satirical slogan ‘the game that lasts a lifetime!’. Developed collaboratively out of a year-long residency the artist undertook with a group of asylum seekers, refugees and those with ‘no status’, the game explores the very real stresses and anxieties they face. Players attempt to move round a Monopoly-style board where everyday frustrations and setbacks (like “You work hard and get very sick. Go to hospital") must be conquered before reaching the top prize: official leave to remain.

And some comments from the audience members and the game players:

An absolutely fantastic project! Really sums up the whole experience! Nana

What a great game. It pretends to be about passing time but you can really sense real life turns into a lottery, completely out of peoples controle. Great Game!

Really creative way to show the process.

Reading through the playing cards tears come to my eyes. Never have I realised how hard it must be. This game is quite an accomplishment.

You made me laugh - but what I really mean is I want to cry!

Amazing. It should go to the market!

Never was a truer word spoken in jest - profound!

Great work - the cards are spot on from my 10+ years experience of this segregated world of asylum.

Brilliant!

It is a wonderful work. Thank you.

This is a brilliant way to quickly convey the terrible truth of seeking asylum in the UK. Very thought provoking. Thank you.

Many thanks to Cathy Aitchison and most wonderful Counterpoint crew!

Counterpoint Private View - London, 28th Nov 2011

2011-10-25T15:06:00.003+01:00

Please join us for Counterpoint private view (the exhibition is part of Platforma Festival).

We will be showing and performing Asylum Seekers game. Unmissable!

Asylum Seekers game at Platforma, 29 Nov - 4 Dec 2011, London

2011-10-05T16:35:00.002+01:00

Asylum Seekers game will be exhibited as part of Platforma Festival. More details soon. Meanwhile visit the festival's website.

Memory B(l)anks - images from the exhibition

2011-09-30T11:29:00.003+01:00

A couple of images from the exhibition in Crewe where Asylum Seekers game was exhibited in June. Pictures by Emma Thackham

Locus on Pallant House Gallery website

2011-09-15T13:04:00.001+01:00

Information about the project is also available via Pallant House Gallery Website.

Locus Evaluation

2011-09-15T11:55:00.001+01:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More art

Memory B(l)anks

2011-06-03T09:27:00.002+01:00

Asylum Seeker Game is one of the works exhibited as part of the group show in Axis Arts Centre, Crewe. The show is on from 6th till 17th June. Documentation pictures will be available soon!

Asylum Seekers game - resource for schools under way

2011-01-27T14:22:00.002Z

Ania and Les are working on Asylum Seekers Game as a downloadable resource for schools, groups etc. Shortly you will be able to download the game and slide show to go with it and use it in many contexts - not only for education!

Meantime if you are looking for a good resource explore Myth Buster produced by Social Inclusion Unit at Plymouth City Council.

Exhibition at Friendship Centre

2010-12-22T13:58:00.000Z

Visit Friendship Centre and enjoy the exhibition in the hall. It is going to be there till spring 2011.

Your Comments

2010-12-16T19:47:00.004Z

Pallant House Gallery private view and exhibition:

Thank you

I love the mobile phone which says ‘do you have arms’ etc. It is so wonderful.

Inspirational and very moving!

I have really enjoyed seeing it all in a formal setting, seeing all the work and all the familiar faces.

Look very fun. I love the phones.

I love art. It is good exhibition.

A fantastic project

I found it fun

Great ideas for the exhibition. Very nice speeches.

She is funny because the head is bigger and the foot is small, is funny, the tongue (comment about the photo on the comment card)

A very humbling experience. A wonderful project.

What a great project! What a lovely evening- Ania and Les will be greatly missed.

It’s really fantastic.

A very interesting exhibition with a worthy message

Intelligent. Strong. Real. Funny

Poignant

Power to the people

Interesting Refugee Art Lost souls/ waiting/ bits of lives like the post-it note art.

Its very good exhibition. I hope see that next year

An excellent project! So many great ideas such good photographs Funny yet serious. Well done

It’s a beautiful world (together) love, food and peace

This is an amazing exhibition – many ‘special people’ who need to be valued – please continue

Thanks to the people who came. The people who are aware that they are Requiring Help. The Dynamic Forces that bring those Together.

I was particularly impressed by the game which so accurately reflects life as an asylum seekers in the uk. But all very impressive. (Micheal Wooley, Mayor)

Very enjoyable experience. Keep it up. Thank you x

Very interesting

Great exhibition. Awesome game!

We like the messages people wrote on the mobiles and the drawing

A brilliant and sobering exhibition. The board game is particularly effective….

Merci beaucoup! Quelle belle exposition and project!

Well done great!

It was interesting

Friendship House private view:

Loved the hard work gone into the exhibition especially the college at the entrance

My children took part in the exhibition and they thought exhibition is very very interesting

Enjoyed the exhibition very much. Lovely work. Delicious food.

A very powerful exhibition and made all the stronger by personal comments and interventions. (Pete Taylor, PCC Arts Service)

Love this project. Love everything about this evening. Delicious food.

This would make van gogh gasp in amazements its unique. PS U R FANTASTIC

PV at Friendship House

2010-12-12T14:05:00.007Z

We have great time at the private view! Thank you for coming and celebrating with us!!

Sally Jones, ASAP cooridnator speaking at the PV!

Noor and her friend improved Les and Ania's image

Loads of smiley faces :D

Aisha played the game!

Exhibition AGAIN! This time at Friendship Centre

2010-11-02T00:21:00.004Z

Join us to celebrate an opening of an exhibition marking Ania Bas & photographer Les Monaghan’s year-long residency at Portsmouth Friendship Centre.

Private View on Friday 12 November, 5 - 7 pm

at Friendship Centre

Elm Grove, Portsmouth PO5 1JT

Please RSVP:

023 9229 7177 or enquiries@friendshipcentre.co.uk

Private View - more pictures!

2010-09-28T20:34:00.001+01:00

Few more pictures from private view at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester!

the game

2010-09-21T22:26:00.001+01:00

Private View / Chichester / pictures

2010-09-20T22:22:00.000+01:00

Lots of people left us comments! (thank you!)

We played the game!

Locus publication - see part of it here

2010-09-16T01:00:00.000+01:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More asylum seekers

Locus exhibition - Private view on 16th September, 5.30-8 pm

2010-09-07T16:39:00.002+01:00

An exhibition marking Ania Bas & photographer Les Monaghan’s year-long residency at Portsmouth Friendship Centre.

Private View on Thursday 16 September, 5.30 - 8.00pm

Presentations start at 6.45 pm

at Pallant House Gallery

9 North Pallant, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 1TJ

The LOCUS films created by Lou Pack will be screened throughout the private view.

FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY:

Locus publication free of charge at Private View!

Exhibition open 1-26 September 2010.

Please RSVP: Clare Dolan, 023 9229 7177,

enquiries@friendshipcentre.co.uk

The Game Box

2010-08-15T23:54:00.000+01:00

Trattatttaaa!!! We are pleased to show you Asylum Seekers game box !!! You will be able to see it at the Pallant House Gallery from 1st Septemeber till 26th September. You will be able to play the game too!!!

Publication

2010-08-04T23:42:00.003+01:00

There are no Friday sessions at Friendhsip Centre during August but we are busy with the publication. Marc Steene, our evaluator Sonia Rasbery and Oliver Sumner from Delta Arts are going to contribute to the book. Watch this space as at least part of it as pdf will be available via website! Picture above with Madiha and Amer is going to go on the cover!

Counters

2010-07-10T23:38:00.002+01:00

Les came up with brilliant counters idea!

Pallant House Gallery visit

2010-07-06T23:34:00.000+01:00

The exhibition is going to go up in a 7 weeks! Together with Les we have visited Pallant House Gallery again and had the last look at the walls of the space. We are nearly ready!

Ania & Marc Steene

Game under development

2010-07-02T23:28:00.000+01:00

The game is now going to be built on this square layout.

It already looks more like a board game!!!

Play board game! Working title: Asylum.

2010-06-16T21:09:00.006+01:00

The walks and our mapping exercises started coming together in a form of a board game - working title: Asylum. In the game you are making your way from the Home Office (the starting point, the moment of arrival) through various locations (Central Library, police station, All Saints Red Cross, Friendship House, ASDA, the beach) to reach the Home Office again (this time to receive your British Passport).

The game is still in the making so bear with us while we continue working on it!

We have already started talking about launching the game as a commercial product, although we all agreed that there is not much fun in playing the game live - 24/7.

Asylum counters - made out of pictures of us all.

Jinnie, Karim and Ania discuss the game rules.

Saadia - our first winner!

The first trip out

2010-06-02T16:34:00.006+01:00

Armed with cameras we set off for our first walk from Friendship House. The weather was great, the spirits were high - we decided to go to the sea.

The pink cameras and ice-ceam combined with the foreign accents made us look like tourists not asylum seekers.

Saadia found a spot by the sea where she would like to see a statue of liberty - dedicated to all people who were forced to leave their country and uncertain of their next day.

Going out! (prep)

2010-06-02T16:11:00.004+01:00

We spent all winter Friday afternoons (and quite a few of cold spring ones too!) inside the Friendship House. Nearly all this time has been spent on making work that will enter gallery spaces and galleries are not necessarily easy to access for everybody. White gallery spaces can be intimidating - some people commented that they are not sure if they can simply enter them as they are. Maybe tie is required? Maybe you need to know something about what you are about to see inside to be able to enter. Crossing the threshold of the unfamiliar space even if it has large sign 'free' on it is not always easy.

People we are working with live their life in the city - move around it on foot or by bus. It makes sense to me to create with them work that can be put back in the environment their access, they are part of - and look for ways to leave their mark on it.

Seeing a couple of elderly ladies watching the film on BBC Big Screen made an incredible impression on me - they were watching intensely a series of faces talking to them. I hope they realised that the faces belong to the people who cross the same square, who shop in the same shops and stand in the same queues.

We started mapping people's journeys around the city, we started searching for spaces where the routes of two or more of us cross, we carefully watch spaces we like visiting but also must visit. Not sure where this is going to take us just yet, but I think we are searching for shared locus.

Films are still on BIG SCREEN in Portsmouth!

2010-06-02T15:59:00.003+01:00

Cotton coasters

2010-05-29T17:26:00.000+01:00

We started the embroidery on cotton coasters in February. More then 20 people spent their time stitching shapes of words and drawings. Now the work is ready - all thanks to Mary Jane (Sallie's mum) who came up with the idea of how to hang it all! We temporarily hung it above the refreshments table. Hanging cotton coaster - too pretty to rest hot mugs on them.

Mary-Jane, Mike and Sultana working on the final work.

Haji, Sultana, Saadia, myself and Abbas working on final arrangements.

From scarf to headscarf

2010-05-28T17:14:00.000+01:00

I have arrived with a a large scarf (cold mornings!) and Sultana showed me how to wear it as a headscarf!

More foil casts

2010-05-22T15:42:00.000+01:00

Foil casts without words and with words.

Foil 3D

2010-05-20T17:09:00.001+01:00

Sameer and Aisha bored with the body foil-casts made a small foil animal farm.

Nasir decided to cast my face....

Body-casting factory! (Karim, Lorraine and Saadia working on the casts)

Foil

2010-05-12T16:29:00.002+01:00

Foil is an interesting material - it is flexible, shiny, cheap and easy to work with. Everyone seems to have an experience of foil - no matter if one cooks or not. Foil = take away. Foil = food. Foil = raw. Foil = cover.

We covered our limbs with foil and made foil casts. Aisha volunteerd to have her entire body foil covered. Foil is flexible but fragile - we made holes and punctures in our casts before making a perfect one. The foil casts stayed in shape but again once freed of the body underneath their fragility tripled.

We are going to play a bit more with these temporary casts. Watch this space!

Julia watching while Ania and Noor are covering Aisha in foil.

Abdul also had his arm foil-cast done.

All about foil

foil 1 |foil|verb [ trans. ]prevent (something considered wrong or undesirable) from succeeding• Hunting (of a hunted animal) run over or cross (ground or a scent or track) in such a way as to confuse the hounds.noun1 Hunting the track or scent of a hunted animal.2 archaic a setback in an enterprise; a defeat.
foil 2noun1 metal hammered or rolled into a thin flexible sheet, used chiefly forcovering or wrapping food : aluminum foil.2 a person or thing that contrasts with and so emphasizes and enhances the qualities of another

Photoshop play

2010-05-03T16:52:00.003+01:00

It was one of these days when Aisha, Sameer and Noor where bored and only playing with Photoshop was able to bring some fun! Ania was their favourite object of transformation - improved AFTER version below.

Before

After

Private View - short film about food by Michal Slazak

2010-04-30T17:44:00.000+01:00

Private View - comments

2010-04-30T15:52:00.001+01:00

Big thank you to everyone who left us comments during the private view!!! Big big thank you!

Here they come:

Excellent venue. Good view of city screen. Very interesting photographs

Interesting and lovely idea. Nice to get together and show off their work in a way that means something.

Beautiful work, very well presented and a very warm, welcoming and good humoured opening.

Well done. Really like the drawings and paperclip – good sense of fragility.

A very simple but emotive exhibition. Thank you.

I think it is very nice. If you want some think that is easy to write, but how can to find that it is problem!

Interesting show I liked the food.

Fab comments on the phones. Presented well.

Pompey to win the FA Cup again xxx

Great to have a project like this! Molto bello! x

Hope the world is cleaner

A worthwhile investment in time and people. Lovely xx

I think that it is an important exhibition. Get the ‘word’ out that we are all one, with the same needs, wants, sadness & joy no matter what county we are from. Viva locus.

It’s very lovely - Abdul

A very exciting evening, so many nice people, great English snacks. Would definitely do it again. - Florette AA

It’s good that projects like this are taking place.

I have very good fun and nice people. - Karim

Most interesting – a record of an excellent project which we would never have known about. Great to see people in this environment.

It was good to see so many smiling faces!!

I think this project was a good idea! - Noor

An interesting, unexpected, relevant show that explores an area of modern culture that is unfamiliar. Nicely presented but perhaps unfinished – I want personal stories, testimony, more. Would love to be involved.

Great venue to introduce Portsmouth population to a different side of asylum seeking.

Very interesting and thought provoking

Good expose of the subjects – really emotive images. Really like the messages from the ‘mobiles’ and framed photos. Would have like bigger photos! Venue not ideal a bit sterile compared to the warmth of the work….

It is very nice and I had a lovely time here with all this friends and all other people. Thanks Abdulla

LVD THE TXT MESSAGES

I think this is a good project because it is fun - from Samee

It was fantastic

Great idea but no formal introduction to the participants - more interaction needed x.

Well done x Fun

Great event Brilliant idea – J McD.

This is a fun place – Aisha

Private View - short film about talking by Michal Slazak

2010-04-29T17:45:00.000+01:00

Private View - pictures

2010-04-28T13:04:00.015+01:00

Rahim (picture by Ed Parker, British Red Cross)

Sameer, Aisha, Julia and Noor

Ed and Florette

Karim (picture by Ed Parker, British Red Cross)

Abdul and below Sultana with her daughter.

English Food for Private View

2010-04-25T16:57:00.002+01:00

It was not the traditional Private View. It took place on St George's Day and everyone at the steering group got excited that we can do something fun about it. We celebrated Englishness through eating and drinking English food only, produced within UK borders ONLY.

Idea by Sally and executed by Sally with Clare who did the shopping together. They apparently spent hours going around the shop and reading labels as well as searching for English specialities. Thanks to them we had a great selection of English cheese (with no olives nor pineapples), we drunk English Ales and Ciders (no wine), we had soft drink options (apple juice, apple and blackcurrant juice, apple and beetroot juice) and loads of veg (carrots, cucumbers and peppers) but no humus nor guacamole.

On a train journey back Les and myself were pondering over the limits of the English cuisine nibbling on remaining crackers and apple chutney.

Exhibition at Third Floor Arts Centre till 29th April!

2010-04-21T15:17:00.005+01:00

Have a look at a few shots of the exhibition at Third Floor Arts Centre, Portsmouth. And join us for the private view this Friday 23rd, 6-8pm!

The exhibition looks great! Big thank you to Louise and Rosamund for all their help with installation! THANKS!

Exhibition at Third Floor Arts Centre in Portsmouth

2010-04-05T20:36:00.000+01:00

Join us on Friday 23rd April 2010 for a private view at Third Floor Arts Centre at Central Library in Portsmouth between 6-8pm! Please RSVP by 19th April to enquiries@friendshipcentre.co.uk

All welcome!!!

The exhibition is open from 16th April till 29th April 2010. Check the library opening times for the access to the Third Floor Arts Centre.

Friendship Centre

2010-03-28T11:55:00.004+01:00

Friendship Centre is a short film we made in early March with asylum seekers, staff and volunteers who gather on Friday afternoons at Friendship House.

Watch the film here or you can see it on Big Screen in Portsmouth from Friday 23rd April.

Adjusting to the rain

2010-03-27T12:35:00.003Z

Adjusting to the rain is the third and the last film we made. Watch it now or see it on Big Screen in Portsmouth.

Exhibition in Portsmouth! Soon!

2010-03-25T21:07:00.003Z

In April (from 16 till 29) we will show some of the work created to date: a collection of paper mobile phones and personal messages sent in the past and into the future, panoramic pictures taken by the attendees as well as documentary shots of the session taken by Les.

The main work of the exhibition will be a collection of the mobile phones (still growing collection!). We keep realising that for asylum seekers a mobile phone is more then a helpful device. A whole range of mobile phones has been created, almost all of them are an accurate copies of the real phones belonging to the participants.

One of the pictures in the exhibition is going to be the image of Sultana above taken by Vathani

Miriam's Solution

2010-03-20T13:09:00.005Z

We have spent three sessions talking to the camera. All the talks have been edited and we have now 3 short films ready! Miriam's Solution can be seen only on-line but two other films will be screened at BBC Big Screen in Portsmouth City Centre! First screenings will take place on 23rd April and the films are going to be broadcast for 3 months!

All this would not be possible without a brilliant filmmaker Lou Pack!Thank you Lou!

Making films

2010-02-27T12:18:00.000Z

We are making films in Feb and March. We have only 3 sessions to record everyone who wants to be recorded. We have created a tiny studio in the Friendship House. We have a bit of trouble recording sound especially when large lorries are passing by exactly when interesting things are said. Recreating them does not feel same, nor sounds same.

We are working with filmmaker Lou Pack. Editing comes in next!

Sewing words

2010-02-25T21:35:00.003Z

We started sewing! Needles and cotton threads are the latest available materials. Sewing is seen as a very feminine activity, but some men are having a go! And there is a fair bit of helping going on, people finishing each other designs for each other, commenting on choice of colours and chosen shapes.

Loads of writing-sewing is going on in a few alphabets and languages.

On the picture: Winnie in the background and Rahim's hand with his work saying Allāh / the God.

Panoramic Centre

2010-02-10T21:18:00.003Z

Panoramic pictures are a big hit especially with all the guys! Technology rulez! But pretty much everyone is having a go at using this function and we are coming up with pretty good results.

We have been experimenting with panoramic pics for a few weeks now and here are some of the attempts. We have managed to capture people more then one in the same picture (above Rosamund can be seen twice in the same photo; below Les also twice!)

All Saints Centre - second visit

2010-01-14T22:13:00.003Z

During our recent visit to the All Saints Centre we were sending more paper text messages. On this occassion Halim and Ania formed Temporary Paper Mobile Phone Committee.

Paper mobile phones are going to be exhibited soon! Watch this space.

Next visit to All Saints Centre: 1st February 2010. We will be there at 10am.

Photos on local street

2010-01-03T20:01:00.001Z

Abdul and Sallie

Sallie and Abdul

Capturing people

2009-12-15T19:53:00.002Z

We capture other photographers,

we capture action,

we capture love.

Photo Month

2009-12-12T19:46:00.001Z

We learn how to take pictures and how to frame pictures. Friendship Centre function room is the main backdrop of our attempts.

Paper mobile phones

2009-11-18T19:17:00.002Z

Mobile phone = a tool to survive, to stay in touch, to be connected, to hear the news (bad and good), to be contactable, to call for help, to be able to leave house, to prove one's existence.

We made to date a number of paper mobile phones - they all are accurate copies of the real phones that belong to the asylum seekers we are working with. To each mobile phone only one message is attached - one they would like to be remembered.

Photo Month

2009-11-17T19:41:00.001Z

In November and December we will be working with photography. During couple of sessions we worked first with photographic paper and explored ways of taking pictures without camera.

Monthly visits to All Saints Centre

2009-11-16T19:30:00.000Z

Every month we go to All Saints Centre where British Red Cross together with parnter organisations runs weekly drop in sessions as part of their Refugee Orientation Project.

During one of our visits service users were asked to finish the sentence, we gave them starting points.

Paper month - final work

2009-11-03T19:35:00.003Z

Post it note circular collective work

This is our collective work to celebrate the month full of paper! Each person drew a personal story on a series of post it notes attached to large grey sheets. The work is circular and presents itself at it best on a round wooden table we work around during the sessions.

Paper month

2009-10-31T19:28:00.001Z

Paper month 3D work

2009-10-22T19:45:00.001+01:00

Paper

2009-10-14T19:06:00.000+01:00

We worked with paper for a number of sessions, all the reasons why we found it important:

paper |ˈpāpər|
noun
1 material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing, drawing, or printing on, or as wrapping material : a sheet of paper | [as adj. ] a paper bag.
• (usu. papers) a piece or sheet of paper with something written or drawn on it : he riffled through the papers on his desk.
• ( papers) significant or important documents belonging to a person : the personal papers of major political figures.
• [as adj. ] denoting something that is officially documented but has no real existence or little merit or use : a paper profit.
• a government report or policy document : a recently leaked cabinet paper.
• ( papers) documents attesting identity; credentials : two men stopped us and asked us for our papers

verb [ trans. ]
• ( paper over) disguise (an awkward problem) instead of resolving it : the ill feeling between her and Jenny must have been papered over.

PHRASES
be not worth the paper it is written on - be of no value or validity whatsoever despite having been written down.
make the papers - be written about in newspapers and thus become famous or notorious.
on paper - in writing. • in theory rather than in reality : the combatants were, on paper at least, evenly matched.

Pictures by Les Monaghan

Project Launch Friday 2nd October, 5 - 7pm

2009-09-01T23:51:00.003+01:00

The launch of an innovative arts project with refugees, asylum seekers and other members of the community organised by ArtRefuge will take place on Friday 2nd October, 5-7pm at Portsmouth Friendship Centre, Friendship House. Please R.S.V.P. by 25th September to enquiries{at}friendshipcentre.co.uk

2009-09-01T22:32:00.009+01:00