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Sit down and tell us your story
IT is a similar idea to Antony Gormley’s Plinth project, that has seen people stand on the granite stone in Trafalgar Square and spout forth on a topic of their choice. But a new art event in Chalk Farm, inspired by Gormley’s work, is much more democratic, according to writer Stephen Emms.
The idea is for people to come into the gallery, take a seat on a park bench and do whatever they want – sit, perform, chat or even drink a few beers. Emms, who wrote a column in Time Out magazine called Bench Marks which looked at the inscriptions on public benches, is behind the project at an empty shop turned temporary art gallery in Chalk Farm, working with artists Russell Loughlan and Charlotte Haigh.
“Our starting point was covering the lives behind park bench inscriptions,” says Emms. “But when we read about the Gormley show, something seemed to connect the two and Tales From A Park Bench was born. Ultimately, it’s about the democratisation of human stories; the idea that no one is boring.”
He has his own favourite benches, and recalls finding a seat off the beaten track on Hampstead Heath that reads: ‘They could do with a bench here’, installed by Dr Who scriptwriter Lewis Greifer.
Others are more mysterious, and melancholy. “To Mr Joe and his dog,” one inscription reads that Emms always finds touches a nerve, “Dead, gloriously dead.”
DAN CARRIER
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