HISTORY/REALITY:  : Stewart Home & Karen Strang: Fae Fife Tae Angus & Back Again - Via Lud's Toun, collaborative performance, Matthew Galleries, DJCAD, Dundee

Performance Venue: Matthew Galleries, DJCAD, Dundee, UK

Performance Date: 4 April 2024

Bodor invited artists Stewart Home and Karen Strang, key collaborators of Pete Horobin and frequent visitors of The DATA Attic in the 1980s, to come together for the first time for decades to create a new collaborative work for the opening event of HISTORY/REALITY An Attic Archive Installation, 4 April 2024, Matthew Gallery, DJCAD.

In this new performance, developed in conversation with and produced by  Bodor the artists decided to reactivate, reference, and reimagine two of Horobin’s 1984 works, ‘Exchanges’ and ‘Fifeman’, while also connecting with their own interest in historical events, such as the 1980s miners’ strike and the 16th century Dysart Witches. The work also involved two student performers Calum Eccleston and Lewis Cavinue who improvised following instructions. 

Stewart Home was born in London (UK) in 1962, where he still lives. He is the author of 17 novels, 7 books of cultural commentary, as well as collections of short stories & poetry. He has long been involved with the underground art comunities in Europe, North America and Brazil.

Home participated in the filmed Exchanges in London, and visited Dysart, Fife in 1984 where Horobin lived temporarily as the Fifeman project was realised. Home also joined Horobin for part of PRAM (Pedestrian Ramblings Around Myland) which involved the artist tramping around Scotland for a whole year, pushing all his belongings in an old-fashioned pram (conveyed by Home and previously a prop in David Medalla's 1970s live art pieces), building ‘chronograms’ (or time markers) from stone in the landscape, and dedicating each walk to a different correspondent. You’ll find images from Pram 84 on the walls in the exhibition.

Karen Strang is a graduate of Drawing and Painting at Glasgow School of Art, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw who was introduced to the Data Attic in 1986. She subsequently worked with Pete Horobin on various projects, including a series of performances in Dundee in1988, and was a frequent visitor to the Attic until its relocation.