Roddy Hunter: Civil Twilight & Other Social Works

The book results from Bodor’s collaboration with artist Roddy Hunter between 2004 and 2007, prompted by Bodor’s interests in the possibilities of disseminating performance art through archival research in contexts and to audiences beyond those of the original performance. It built on Hunter’s earlier project, ‘Civil Twilight’ (2000-2004), which investigated environments for societal production of civic understanding through a series of durational performances that encouraged discursive public encounters in civic squares and related urban environments.

Bodor and Hunter collaborated to document, archive and re-contextualise these works in and for gallery contexts. The exhibition, 'Begin Civil Twilight' (premiered Dartington, September 2005) presented the performances in retrospect through representing their 'concept'. It included original documents and objects, documentation and installations, and audio and video recordings made during the performances and in the archival research period. Six context-specific gallery works based on the artist’s memories and experiences, and involving documentation as source material, completed the exhibition, which was accompanied by a public symposium concerning issues raised by and during the original performances.

Using archival documents gathered/created for the exhibition, and transcribed interviews from the research, the book was curated as another, final way of disseminating and contextualising Hunter’s performance practice. While focusing on archival material gathered through Hunter’s and Bodor’s collaboration, research for the publication extended to cover a longer, 15-year strand of Hunter’s practice that he conceives as ‘social works’. Artists John Newling (UK) and Vassya Vassileva (Bulgaria), contributors to the symposium, were commissioned to contribute essays.

Supporting portfolio: photo documentation of ‘Begin Civil Twilight’ exhibition (CD); URL for information about ‘Begin CivilTwilight’; copy of wall text from exhibition, jointly authored by Bodor and Hunter; copy of research presentation by Bodor and Hunter as part of Dartington’s annual cross-college research seminar series.