ANNIE RAPSTOFF - To find one's way anywhere one has to find one's door, just like Alice ....You take too much of one thing and you get too big, then you take too much of another and you get too small. You've got to find your own doorway into things... (Paula Rego)

I've been exploring breath for some time now, and I have been lucky enough to meet up with the group of artists showing at The George Gallery in Newnham on Severn from the 29th October - 2nd November.

Trapped Bird Sings Series, is a continuing mobile performance work at Cerabellum: Excappare, Hastings on 7th October 23. The work has been performed in various spaces accompanied by a musical and a spoken word soundtrack. During the I step into a circle of birdseed and become masked - a bird or caged bird. Actions and movements are suggestive of a bird within the circle, which explores confinement and liberty.

The sound work is the remastered 1929 recording of the music The Canary Polka, which includes the actual sound of a Caged Canary Singing with violin and piano, the music is intermittently dispersed with the a verbal listing of species of birds on the red endangered species list, stated by the RSPB.

Themes: Transformation, mimicry, grief and the loss of endangered bird species

Trapped Bird Sings Series, is a continuing mobile performance work at The Old Trouts event, curated by Cou Cou Curation in Frome on the 13th July 23. The work has been performed in various spaces accompanied by a musical and a spoken word soundtrack. During the I step into a circle of birdseed and become masked - a bird or caged bird. Actions and movements are suggestive of a bird within the circle, which explores confinement and liberty.

The sound work is the remastered 1929 recording of the music The Canary Polka, which includes the actual sound of a Caged Canary Singing with violin and piano, the music is intermittently dispersed with the a verbal listing of species of birds on the red endangered species list, stated by the RSPB.

Themes: Transformation, mimicry, grief and the loss of endangered bird species

Trapped Bird Sings Series, is a continuing performance work at The Old Trouts event, curated by Cou Cou Curation at Magdalen Road Studios, Oxford on the 17th July 23. The work has been performed in various spaces accompanied by a musical and a spoken word soundtrack. During the I step into a circle of birdseed and become masked - a bird or caged bird. Actions and movements are suggestive of a bird within the circle, which explores confinement and liberty.

The sound work is the remastered 1929 recording of the music The Canary Polka, which includes the actual sound of a Caged Canary Singing with violin and piano, the music is intermittently dispersed with the a verbal listing of species of birds on the red endangered species list, stated by the RSPB.

Themes: Transformation, mimicry, grief and the loss of endangered bird species

Group photo for a recent show In the Likeness of Birds, 2023

CURRENT AND RECENT WORK

In The Likeness Of Birds is an exhibition of work by Monika Tobel and Cally Trench and Annie at The North Wall Arts Centre in

Oxford, 4th-22nd July.

Exhibition Opening evening, all are invited - Saturday 15th July (3-5pm)

Meet The Artists - Friday 21st July (2-3pm).

No booking required for either event.

‘Art, Science and the Natural World’ - Online discussion with the artists and

guest speaker Alexis Williams, artist and director of Ayatana’s Biophilium Science School for

Artists - Friday 7th July (6-7pm). Please book your free place via the website.

The North Wall Arts Centre is at South Parade, Summertown, Oxford OX2 7JN.

Opening hours: Mon–Fri, 10am–4pm, Sat: 12pm–4pm. Closed: Sun and Bank

Holidays.

Annie, Monika and Cally are also giving a talk at art-sauce in Oxford during the

exhibition. Tickets £4; please book via the art-sauce website

art-sauce is at The Old Schoolhouse, Hertford Street, Oxford OX4 3AJ.

"Reading Water" a collaborative contemplative ecology project over a month exploring the interconnections between The Thames, United Kingdom and The Nile, Egypt. Developed by Super Cluster and supported by The British Council, November 2022.

Artist in residence research trip to Zagori, Northern Greece, in association with the The Eco Museum and Oika, October 2022.

Motivational Tools, a performance at Biddy FAB Art Bath, 2022 - A staged performance, involving a set of altruistic affirmative actions created to offer the public a sense of their importance and value in a difficult challenging and competitive world. The piece was performed as part of a touring work entitled Office for The Dissemination of Sympathy (2012), and has been reworked and revitalised for Biddy.

Parliament of Owls online artists research residency, concerning birds, 2022 - Working with Ayatana Biophilium Science School for Artists.

Bird by Bird 2, and An Incomplete Manifesto to you Birds, 2021 - sonic works in two parts, heard on Air Radio, a collaborative radio space created for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), followed by short video on YouTube.

'An Aqueous Collaboration' 2021 -2022, a collaborative project with Philip Lee developed during lock down. Fortnightly, each artist produced an image or video of an action inspired by two words – WATER, and the other word being a verb.
‘An Aqueous Collaboration' was a playful contemplation of water and its possibilities. All work can be seen on Instagram. In addition the work shown as a short film at Sea Change Bicester Festival Oxfordshire.

An online artists residency Ace Proyecto Residency, Argentina and Lacuna Festivals, 2021 - this residency took place during the lock down, and resulted in a collaborative video work with Anna Goodchild and Heidi Bergstrom entitled Littoral Zones: the frontiers between. This work was shown at Lacuna Festivals.

105 Artists Hands book by Cally Trench, 2018 -2022 - I have writing and images in a publication by Cally Trench, please follow this link to Peculiarity Press for more details.

Bird by Bird, at Unprecedented, an online exhibition at OVADA, 2021 - An exhibition of collective work created during and in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. I have four A1 photographs entitled Bird by Bird, the photos are part of an ongoing project of gestures, interventions, text and performance work. You can see the work online from The 1st May, please click here.

HOMEBOOKS at Overlay Studios, 2021 - A series of handmade books made during lock down. I have three books shown alongside artists Clare Carswell, Peta Lloyd and Rhiannon Evans. Thank to CouCou Curations and the support of CREIA::: . 1st - 9th May 11 - 6, at Overlay Studios Spelsbury Rd, Charlbury, Chipping Norton OX7 3LL

Nostos, at A Dangerous Field, Magdalen Road Studios, 16th October - 16th November 20 - Nostos (homecoming), is a collaborative photographic work, working with Vicky Vergou. The work is part of a project concerning how artists use photography to explore or subvert their ‘field’, or to record and research their subject. Due to the pandemic the work was transferred to an online exhibition, the full exhibition will now take place in 2021. Curated and edited by Cally Shadbolt, Catalina Renjifo and Lucas McLaughlin

Visiting Bird was a live work at Briefly in Transit, a sculpture trail at Stephens House and Gardens, 2020. A series of photos and actions, were located in the park grounds. The work developed as a response to the cacophony of birds which could be heard during the lockdown and research into the 14th century plague doctors mask. The trail, included 10 artists creating a series of artworks responding to the complexity and simplicity of these transitory times. Curated by Rebekah Dean and supported by The Arts Council England.

^{Life Saving, a series of gestures during}^a^residency^{located at Three Cliff's Bay in The Gower, South Wales, 2014}

Annie Rapstoff is an interdisciplinary artist based in the South East, UK. She is interested in the interrelationship between earth/land and the human experience, often in dialogue with other species. Over recent years she has explored the processes of kinship with water and since the pandemic has become entwined with birds. Strategies of sensing and embodiment in space are employed, whilst having a need to communicate through research, language and a phenomenological approach. Underpinning her work is a sense of heart felt grief for the impact we as humans have on our environment

Her work can take the form of instructions, performance for the camera and in situ, gestures, interventions, video and text. Past work has been participatory, collaborative and often process based or ephemeral. More recently an ongoing pain condition has led to exploring new avenues of practice which are less taxing on her body, including painting, printmaking, stitch and embroidery.

Annie's work can been seen in galleries, at conferences, live art events and in public spaces. Recently she has been inhabiting masks fabricated into bird extensions, including movement and gestures. In addition, she has been investigating urban and rural geology including red sandstone, using the action of mark making, through rubbing and scarifying. These small works explore surface, decay and imperfection in layers, particularly cracks in pavements, continuing an ongoing concern around fragile surfaces and hidden depths.

She has developed workshops with children and adults, has curated and developed live art events and is particularly interested in working in collaboration with other artists and across disciplines, past collaborations can be seen here.

Valuable words: Allowing for uncertainty, play, meandering through words and ideas, listening to what may be beneath the surface, ecologies of experience in relationship with animals, plants, other objects and the land.