CARA BALL TOLMIE talks to Supercream about her ideas for the live programme...

Cara Ball Tolmie - Still from 'Situation 1'

Hi Cara, can you tell us a bit about what you are preparing for Event Horizon, and how were introduced to the programme?

Cara Ball Tolmie: John, who is curating the part of the programme that I am involved in invited me to take part. We have known each other for years and have had quite a lot of involvement in each other’Äôs work, on and off for most of the time.

In that way, it seemed to make sense to try and use our relationship to inform the work for the event: we are currently working on a piece of writing for an exhibition I’Äôm taking part of in Edinburgh, which will hopefully evolve into a performance for the Royal Academy in London. in December. The text takes the form of an interview (Artist/ Critic) and pivots around a piece of narrative that John has written about a fictional character called J.D Lyster. We established one rule at the beginning of this collaboration, which is...OVER THE COURSE OF THIS INTERVIEW WE HAVE ONE SINGLE GOAL - TO ANNIHILATE EACH OTHER COMPLETELY. The interview is broken down over the course of the text until John and I end up killing each other dramatically in a finale.

Wow! It sounds pretty crude! Why did you came up with this aim?

C.B.T.: Ha, yeah I suppose it is quite crude. Somehow it seemed like a logical conclusion, but in a farcical kind of way. We had been talking quite a bit about techniques employed particularly by writers to evoke sentiment in the reader, and how these techniques were often more effective than the actual content. Recently, I have been doing a lot of work using the structure of terminologies found in music theory, and applying them to the texts I was writing and then performing. What became very clear to me was their potential to simultaneously define something yet also make it illegitimate.

Also, I was interested in the capacity to destroy the things that were created to explain. With regards to the content of the writing that John and I are doing together, John has always been a die hard Romantic. So, it was interesting for both of us to be having a conversation about the rules used by Romantic language to manipulate the viewer. It seemed to be half way between the two of us. Not sure if that answers your question though!

That's interesting - especially since romanticism hasn't been given much weight for quite a long time! And you associate it to destruction: what role does romanticism/passion have in something so radically negative as self-annihilation? They are emotions that are usually thought of as constructive elements.

C.B.T.: Its funny, John recently called me a ’Äòpractical Romantic’Äô. To be honest, I don’Äôt really have much interest in making work that is Romantic’Ķ though perhaps I do sometimes, I don’Äôt know. What interests me is that it is a very easy way to display the cold and logical studying of an emotive process. I became obsessed with this idea of annihilation recently, through thinking about structures imposed on things in order to understand them: by subverting the original structures they have the potential to annihilate themselves.

John has always been a Romantic but is also a very good critic. Whatever way it ends, I imagine the deaths to be a complete farce, and probably dramatically Romantic in their own way. I suppose we are both critiquing ourselves and each other. Over the text we mess around with each other’Äôs writing continuously and attempt to manipulate it for our own means. This is probably fairly typical of our relationship. Fiction is a very useful way of freeing the normal rules. It is also very easy to manipulate and is very un-solid.

You talk about structures to manipulate the viewer and the narrative itself: are special effects possible also with traditional visual art? You work in lots of different media’Ķ

C.B.T.: When you say special effects do you mean literally in terms of visuals?

No... more in the terms of 'overcoming' the audience in a more 'structural' way, as I think you were proposing when you were talking about appropriating the rules of romantic literature...

C.B.T.: I suppose I find it difficult to disconnect what I have been doing with text and visuals. I would hope to be able to achieve that in a more strict form of visual art but most of the work I have been making recently has relied on being caught between media in many ways. I think it is possible but the structure of visuals is not so formulaic as text. Possibly it’Äôs not so governed by rules? I have never been interested in using symbolism in imagery so perhaps that is the way I attempt to do this same thing visually.

Since we are having a virtual chat, I was googling you just a moment ago and I read somewhere that you are interested in working in Germany ’Äì are you interested in Berlin in particular? Do you think it has still much to offer and how do you compare that situation with the one you are currently living in? Are you interested in marginal art communities?

C.B.T.: Oh God, where was that from? That was a while ago I think. I would definitely like to live somewhere else other than Glasgow, and have always been attracted to Northern Europe. I cant really comment on what Berlin still has to offer, but I do think that not becoming too comfortable in your situation is important. I have gained a lot from living in Glasgow the past couple of years, but I am beginning to become complacent and I’Äôm never happy about that. Glasgow has a very strong artist-led tradition which is still very strong but it would be good to experience how other communities tackle this.

Cara Ball Tolmie - Still from 'Situation 1'

Cara Ball Tolmie - Still from 'Situation 1'