Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 11:35:05 +0100
From: Alastair Dickson <adickson-AT-stirmargrev.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Karen Eliot's Party


Karen Eliot's Party is a venue-based art event originating from
ARTGALLERYTM in Inverness, Scotland.

This event, organised by and celebrating the multiple personality Karen
Eliot, is completely non-selective and open to anyone in the world
calling themself Karen Eliot.

In the first instance all work sent to ARTGALLERYTM by post, email and
fax will be xeroxed and used to create a gallery-based installation by
Karen Eliot.  [Note: original works - drawings, photos, etc. - sent by
post will be returned on request.]

The originl data plus new works sent to each venue will form the basis
of other installations in different venues by different Karen Eliots.

This celebration will therefore grow in scale and momentum, forming a
complex picture of Karen Eliot as it travels from one venue to another.

ARTGALLERYTM is looking for artists' run organisations and venues to
host Karen Eliot's Party from August 1998 onwards.

Further data from: 
ARTGALLERYTM, 
20 Bank Street,
Inverness
IV1 1QU
Scotland
Tel. (+44)463 712240
Email ARTTM-AT-cali.co.uk

                              AIMS

Karen Eliot's Party sets out to create a totally democratic art
experience that people of any age and of any artistic ability worldwide
can participate in.  By using the name Karen Eliot all participants and
their work will be considered equal, thereby dispelling elitism and the
cult of the personality upon which so many artistic judgments are made. 

Each venue will be expected to hire its own Karen Eliot to assist in an
installation which will be created from the data sent to the previous
venue plus the data sent to that particular venue.  UK venues should
note that funding is available from ARTGALLERYTM for 3 day curation and
workshops from Karen Eliot.

Venues should set their own themes, e.g. Karen Eliot's Menagerie, Karen
Eliot's Cabinet, Karen Eliot's Utopia, etc. to ensure new works are
received and that the project does not grow stale as it travels.

In the first instance, Inverness will accept works on the theme of Karen
Eliot's Party and her/his identity, environment and lifestyle.

Each venue will be required to supply a computer with email facility, a
fax and a photocopier plus any basic materials required by Karen Eliot
in the making of the installation.

It is also the intention to establish venues outwith the UK which will
use this framework to create their own Karen Eliot installation.

                           BACKGROUND

1984: Stewart Home invented SMILE, a magazine of multiple origins.
Anyone anywhere could publish an issue of SMILE.

1985: Stewart Home proposed the name Karen Eliot to supercede Monty
Cantsin, the Neoist multiple personality.  Anyone calling themself Karen
Eliot could be a Neoist and participate in Neoist events.

1987: The Festival of Plagiarism, a decentralised international Neoist
event, hosted the Karen Eliot Aprocrypha exhibition at Copy Art in
London.

1990: Karen Eliot organised "Overprints and Undertones", an exhibition
in Brighton and London.

1992: The V&A in London mounted "A History of SMILE" an exhibition of
SMILE magazines and Karen Eliot artworks. 

1996: "Karen Eliot: An Artist in Her Own Right", an exhibition exploring
the identity of Karen Eliot; Liverpool and Hull.

1997: Viennese Neoist Worldcongress and/or Neoist Worldfair.
             
-- Alastair Dickson, Stirling, Scotland
-- <adickson-AT-stirmargrev.demon.co.uk>


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