The Vauxhalla Lecture Series (or how the People’s Republic of Vauxhalla gained it’s name), Jakob Rowlinson
Can research be public art?
What intrigues Rowlinson most about Nine Elms is the various ways institutions and developers are keen to inscribe the area with a certain local history. In a similar way, he will blur the lines of fact, truth and fiction through both an online platform and a performative lecture, employing improvisation and spontaneous physical decision-making during every stage of the process. Rowlinson’s work does not only challenge the very notion of ‘public art’, but also seeks to question how vested interests go about defining a whole area, ‘cherry picking’ aspects of local history to suit their agendas. All of these questions warrant an explorative and research based practice to unsettle a situation, disrupt and occupy the everyday.
