EILIS + JAKOB
TWO 4 ONE
2 - 30 May 2019 | Domino Houses Billboard, Bounds Green Road, N22 8YB
There is a poem in memory of W.B. Yeats, where W.H. Auden states that ‘poetry makes nothing happen’. This is a line often misunderstood, interpreted to mean that ‘poetry doesn’t make anything happen’ (Tom McCarthy, Nothing Will Have Taken Place Except The Place). In their first collaborative project together, EILIS + JAKOB present a poem to activate the nothing that the billboard faces; exploring the assertion, instead, that poetry actively makes “nothing” happen...
while we’re walking around, thinking about nothing, or,, through the window, at this very moment, a cacophony of characters put on non-stop visual entertainment, proclaiming special offers and surprising services. these characters, this cast, can be found on any surface, as distractions or directions, decoration or marker. they are in wood, metal, paint, sticky back plastic, etched, behind glass, torn and layered. then, punctuated by plants. they jumble... [they jungle!] they jumble with our thoughts [buddleia, baudelaire!] and make their own kind of poetry.
EILIS + JAKOB’s billboard ‘TWO 4 ONE’ sucks this nectar (the street vernacular of signs), and is punctuated by *sweetness*. Pressed flowers, plastic straws, and debris gathered on walks in the surrounding area adorn the poster’s surface. Follow a trail of these objects, printed as vinyl decals and scattered along the pavement between Bounds Green station and the billboard site. Varnished with sugary syrup for the insects to lick; EILIS + JAKOB’s billboard evokes the butterfly-inducing flowering shrub, buddleia, that often springs up along railway lines. Their poem takes the form of a love letter.
Their billboard artwork will be accompanied by a closing event on Wednesday 29 May 2019, and by a digital commission for online project space SKELF to be exhibited on http://www.skelf.org.uk/ between 17 July – 15 October 2019. EILIS + JAKOB’s proposal was selected via an open call directed towards students currently studying at the Royal College of Art, London.
SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD
Wednesday 29 May 2019, 7-9pm
Domino Houses Billboard, Bounds Green Road, N22 8YB
A muddy selection of sounds, punch, snacks and karaoke, to accompany EILIS + JAKOB's Cypher BILLBOARD commission TWO 4 ONE. All insects and friends welcome. More sugar TBC.
Eilis Searson is a graphic designer who likes education,beautiful books and Love Actually. She designs the Royal College of Art school newspaper, teaches at University of the Arts London, and runs a publishing imprint called HOLY! HOLY! HOLY! books(previously Camberwell Press).
Jakob Rava is a sculptor whose work considers interiors and exteriors of architecture as embodiments of political, economic and socio-psychological conditions. His work attempts to call into question our perception of exhibition and public space through interruption.