(deviant)Artists: David Stamp

Barrel Push - David Stamp
Sunday 22nd July - racing starts 12'noon sharp
Location - TBC

Barrel Push is a Sisyphean contestant to see who can push an empty keg up a hill the fastest. In the week running up to the race a makeshift pub will be made and erected on the summit of the hill. On race day each participant will take it in turns to try and set the time for the fastest Barrel Push. After the allotted 3 hours of racing time, in which period participants can do as many runs as they want, the quickest contestant will be crowned "Lord of the Pub" and will don the ceremonial top hat. This 'coronation' will be marked by a celebratory drink.

A BBQ will also be held at the pub so come along and spend the day as spectator, participant or eater of charred meat but above all come and revel in the absurd.

Barrel Push is a new work by David Stamp who's work is concerned with the ways in which we associate with our environment and the significances we place on particular activities and events. Stamp is fascinated both with traditional festivals, rites and the nostalgic longing to live in harmony with our environment. Working within a research-based practice he takes an idiosyncratic view of cultural phenomenon, often drawing on game play, competition and re-enactment.

Along with such past works as Bartertown, in which 2 men inhabited a tiny Hebridean islet for 7 seven days and decided who owned it each day by playing a darts match each day at 12'noon, Stamp's work also includes an ongoing series called Wiseman. Wiseman is an alter ego of the artist - an uber-armchair-survivalist who ineptly uses sources of information such as the SAS Survival Handbook as a guide to show him how to ‘get back to his roots’. In this way Wiseman is used to confront ideas of self-sufficiency and the sense of loss that afflicts modern man. Past works in this series has seen Wiseman attempt to make animal traps out of Ikea furniture (Fördömda Kanin, 2004) and survive off the land (6 Day Wiseman, 2006). However the most recent work in the series is Reach - a synchronised dual video projection that sees Wiseman face, once again, the wilderness embodied as a giant rabbit.