Adventureland Golf | Nova Festival | 2012 | Artist's mini golf course
curated by Doug Fishbone, including holes designed by David Shrigley,
Jake & Dinos Chapman, Brian Griffiths, Doug Fishbone, Gary Webb, Jonathan
Allen, Ian Monroe, Pete Fowler, and Zatorski & Zatorski.
L/R Gary Webb,
Brian Griffiths, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Jonathan Allen
L/R Doug Fishbone, Ian Monroe, David Shrigley, Brian Griffiths
L/R Jonathan Allen, David Shrigley, Ian Munroe, Brian Griffiths, Doug Fishbone, Pete Fowler
Doug Fishbone
Gary Webb, Zatorski & Zatorski
Zatorski
& Zatorski
L/R David Shrigley, Ian Munroe
Pete Fowler, Gary Webb
Brian
Griffiths
Jonathan
Allen
Jonathan Allen Aim Left [2012]
"In Jonathan Allen's Aim Left, crazy golf becomes an unlikely
context for political satire as players are forced to negotiate a miniaturised
closed-down public library flanked by building skips overflowing with
junked books. Allen's contribution to 'Adventureland Golf' is a timely
echo of Raymond Bradbury's dystopian novel 'Fahrenheit 451' in which books
are considered so threatening to the presiding authorities that their
very existence comes into question. Subtle references to Bradbury's book
can be found within the library's graffiti whilst Allen's contractors
- 'Camborne Skips' - points culpability more directly to those whom the
artist sees as most recently responsible for dismantling public space
and undermining democratised learning in the UK. Aim Left points
the putter at neo-liberalism, casting players as unwilling Gullivers in
a landscape of thwarted social mobility and creeping philistinism."
Press
- The Independent >
Public
Libraries News >
Grundy Art Gallery video >
Press
- The Guardian >
Press - Professional Golfers' Association >
CODA
The crazy-golf library was loosely modelled on the closure-threatened St.Just Library in Cornwall. In the summer of 2015, as part of LaFrowda Festival, the model and the structure that inspired it were re-united through the support and vision of artists Abigail Reynolds and Andy Harper.
All photographs © Jonathan Allen 2012. All works are © their
respective authors.