They Are Here is a London-based collective practice led by Harun Morrison and Helen Walker. Different projects involve the invitation of various artists and non-artists in shifting collaborative models. They Are Here work across media and venues and have shown work in theatres, galleries and elsewhere, including South London Gallery, LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre), Whitechapel Gallery, Battersea Arts Centre, Man & Eve Gallery, online and in the streets.
They are here invite a high level of interactivity on the part of their audience/ attendees. They often take populist systems or experiences (Myspace, a film promo launch party, a haunted-house) as a framework for ideas. Constructed situations/ performances may involve the participants engaging with a narrative or game external to the event itself to unlock it. Projects evolve from constantly shifting collaborative models; exploring group dynamics, the division of power, the balance of authorship between participant and artist and the effects of temporary engagements with other artists or non-artist specialists.
Key to our practice is a site sensitivity evident in our recent work Uninvited Future(s), 2008 as part of 5 Storey Projects' 'Matter of Time' exhibition. In this work 3 potential futures for a single derelict site collide in an expanded installation. Located in 2010, we entertained at a flat-warming, held a private view fortelling the disbanding of They Are Here and opened a newly constructed school as designed by a 9 year- old child architect. www.fivestoreyprojects.com
In the video Becoming the Alien (South London Gallery, 2006) for example, two collaborators imagined themselves as extra-terrestrials who have landed in Peckham to explore indigenous flora and fauna. Punning on the American use of 'alien' to mean immigrant, collaborators' extra-terrestrial personae were drawn from the gestures they observed from local immigrant communities during the workshop process.
The participatory installation Halfway-House* (Man & Eve Gallery, 2007) was for two people at a time. You were greeted by a performer in the guise of an estate agent at Kennington Tube station, who provided you with an audio guide that lasted the duration of the walk to the house and introduced you to the haunted property for sale. Once inside, twin experiences were divided by rooms in the house, while simultaneously parodying the mode of an estate agent?s tour. www.manandeve.co.uk/exhibitions/Halfway-House
Injured Party* (Battersea Arts Centre, 2007) was an 'environmental portrait'. If two characters were a live event what would it be like? By answering this question could a new form of representation develop? Injured Party was a portrait of the fictional Myspace twin personae Ayo (www.myspace.com/ayoyoueverything) and Oni Oshodi (www.myspace.com/iamtheoneandoni) ... A 'film promo party', it included 6 pairs of identical twins, including Twin MCs from the So Solid Crew. Everyone was sprayed with perfume on entry so they all smelled the same. A film Anne ist supposedly written by Ayo and Oni was given a screening on the night, alongside a Q & A, music acts, and other spontaneous performative moments.
*Project team included associate artists Anne Jonsson and Joe Bell
You can contact us by email at theyarehere@live.co.uk
Uninvited Future(s), 2008 (Image: Una Hamilton Helle)