Artist and Curator Team - Dynamic Combination
Ange Taggart and amino in residence together at ISIS Arts | January / February 2005

Spanner in the Works (January 2005)

The amino duo Lee Callaghan and Ben Ponton bring a sharp wit, bold professional approach and a history of direct action. Ange Taggart creator of My Dads Strip Club carries out issue based unauthorised interventions in public and private spaces. amino is a Newcastle upon Tyne based contemporary arts production company. Bringing together the two forces creates a catalyst for instability thus enhancing the process and experimentation. Since meeting following the Stop Shopping Tour (2003) in Newcastle, Ponton and Taggart have been germinating ideas via email. Much of Ange Taggart’s work reflects her distaste for consumer culture and systems of mass production.

"Taggart's taken a fresh look at shopping and invested it with all the thrills you got way back when you shoplifted as a teenager; but this time, it's legal."
ALAN BATES, TAGGART’S BROTHER

As collaboration is central to the ethos of My Dad's Strip Club, this residency provides the opportunity to develop relationships with artists in the region as well as build on existing connections. The collaboration between My Dad’s Strip Club and amino is being enhanced further with the assistance of artist Chris Graham.

Chris Graham, a visual artist who loathes the term artist. Had a classic working class northern education and upbringing of coal, baked beans, chips, drugs and crime. He became artist in residence 1991 while detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure at Glenn Parva Young Offenders Institute before being rehabilitated and released to attend art school. Pranksterism or art, we don't really care how you view it as long as you think about the nature of consumption.