Ptarmigan existed as a project space in Vallila from 2009-2011 and a mobile curatorial/creative platform until 2014. We no longer exist as an organised collective, but this website will continue to serve as an archive of the activities produced as/at Ptarmigan during these years.
An overland performance journey about walking, waiting, hitch-hiking and sauna. Kimbal is in the process of hitch-hiking a triangle to the edges of Europe and recording the stories of the people he meets along the way – on the road and in the Sauna. Vertically Down is part 3 of a journey that started in Athens in June 2011, which took Kimbal Diagonally Backwards to London, then from Amsterdam Diagonally Upwards to Nordkapp, Norway and now Vertically Down to Skopje, Macedonia.
Both hitch-hiking and sauna are intimate and temporary experiences that lead people to become surprisingly honest and Kimbal will share some stories (anonymously) about this journey as a work-in-progress performance lecture in Helsinki.
If you would like to take a sauna with Kimbal in Helsinki between the 24th April and 2nd May, or if you live elsewhere on the journey from Norway to Macedonia, and would like him to come to visit you, please get in touch.
Previous sections of the journey have been shown at BasementArtsProject, Leeds, UK, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden and PAiN Performance, Luleå, Sweden.
http://diagonallyupwards.tumblr.com/
Kimbal Quist Bumstead (UK/NL) is a visual artist who works site responsively in and between performance installation, drawing and painting. Kimbal uses other people and their bodies as his working material, exploring fragmented relationships and [miss]communication within communities and amongst individuals. Recently he has become interested in using lo-fi technology as a means of generating and tracing journeys and relationships in urban and rural environments. Kimbal spends much of his time living nomadically - using his travels, and the encounters that he has with people he meets as a means of generating material for his performances.
Recent shows include “Touch Village” A Foundation Liverpool, “This is Our House” BasementArtsProject Leeds, Busan International Performance Art Festival South Korea. OPEN International Performance Art Festival, OPEN Gallery Beijing,“Transit Station” Royal Academy of Art Copenhagen, ACT ART London, NeighbourHOOD ]Performance Space[ London, “Communi(cati)on of Crisis” Live Art Research Institute Athens, “Two Men in A Room” The Old Ambulance Depot Edinburgh and “Supermarket” Kulturhuset Stockholm. Recent collaborations include working with the artist Richard Taylor and choreographer Charlotte Spencer
Kimbal studied Fine Art and Art History at The University of Leeds and the Academy of Fine Art in Krakow, Poland. He has an MA in Performance and Theatre from Queen Mary University of London. He lives and works between London and Amsterdam.
