Text from leaflet in box

Liberica Coffee Cup
Alan Phelan, 2020-21

This cup is not a cup and more of a vessel, but more so a sculpture for you to finish making. The small cup of paint and brush included is to fill in the Liberica logo indent on the side of the cup. If you want you can also paint the cup with black acrylic paint. Then use it whatever way you want.

As a vessel it holds stories, not liquids. The fired clay cup is porous, so it leaks. It has only had a simple bisque blast and no glaze. It’s a utility object with a different use. You can decide what this is as long as it’s something dry!

The Company of Others wanted to make connections between the City Guilds of Derry/Londonderry and UCD Experimental Archeology via art projects. My idea was to work on coffee cups I had made previously by drawing a logo on used paper coffee cups. The logo is from a Malaysian café and coffee company. It is named after the coffee bean that grows best in that part of the world. The bean originates however in Africa and some of this variety was brought back from Congo to Ireland by Roger Casement while he was investigating humanitarian atrocities in the Belgian King Leopold’s rubber plantations. The beans are held by the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin.

I had previously made a film about Casement in 2016 and retain a great interest in this very complex historical figure. He had ended up being a hero on both sides of the political divide – as one of the leaders of the 1916 Rising and prior to that as part of the imperial project, working for the British Foreign Office, albeit investigating abuses of power and the dire exploitation of native populations in Africa and South America under colonial rule.

My approach was counterfactual or a type of fiction. This created an alternative reality, working around some factual events but 25 years after his execution where he is alive in Norway in 1941. There, he has to deal with various acts of betrayal as a mirror to what had actually happened to him in Ireland.

This cup project does not try to encapsulate all of this. It follows a different route or rather several routes around the world that ends back in Derry.

Imperial trade was never about equality and decolonizing empire is more urgent than ever. Nostalgia for trades of yore is a complex mix of tradition and imperial violence. Isolated away from a historical context simple professions seem benign but they all played a role in the colonial and imperial project.

This cup maps out a notional imperial trade route between Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Ireland. It may be counterfactual, but it is not untrue. The connections are knowingly wrong, or rather created to make a point. They did exist, they do connect, this is history.

So as a simple paper coffee cup rendered in clay, it was made off-the-hump. This means it was rapidly spun into shape by Brian Magee, a potter from Lismoughry, Saint Johnston, County Donegal. The method is for making fast simple shapes in volume and most notably used by chai tea cup makers in India known as Kulhad or bhar cups. This method is making a resurgence to counter the plastic and paper waste generated from modern materials.

These are the best kind of recycled coffee cup you can get as they are made from mud, a single material, simply fired. This off-the-hump coffee cup is now a gift of the thought process, from me to you. For you to complete or pass on to someone else if you like. Thank you.

Event info from 28 September 2019

https://www.ccadld.org/public-programme/company-of-others

The Company of Others
Artists: David Beattie, Alan Phelan

Info
CCA is pleased to present the first iteration of The Company of Others, an open research project undertaken with artists David Beattie and Alan Phelan and the Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture (CEAMC) in University College Dublin (UCD).

The Company of Others is a project that concerns relationships between colonialism, capitalism, and material culture. It takes its starting point from Derry’s history – of the plantation of the city and surrounding area by the commercial guilds of London – but from there speaks outwardly to other contexts and time-frames. The project is especially interested in the material practices of the livery companies that formed the foundations of British colonialism in Derry.

The 12 guilds that were given control over Derry and the regions adjacent were the Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths, Skinners, Merchant Tailors, Haberdashers, Salters, Ironmongers, Vintners, and Clothworkers. The smaller guilds that joined them included the Cordwainers, Dyers, Scriveners, Upholders, Wax Chandlers, Tallow Chandlers, Broderers, Founders, Pewterers, and Fletchers. The names of these skills and trades evoke a set of practices, materials and processes that the artists have been invited to research in this public event.

David Beattie
For The Company of Others Beattie has worked with the UCD School of Experimental Archaeology to explore the process of tablet weaving as a means to discuss technological change and a current shift towards an automated, machine focused society. Using the Guilds of Derry and the Weavers in particular as a starting point, Beattie’s research is drawing parallels between the effect of the Jacquard loom on the textile industry and current implications of artificial intelligence on future human labour. In 1801 Joseph Marie Jacquard invented a power loom that could base its weave upon a pattern automatically read from punched wooden cards. This system became the basis for many automated and computational machines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, leading to the creation of IBM and the first computers of the mid 20th century.

In the current digital computing age, image recognition and deep learning is perhaps of greatest significance. Machines are being taught to see, think behave as humans do, recognising images, objects, and emotions according to their databases. The goal is to achieve a trans-human state that can replicate or even improve on human behaviour, evolving to co-exist in virtual, mixed and augmented worlds.

Beattie will present the results of this research on the walls outside CCA alongside a demonstration of tablet weaving by UCD researcher Bridgit Lee on 28 September from 2:30–4:30pm All welcome, human and machine.

Alan Phelan
Alan Phelan references Roger Casement and the coffee bean variety he acquired in Congo, called Liberica, now held in the collection of the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin. Liberica is also the name of a café chain in Indonesia where the bean replaced the diseased local arabica. Phelan hand draws the company logo to re-brand and up-cycle used paper coffee cups. The project develops in this new iteration by combining other unrelated cultural references to explore a different kind of operational sequence common to anthropological discourse.

Related to histories of the Guilds and the Company of Grocers, Phelan’s research initiates a discussion about the interconnections of global capitalism, disposable consumerism, branding, cultural appropriation, empire, nationalism and freedom.

Working with the potter Brian Magee to create branded Liberica ‘kulhar’, Phelan will stage a demonstration of “off the hump” wheel-throwing of these disposable clay cups from 2-4pm. Specially imported Liberica coffee will be served and hand-drawn up-cycled cups will be available for sale or exchange.

Company of Others takes place as part of the Walled City – 400 Years programme of events, funded by Derry City and Strabane District Council.

Press release on Edition launch, 1 June 2021

The Company of Others
Artists: David Beattie, Alan Phelan

Info
The Company of Others is a project that concerns relationships between colonialism, capitalism, and material culture. It takes its starting point from Derry~Londonderry’s history – of the plantation of the city and surrounding area by the commercial guilds of London – but from there speaks outwardly to other contexts and time-frames. The project is especially interested in the material practices of the livery companies that formed the foundations of British colonialism in the Maiden City.

The 12 guilds that were given control over Derry~Londonderry and the regions adjacent were the Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths, Skinners, Merchant Tailors, Haberdashers, Salters, Ironmongers, Vintners, and Clothworkers. The smaller guilds that joined them included the Cordwainers, Dyers, Scriveners, Upholders, Wax Chandlers, Tallow Chandlers, Broderers, Founders, Pewterers, and Fletchers. The names of these skills and trades evoke a set of practices, materials and processes that the artists have been invited to research in this public event.

The research will be presented within The Company of Others box; a limited edition box made in collaboration between David Beattie and Alan Phelan. Working with the potter Brian McGee, Phelan creates the branded Liberica ‘kulhar’, or clay cup. Made using the “off the hump” wheel-throwing method. You are invited to paint in the white logo with supplied paint and brush. On the side of the box is a QR code by Beattie. Reading this code will take the viewer to an augmented reality, available Wednesday 1 June–Wednesday 1 September 2021.

*This edition is now sold out.* Please visit our shop to order your free limited edition box. There are three available options – UK, Republic of Ireland and Gallery Pick-up.

David Beattie
For The Company of Others Beattie has worked with the UCD School of Experimental Archaeology to explore the process of tablet weaving as a means to discuss technological change and a current shift towards an automated, machine focused society. Using the Guilds of Derry and the Weavers in particular as a starting point, Beattie’s research is drawing parallels between the effect of the Jacquard loom on the textile industry and current implications of artificial intelligence on future human labour. In 1801 Joseph Marie Jacquard invented a power loom that could base its weave upon a pattern automatically read from punched wooden cards. This system became the basis for many automated and computational machines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, leading to the creation of IBM and the first computers of the mid 20th century.

In the current digital computing age, image recognition and deep learning is perhaps of greatest significance. Machines are being taught to see, think behave as humans do, recognising images, objects, and emotions according to their databases. The goal is to achieve a trans-human state that can replicate or even improve on human behaviour, evolving to co-exist in virtual, mixed and augmented worlds.

Alan Phelan
Alan Phelan references Roger Casement and the coffee bean variety he acquired in Congo, called Liberica, now held in the collection of the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin. Liberica is also the name of a café chain in Indonesia where the bean replaced the diseased local arabica. Phelan hand draws the company logo to re-brand and up-cycle used paper coffee cups. The project develops in this new iteration by combining other unrelated cultural references to explore a different kind of operational sequence common to anthropological discourse.

Related to histories of the Guilds and the Company of Grocers, Phelan’s research initiates a discussion about the interconnections of global capitalism, disposable consumerism, branding, cultural appropriation, empire, nationalism and freedom.

The Company of Others takes place as part of the Walled City – 400 Years programme of events, funded by Derry City and Strabane District Council. Thanks to Emmet Brown for graphic design, Naomi Arbuthnot at Derry Print Workshop for screen-printing and Paola Bernadelli for photography. For further information please email info@ccadld.org.

Instagram post text

EDITION LAUNCH 1 JUNE 2021, 10am

The Centre for Contemporary Art Derry~Londonderry is pleased to announce the launch of the second iteration of The Company of Others.

An open research project undertaken with artists David Beattie and Alan Phelan and the Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture (CEAMC) in University College Dublin (UCD). Initiated by Sara Greavu, with this phase led by Laura McCafferty.

The research will be presented within The Company of Others. A limited edition box made in collaboration between David Beattie and Alan Phelan. Working with the potter Brian McGee, Phelan creates the branded Liberica ‘kulhar’, or clay cup. Made using the “off the hump” wheel-throwing method. You are invited to paint in the white logo with supplied paint and brush. On the side of the box is a QR code by Beattie. Reading this code will take you to an augmented reality, available 1 June – 1 September 2021.

This free limited edition includes postage options for UK, Republic of Ireland and gallery pick-up. Order your edition on CCA’s website CCADLD.org [link in bio] from 10am.

The Company of Others takes place as part of the Walled City – 400 Years programme of events, funded by Derry City and Strabane District Council. Thanks to Emmet Brown for graphic design, Naomi Arbuthnot/ Derry Print Workshop for screen-printing and Paola Bernadelli for photography.

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