Past, Present, Somewhere a new exhibition of films and projects by Karen Guthrie and Nina Pope will open at Kettle’s Yard on the 13th of September and will include a cob installation based on their work in North West Cambridge.
Issam Kourbaj
I left Syria, but never my memories of it. Revisiting them warms my heart. But when I remember my own childhood and think of what the children of Syria are going through today and how their memories and their homes and all the beautiful and fragile and delicate things that make up a child’s outer and inner life have been torn to pieces and are violently and suddenly buried in shattered fragments under the ground, hidden beneath the silent earth, it’s difficult for me not to feel a mixture of pain, shock and anger.
Over the last three years as a Syrian artist, I’ve been observing from a very painful distance the war machines and dictatorships of the 21st century eviscerating my homeland, its people, its society, its cities and villages, its past and present, its history and its memory.
I shudder to think of the heart-breaking number of Syrian children breathing destruction, or rather gasping for breath as the chlorine gas corrupts their young lungs. And of other children and their families being torn to pieces through gas bombs, car bombs and barrel bombs which are being used to silence the voice of the revolution and dissent, a revolution which broke the fear barrier and dismantled state censorship on all forms of expression.
Images of aerial bombardment of civilian neighborhoods, of deadly sniper fire and brutal street fighting, images of husbands, fathers, uncles, mothers and grandmothers, aunts and children dying. Stories of mothers pressured to marry off their daughters simply for the family to survive, photographs of children living in tents, crammed into apartments and hiding in villages and towns. Gruesome “unverified” images from amateur video footage uploaded daily to social networking sites with the Editor’s Notes: We are unable to independently verify the content of the video.
To bring all these to my studio (these moving images of the new norm in Syria) and to digest, respond and translate them into subtle form, with meaning and without anger, has been and still is a great struggle for me.
Unearthed is not a collection of images that will go viral, nor will it be rapidly shared for quick global consumption via social media.
My work is a quiet gesture, an archive to remember those who have been forgotten, and an invitation to ponder what the future might bring to what’s left of my people and of my country – ‘The country’ formerly known as Syria’ as it was painfully referred to in the February 23rd 2013 edition of the Economist Magazine.
With the conflict entering its fourth year, the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today, I fear for the displaced, uprooted and orphaned Syrian families and children. But I believe and hope that one day, with the help of all of us who care, they will be able find the lost pieces of themselves and start to rebuild a new Syria, whole and unbroken.
Issam Kourbaj May 2014
Unearthed is on show at Kettle’s Yard until 26 October 2014. On 9 October Issam Kourbaj will be in conversation with Kettle’s Yard Director Andrew Nairne, all proceeds will go to Médecins Sans Frontières . Find out more here .
Nina Pope & Karen Guthrie
We have now been have been working as the artists in residence on the new North West Cambridge Development site for almost a year – our residency has been based with the Cambridge Archaeological Unit who are excavating the site and it has been a really fascinating chance to work alongside the archaeologists and become involved with the place in a very hands on way. As we were part of the ‘first wave’ of artists to be appointed we felt quite keenly that we’ve been given a unique chance to look back at the history of site, to record its present condition and to try and imagine this future part of the city, about to be built there.
At the beginning of our residency we joined the team actually digging on site, this was a muddy, extremely cold week but one we wouldn’t have missed for the world! It gave us a chance to think about all these aspects of the project whilst engaged in a very literal way with the physical place. We were completely engaged with the process of the archaeology and caught up by the enthusiasm and expertise that surrounded us on the rather windswept moon-like landscape we were digging. Somehow the archaeologists were able to transport themselves (and us) back in time and really imagine how this part of Cambridge may have previously been 100′s of years ago. Meanwhile, in spite of lots of fly throughs, models and talks we seemed to be finding it very difficult to imagine what these muddy fields might look like even 5 years into the future.
This experience on the dig in many ways generated both of the projects we’re now exploring – Prospection and T omorrow, Today . Prospection is a proposal for a very long term repeated survey of the new site and tries to ‘forward face’ the on-going creation of an archive for the place. Tomorrow, Today engages with the present nature of the site, and the current unique archaeological access to the past that been revealed through the dig.
The work will be a large-scale (circa 80m in diameter), outdoor, sculptural model of the future development – which places scale replicas of all the planned streets and buildings right next to the archaeological dig on site. This ‘model village of the future’ will be hand-built on location using ‘cob’, a traditional, ecologically-sustainable material made primarily from the earth excavated in situ by the archaeologists. The artwork will remain in place for at least a year, before being buried beneath this new part of Cambridge for future archaeologists to discover!
We’re very keen for others to enjoy the experience we’ve had on the site and so the project offers a unique opportunity to be part of building this sculpture. We are seeking individual members of the public, and formal or informal groups of adults who would like to learn the traditional craft of cob building and to use these skills to help construct the model during its 6-week build, working with the UK’s leading cob experts. Each participant will be expected to commit 5 consecutive week days to the project, which will include expert training in cob, in-person guidance from us and hands-on practice creating the model itself. Facilities, tools, parking and refreshments will all be provided. A small cost is applicable of £50 per person / £25 for concessions for a week’s participation.
Participants should be 18 years of age or older, and aware that whilst cob building is a safe and easy-to-learn skill, taking part in the project does require a reasonable degree of physical stamina and is regrettably not suitable for participants with limited mobility.
Interested people and groups are encouraged to register their interest as early as possible – from now until Monday 31st March by contacting
Nina Pope & Karen Guthrie – Somewhere.org.uk
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Hannah Kershaw, Circuit Programme Assistant
Circuit Cambridge is a group of 15-25 year olds who engage with Wysing Arts Centre & Kettle’s Yard to develop a programme of workshops, commissions, & events.
We’re pleased to announce that we have recruited artist Rebecca Birch to collaborate with our group over the next few months, specifically on developing the themes of events to be held in Cambourne (read more ).
Here is what Rebecca has to say about the project and working with Circuit:
“I’m really excited about working with Circuit Cambridgshire in Cambourne. Much of my art practice responds to particular communities and locations, such as this project in Cambourne, but working as an individual artist is completely different to working in collaboration with 17 other artists, and I’m very excited to see where our combined energies and enthusiasms lead us. So far we’ve shared our ideas and visited Cambourne to map out potential locations for interventions and events. Ideas are flying around and the challenge is going to be choosing which to pursue. Over the next few weeks we’ll be finalising a proposal, discussing it with the Wysing and Kettle’s Yard curatorial staff, and making contact with the local community in Cambourne, and by May, something amazing and unexpected will happen in Cambourne… ”
Rebecca’s extensive experience of working in gallery education settings, community and schools based projects is incredibly valuable for this project and we are excited to see what the outcome will be. Rebecca has led a number of projects with young people, including at The Livesey Museum for Children, The Royal Opera House and The Hepworth Wakefield .
We are delighted to announce that Alfred Wallis’ Five Ships, Mount’s Bay ( c.1928) from the Kettle’s Yard collection, has been chosen by the public as one of 57 works of art that will be displayed across the country as part of the Art Everywhere project. In fact Wallis’ work came 7th overall! The project aims to plaster the country with British masterpieces by transforming advertising space into art. From a longlist the public had the opportunity to choose their favourite artworks online and from 12 – 25 August the chosen artworks will be seen up and down the UK.
You will see poster sites ranging from billboards to bus stops transformed into British Masterpieces across high streets, major roads, tube, train and metro stations, supermarkets, shopping malls, office buildings, cinemas, health clubs and bars. 2000 London buses and 1000 black cabs will transport the artworks around the city on view for passengers as they navigate the streets.
Make sure you look out for Five Ships, Mount’s Bay, around the UK, send us a picture via (@kettlesyard) or when you spot it! Keep an eye out for other works of art and let us know if there is masterpiece near you.
If you want to come see the real thing, please come visit us when the cottages reopen in September. Entrance, as always, is free.
YOUNG ARTISTS, WE WANT YOU.
Aged 15-25? Come along to free workshops to expand your creative practice. The sessions, which we are organising in partnership with Wysing Arts Centre , will involve working with established artists from our networks to develop your work. If you are a young artist or know someone who is, get in touch to find out how to take part. All workshops are free to attend, plus transport and refreshments are provided.
WHAT DOES IT INVOLVE?
Get creative developing games to be played in and around Cambridge and the local area, aimed at encouraging more young people to take part in Circuit, our new youth arts programme.
The summer programme includes ten days of workshops creatively exploring the theme of games led by contemporary artists including Caroline Wendling , Rob Birch ( Oblique Arts ), David Kefford ( Aid & Abet ) plus a film night and social event. You can attend all or a number of two day workshops. Lunch will be provided.
DATES:
Monday 12 & Tuesday 13 August
Artists workshop 11-4pm at Kettle’s Yard
Wednesday 14 & Thursday 15 August
Artists workshop 11-4pm at Wysing Arts Centre
Friday 16 August
Studio session 11-4pm at Wysing Arts Centre
Monday 19 & Tuesday 20 August
Artists workshop 11-4pm at Kettle’s Yard
Wednesday 21 & Thursday 22 August
Artists workshop 11-4pm at Wysing Arts Centre
Thursday 22 August
Film screening 4.30-7pm at Wysing Arts Centre
Friday 23 August
Studio session and final event 11-4pm at Wysing Arts Centre
All workshops are free. To sign up email Tahira
Circuit is a national programme connecting 15–25 year olds to the arts in galleries and museums. Led by Tate and funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation . These workshops are part of a four year programme of activity.
Christopher Wood, Mme Bourgoint (Woman with Fox), 1929
Reuniting a brother and sister can be a wonderful thing – and this weekend Kettle’s Yard will be doing just that, well sort of. You may or may not be familiar with the work ‘Boy with Cat’ (1926)[below]. The painting by Christopher Wood forms part of the Kettle’s Yard permanent collection and as such the portrait of a young Jean Bourgoint has sat by himself, but for the company of his cat, casting his gaze over our library for many years. On Saturday 6 July our exhibition of works by Christopher Wood opens, and with it has arrived the portrait of Jean’s sister, Mme Bourgoint (Woman with Fox) (1929) [above]. The painting was given to the University of Essex by Kettle’s Yard founder, Jim Ede, as part of his gift of a collection of art to the University in 1964. The return of the work to Kettle’s Yard is particularly poignant set against the story of the two siblings and their relationships with the members of the 1920’s Parisian avant-garde scene in which the likes of Christopher Wood and Jean Cocteau were key figures.
Jean and Jeanne Bourgoint had a notorious and unusual relationship. Jean Cocteau, their friend and Jean Bourgoint’s lover at one time, based the main characters in his novel, Les Enfants Terribles , on the siblings. The novel concerns a brother and sister who isolate themselves as they grow up, forging a strange and close relationship and devising a sinister ‘Game’ against each other. Their strange love/hate relationship and the ‘Game’ rules over their lives, interferes in their other relationships and resulting in both their unfortunate demise.
In real life the beautiful Bourgoint siblings shared an intense bond; they slept in adjacent beds in a room in their Mother’s house for many years and were known to play strange obsessive games with one another. Christopher Wood was close friends with Jean and Jeanne, but formed a special attachment to Jeanne, with whom he had a brief and tempestuous relationship and whom he considered “the ideal female model for me”.
In both paintings, ‘Boy with Cat’ & ‘Mme Bourgoint’ Wood chose to include an animal whose nature is meant to reflect some aspect of the sitter. In the case of Jean’s portrait cats have symbolised fickleness and promiscuity, and Wood must surely have been aware of this. Given Jean’s liberated attitude, the spiky Siamese introduces something of the sexuality of the fey youths of Cocteau’s circle, something which is further hinted at by the coincident blue of the eyes of sitter and pet.
Jeanne Bourgoint committed suicide on Christmas Eve 1929, the same year that Wood painted Mme Bourgoint and which Cocteau’s novel was published. Some thought Jeanne meant to emulate Elizabeth’s character in Cocteau’s novel who ultimately shoots herself to ‘trump’ her brother at suicide. Jean never recovered from his sister’s suicide. Later he became a Trappist Monk and spent time travelling to Cameroon to help treat leprosy.
The exhibition at Kettle’s Yard will be unique opportunity to see these two portraits of siblings reunited alongside their unusual story. Find out more here.
Christopher Wood, 6 July – 1 September 2013
Kettle’s Yard Gallery
Tuesday – Sunday, 11.30am -5pm
Christopher Wood, Boy with Cat, 1926
In the tranquil setting of 11th century St Peter’s Church , next to Kettle’s Yard, a new exhibition of paintings by Zachary Beer will run from 2-7 July. The paintings featured depict imagery inspired from deep within a meteorite when viewed by a digital microscope. They refer to the Seymchan meteorite found in Russia in the 1960′s and named after a nearby settlement. It is a pallasite meteorite, meaning it has cm-sized peridot translucent crystal structures that refract light beautifully under illumination. The paintings draw on these refracted colours and juxtapose them with green motifs. Beer says,
When meteorites fall they bring with them amino acids that become part of the structure of flora on earth…the paintings hint at or display verdant structures that explore the passage of tight crystalline forms yielding into the flowing forms of flora.
The paintings will be shown alongside the original fragment of meteorite from which the imagery is taken. It is fascinating to see the piece of meteorite with its beautiful crystal structure placed centrally in the church. You can clearly see the influence of the unusual structure in the abstract forms and colour of the paintings.
Previous work by Beer has explored processes and artefacts within molecular biology, homeobox domains, metabolic pathways, hedgerows and flowers lost in the darkness of night. He has recently shown works at Christ’s College Cambridge – The Outside World, Redchurch Street, London – The Royal Academy and The School House Gallery, Wighton.
The show runs from 2 – 7 July, 12.30 – 6pm and will be open until 8pm alongside the private view for Christopher Wood on Friday 6 July.
So it turns out that human presence on Earth has only been for a fraction of the time that the Earth has actually existed. In Katie Paterson’s Fossil Necklace this becomes apparent before our eyes. The necklace features over 170 beads carved from fossils, which bead by bead chart the evolution of life on earth. The fossils that formed the beads come from all over the globe, sourced by Katie from fossil fairs, auctions and even found during a fossil hunt in Scotland.
Fossil Necklace is the culmination of Katie Paterson’s residency at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute , just outside Cambridge, a residency where she explored the world of genetics, leading her to the project of Fossil Necklace .
From fossils scientists can fathom certain information – including information such as what species were around at any particular time of history and anatomical information. With the discovery of DNA scientists are now able connect species (whose DNA was sequenced) by looking for the similarities and differences between their genetic make up.
Dr Chris Tyler-Smith , Head of Human Evolution, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute says, ‘Every individual living now, in the past or the future traces their origins (and DNA) back through an unbroken chain of ancestors to the origin of life. There is really a ‘tree of life’ linking every living and extinct species.’
It is this idea that is encapsulated in Fossil Necklace , the similarities (but also divergent paths) that makes up the history of our world are made tangible and strung together somewhat like our own DNA. Whilst the whole history of the earth is put into a scale we can discern, our own presence within that history becomes very obviously tiny.
Many of the fossils that are represented as a bead in the work are the ancestors of a species whose DNA has been sequenced by the Sanger Institute. One is the pig, the Sanger Institute having sequenced the DNA of the Duroc breed of the modern domestic pig. Dr Tyler-Smith writes,
The final bead in the Oligocene period comes from a Peccary ‘skunk’ pig that lived 30 million years ago in South Dakota, USA, while we concentrate on the Duroc breed of the modern domestic pig. The DNA sequence shoes just how powerful the sense of smell is in pigs, and how complex the origins of the domestic pigs were.
Fossil Necklace is on show until 23 June as part of Katie Paterson exhibition, with other works on show in the Kettle’s Yard gallery. Find out more here .
We rely on the generosity of our supporters to help us maintain and grow our exhibition programme. If you would like to donate to Kettle’s Yard or for further information on how you can support us, please click here .
On 24 May, 6-8pm, IJAD Dance Company will be hosting one of Kettle’s Yard Practice Sessions . An informal evening of workshops, talks and performance led by IJAD about their latest project, In-Finite . See below for a taster of what you can expect on this exciting evening.
The In-Finite Project started in 2010 as an ongoing conversation about the interaction between the public and the private. Take part in the conversation by sharing a secret here anonymously here and on the night you can see how these are transformed into creative pieces which can be shared over social media for comment, interpretation, collaboration, devising and performance work. You’re more than welcome to watch, but if you want to take part – wear clothes you can move in!
Also on the night you can witness chapter one of the project – a screening of In-Finite, currently touring and viewed online in 11 countries and counting. It delves into over 150 secrets shared by people just like you. The team behind it will be available to answer all your questions.
Never fear if you don’t know how to use twitter – we’ll take you though it, just make sure your phone’s fully charged!
Don’t miss The Practice Sessions – hosted by IJAD Dance Company – on 24 May 6-8pm. Admission is £8, pay on the door and includes one free drink.
Follow IJAD on and don’t forget to share your secret before the evening commences here.
Lucy Conochie is one of the artists currently participating in our exhibition with OUTPOST gallery at Kettle’s Yard. Here she tells us about her process and the work that features.
I try to do only what is necessary to communicate an idea. If I take everything away that isn’t necessary, everything that is ‘decoration’, then I am left only with important elements that force me to tell the truth about what I have seen, thought or felt. I try always to avoid creating a sense that the work uses a hidden order or secret language in which the viewer is not invited to take part.
Although I had some works I intended to show for this exhibition, after seeing the exhibiting space at Kettle’s Yard it became clear I needed to make a space-specific work for this show that would be more responsive to the unique architecture of this gallery. The bench area was certainly a spatial challenge but I felt content having come up with the work ‘Treelung (Thing)’ as a solution. This work is a sculpture made from a series of drawings I made of the pneumatophores of the Swamp Cypress. These are essentially ‘breathing roots’ for trees that live by water. They are fascinating and strange and appear as neither one thing nor another: receding yet emerging.
I want the materials and colours I use to be sympathetic to the original forms, and to the space in which they are placed: the wood rises from the bench as if from the same tree; the yellow wall painting reflects other elements in the exhibition. The ‘Apical Drawings’ shown alongside this work were also made solely with Kettle’s Yard in mind, and are a joyful attempt to disrupt some hierarchies of form, and serve as a celebration of nature.
OUTPOST has been very supportive since I first showed there in 2009 and it has been extremely good for me to continue a relationship with such a well respected artist-led space. I was very pleased to be chosen to exhibit at Kettle’s Yard. My work ‘Nude with Lemon’ includes a ceramic lemon that symbolises sensuality and the still-life, but also empathises with the lemon that echoes the Miro painting in the House adjacent; the lemon that is continually replaced in order to maintain the collection in the manner in which it was left. I like the idea that during this exhibition this ceramic lemon will be a reflection of reflections.
~ Lucy Conochie
www.lucyconochie.co.uk/
You can see Lucy Conochie’s work at Kettle’s Yard in the OUTPOST show until 14 April. Find out more here.
Following the forthcoming ‘Art in the East’ panel discussion, taking place on Saturday 16 March, exhibiting artist and OUTPOST member Ian Giles will be staging a participatory performance in the Kettle’s Yard house. Ian spoke to Amy Budd from the OUTPOST steering committee about the performance entitled Clay Meditation [A brief history of time] , and its wider relationship to his film currently on show in the exhibition.
Amy Budd: Your performance Clay Meditation [A brief history of time] at Kettle’s Yard invites participation from members of the public. Can you describe what it will involve?
Ian Giles: I’m inviting members of the public to take part in a meditation using clay. They will each be paired up with someone that they don’t know or with someone that they are less familiar with. Not to be provocative, but to invite us to exchange something with someone that we know perhaps less well, or to ask what it means to create a very simple relationship with someone that you don’t know. Once paired up, everyone will be given a small amount of clay and they will be invited to paint each other’s faces with the clay. This will be done in a very relaxed environment within a beautiful room of the Kettle’s Yard house. The meditation will be accompanied by live piano music. After the wet clay has been applied the drying process will lead the meditation, both in terms of using the drying process almost like a clock or a timer. But also this process is something physical to watch, something changing. It’s perhaps a bit like staring at a fire or staring at the ocean, it’s always subtly changing. As the clay dries, paths and cracks appear on the face and perhaps this starts to remind people of a landscape as well thinking about mortality.
AB: What is your specific interest in using clay as a material for the performance?
IG: I think in my practice, I’m interested in things that transform, and materials that have transformed. I made a film and performance in 2011 in the docklands of London, called A Smaller Sound, A Bigger Crowd . It was about a huge metal bell that gets melted down over the years and changed into different things. So I think I’m interested in materials that have the ability to change form, for example how clay can go from being a liquid, and then it goes through a drying process and then becomes a solid. So in a way, the material stays the same but its physical properties and its physical appearance changes. To put simply, I guess I’m using that as an analogy for time and existence.
AB: Yes, you describe the transformation of clay in the text you wrote about the performance in terms of mortality and change.
IG: Yes, although I think when you write it down, I think it can seem a bit twee or obvious. But I think it’s about a period of time – so the meditation could be seen as a set time to reflect on things, and it doesn’t have to be about mortality or change. I am interested in what happens when you chose to sit somewhere and focus upon a particular activity. Which I guess in a way relates to what it’s like to be an artist, or a maker. When you’re in the studio working on drawings or making ceramics, there’s that time when you’re using material in an abstract way, and how that use of the material leads to reflection. And certainly, when I’m making my own work, I feel like my mind goes into a kind of wonderland. I use art-making to allow my mind to wander.
AB: Is this the first time one of your performances will involve other people who you don’t know, or haven’t worked with before?
IG: Yes. Which, I’m nervous about.
AB: And how do you expect it will go? I wonder why you decided to create this kind of invitation, and in turn give up a certain amount of control.
IG: I think I’m interested in the idea of opening up performance beyond the spectator and the performer, and seeing what happens when those two things become one. I’m not asking members of the public to become performers. Rather I’m immersing them in an experience. I’ve also been thinking a lot about the language that we use to describe art. So you could describe this work as an interactive piece, but for me I still want to think about it as a performance, rather than calling it interactive. Mainly because as I feel that the term performance suggests something more focused, perhaps? Whereas interaction to me seems to describe the Tate Turbine Hall, and works like Carsten Holler’s slides for example, which were amazing, and do I love this kind of work. But it’s not what I’m trying to do with this piece. Asking the viewer to enter the work is about blending the place where the art is happening. So for me, in this piece, the audience and the performer of the performance are the same thing, they’re in this dual relationship.
AB: Which is why you’ve created a specific set of conditions for the audience watching the performance, as ideally the performers are the audience as well. So the people painting the clay masks will be the audience of the work as well.
IG: Yes, so really there shouldn’t be an external audience to the piece, because it’s what happening inside, and also because it’s happening in silence, or at least without speaking. I feel that it’s very powerful, particularly when you’re paired up with someone you don’t know and you’re sitting opposite them and you’re looking them in the face, and they’re looking you in the face. I feel even if you’re doing that with someone you know really well, it’s still quite intense. And I’m also interested in how I think most of us have an ability to communicate beyond language. Often I feel like you can feel if someone you know is holding back from you, or also we’re quite animal, I think we can sense fear or other emotions.
AB: The Kettle’s Yard house will provide a unique setting for this performance, and you’ll also be using the piano in the space. How do you think this environment, with lots of modernist paintings to look at, or meditate in front of, will inform the experience of the work?
IG: I’m very excited about doing it in this room at Kettle’s Yard. Also going back to the idea of materials transforming, for me it seems very exciting to be presenting my artwork alongside other physical examples of art, particularly the sculptures in those rooms, which feel very relevant to me. Showing a performance alongside those works is kind of suggesting a kinship between art forms, and of this idea that the clay becomes solid on your face, so your face becomes sculpted, so I guess as the performance goes on, everything in the room, including the audience becomes a sculpture or an artwork. So it seems really exciting to me to be in a room full of art, and very relevant.
AB: What is the crossover between the performance and your film The Stone Balancer in the exhibition?
IG: I think that the relationship between The Stone Balancer and the clay mediation performance is about us exploring very simple materials. Adrian, the stone balancer in the film, is focusing on the task of balancing a stone, and that task is for him kind of a meditative process. The amount of concentration needed to balance one stone on top of another is a lot, but also it’s about calming himself, and finding that centre as well. I guess within all the ideas it’s very easy to drift off into spiritualism, or things like that, and I think it’s important to not to just settle with those ideas because it seems quite simplistic to make everything seem like it’s about that.
AB: So it evokes more than an idea of, or interest in spiritualism and mediation for you?
IG: I guess I was saying that as I feel like that’s a factor of the work, but also for me I’m very interested in the formal side of the work, both this idea of working with materials. And I always say that I’m kind of a frustrated sculptor. And certainly in the way that I work with film and performance, I very much think of film and performance-making as working with materials. Yes, I guess the relationships between the works is this idea of connecting with natural objects, as a way of processing that we are natural earth-bound things.
AB: It’s incredibly essential, really, the way you approach working with the base elements of material culture, to create situations that reveal how we engage with them, and also produce ourselves through them.
IG: I guess for me, I feel such a similarity between myself and those stones. There’s a point in that film when you see the stone being lifted up, and then the female acrobat gets lifted up at the same time. So there is that suggestion that her body is a similar to the body of the stone, and there’s something in me that feels very… I feel that they’re real, I feel like those stones, that they have a personality. I also I find them amazing as they must have seen so much. To think that the stone that Adrian is holding in the video, to think that is probably, or has to be, billons of years old and how amazing to think that it used to be inside a cliff, or also that, I don’t know, that a Velociraptor nibbled it, or a Polar Bear was born on it, and now a guy in Dorset is balancing it and the I’ve come in with my digital SLR and I’m filming it. And what will happen, where will that rock be in 1000 years time. Maybe it will be ground up into gravel and put on a drive, or maybe it will be lodged inside a building. I feel like that rock knows so much more than I’ll ever know.
from on .
ART IN THE EAST: A Panel Discussion, Saturday 16 March, 5-8pm, will be followed by Ian Giles’ participatory performance. The event if free to attend but booking is essential, please call . Find out more here.
As part of Thresholds the wonderful poet and writer Jackie Kay has been with us for a week getting to know the House and collection and leading writing workshops with a group of young people. She will be writing a new poem inspired by Kettle’s Yard which will be revealed in early May. A couple of weeks ago we had lunch together at the Punter – the nearest pub to Kettle’s Yard.
I have been reading her most recent poetry collection ‘Fiere’ (Picador Poetry). She put up with me enthusiastically chatting and asking about particular poems. I do think they are very special. They have a human warmth, a way of looking at the world and a beat that catches you and draws you in.
This is an extract from ‘Black River’. Jackie told me she was due to speak at a festival in Jamaica and stayed up to 3am the night before writing the poem. The next day she read it out to 2000 people who gave her a standing ovation as they clapped and cheered. It was a poem about their river.
‘Wherever we were, wherever we came from:
a black river running through our arteries,
a black river putting our hearts at ease,
a black river touching our skin like a lover,
a black river to remind us of our ancestors,
running through the swamps and secret marshes
when freedom was a belief the river rushes
passed along the dark water like a breeze.’
Jackie said she was loving spending time at Kettle’s Yard. ‘It incurs a new way of thinking‘ Even lunch looks different! Plaice with capers and raisins – an unusual combination. She has been sitting in the ‘Dancer Room‘ in the House, noticing the shadows the sculpture casts, reminding her of a Hitchcock movie.
Jackie will be back with us in a few weeks. Her reading is booked up but we will be live streaming the event – so you can still experience the evening, you will be able to find the live stream here on 14 March from 8pm. For regular Thresholds updates go to www.thresholds.org.uk .
~ Andrew Nairne
Outpost, from Norwich, will be the next artist-led space taking over the gallery for ‘Congratulations you are the most recent visitor’, 1 March – 14 April 2013. Gemma Melton is one of the artists who will be in the exhibition and here she tells us more about her work and what we can expect at Kettle’s Yard.
I studied Fine Art at Norwich University College of the Arts (2009-2012) and live and work in Suffolk. I make large installations by arranging material components into numerous and often infinite positions.
I use materials more commonly found on building sites, from bricks, wood, metal, rubber and steel to cardboard and plastic. The materials are used to address architecture in the everyday from construction sites to playgrounds.
The site-specific work that I am making for Kettle’s Yard uses colour as a form of decoration and disguise. I managed to acquire a huge box of inner tubes and tyres, making reference to the cycling in Cambridge. I then went out to change these using spray paint. Working with rubber is something I am familiar with having cast inner tubes from aluminum and using robust car tyres for a sculpture at The Forum in Norwich for Material Worlds, 2011.
For this exhibition I hope to utilize the courtyard space, touch on Cambridge as a location and draw on the house at Kettles Yard and the importance of the light and the arrangement of the furniture and objects within.
It is a privilege to have been asked to participate in this exhibition and I hope that the audience will find my work visually interesting as it is the shapes, materials and forms that I am concerned with. The work will undoubtedly deteriorate being outside for a long time. However this makes the work quite ephemeral and I am interested in this change.
Iain Paxon enthralled and enchanted his audience at the opening of Temporary Residence with his performance of Prince Volume in a packed Kettle’s Yard House. Last Friday Paxon returned again to perform Bird Boy, a fantastic tale of dark magic and misplaced love with musical accompaniment and slide projections, performed as part of The Practice Sessions …
Sequences of tiny silhouette drawings are enlarged by the clunky magic of the slide projector, bringing up close the cack-handed, stream-of-consciousness tale-telling of the writer. Accompanied by solo piano, songs and narration, these are two quietly epic stories of lost souls and social misfits: a prince without a palace in search of what might be; and a half-bird/half-boy destined for a life of exclusion. Come and watch for yourselves as they travel up and down the ladders of human emotion, conundrums unfolding, and perhaps learn a lesson from these unfortunate characters.
~ Iain Paxon
The Temporary Residence exhibition has now closed but you can find out more about Aid & Abet here. Let us know what you thought of the exhibition as we love to hear from you.
Why not also look back at our other ‘Artist in Focus’ post featuring the Temporary Residence artists.
The next Practice Sessions will be hosted by OUTPOST , an artist-run space from Norwich, alongside their exhibition ‘Congratulations you are the most recent visitor’, find out more here.
‘So Few People Look into Darkness and Find its Light’ is a site specific sound installation in the Courtyard outside Kettle’s Yard. Below Roseanna Greaves shares more about the work and highlights the key themes important in her work.
‘So Few People Look into Darkness and Find its Light’ brings together two texts. The first is taken from a government report warning of the potentially detrimental effects of shadow flicker; a common complaint made by people living near wind-farms that at certain times of day the position of the sun behind the turbine creates a flickering shadow. The second text takes extracts from Jim Ede’s writing on the way natural light floods and animates the architecture and objects of Kettle’s Yard House, with the inverse intention that the movement of light and shadow will create a harmonious aesthetic experience for the viewer. Key themes in my work are environmentalism, the deconstruction of language and slippages of meaning. I have been working with sound as the primary medium of my work for many years, considering both its sculptural and narrative potential.
~ Rosanna Greaves
www.rosannagreaves.com
Martyn Cross’ work present intriguing and fantastic dystopian portraits made from knitting patterns. The uncanny nature of these collages have struck a chord with the school groups coming for sessions at Kettle’s Yard. They have taken inspiration from his ‘vandalised’ knitting patterns and created there own (you can see the results here. ) Here are a few words by Martyn himself about his work.
Since 2007, I’ve been producing intricate paintings and collages of unique individuals populating an unnamed, yet strangely recognisable world. This dystopia was first investigated through various acts of vandalism – over-painted or collaging the utopian vision of knitting pattern images so that an alternate world emerged. My birth town of Yate in Gloucestershire has always acted as stimulus to the work: the boredom, the eccentrics and the quest to escape suburbia are all vital in producing an ‘assembly of the damned’.
~ Martyn Cross
www.yateheads.blogspot.co.uk
Follow Martyn on Twitter
Richard Proffitt’s Louisiana Blues, Anywhere has garnered much interest from visitors to our Temporary Residence exhibition, intrigued by the relic-like carcass of a moped with sheep skulls, branches, light bulbs and burnt cloth. Here Richard explains more about his work.
I am inspired by the histories and fiction that become attached to landscapes, objects and cultures. I am interested in hippie and punk sub-culture, ancient civilisations, wilderness, wastelands and docklands, travellers and drifters, post-apocalyptic fiction, and the art of indigenous people. Within my work, I aim to make connections and find resonance between these disparate subjects. My work is often realised as sculpture and installation, reminiscent of makeshift ceremonial relics and ritualistic hangouts that evoke hybrid cultures and belief systems.
~ Richard Proffitt
www.richardproffitt.co.uk
Sean Vicary’s work in the Temporary Residence show sits in a specially made alcove within Kettle’s Yard gallery. Take a moment to sit and watch this beautiful animation unfold through a 7th Century Welsh poem and a selection of found objects. Speaking about memory, language, landscape and belonging the film is really worth seeing in this intimate setting.
‘Lament’ draws on my own subjective experience of landscape, specifically the Wales/Shropshire border where I grew up. It was the death of my Father that prompted a return to my childhood home and a re-evaluation of these surroundings. The film combines bilingual fragments of spoken work, site specific recordings and elements of traditional music to achieve a dynamic synergy between sound and image. The oral source material is taken from sections of the 7th Century Welsh poem cycle, Canu Heledd. This particular lament describes the silence and ruin of Prince Cynddylan’s home after his death. My work is primarily concerned with ideas of internal and external ‘landscape’ and our increasingly politicised interaction with the ‘natural’ world. I use found objects and fragments of detritus to explore this relationship.
~ Sean Vicary
www.seanvicary.com
You can follow Sean on Twitter
You can hear Sean speak wonderfully about ‘Lament’ in an interview given to Flack Magazine at the opening of Temporary Residence. Listen here.
During the Temporary Residence exhibition Annabel Dover is working in the Kettle’s Yard House every Wednesday from 2-4pm. Annabel explores the social relationships that are mediated through objects. She has spent time in Kettle’s Yard exploring the house, its objects and intriguing stories. Annabel is also keeping a blog to accompany her residency, which you can read here. It is really fascinating to discover in her posts the connections and narratives she draws between the stories and objects from Jim and Helen Ede’s time at Kettle’s Yard and her own history and experiences – a really lovely read.
With Annabel often working in silverpoint here is what she says -
Silverpoint is a form of drawing that was popular in the 1400s. A silver stylus marks the gesso surface and creates an image. The drawing darkens as the silver tarnishes. My drawings focus on objects that have personal stories attached to them, real or imagined.
~ Annabel Dover
www.annabeldover.com
http://darkstarlit.blogspot.co.uk/
Follow Annabel on Twitter @CaptainPye
Lisa Wilkens is the second artist our Artist in Focus series, part of the Temporary Residence exhibition with Aid & Abet . Find out more about Lisa’s work below.
My work is fundamentally based in drawing with a particular interest in portraiture, its limitations and possibilities. Recently, I have developed a series of ‘prevented portraits’ dealing with the political aspects of recognition and resistance, identification and identity. I draw images on lithographic stones, based on historical photographs that I find online. Using old paper collected over the years, I take prints from these stones.
~ Lisa Wilkens
www.lisawilkens.com
You can follow Lisa’s blog here: http://www.lisawilkens.blogspot.co.uk/
Temporary Residence is on at Kettle’s Yard until 24 January 2013.
Find out more about Kevin Hunt’s sculpture which features in our current exhibition Temporary Residence until 24 February 2013.
I construct sculpture using found, redundant objects that often go unnoticed, particularly furniture that is reconfigured into increasingly minimal works, either balanced or propped precariously. Placed in fragile equilibrium, these structures are further destabilised through transformative processes such as burning and saturating in ink. By irreversibly altering these things and simultaneously raising their status to art, the work attempts to question what it is to be an object in the world and how it comes to exist as sculpture.
~ Kevin Hunt
www.kevin-hunt.co.uk
Follow Kevin on Twitter @sculptureartman
The last few days have been a feast of poetry for Kettle’s Yard. On Friday, the amazing poet Jackie Kay made her initial visit to us to plan her residency as part of the Thresholds project (each University of Cambridge Museum has a poet in residence for two weeks and will be running young people’s workshops and giving talks – go to www.thresholds.org.uk for more information). It was a total treat to show Jackie around the house and collection. As you would expect of a poet, her use of language to capture her first responses to the artworks and objects was thrilling. We are very much looking forward to hosting her during the half term in February and for a second week in March – she will be co-leading a young people’s project with artist Filipa Pereira-Stubbs.
On Monday night, I was lucky enough to attend the launch of Walking with Women – an evening of poetry readings by an incredibly talented group of poets. The Walking with Women tour was devised by Shape East’s Learning and Participation Coordinator, Hollie McNish, in association with poetry organisation Page to Performance . The tour aims to engage new audiences with the built environment by combining architecture, spoken word, illustration and history and provides an imaginative guide to the often-forgotten female tales locked within the city’s buildings and public spaces. Included in the tour is a fabulous poem about Helen Ede, written by Hollie. For more information click here . You will never look at the lemon the same way again…
~ Sarah Campbell
Temporary Residence opened on Friday 11 January with a packed gallery of visitors eager to get a first look at the exhibition and to see a performance of Prince Volume by artist, Iain Paxon.
The excitement and support in Cambridge for its flourishing art scene was noted by Ruthie Collins in her article in the Guardian , and indeed this fantastic opening event really reflected the support in Cambridge for its art spaces and especially toward such collaborative projects. The exhibition runs until 24 February 2013 and we have a great array of events programmed around it. Find out more here .
Temporary Residence is accompanied by a wonderful essay, ‘The Power of Artists’ by Chris Brown. You can pick up a copy at the exhibition or read it online here , AND for a sneak peek at the show you can see some exhibition shots on our Flickr page.
Join the conversation and tweet us your thoughts
Artist and co-founder of Aid & Abet, David Kefford, speaks about the artist run space in Cambridge and about plans for Temporary Residence at Kettle’s Yard.
You can find out more about Aid & Abet by visiting their website www.aidandabet.co.uk
I want to tell you about a new plan for Kettle’s Yard .
In 2011 we were awarded £2.32m by the Heritage Lottery Fund to create a much needed Education Wing for Kettle’s Yard. Trusts and Foundations and many individuals also very generously provided support. During 2012 we had to reschedule the building work due to technical difficulties. In this period we looked again at our options and decided that we could make further significant improvements to Kettle’s Yard – and that it would make sense to undertake a single, larger scheme which would fulfill all our ambitions.
The Education Wing will be a great enhancement, transforming our work with schools, groups and individuals. Our new plan is for the Education Wing to be complemented by beautifully designed, sustainable exhibition galleries and greatly improved services for visitors including a cafe on the ground floor.
How will this larger plan be paid for?
Arts Council England have a capital investment programme to which we can apply. Their fund is focused on the refurbishment of arts spaces undertaken in such a way as to increase financial resilience. I believe our plans would do exactly that. Grouped around the Kettle’s Yard House, which would not be altered, renewed galleries could attract the best artists to Cambridge and an entrance space and cafe will encourage greater community involvement. The design will enable us to welcome new visitors and increase earned income through the shop, cafe and hires. The funding we have already received and our aims for the project will increase the likelihood of success.
Our new capital target is £8m and we will be calling upon the further support and generosity of trusts, foundations and individuals in the coming years. We hope to be able to celebrate the end of the building programme and a renewed Kettle’s Yard by 2016, the fiftieth anniversary of the gift of the collection to the University of Cambridge.
While we develop the new plan we will continue to offer an exciting programme of exhibitions, concerts and educational activities. We are very much open!
I want to keep everyone who cares about Kettle’s Yard informed as the new plan progresses. We will have some drawings and images we can share in the new year. Thank you for your interest and support for what we do. It is greatly appreciated.
~ Andrew Nairne
Kettle’s Yard is delighted to be one of the eight museums that make up the University of Cambridge Museums (UCM) which is collectively an Arts Council England Major Partner Museum. We are one of sixteen museum services to have successfully bid in open competition for a share of £20m to be used between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2015. We have called the programme Connecting Collections to reflect the twin aspirations of connecting with our audiences, and connecting with each other across museums. There is a brand new UCM blog , with lots of news about Connecting Collections: http://camunivmuseums.wordpress.com/
We are very excited about two current projects in the Connecting Collections strand. Firstly, we can’t wait to start working with Jackie Kay, the poet assigned to Kettle’s Yard as part of Thresholds. Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate selected poets to work with each of the University of Cambridge Museums. Get to know more about Jackie Kay here where you can listen to an interview with her.
Keep up to date with the Thresholds project on the
website
which is growing all the time.
The second project we are developing at the moment is House Guests. The seven Directors of the other university museums have been invited to select a work from their collection in collaboration with Kettle’s Yard Artist Fellow Jeremy Millar . The objects will be displayed in the House at Kettle’s Yard from the end of March. As part of this project we are working with students from the Critical Writing Programme at the Royal College of Arts .
More details soon…
Did you miss curator Lizzie Fisher’s Lunchtime Talk on Winifred Nicholson? You can listen again here:
We broadcast all of our Lunchtime Talk series live on our website – visit www.kettlesyard.co.uk/live to find out more.
Over the summer a group of young people participated in the Kettle’s Yard youth programme as part of the plus tate learning network.
Working with artist Lyndall Phelps and assistant education officer Rosie O’Donovan, the group spent time in the gallery making artwork in response to objects, exhibits and other artists’ work. They made art collectively as well as working on their own pieces and ideas. The project culminated in a display of their work shown across the Kettle’s Yard site.
Over the six sessions, the group interviewed Kettle’s Yard Director Andrew Nairne, met Curator Lizzie Fisher and had a crit with exhibiting artist Matthew Darbyshire as well as visit Wysing Arts Centre to meet their young people’s group at the Wysing Music Festival.
Throughout the programme, the group’s feedback, comments and preferences shaped the way the programme progressed and their thinking will help Kettle’s Yard staff shape future programming for young people.
The Kettle’s Yard team want to keep the group going and have put a few more dates in the diary for young people, aged 14-18, to meet and make art. If you, or someone you know, thinks they might like to join the group or wants more information, please get in touch:
Rosie O’Donovan
Upcoming dates:
Saturday 13 October 1-4pm
Saturday 17 November 1-4pm
Saturday 15 December 1-4pm
For 14-18 year old only
Booking essential
Did you miss Lorna Macintyre in conversation with curator Lizzie Fisher? You can watch it again here.
The talk was streamed live on our
website
and
www.thisistomorrow.info
You can watch or listen to more of our past talks at
www.kettlesyard.co.uk/live
GH
It’s the first
CASTLE HILL OPEN DAY
! Saturday 22 September, 2012, 12-5pm, all day free event
CAMBRIDGE & COUNTY FOLK MUSEUM
CASTLE MOUND
KETTLE’S YARD
ST GILES’ CHURCH
ST PETER’S CHURCH
Highlights include free entry to all attractions, free family friendly talks, tours and activities led by some of the best local experts, music and the unveiling of a blue plaque for Jim Ede, founder of Kettle’s Yard by the Deputy Mayor of Cambridge.
Five historic and cultural venues in the unique Castle Hill area of Cambridge are joining forces to present the first ever Castle Hill Open Day. Packed with activities, talks, tours, music, family drop in activities, refreshments and picnic areas. There is something for everyone to enjoy. The day will culminate in the unveiling of a Blue Plaque for Jim Ede, founder of Kettle’s Yard by Deputy Mayor Councillor Paul Saunders.
All venues will be free to visit for the day including the two unique collections at the Folk Museum (normally has an admission fee) and Kettle’s Yard, the historic church of St Peter’s with an art installation by Lorna Macintyre, St Giles’ Church and Castle Mound.
Andrew Nairne, Director of Kettle’s Yard said
Castle Hill is a beautiful and historic part of Cambridge. We are delighted, alongside our partners at the Folk Museum, St Peter’s and St Giles’ churches and Castle Mound, to present the first ever Castle Hill Open Day. By opening our doors to all we hope to welcome in new visitors as well as old friends. From music to contemporary art and Roman Cambridge to social history there’s a rich variety of attractions and events on offer. We hope whole families will come and spend the day here – bring a picnic (we have a wet weather option!), explore the venues and collections and enjoy everything on offer. We want to celebrate the variety of history, heritage and art in this corner of the city – please come and join us.
History:
The Castle Hill area of Cambridge is where the city began in Roman times. The Roman city of Duroliponte was located in this area and there is even evidence of some pre-Roman activity. The 17th Century timber framedbuilding that contains the wonderful and varied collections of the Folk Museum is next to Kettle’s Yard, itself a beautiful building that houses one of the UK’s most remarkable collections of 20th century art. Opposite Kettle’s Yard is St Peter’s, a simple, tiny church with an elegant spire. Originally built in the 11th Century and with Roman tiles in its walls, it is now cared for by the
Churches Conservation Trust
. On the other side of Castle Street is St Giles’ an active church with a history going back to 1092. A short walk up the road is Castle Mound, the site of Cambridge Castle which played an important role in the Civil War, refortified by Oliver Cromwell in 1642. It is now cared for by Cambridgeshire County Council. Returning to the present day, the Folk Museum and Kettle’s Yard run lively programmes of events relating to social history and to contemporary and modern art.
On the day:
Events will run throughout the day with both timed and drop in activities. The Open Day will begin with an opening prayer in St Peter’s Church by Reverend Dr Janet Bunker and music by Clare Finnimore, principal violist of
Britten Sinfonia
.
Confirmed events include the following.
Allan Brigham
, famous local historian, Blue Badge Guide and former road sweeper will give tours of the area and up Castle Mound. Peter Aiers, Head of Regeneration at the
Churches Conservation Trust
and Honor Ridout, Blue Badge Guide and local historian will speak about
St Peter’s Church
. Roman Cambridge will be explored in talks by Alison Dickens of the
Cambridge Archaeological Unit
, Cambridge University. There will be a variety of drop-in family activities led by artists from Irregular Circle. The archivist at Kettle’s Yard, Dr Claire Daunton will be on hand in the house with a selection of letters from the
archive
for visitors to look at. Artist Lorna Macintyre whose work Nocturne is currently on display in St Peter’s Church will be in conversation with Kettle’s Yard curator Lizzie Fisher.
Editors Notes
In the evening:
Unveiling of a Blue Plaque for Jim Ede, founder of Kettle’s Yard From 5.45pm – short speeches by John Durrant, Chairman of the Cambridge Blue Plaque Committee and Duncan Robinson, Master of Magdalene College, Chairman of the Folk Museum and friend of Jim Ede. Deputy Mayor, Cllr Paul Saunders will unveil the plaque.
The full schedule will be available here: http://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/openday/
The Open Day is supported by
Tees Solicitors
.
For images, to arrange interviews and for further information please contact Susie Biller,
, tel
Watch Associate Artist Matei Bejenaru speak about preparations for his work currently on show at Kettle’s Yard, in the gallery until 23 September, plus plans for future projects.
GH
Every year, Kettle’s Yard joins up with Centre 33 Young Carers’ Project and at least two other University of Cambridge museums to deliver a series of workshops to a self-selecting group of young people.
This year, we worked with the Museum of Zoology and the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology (both veterans of previous young carers’ art projects). Artist Bethany Mitchell led an intensive four days of creative workshops with a dedicated group of budding artists.
We explored all three collections, getting an introduction from the education staff at each place. The theme of scale was the springboard for a series of making activities – using wire, string, stickers and cellophane. We sketched, took notes and photographed as part of our examination of the selected objects.
We took our collected notes and ideas into the education room at Kettle’s Yard and created wire and paper sculptures, mashing up what we had seen over the previous couple of days to create a Museum of the Imagination. Everyone wrote an extended label for their artwork, providing an imaginative title, date, location and description. ‘Timmy’, for example, is part-man, part-whale (Homo-orcious) and has been extinct for millions of years. The description for Timmy reads: They had gold 45 million years ago. Went extinct because they were over confident.
The Museum of the Imagination is a surprising, creative, funny exhibition that is touring all three venues – come see it for yourself.
Exhibition dates:
Kettle’s Yard
(1 – 9 Sept),
Museum of Zoology
(11 – 16 Sept) and
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
(18 – 23 Sept).
Watch Associate Artist Lorna Macintyre speak about preparations for her work currently on show at Kettle’s Yard, in the gallery until 23 September.
GH
Matthew Darbyshire speaks about his preparations for the Associate Artists show at Kettle’s Yard. See his work alongside Matei Bejenaru, Lorna Macintyre and Jeremy Millar in the gallery until 23 September 2012.
GH
‘On Becoming’ was filmed throughout the 2012 Spring Term of Wednesday Club. The final film provided a backdrop to a live performance for friends and family during the end of term session. The group looked at the sculptures and drawings of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and took inspiration to make works that transformed people into animals.
A big thank you to artists Alex Hirtzel & Filipa Pereira-Stubbs and all the keen Wednesday Club participants. You can see a short taster version of the film as well as the extended version below.
from on .
from on .
