Jamboree-Artist & Curator Event 2018

Taking part in Jamboree has made me re-evaluate how I have worked on past projects and inspired me to research and discover new artists and curators.

It has been especially interesting to be able to see so many different artists work from across the country through the 20:20 talks and of course through  meeting different people over the 3-day event.

Some artists that I really enjoyed their talks were Antigoni Pasidi who created these evocative sand sculptures and really interesting installation/tableaux of works. Her talk mentioned that she had studios at Karst in Plymouth, which a few artists had mentioned for exhibitions and studios alike somewhere to make a visit when I’m next in the South West.

Sabrina Fuller 

Subsequently having met and chatted with Sabrina and then heard her talk I was really intrigued by her work and how much it chimed with a project I have been trying to develop over the last year, it’s nice when serendipity brings you all together.

Back to spaces and places and CAST 

this is a really interesting space and curatorial organisation based in Helston. There are studio spaces in a former school building and then born out of this have been international projects called Groundwork commissioning site-specific work in Cornwall in partnership with Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange. Some extremely inspiring events and projects have taken place over the last 5 years, using the rural and  landscape to create some extraordinary works.

I was delighted to be able to make a visit to Manchester and catch the work of Alice Kettle who I have worked with together on the Unravelled curatorial project working with historic houses and the National Trust.

Her new work is epic and monumental in scale, she has worked with a number of refugee groups to help contribute to these beautiful textiles pieces ‘Thread Bearing Witness‘ is deeply moving and manages to engage sensitively with such a pressing topic at the moment.

The bursary and attending Jamboree 2018 has allowed me to make new connections and research other ways of working, drawing inspiration from around the UK.

I took part in this walk and talk led by Katrina Brown on the last day of the event. The lucky spell of amazing weather dissipated and it was a very wet event. However it was still a rather magical experience to connect collectively through movement and being aware to our surroundings.

I was really intrigued to see what shape the walk and talk would take, I had seen a performance by Katrina as part of a Draw to Perform event in Brighton, where she was the sole performer, using her body to ‘draw’ within the space.

Her walk and talk ‘On gravity, rhythm and (dis)orientation’ began with

Whilst walking, I am curious to discuss how we think we are orientating our bodies and selves in relation to the ground, to the things around us, to sound and to each other – how do we understand our verticality in relation to the gravitational pull of the ground, the rhythm of our steps, swinging arms, breathing. This Walk & Talk is a way of getting to talk about what disorientates us, pulls us off our axis, catches our breath. A walk that talks around the physics and perception of standing in the world – and unexpected sensations of disorientation. For more info on Karina’s work see the link:

http://katrinabrown.net

Collaborative Making

Taking part in Jamboree 2018 allowed me to be part of the main event, as both participant and observer. Workshops such as Lucy Steggals and the crochet session to work in lines or circles and how this then became a performative and reflective space at the same time.

Thinking through making and involving other people and communities has been an aspect of my work over the last few years through different commissions and site-specific projects. The connection between places and people has often been through the use of making, bringing different materials into place as a way of realizing an idea but also creating a new story and history of the place.

An example of this was a commission with Metal in Peterborough http://www.metalculture.com  based on the theme of Harvest http://caitlinheffernan.co.uk/portfolio/harvest-wain-procession-female-diamond-portraits/, inspired by folklore and past rituals, our connections to the land and food production. I used the local Saint Peter’s Cathedral ceiling and its diamond-shaped medieval bosses as inspiration to create portraits celebrating women and their role in Harvest production, which were then sewn into a series of processional cloths and capes that celebrated women. These were then paraded by local women during the Harvest Wain procession through central Peterborough.

Further symbolic imagery relating to the seasonal fruits, flowers and ‘God’s eyes’ (a pagan symbol of the elements and fertility) were embedded within each symbolic cape and were produced in collaboration with local craft collective, Handmade in Peterborough, and the Women’s Institute over several months via events and workshops. Collectively we all worked with a choreographer who brought together the different groups to create the procession.

Central to the work was the amazing contributions and participation of the craft collective, Handmade in Peterborough who were completely on board and gave a 100% in particular the poet Keely Mills and of course the Women’s Institute who got lots of people on board.

The Jamboree Event has highlighted the fantastic range of artists working across disciplines working to involve and include people.

Jamboree 2018 was a gathering of artists and curators at Dartington Estate near Totnes at the end of June. We were blessed with an incredible site and amazing weather, which was especially welcome when taking part in the many walks and talks and making sessions.

The organisers: LOW PROFILE is a collaboration between artists Rachel Dobbs (IRL) and Hannah Rose (nee Jones) (UK). They have been working in collaboration since 2003 and are based in Plymouth.

Artists arrived from all across the UK, me Brighton, many others from Manchester, Birmingham, Cambridge, Cornwall, Exeter, London and more places I’m sure. Having unpacked and set up tents-not always so easy…I headed to the main site for the introduction in the late afternoon and to meet all the other artists and collect a programme for the next few days.

Rachel and Hannah introduced themselves and welcomed us all to the event. It was inspiring to hear how they had maintained their practice by initiating their own residencies and projects to keep things moving along, and of course the Jamboree event to get 150 of us together was no mean feat.

There was an impressive line up of  lead speakers who gave a snapshot of their talks that evening with the idea that we could sign up to a more in depth seminar and discussion with them the following morning. Speakers included Alistair Hudson, Director of Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth, Lucy Day, Founder Director & Curator at A Woman’s Place Project, Sonya Dyer an artist, writer and occasional curator from London, Simon Morrissey the Director of Foreground and Ingrid Swenson the director of PEER, London.

I signed up to hear Alistair Hudson, who was fairly newly appointed to the role of Director at Manchester Gallery and the Whitworth. His approach could be thought to be against lots of what the museum and gallery stands for in his approach for commissioning and working with artists that don’t produce objects but create socially engaged projects.

He is an advocate of social making, placing the community and art together and spoke about the really inspiring Arte Útil project and movement that he had been part of the initial development and set up, along with artist Tania Bruguera and curators from international institutions. The ‘social making’ projects and examples included artists such as Theatre Gates and his involvement in working with communities directly.

There were ethical dilemmas too that came up, in reference to Assemble and when there could be the perception of value, where the ‘art’ lies and the commodification of projects such as Assemble and the residents in Liverpool. I think this can be challenging with projects and commissions, especially when as an artist you are creating projects that utilise people and their stories. It is something that can be difficult to balance between demands of the commission and what you would like to create as an artist and then the communities involved directly with the work.

Across the rest of the 2 days artists who came along to the event could also propose making sessions, walks and talks and also take part in the 20/20 talks. I thought this was an ingenious way of really embedding all of the artists within the programme.

I took part in Lucy Steggals communal making session, after all the intense thinking, discussion, debate and meeting new people it was really lovely to do something with your hands! We were shown how to crochet using your fingers and then had a 1 hour silent making session. The idea was to think of lines whilst making and keep going, we then wrapped them around ourselves at the end with the help of fellow participants!

There were a number of walks and talks which you could sign up for, or just tag along. This format worked well in experiencing the estate of Dartington and getting away from a sit-down seminar and conference experience, it allowed informal chats in between the walk and was a great way to find out more about people’s work.

Themes around power structures, artists and institutions came up, as well as about working in your home town/city and how easy or difficult that was in terms of establishing your practice. For many artists, me included, it has been really difficult to have nearby commissions or paid work for my practice despite being in a place where there were lots of artists, arts activities, but perhaps that’s the reason.

It was inspiring to see how artists overcame this and worked around the problem too.

All whilst the different events and communal making sessions were running, were the 20/20 talks. All artists attending could present their work, 20 slides over 20 minutes. Quite a tricky format to get right…for me anyway, however, I really enjoyed being able to see and hear about different artists work. It gave a snapshot which was inspiring to experience.

The Jamboree event has been a great resource for me to learn new things, connect with artists, especially after the event and using instagram to follow more artists around the UK, has been really useful.

I’ve been able to share my experience of Jamboree with artists at an informal meet up and encouraged artists to sign up for Jamboree 2020!

A huge thank you to Rachel and Hannah from Low Profile and of course a-n and the bursary scheme. It has given me confidence and allowed me to take part in this artist event which otherwise with commitments and travel involved would have been really challenging. It gave me the space to see the context of how other artists are navigating working in site-specific, community based projects, as well as find out about other spaces in the UK supporting artists development and projects.

https://archive.artistsjamboree.uk