This week I visited to the “Fieldworks: Co-researching Self-organised Culture” exhibition at Gallery II, at Bradford University http://www.brad.ac.uk/gallery/whats-on/spring-summ…
The exhibition, a joint project by Andy Abbott and Caroline Hick, Fellows in Art at the University of Bradford, explores the question“Should art and music just entertain us or can it also be used to change the world?” through artistic research in their respective practices. Drawing together their curatorial and programming work as Fellow in Visual Arts and Fellow in Music respectively, the exhibition explores the fellowships and what they achieved. As both Caroline and Andy are two of my three Re:view artists, and both engaged in social and collaborative practices in different ways, I was very interested in seeing the exhibition. I know quite a bit about each of their work, but it was fascinating to see a survey of their joint activities in one site. A large printed interview on one wall asked Caroline and Andy questions about their work and approaches; much of what both of them said about life, and art resonated with me; Andy talked about the experience of life as a ‘a collective, open-ended experiment’ and Caroline talked about art and culture being “a powerful vehicle to tell previously unheard stories and have the capacity to present these experiences on many levels; from deeply personal to overtly political”
Looking at and reading documentation and artwork, an hour flew by and I didn’t even get through half of the exhibition. There was a lot to engage with in the documentation for Change Spaces (http://www.brad.ac.uk/gallery/whats-on/spring-summ…) a project from 2012 working across departments at the University responding to ideas around conflict transformation. Caroline commissioned artist Sorrel Muggridge to gather and develop work around these ideas in collaboration with members of Bradford University staff Lisa Cumming (Programme for a Peaceful City, School of Social and International Studies) and David Robison(Senior Lecturer; mobile content, new media and narrative, Bradford Media School). From this process Sorrel created an experimental, interactive installation which involved rope making as a metaphor for the experience of peace building and conflict transformation.
As well as the emotive presence of the ropes as physical evidence of collaborative participation (“You can’t make rope on your own” Caroline comments in the exhibition information), on a shelf next to the ropes there were print outs of email conversations between Sorrel, Lisa, David and Caroline which gave an insight into the processes and thinking behind the project. As well as this, a print out of an excellent blog about a visit to the original exhibition by Irna Qureshi, describing her experience of making rope with her mother and her young daughter as ‘visceral and remarkably therapeutic’ , gave a flavour of the emotional impact of making the rope. http://theculturevulture.co.uk/blog/all/the-art-of-making-rope/ I’m sorry now that I didn’t have an opportunity to see and take part in this exhibition last year, but very glad now to have this second chance to engage with the work and processes behind it.
Also displayed was work and documentation from another project commissioned and curated by Caroline: NO LIMITS | Re-imagining Life with Dementia
“A first-ever national touring exhibition of work which aims to develop an aesthetic of dementia activism. Developed in partnership with men and women with dementia and in collaboration with artist Shaeron Caton-Rose and filmmaker Anne Milne, it explores the individual and collective strength of people living with this condition. The exhibition brings to life ideas around community, empowerment, and friendship”
http://www.bradford.ac.uk/gallery/whats-on/autumn-2011/No-Limits-Re-Imagining-Life-With-Dementia/
This project completely blew my mind – particularly Anne Milne’s film ‘Agnes and Nancy’: The courage, humour and honesty shown by Agnes and Nancy, as they talked about living with dementia, while chopping wood, and making dinner at Nancy’s house in The Black Isle was extremely powerful. What women. The film showed their strength, not their illness https://vimeo.com/32903503.
In creatively engaging marginalized people in a genuinely equitable and empowering ways, telling untold stories and challenging dominant narratives, Caroline has brought into being a very powerful and radical piece of work. I have huge respect for her and feel very fortunate to have the opportunity through the Re:view bursary, to be talking to her about my own work.
