Volcanic Rocks, Rachel Pimm, Artist and Armchair Walks 2 speaker. Image courtesy of the artist

 

Inside & Outside

Art Gene’s Spring 2021 Programme

 

Art Gene is pleased to announce an exciting online programme for Spring 2021, with a series of online exhibitions, expert led workshops and international speakers. 

With a focus on food, futures and biodiversity, artists respond creatively to our environment – from investigating the underappreciated aspects of our civic landscape, exploring personal connection to the land, mushrooms as a symbol for resistance, and the significance/ insignificance of a dried grape in Digital Notes.

Extreme Views artist in residence Owen Griffiths invites us to explore methods and processes of working in and with landscape with some amazing contributors in Armchair Walks 2 – Reading Landscape. Art Gene’s long term project Allotment Soup: the Isle of Walney Community Growing Space springs to it with a series of 6 expert led Ecological Design Workshops, supported by our partner Oakmere Homes.

 

Armchair Walks 2

Reading Landscape

ONLINE & OFFLINE

May – June 2021

Armchair Walks 2 – Reading Landscape, artwork by Owen Griffiths using pigment sourced from Barrow-in-Furness

 

Continuing 2020’s programme of online walks and talks set within the ‘extreme’ landscape of Barrow-in-Furness, this second season will explore methods and processes of working in and with landscape with some amazing contributors. 

Join Artist in Residence Owen Griffiths and invited guest speakers from the fields of architecture, activism and art, as we further explore landscapes in flux, from the civic to the post-industrial, and how together we can understand and protect our green spaces.

We hope you will join us for all three chapters, drawing on the insights shared through presentations to build a working group for Barrow-in-Furness, imagining how we can move forward with care, paying attention to and protecting local habitats, knowledge and resources. SPEAKERS, FULL INFO & BOOKING.

 

Digital Notes

On food, futures & biodiversity

ONLINE EXHIBITIONS

April – May 2021

Above: Digital Notes, curated by Sophie Lindsey

 

Digital Artist-Curator Sophie Lindsey presents the latest series for Art Gene’s online exhibition space, Digital U. 

Digital Notes, explores themes of food, futures and biodiversity, ​while looking at note making as a method, practice, and process, a starting point to plan and collect knowledge before taking action. Sophie’s playful ethos will explore how we relate both digitally and physically to online spaces, and to consider how we create remote, meaningful connections through digital platforms.

Through a series of webpages, live events and interventions, ​Digital Notes ​will share work/research from: ​Sebastián Calfuqueo,​​ Amanda Gatti ​ & Gustiele Fistaról, James Scott,​ and ​Ashley Yuqi Zhang​ & H​ua Zhang, ​along with notes from your curator, Sophie Lindsey. Exhibitions go live on Monday 5^thApril 2021.

 

 

Sebastián Calfuqueo –  Mapu Kufüll, an animated story that focuses on the cosmological perspective of the Mapuche people in relation to mushroom picking.

Amanda Gatti ​+ Gustiele Fistaról – Fronteiras: Território de Rupturas, a collaborative research project that investigates borders and how they relate to the body.

James Scott – raisin_things, an ongoing project centred around an interactive website that investigates all things raisin…

Ashley Yuqi Zhang​ + H​ua Zhang – Drawing with wind, a collaborative project exploring the intersection between human, nature and technology through bringing together a robotic drawing board, live weather data and abstract drawing.

 

 

5 April  –  Exhibitions go live!

8 April, 7pm  –  Shorts Screening,  3 short video works by Amanda Gatti ​+ Gustiele Fistaról, ​Ashley Yuqi Zhang​ + H​ua Zhang, and Sebastián Calfuqueo

14 April  –  Raisin Mindfulness on Instagram live, as part of James Scott’s raisin_things

Elements from the exhibitions, and wider projects will be shared across our digital platforms, so make sure you follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

 

VISIT EXHIBITIONS NOW

 

Allotment Soup Spring to it

ALLOTMENT SOUP: THE ISLE OF WALNEY COMMUNITY GROWING SPACE

April – June 2021

August’s Hugel Mound workshop at Allotment Soup, photo Anna Litchfield

We’re excited to be starting Spring at Allotment Soup: the Isle of Walney Community Growing Space with Dr Vincent Walsh, Art Gene’s Ecological Designer, with a week packed with action. 

Join Vincent to learn about and create systems which will use ecological design principles to increase soil quality, biodiversity, grow organically and support sustainable development of the site for the future. Recent developments on site have included 2 Hugel mounds, a new 6 tier composting system, and vermiculture. A focussed week in April will continue this work, laying the groundwork for a forest garden and preparing for a series of 6 Ecological Design workshops.

Ground Works –  2nd – 9^th April 2021

Vincent’s developing the forest garden area, if you can help with physical work to lay the ground works over 3^rd– 9^th April (Easter weekend) please get in touch. FULL DETAILS & EVENTS

Ecological Design Workshops

These workshops will introduce you to a range of ecological interventions which will promote sustainability, build resilience and encourage biodiversity. This series has been supported by Oakmere Homes, who are working with Art Gene to encourage native wildlife and flora back to areas around Barrow.

6 workshops between April – June 2021 will focus on composting, biological pathways, Hugel mounds and more. BOOKING ESSENTIAL 

Saturday 10th April  – Composting – Creating Feedback Loops

Saturday 24^th April – Pathways – Building Ecological Networks

Saturday 8^th May  – Edges – Diversity Popping

Saturday 22^nd May  – Swale – Creating Life

Saturday 5^th June  – Forest Gardening – Mimicking Nature

Saturday 19th June 2021 – Hugel Mound – Push Fertility

FULL EVENT DETAILS & BOOKING