Mapping Methodologies workshop at Allotment Soup, part of Extreme Views: Armchair Walks, Owen Griffiths

 

Extreme Views: Food, futures & biodiversity

Art Gene are delighted to announce the artists in residence who will be visiting Barrow-in-Furness for Extreme Views: Food, futures & biodiversity.

Lead artist Owen Griffiths, will be joined by Dana Olărescu, Sam Ayre and Rhine Bernardino for a 2 week collaborative residency, based at Art Gene’s Allotment Soup: Isle of Walney Community Growing Space, with Art Gene’s Artist/Directors Maddi Nicholson and Stuart Bastik.

The 2 week programme coincides with COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference hosted in Glasgow. We hope artists will respond to this occasion, to investigate how artists can engage with, and affect meaningful and urgent change in how we use and relate to our climate.

On Saturday 13^th November, we invite you to join us to meet with artists, view artwork created through the residency, hear from speakers on climate and environment and share food around the bonfire.

Poster artwork by Sam Ayre

 

Food, Futures & Biodiversity – Artworks, talks & tours in the outdoors

Saturday 13th November 2021 – 1 – 8pm

At Allotment Soup: the Isle of Walney Community Growing Space, Mill Lane, Walney Island, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, LA14 3XX

All welcome, for all ages, FREE.

RSVP by Friday 12th November to Anna at events [at] art-gene.co.uk or 07563 783 522.

From 1pm: Allotment soup – artwork – climate talks – cooking demos – climate therapy – coffee – cake – conversation – and more…

From 6pm: Hot food – talks – bonfire… 

Info

This event is OUTDOORS, so please DRESS FOR THE WEATHER with warm, waterproof clothing and sturdy shoes. 

Bring a TORCH for the evening, and you might like to bring a blanket too. 

Please BRING YOUR OWN CUP, and mug, bowl, plate and cutlery to reduce waste from this event. 

Parking is limited, so please think about TRAVELLING BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT or WALKING if you can! 

The site is partially accessible. For any questions get in touch with Anna on events [at] art-gene.co.uk or 07564 783 522. 

Find COVID-19 information about the event below.

 

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Artists in residence

 

Owen Griffiths – Lead Artist

Owen Griffiths is an artist, workshop leader and facilitator living and working in Wales. Using participatory and collaborative processes, his socially engaged practice explores the possibilities of art to create new frameworks and resources. This takes many forms, including events, rituals, dialogues, making gardens, codesigning spaces, curating events and cooking feasts. Griffiths explores climate, landscape, urbanism, social justice, food systems and pedagogy, creating projects and events that prepare us for the work of the future.

In 2020 Griffiths founded Ways of Working, a social enterprise in order to work in ways he feels are urgent. Griffiths graduated from the School of Walls and Space at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and is a member of the Social Sculpture Research Unit at Oxford Brookes University.

www.aboutreconnection.com

Owen writes:

“What is it to live, work, parent, care and be part of a community in a time of climate collapse? How can we model and articulate ways of working with hope whilst taking responsibility for the ongoing colonisation of land and the labour of others? How can we become good ancestors working for future generations, and not as the philosopher Roman Krznarick states, ‘colonise the future’ ?”   Read more

Owen Griffiths, 2021

Dana Olărescu

Dana Olărescu is a socially engaged artist with a focus on challenging minority exclusion and environmental injustice. Through participatory methodologies that democratise access to art and knowledge, she aims to give agency to underserved migrant groups so they can become active co-producers of culture.

Most recently, she has co-designed and built a low-impact straw bale classroom with young asylum seekers at May Project Gardens, London, and engaged with residents affected by West Burton A power station’s decommission in Gainsborough, as part of the ‘Decommissioning the Twentieth Century’ investigation run by Keele University.

Her projects have been presented at British art institutions including Tate Modern, London Short Film Festival, Low Carbon Design Institute, and Incheon Art Platform in South Korea, among others.

www.danaolarescu.com

Sam Ayre

Rhine Bernardino

Rhine Bernardino is an artist, independent curator and researcher, with a background in filmmaking. They hold a Bachelor’s Degree in Film and Audio Visual Communication from the University of the Philippines (Diliman) and MA Fine Art (Sculpture) from the Royal College of Art, for which they were awarded the highly-regarded Abraaj-RCA Innovation Scholarship.

Rhine has curated and exhibited artwork internationally, most recently as part of the Australia Arts Council’s Future Leaders Programme, and Office of Contemporary Art (OCA) Norway’s International Visitors Programme.

Their work includes extensive field research and mapping of art collectives, alternative spaces and community-based projects across the globe. Through this work, they’ve been looking at a myriad of possibilities of working with communities through art practice, in driving societal change and highlighting the marginalised voices of communities and societies.

They further extend their art practice through  _inventory, a collaboration-based platform that showcases artists’ works, while supporting the co-creation of programmes to engage communities in urban and rural contexts.

www.inventoryplatform.org

Bapor Tabo(o)’, Rhine Bernardino & _inventory Platform for ArtLicks Weekend, 2017. Photo: Giulia Brescianini.

 

The residency will extend Art Gene’s current programme Extreme Views, to explore the pressing issues impacting on local people, place and biodiversity as we step out into the new normal.

Allotment Soup is Art Gene’s long-term project to create the Isle of Walney Community Growing Space. More than an allotment the design of the site, interventions and actions are about growing food, habitats, new ideas and people. The field is a site for play and social connection but also for environmental activism and strategic re-wilding of both local habitats and people. The site is partially accessible. Read more about Allotment Soup.

Find us on Mill Lane, Walney Island, Barrow-in-Furness, LA14 3XX, or search for Allotment Soup on Google Maps. Look for a black and white sign, opposite Walney Fire Station.

 

From left: Board of Art (2021), Sidley Tourist Board (2021),Taking Care of Business As Usual (2021), Sam Ayre. 

 

COVID-19

Art Gene takes seriously our responsibility to ensure a safe environment for our staff, artists and volunteers. This event will be held predominantly outdoors, and in well ventilated poly tunnels.

The event will be made as COVID safe as possible, including track & trace, social distancing and regular hand sanitising. If yourself or a member of your household has been in close contact with an infected person, or is displaying symptoms of COVID-19 please do not attend the event.

 

 

Supported by Arts Counci England Project Grants

 

 

 

Natural building project, May Project Gardens, Dana Olarescu & Paulina Sidhom, 2020 ©Connor Rankin.