In the fine tradition of calling your debut show 'a retrospective' Lucy Adams is holding a one week exhibition in an empty shop in Bristol's Broadwalk Shopping Centre.
Yesterday I had a lovely day with a visit from Kirsty and a trip to Uphill Quarry where I had arranged to meet with artists who were interested in taking part in an event there that I am organising in September. Weston has two quarries, and the old Town Quarry is the one where pretty much everyone headed to for the meeting, until I pointed out that we were going to the other one. This highlighted the fact to me that when we come to the event we really need to make sure that people know where we are!
We took some time to investigate the space and stake our claims on patches of ground- the event will take place over one day (September 12th) so all things are liable to change, but I wanted to make sure people had visited the space and didn't just turn up on the day with work that wasn't going to fit in. One or two people revised their ideas whilst we were there- the wind and the noise from the boat yard were an ever present element and several of us felt our work would need to encompass.
Whilst we were at the site I started to consider what I would be bringing to the space- up until now it's all been about rounding up other people, but sat in the Quarry I started to visualise myself working there and creating something. At the moment I am buzzing with thoughts of dens made from tableclothes, knitting, sound recordings, and lantern shows...it will be interesting to see what of this comes to pass.
I am still looking for participants in the event so if you are interested, or know of anyone that might be, please get in touch.
And I have to share this link I found today after following a trail from the newly revived Sew Green blog: Ghost Town Farm is Novella Carpenter's blog all about her back yard farm. If anyone could get me to start eating meat again it's this girl- I love the fact she is growing her own veg and animals in her back yard, all in Oakland, a place I have a strange fondness for.
TWO OCEANS AQUARIUM TO HOST “DEEP” - A NIGHT OF WORDS, ART, MUSIC AND FILM
On Thursday 30 July 2009 the Two Oceans Aquarium, in collaboration with the UCT Writers Series, will present DEEP: A Night of Creative Currents featuring Sharks, Poets and other Endangered Species.
Writers and poets have been inspired to speak and write in celebration and defense of the oceans. In today's rushed world there are fewer and fewer places available for contemplation and creativity, especially in cities. Just as our creative spaces and practitioners are under threat, so too are our oceans and their creatures. DEEP is an opportunity to celebrate the oceans and some of South Africa’s most creative artists.
Central to DEEP is the launch of Hyphen, a debut collection of poems by Tania van Schalkwyk, which is published by the UCT Writers Series. Included in this collection are a number of poems inspired by the sea including Siren Song, Abyss, Lionfish and Water. Lindsey Collen, author of The Rape of Sita, Mutiny and Boy, and twice winner of the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, Africa, said, “Tania van Schalkwyk’s poems are warm, sensuous memories that often shock and surprise at the same time … They are not just on inner space, but are poems of place, as they move from islands to the veld, from cities to the desert”. No stranger to the Aquarium, having assisted with the launch of Shoreline Café, van Schalkwyk also curated DEEP in collaboration with Michelle Matthews of Electric Book Works.
The launch of Hyphen will be supported by a collection of three minute sea-inspired flash readings and performances by select poets and writers, including Gus Ferguson, Justin Fox, Sarah Lotz, Helen Moffett, Malika Lueen Ndlovu, Henrietta Rose-Innes and a collaborative piece by Toni Stuart, Michael Mwila Mambwe & James Jamala Safari. The MC for the evening is the inimitable Suzy Bell; writer, columnist and pop culture aficionado.
The evening will also feature seven short films including three from the City Breath Project – Waitless, The Electrician and Omdat ek die stadsrumoer (Because I chose the city noise). The writer of the latter film was blinded at age four, but at sixty-nine, still has vivid memories of visiting an aquarium. A film, alpha, by Kai Lossgott, curator of the City Breath Project, will also be shown. City Breath is an urban oral history video project which seeks to interrogate the official understandings of South African cities conveyed in television, film and other mass media.
Proceeds from DEEP will go towards the Aquarium’s Adopt-a-School Programme. This Programme provides the opportunity for children from previously disadvantaged schools to visit the Aquarium and to discover the wonders and beauty of the ocean and its inhabitants. Such an opportunity can be a life-changing experience for these children and instill a deep and long-lasting appreciation for the oceans.
Website: www.aquarium.co.za
