United Colours of Rodborough Avenue

As can be expected of this community driven and creative town of ours there has been numerous initiatives and projects set up over the past few months supporting and helping people in different ways, to get through these uncertain and difficult times…

One which has brought much needed colour into our lives is the residents of Rodborough Avenue…Initiated by Kate Dougherty and her daughter Cara the artful dwellers have been dressing up in the colours of the rainbow. Different colour each day. Each colour made into a different scene by each household. “It was fun, much needed silliness and a way to connect during a difficult period for everyone….My daughters also loved it!” says participant Oonagh Davies.

“So the high” adds Kate Dougherty, “when most people were involved was probably yellow day. And what was lovely is some families obviously put a lot of time and effort into it and gathered hundreds of yellow objects and soft furnishings and foods and crazy stuff and involved the whole family. “ “It brought everyone together and everyone was getting involved,” adds Cara, “even pets and young children, teenagers. It was just a really nice way of bringing everyone together.”

Have a gander at the gallery below featuring a few of the colour scenes!

RED

YELLOW

ORANGE

PURPLE

BLUE + GREEN

Creative Neighbourhood - Call Out

We are all aware of the bizarre times we are in. A crisis at such a large scale that all around the world, the population has responded by having to rely on emerging networks and structures within our local communities. Routines and lives have become unrecognisable within the course of a few months. But what we have seen are examples of creativity...everywhere. National organisations have been weakened by the enormity of the Coronavirus crisis, and as a result, we are in a time when we have seen local communities re-build, based on our shared values that have become apparent. Creative Neighbourhood was set up by Stroud-based architects, Designfarm Architects. With a background in building projects, as well as graphics, film and animation, they’re passionate about the power our spaces around us have to enhance how we live, work and play. Furthermore, Designfarm Architects believe any future design of these spaces should be a collaborative process based on a shared desire to make better places for everyone.

Calling for collaborators
Designfarm Architects are inviting one and all to join them on an exploratory journey that opens up debate and discussion concerning the founding principles of townscape, and its relevance or insignificance as we move forward beyond 2020.

Calling all artists, writer, designers (everyone!)
“We’re seeking out Stroud’s Creative Neighbourhood, and we’re asking them to re-imagine the possibilities of our town. We hope this will be a fun, experimental journey that aims to get creative people from within our community to join in and contribute to discovering an alternative landscape for Stroud. As our movements became restricted, journeys have become routine but hugely significant as daily tasks become ritual. In pondering our landscapes, what were once incidental objects may now have become personal landmarks. We want you to ‘map’ your journeys around Stroud, be they from bed to chair, house to hill or purely imagined, using any method or medium you can think of. Our aim is to create a new map of Stroud based on the personal experiences of the community during this period of lock down. Contributions can take the form of artworks, graphical images, collages, written words or any other media and email them to us at info@creativeneighbourhood.co.uk by the 30th June 2020 for inclusion in the project. ”

If you are interested in contributing or would like to know more, they would love to hear from you! Visit creativeneighbourhood.co.uk for further info…

From the Archives: Andrew Wood

By Sarah Edmonds
Issue 56, November 2019

It all started with the word ‘VOTE’.

For a lover of words and language, I jumped at the chance to meet artist Andrew Wood and his studio assistant Guy de Lotz. Together the pair have hit upon something really rather sensational – an ever changing, word art installation in the centre of Stroud. On a grey day, I am greeted with HENDRIX, number forty three in the series, 26” giant black lettering with a neon surround seemingly floating above an unassuming fence. Andrew insists, “there is no limit to the scope of this project, it is not site specific. The words mean different things to different people.”

But what do they mean? “They mean what you want them to mean. They’re a reflection of your own life, your own self. They are totally random.”

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, wander into the centre of Stroud and along the London Road. High up on a fence post you can’t miss the word of the week….or month. It might make you laugh, gawp, snigger or….. think. “Make of it what you will.” All the words are the same height, made of 15” plywood, cut and painted by hand.

Andrew Wood is a well known and respected artist in our town. He welcomes me with a warm smile, and despite slowing down due to Parkinson’s disease, he extends generous hospitality with plenty of humour. His Stroud studio is airy, bright and colourful – a gallery, workshop and home - plenty to distract me from the job in hand. I am here to talk about his new book, ‘The Word’ a glossy catalogue of all the word installations and a brief explanation about its conception. As a limited edition print run of five hundred, it’s advisable to snap up a copy or two, available from Stroud Bookshop at a mere £10.

I hesitate to make predictions, but wager it could be a collector’s item. It would make an amazing coffee table book and talking point (who IS Alan?) not least with a bonkers foreword from Keith Allen and a poem by Elvis McGonagall which cleverly weaves together all forty three words. McGonagall himself, stand-up poet and comedian, is no stranger to word play – his stage name references the notoriously bad poet William McGonagall and Elvis, “the wrongest name I could think of to go with McGonagall.”

With no hint of pretension, I’m delighted to hear that this project started life with no master plan....it just happened. Although the seed of the idea was inspired by the 2017 General Election, Wood doesn’t take it too seriously, as the introduction suggests, “I am not a political animal, apart from a month in Los Angeles in 1990 organising banner painting workshops protesting Bush Senior’s invasion of Iraq.” Inspired by Keith Allen’s robust political graffiti scrawled across the hoardings of he Marshall Rooms, Wood decided to encourage his community to get involved, hence the first word; VOTE. “It’s surprising how many people living in the UK don’t vote…it was time to take action.”

The idea has since evolved to include all sorts of random words, puns...simply having fun with language. When I ask which has been the most popular, they respond, “It’s hard to say. Reactions are different to each word – SCROTUM ruffled a few feathers so we kept it up for longer than intended. LOVE AND PEAS was a favourite. People often stop for selfies. The response in general has been incredibly positive.” In a poll conducted by the Stroud News & Journal asking readers, “Is the scrotum sign too controversial?” 87% said no. Luckily we do still have a sense of humour and you get the feeling that he is kind of tickled by the whole controversy.

Wood has lived a very full life and the Stroud Valleys have played a starring role. He first came here as a nineteen year old student of Fine Art at Cheltenham Art College and rented a cottage near Painswick, “in a pretty little place called Paradise, the rent was five pounds a week, the landscapes just blew me away. Our local pub was called the ‘Adam and Eve’….I made some really good friends. I suddenly had people around me who talked about art and painting, it was great!” After a year at Cheltenham he transferred to Falmouth College of Art where, early on, he discovered clay and it has been his preferred medium ever since. After a knock out graduation show he was offered a solo exhibition and studio at the Nicholas Treadwell Gallery in London.

A tutelage with ceramicist Robert Arneson inspired a prolific period of work at the University of California offering a new perspective, inspiring pieces such as ‘Narcissi’ – a tongue in cheek comment on male vanity. This playful outlook is a thread that runs through all of his work, ‘a celebration of colour and form.’ Abstract, colourful, textural, spikey, sculptural, organic, witty – all of these terms describe his work. He is a multi media artist – he can paint and sculpt, there are wall collages using reclaimed materials, the Jesmonite church tower, stunning pencil drawings, heads are a recurrent theme. I favour the abstract reliefs, unashamedly painted with bright, jewel like colours – malachite, emerald, amber....they are optimistic.

He bought Prema Arts on a whim in the early 80’s when it was then a derelict Georgian chapel. He hadn’t intended to, but went along to the auction with a friend and ended up bidding for it….the rest is history. Prema means ‘divine love’ in Sanskrit and recalls a period of spiritual awakening with guru Sathya Sai Baba which set the tone for a supremely successful venture leading the way in arts, world music, poetry and dance – one that still thrives today. Touching on spirituality, we briefly discuss a project that is still in it’s early stages, ‘The Golden Spire’ – Guy has been working tirelessly to pull together all the elements of a multi-layered town collective of arts related events centred around St. Laurence’s Church which culminates in a celebration of all things gold, including the spire itself! The event is planned for August 2020 to coincide with Wood’s seventieth birthday.

So you see, there is plenty of work to be done, ideas are flowing. Andrew Wood may have sold work to the likes of Sir Elton John, Ringo Starr and Christian Louboutin, but Stroud is THE WORD. From Stroud to California, Tuscany back to Stroud, I can’t wait to see what happens next.

For further information and examples of Andrew’s work visit andrew-wood.com The Word is available now from Stroud Bookshop, Made in Stroud and Duffle Vintage.

Sarah Edmonds, aka Word Bird, enjoys creative copywriting in the Stroud Valleys and marketing fine art materials and workshops for Pegasus Art. @SarahWordBird @PegasusArtShop

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As well as our recent project (Good On Paper TV) following Good On Paper’s current hiatus over the next few month’s we will be putting up articles from our archives for our readers to easily access and share…Community and culture can carry on in different ways. For now….

The Outposted Project

The Outposted Project is a participatory multidisciplinary arts project and platform for creativity and connection in a time of crisis. 

Designer/ artist Susie Hetherington and poet Juliet Morton have gathered together over twenty five writers, artists, performers and makers from across Stroud’s Five Valleys to work in collective solitude and create art that aims to be compelling, relevant and high quality in content and execution. 

The Outposted Project is sending an Ordnance Survey map around the Five Valleys and inviting artists to create a piece of work, paste it onto the map and send it on to another artist. This creative chain will speak to the impact of crisis on our individual lives. The map will become a collective artwork and palimpsest, a kind of psychic space where we belong as artists.

Social media is playing a part in the project at each stage of the map’s journey from artist to artist. They are also intending to exhibit the map, along with others if this initial pilot is a success, in a gallery space.

The map started its journey on 20th April 2020 and they are working towards finalising the map before the rescheduled Site Festival.

Stages:
1. Susie lino printed the map cover to elevate the map from an unremarkable object. She added the map to a custom made envelope sturdy enough to re-tape and re-use by all contributors along the line.  She posted this to Juliette..
2. Juliette started on the first square of the map and inserted a poem. Meanwhile, Joff Elphick and Oonagh Davies are working on music / field recordings for an audiogram to accompany the poem online. 
3. Juliette sent the map on its journey to the next artist. As there’s a random element to this, they’ve asked artists to let them know when they receive the map so they know where it is (!). The journey will be posted on social media to share the project as widely as possible. 
4. Each artist will choose at random who to send the map/envelope to next. There will be a time limit of 5 days to complete the contribution and keep the map moving.
5. The end artwork: the map(s), will be displayed hanging and unfolded, as part of an exhibition. This could include multiple maps if the project is extended and form a touring exhibition if possible.

Participant artists, makers, performers, writers… 
Uta Baldauf (artist/poet/performer), Chris Bingle (artist/painter), Jenny Bowers (artist/illustrator/animation), Oonagh Davies (musician), Joff Elphick (field recordist), Felicity Everett (writer/novelist), Jonny Fluffypunk (writer/stand-up poet), Emma Giacolne (textile designer), Giffords Circus, Melanie Golding (author/novelist), Nick Grellier (artists/drawing/collage), Emily Hall (composer/musician), Zoe Heath (multidisciplinary artist), Susie Hetherington (artist/designer), Eunju Hitchcock-Yoo (artist), John Holland (writer/short stories), Adam Horovitz (writer/poet), Jeff Josephine (printmaker), Emma Kernahan (writer/flash poetry), Lucia Leyfield (artist/illustrative lettering), Hannah Linfoot (artist/painter), JLM Morton (writer/poet) , Daisy Murdoch (artist), Rod Nelson (printmaker), Philip Rush (writer/poet), Jacqui Stearn (writer), Alison Vickery (artist/painter), Britt Willoughby Dyer (photographer).

For further information, updates and news in regards to the maps journey follow the Outposted Project on instagram facebook and twitter

From the Archives: Alex Merry

Photo: Katie Jane Watson

By Sarah Edmonds
From Issue 41, August 2018

I meet Alex early doors, the morning after England beat Colombia in a penalty shoot out, “Stroud came alive at about 12 o’clock, there were so many revellers I hardly got any sleep,” says Alex, rubbing her eyes, smiling. It doesn’t take us long to get down to it, sipping coffees and marvelling at the whirlwind journey she’s been on in the past year, working with superbrand Gucci creating incredible illustrations. I am endlessly surprised (and strangely proud) of the number of truly awesome creatives that live and work in the Stroud valleys – per capita, we must be one of the most artistic towns in the UK, nurturing more talent than in 15th century Florence at the time of Da Vinci!

Alex was brought up in Stroud, one of three artist siblings and remembers Mills Cafe (where we’re sitting right now) and Mother Nature from the early eighties. Her mother is a self taught artist, and her father was the local vicar, “Our house was a safe place for all kinds of people to come and talk to my dad – we grew up as part of a rich and loving community.” Returning to Stroud has offered Alex the chance to pursue her creative ambitions without the crippling rent of London living. After studying Illustration at UWE she worked in Stroud for Damien Hirst, before following him to London where he opened another studio. She spent seven years as an assistant, painting photo realist work, before returning to Stroud to work for Darbyshire framers. Here she built a large team of local artists who collaborated on another high profile project overseen by Merry. It had been a busy ride and the time felt right to step back from the corporate art world and explore her own creative voice.

Stroud is a place she calls home and where she’s gathered her band (or more specifically ‘side’) of all female Morris dancers called ‘Boss Morris’ who perform locally and at festivals including Port Eliot Festival. Alex initiated the group but insists that this lively bunch of ‘strong women’ are a force to be reckoned with, organising practice meets and events as a team. She’s been folk dancing for around ten years, and is totally passionate about the art “it takes you out of yourself, the rhythm, the music. The movement is kind of trance-like and spiritual – it’s a joyful, collective experience. It really connects me to my Englishness.” She’s even danced on stage with Belle & Sebastian at the Albert Hall...seriously.

We take an interesting tangent in our conversation as Alex enlightens me about the origins of Morris dancing, “what most people see or know about Morris dancing is the Victorian version – the bells, the white hanker chiefs and sticks....when in fact, it dates back to early 1500’s when sides of athletic men known as ‘Moresques’ wore highly embellished, gold costumes and danced in palaces.” It’s true that the earliest mention of ‘Moorish dancing’ was 1448 with mention of sword dancing in a court setting and ‘spangled Spanish dancers’ performing ‘an energetic dance’ before King Henry VII. “I think Morris dancing exemplifies England today – a melting pot of different cultures. In Elizabethan times, Italy and England were closely connected – many of the dance sequences are thought to be Italian.”

Alex has long been fascinated with folk art – it’s more than a genre, it’s a way of life. It represents community based art and real skills learnt over centuries, for no materialistic gain. Folk art is more decorative, characterised by a naive style and a world away from the mass produced art world that she inhabited for so long. She sites varied influences such as artist and illustrator Kit Williams (best known for his 1979 book Masquerade, a pictorial storybook or ‘treasure map’ leading to a buried golden hare), the Surrealist painter Leonora Carrington OBE and founder of the Women’s Liberation Movement in Mexico in the 70’s and the book illustrator Mervyn Peake and his ‘Book of Nonsense’ poetry. She has an eclectic taste that influences her own illustrations.

Out of nowhere, Alex received an email from Alessandro Michele, the new creative director of Gucci asking her to illustrate a new range of monogrammed accessories. He found her paintings on Instagram via her brother James Merry, an embroiderer and mask maker who lives in Iceland and works for Bjork. “Instagram is central to any artists work nowadays. Receiving the conference call from Gucci head office in Florence was mind blowing!” Michele has been credited with moving the fashion house in a new, exciting direction. To quote a recent Vogue article, “Night and day I am trying to cause a little revolution inside the company. Fashion is about creating emotion.” His team have found fresh energy by collaborating with many relatively unknown artists as a way of promoting creativity without constraint.

Gucci have given Alex total creative freedom which has been a blessing, “I have remained very focused, determined not to be distracted by other artists. My style and methods are developing. If you look closely at my work you will see that not only the strong Gucci symbology is there, but my own too.” In researching the brand identity, which dates back to the 20’s, she drew upon the rich colour schemes of their catwalk shows, the interlinking G’s, twisted serpents, evil eye, bumblebee and their signature green and red stripe. Alex employs an inherently English catalogue of references: crop circles, tarot cards, charts with their sun, moons and stars and mythological Druid creatures. Fans often compare her careful colour palette to those of Matisse, but she insists this was not a conscious inspiration.

Deadlines have determined a fast turn around and multiple designs – some of which resulted in printed postcards for a Harrods product launch, others have been transformed into giant murals for ‘Gucci street art’ internationally.Other muralists include IgnasiMonreal, Unskilled Worker, Angelica Hicks – keep your eyes peeled for entire walls of eye catching artwork in cities all over the world! Or follow #gucciwall on Instagram. It’s clear that Alex is on her merry way, and is up for the ride wherever it takes her! The quality of her art speaks for itself and she deserves every success.

If you’d like to commission a portrait by Alex (while you still can!), get in touch through her website: alexmerryart.com. For an A4 portrait in oil, prices start at £950. She takes human and pet commissions. Follow her on Instagram and facebook @alexmerryart

Sarah Edmonds, aka Word Bird, enjoys creative copywriting in the Stroud Valleys and marketing fine art materials and workshops for Pegasus Art. @SarahWordBird @PegasusArtShop

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As well as our recent project (Good On Paper TV) following Good On Paper’s current hiatus over the next few month’s we will be putting up articles from our archives for our readers to easily access and share…Community and culture can carry on in different ways. For now….

Raw Umber Studios

By Lorna Jenkins

Raw Umber Studios is a non-profit organisation that runs art workshops in traditional and digital media. The studios’ tutors are classically-trained, professional artists.

As long as the coronavirus pandemic is affecting our daily lives, the London Road-based studios is running regular, free online portrait drawing sessions. There will be a chance to draw or paint from high resolution photographs at the same time every week (Sunday from 2pm – 3pm).

There are several ways you can work:
- If you just want the enjoyment of drawing for an hour by yourself then just tune in, put on some music and draw.
- If you’re stuck inside with your family, sit down with them at the kitchen table and draw together.
- If you’re a part of a regular drawing group, or the organiser of a life drawing meet-up that is currently on-hold, all tune in at 2pm on Sundays and then use Skype or Zoom to chat in a private group and share drawings while you draw. It’s a chance to keep those interactions up virtually until you can physically meet up together.

“Typically we’ll run three poses from the same model. We’ll start with a 30 minute pose, then 20 minutes, then 10. You can download the photographs and work from them at leisure after the session has finished,” Neil Davidson, from Raw Umber, explains.

I catch up with Neil on how he’s coping in this weird apocalyptic-style age we find ourselves in. “Obviously the business is suffering - we've cancelled classes and have refunded everybody's money - but we're in it for the long haul and we'll bounce back. Since we can't do physical sessions, we're going to be doing more online things. As well as the portrait sessions, we're commissioning various artists to do short (less than five minutes) how-to videos that we'll put on our YouTube channel. We'll be paying the artists, but we'll make the videos available free to watch - that seems like the right thing to do…”

Sounds like a plan! What made you decide to do the online classes?
“I usually go to a great life drawing class (Stroud Life Drawing, run by Keith Symonds) twice a week but obviously I can't do that any more. I chatted to a couple of students in the last Raw Umber workshop I ran and they were in the same boat with their own regular drawing classes, so I thought I'd but this together. I didn't want to do anything online that involved nudity, and portraiture is what I'm personally interested in more, which is why it's portraiture rather than life drawing. I ran it for the first time last week, and about 90 people watched it live from start to finish, so now that I've proven the concept I'm going to run it every Sunday, 2 - 3pm, while physical classes can't meet up.”

I’m in. How important is art and creativity right now?
“At one level, creativity and art are something of a luxury when people are struggling financially and physically, especially in the acute crisis we're facing. On the other hand, they bring a lot of relief and joy to people, so they're worth doing for that reason. Also, a lot of people in the arts sector, whether they're artists or not, will be among those struggling. By continuing to support them (by commissioning videos, for example, and promoting the work their doing) I'm hoping Raw Umber can help in a small way.”

What’s your top tip for people dipping their toe into the portrait palette?
“They say you've got a drawing age - the age at which your art teacher told you were hopeless, or that you should be doing something else. My drawing age until my late 30s was five, or maybe six. A few years ago I started drawing again from a book called 'Drawing with the Right Side of the Brain' by Betty Edwards, which is great. I wouldn't say I'm a brilliant artist, but I've drawn more or less every day from then, and I'm better than I was when I started. My first tip is to realise that drawing is a skill that anybody can learn to draw with the right attitude and enough time. You might pick it up quickly, or - like me - slowly, but you can get there. My second tip is more practical. Start with the really big things you see. People often zone into drawing an eye, for example, but it's often easier to think about the shape of the head (is it more like an oval, or a triangle, or a square? Everybody's head is different). My third tip is to think of the patterns of light you can see, rather than think about what you're drawing. So rather than thinking 'I'm drawing an eye' which might lead you to draw how we're taught to draw eyes as children, as a kind of oval symbol with a circle for the iris and little lines for lashes, look to see the shapes of light and dark you can see. Lizet Dingemans, a regular Raw Umber tutor, is going to be doing a demo in the next portrait drawing session and she'll expand on some of these points then.”

What is the first thing you’ll do when we’re all allowed out again?
“I'll go and see my parents and spend time with them and other people I won't have seen for a while…”

Click here to visit and subscribe to the Raw Umber Studios YouTube channel and here for further information and to sign up to the mailing list. The artists who teach at Raw Umber are also happy to provide personal tuition – see their individual website for info.

Lorna Jenkins is an editor and freelance journalist from Stroud. She also paints and sells her work during Stroud Open Studios and in Made in Stroud. Instragram: @lornapaintsandwrites

Good On Paper Party 2020 - by Nikoletta Monyok

GIFFORDS CIRCUS BAND

HIP YAK POETRY SHACK

ALEX BOX/DERRICK MCLEAN/MAJA LENA
DAVE AYRE’S NANOSCOPIC ENSEMBLE

EXHIBITION

SHORT FILMS SCREENING

CROWD

All photos by Nikoletta Monyok - geniusmuppet.com

Stroud School of Art 160th Anniversary - Tutor and Alumni Call Out

The Museum at the Park will be hosting a Stroud School of Art Tutor and Alumni exhibition from the 6th June this year of exceptional work to celebrate 160 years of the acclaimed school . As the name suggests, anyone that attended or taught at the Art School can enter their work for this show - all creative disciplines are encouraged to apply!

"Whether you've got something hanging on your wall that your grandparent made, or you continue to make art yourself, the amount of people who have spent time at the Stroud School of Art is vast and exciting. 160 years of creative experience must be celebrated but the Art School is nothing without people. We encourage you to submit work to show alongside others, but we also want to hear stories of the experiences had with us. You all are a part of our past, and we hope that we were part of your future." Kayleigh Reynolds, Stroud School of Art, SGS College

A selection panel will assess every entry and a number of works will make it into the final exhibition. This is a great opportunity for creatives to show their work in our local community. Please submit all applications to SSOA@sgscol.ac.uk. Entry Deadline: 4 May 2020 5pm

Basic Entry Requirements

- Applicants must have attended Stroud School of Art (1860 – 2019).
- A maximum of 3 works may be submitted per applicant.
- All artist must submit an image of their work. This will be viewed online at pre-selection stage.
- Image should be as clear as possible and must be of the submitted work.
- Applicants must include the dimensions of the submitted work.
- All work that is successful at pre-selection stage must be delivered to SGS College for final selection.

Time Line Stage 1: Expressions of interest close 5pm, Monday 4 May 2020 Stage 2: Shortlisted Art Works due Thursday 14 May 2020.

Film Posters Reinterpreted 2019

As part of this year’s Stroud Film Festival Good On Paper curated an exhibition of prints by Stroud based artists, graphic designers and illustrators reinterpreting iconic film posters from the eighties in their own unique style.

If you missed the exhibition at the SVA or the opportunity to purchase a print then cast your eyes on the thirteen different works featured below and contact the artists direct via their website for further info…

Mark Levy (Beetlejuice) traffikcone.info | Rosalie Darien-Jones (Stand By Me) rosaliedarienjones.co.uk | Adam Hinks (Das Boot) thepdco.co.uk | Alex Merry (Three Amigos) alexmerryart.com | Joe Magee (Local Hero) periphery.co.uk | Hannah Dyson (Labyrinth) hannahdyson.co.uk | Nicola Grellier (Blues Brothers) nicolagrellier.co.uk | Ery Burns (Legend) eryburns.com | Imogen Harvey-Lewis (The Shining) imogenharveylewis.co.uk | Marcus Walters (ET) marcuswalters.com | Dan McDermott (Lost Boys) danmcdermott.com | Tom Percival (Blade Runner) tom-percival.com | Andy Lovell (Amadeus) andylovell.co.uk

Photographs of the exhibition by Tammy Lynn (tammylynn.co.uk)

Call Out: Ontograph - a museum of... -

By Ed Davenport

This is an open invitation to contribute to a temporary museum exhibition that will be open to the public in Stroud beginning of next year.

There isn’t a limit to what can be submitted. It could be a letter or a correspondence, a collection of some sort, an email thread, a wedding ring, an old Argos catalogue, a family heirloom, a piece of fake gold, a story you wrote, a signed photo of Brian McFadden, an unsigned photo of Brian McFadden, a sound recording, a homemade map, a picture or comic book you did at school, a sketch of your rat, a sculpture of your feelings, a broken Alicia Keys CD case or a functioning tool that you have not and will not ever use...

The aim is to grant anyone and everyone a space to exhibit and share an otherwise unseen or unheard of object/collection/possession. Consequently, and perhaps most importantly, it can create a public resource that provides commentary or interpretation of our shared environment that other facilities may not. There’s also a slim chance this sharing of objects can generate something that’s not reducible to the human meaning or agenda the objects also embody.

You could argue that museums generally elevate certain groups of objects above the everyday, in part to exemplify their greater significance and preserve this hierarchy. One of the intentions of the Ontograph is simply to place all submissions (objects of widely varying origin, age etc.) on a level plain of importance.

For a chance to be included in the exhibition send photos and brief description of your museum object to submissionstothemuseumof@gmail.com by Friday 14th December.

Visit ontograph.wordpress.com and for further info and the facebook event page here for news and updates…

Giffords Circus by Emilie Sandy

This time next week it will be all go at Giffords Circus HQ at Fennells Farm in Stroud as they open the tent doors to an eagerly awaiting crowd for the first performances of their 2018 production My Beautiful Circus.

Prior to next week’s show and the start of Giffords five month tour we sent Stroud based photographer Emilie Sandy up to Fennells Farm to meet founder Nell Gifford and a behind the scenes look at the rehearsals…

“It was a pleasure meeting Nell, the kids, and the family dog - Monkey; the shoot was nice-and-raw and fun. Nell shared her recent drawings of the rehearsals with me - I thought they captured the essence of the Circus beautifully. Whilst documenting the rehearsals, the Dias family were working hard on their performance; I watched in awe at their sheer focus and agility! The turkeys stole the limelight though, following their trainer, and gobbling on cue … hilarious!!!” Emilie Sandy

My Beautiful Circus launches at Fennells Farm from the 4th to the 14th May. You can also catch them at Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe (17th – 21st May), Daylesford Organic Farm, Kingham (24th May – 4th June), Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire (7th – 11th June), Oxford University Parks, Oxford (14th – 25th June), Chiswick House & Gardens, London (28th June – 9th July) , Windsor Great Park (12th – 16th July), Stonor Park, Henley-on-Thames (19th – 23rd July), Barrington, Burford (26th July – 6th Aug),  Frampton on Severn, Village Green (9th – 13th Aug),  Minchinhampton Common (16th –  28th Aug), Marlborough Common (31st Aug – 10th Sept) and Stratton Meadows, Cirencester (13th –  24th Sept). The tour returns to Fennell Farm for the last shows from 27th – 30th Sept.

For further info and to purchase tickets across the tour visit giffordscircus.com

Pick up this month’s issue (out now!)  for further information and an interview with Nell Gifford by Lorna Davies....

SITSelect Presents: Pete Hoida - New Paintings on Canvas by Noela Bewry

Vanilla

“What use painting is to woman or man is unknown, yet it is surely necessary, as attested to by the caveman and the dandy. I have long pursued a path that avoided the health-plans and dogmas of the high-priests and the moneylenders, and yet have overthrown nothing but painterly cliches and visual platitudes. Over a career of fifty years I have disregarded the demand to produce series of signature works and failed to subjugate myself to mere talent. I am not looking to produce patterns; each period of painting has created, or found, its own identity. Sometimes the characteristics of the work, or foundations, carry over from one year into the next period. Or subside for a time before reappearing transformed, made new yet again. Paintings from the 2010’s can present aspects of the 70’s. The colour say, or the motif, or motive force, the brush-stroke, the time-line, the structure, its translucency or opacity, its serenity or punch. I have eschewed drawing, images, narrative and subject; I have defied the camera that always lies. I have told only the story of the brush that lies. I have quarrelled with the canvas and lost. I have found the surface and ignited it” Pete Hoida 2017

The Malthouse, formerly part of Stroud Brewery, is a formidable venue for an art exhibition. The bare rustic brick walls and vast height are no problem, however, for Pete Hoida’s central piece, ‘Poet and Peasant’ measuring a magnificent 178 x 335 cm. The painting completely holds its own  and commands the space with its sublime passages of pastel shades in pistachio, turquoise, eau de nil, yellow and pink,  offset by blocks of rich sumptuous carmine over-painted by muddy purple, smeared yellow into umber, earthy green and flashes of orange and red.

Hoida allows the under painting to show through creating a rich surface generating space and light. The two works with exaggerated horizontality are hung very high but still maintain a potent presence. Cork has a bold diagonal drive with strong pure colour blocks wedged between midnight blue and black fields to the top and side, with a bite of light yellow and a bar of pale ochre to hold the composition in place. Cobalt Patch has a steady rhythm of dry colour patches moving from one side of the canvas to the other with accents of red uniting the visual field. There are margins at either end, holding bands of colour,  a narrower  blue on the left and a large area of mixed reds through to orange on the right. The eye is guided to the central area of cream, red and black by sloping diagonal strokes within the blue and red margins. These two works read from side to side allowing the eye to pause at each new block of colour as if reading a scroll.

Sleeping Bee

Sleeping Bee overcomes the constraint of an alcove with light fittings, and shines out with a substantial field of buttery yellow to the left travelling and narrowing across the canvas into a belt of lighter yellow merging into lilac grey with a sliver of green in between. The loosely painted blocks in a myriad of colours from peachy red to sandy umber act as ballast to offset the yellow mass and create a disrupted structure.

The three smaller paintings, Mrs. Joyce , Kittiwake and Vanilla, have hard edged and deliberate textural elements to them. They are sweet-toothed brutalist confections punctuated by iced gem motifs, flowing bronze squiggles, volcanic liquorice sheets and gritty rectangles hovering in front of  a delicately painted backdrop of small mineral explosions in  gaseous space. The colour married to the texture is especially compelling,

High Voltage

The most recent painting is High Voltage, an audacious composition with an ovoid floating in front of a black rectangular gash, centrally placed for maximum effect, challenging the viewer with its full frontal stance. The white ground behind holds ghostly images of the under-painting whilst being flanked half way up either side by panels of black, sienna, cerulean, umber and mint green. The delicate blue and green blocks on opposite sides are perfectly placed to hold the space and light within the painting. Incidental drips, drags and flicks offset the pristine dark magenta oval banded by  earthy green.

What I admire and like about Pete Hoida’s work is; his exquisite use of a pastel palette in contrast to blended earthy mixes as well as potent primary colour; his thoughtfully created, poetic compositions with considered placing of shapes and constructed textures; his deceptively casual and seductive brushwork which, while gestural, feels completely managed yet free and fluid; and the way he can create space, structure and light with the choices he makes.

The Malthouse (GL6 6NU) exhibitions are organised by Lizzi Walton director of SITselect, and  ‘Origins and Diversions’ Pete Hoida paintings 1991-2017 runs until 26th March.

Noela Bewry is an abstract painter and a contributor to Abstract Critical, a forum for discursive argument on abstract painting and sculpture. You can follow her on Twitter @noelawb as Noela James Bewry.

Stroud Textiles Trust: Call Out for Fashion Designers!

From the Marling and Evans archive, Ebley Mill (photo by Patricia Brien)

The Stroud Textiles Trust have put a call out for women's or menswear designs by Stroud Valleys & Gloucestershire based fashion designers working with WOOL!

As part of the  Cathedral of Cloth: The Life and Times of Ebley Mill exhibition running from Sat 3rd Feb until Sun 4th March 2018 at the Museum in the Park, STT would like to present contemporary fashion garments by local designers at the opening in a 'understated Flash Mob' event. 

The garments do not need to be made entirely from wool but there should be significant use of this material in the outfit(s). The idea behind the live presentation on Sunday 4th February is to illustrate how wool continues to feature in the work of local designers and artisans within Gloucestershire and the Stroud Valleys.

From the Marling and Evans archive, Ebley Mill (photo by Patricia Brien)

Low res images of your designs or garments and a short blurb about yourself and concept should be sent to patricia.brien16@bathspa.ac.uk no later than 28th December 2017 for the selection process. If selected, garments will need to be ready by January 15th 2018.

Visit stroud-textile.org.uk for further information about the forthcoming exhibition and the Stroud Textiles Trust. 

Create Gloucestershire: Pop Up Meeting

Create Gloucestershire is getting ready for its 2nd pop up event – an open invite to meet with others interested in how arts, culture and creativity can be every day for everyone in Gloucestershire.

This time they have invited a speaker with an innovative and challenging idea to bring to the network. CG want to provoke some interesting discussions, fuel some creative thinking and leave you feeling stimulated and inspired.

This months provocateur will be Tomas Millar – as well as being a CG board member he is a director and architect at Millar + Howard Workshop, based in Chalford. Tomas will be speaking about platform thinking. There will then be a short discussion about how we use this way of thinking to create value for ourselves, for each other and for the arts in Gloucestershire.

There will also be  a network exchange slot where you can share 'what you can offer' or 'what you need' from the group. During the break that follows CG hope you’ll be able to match some of these needs and wants as well as have a chance to meet and chat with others.

The free Pop Up event will take place at Cinderford Artspace on Tues 3rd Oct at 1pm.  If you wish to attend you can RSVP here

Create Gloucestershire is a collaborative laboratory for change - a space for dialogue, incubation, research and enterprise. They are driven and resourced by their membership base with a goal to ‘making arts everyday’, valuing the central role and purpose of the arts in our lives. Visit creategloucestershire.co.uk for further info.

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The Mother House Stroud

Following London’s first art studio with integrated childcare, where children are welcome into the working space; the Mother House is now piloting in Stroud...

The Mother House studio model is the brainchild of Dyana Gravina from Procreate Project. Stroud based artists Sharon Bennett and Rebecca Stapleford decided to collaborate on this very ambitious project leading the way for a better future for women artists in the Gloucestershire area.

The Mother House started in London in September last year to provide the freedom to work independently or alongside your children also encouraging opportunities to work in collaboration with other artists creating a supportive and inspiring network.

“Motherhouse has been hugely significant to me.  Being a full time at home mother for two small children (and having moved country twice in two years), I found that making my own work had dwindled to almost nothing.  I have actively chosen to spend my time with my kids while they are young as I feel that that it hugely benefits them, it is very rewarding for me in many ways and I didn't want to regret missing the experience later in life.  But it has meant that I have had neither the mental nor physical space (let alone the energy) to create anything for myself.  As a result I was becoming frustrated and disappointed in myself.  My identity as an artist felt fraudulent, and I felt I was losing myself in the hugely absorbing, but relentless machine of managing the needs of our family.  Now that I am back in London and my eldest has just started school, I come to Motherhouse with Molly (my 2 year old) on a Tuesday between the hours of school drop off and pick up.  It's a relatively small window of time but with huge consequences. I am now painting again (and not only in the hours at motherhouse).  I feel connected to a group of artists who share the same challenges and that has been transformative in the way I have begun to think about myself again, and the way I am thinking about new ways to make work (given the challenges of time).  And I have found it incredibly rewarding to share all of this with Molly.  Hearing her giggling and singing while I make work, and seeing her glee as she comes to show me her hands and feet covered in paint while I am painting myself, makes me realise I do not have to compromise between her needs and mine.  I think it's important for her to see me as an artist as well as a mother, but it isn't something that takes me away from her or that she has to compete with.  In fact we both come away from Motherhouse stimulated, energised and satisfied. And importantly to me, we've done it together." Jessica Blandford - Visual artist

The Mother House idea is born in response to the urge of “making” within the life-changing experience of motherhood, offering a collaborative yet intimate space to curate your practice whilst ensuring your journey into motherhood is fed in a creative and inclusive way. The Model facilitates integration and exchange with the Mothers’ art practice, bringing the child's development closer to art. Crucially, children learn about women's roles outside the domestic environment.

The vision is to establish the model over the UK and offer this great model to different communities. 

The Mother House Stroud Pilot will take place on Mondays to Fridays from 9:30am to 4pm at the Nailsworth Town Hall and will run from Monday 7th until Friday 18th Aug. For further information visit motherhousestudios.com and for bookings contact motherhouse@procreateproject.com

Review: Julie Cope’s Grand Tour - The story of a Life by Grayson Perry

Image by Max McClure maxmcclure.com

By Sarah Edmonds

Grayson Perry hardly needs an introduction. National treasure and arbiter for social anthropology in our troubled times, Perry is one of Britain’s most famous living artists (alongside David Hockney of course.) He was awarded a CBE in 2014, the Turner Prize in 2003, is a Bafta Award winner and ceramicist turned television presenter.

He is currently exhibiting The Most Popular Exhibition Ever! at The Serpentine Gallery in parallel with this exhibition - a diptych of jacquard tapestries at New Brewery Arts Centre in Cirencester. Far from being ‘out in the sticks’ the Cotswolds and - more specifically - New Brewery Arts, led by their ambitious CEO Beth Alden, had the vision to bring this touring Crafts Council exhibition right to our doorstep. Indeed, there are already links with the Essex born artist, who opened the newly refurbished arts centre in 2008. And yes, he came as his alter-ego, Claire, and was wearing his Alice in Wonderland dress and peep toe shoes.

The fictional character, Julie Cope,  is at the centre of these works, designed and made for the Essex House Tapestries, acquired by the Crafts Council Collections in 2017 and now touring the UK. They tell the story of her life – she is an ordinary Essex every-woman and seen through Perry’s eyes she is a heroic figure. She represents all women – your mother, sister, friend – but also the narrative of an average life, full of trials, tribulations, mistakes and regret. The tapestries detail the story of Julie’s life in two parts, with many obvious and more hidden social references, documenting her modest beginnings, her rise in social standing through to her final demise at the hands of a bike courier. It’s witty and tragic but ultimately positive – Julie overcomes her limitations and finds happiness and true love.  

Every detail of this exhibition has been carefully considered, from the vibrant entrance banner, instructions on how to social media share: hashtag #juliecope #graysonperry #newbreweryarts, multiple information panels and the dulcet tones of Grayson himself reading the Ballad of Julie Cope to accompany the experience. There’s a guide for young visitors (complete with spy holes and a quiz) and plenty of merchandise to round off your visit. It’s commercial, accessible and unpretentious. It is exactly what Perry strives to achieve in all his work, “to widen the audience for art without dumbing it down.”

Image by Max McClure maxmcclure.com

The cool, dark exhibition space is a welcome retreat from this week’s heat wave. It’s a quiet cave, a place to sit, listen and reflect – a monument to a life. What would two tapestries say about my life?

What I find interesting and frankly impressive is the scale of this concept – it’s a three dimensional novel. Having created his muse, Julie Cope, the project has grown to include the building of a large chapel on the Stour Estuary at Wrabness. It’s the artist’s most ambitious project yet, on one level it is a temple to Julie, built by loving husband Rob, but also serves as a tribute to all the Essex folk that Perry grew up with. When the tour is finished, the tapestries will return to Wrabness and will always be viewed in this setting. It’s both genius and weirdly curious.

Perry has created a virtual life complete with social, political and economic identity. Julie had hopes and dreams, she did her best and made mistakes along the way – just like the rest of us. Perry details where she smoked her first cigarette as teenager, her parents Norman and June, the arrival of her daughter Elaine, Dave’s affair with Pam.....the layers in this story are staggering. Julie is a tool for a wider conversation about social mobility, personal identities, “I investigate our slippery sense of who we feel we are....the ongoing process of 'being ourselves'”.

Friends all agreed they were “A Perfect Match”

The first tapestry details Julie’s birth during the Canvey Island floods of 1953, her teenage years hanging out in Basildon, the birth of her children with her first husband Dave. It’s a deceptive portrait of the perfect aspirational family, but there are symbols and clues which point to the breakdown of their marriage. Look out for Pam, the cat, a dual reference to the popular Lloyd Webber musical popular at the time and the name of Dave’s lover. Alan Measles, his childhood teddy bear, makes an appearance and represents the only constant male figure in Perry’s life after his parents’ divorce and his mother’s subsequent affair with the abusive milkman (a cliché that Perry could never overcome.)

In Its Familiarity, Golden

In this second tapestry, Julie has developed into a mature woman with a good job and wider horizons. She’s moved to Maldon, her children are at university and she’s found Rob, “exotic, a gent with nothing to prove to other men.” It’s all going swimmingly until she is mown down by an inexperienced curry delivery driver on a moped. A tragic end to an ordinary life. The map depicts the upward shift in Julie’s life from Canvey Island, to the high rise in Basildon, terrace and finally the cottage in provincial Maldon. Look out for symbols throughout – the Duran Duran album cover sleeve on the back of a denim jacket, peace symbols on Julie’s cardigan show her new preoccupation with middle class ideologies, world peace, the plight of refugees. She dies aged 61, her social worker’s lanyard around her neck. In response to this tragedy, Rob promises to build a shrine to his beloved – a Taj Mahal for Essex – and so, ‘House for Essex’ is born.

Image by Max McClure maxmcclure.com

Tied up in the story of Julie, Dave and Rob are historical references to the patrician art of making tapestries and the working class art of ballad-writing. Tapestry weaving saw its heyday in the 16th & 17th centuries and cost thousands of pounds, even then, meaning they were the preserve of the elite. In contrast, ballads were the cheapest and most direct way of sharing information, printed on a single sheet and pinned to the walls of the alehouse. Perry references the large tapestry maps commissioned by society gentleman Ralph Sheldon in the 1590’s – a nod to these historical documents, he hopes the Julie Cope tapestries will also be regarded as such in hundreds of years time.

The medium used to present this story is also significant in that Perry has always worked three dimensionally – using age old processes like ceramics and needlework to present modern ideas. Perry is the poster boy for contemporary craft, speaking up for the relevance of craft in the digital age - he is keen to use the latest technology to modernise his work as artists have done for centuries. The tapestries were drawn on an interactive pen display, translated into coded instructions for a digital loom by Factum Arte in Madrid, then threaded and woven by Flanders Tapestries. (The Dutch are famed for their tapestries.)

Julie Cope’s Grand Tour is a continuation of the recurring themes in his work – the big questions on life, love, death of course, but predominantly social mobility which he gently scrutinises – our consumerist, social climbing society. There is focus on finding extraordinary moments in ordinary lives, how the mainstream can often prove the most meaningful. I urge you to go and see the exhibition. You might not fully understand them, but they do pose important questions about our society, our identities, ambitions and purpose. It’s also really fun to see the work of a Turner Prize winning artist up close.

“Immediately after I won the Turner prize, a journalist asked me whether I was a serious artist or just a lovable character. My response was to say: 'I’m both.' I don’t see them as mutually exclusive. Art can be intellectually stretching, significant, moving and fun at the same time,” Perry concludes. After all, he accepted the prize on behalf of ALL artists, for ‘thirty years of hard graft’, of sticking to his guns and plugging away.....and it paid off.  

Julie Cope's Grand Tour: The Story of A Life by Grayson Perry is showing at the New Brewery Arts Centre until Sunday 16th July. Visit newbreweryarts.org.uk for further info.

Sarah Edmonds is an Italian graduate from University College London, where she also studied History of Art and a short course at Slade School of Fine Art. She's been a tour guide in Tuscany and now works in marketing for Pegasus Art in Thrupp - supplier of fine art materials @SarahWordBird

Review: Hilles Studio Collective by Leah Grant

Images by Leah Grant

You may already know of Hilles House. Perhaps you are vaguely aware of its location, conscious that it was once the home of esteemed fashion journalist and icon, Isabella Blow. Maybe you even know a little of its 100-year history, that it was designed by Detmar Jellings Blow in the Arts and Crafts style in 1913, that the architect lived by the principles of the Arts and Crafts movement and built the house with these principles in mind. You might even be aware that the Hilles estate contains an artist’s studio and that the views from both the house and this workspace offer a breath-taking panoramic of the beautiful Gloucestershire countryside.

I’m ashamed to say I knew very little of the property or the family who owned it when I visited on a sunny Saturday afternoon during SITE Festival’s Open Studios. What greeted me and what remained long after my visit ended, was the unassuming nature of Hilles House (despite its awe-inspiring location and illustrious interior) and the wonderful way in which the historic paintings and candid family photographs that are a permanent fixture in this beautiful home seemed to complement the contemporary art pieces produced by the Hilles Studio Collective for this special exhibition.  

From Sheridan Jones’s surreal self-portraits to the haunting figurative works of Nick Twilley, the pieces on display here are as thought-provoking as the house itself. Featuring artists (including Amaury Blow, grandson of Detmar Jellings Blow), designers and craftwork associated with Hilles, this inspiring exhibition is not only artistically progressively, but touchingly sympathetic to the area and its history.

Images by Leah Grant

Wandering through such an inspiring setting, it becomes easy to draw narrative connections between the artworks on display and the history of the Hilles estate. Perhaps the evocative pieces created by Amaury Blow touch on the house’s relationship to its surrounds, to the natural world that exists beyond the house itself. Possibly Saffron Knight’s rich fabrics take inspiration from the friendship between Detmar Jellings Blow and the celebrated 19th century textile designer William Morris; and maybe the bespoke knitwear produced by Redheart England is a nod to the house’s strong links with the fashion industry (owing to his friendship with Isabella Blow, the renowned fashion designer Alexander McQueen was a regular visitor at Hilles). Though these parallels may not have been intended on creation, they add a new level of depth to an exhibition that is already multi-dimensional.

There is obvious passion here, not just in the house and its selection of contemporary artworks, but in those overseeing the exhibition. I was kindly given a potted history of Hilles and an enthusiastic precis of the artwork on offer from Julian, the brother of Sheridan Jones who lives in a cottage on the Hilles estate. His keenness to promote Hilles was, and remains, infectious and needs to be amplified; we should all be aware of the house’s rich artistic heritage, of its links to some of the country’s finest designers and craftsmen. Hilles House is very much a staple of the Stroud Valleys art world and we should feel proud that it exists within our artistic community. Let’s hope that this beautiful estate continues to nurture and inspire local talent for many years to come.

Leah Grant is a writer and photographer with a keen interest in art and literature. On her blog, Bellyful of Art, you can find reviews of exhibitions, installations, dance performances and literary events as well as her own lovingly created pieces of short fiction artbellyful.wordpress.com

Hilles Studio Collective

From left to right: Saffron Knight, Mara Castilho, Sheridan Jones and Redheart England

Hilles House has always had a strong connection with the Arts and Crafts movement with links to Ruskin and Morris via its founder Detmar Jellings Blow. It is a place that has nurtured artistic collaboration and creative debate throughout its history.

The Hilles Studio Collective is a new group exhibition of new works featuring artists, designers and craftwork associated with Hilles House and it's landscape scheduled to take place over the two Stroud Open Studios weekends in May (6th-7th and 13th-14th). The newly formed collective is a talented and exciting group of artists, from sculpture to painting, photography, textiles, digital, video and performance. Exhibiting artists include: Amaury Blow, Mara Castilho, Redheart England, The Ark Ensemble, Colin Glen, Sheridan Jones, Saffron Knight, Kirsty Stockdale, Nick Twilley and Delight A Thief with more artists to be announced soon.

The free entry exhibition starts from 11am and runs until 7pm each day and also features live music and performances at 4pm and food and refreshment throughout the weekends.

From left to right: Amaury Blow, Colin Glen, Kirsty Stockdale and Nicholas Twilley

A Hilles Studio Supper Club will be offering a special Greek themed dinner on the 13th May in which you can expect to experience the joys of Greek music, vegetarian and meat barbeque (in a traditional Greek style), plate throwing(!) and a film screening. The supper club costs just £25 per head – book in advance by the 7th May by calling 07854332193 or 07976207530.

For news and updates follow the Hilles Studio Collective on facebook here  

Select Festival and Trail 2017: Interview Shorts

A series of interviews shorts filmed by Katie Jane Watson with artists and makers appearing at this years Select Festival and Trail:

CLEO MUSSI

Cleo Mussi creates inspiring and extraordinary work using discarded china. In this artist interview for SIT, Cleo talks about her interests in environmental issues and new work involving weeds.

Meet Cleo at Frogmarsh Mill during the Select Trail where you can buy and commission her work. The Trail is open May 6/7 & 13/14 2017 - find out more on the SIT select website here

NEIL MACGREGOR AND VALERIE MICHAEL

In this latest film on Makers and Making commissioned by SITselect for the Select Festival 2017,  Valerie Michael and Neil MacGregor talk about their work.

MacGregor & Michael create beautiful and lovingly crafted leather goods from their studio in Tetbury, Gloucestershire. Meet Val and Neil in their Tetbury studio (studio 33) in May 2017 during the Select Trail where you can buy and commission their work.

JILLY EDWARDS

Jilly Edwards is a contemporary tapestry weaver. She always travels with sketchbooks, journals and reading books so she can record moments and memories, recording these responses in quick gestural marks, whether of colour, shapes, textures or words. So when she returns to the studio she has an ‘aide memoire’ to help embellish her ideas.

SIT select filmed Jilly in her new home and studio in Bristol.

Pick up a copy of this month's issue (out now) for a preview of this years Select Festival and Trail by Sarah Edmonds. 

Virtual Reality Comes to the Vatch by Rupert Howe

INDEXprojects invite you to journey through the strangely familiar from Stroud to Plymouth without leaving a barn in the Stroud valleys. Rupert Howe dons a virtual reality headset to find out how they do it...

Imagine donning a headset and entering a world which appears real, in which you can see, hear and even touch your surroundings, but is in fact a technological projection. Once the stuff of science fiction, such virtual worlds are fast becoming a reality, thanks to technological advancements such as Oculus’s gaming headset, Rift, Leap Motion’s Mobile VR platform and Google’s “augmented” eyewear, Glass, which could project overlays of weather forecasts, search results and social media alerts onto the user’s field of vision.

Such developments aren’t without their issues – Google recently halted production of Glass hardware in response to privacy and safety concerns. But virtual reality, or VR, has huge potential as an audio-visual experience, not least in the way artists create and display their artworks. This year’s SITE Festival, for instance, will feature the premiere of Corridor, a new VR-based collaboration between Stroud based INDEXprojects, who presented Siobhan Hapaska’s installation The Sky Has To Turn Black Before You Can See the Stars in the Goods Shed for SITE 2013, Plymouth’s KARST gallery and the i-DAT research lab at Plymouth University, who specialise in “playful experimentation” with creative technology.

Staged in an 18th century barn in the Slad Valley, users will don a VR headset linked to an Android smart phone and enter a mysterious corridor lined with doors which open to reveal darkened ‘gallery’ spaces. Each one contains film and video works by artists linked to INDEX and KARST, with viewers able to move within the space as if in three-dimensions. In a recent conversation, INDEX artists Ali Kayley and Helen Kincaid discussed how the project originated, what visitors to the event might expect to see and the wide-ranging creative potential currently being realised through VR technology.

 So, how did Corridor come about?

Helen Kincaid: In essence, Corridor is a virtual reality space which links Index Gallery in Stroud with our co-collaborators KARST, an artist-led gallery in Plymouth. The idea for the project came about some years ago, but had its basis in forming a network of artist-led organisations to share exhibitions. That led us to look beyond moving physical artworks in favour of collaborating in a virtual space where events could happen simultaneously regardless of geographical distance. So we took the Stroud-Plymouth journey as our starting-point, using elements of those two places to create features and experiences which occur in the ‘rooms’ which branch off from the central corridor.

Ali Kayley: We also wanted to use it as an example of what other artists could do. We chose a space that’s slightly ominous, but the next artist could choose to approach it in a completely different way.

Did either of you have previous experience with this kind of technology?

AK: No! A year ago I would never have dreamed I’d be creating a virtual reality artwork, but now I’m really energised and inspired by it. I want to make my own work in VR. So it’s been a fantastic process to get to where we are now, exhibiting in this 18th century barn in the countryside near Stroud with the most modern, up-to-date technology there is. It’s very exciting.

The contrast between a historical building and these digital artworks is part of the project, then?

AK: Kind of, because we’re based in Stroud and have previously used the barn for exhibitions. So there was always the possibility we could create that lovely juxtaposition between the brand new and the ancient.

What is it about working with VR which appealed to you?

HK: The really exciting thing about virtual reality is that your brain works the same way as it does in reality. So you find yourself responding to something despite yourself, even though you know it’s not actually real. It’s completely immersive, which makes it such an exciting prospect for artists.

AK: You can make people feel as if they’re falling or make their heart beat faster and then feed those sensations back into the work, so there are creative possibilities which aren’t there in other mediums. In our works, the pieces exist more like installations, so you walk around inside the VR environment as if you’d walked into a film installation in a physical museum or gallery. The corridor and rooms themselves are computer generated, but we’ve slipped our film work into them as if they were actual spaces.

Will you be there to guide people as they cross into this virtual world?

AK:  The software we’re using is actually quite minimal; it can be used on a phone with a folded cardboard headset. So I don’t know how much we’ll need to describe the experience in advance. Just by looking and moving your head you quickly get a sense of being in a three-dimensional space.

HK: We wanted to cut down on the number of choices the viewer made because it can get in the way. So you approach the doors and they open, rather than it being this game of how do I turn the handle? That’s not our interest in VR at present, it’s more about presenting the films within the virtual space as artworks.

So which artists’ work will be on show?

AK: At the Stroud end are three artists: Joanna Greenhill, Helen Kincaid and myself. We created the pieces collaboratively and there’s one room which offers an immersive, 360-degree sense of glimpsed woods, a driving film which features audio by electronic duo Near Future and a piece of work filmed at WSP textile factory in Stroud. Works on the theme of water by Carl Slater and Donna Howard from KARST in Plymouth, are sited at the other end of the corridor, so by travelling from one to the other you know you’ve arrived in a different place.

HK: We’re delighted with the result, but it’s still at the research and development stage at present and Corridor is really a prototype. The next stage will be to invite other artists in to work within the space – or even change it completely. The possibilities are boundless!

Corridor will be on show as part of SITE Festival 2017 at Knapp House Barn, The Vatch, Slad, GL6 7JZ on Saturday 22nd & Sunday 23rd April 11am - 4pm. To hear more from this conversation, visit the SITE Resound Radio podcast page at sitefestival.org.uk/resoundradio.

Rupert Howe is a freelance writer based in Stroud whose work has appeared in Q, Esquire and numerous now-defunct magazines, including The Face