I'm delighed to be a part of In The Round, an exhibition opening this week at Newcastle Arts Centre. In The Round is a group exhibition exploring ideas of home, emptiness, and the spaces in-between.

Curated by Jed Buttress, this exhibition showcases four artists at the gallery at Newcastle Arts Centre, combining film, painting, collage and sculpture. Collaboratively, the artists tell shared stories of strange spaces, neglected nostalgia and abandoned nautical nightclubs.

Featuring artworks by Iris Ollier, Kitty L M McKay, Nat Loftus and Place Holder: Jill Tate and Matt Denham, this is the first of two exhibitions that form part of ‘Brass Tacks’, programme led by Newcastle Arts Centre.

‘In The Round’ opens with a preview on Friday 8th September, 5pm, please join us!.

I stop noticing some limits and start noticing others (2022) [video still], two-screen video installation with sound

Later this month, I'll be presenting I stop noticing some limits and start noticing others as part of Shieldfield Home pt II, an upcoming exhibition at The NewBridge Project. This two-screen video installation is from Degrees of Freedom a collaborative project developed with artist Jill Tate. Degrees of Freedom reconsiders home, domesticity and labour: from the external environments we inhabit to the psychological structures that shape our experiences. The physical spaces we generate are affected by our state of mind, and our state of mind is in turn affected by the environments we encounter. These internal and external worlds can fluctuate between comfort and fear; calmness and isolation; influenced by perceptible and imperceptible forces beyond our control.

Shieldfield Home starts off The NewBridge Project’s new programming theme ‘The Home’. They will be producing a long term programme of exhibitions, events, talks and workshops which explore ‘The Home’, what it means in their community and space in Shieldfield. The exhibition runs from 28 January - 25 February 2023, with a preview on 27 January from 6-9pm.

Following the Degrees of Freedom exhibition this April at the Newbridge Project, I've been working with Jill Tate on a catalogue to capture the show. It includes a joint artists' reflection, a selection of images from the show, and a critical essay by artist and writer Jillian Knipe.

There are a limited number of free copies available, and if you would like one, please get in touch. You can also access the artists' reflection online here, and the essay by Jillian Knipe here.

Where: The NewBridge Project: Project Space, 4-8 Clarence Walk, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE2 1AL
Preview: 6 - 8pm, Wednesday 6 April
Exhibition Open: 7 - 23 April, Wednesday - Saturday, 12 - 6pm

Next month, Degrees of Freedom will open on Wednesday 6 April from 6-9pm at the NewBridge Project.

Degrees of Freedom reconsiders home, domesticity and labour: from the external environments we inhabit to the psychological structures that shape our experiences. The physical spaces we generate are affected by our state of mind, and our state of mind is in turn affected by the environments we encounter. These internal and external worlds can fluctuate between comfort and fear; calmness and isolation; influenced by perceptible and imperceptible forces beyond our control.

This exhibition of painting and video installation work is the first collaboration between visual artists Jill Tate and Matt Denham. Developed over 16 months, the work manifests in dramatically illuminated, stark and minimal interiors born of terracotta and concrete: materials with mixed connotations of earth and architecture, wellness and work. Through the manipulation of scale and a feedback of forms, the work explores the different psychological dimensions of our environments.

Find out more about Degrees of Freedom here.

Next week, I'll be sharing a little about my recent work into Alzheimer's at Datarama, taking place online on Thursday 20 May, 18.30 – 20.30 BST. This event is part of One Cell at a Time, an interdisciplinary arts and science programme inspired by the Human Cell Atlas.

 Find out more about the event and how to join here.

Images: Darlington Forest Project Community Planting Day and Interview for Mapping a Counter Narrative to Growth

What does an alternative narrative to growth look like?
 
How can I contribute to this narrative as an artist working in an activist space?

Interconnectedness is a common thread that has run throughout my gentle exploration of these questions in Darlington, working with and as a part of the Darlington Friends of the Earth and Darlington Climate Action groups.
 
In reflecting on the central question of Hot Contents – the relationship between industrial heritage and the environmental crisis – I have also felt the need to zoom out to also consider the wider network of interconnected influences that act on these two areas. Our industrial heritage is intrinsically linked to the narrative that growth and production are the only route to achieve prosperity - from the industrial revolution and continuing at pace today. This narrative of growth is shaped by where we place value: social, cultural, environmental, but primarily economic value; which shapes our choices, and the choices we are led to through larger systems that we have little direct influence on (policy, infrastructure…).
 
The legacy of the narrative of growth is both the rich industrial heritage of our region and the wider developments to society brought through this, but also the scars on the landscape: global heating; industrial waste; the destruction of habitats and the depletion of natural resources.
 
Trying to capture the interconnectedness of how these factors map out at a local level feels, at times, like sitting with a ball of string, charting links with pins on a board like a (very low-key) TV detective. For example, in a recent Climate Action gathering, we discussed at a very specific level the rates of population growth written into Darlington’s new local plan (set notably higher than the ONS figures used by the government to predict population growth). These figures have been then used to justify buying into the proposed Redcar waste incinerator (alongside other North East Councils). In turn, this incinerator – hungry for content in order to make it cost effective – is likely to come at the cost of increasing recycling rates by diverting material that could be recycled to the incinerator, as it does little to encourage local authorities to capture more value from the recycling stream (as has happened in many other local authorities who have installed similar incinerators[1]), which in turn will lock-in damaging environmental impacts for many years to come.
 
The chain of dominoes begins with an ambition for growth. It’s understandable why there is a political ambition for growth: our current economic system centralises resources in larger urban centres, and therefore, with growth brings the economic prosperity to improve outcomes for residents.

But at what cost?

Why not look for system change to create a more equitable society, instead of bending to the existing system?

This year's theme for World Earth Day is 'Restore our Earth'. I’ve been working through these questions in the middle of a pandemic. Like the climate emergency, the pandemic has affected the most vulnerable at home and abroad. As we rebuild our lives and our systems, we have an opportunity to rethink the narrative we want to tell, where we choose to place value, and how wealth is generated and distributed. To disrupt the trajectory of growth.

To restore our earth will take careful examination of the interconnectedness of the many causes and impacts of the climate emergency. For example, the destruction of natural habitats in the pursuit of growth, bringing into closer contact animals and humans, is likely to cause further pandemics.[2] It will also take system change. Because alongside the environmental crisis, our existing systems have also produced other inequalities that have been deepened and highlighted by the pandemic, such as racial inequality, income inequality and educational inequality, which often intersect.

Drawing myself back to the space of environmental activism; throughout Hot Contents, I have been looking for ways for my artistic practice to act in solidarity with others working in this space. In March, I spent a lovely day planting trees along the site of the former Stockton and Darlington Railway. And currently, I am working with Friends of the Earth to support their call for a Green and Fair Recovery from the pandemic. Together, we are reflecting these questions out to the public to ask what a green and fair recovery looks like for Darlington, to create a digital signpost. This began in March, capturing a reflection from the Darlington Forest Project as part of their community planting weekend, and I am recording interviews across April and May that form the basis of the digital signpost, alongside a digital mapping of a local counter narrative to growth.


References
[1] Supplementary written evidence submitted by Professor Nicky Gregson, Durham University [IWS 035] for Parliamentary Enquiry, June 2019, p2, http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/housing-communities-and-local-government-committee/implications-of-the-waste-strategy-for-local-authorities/written/103388.pdf
[2] Destroyed Habitat Creates the Perfect Conditions for Coronavirus to Emerge, Scientific American, March 2020
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/destroyed-habitat-creates-the-perfect-conditions-for-coronavirus-to-emerge/

Hot Contents is kindly supported by:

I am delighted to have started a collaborative journey working with visual artist Jill Tate on our new project, Degrees of Freedom.

From our treatment of the planet to our mental environments; from boundaryless work/play places of labour to the spaces concealed behind closed doors: the physical, virtual and psychological environments we create are affected by our state of mind, and our state of mind affects the environments we create.

Our relationship to the world can oscillate between comfort and fear; calmness and violence; security and uncertainty. How far does a person’s circle of care extend - to their mind, their body, family, street, the planet? After an extraordinary year that has redefined our relationship to the domestic, Degrees of Freedom reconsiders home, domesticity and labour: from the intimate psychological to planetary scale.

Degrees of Freedom is a collaborative painting and video installation project between artists Jill Tate and Matt Pickering. Degrees of Freedom draws on stark, minimal and exaggerated domestic interiors born of terracotta and concrete: materials with mixed connotations of earth and architecture, wellness and work. Working collaboratively on scale- and life-size models of interior scenes, Degrees of Freedom explores the domestic as mind, home, workspace and planet. Our collaborative work will use illusory devices to create a place of puzzles and uncertainties; where through repetition, distortion, and a feedback of forms the viewer will encounter the different dimensions of the domestic.

Degrees of Freedom is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Over the past few months, I've been spending time developing research and thinking around my new project Hot Contents, a 2-year project taking place in Darlington exploring the relationships between industry, the circular economy and the climate emergency.

I wanted to begin this project with a research residency, spending a period of time researching the changing shape of industry in Darlington, getting to know the people and projects taking place locally and understanding how these make an impact on the environment. A period of meeting, listening and reading. Rather than taking place over a solid block of time, this has been a much slower process - sometimes taking place online and sometimes in person where this could happen safely.

Through this process of looking at narratives of growth, sites of transition and spaces of resistance, I’ve spent some of this time getting to know and getting involved with the work of local climate action groups over evening Zoom gatherings. With Darlington Climate Action, I recently supported a pop-up performance in the town centre to raise awareness of the impact of proposed executive housing developments written into Darlington's new local plan. The performance was led by local writer and actor Paul Harman, and I worked with the group to prepare and capture imagery from the event. I am supporting Friends of the Earth Darlington's calls for a local Citizen's Assembly for climate change. Throughout this engagement, I have been thinking about what it means to be an artist in an activist space - which brings together people with different interests, motivations and expertise in environmental action - and how this process can be equitable. Some of this time has been spent mapping and photographing sites of transition, including Tornado Way - which runs along the site of the original Stockton and Darlington Railway, and where funding has just been awarded to the Darlington Forest Project to plant 6800 trees - thinking about how industrial heritage sits alongside the landscape, and how sites of industrial heritage are re-used and re-purposed for sustainable practices. Some of this time has been spent reading about the history and future plans for Darlington, thinking about trajectories of growth tied to the region's industrial heritage, where value is placed and how these can be re-thought.

When I first thought about this project - almost a year ago - I imagined the idea of the circular economy might feed into the work at the micro scale - looking at the creative re-use of materials and design practices. As it has developed, this idea has shifted towards a focus on ecology, circular systems and social value. I've learned a lot in this time - about the process and politics of town planning, and the shifting footprint of industry moving across the urban landscape; about the town's history of iron forging and engineering, and the region's future plans for carbon capture; about locally native trees, and some things entirely unexpected (such as a protest in 1800 over the rising price of butter) - and I've had a chance to get to know about and get involved in really interesting initiatives happening locally to tackle the climate emergency.

Moving into the autumn, I'm experimenting with some new digitally-generated videos, whilst working on a script for a video installation that responds to the things I've been thinking about during this residency. Sat at my desk under a local lockdown in Newcastle, I'm looking forward to spending some time in the studio translating these ideas, sketches and thoughts into finished work, and to being able to share them.

Hot Contents is kindly supported by:

November marks the start of Overmorrow, an ongoing festival that I have co-developed and produced with Andrew Wilson, Calum Bayne, Ciara Lenihan, Evelyn Cromwell, gobscure, Jessica Bennett, Jenny Mc Namara and Lydia Bailey as part of The NewBridge Project's Programme Committee. Taking place between November 2020 – April 2021 the festival will include a series of commissions, talks, screenings and events which explore our collective futures with audiences, members and communities.

In an attempt to unlock the future, we need to throw open the window of our minds. Now is the time for alternative horizons that spark the imagination, the time to forge resources for resistance and pursue new possibilities, the time for building our own utopias.

The global pandemic has deeply affected our everyday lives and the way we perceive the world. It has increased precarity and uncertainty for communities and exposed a lack of equality and fairness in our societies. But history shows us that pandemics can precipitate radical change. They open up moments of societal, political and cultural flux as citizens seek to redress the deep-seated problems of their times. For many, there can be no going back to ‘normal’ when normal is deeply unsettling, unjust and unsustainable.

The pre-Covid-19 world had become accustomed to the status quo, consenting to iniquitous and exploitative hierarchies through the foreclosure of alternative possibilities. We watched as voracious capitalists plundered the earth and our experiences to feed their insatiable lust for exponential growth and shareholder profits. As neoliberal economics colonised every aspect of society and hyper-normalised its covetous and individualistic rational. As this amoral life-order sacrificed the natural world in its idolisation of materialism and consumerism. Many protested, but the world acquiesced. We had buried utopia, out of ignorance that prevented us from imagining a new world.

Overmorrow will aid us in our quest to reimagine our futures and how we might chart a new path from the present. Exploring science-fiction as a tool for fictioning new possibilities, it will consider the futures we have lost and those we can still pursue. It will contemplate the public spaces of tomorrow and think about how the Pandemic has highlighted the problems in society that stand between us and utopia. We’ll be using this within our programme to challenge the competitive structures of the art world and consider the future of art and arts organisations.

‘It’s not a finished utopia that we ought to desire, but a world where imagination and hope are alive and
active’ - Bertrand Russell.

Throughout this programme we would like to foster practical conversation that acknowledges discomfort, embodies varied agendas and recognises privilege, breaks down silos and, ultimately, creates a space for a new kind of growth. Through collective dialogues, together we can proactively and collectively shape the future we want.

Find out more here.

I have added my endorsement to Julie's Bicycle's Letter to the Secretary of State asking for a Just and Green Cultural Recovery from COVID-19:

Dear Secretary of State, 

We are writing to urge you to make the cultural recovery a just and green cultural recovery. 

Along with many others in the UK the creative and cultural community has been badly hit; lives have been lost, buildings are dark, festivals are empty fields, tours are stationary, and thousands of people and business suppliers dependent on culture have shut up shop. Coronavirus has exposed deep-seated social and economic inequalities.

What we decide now will create the sustainable foundations for the future; we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a resilient recovery plan that is fair and tackles the climate and ecological crisis with urgency. We cannot let this opportunity pass us by.

Before the pandemic the creative and cultural sector was contributing £111.7 billion to the UK economy – greater than the automotive, aerospace, life sciences, oil and gas industries combined – employing over two million people and growing at 5 times the rate of the economy as a whole. The sector is of national and international significance but not just to the economy; aside from soft power and tourism, we generate civic and community cohesion and well-being. Our track record in climate action is also of international significance. Thousands of artists and organisations from across the creative spectrum have been championing climate action for many years, not least because Arts Council England has undertaken the largest cultural programme of environmental literacy anywhere in the world, and is the first national funding body to make environmental requirements a condition of funding. Having already shown our commitment to environmental action we want the cultural recovery to be a fair, just and green recovery.

The cultural community is ready to galvanise its power to drive change.

We urge government to commit to a rapid, just and green cultural recovery combining targeted public investment, clear policy signals, and implementation of Climate Change Act obligations extended to the Cultural Renewal strategy. We urge that action to protect nature and biodiversity is given the attention it so urgently deserves. And we urge that the singular opportunity to tackle systemic barriers to empowerment that many black and minority people experience, not least across the culture and environment sectors, are prioritised. This last point goes to the heart of a just transition.

The UK’s leadership matters. Whilst the UN COP 26 climate negotiations have been rescheduled for November 2021, we still have to fulfil our 2020 commitments and show increased ambition. Every month we delay action is a lost opportunity to establish the frameworks and investment commitments which demonstrate our dedication. The cultural community will do whatever we can; we hope you use these months well, and help us to help you lead.

We ask that:

1/ The Cultural Renewal Task Force prioritise a rapid, just and green recovery, with designated representation on every sub-group. A just transition must be woven into all themes to ensure that those who have been left out, and the freelance creative workforce are taken fully into account.

2/ The recommendation from the Committee on Climate Change that legally binding “net-zero policy [is] embedded across all levels and departments of Government” is adopted by DCMS and the UK put in place policies to meet its current fourth and fifth carbon budgets which we are currently not on track to meet. 

3/ Public cultural compliancy and funding requirements are aligned to net zero requirements and promote biodiversity, and that larger organisations adopt explicit science-based net zero pathways. 

4/ Any national Green Recovery plan is sector-specific to include the creative and cultural sector, with a focus on inclusion, place-making and communities, including strong incentives for space for nature. 

5/ Specific R&D funds are designated for the creative and cultural community to benefit from interdisciplinary knowledge and partnerships which result in fit-for-purpose and future-proofed cultural services and products. 

6/ A cross-cutting government Task force on Green Creative Skills and Curriculum Reform is created, with representation from Department for Education, Department for Enterprise, Innovation and Skills, and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs encompassing environmental and cultural expertise to prepare the future cultural workforce adequately. 

Yours sincerely, 

Tony Wadsworth CBE, Chairman
Alison Tickell, Chief Executive