First Fridays happen (surprise!) on the first Friday of every month. First Fridays is a gathering place for artists or anyone interested in the arts, an opportunity to share food and talk. Each month, after lunch, there is an informal presentation of work in progress by one or two artists who may be local or from far away.
The Zoom link will be published here about a week before the event. You don’t need to let us know if you’re coming – just come along and join in. Normally we spend the first hour at a shared lunch (bring something to share!) but in the age of pestilence we are doing things differently.
May’s First Friday has sharings by image-maker Carol Sharp and Harriet & Rob Fraser (somewhere-nowhere) and Amanda Wallwork.
Here is the chat from the session
somewhere-nowhere
Writer Harriet Fraser and photographer Rob Fraser work together through their practice somewhere-nowhere (www.somewhere-nowhere.com). Over the past ten years they’ve added film-making, ‘open fell’ poetry and installations into their practice, which has seen them work on several projects in Cumbria, and in Yorkshire, Dartmoor, the Wye Valley, Illinois and a range of places in between. They’re driven by a curiosity about nature and culture in rural places and the role ‘art’ can play in bringing together, and bridging, different viewpoints. They’ll share some examples of their work, chat about how they’ve adapted (or not!) through the pandemic, and introduce the new PLACE Collective (www.theplacecollective.org) at the UK’s Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas.
Amanda Wallwork – Unseen Landscapes
Amanda Wallwork is an artist and curator working with environment, heritage and collaborations between artists and scientists. She is Co Artistic Director for b-side, supporting artists making work in response to the isle of Portland, Dorset for the biennial b-side festival.
Her own arts practice is a continuing enquiry into landscape – a quest for a real understanding of what lies beyond the aesthetic. Emerging from a process of immersion, extraction and abstraction, the work is a form of mapping or symbolisation of time and place. Her work attempts to reveal what is not always immediately apparent, what can’t always be seen on the surface.
She will be talking about her recent work exploring geological deep time and how the rock beneath our feet, that we barely give much thought to, stores the data of landscapes millions of years ago – and the beauty of being able to decode that.
Instagram: amanda_wallwork
image:
Three works from the Jurassic Coast series
185 Milion Years – A colour Code for the Jurassic Coast, Oil and plaster on board, 200 x 40cm
West Cliff , Oil and plaster on board, 200 x 100cm
East Cliff, Oil and plaster on board, 200 x 80cm
Carol Sharp
Carol will discuss ideas for a project to look at how we can re-embody a long lost role as a co-evolutionary partner, rather than a gene controller, through carrying out mindful seed saving and community sharing. Carol’s practise explores our inability to embrace plants as kin, and aims to heal that disconnection.
Above image: Clouted sheep in yard (somewhere-nowhere)
Top image: somewhere-nowhere ‘Each Act Matters’ (somewhere-nowhere)
If you’re new to Zoom and would like a little primer, we’ve made one which you’ll find here.
DATA PROTECTION NOTE The First Friday sessions are recorded and uploaded to the website as are the contents of the chat window. Please be aware that anything you contribute will be in this public forum.