Saturday 7 September 2019

Jacquie Campbell - groving in Bury St Edmunds


This morning Jacquie Campbell announced a micro nature reserve in Looms Lane, prompting a response from poet Phil Barrett and Astra Papachristodoulou. 

I see a voice

A mouthpiece, a chink, an aperture, a hole in air, a hole in the wall;
Let’s get some cash out and leave a note – an IOU –
or put something in – a message in a bottle (if only to ourselves) –
in this small hideaway, this little hidey-hole, a crucible for making lead into gold.

A brick house, a round arch, a circular hole, a wheel of fortune.
Let’s spell it out – there’s nowhere left for us to go, and nowhere too small
for a nature reserve, a concept – considered or ill-conceived – concealed
in this last remaining hole. Are we big enough to take it on?

A smaller world that doesn’t exist yet, but will – and they don’t come
much smaller than this. Small enough to create its own horizons, and
close enough to look over or through. (But what’s on the other side?)
Does it matter? Does any hole make a home? (Except for you or me,

for whom time is running out – We’re running-out of homes!) Key stories, key facts,
key words, key holes, key stones, not a place to live in; a bee house, or bee hive,
a Borrowers’ hideaway, a place to grow up in, a gap between two holes or two
worlds. With a ring for the finger, a ball for a toe, and we shall have music

where ever we go; the soundtrack for a broken world, a world divided into two;
as re-inventing the wheel, round and round we go – the wheels on the bus;
the wheels of the world, a whole world, or a world in a hole, a hole in one,
symbolising a beginning or an end, a new horizon. A space or a ship,

a clean sheet or a clean shirt – the shirt off our backs – but where to now?
Where do we go? The down-ward spiral or slide, like a rolling stone. A deep place
or space, or a shallow hole, a natural place to hide in, a peep or pin or loop hole,
a place to hideout or a place to let go – on the way to somewhere else, with

somewhere else still to go. In or out, two sides of a gap between two holes. So,
where to next? – we’ve got (a lot) to learn, about making holes – and can’t conceive
of the consequences of such a world, where the inhabitants have had to leave,
have all flown, leaving an empty seedpod or shell, like an open door; a conker,
or canker, or this fallen apple, without a core.

Phil Barrett


mosaico

brickwork
brickwork bend
nestle - mend
around the curves
it seeks refuge

Astra Papachritodoulou


Jacquie Campbell As someone who is simultaneously baffled and fascinated by the everyday world, my art practice allows me to explore the questions that niggle at the back of my mind.  Often these questions focus on the entanglement of people, process and place.

​Recently I’ve become absorbed with those overlooked and often fleeting, opportunistic habitats that open up in the cracks and detritus of our built surroundings. How might a passer-by be invited  to experience and get to know these hidden places and processes? Would a different way of knowing our surroundings open up new and playful environmental thinking? For more details see www.jaccampbell.com Instagram @jaccampbellrojo Twitter @RojoArtists

Phil Barrett
taught art for 27 years, then retired to his home county of Norfolk where he concentrates on writing. He teaches creative writing, in schools and libraries across North Norfolk. He has won prizes and commendations in national competitions, and has been published in anthologies including In Protest: 150 poems for Human Rights (2013), Word Aid Anthologies Did I Tell You? (2010), and Not Only The Dark (2011), the Ink, Sweat and Tears webzine, and Poems in the Waiting Room in 2016 and 2019. In January 2017 he published a book of poems, Writing Me, about growing-up. ​​

​Astra Papachristodoulou, artist and poet, is a recent graduate from the MA Creative Writing (Poetic Practice) at Royal Holloway. She has read at poetry events including the European Poetry Festival and The Enemies Project. Her poetry has appeared in small magazines and anthologies including The Tangerine, Eborakon Journal and 3:am Magazine. Astra delivers experimental poetry workshops at the University for the Creative Arts and freelances for the Poetry Society. She won the Pebeo Mixed Media Art Prize in 2016, and her visual work has been showcased at contemporary art exhibitions including the National Poetry Library (Southbank Centre) and the Museum of Futures in London. 



Thursday 5 September 2019

Sarah Sabin - groving exhibition in Bury St Edmunds


Today we have a multiple of four exquisite works by Sarah Sabin, which have been placed in The Great Churchyard, amongst the trees, gravestones and monuments. Words in response are by Sue Burge. 


Imperative

            twist the pale lid – an anti-clockwise moon
            unfurl the tight spiral of fine weave
            use your unpricked fingertips
            to trace each careful silk-sewn ridge

            wind the ashes of a small and fineboned thing
            you didn’t mean to kill
            into the cloth’s dark heart

            twist the pale lid – a clockwise moon
            suspend your disbelief for seven days
            press your ear to the light tight grain
            listen for a quiet and forgiving flutter
            a ready steady beat

            turn and release

Sue Burge


Sarah Sabin is an artist and educator living and working  in Colchester. My work has been concerned for a number of years with 'digging about under the surface.' I interpret and reimagine places and their histories, through making, public participation, and site specific projects. I use a wide range of media in two and three dimensions. I don't like to pin myself down to a particular material, often choosing what feels to me, most appropriate or with a connection to a particular  site.

Sarah studied BA  Fine Art at  Sunderland University and has an MA fine art at NUA - Norwich university of the Arts. Previous Commissions, exhibitions and residencies include Firstsite, Colchester; the Foundling Museum, London; UCL institute of archaeology;, and a grove residency. She is currently working on a public realm architectural intervention. See www.sarahsabin.co.uk

Sue Burge is a North Norfolk based poet and freelance tutor in creative writing and film studies.  Her first collection In the Kingdom of Shadows was published in 2018 alongside her debut pamphlet Lumiere.
For more information go to www.sueburge.uk


Tuesday 3 September 2019

Deborah Pipe - groving in Bury St Edmunds


Deborah Pipe's second horse and clay sculpture has found a niche in the abbey ruins in Bury St Edmunds. Two responses have been written, by Astra Papachristodoulou and Amilia Graham.


I Predicted Both 

Out of rubble
stones turn

into tableaux-

The horses were rising

A horde of limbs
recast as a
unified body.

Anthem for a new form.

Amilia Graham



metamorphoses

moving sand horses
caught in moving land
moment to moment
lands caught in manic
rage of moving lands
moondrifts the horses
moonshines the sand
concrete sand-drifts
creating momentum

Astra Papachristodoulou


Deborah Pipe focuses on the dynamics of clay and considering the responsiveness and tactile opportunities of other 3D materials. She is currently investigating the often grotesque images and marginalia found in early manuscripts and in architectural features. After a career working in mental health services she is highly conscious of art as a media for social change and a form of self-expression and healing. The multi-disciplinary and responsive nature of groving and opportunity to make social comment made the invitation to join this project particularly attractive and exciting.

Amilia Graham is interested in the way capitalism informs relationships between humans and nature. She works across all different mediums, but is primarily drawn to time-based practices such as writing and film. Her research draws from psychoanalysis, film theory, feminism and Marxism. She has completed a foundation in art and design at Central St Martins and will soon begin a degree in fine art and history of art at Goldsmiths. See www.amiliagraham.uk and Twitter @AmiliaGraham

Astra Papachristodoulou, artist and poet, is a recent graduate from the MA Creative Writing (Poetic Practice) at Royal Holloway. She has read at poetry events including the European Poetry Festival and The Enemies Project. Her poetry has appeared in small magazines and anthologies including The Tangerine, Eborakon Journal and 3:am Magazine. Astra delivers experimental poetry workshops at the University for the Creative Arts and freelances for the Poetry Society. She won the Pebeo Mixed Media Art Prize in 2016, and her visual work has been showcased at contemporary art exhibitions including the National Poetry Library (Southbank Centre) and the Museum of Futures in London. 


Alban Low - groving in Bury St Edmunds


Alban Low's second sculpture, I would prefer a fair trial, under the shadow of the noose, is skulking in Whiting Street, words by Amilia Graham and Tim Welton.

Foreign Bodies

I have seen the weird animals
and the little white flowers
with divine appendages

In the whites of the eyes-
I have seen them in your eyes.

Hold them inside, under the skin.
Let rot.
Go stale.
Let them in.

Amilia Graham 

----------------------------------------------
In the land of Cockaigne
The triple towers of Mammon
Rise to the clouds
From roots in grow-bags
Of corporate snow
Dead presidents
Scowl
From their lofty penthouse
At pavement trash
 In the shadow of the noose
Eager hearts
Chattering like parrots
Trade weightless pounds
At the speed of electrons
Ignoring the dull cries of
Doorway beggars
Feeding from the same trough
 Binary lives
Ones and zeros
Side by side
High flyers and street bums
Drop a dot and slide down
The smoking chimneys pots
From skyscraper to street
The climb is slower than the descent
But one end to the other
Is just a step away

Tim Welton


Alban Low is involved in many creative projects including album artwork, publishing chapbooks, making films, maps, conceptual exhibitions, live performance and good old drawing. He is artist-in-residence at the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education at Kingston University and St George's University of London. Low spends his evenings in the jazz clubs of London where he captures the exhilaration of live performances in his sketchbook. This year he is working on a walking project about London Musicians from the 1920s-1940s. In 2018 he spent a week at grove with Kevin Acott where they published two chapbooks. See http://albanlow.com

Amilia Graham is interested in the way capitalism informs relationships between humans and nature. She works across all different mediums, but is primarily drawn to time-based practices such as writing and film. Her research draws from psychoanalysis, film theory, feminism and Marxism. She has completed a foundation in art and design at Central St Martins and will soon begin a degree in fine art and history of art at Goldsmiths. See www.amiliagraham.uk and Twitter @AmiliaGraham

Tim Welton is a theatre practitioner who, as an actor and director has worked on numerous productions including Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Royal National Theatre) London Road (Royal National Theatre) Dancing at Lughnasa (Garrick Theatre) and Cabaret (Lyric and Savoy Theatre and National Tours).

He has written for theatre (Carnival UK) and online digital media (BBC Radio Jam) and is currently developing and writing new musical commissions with Three Pin Productions, the brainchild of West End Performer Ruthie Henshall and Musical Director Paul Schofield.


Monday 2 September 2019

Chris Brown - groving / Acts of Resistance


Chris Brown's intriguing collage has been left in a gap in the stonework in The Traverse. The response is by Ed Arantus. 

Poppin' pills is the kowtow
Ride the hills we all know
Eat them on a Sunday
More again on Monday
Highs lowkey at the freak show
My Mum says it’s a no-no
But she’s just jumpin’ on her coco
We’re kickin', we’re shakin', more tremblin'
Don't be lost kin, cos’ we dyin', soon fryin'
Anything can happen at the freak show

High town, you got a big bung like a number one
It's freak night, one big freak show
If you feel like a roll, I found this place where
Poppin' pills is the love we know

Ed Arantus


Chris Brown is an artist and filmmaker. He has worked as an art therapist in the NHS and as a lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is currently a freelance clinical supervisor and an editor for ATOL: Art Therapy OnLine. See http://journals.gold.ac.uk/index.php/atol/index,  https://vimeo.com/channels/theuncproj


Ed Arantus published his first work in the Censored Zine in 2010 and has exhibited his work ever since at venues like the Contemporary Arts Research Unit in Oxford and the Museum of Futures in Surbiton. Earlier this year he was a writer for the Love Tokens and Bad Pennies exhibition with CollectConnect. See  http://edarantus.blogspot.com/ and twitter @edarantus


Sunday 1 September 2019

Bryan Benge - groving / Acts of Resistance


Bryan Benge's second badge is propped uneasily in a window in the disused Cornhill Walk, words by Lynda Turbet.

Notice

This facility is provided by
the British government for
your convenience.

Please dispose of your
unwanted items
carelessly eg:

open borders
free trade
foreign investment
strong sterling
moral leadership
international respect
a United Kingdom
(and democracy)

Flying pigs will remove to
sunlit uplands and/or
uncharted waters
at midnight
31 October 2019

Lynda Turbet


Bryan Benge has exhibited widely, including with the London Group, and recently in In The Dark, The Cello Factory, London; The Art of Caring, St Georges Hospital, London in 2018 and 2019; Penrith Gallery, St Ives; Pulchri Studio, The Hague. He has work in numerous private collections, and in the Tate Gallery Archive. See www.bryanbenge.co.uk

Lynda Turbet observes the world from North Norfolk and tries make sense of it all through writing.


Simon Brewster - groving / Acts of Resistance


Simon Brewster's second artwork contrasts with another figurative sculpture in the vicinity of the cathedral, eliciting an intriguing response from Tim Welton.

​Jessica blinked her eyes and tried to waken her senses. It wasn’t that she found the services in the Citadel boring; on the contrary she mostly looked forward to the rambling stories read from the old brown leather book; but today she felt as if a fog was lying heavy in her head. The slow voice of the minister plodded on and showed no sign of being able to burn away the numbing haze, so Jessica resigned herself to drifting in the currents of the half-sung language; that strange vernacular that only the devout use. Ancient and arcane phrases, which sound familiar, but resist clear comprehension and so lend an impression of awe and solidity.

Today the congregation were being reminded of the story of the Sacrificial Council. One of the four cornerstones of the New Religion. She looked around the Citadel. There must be a statue or painting of it somewhere. There were in most Citadels. Her mother would have shuddered; she who never really appreciated the beauty of the five branched gibbet. She thought it was a gloomy image and she couldn’t understand why a religion could be based on something so ghoulish. Jessica understood. Every religion has a dark core, the acknowledgement and acceptance of which allows us to see the beauty in the world. She smiled at the memory of the countless times she had won that particular argument with her mother; and then frowned as she momentarily doubted whether the conviction was actually her own or whether it had been placed there during the long Citadel study classes.

Her eyes fell on the lower left chancel step. There it was. The statue with the blue core and copper branches and the disgraced Council in their traditional white hanging from the twining coil of the metal gallows tree.

She loved the name of the five council members. Tod, Rob, Slave, Bunter and Cray

But as she stared at the icon she was forced to blink her eyes again, although this time not to ward off her drowsiness but to check whether what she thought she saw was true. Why had she never noticed this before? She knew the tale by heart. How the five council members had taken the town to the brink of destruction;  how five men had used their power and position to plunder the copper from beneath the town for their own profit leaving the inhabitants broken and reeling; but also how five men, when confronted with their transgression, chose this unique and honourable form of mutual sacrifice to show penance to their wronged people.

She was sure that she had looked before at the small but perfect representation of the story, which now stood on the lower left chancel steps. But what she had never noticed was that here, one of the disgraced men had been replaced by a woman…

Tim Welton


Simon Brewster has an MA in Fine Art from Central St Martins College of Art & Design. He exhibits widely, including solo shows at W3 Gallery, Exposure Gallery, Pitzhanger Manor and the Royal Institute in London. This year he has exhibited in Thought Atlas and Cabinet at Espacio Gallery in London. See www.simonbrewsterart.com and Instagram simonbrewster99

Tim Welton is a theatre practitioner who, as an actor and director has worked on numerous productions including Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Royal National Theatre) London Road (Royal National Theatre) Dancing at Lughnasa (Garrick Theatre) and Cabaret (Lyric and Savoy Theatre and National Tours).

He has written for theatre (Carnival UK) and online digital media (BBC Radio Jam) and is currently developing and writing new musical commissions with Three Pin Productions, the brainchild of West End Performer Ruthie Henshall and Musical Director Paul Schofield