One of our artists, Sa’adiah Khan at Thrifts Walk Studios, is taking part in True Tales for Change – A Project for a Fairer Future, an art project about inequality in Cambridge.
The exhibition will be hosted at The Escape Room in the Grafton Centre from January 11th–13th (12-5pm), with storytelling workshopsleading up to it.
There will be limited space for the launch event on January 11th, so please book your spot via: tiny.cc/TrueTalesforChange
The Art Salon is co-ordinating a Family Arts Fundraising Seminar, as part of the Cambridge Art Salon’s community engagement (the Art Salon Foundation), on March 1st, at Kettle’s Yard – all artists at the spaces with an interest in family arts and fundraising are welcome to come.
There are a growing list of speakers talking on fundraising tools and models, sharing good practice on ways to fundraise, plus a chance for organisations and artists to explore collaborative approaches to fundraising. Karen Jinks, founding member and Jane Swadling Chair of Children’s Charity Week, will be talking on ways that all organisations and artists working with children in Cambridge, could benefit from their appeal.
The seminar is supported by national campaign body Family Arts Campaign and Arts and Philanthropy. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.
Please register interest in your place by emailing ruthie@cambridgeartsalon.org.uk
‘A lot of the work is to do with wanting to find a balanced relationship between what you could call the vicissitudes of the changing nature of our moods and our motivations – the “What am I doing?” “Am in charge?” “Is this my life?”
Anthony Gormley is talking to us about his current solo show at Kettle’s Yard, SUBJECT, the focus of our next Pearls of Wisdom Social Club. Running until the 27th August, the exhibition explores our relationship to space and our sense of self, plus asks who and what art is for.
‘Sculpture’, he says, ‘once you bolt it to the wall, can give you a little place, a little ledge, that is solid, where you can register your changing moods about everything. Having a place that is connected, but separate. Like this space, the gallery. Sculpture is like that, galleries are like that. A place apart.’
‘It’s like a meteorite in human form, he says, of EDGE, an iron sculpture which really caught our eye, which you can see in Gallery 2. ‘Iron is very dense. Its magnetic field is what allows us to spin. It’s a concentrated earth material – it has a fundamental relationship with the body that our bodies depend upon, which is the planet.’
EDGE was a hit at the Pearls of Wisdom Social Club itself, with visitors from Cambridge Manor Care Home and the fabulous Turtle Dove team, all exploring reactions to works and the exhibition. After a quick talk from Karen Thomas, we headed into the galleries to enjoy the show – and explore how the works made us feel. ‘It makes me want to swing from it like a monkey!’ said, Kate, of Turtle Dove.
Infinite Cube II, on show in the UK for the first time, made of a one-way mirror glass and 1000 LED lights, was very popular. ‘It’s like every time you look at it, there’s so much going on in such a confined space, says Fran. ‘It’s dazzling’, Margaret from Cambridge Manor tells us. ‘I liked the lights, they made me think of the Northern Lights’. Gormley himself advises peering up at it from the floor, where the view is apparently ‘endless’!
Afterwards, we enjoyed a nice cuppa back in the Learning Studio and met up with artist Jo Miller, experimenting with clay, to play with our own sense of space and proportion – with some fabulous results.
We shared what art is for and celebrated our own voices, on this sometimes mysterious subject. How walking around the show, it’s you, your perceptions, that bring it to life.
Interview with Anthony Gormley, Fran Smith and Ruthie Collins. Photos – Fran Smith.
Pearls of Wisdom Social Club returns to Kettle’s Yard in September.
We are looking forward to bringing our Art Salon Cafe to the Arts Area at Strawberry Fair. Come along and have a mocktail with us, or a strawberry tea! We have vegan brownies, flapjacks, cakes and vegan tartlets – all lovingly prepared by volunteers and served up by a team of sparkling mermaids – proceeds supporting our work in the community. We have a new illuminated Art Salon sign made by Dan Biggs, plus an Eco Glitter Colour Bath for you to get bathed in colour and glitter. There’s an acoustic jam 12-1pm, facepainting during Kids Disco Hour (1-2pm) – fancy dress welcome, heroes is this year’s theme for the fair! – with DJ Glitterbeardyman, plus the chance to catch the Soapbox Scientists outside for Women In Science Happy Hours – 2pm-5pm, plus we have a call out for tapes to play on our ghettoblaster for Tape Hour (5pm – 6pm) – dig out your tapes.
We also have recyclable Art Graffiti Cups, plus live art from Sadi Soul Arts!
The Arts Area is next to the Kids’ Park and the nearest buildings to us are the houses on North Terrace. We’re in front of them. Look at the link to find your way:
The Eastern Bloco Arts Area is a loose afilliation of activist artists, who through a wide range of mediums, from film, found objects, textiles, painting, site specific, spoken word and combinations of all of the above, highlight and raise awareness of issues surrounding them.
This is the last week of Actions. The image of the world can be different (part II) which closes on May 7th, featuring works such as Caroline Walker’s solo project of portraits of women refugees in London, ‘Home’.
So for our last Pearls of Wisdom Social Club we explored ideas of ‘home’, with Turtle Dove and Manor Care Home hearing a fascinating talk from Kettle’s Yard archivist Freda Midgley on the curated homes of Jim and Helen Ede. We also watched a short clip from documentary by Cary Parker, ‘The Secret of Kettle’s Yard’, before visiting the Kettle’s Yard House itself, looking for objects with stories.
The documentary touched on how with the secrets held in the house, you can learn more about through asking the staff there – there’s a real oral tradition of anecdotes connected to the pieces, passed down through over the years. Like this piece, we discovered was made by Jim Ede’s granddaughter, which you can find behind in the bathroom of the house.
Andrew and Audrey from Manor care home absolutely loved their visit to the house.
We finished off with tea and cake with Turtle Dove and making home inspired ‘pearls’, asking what makes a home? Home is made by ‘the people’ in it. The smell of freshly made coffee and warm bread. A nice cup of tea. Somewhere that’s been worn in, a place that feels like it has character without anyone there…
This week, our new photographer for Pearls of Wisdom Social Club and myself also popped in to see Caroline Walker’s ‘Home’, project.
We loved reading the interviews with the women and learning more about their stories which really bring the paintings to life. The stories can be found in plenty of easy to read folders, in Gallery 2.
We also caught John Akomfrah’s award winning film ‘Auto Da Fé’ (‘Act of Faith’), capturing the re-enacted journeys of asylum seekers from throughout history – from multiple faiths.
‘It makes you realise how lucky you are, how much you have’.
Actions. the image of the world can be different (part II) runs until May 7th. You can see the next show at Kettle’s Yard, Antony Gormley’s ‘SUBJECT’, as part of Pearls of Wisdom Social Club on Tuesday May 29th, 2pm-3.30pm.
Our home inspired ‘pearls’ are being turned into bunting that will decorate our pop up Art Salon Cafe in the Arts Area of Strawberry Fair, on June 2nd.
Words and images: @RuthieCollins @CambArtSalon
For the next Pearls of Wisdom Social Club at Kettle’s Yard, Manor Care Home and new visitor to the club Dom Mulvey explored the cross-over between writing and art, looking at Idris Khan’s ‘Letters’ (2018), in Actions. the image of the world can be different (part 1) as a starting point. The piece is one of 9 pieces by different artists, was created especially for the reopening of Kettle’s Yard. It features stamped extracts from Gabo’s 1944 letter which inspired the title of the show, and Herbert Read’s reply.
The mix between art and writing is fascinating. Roland Barthe, as many students of English Literature may well know – one of Idris Khan’s influences, deconstructs the way words are signs, made up of both image and meaning. I talked through some of the ways I’ve used text as a writer, in art installations and mixed media pieces, plus exhibiting interviews with artists such as Yoko Ono, plus inspirational women in the community as ‘visual writing’.
It’s easy to make your own mixed media works using magazines or newspapers – go for colours or images that catch your eye, or pull out key phrases or words that make you think. Let yourself be guided by a sense of surprise, critique, newness and beauty. We looked at using magazines, glitter, glue, text and images to create mixed media ‘pearls’, to join our interactive art pearl that we used during our last Pearls of Wisdom Postcards project.
Dom loved his mixed media piece, which raises all sorts of questions about what what it means to be a man. ‘I loved the whole club, it was really interesting’, he said, afterwards.
Cambridge Manor had a great time making mixed media pearls, too, layering their own ‘pearls of wisdom’ with mixed media, text, images and words.
Words: Ruthie Collins, Images: Karen Thomas
‘To be that active, that active imaginative, that creative, at such a, shall we say, a pretty old age, is absolutely marvellous,’
Ellen-Grace Halsall is talking about artist Naum Gabo, at our first of our Pearls of Wisdom Social Club at Kettle’s Yard. We absolutely agree. This is our new community collaboration between the Art Salon and Kettle’s Yard Open House that brings old and young together through art, at this monthly social club for ages 0-100!
It’s the fourth Pearls of Wisdom project we’ve run, so it is a pleasure to welcome back Turtle Dove, who helped us with our first ever Pearls of Wisdom Tea Dance, at Ditchburn Place in 2015 as part of the BBC Get Creative Family Arts Festival – and will be joining the club every month. For our first session, we also had the Cambridge lead for Mothers Who Make, a national network for mother artists, Vanessa Ackerman, who dropped in with her son, too, plus another artist Belgin Bodur, and her daughter. We welcome care home Cambridge Manor, who are also regulars at the club, plus Cambridge City Council’s Broadening Horizons group.
Community Officer Karen Thomas, gave a spotlight talk on five works in particular – by Mary Kelly, Naum Gabo, Melanie Manchot, Rana Begum and Nathan Coley, included in the current show at Kettle’s Yard, Actions. The image of the world can be different. We all popped round to have a look at the works for ourselves, before gathering back to chat about the show over tea and coffee served by Turtle Dove.
Rana Begum’s stunning installation No. 764 Baskets, was a favourite (despite it being a dust trap). ‘I like the baskets. I love the round baskets not all in a uniform position. They reminded me of shells,’ said artist Ros Rolandson from Broader City Horizons, who described it as a ‘masterpiece’. ‘I think it’s charming but a rather large dust collector. I like the different weaving of the baskets and the different colours of the weave,’ she added.
Melanie Manchot’s portraits of Bangladeshi women living in Cambridge, taken in places in the city they’d never been to before, were also very popular. ‘Wonderful, so smooth, so lovely,’ said Margaret, from Cambridge Manor, talking on some of textures, the fabric and the wood, captured in her portraits The Ladies (Wren Library) and The Ladies (King’s Dining Hall). ‘These are my favourite. The mixture of progress and history really resonates with me,’ commented James, Cambridge Manor’s Community Development Manager. However, the contrasts explored in the works didn’t always feel comfortable: ‘the colours are so bright, they contrast well, but so do the women with the location – you can tell they are unfamiliar with the space by looking at their body language,’ felt Belgin.
‘Is it a statement, or a comment on how we all end, being situated in a graveyard?’ asked Karen Thomas, while talking on Nathan Coley’s The Same for Everyone– which greets you as soon as you arrive at Kettle’s Yard. ‘To me it says we are all the same, we are all equal, in death whether we are rich or poor, clever, educated or illiterate. We will all end up the same way,’ thought Barbara, from Broader City Horizons. Not everyone was keen. ‘I’m not so keen on the message outside the church, I don’t believe that everything should be the same for everyone,’ thought Celia, from Broader City Horizons. ‘It sounds a bit communistic.’
Mary Kelly’s Love Songs: Flashing Nipple Remix, caused lively debate and discussion on the position of women today. ‘I didn’t like this piece. It seemed to me that they were being discriminated against because they were women.’ Barbara told us. ‘Eventually they became rubbed out.’ Turtle Dove’s young women had a lot of thoughts on the piece, too. ‘A lot of young women are pushed into those pageant competitions. Kids. Like with prostitution, sometimes people see it as they only way out – but it’s the wrong way. It’s not good,’ they said.
Naum Gabo’s Linear Construction in Space No. 1, and Linear Construction in Space No. 2 were very popular with Celia, as well as Ellen, from Broader City Horizons. ‘The piece of work I like the most was the linear construction, I liked that very much,’ said Celia. ‘And of course, to have the eye sight at that age to do that very fine work’, admired Ellen – very impressive indeed.
Plus, Robin at Cambridge Manor, provoked some controversy by asking if the shelves in the Learning Studio were part of the exhibition, describing them as ‘utilitarian’.
We finished up making our own actions to make the world a better place!
Pearls of Wisdom Social Club runs on the last Tuesday of every month, 2pm – 3.30pm – email karen@kettlesyard.ac.uk or ruthie@cambridgeartsalon.org.uk to attend, groups, families or individuals, welcome.
Special thanks for support from charity Care Network Cambridgeshire for helping us spread the word on the Pearls of Wisdom Social Club.
Words: @RuthieCollins Images: Karen Thomas and Victor Ibanez.
Over fifty eight and nine year old children at The Grove Primary School have won the High Sheriff Award, as administered by Cambridgeshire Community Foundation, for participating in a project that aims to bring together old and young residents in the city through art run by Care Network Cambridge and Cambridge Art Salon.
As part of Pearls of Wisdom Postcards, elderly residents in Cambridge from Cambridge Manor Carehome and St Martins Day Centre generously contributed their own pearls of wisdom, to children at The Grove Primary School – little nuggets of wisdom, for the younger generation, such as ‘Don’t Waste Time’, ‘Save For A Rainy Day’, or ‘Kindness Costs Nothing’. The school children then created artworks in response to the pearls, with help from artists at Cambridge Art Salon, for an exhibition and pack of postcards that the public can see and buy at Stir Cafe, throughout from December 1stuntil January 11th.
100 packs of cards of 8 of the children’s designs are available for sale for £2 each at the popular CB4 based Stir cafe – with a #pearlchallenge to send postcards to family members and loved ones, to celebrate family and friendship. Participants are invited to buy postcards and post on social media their messages to friends and family, as part of the challenge.
Participating artists based at North Cambridge art space Thrifts Walk Studios and East Cambridge’s UNIT 13, include Sa’adiah Khan, Daisy Tempest, Sukey Sleeper and Cathy Dunbar. The project was produced by writer Ruthie Collins who interviewed older residents for their pearls, with help from Cambridge Art Salon volunteer Victor Ibanez, Care Network Cambs and staff at Manor Care Home and St Martins Day Centre.
Cambridge Art Salon currently has three new workspaces coming up for artists from different backgrounds to share with a painter and illustrator. Please get in touch to express interest. We’re particularly keen to support those who support our ethos of equal access to art in the community. To apply, please email info@cambridgeartsalon.org.uk
‘I found the advice and support from the entire team at the Cambridge Art Salon really invaluable.’
Jo Randall, photographer
What inspired the name of the show?
I have always been interested in consumerism and have often tinkered about with words and their phonetic sounds when I have titled work – The words have to lend themselves to the art piece and what it is engaging with. The show presents a selection of works that reflect upon the state of the world at the time of the global economic downturn of 2008. Some of my pieces use mirrors explicitly for this reason as part of the visual language and I thought it would be fitting to use an ‘it-does-what-it-says-on-the-tin’ approach towards the name of the show.
Who or what are your influences?
I am heavily influenced by pre modern artists such as Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel and love the works of Dadaist and Surrealist Max Ernst – I love collage and am fascinated with some of the mark making techniques such as ‘decalcomania’ that Ernst and Salvador Dali employed in their work to tap into the subconscious to evoke ‘phantom images’ in the onlookers mind.
What is the role of the artist in times of austerity?
For me, it’s to encourage critical thinking about our existence and the experience of living within the creative and destructive cycles of late capitalism where everything has been commoditised – including art itself.
Who excites you right now?
Aidan Salakhova – her quasi-religious paintings and sculptures are sublime. Also, Ashley Bickerton’s composite photo/painting parodies greatly inspire me as do the exquisitely detailed screen prints of Dan Hillier that are currently being displayed at the Saatchi Gallery.
Hope for 2017?
For world peace and prosperity to all! I am also excited to continue with the work that I have been developing and photo-harvesting for the last few years, it’s called ‘No Horoscope’. It’s now in the preparatory stages where I have lots of labour intensive, digital cutting and editing of photographs to get through. The works are going to be large scale allegorical compositions engaging with themes concerning the human condition and technology.
Glyn Bateman
CONSUMIRRORISM – Reflections on Recession
16.12.16 – 19.12.16
Friday 16th December 6 – 9pm
Saturday 17th – Monday 19th December 10am – 5pm
(Limited Private viewings from 20th December)
CONSUMIRRORISM presents a selection of works that were developed during the time of the global economic downturn of 2008 – a shift from the consumer empowering, excessive commodity culture of capitalist boom time to the mirror opposite starkness of gloomy financial uncertainty, diminished consumer confidence and tightened up purse strings. In 2016, how much has changed? The works on display reflect upon the state of our world, providing commentary upon the autonomous rich, the suffering many and questions how art will fare in times of austerity.
SPAN Artist Collective: Sophie C Hill, Guiseppina Santoro-Ellwood, Adriana Forte, Neil Horsefield
2 December 2016 – 11 December 2016
Cambridge Art Salon, 1 Thrift Walk, Cambridge, CB2
Showcasing paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculpture and video by four artists working individually and then coming together to respond to each others’ work with in the gallery.
The show brings together individual work from the four artists and provides an opportunity for them to interact and respond live to the exhibited work. The artists will experiment in the space to create visual reactions to each others work in an effort to exchange ideas, deepen understanding and further possible meaning and interpretations. This will create a dynamic and changing show which the audience can enter; their own experience will depend on the daily activity, with both the art and artists on show. You will see videos, paintings, installations and photographs from four different perspectives that will encourage you to think and question the ideas and artists. You will be simultaneously in a gallery and a studio.
Sophie C Hill works with a range of materials to produce paintings and installations that ask questions about her experience as a mother and artist. Visually eclectic and playful her work should make you smile while you think.
Pina Santoro creates works using varied materials such as ceramics, plaster and paint to found objects. Her practice is concerned with culture, identity, traditions and place and displacement aiming to capture the confusion, frustration and stress of her UK born Immigrant experiences.
Adriana Forte is a conceptual artist who explores difficult and often unspoken issues around mental health and identity. She creates through a process of immersion in research; an idea is born from extensive reading and the work develops through trial and error. Language forms an important part of her work although its usage can be quite discrete.
Neil Horsefield has an easel based studio practice which uses visual language conventions associated with painting, drawing and printmaking. His work raises a reconsideration of authorship, ownership, creative territory, value, permanence and transition and narrative.
digital image from Fun Palace workshop, SPAN, 2016