A Fringe/Fringe event at Newton Park Campus BSU

On top of the programmed events and exhibitions for FaB16, a special addition to Liquid is a moving image piece by artist and curator Laura Denning, entitled Submersive Testimonies.

 

This specially commissioned 5 minute film has now gone live on the 7.3m high Media wall at Bath Spa University. You can see a live feed here, or you can visit in person at the Newton Park Campus from Friday 20th May to Monday 30th May.

This film seeks to challenge the  narrative of the global climate conversation. Global temperature is an ill-suited guide because it fails to contend with the inherently-systemic nature of climate change. Different communities experience the same event in different ways, depending on their degree of marginalisation. The people most vulnerable to climate change are simultaneously those with the least agency over policy.

In Submersive Testimony a Western businessman – someone with a great deal of agency over policy –is caught in a tempest and gradually submerged, reversing the assumption that the effects of climate change happen far away, and to others, not ‘us’.

The sonic component derives mostly from bioacoustic material – recordings directly from nature. Within the immersive symphonies of aquatic sounds, a parliament of rooks can be heard debating policy. Sounds from this intelligent and sociable species are not echoed in the visual narrative – the policy-makers are elsewhere, in a place of safety.

MediaWall is viewable 10am – 7pm for the individual members of the public. Large groups or parties cannot be accommodated during this period as there are examinations being held in the building

@MediaWallBSU  @laura_denning  @FringeArtsBath

Liquid at Cleveland Pools

TANK//BORDERLANDS//FROSTWORKS//

SOFT-FOCUS//CITIES&MEMORY//TILDE//HOT WATER//PARTING OF THE RED SEA//

LAURA HOPES//ZITA GYUROKOVICS//KLARA PETRA SZABO//JAMES SHARKK//CITIES & MEMORY//ABRIS GRYLLUS//LAURA DENNING//ERIK MATRAI

The courier from Budapest delivers Klara Petra Szabo's pieces on friday - 3 Frostworks each the same height as myself. James Sharkk is considering pasting his prints directly onto the peeling walls of the Ladies Pool. Laura Hopes (Tank) and Abris Gryllus moving image work will be as if in dialogue across a room whose ceiling has caved in. Laura Denning (thats me!) will show a multi-projection onto massive scrolls draping the kitchen walls in the old bath house. Erik Matrai's Parting of the Red Sea will form a an immersive environment in the room off the Ladies Pool. Cities & Memory will take over the only room left in the Bath House that is safe to walk around. The building is chaperoned by elegent changing rooms on either side, forming a Crescent that is punctuated at the far end by the Ladies Pool. The entire site envelops a long pool and is situated on the bank of the Avon. Just a couple of minutes from the Holbourne Museum, down a residential street, through a secret gate, follow the path down to the site and prepare to linger.

thawing, freezing, evaporating, listening

With less than a month to go the submissions are rolling in thick and fast - like breakers in a storm! Ambitious, audacious, curious and exquisite, so many of the artists coming forward are producing strong and original work and it will be a real challenge to narrow this down during the selection process. 

Remember that this exhibition includes sonic material and so if you have work that was meant for ears as well as eyes then please do get in touch.

Water, Water everywhere!

Why Liquid? Why water as a theme? Well, just take a look outside....

Water as a marker of the effects of climate change is a powerful theme, and this is one of the reasons for choosing it as a curatorial thread. Environmental concerns are one way into this theme.

There are, of course, many other ways in which artists bring water into their work and these other reasons are of great interest too. 

Ultimately, the visual or sonic impact of works submitting to this theme is important. By confining submissions to photographic, sonic and moving image work it is hoped that the show as a whole will have an integrity for visitors as they first view the show. Thereafter, individual works will compel closer engagement and visitors will remember the wow factor of the individual artists included in Liquid at Fringe Arts Bath.

As a guest curator I have an ulterior motive! A practicing artist myself, I have sought to build on a recent residency at Arts Quarter Budapest and am keen to generate a sustainable dialogue between artists in the UK and artists in Hungary. I am also motivated to seek out contexts for my own practice and to find out what other artists are doing that might relate to my own work. Selected artists won't be confined to works that closely mirror my own practice, however. Rather, it will be works which provoke, engage and disrupt my own understanding. My own work can be found here https://drawingwithwater.wordpress.com/

So I'm hungry for the opportunity to be provoked, engaged and disrupted! And am looking forward to some exciting submissions.