Summer 2018 the Forest Is the Museum the Archive of The

SUMMER 2018 THE FOREST IS THE MUSEUM THE ARCHIVE OF THE TREES ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE THE OUTDOOR INSTITUTE OF ART ASSOCIATE ARTISTS DOCUMENT WORK STEAM POWER FERMYNWOODS FRIDAYS The Forest is the Museum Celebrating Fermynwoods Contemporary THE FOREST IS THE MUSEUM will feature artists Art’s 20th anniversary and the Forestry in residence at The Arches, a Fineshade Commission’s 100th, Fermynwoods will be Wood space currently being renovated by expanding their programme to Fineshade the Forestry Commission as a project space Wood, a natural habitat and ancient mixed and artist studio. The four residencies from broadleaf and conifer woodland, heritage site 2018 to 2020 will be Edwina Fitzpatrick, and leisure facility in Northamptonshire, Justin Carter, Owl Project, plus Abigail 13 miles outside of Corby. Lane and Lala Meredith-Vula. Following an exclusive opening for FERMYNWOODS FRIENDS, The Arches will be launched at the end of summer 2018, coinciding with the culmination of the first of our artist residencies at Fineshade. To become a FERMYNWOODS FRIEND please visit www.fermynwoods.org/friends or contact us on 01832 731257 or via [email protected]. For more news about our programme please sign up to our electronic mailing list via www.fermynwoods.org/mailing-list. The Archive of the Trees EDWINA FITZPATRICK Our first artist in residence at Fineshade Wood Edwina Fitzpatrick has been investigating the forest as a living archive that traces human activity in relation to the landscape. Assisted by Swansea University’s UK Oak Project, Edwina has collected and analysed very small cores from healthy, mature trees in Fineshade Wood. Without harming the trees, the cores reveal the tree’s age, growing patterns, past weather conditions and stresses such as diseases. In effect, they are the tree’s own archive: each specimen reveals its ‘autobiography’. Working with foresters, regular visitors to Fineshade Wood and local resources, Edwina is creating THE ARCHIVE OF THE TREES – temporary sited artworks that combine Forestry Commission tree records with historical archives and local anecdotes about the weather, with the images of each tree’s Fineshade Wood secret interior archive. Near Corby NN17 3BB These can be found both within Fineshade July-October 2018 Wood itself from July 2018 and within the new Arches project space following its launch. Edwina has also documented the project with an extensive timeline of Fineshade Wood at the project website www.archiveofthetrees.co.uk Left: Anna Elizabeth, The Arches, 2018; Right Edwina Fitzpatrick, collecting core samples, 2018. Artists in Residence EDWINA FITZPATRICK JUSTIN CARTER OWL PROJECT ABIGAIL LANE & LALA MEREDITH-VULA OWL PROJECT (JANUARY-JUNE 2019) Owl Project is a collaborative group of artists consisting of Simon Blackmore, Antony Hall and Steve Symons. They work with wood and electronics to fuse sculpture and sound art, creating music-making machines, interfaces and objects, which intermix pre- steam and digital technologies. Drawing on influences such as 70s synthesiser culture, DIY woodworking, and current digital crafts, the resulting artwork is a quirky and intriguing critique of the allure and production of technology. Owl Project make a distinctive range of musical and sculptural instruments that question human interaction with computer interfaces and our increasing appetite for new and often- EDWINA FITZPATRICK (JANUARY-JULY 2018) disposable technologies. Edwina Fitzpatrick is a UK-based artist whose work explores the living environment, ABIGAIL LANE & LALA MEREDITH-VULA especially in regard to mutability and change; (JULY-DECEMBER 2019) celebrating narratives and conversations that Abigail Lane’s work addresses the idea of the are deeply informed by the history and the museum; our need to make sense through specific qualities of a place. histories, stories and memories, albeit with the often arbitrary source material from Using interactive fieldwork as her working which things have to be pieced together. methodology, her practice focuses on how Abigail is interested in the way we create humans have and are affecting the nature, order, and also how confusions result in culture and ecology of a place. They also a museum context, the failure to be sure reflect upon how these delicate local balances or complete. She would like to compare the relate to complex global issues such as forest to a museum as an enigmatic place, climate change or marine pollution. hinting at a past world with its own natural laws before we shaped it to fit. JUSTIN CARTER (AUGUST-DECEMBER 2018) Justin Carter’s area of concern is nature Lala Meredith-Vula is an English and as a human construct. His work couples Albanian Kosovian artist and photographer, a hopeless desire to return to nature with whose work focuses on themes of migration, an historical and cultural awareness which diaspora, identity and belonging. Lala has acknowledges this is impossible. previously shown alongside Abigail during the 1988 Damien Hirst-led Freeze exhibition. His practice is an attempt to cause reflection and highlight tensions that exist within the individual and society: “During the week we attempt to optimise industrial productivity. At the weekend we take off in our 4x4s in search of the vanishing wilderness.” Justin works outdoors and uses new technology Clockwise from top left: Edwina Fitzpatrick, The Tree Farm and the to question the more institutionalised sites Wilderness Years, 2014; Abigail Lane, Will nature make a man of me yet, 2003; Justin Carter, Autumn – After William James Muller in Leigh Woods, of display. 2013; Owl Project, Treadle and Saw Set, 2012. THE OUTDOOR INSTITUTE OF ART is an alternative art school conceived by Yasmin Canvin, with a curriculum that consists of discussions, skills and knowledge sharing events between artists, experts in relevant fields, the arts sector and members of the public. This is delivered over six terms through the following modules: THE FREE EXCHANGE ON TOUR, FINESHADE TALKS, WILD Tim Simmons, Devon Rockpool #1, 2007. LEARNING and WILD SHARING. THE FREE EXCHANGE ON TOUR ART + WELLBEING Damian Hebron and TBC Specialist talks featuring discussions Johnny’s Happy Place between an artist and an expert, exploring 97 Rockingham Road, Kettering NN16 9HX connections between art and the everyday. Tuesday 11 September, 7-8.30pm Held in community spaces and venues across Northamptonshire, principally An artist, plus London Arts in Health Forum within the Rockingham Forest area, the Director Damian Hebron, discuss the grow- discussions are also live streamed and ing interest in how the arts can improve the available to watch online. wellbeing of individuals and communities, and how and why artists use their own ART, ENGINEERING + THE ENVIRONMENT mental health as a conduit in their practice. Tim Simmons and Simon Dowson Reflecting on the historic relationship Delta Motorsport between arts, health and wellbeing, the Unit 9 Technology Park discussion will question whether the current Silverstone, Silverstone Circuit interest is a fad or is something more deeply NN12 8GX rooted in human nature; exploring the Tuesday 7 August, 7-8.30pm connections between wellbeing and art and how this relationship can be developed both Artist Tim Simmons and Delta Motorsport as an artistic response and as a social healer. Managing Director Simon Dowson discuss how engineering is affecting our environment, the inherit dilemmas in Booking is essential for all events, engineering innovation and the challenges please visit https://bit.ly/2Jk0mkF that creates for our climate. As a high for more information. performance engineering company, and Catch up on our first term’s Free producer of advanced electric vehicles based Exchange: Art + Energy with Ellie at Silverstone Circuit, Delta Motorsport Harrison and Paul Drury on our is concerned with energy efficiency and YouTube Channel. electrification and how that story is told. FINESHADE TALKS WILD LEARNING Artist talks, held at and led by the current Conceptually led training sessions and Artist in Residence at Fineshade Wood with activities for artists working outdoors, held local, national and international speakers, at Sudborough Green Lodge in Fermyn also live streamed online. Woods and other outdoor spaces in the Rockingham Forest area. EDWINA FITZPATRICK WITH ASHER MINNS The Little Barn MOVING THE MEMBRANE WITH REMI GRAVES Top Lodge, Fineshade Wood Sudborough Green Lodge Near Corby NN17 3BB Fermyn Woods, off Harley Way 10 July, 7-8.30pm Near Brigstock, Kettering Price £5 NN14 3JD 7 July, 10am-5pm Join Artist in Residence Edwina Fitzpatrick Price £30 and Asher Minns, Executive Director Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Join poet and drummer Remi Graves for a for an insight into Edwina’s ARCHIVE OF THE day in the forest exploring concepts of skins, TREES project; discussing public engagement membranes, and surfaces. We’ll be using and understanding of weather and climate rhythm and writing to create and unpick past, present and future. concepts of selfhood, environment and the boundaries between us. Left: Luke Harby, The Free Exchange, 2018; Below: David Blyth, On the Wing: a flight path for Scolopax Rusticola, 2014; Bottom: Remi Graves, courtesy of Remi Graves, 2018. WILD SHARING Taking place at Sudborough Green Lodge in Fermyn Woods, our unique rural location and communal approach brings like-minded people together for peer to peer learning, informal skill and knowledge sharing, and provides both a creative and social opportunity. ALTERNATIVE

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