All Stories (RSS)
Art Trail 2008
This year an intimate woodland trail takes you on a mysterious journey of storytelling, theatre, games and myth with artworks by Gavin Turk and Deborah Curtis, Lucienne Cole, Simon Faithfull, Paul Gittins, Juneau Projects, Kathleeen Herbert, Francis Upritchard, Helen Maurer, Grace Ndiritu and Melanie Stidolph. Curated by Alice Sharp.Inspired by the captivating Eastnor landscape, animal inhabitants and history - sculpture, video, performance, photography and interactive theatre will guide you from moonrise into the night. Through ancient trees, into grass clearings, over bridges to the undergrowth of mythical imagination and fairy tale fantasy, you are invited to partake in the art (and nature) trail with an open mind, as each encounter and experience will reveal the unexpected, taking you on an unforgettable journey through magical locations tucked away from the main festival site.
The House of Fairytales in association with Gavin Turk and Deborah Curtis, features many special guests from the fairytale world. Visitors are invited to evening programs of storytelling and then at 10.30pm nightly there will be a special performance enacted by half life size puppets, of ‘Waiting for Gavo' by the Live Stock Market Studio; a corrupted homage to Samuel Becket's masterpiece.
www.houseoffairytales.org
Fake Moon by Simon Faithfull is a perplexing apparition. On a moonless night a powerful light housed in helium balloon will imitate the lunar path of the missing planet - illuminating the festival crowd as it rises high and gradually sets across the night sky.
www.simonfaithfull.org
Responsible Tourism: Camel Riders is a video by Grace Ndiritu which, is set to the hypnotic rhythms of West African music. Made during a visit to Mali, the images of camels are looped into a short sequence so that the movement repeats in an apparently endless circle.
www.luxonline.org.uk/artists/grace_ndiritu/index.html
Lucienne Cole creates ‘The Woodland Factory meets The Prisoner in The Village of The Damned to a soundtrack of Siouxsie and The Banshees'. Berkley brolly dancers dressed in black and white capes are armed with glue guns and shoot glitter and song amongst giant flowers, getting busy/jiggy with it, smashing pinatas while the bunting flies.
www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=11707
Stable by Kathleen Herbert is a poetic film produced in response to her year long residency at Gloucester Cathedral. It is a super 16mm film of an event that she orchestrated, where for one night horses were brought into the Cathedral to walk freely through and explore the architecture of the space.
www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=8699
Electric Shadow House by Paul Gittins. Based on the medieval work, Piers Plowman, a mesmerising shadow play recounts the dream visions of a poet, who sleeps by a stream in the Malvern Hills.
www.modernshadows.com
Set Dance by Helen Maurer. A strange, slow moving visual tale under canvas - where objects, mirrors, flowers & theatrical props take on a new life. Originally commissioned for the Winter Garden Ballroom in Eastbourne, the piece is reconfigured for the Big Chill where the dance continues.
www.daniellearnaud.com/artists/artists-maurer.html
Sewn to the Sky by Juneau projects is a computer game with a difference. Players control the game by playing music as a band, using customised, sculptural rock band instruments. Their aim is to guide an owl through a scrolling tapestry-like landscape, avoiding obstacles and enemies along the way. No musical skill is needed, just enthusiasm and team spirit!
www.juneaurecords.co.uk
Oh, how strange to meet your hair! by Francis Upritchard. Evolutionary psychedelic figures, bell jars and roots of a Yew tree form part of a new visionary landscape
www.katemacgarry.com/francisupritchard.php
Photo courtesy of Kate MacGarry, London
Illuminated light boxes by Melanie Stidolph show photographs taken through repeated visits to Eastnor. Capturing low key moments in the life of the park and transforming them into iconic images open to wider readings.
www.melaniestidolph.com
"The Art Trail has established itself as a significant part of the Big Chill festival specialising in presenting artworks in an exceptional setting. The 2008 Art Trail builds on its ten year history which has included internationally recognized artists Gary Hume, Ackroyd and Harvey, Zatorski and Zatorski and Brian Eno".
Alice Sharp - Curator
This year the Art Trail has been awarded an Arts Council of England grant towards the artists projects and an Education and Outreach Programme. A series of creative artist led workshops will give local young people and children an opportunity to benefit from and be involved with the festival.
The programme is taking place in three schools in the close vicinity of Eastnor and involves artists from across England.
Eastnor Primary School pupils will have the opportunity to make wicker sculptures with artist Faye Harvey, taking inspiration from the wildlife in Eastnor Deer Park and exhibited at the festival.
Juneau Projects are working with children from Ledbury Primary School to create new characters for an interactive computer game, which will then be presented in the Arts Trail.
Poets Shane Solanki and Martin Stannage will lead spoken word workshops with sixth form students from John Masefield High School. They will perform their work at the Ledbury Poetry Festival on 12th June at the Market House Theatre and at the Big Chill Festival in the Words in Motion area.
www.poetry-festival.com
Alice Sharp - Curator
Molly Rigg - Project Assistant and Education Coordinator
Melanie Smith - Co Producer
Sam Collins and Scott Martin - Production
Written: 29th Apr, 08
Read: 963 times
