Pea Arts About

On Tuesday 25 June 2019 I caught up with the Dominion field trip to the Henry Moore Institute and Leeds Art Gallery . Dominion is a group of refugees and migrants largely from Africa, the Middle East and south Asia based in Wakefield. They've been working with Rachel Craddock , Communities Manager at Hepworth Wakefield , and engagement artist Emii Alrai . Emii told me about the clay workshops they've been doing at the Hepworth centring on identity and migration. The exhibition of their work will be unveiled on 2 July if you can make it. Unfortunately my days in Wakefield are finished and on my tight budget I don't think I'll manage to return any time soon. I've rather fallen in love with Wakey. A regret of this residency is that I had such a short amount of time with this group, but I feel privileged to have met them at all, the reasons for which I hope will become clear in the following summary. After some housekeeping and information from Angie, Rachel's eq

On Monday 24 June 2019 I met up with Amanda Phillips from Leeds Art Gallery 's education office. Amanda has been working on various engagement activities with Blackgates Primary Academy for some time, and these include the YSI programme involving artist Emily Binks who I have unfortunately not met on my travels. Amanda teamed up with YSP 's Formal Learning Coordinator, Kathryn Brame , and artist Gary (I did not learn Gary's full name) to deliver workshops with (I think) Year 1 pupils. The larger group of small humans was split in two. For the morning session I went with Gary - the prospect of getting stuck into making things was too enticing to turn down. The first stop on our travels was However Incongruous (2011) by the Raqs Media Collective situated by YSP's learning block. Gary asked the children to describe it. They noticed that it looked like a figure from a carousel, pointing out the horns, the pole, the golden colour and the saddle.      - I want to rid

The close of Sunday 23 June marked the halfway point of my residency and the firming up of my ideas for the shape and content of my final written piece. I spent the afternoon moving between observing and participating in the street party at Coronation Gardens in Wakefield city centre which attracted a fantastic turnout. Fun and play abounded. I made two brief audio recordings early on in the afternoon which can be found on my Soundcloud profile . There was such a lovely hubbub that that felt the best way to capture it. I hope you'll agree you can feel the warmth of the atmosphere coming through. They are unedited and you can just about hear my brain breaking a little, trying to keep up with all the input! There are also times when you'll hear me spontaneously laugh because a small child has done something hilarious and adorable nearby. It was great to see Huma Bhabha 's Receiver for real, and it really does from certain angles look like it's facing off

Tarek Atoui's Shuffle Orchestra on Saturday 22 June 2019 was moved from the Leeds Armouries to the Calder at the Hepworth. It had been moved because of the previous week's rain and the long forecast for thunderstorms. It turned out to be a warm, sunny day. Given the move, this meant I could now go to Huma Bhabha's enlightening conversation with Clare Lilley from Yorkshire Sculpture Park about sculpture, materials and place. It was sold out, but not everyone turns up to free talks and Poppy (YSI’s volunteer co-ordinator) kindly let me in. Between these I had enough time to check out the exhibitions. I had been watching the installs for the last couple of weeks on social media,and it was great to start seeing them for real. The smell in Wolfgang Laib 's is something else – it struck me more than seeing the arrangement, the lungful of rice and pollen with every inhale. But let's start at the start – I'll take it from Shuffle Orchestra . Lebanese arti

I was in Wakefield again on Thursday 16 May and had the pleasure of meeting more of the YSI gang at their office in the Art House – what a cool gallery. After meetin g with engagement curator, Meghan, and two students from Leeds City College on placement, we all walked to St Michael's church in Westgate to join Rachael Kidd ’s play-with-clay session. Rachael ha s been working with people seeking asylum who are staying at Urban House , getting them involved in self- expression. Rachael’s initial idea was to lead workshops using gardening and the land as sculptural processes and materials, but the activity space at Urban House had to be given over to accommodation. St Michael’s hosts many kinds of support and learning opportunities for asylum seekers and refugees, and stepped in to offer its hall for Rachael’s sessions. Due to language barriers and the change of plan , Rachael responded to Phyllida Barlow 's provocation that no one has a lump of clay to work with by gi

For the second of my ten residency days, I joined a group of pupils from the John Jamieson School for young folk with learning difficulties on their day trip to The Hepworth Wakefield . As part of Yorkshire Sculpture International's engagement programme, they've been participating in regular workshops with artist Beth Hughes who has been exploring with them the sensory elements of sculptural materials and installation art. What stuck me most about the day was how enthused the young people were; their energy and openness was boundless and joyful. There were nine children aged, I think, between 10 and 13, and four teachers/carers. In the morning, Beth led a tour of the exhibitions (includin g Magdalene Odundo’s The Journey of Things and pieces by Barbara Hepworth) with drawing activities to get us thinking about materials and tactility in sculpture. After a pleasant lunch outside in the sun, Beth led a very fun workshop using clay. All of the activities centred around