Welcome to the trial edition of our annual, subscription only, publication.

Contents:
2023 Exhibitions
Essay (Subscription Only)
Lunchtime Conversation: Recipe

Each image is accompanied by a link to essays already published elsewhere on our site

Right now the world is a dark and troubling place. This is not to say that it has ever been anything else; but a confluence of issues has drawn the dangerous forces of confrontation and instability into a swirling pool, threatening to suck under anything that gets too near to its eddies of aggression. Again, this is not restricted to the present for it happens at regular intervals throughout history; we are a society living in a state of constant conflict and turmoil punctuated by brief moments of relative peace.

Whilst the wider world continues to plow its own furrow, albeit one mired in the deepening trenches of numerous wars, we must not lose sight of the future, and life at a local level. In those brief moments of sanity in which the soldiers return to their homes, what will be left of the world that they remember?

What will it all have been for?

What were those tending the light at the end of the tunnel trying to achieve?

Life for many is about acknowledging the limitations placed upon us by others. The need to work in order to eat, to maintain a roof over ones head, to keep the lights on and so on and so forth . . . If you refuse to work, then you will be refused that which you need to thrive, life then becomes purely about survival. But how much of work is meaningful? Does meaning exist only until the setting of the sun each day, or is meaning drawn from an idea that exists during the hours of sleep, a saga to be resumed when we reawaken. There are two sunsets: the one at the end of each day and the one at the end of time, the one that we will never reach. But it is there, at the limit of our perception and always just beyond our grasp.

In life we have our spheres of influence and concern. The sphere of concern is always the largest of the two, our sphere of influence always the smaller. It is important to remember at times such as these, that whilst our sphere of concern, the bigger picture, threatens to overwhelm us we must always look to our sphere of influence to pull us back from the brink. It is in acknowledging our influence in relation to our concerns and those directly around us that we may be able to avoid inertia, a barrage of smaller actions that may one day increase the influence of wider society on that bigger picture.

This is a good message for many, but it must always be considered alongside the acknowledgement that this element of choice for many does not exist.

For some, a symbol of hope for the future maybe the chance to recapture an element of history replanting the seeds of an ancient sycamore. For others it may be to find a way of providing a hot meal to see the family through another day. In one scenario there is choice, in the other there is only necessity. When we consider hard times we must always take stock of our place against that of others within the structure that dictates choice or necessity. If an individual has choice then resilience is a possibility, if not then the odds are stacked against them. The majority of our society is one or two pay checks away from destitution, the moment the scales tip and we find ourselves without the means by which to live is where any notion of choice ends.

Vocation is a word that is often used against people who are dedicated to a particular aspect of human life or development. Whether it is teachers, nurses, poets, artists, writers etcetera . . . The idea that such people are responding to a higher calling becomes an excuse for low or no pay, and yet they are the things that allow us to function as human beings. During the pandemic, a poll in The Times declared artist to be the most useless job in a pandemic, yet number two most useful was supermarket worker. Many years ago when I stacked shelves in a supermarket I was considered a person who was without drive, motivation and ambition. Fast forward twenty years through an arts degree and seventeen years working in the arts and I find myself in the position of once again being considered useless. I mention this not because I am looking for pity, but to illustrate a point. The point being that a lot of the time people only respond to situations as it affects them in the moment, and scientifically speaking the present is a window of about three seconds. There is a reason we speak of the avant-garde in terms of art as well as militaristically; we are the people who go in and clear the way for everyone else to follow. The problem is that over time people forget how they got there, and cease to acknowledge the origins of what is accepted now as having always been there for us. Newsflash! It wasn’t! As people sat within their homes, locked down, unable to socialise and thinking about how useless art was to them, in that moment they neglected to notice the influence of art all around them, from the furniture they sat in to the houses that they lived in, the food, the books, the decor, their computers, the film-makers, the writers, the visual artists, all of whom had a hand in creating their comfort.

It is at this point that BasementArtsProject steps in to the breach, seeking to ensure that art and artists find a way of securing a future that is palatable to all. It is essential that art remains a part of the fabric of our society, there to be appreciated, engaged with, considered and just enjoyed; a thing that strays beyond the realm of personal taste into something that helps us to consider who we are and how we relate to those around us. Universal Basic Income could be an answer for the art forms that do not fit the more marketable and populist trends that are accepted as normal within the current system. Beyond this we struggle with the push and pull of creativity vs conformity. Creativity guides us as a species, allows to envision what is possible, even when we may not have the skill to go the full distance. Around 1515 DaVinci sketched out primitive ideas for a submarine. In 1575 William Bourne drafted the first serious designs for a submersible craft and in 1620 the first submarine was built and successfully tested in the River Thames. DaVinci was best known as an artist, yet he was also an engineer and mathematician. The submarine is now a part of everyday life in our contemporary world yet it was first envisioned in a world where it was not possible. A true renaissance man, yet truly avant-garde a few hundred years before the term was used to describe artistic practice. The motor car, the submarine, the internet, CGI; everything begins with an idea, that becomes a design, then at some point a reality. There are still places that we have not yet been, but this is not for a lack of ideas. The key element is not conformity, which roots us to the spot, but creativity that says to us, if you can imagine it, it can be done.

Over the years BasementArtsProject has built a strong creative network. Many artists that have worked with us here and abroad, have gone on to form alliances and long-standing partnerships with other artists, collaborating on work and engaging with communities beyond South Leeds. It is these actions that allow culture to develop within communities, the place in which culture should develop, from the ground up as a genuine expression of what it means to be human and live amongst others. Anything else, as the writer James Baldwin suggests is colonisation.

‘parum potentes glandes quercus’ (Mighty oaks from small acorns grow) was the motto on the coat of arms associated with my high school in the 1980’s. I recently looked it up and discovered that whilst the image of the oak and the acorn is still there the message has changed to the somewhat less inspiring ‘Striving For Excellence’! We need the small acorns. This thought fits with another botanical latin word that I have chosen for this publication: Hypogeal. The subterranean environment of ‘The Basement’ is filled with energy despite being underground and without exposure to the light. Eventually the growth energy of the leaf seed (the Cotyledon) forces the stem above ground to soak in the rays of the sun. Onwards and upwards the mighty oak!

Exhibition text credits:
Apocalypse Wow! by Bruce Davies
Nature vs Nurture. by Bruce Davies
All Roads Roam to Leeds. by Bruce Davies
Excavating The Future. by Amy Kitchingman
Ars Longa Vita Brevis. by Bruce Davies and Ruby Jean Waterhouse
Fray: A Text. by The Artists of Fray w/ contributions by Bruce Davies as BasementArtsProject
Degrees of Separation. by Bruce Davies
Hypogeal 2023 Essay. By Bruce Davies

During 2022 & 2023 we were able to provide 85 Direct carving workshop sessions with the community on Mondays and Thursdays. These were run by the artists Keith Ackerman & John Barber.

Participants were able to book online or to just approach us from the road edge were we were working and have a go under the tutelage of Keith & John

Lunchtime Conversation: Recipe

Paneer Curry

(Vegan)

Ingredients:

1 Block of Paneer (cubed)
2tblspns Olive Oil
1 Red Onion
2 Cloves of Garlic
2 Red Peppers
1 tin of Chickpeas
Punnet of Cherry Tomatoes
Bunch of Coriander
1 large tub of Plain Natural Yoghurt
Salt & Pepper
Garlic
Fresh Mint

Spices:
Cumin, Turmeric, Cardamom, Garam Masala, Coriander Seeds

Cooking Instructions:

• Add Paneer to a bowl and mix in 1/2 of Yoghurt along with Turmeric and Garam Masala (until a nice even yellowy/brown mix)

• Dice Onion and Garlic into small pieces, chop Red Peppers into larger pieces, chop Coriander stalks and leaves into small pieces

• grind Cumin & Coriander seeds

• Add 1 tblspn Olive Oil Onion, Red Peppers, Chickpeas into a frying pan at medium heat along with ground Cumin, Cardamom and Coriander Seeds (2-3mins or until soft)

• Remove the above ingredients, add 1tblspn Olive Oil and add Paneer mix (2-3mins: do not let burn or dry out -add a spoon or two more of yoghurt if needed)

• Add fried up Onion, Red Pepper, Chickpea mix to a roasting dish with the Paneer mix and add Cherry Tomatoes, Chopped Coriander and a small amount more of Turmeric, Ground Cardamom and Garam Masala. Place in Oven for 15mins (180deg C)

Homemade Raita

• Mix 1 chopped up clove of garlic and finely chopped fresh Mint with the remaining yoghurt

Serve with Rice, Naan, Chapati, Roti, Paratha (or whatever you would normally have with yr curry)

In Memoriam

Sally Bagnall (1944-2022)
John Roles (1957-2020)
Christine Wells (1946-2023)

Thank you

Griet Beyaert & Silvia Liebig, Loane Bobillier, Claire Angel Bonner, Chloe Harris, Jeffrey Knopf, Edward Mortimer, James Tortice, Ruby Waterhouse for your projects in 2023

Wendy Williams & Jackie Berridge for inviting BasementArtsProject to take part in ‘Plot’

Jeffrey Knopf for handing over your studio to BasementArtsProject during the Paradise Works Open Studios / Manchester Contemporary Art Fair

Fray Artists: Conchobhar Bowyn, Martha Burgin, Ellie Harrison, Louis Hollander, Alice Marshall, Cleo Milly Nelson, Scarlett Pochet, Ruby Jean Waterhouse & Cat Young

Plot Artists: Kimbal Quist Bumstead, Catherine Harrison,Jacqueline F Kerr, Jeffrey Knopf, Paula Fenwick Lucas, Sharon McDonagh, Kristina Nenova, Sufi Mohamad Noor, Elena Thomas & Wendy Williams

The Metaphorical Basement Artists: Keith Ackerman, John Barber, Griet Beyaert, Loane Bobillier, Claire Angel Bonner, Kimbal Quist Bumstead, Bruce Davies, Pippa Eason, Adams Glatherine, Phill Hopkins, Dominic Hopkinson, Jadene Imbusch, Jeffrey Knopf, Silvia Liebig, Sharon McDonagh, Paul Miller, Kristina Nenova, Edward Mortimer, Emilie Telese & Alistair Woods

Board of Directors: Keith Ackerman, Lydia Catterall, Deborah Davies, Alan Dunn, Karl England & Bhavani Esapathi Satyanranjanraju

Volunteers: Evelyn Davies & Amy Kitchingman

Donations Subscribers Sponsors

Donations: John Barber. David Bridges. Charlie Curle. Paul Stirk.
Subscriptions: Keith Ackerman.
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