NEWSLETTER / PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENTS 2020/21
Looking Back on 2019
Sometimes, without the need of confection for a plot, themes can emerge through the process of discussion and planning. I like to think that this is arts natural state, the continual process of discovery, research, reaction, change and consolidation, an alternative to the staid and retrogressive times in which we are currently living. For BasementArtsProject our 2019 programme came together thematically over the course of two years.
Back in May 2018, we started discussions with sculptor Keith Ackerman about the possibility of bringing to fruition a large public sculpture in stone, based on an earlier small work entitled ‘Jacob’s Ladder’. During the discussions about this potential project the Yorkshire Sculpture International was announced for the summer of 2019, and it seemed liked the perfect reason to take this idea further.
Jacob’s Ladder (2014) Ledmore Marble. Keith Ackerman on display at INDEX Festival hub. Sept 2019. Photo: Bruce Davies
Later in 2018 I was approached by Phill Hopkins, an artist with whom we have worked on a regular basis over the last ten years, with a proposal for a project that could tie in to the themes and ideas of the Yorkshire Sculpture International. As discussions for Hopkins project took shape I had the good fortune to encounter Jadene Imbusch, a Beeston born 21 year old student, about to enter her third year at Loughborough University and looking for projects to get involved with. Rather than offering up the prospect of assisting other artists at BasementArtsProject, which she had originally asked about, and which on occasion she also did, I suggested that instead she be a part of the project that was, at that point, starting to take shape.
A House Within A Home (2019) Installation detail. Photo: Tim Balls
Pitched (2019) Installation detail. Jadene Imbusch. Photo: Bruce Davies
CP11122018 (2019) from Collaborations On The Corner. Phill Hopkins & Jadene Imbusch
Alongside all of this, the donation of a large stone sculpture from artist Dominic Hopkinson, another regular contributor at BasementArtsProject, brought together all of the elements of what would become BasementArtsProject’s contribution to the Index Festival, the independent aspect of the Yorkshire Sculpture International 2019.
Nature of Balance (2005) Kilkenny Limestone. Photo courtesy of the Artist
On The Corner featured the four aforementioned artists, with projects that coalesced thematically around the initial provocation put forward by artist Phyllida Barlow for Yorkshire Sculpture International 2019: this being that ’Sculpture is the most anthropological of the art forms’ and that ‘there is a basic human impulse to make and connect with objects.’
On The Corner has so far garnered the support of Beeston in Bloom, Cllr Paul Wray, The Henry Moore Foundation, Index Festival, Leeds Art Fund, Yorkshire Sculpture International 2019. The project is ongoing and we hope to complete the two public sculpture aspects of the project by mid-2020
Encapsulated. a CorTen steel canvas within pine frame, found items, pigment free. Paul Walsh
As ‘On The Corner’ developed into a full-blown project with five distinct elements, so too did the programme for the year which looked at the work of Beeston based artists Paul Walsh and Claire Bentley-Smith. The hyper local focus of South Leeds as the location in which every single artist, bar one, either works or resides, or in some cases both, is actually very unusual, but it seemed to say something which fed naturally into the discussion around ‘On The Corner’, ‘Index Festival’ and the ‘Yorkshire Sculpture International’.
Unmanaged Reproach (2019) Installation detail. Claire Bentley-Smith
Of the one artist in the 2019 programme whose connection to South Leeds was most tangential, Yol, well . . . his connection has led to the first exhibition of 2020 being provided by Hull based artist Lou Hazelwood. A strangely symmetrical book ending to a year highlighting the breadth of artistic talent and invention available in South Leeds yet still including work from the wider region.
Between Gas Canisters and Personal Identity Lanyards (2019) Yol | Posset | Lloyd
BasementArtsProject is, despite its small domestic vibe, an organisation with international connections and intentions, as well as having a history of national and international projects. One only has to look at our past projects to see that we have worked in New York, Stockholm, London, Manchester Huddersfield and Liverpool. Our artists have ranged from undergraduates to established artists with some occasionally being represented by other galleries. Over the years, work begun by artists at BasementArtsProject has gone onwards to the Edinburgh Fringe, the Venice Architecture Biennale and the RA Summer Show amongst other places.
Work at Venice Architecture Biennale (2017) Dominic Hopkinson
What all of this is leading to, is the assertion that you can still live and work outside of London as an international artist, involved in and connected to the annual calendar of expositions that the art world has to offer. And what of community? Art can provide one of those platforms for activity around which communities can coalesce and create a network of support and interest, and the feeling that, in the end, anything is possible if only one wishes hard enough. Alongside the programme of activity as it relates to the promotion of professional artistic practice I (Bruce) have also been working with a group of small children, aged two to nine (or thereabouts) on projects that have seen them produce works in response to projects at Basement.
A Selection of portraits by the children of the South Leeds ESOL group displayed within the House Within A Home by Phill Hopkins (2019)
BasementArtsProject sits right at the heart of South Leeds, a small mid-terrace house that has, since it’s inception in April 2011, seen three and a half thousand people come through its door. Roughly forty percent of these people have come from the South Leeds community and many have no previous background, or experience of art. Many return time and time again. Set alongside our international agenda in which we try to spread the work of artists as far afield as possible the program remains grounded in the everyday without being ordinary.
Alongside all of this I managed to fit in a project for the Williamson Art Gallery in my homeland of the Wirral. I was invited to take part in a series of tangential talks about objects from the collection of the gallery / museum. To say that my talk was tangential would be to put it mildly but I think it was received well for the somewhat performative audio installation aspect that it took on. You can read about it HERE
One Night at the Williamson Art Gallery
LOOKING FORWARD TO 2020
The year 2020 brings with it the association of visual acuity, although not necessarily perfect sight. I hope that this could be a signal for the times that we are living in, maybe this is the year in which things become clearer. We can only hope so!
Here at BasementArtsProject I can clearly see much of 2020, and even some of 2021. A roundabout way of saying there are many things already on the calendar for the next year and half, and just enough gaps to be able to move with the flow, and maybe even include a holiday somewhere in all of that. Here is a forward announcement of some of the projects that we will be realising at BasementArtsProject over the course of the next year, with more to add later
2020
Lou Hazelwood | Landscapes of the (Un)known
Preview: Friday 6th March 2020 | 7:30 - 9:30pm
For a profile on this artist visit: https://www.basementartsproject.com/lou-hazelwood
To read more about this project visit: https://www.basementartsproject.com/landscapes-of-the-unknown
Donna Coleman | The Screen Will Not Fill The Void
Preview: Monday 18th May 2020 | 7:30 - 9:30pm
Sharon McDonagh | Resonance
Preview: Friday 3rd July 2020 | 7:30 - 9:30pm
ArtCouple | Basement(in)versions
Opening Performance: Friday 14th August 2020 | 7:30 - 9:30pm
Closing Performance: Friday 21st August 2020 | 7:30 - 9:30pm
For a profile on these artists visit: https://www.basementartsproject.com/artcoupl
Lina Bentley | When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Nurse
Friday 4th September 2020 | 7:30 - 9:30pm
For a profile on this artist visit: https://www.basementartsproject.com/lina-bentley
Nicholas Vaughan | Title tbc
Friday 27th November 2020 | 7:30 - 9:30pm
2021
10 YEARS OF BasementArtsProject
Kimbal Quist Bumstead | We Are Still Here
Friday 2nd April 2021 | 7:30 - 9:30pm TEN YEARS TO THE DAY
For a profile on this artist visit: https://www.basementartsproject.com/kimbal-bumstead
Edward Mortimer 2021 | Title tbc
Friday 21st May | 7:30 - 9:30pm
Ars Longa Vita Brevis
BasementArtsProject seeks to assist artists who may be just setting out alongside our programme that also includes the work of more established artists, presenting them on a level platform. If you would like to be kept up to date with our programme, propose a project or leave feedback please visit https://www.basementartsproject.com/contact and use the relevant form: MAILING LIST SIGN UP. Exhibition / Event Proposal Form. Exhibition Comments Form
We look forward to seeing you at BasementArtsProject in the future and we thank you for your support over the last eight and a half years.
And In Other News . . .
Conversations with the Anthony Burgess cassette archive (1964-1993)
Double LP/CD curated by Alan Dunn in collaboration with the International Anthony Burgess Foundation and Guy-Marc Hinant, Sub-Rosa.
A regular contributor to the programme at BasementArtsProject over the years; Alan Dunn is an artist and curator based between Liverpool and Leeds, where he is a reader in Art & Design at Leeds Beckett University. His projects have been presented at Tate Britain, ICA, Liverpool Art Prize, BBC Radio and Bluecoat.
Anthony Burgess’s second wife Liana carried a cassette recorder with her at all times to capture her life with the author and their son Andrew. This extraordinarily intimate audio archive of over 1,000 cassettes now sits with the International Anthony Burgess Foundation and artist Alan Dunn has been granted access to select excerpts from it and curate sonic conversations from others.
Disc 1 contains the very first and last known recordings of Burgess’s voice alongside domestic incidents, rehearsals and answering machine messages, while Disc 2 invites 23 artists and musicians to remix the rare material into a unique Burgess portrait far beyond ‘A Clockwork Orange’.
LP/CD available here https://www.subrosa.net/en/catalogue/aural-documents/anthony-burgess.html
Project page http://alandunn67.co.uk/burgess.html
Dominic Hopkinson | Scientific Sublime continues until 14th February at BLANK
Dominic Hopkinson has been another regular face at BasementArtsProject since his A Harmony of Spheres exhibition in 2015. He currently has work up in one of Leeds’ newest exhibition spaces BLANK_ at Leeds City College. You can read an interview with Hopkinson about his latest exhibition at https://www.blank.org.uk/interview-dominic-hopkinson
Hopkinson is also working with BasementArtsProject on a public sculpture project based around a 2005 piece entitled ‘Nature of Balance’ which he has donated to our ‘On The Corner’ Project. You can read an interview with him about his work and practice HERE
Until next year we hope you all have a marvellous Christmas and a very Happy New Year. We hope to see you all in 2020
Bruce Davies
Artist / Writer / Curator of BasementArtsProject