ORT Gallery/ Residency

I am so pleased to share that I was selected for the ORT Gallery Warmth Residency for 2024/2025.

‘Building on the Emergence(y) programme we embarked upon in 2021, the Deliberation Programme seeks to take a cohort of artists on a creatively-affirming journey that prioritises hope, experimentation, and self-interrogation by working in a gentle and considered way as underpinned by our organisation’s methodology - Warmth.

Ort Gallery is a visual arts and poetry organisation based in Birmingham. We are on a social mission to redefine contemporary visual arts by rejecting the sector’s exclusivity, centring access and equity, and providing inclusive high quality art experiences. We support this mission with a care-centred approach (aka Warmth) and strive to work non-hierarchically across the board - whether that be alongside artists and creatives or within our organisation and community.

Ort believes everyone should have access to high quality art experiences and aims to meet this standard by providing exhibition and professional development opportunities to artists, creatives and community members across all backgrounds.

We place Warmth at the heart of all our work. We recognise that galleries can be sites of oppression which centre and reproduce white normative and elitist ways of ‘being’ under the supposed guise of neutrality. We are interested in challenging this head on; whilst also committing to creating space for local artists and marginalised community groups across Birmingham and beyond to play an active role in shaping such practices, in the hopes of transforming ourselves, our city, and the wider arts ecology.’

I recommend signing up to the Warmth programme on the ORT website - to have access to their incredible research into making the arts industry a fairer place.

Solo Exhibition/ Bright Island Studio Margate

I am so pleased to share that I am displaying my exhibition, Earth, a Cosmic Spectacle, at Bright Island Studio near Margate, England, from 14 - 23 November. 

‘The artist’s digitally manipulated photographic works bring together an archive of photography from locations in Aotearoa New Zealand and England. Together with the sound piece, recorded in Pūrākaunu, the artist explores different temporalities; the long and slow development of life on Earth since the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago, the rapid changes due to the climate crisis, and the momentary nature of a lifetime, reflecting on the cosmic significance of all life on our planet. 

The exhibition includes philosophical reflections of the climate crisis from scientists who have a relationship with astronomical time periods and deep-time and local high school students, gathered under the dark skies of Aotearoa New Zealand. Through engagements with biologists, geologists, physicists, archaeologists and astronomers based at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka Otago University, GNS, Orokonui Ecosanctuary, the University of Canterbury and at Tūhura Otago Museum, the artist has begun to gather a time capsule of knowledge of how we understand this moment of Earth’s history and future. 

This project was funded by a British Council Connections through Culture Grant and in collaboration with Dr Ian Griffin and Tūhura Otago Museum, Ōtepoti Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand.’

The photographic works in this exhibition were developed during my Launchpad Lab Residency.

Exhibition open
14 - 16 and 21 - 22 November 12 - 5PM
23 November - 10 - 12PM
Private view
15 November 5 - 7PM

Bright Island Studio
Unit 5
Sheriffs Court Farm
Sheriffs Court Lane
Minster CT12 4JD
07966659804

After turning down Sheriffs Court Lane, you will pass a big house on the right hand side. Keep right, and keep right again. You will pass some large sheds on your right hand side - the exhibition is located in the second one.

Book your free tickets here.

The Transparency of Night

An excerpt of my chapter 'The transparency of night' from Dark Skies: Places, Practices, Communities is included in the reading room of the Ikob Museum Into the Void - Empty Spaces as a Tool of Artistic Knowledge exhibition which is open until 05 January 2025. The incredible exhibition includes Ton Slits, Tinka Pittoors, Leo Vroegindeweij and Nathalie Brans.

Nathalie said that 'One of the exhibition rooms is transformed into a place for the visitors to reflect and react on the exhibition. In this room you can also find my growing collection of Moon Stories and add your own personal Moon Story.'
Gathering Light was commissioned by Format Festival and Derby Cathedral in 2023 and explored my connection to the night sky, the tides, and grief and loss. Dark Skies: Places, Practices, Communities was edited by Nick Dunn and Tim Edensor - I am forever grateful to have been invited to contribute! You can read the entire book for free here.

Exhibition/ Far Far Out

I am pleased to share that my piece ‘Revolving through the Megacosm’ will be displayed in this group show.

FarFarOut features 10 artists whose work traverses the relationship between science and art, while exploring the many scales of our earthly existence—both on our planet and beyond. The exhibition follows a journey from ground level, to the underground, and finally to the outer cosmos. Each piece invites visitors to consider the links between earthly materials and cosmic phenomena, reminding us that all creation, both human and natural, stems from the same universal fabric. Join us to explore the convergence of worlds, scales, and realities.

 FarFarOut opens November 6th, 5-8pm at Way Out East Gallery, celebrating the University of East London’s Year of Science.

Louise Beer
James Capper
Ecem Ergin
Paul Greenleaf
Jay Ho
Harriet Pozansky
David Rickard
Ilona Sagar
William Waterhouse
Samuel Zealey

Takapō Starlight Conference 2024

Tonight I will be presenting my chapter, 'The Transparency of Night' in Dark Skies: Places, Practices, Communities, and my project, 'Earth, a Cosmic Spectacle' to an audience of astronomers, other scientists, lighting engineers, policy makers, writers and more. I wish I could be there in person but I am so pleased to be able to present my work online. The location of the conference is Takapō, one of the most incredible places that I have ever been. John Hooper and I did a research trip there in 2022, where we stayed at Ōtehīwai Mount John Observatory in Takapō for a week - see the second image.

The main theme of the Starlight Conference 2024 is Dark Skies for All: a Call for Action!

My session is below:

Astrophotography and astroaesthetics; astrotourism

Chairperson: John Hearnshaw
- Steve Chadwick, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Beauty in the Stars: a journey through the cosmos
- Jianfeng (Jeff) Dai, Chongqing, China Capture the Wonder of the sky
- Hidehiko Agata, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan The emotion “Awe” and the effect of the starry sky
- Amie Young, Destination Development Manager, Great South, Invercargill, NZ Dark skies in Murihiku, Southland
- Louise Beer, writer, curator and artist, Margate, UK
The Transparency of Night

The conference is jointly hosted by the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve (AMIDSR) in Takapō, Aotearoa New Zealand and by the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand. AMIDSR was awarded the Dark Sky International (formerly IDA) Dark Sky Place of the Year in 2018. Dark Sky International is a supporting organization for the 2024 Starlight Conference.

Find the programme book here.

Solo Exhibition/ Earth, a Cosmic Spectacle

I am delighted to share the details of my upcoming exhibition in the Beautiful Science gallery at Tūhura Otago Museum in my home city of Ōtepoti Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand. I have been working with a range of incredible scientists from the University of Otago and Tūhura to develop the work for the exhibition. The project has been supported by a British Council Connections through Culture Grant and in partnership with astronomer Dr Ian Griffin who is Director of the Museum.

Elements of the photographic work was developed during my GRAIN Projects and Launchpad Lab Art residencies, and with the expert guidance of my mentor Ariane Koek and photographer John Hooper during my ACE DYCP grant.

The exhibition will include digitally manipulated photography, sound and written reflections from astronomers, marine biologists, physicists, geologists, paleoclimatologists and other scientists who have a special knowledge of the long periods of time on Earth and in the Universe that it has taken for our planet and all of it's ecosystems to develop. Alongside the scientists' responses, the exhibition will include a collection of beautifully considered responses from highschool students, including from Logan Park High School and Kaikorai Valley College. The scientists and students have been asked to write these reflections under the dark skies of Ōtepoti. I will be sharing some of these online.

This project has been such an incredible experience. Everyone has been so friendly and so generous with their time, and I have had some of the most fascinating conversations of my life! I could not be more thrilled that the first iteration of 'Earth, a Cosmic Spectacle' has been in Dunedin.

PV - 5.30PM on 16 August
Talks 11AM - 17 August. Free tickets available via my Events page.

Kunstrum Fyn Art Weekend Under the Dark Sky in Denmark

I am really pleased to share that my piece, Gathering Light, will be shown at Kunstrum Fyn Dark Skies Festival Art Weekend Under the Dark Sky 28 – 30 June!

Art Weekend Under the Dark Sky
Wolfgang Tillmans (DE/UK)
Moon in Earthlight (audio photography)
Build from here (audio photography)

Hanne Nielsen & Birgit Johnsen (DK)
Particles (film installation and sculptures)

Louise Beer (NZ/UK)
Gathering Light (audio visual installation)

Marian Wijnvoord (NL/DE)
Emptiness and Substance (paintings)

HC Gilje (NO)
Ebb & Flow (light installation)

Kunstrum Fyn is happy to present Art Weekend under the Dark Sky, a weekend dedicated to art, talks, music, performance and sound.

The event is free and open to the public. 

We humans are light and dark; destruction and construction. Art Weekend Under the Dark Sky explores our future from both a dystopian and utopian perspective: We look into the future with both fear and hope. We live with climate destruction, conflicts and war, but also with nature conservation, humanism, development of sustainable science and technology. Art Weekend Under the Dark Sky trying to absorbing these contradictions, creating connections and spaces between light and dark, day and night, body and technology, architecture and nature, psychology and the universe.

Find out more here.

Pale Blue Dot Collective/ Earth Photo 2024 - Sidney Nolan Trust Residency Prize

We are so excited to discover that we have been awarded the Sidney Nolan Trust Residency Prize for our film Last Verse, which we entered into the Earth Photo 2024 open call. We will be working with the Sidney Nolan Trust over the next year, and can’t wait to stay in the Jacobean house called The Rodd, and spend time in the surround landscapes and environments. Thank you so much to Forestry England, the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and Parker Harris. 

Sidney Nolan Trust Residency Prize
Founded by the famous Australian modernist Sir Sidney Nolan, the Sidney Nolan Trust is delighted to offer a new residency prize to a UK based practitioner. The two-week residency at Nolan’s former home The Rodd will offer unique access to the artist’s important photographic archives and will be awarded for internationally relevant storytelling and innovation.

Our film was developed during our BigCi Environmental Art Award Residency which we did in 2022, in the Blue Mountains in Australia. Watch the film here.

Read more about Earth Photo here and the Sidney Nolan Trust here.

Pale Blue Dot Collective/ Podcast

We have collaborated with Fermywoods Contemporary Art to create a podcast. Listen here.

‘The first episode of our Love + Light season of the Fermynwoods Contemporary Art Podcast presents Of Immeasurable Consequence by Pale Blue Dot Collective.

Pale Blue Dot Collective (artists Louise Beer and John Hooper) spent four months in residence with Fermynwoods to create Of Immeasurable Consequence – originally an immersive photographic and sound based installation installed in All Saint Church, Aldwincle, from 24th March to 7th April 2024.

In this version of Of Immeasurable Consequence, which has been adapted to include parts of recorded conversation, Pale Blue Dot Collective examine our place within the universe, framing the impact of the climate emergency through the eyes of evolution and the immense time period it has taken for each form of life to arrive at this point.’

Pale Blue Dot Collective/ Earth Photo 2024 Shortlist

We are delighted to share that ‘Last verse’ by Pale Blue Dot Collective has been selected for the ‘Final Earth Photo 2024 Shortlist’ in the moving image section. We loved making this film during our BigCi Australia 2022 Environmental Art Award Residency (awarded in 2020).

‘Each year, Earth Photo invites photographers and filmmakers from around the world to enter images and/or short films. With a high-profile jury of industry experts we will be inviting submissions from image makers based worldwide who have a compelling story to share about the environment, about nature, about people, forests, the landscape and the varied impacts of climate change.

Out of over 1900 entries, a judging panel made up of experts from the fields of photography, film, geography and environment selected the Earth Photo 2024 shortlist: 112 Images and 13 videos by photographers and film makers from around the world.

Earth Photo 2024 selected shortlisted works will on show at the Royal Geographical Society, London, from 18 June 2024. A selection of shortlisted photos will be shown on a national tour to Forestry England sites: Moors Valley Country Park and Forest , Bedgebury National Pinetum and Forest, Dalby Forest, Haldon Forest Park, Fineshade Wood, Grizedale Forest, Sidney Nolan Trust, Herefordshire, The Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall.’

Read more here.

Launchpad Lab Residency

I am delighted to share that I will be attending a six week residency in Southwest France from 06 May - 20 June. The residency is located in Champagne-Mouton, Charente, and I will be focusing on my British Council funded project Earth, a Cosmic Spectacle.

“Launch Pad LaB is pleased to announce Louise Beer, Anna Perach and Pilar Quinteros as the artists selected for the residency’s eleventh edition from May 6th – June 20th 2024. To conclude the residency, Curator and Writer Debbie Meniru will moderate a day of studio visits and conversations with the artists.”

Launch Pad LaB is an artists’ residency program established in 2018 on the grounds of La Boissière, an ancestral home in rural southwest France. Developed by the owner, contemporary art collector and philanthropist Veronique de Champvallier Parke in collaboration with Sarah Lee Elson of Launch Pad, Launch Pad LaB offers artists the space and time for research and experimentation. The program provides the possibility to consider or produce a new body of work, to collaborate with others, or to generate responses to the local environment. The opportunity is aimed at artists established in a dedicated practice for whom a hiatus from the daily demands on their time and energies can make a difference in their creative productivity. Located in the countryside, Launch Pad LaB invites artists to engage in a quieter and more isolated environment that will ideally launch a new development in their practice. Twice a year, each edition of the residency accommodates up to four artists for 6-8 weeks, with housing, separate studios, transportation, and a stipend.

Veronique de Champvallier Parke and Sarah Lee Elson lead the selection process. While artists are expected to use the time productively, a finished work of art at the end of the residency is not expected. Each edition of Launch Pad LaB features collateral events, bringing the artists’ research and processes to the attention of invited curators, collectors, other artists and professionals in the art world.

Anna Perach’s (b. 1985, Ukraine) practice explores the dynamic between personal and cultural myths. She is interested in how private narratives are deeply rooted in ancient folklore and storytelling. In her work, she interweaves female archetypes into sculptural hybrids in order to examine ideas of identity, gender, and craft. The main medium of her oeuvre is wearable sculpture and performance. 
 
Pilar Quinteros (b.1988, Santiago, Chile) combines drawing, performance and video, all media that allow her to investigate themes related to history, notions of “reality” and transformations of specific contexts. Sculptures made out of cardboard that represented everyday and decorative objects are among the earlier ephemeral interventions in public spaces, while more recently, performances include life-sized monochromatic representations in volumetric form. The medium changes according to temporary, contextual and practical needs. Almost nothing of what the artist has made exists today, due to the low resistance and delicate materials she chooses to use.

Debbie Meniru is a London-based writer and curator. Her art writing leans into emotion, anecdote and humour and has been published internationally, including by Hatje Cantz, Rizzoli, Tate, Hayward Gallery Publishing, CURA., and Numéro Art. As a curator, Debbie has worked on exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery, Tate Modern, Somerset House and the Migration Museum. She has guest-curated The Conch at South London Gallery and Within a Budding Grove at Pi Artworks, London. She is currently Assistant Curator of Interpretation at Tate Modern and Tate Britain.

La Boissière, France

Pale Blue Dot Collective/ Fermynwoods Contemporary Art

Of Immeasurable Consequence

I am over the moon to reveal a project John Hooper and I have been working on for the last four months. Under our collaborative name Pale Blue Dot Collective, we have been in residence with Fermynwoods Contemporary Art to create ‘Of Immeasurable Consequence’, an immersive photographic and sound based installation that will be installed in All Saints Church, Aldwincle from Sunday 24th March until Sunday 7th April 2024.

Underneath the dark skies above, and through our human eyes, we observe the light of galaxies and stars, ancient light falling softly on our retinas. In the darkness, animals rustle through fallen leaves, waves crash around the coastlines of vast land masses, and tectonic plates grind and shift the lithosphere. Insects make their homes in narrow crevices, and great aquatic creatures meander through deep blue seas. In the darkness of the forest, one owl calls to another as star light reflects from the Moon onto the heaving trees below. In the great expansive darkness, Jupiter’s gravity catches occasional Earthly bound comets and the Moon pulls the oceans creating tides. 

To be in the presence of this life, from the depths of the oceans to the upper atmospheric winds, is the consequence of a 13.8 billion year concatenation of events.

Through the darkness we can begin to see the cosmic significance of life on Earth.

‘Please join us for a launch event from 6:30pm on Saturday 23rd March, featuring insight into the work by Louise Beer and John Hooper and an informal, interactive telescope viewing with an astronomer. The event is free, however please register your place from the link below.

The artists use installation, film, photography and sound to examine our place within the universe, framing the impact of the climate emergency through the eyes of evolution and the immense time period it has taken for each form of life to arrive at this point.

Funded by Northamptonshire Community Foundation's Creative Climate Action Fund, the work combines images, sound and light to transport the viewer to an imagined forest environment. With the artists' interest in the deep time nature of our existence on the planet, they have developed an installation that explores both the fragility and the miraculous nature of life on Earth.

Sound recordings from Fermyn Woods, made with a variety of homemade and professional microphones, are combined with their own archive of field recordings collected from around the world. The final composition transports the audience to a forest outside of our experience. Images taken under moonlight during their residency are installed in the central body of the church, juxtaposed with astronomical imagery that prompts us to consider our own place in the wider Cosmos.’

* In the event of bad weather, the astronomer will deliver a talk inside the church.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/of-immeasurable-consequence-launch-event-tickets-857074883047?aff=oddtdtcreator

Aesthetica Art Prize 2024/ Longlist

I am pleased to share that I was longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2024 and two of my pieces will be on display in the 2024 Longlist Showcase at York Art Gallery in York. The Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition runs between 16 February and 21 April 2024 at York Art Gallery and is a 'testament to shared creativity in a time of rapid change'.

My works on display are Earth as a Planetary Landscape/ Eternally Spinning through Darkness which was developed during my Amant Siena Residency and developed with my Arts Council England DYCP and Gathering Light which was commissioned by Quad Format Festival and Derby Cathedral last year.

British Council Grant/ Connections through Culuture

I am so thrilled to share that I have been awarded a British Council Connections through Culture Grant. Earth, a Cosmic Spectacle is a collaborative project between myself, astronomer Dr Ian Griffin and Tūhura Otago Museum, in Ōtepoti Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand.

This funding will enable me to explore different perceptions of the climate crisis through the knowledge of Tūhura scientists who have a deep understanding of the timescales it has taken to form our world, alongside the thoughts and feelings of Ōtepoti high school students. I will develop a body of photographic work reflecting on the deep-time history of Otago landscapes and the long and slow evolution of Earth, to be displayed at the museum with a series of curated events.

Find out more about the grant recipients here.

“The Connections Through Culture grants programme is designed to nurture fresh cultural partnerships between East Asia and the UK. These grants are instrumental in supporting new ideas and collaborations from artists and cultural organisations at any stage of development.

The grants supported in this round of Connections Through Culture programme have focused on two distinct areas: diversity and inclusion, and addressing climate change. The collaborative efforts across borders and artistic disciplines will lead to new thoughts and ideas created to address global challenges.

The grants support new connections, exchanges and collaborations. These grants help build long-term relationships and collaborations between artists, cultural professionals, creative practitioners and art and cultural organisations, hubs, networks, and collectives.”

Dark Skies/ The Transparency of Night

I am so proud to share that I have contributed a chapter to this incredible book, edited by Tim Edensor and Nick Dunn and published by Routledge on 27 November 2023. The process of writing my chapter came at just the right moment and helped me to unravel, refine, and understand my practice in new ways. I loved writing it and can’t wait to read the rest of the book. My chapter, ‘The Transparency of Night’ is the fourth chapter, and the abstract is below:

"As light pollution increases around the world, humanity is losing a symbolic visual connection to the cosmos, shared by our ancestors throughout history. The author examines how living under the dark skies of Aotearoa, New Zealand, has influenced her artistic and curatorial practice and how her artwork can invite the audience to explore their own changing relationship with the night. Through the discussion of five artistic projects, this chapter explores how living under dark skies, or light-polluted skies, can change our perception of grief, the climate crisis, and Earth’s deep-time history and future. Each of the projects has started with a fundamental connection to the night sky and reflects the author’s changing understanding of life, death, darkness, and light.“

Dark Skies addresses a significant gap in knowledge in relation to perspectives from the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In providing a new multi- and interdisciplinary field of inquiry, this book brings together engagements with dark skies from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, empirical studies, and theoretical orientations.

Throughout history, the relationship with dark skies has generated a sense of wonder and awe, as well as providing the basis for important cultural meanings and spiritual beliefs. However, the connection to dark skies is now under threat due to the widespread growth of light pollution and the harmful impacts that this has upon humans, non-humans, and the planet we share. This book, therefore, examines the rich potential of dark skies and their relationships with place, communities, and practices to provide new insights and understandings on their importance for our world in an era of climate emergency and environmental degradation.

This book is intended for a wide audience. It will be of interest to scholars, students, and professionals in geography, design, astronomy, anthropology, ecology, history, and public policy, as well as anyone who has an interest in how we can protect the night sky for the benefit of us all and the future generations to follow.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Contributors:

Kerem Ali Asfuroglu, Dwayne Avery, Louise Beer, Therese Conway, Hannah Dalgleish, Élisabeth de Bézenac, Kimberly Dill, Nick Dunn, Tim Edensor, Rupert Griffiths, Ysanne Holt, Ellen Jeffrey, Therésa Jones, Neha Khetrapal, Yee-Man Lam, Marty Lockett, Marie Mahon, Natalie Marr, Georgia MacMillan, Helen McGhie, Dan Oakley, Nona Schulte-Romer, Taylor Stone.

GRAIN Projects Commission: Artists Talk

I am going to be giving an artists talk as part of my GRAIN Projects x Forestry England Photographer in Residency commission on Tuesday 24 Oct 2023 18:00 - 19:30 BST.

Find your free tickets here.

I have had two stays in Cannock Chase during my residency, and was lucky enough to spend time with Forestry England, discussing the plans they have for the future of the forest, and what challenges they face with the climate crisis. ⁠

I also engaged with geologist Dr Ian Stimpson of Keele University, who has shared his endless knowledge about the rhythm of Earth’s changing climates over its 4.543 billion years of history. These two contrasting temporalities form the basis of my work for this project. How can we try and shift our viewing of the forest, to see each living or non-living element as a consequence of the events and processes that have occurred over the billions of years of Earth’s history, and the billions and billions of years of the pre-Earth Universe before that? How can we develop our understanding of the world around us to see this exceptional set of circumstances in our view?⁠

Coalescence, 2023

Commission/ Radical Gifting with People United

I am so pleased to share that I have been selected by People United to be one of three artists to work collaboratively with people experiencing social isolation to imagine 1 or 2 objects that bring the coast to people who can’t access it otherwise. Myself and the other artists will design and make 1-2 prototype objects to be reproduced, and these objects will be added to an immersive coastal themed wellbeing box and shared with socially isolated people across East Kent.

Building on People United’s 2022 project Soft Fascination, this project asks how we might work together to explore the potential impact of “Radical gifting,” referring to the act of offering a gift without expectation of receiving anything in return.

The other contributing artists are Maggie Huiming Yang and Rachel Ella Taylor.

Read more about the project here.

Pale Blue Dot Collective/ Art in Romney Marsh 2023

I am delighted to share that Pale Blue Dot Collective has been included in Art in Romney Marsh’s Sirens Call upcoming exhibition in St Mary the Virgin’s Church, St Mary in the Marsh, near to Dungeness in Kent. We will be displaying Last verse, as a dual screen installation, which was made during our BigCi Environmental Art Award Residency in the Blue Mountains in Australia, where we spent June and July in 2022. Thank you to Arts Council England for supporting this project and for the Romney Marsh community for allowing us to display this work in such a beautiful church.

Dates
16 September - 8 October
Saturdays and Sundays 1 - 5pm

Artists
a:dress, Kimberley Cookey Gam, Pale Blue Dot Collective, Roxanne Simone, Jo de Banzie, Rebecca Elves, Sarah Karen, Liv Pennington, Clare Unsworth

Art in Romney Marsh 2023 is a celebration of exciting perspectives on the title A Siren’s Call. The works address issues of the climate crisis and the threat of rising sea levels. The range of approaches includes sculpture, performance and the uniqueness of each artists creative, site specific installs. Each creative commission invites our audiences to explore the medieval church spaces with a new and artist led experience. The selected artists have responded to so many influences including local history and heritage, through to the perils we face from climate change and the need for taking a Carbon Net Zero pathway.

Art in Romney Marsh was founded in 2003. The organisation has delivered a varied programme of exhibitions centred on 8 medieval churches located on Denge and Walland marsh. Art in Romney Marsh continues to support artists to experiment and make site-specific work. Since 2011, AiRM has delivered a wide range of learning programmes that engage community groups with their local heritage and history.  Creative, partnership and educational opportunities are organised by Susan Churchill.

Find out more information here.

Jean Harrison Commission/ Perigee

Perigee
Hahnemühle Bamboo giclée mounted on dibond
198 x 149mm
2023

In 2022 I was commissioned to create a piece of work that reflected on Jean Harrisons poetry. I chose a poem called ‘Woman on the Moon’, focusing on this expert:

“The earth has been huge in our sky all day
and as it sank, I felt I could reach out
and touch you, but all the time indigo
was seeping into the valley.
Now it’s flooded and the hills
are like shadowed snow.”

Published in The North, 2003 and The Forward Book of Poetry, 2004

The poem spoke to me about both the feelings of separation and connection that can happen after bereavement. I reflected on how her relationship with the Moon, the wider night sky and the constancy of tides out my window has helped me with my personal experience of grief. The collaged image gestures to a familiar world that is almost as it was before a bereavement but which is now irrevocably and wholly different.

This piece is currently part of an auction to support the Contemporary Poetry Library, which closes on 30 September.

Settle's Contemporary Poetry Library was established in memory of Jean Harrison. Support the future of the Library and other collections at the Museum of North Craven Life by bidding on one of the artworks or making a donation.

GRAIN Projects Photographer in Residence

I am delighted to announce that I have been awarded the GRAIN Projects Photographer in Residence opportunity at Cannock Chase, Staffordshire in partnership with Forestry England. I will engage with the location and its communities to create new work that supports the development of my practice.

The Residency has been designed to support excellence in photography and is intended to provide artists with time to think, research, reflect and/or experiment with new ideas, to enable the research and development of new work in the context of Cannock Chase.

This opportunity is part of a broader series of continued professional development opportunities conceived and developed by GRAIN, supported by Arts Council England and Birmingham City University.

Cannock Chase and the West Midlands Region The West Midlands region is one of nine regions in England. Geographically diverse, the region has the urban central areas of the conurbation surrounding Birmingham to the rural western counties of Shropshire and Herefordshire which border Wales. The region encompasses five Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty including Cannock Chase. Cannock Chase Forest (CCF) covers 2684 hectares of coniferous and broadleaf woodlands and open land in Staffordshire in the West Midlands, between the towns of Stafford to the northwest, Cannock to the south and Rugeley to the east – Birmingham city centre is 20 miles to the south. Cannock Chase is mainland England’s, smallest AONB. Most of the forest is freehold as part of the public forest estate and is designated as Open Access land. Much of the woodland in the west and north eastern corner of the plan area is leased to Forestry England however, and access in these areas is restricted to Public Rights of Way. The area lies within the Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the majority of Forestry England land is made up of conifers planted for timber production. There are also areas of ancient woodland, wetland, wood pasture and open heathland within the forest.

GRAIN Projects
GRAIN champions photography for all. We deliver activities and projects in collaboration with partners locally, regionally and internationally, to support and grow photography opportunities for artists, communities, audiences and participants. We are dedicated to supporting artists to develop their ideas and ambitions and to creating new and innovative opportunities in photography for everyone.

We commission and produce new work and projects that engage with society and create new opportunities for participation as well as developing and curating exhibitions, commissions, publications, events and a range of artists opportunities and professional development support. 

Working beyond the boundaries of a museum or gallery context offers rich and rewarding spaces for new work and opportunities to develop new collaborations and audiences.  We work with communities and in unique locations to explore new ways of working.

Forestry England
For over 100 years, we have been growing, shaping and caring for over 1,500 of our nation’s forests for the benefit and enjoyment of all, for this generation and the next.

Forests are vital for the future of our planet. They improve the health and wellbeing of everyone. With careful planning and expert management, our forests will continue to thrive. Forests store carbon, reduce flooding and provide people of all ages and abilities with fresh air and spaces to breathe. We are always thinking beyond today, planning and planting forests that will help create a sustainable future.