This image: Hannah Moshtael’s installation A home from home
Ruthie Collins gives you the lowdown on arty happenings around Cambridge in May
Making art that’s visibly influenced by the political and global climate can’t really be called a trend. It’s more an attempt at negotiating this post-truth world of ours – shaped by war, fake news and crises. Anglia Ruskin’s Sustainability Art Prize went to third year Fine Art student Imogen Dungate for her piece Gravity, which “gives the planet a jewel-like quality, emphasising its fragility in the black void of space,” according to head of fine art, Chris Owen.
Hannah Moshtael meanwhile, who received an additional prize sponsored by local vegan café Stem + Glory, created A home from home. This installation recreated an asylum seeker’s home and invited the public in to have mint tea, touching on what many of our hearts are bursting for right now, a global culture of sustainable collaboration. As curator Marina Velez, says, “contemporary art practices can offer ways for working with and through the ambivalences of loss attached to environmental issues because they can provide understanding and promote reparation in these complex human experiences…” We need more of this.
Those wanting to help abate the apparently worsening refugee crisis can buy tickets for a catwalk fashion show on 10 June in aid of Syrian refugees, taking place at Hot Numbers on Trumpington Street. Artist Deanna Tyson has teamed up with the charity behind children’s art show, From Syria with Love, to showcase her startling, provocative kimonos and other customised recycled streetwear pieces from artists such as Jadryk Brown.
“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth“
Deanna’s textile works are punchy, political comments on current affairs – not dissimilar to the likes of Anthea Hamilton’s pieces currently making waves in contemporary art. Deanna’s work plays a vital role, like the pioneering female artists before her in the 60s and 70s, in destroying “the barrier that marginalised women and kept their productions out of ‘high’ art” (Katherine Grey). From Syria with Love/To Syria with Art itself is an incredibly moving show, which we hosted at the Art Salon last summer – you can find out more about the exhibition at fromsyriawithlove.com. Contact Deanna Tyson for tickets for the catwalk show on: [email protected].
How to Avoid a Post-Truth Apocalypse from Francesca Beard (left), featured as part of Cambridge Junction’s Watch Out Festival on 27 May, is another to look out for. As part of the project, Francesca, who was one of the originators of the current spoken word scene, is creating an archive of lies – which you can submit to online at www.posttruthapocalypse.com. This performance at the Watch Out Festival, known for its ‘dangerous theatre’, is a chance to catch a taste of the show before it goes on its full-length tour later this year. Head to the show for the chance to play Whose Lie is it Anyway, because as Albert Camus said, “fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth…”
Also worth celebrating this month is the glorious revival of surrealist artist, Leonora Carrington, whose centenary was this year. New feminist publisher Silver Press have released The Debutante and Other Stories; a collection of short stories by this enigmatic surrealist artist, who became famous for her mesmerising depictions of female autonomy, sorcery and sexuality. Lover of Max Ernst, she ran away to Paris, alone, at the age of 19, swapping the narrow confines of her rich and privileged life for a trailblazing life of artistic freedom.
You can also find a fascinating account of her work, Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art by Susan L Aberth, in Cambridge Waterstones, plus see one of her paintings here in Cambridge as part of the Murray Edwards New Hall art collection.
Finally, huge congratulations to Cambridge poets this month. Fay Roberts’ show The Selkie – A Song of Many Waters, at the time of writing this, has been nominated for a Saboteur Award. The Selkie’s award nomination is 100{b486c5a37ab2d325d17e17d701cb2567b1ecd1814e8ceb33effa2a4f1f171d46} deserved, few others have so tirelessly worked to make the performance poetry scene so vibrant, not least in Cambridge.
Plus, Hollie McNish (right), also up for a Saboteur Award, has been awarded the prestigious Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, for her poetic memoir, Nobody Told Me.
Hollie is not only phenomenally gifted, she’s also a down-to-earth, genuine artist whose generous spirit reaches out to readers and audiences from all backgrounds.
I’ll leave you with the advice that she gave her younger self (probably relevant to many adults, too) for our feminist art programme, Women of Influence, working with young women supported by charity Romsey Mill.
“You are very small and the world is huge, millions of stars and other planets. The things you think are really important – the bad things I mean – the fallouts with friends, the outfits, the boyfriends, the bullies, those issues will soon be gone.
“You will grow older, and with age comes more freedom, more confidence, more excitement and less bother! So try to have fun.” Have a fantastic May, all.
