Inspiring new exhibition will highlight innovative work responding to the environment.

Where Are We Now? is a new exhibition by members of Contemporary Art Membership Platform (CAMP) CIC highlighting diverse work considering contemporary environmental issues from multiple perspectives. The works to feature at THG will span many disciplines, including painting, print, sculpture, video, audio, photography, ceramics, textile works, collage, drawing and embroidery.

 

CAMP is an independent, member-led, support & professional development network for artists across Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Set up in Plymouth in 2019 to support artists post education to develop sustainable careers, it has grown to over 200 members. CAMP promotes and supports doing, making, and sharing contemporary art through member-led activities, networking, and producing opportunities with partner arts organisations.

 

The exhibition features 40 artists from across Devon and Cornwall including: Dana Aala, Ruth Bateman, Lottie Bolster, Sara Bor, Katrina Brown, Bob Budd, Megan Calver & Gabrielle Hoad, Erika Cann, Emily Chung, Caroline Collingridge, Gillian Cooper, Rachael Coward, Laura Denning, Marko Dukta, Francesca Elliott, John Elliott, Ilya Fisher, Sue Green, Angela Hilton, Karen Howse, Tim Hutton, Christina Kutter, Octavia Madden, Gill Melling, Elizabeth Orcutt, Olivia Parsons, Ann Russell, Janet Sainsbury, Penny Simons, Viv Spencer, Charlotte Squire, Frances Staniforth, Stella Tripp, Carole Weir, Emma Saffy Watson, Patricia Wilson-Smith, Claire Winfield and Melanie Young.

 

Two of the exhibiting artists work feature lichens, an under-recorded species globally; many lichens in the UK are on the endangered list.

 

Caroline Collingridge has been studying lichens through the British Lichen Society and Devon Wildlife Trust.

Lichenology is a science but, like all life forms, it inspires wonder and amazement. I am currently studying lichens on ash trees in Devon. Ash dieback will change the landscape forever and threatens many species which rely on ash, including lichens. As well as the endangered lichens, I have painted some of the most common nitrophilic lichens which thrive in environments with high nitrogen levels.

 

Octavia Madden's creative practice begins with looking, searching, and discovering in the landscape and also involves the observation of lichens.

Lichens and mosses play a central role in my art as a lens through which I explore the climate. Lichens are delicate yet resilient, vital yet often overlooked. They reflect our environmental quality and deserve our attention.

 

John Elliott's work “Hermit” was inspired by investigating the way different animals have begun to incorporate man-made materials into their lives.

I was unsettled to discover that it is now not uncommon to find hermit crabs living in discarded plastic or metal bottle containers such as bottle tops. Two of the main concerns of my work combine in “Hermit”: the manufactured world and the potential of artificial life. Imagining the lives of objects is a playful way to imagine how machines and software may in the future gain agency and develop their own hopes, dreams, and desires. 

 

Elizabeth Orcutt's digital layered exposures of a fruit, and flowers staged against a translucent bin liner, explore the uneasy entanglement of nature and consumption confronting viewers with the stark irony of the organic packaged in non-biodegradable plastic.

In the context of Where Are We Now? the image describes themes of environmental degradation and materiality. By merging natural and synthetic textures, the work invites reflection on the artificial boundaries we draw between nature and economy, waste and value, care and neglect.

 

Janet Sainsbury paints portraits of artists and writers from the last century, Janet’s practice is driven by curiosity about the lives of others and hidden stories. The exhibition features her portraits of the modernist writer Jean Rhys.

I am a big fan of Rhys' writing. Her life was complex, contradictory and extraordinary, making her a fascinating subject. I want to share the sense of vulnerability and bravado that I take from her story. For the last twenty years of her life she lived in Devon and worked on her masterpiece Wide Sargasso Sea, the prequel to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.

 

Viv Spencer is a printmaker who decided to stop making new prints. She tried to find ways of re-using and recycling older prints into jugs, which are full of life and interest.

For me, ‘Where are We Now?’ is a chance to re-examine what I’m doing and to make some choices regarding what I make, how I make it and why am I making it, which materials to use and why.

 

The judging panel comprised:

• Gemma Girvan, THG Curator
• Jane Jobling, artist and co-director of CAMP
• Elis Roberts, THG Youth Panel 
• Ellen Sims, artist and CAMP member
• Eleri Townson, artist and THG Youth Panel
• Frankie Williams, artist and co-director of CAMP

 

Frankie Williams, co-director of CAMP, commented,

CAMP is delighted to be working in partnership with THG for the first time.  We asked CAMP members to submit artwork across all mediums and were thrilled with the breadth of work we received. All the artists responded in different ways, but many have highlighted the pressing contemporary environmental and ecological issues facing the world today.

 

Councillor Nick Hookway, Portfolio Holder for Culture, Sport, Leisure and Tourism said,

We welcome CAMP to their first exhibition at THG. I look forward to viewing the work of these Devon and Cornwall-based artists, who are new to the gallery and their responses to climate change highlighting the need to protect the environment.

 

CAMP: Where Are We Now? (6 September to 25 October)
Exhibition opening: Saturday 6 September, 3-5pm.