Arts & Ecology

Making links: John Thackara, Felix Guattari, Heath Bunting

MICHAELA CRIMMIN: One of John Thakera???s inspiring newsletters containing accounts of his activities has just come through. It includes a generous reference to Arts & Ecology and eureka, I get it. The blogosphere is all about making connections, rather than as I???ve previously thought, the musings of frequently brilliant, witty, provocative individuals following linear lines of enquiry as they drink their morning coffee.

Connections are inherent in the word ???ecology???. When we first set up Arts & Ecology in 2005 it was Felix Guattari???s interpretation that seemed so right. It was important that we had a framework that was trans-disciplinary with a project promoting and debating artists??? responses to current environmental challenges. You can???t leave out philosophy or politics or economics or sociology, or the arts, when addressing the complexity of climate change and its effects. (If Descartes saw how we are exploiting the environment surely he would have thought differently?)

On the 5th anniversary of Facebook, here???s to relationships, here???s to blogs! And here???s to encouraging connections in virtual and real space. There???s plenty to explore in both, including Heath Bunting???s work for a new exhibition at Leeds City Art Gallery opening on 11 February. I really encourage you to open the link here. And of course there???s the new exhibition Altermodern that opened at Tate Britain yesterday.

Illustration: Woman, from An A-Z of The System by Heath Bunting 2007. All the maps are online here, and discussed here. 

Go to RSA Arts & Ecology Blog

At Fermyn Woods and Sudborough Green Lodge

William Shaw over at Arts & Ecology just posted that Richard Woods’ installation Stone Clad Cottages opened this past Saturday at Fermynwoods, near Kettering, Northamptonshire, Uk. The project is quite interesting as it re-engages people in their relationship to their surroundings, which fits nicely in Fernynwoods goal to give people a place enjoy contemporary art in tranquil indoor and garden settings. Give it a look…

 

“The Sudborough Green Lodge cottages are currently been renovated by the Forestry Commission for our partnership projects with them. Based at these cottages will be an exciting programme bringing professional artists to Fermyn Woods to create new works, undertake research, explore new ideas, and lead on education projects. The cottages will create accommodation and working space once they have been restored by this summer.

Fermynwoods Contemporary Art’s interest in the environment (both rural and urban), engagement with the community and contemporary practice will develop in our new venue.

To date an inspiring schedule of artists has been drawn up, including Richard Woods who covers buildings in daring retro designs, and who will be wrapping the cottages and Jacques Nimki, who researches plant life and will be investigating the most wonderful array of weeds currently inhabiting the cottage gardens and the SSI wild flower meadow. He will also be working with children from Woodnewton School in Corby.”

As someone who’s artistic practice is heavily invested in lighting phenomenology, I’m interested to see what comes of Kurt Laurenz Theinert’s residency in the spring.Â