The Centre of Latin American Studies is hosting a new exhibition:

A Token of Concrete Affection

Works from the personal collection of Stephen Bann relating to close exchanges between Cambridge and Brazilian poets in the 1960s.

The Private View will be held on 28 November 2014 from 5:00-7:00 pm in the the Centre of Latin American Studies, Alison Richard Building.
The exhibition is open to the public on weekdays from 1 December 2014 to 1 March 2015. Viewing is by appointment only, please email Julie at jac46@cam.ac.uk to make an appointment.

Image: Poemobiles, Augusto de Campos & Julio Plaza

About this exhibition

This show has been designed to mark the 50th Anniversary of the first international exhibition of concrete, kinetic and phonic poetry held in the Rushmore rooms, St Catharine’s College, Cambridge from 28 November to 5 December 1964, organised by Stephen Bann, Reg Gadney, Philip Steadman and Mike Weaver.

Among over ninety works shown at the week-long exhibition were poems sent from Brazil by Ronaldo Azeredo, Augusto de Campos, Haroldo de Campos, José Lino Grunewald and Décio Pignatari of the Noigandres group and from Edgard Braga, Luiz Angelo Pinto and Pedro Xisto.

Works by the Noigandres group and other Brazilian poets were included within the remarkable avant-garde journal FORM which Bann, Steadman and Weaver co-edited between 1966 and 1969 and in the Brighton Festival of Concrete Poetry which Bann curated in 1966. A half century after the first exhibition, the Centre of Latin American Studies has worked closely with Stephen Bann and curator Bronaċ Ferran on an exhibition of rarely seen material from Bann’s collection. The exhibition’s title is drawn from a letter written to Bann by Xisto in 1967 and on display in this show.

A symposium about 1960’s concrete poetry, its context and lineage will be held in association with Kettle’s Yard on Saturday 14 February 2015 from 11.30am-5pm at the Alison Richard Building. The programme will include presentations from Professor Stephen Bann, Dr Viviane Carvalho da Annunciação, Dr Greg Thomas, University of Edinburgh and Ann Noël Williams.

For further details visit http://www.latin-american.cam.ac.uk/events/concrete-poetry

Photographs © Julie Coimbra

Details of two related exhibitions in Cambridge:

Beauty and Revolution: The Poetry and Art of Ian Hamilton Finlay
Curated by Stephen Bann
http://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/exhibitions/2014/ihf/index.php

Graphic Constellations: Visual poetry and the Properties of Space
Curated by Bronaċ Ferran and Will Hill
http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/microsites/ruskin_gallery/graphic…

Both of our exhibiting artists will be giving  tours of their exhibitions as part of the Festival of Ideas in Cambridge:

Tim Oelman

’52 Days to Timbuktu: Tapestry and Mud Cloth Inspired by Mali and Morocco’

Exhibition Opening,  Saturday 4 October from 3-5pm, all welcome!

The exhibitions will run from 6 October – 12 December 2014

Opening times are 9am – 5pm on weekdays

Mohammed Djazmi

Social Commentary

Mohammed Djazmi’s exhibition Social Commentary is a reaction to the effect corruption has on society. Djazmi’s experiences of monarchy, theocracy and democracy in both Iran and the United Kingdom have played an inspirational role in his creations.

Born in the north-eastern Iranian town of Bojnourd in 1948 into an artistic family, Djazmi learned his craft under the tutelage of his father who was a well-known local painter.

Whilst studying in Tehran, Djazmi began to base his drawings around social and political themes, reflecting the chasm he experienced between his social and academic life due to the social and political atmosphere in Iranian Universities, and the contrasting ‘freedoms’ reflected in the faces and actions of those around him.

“Art is an extremely incisive means of social commentary, and only those who are a part of a particular society can accurately reflect it through art.” Mohammed Djazmi

Tim Oelman

52 Days to Timbuktu

52 Days to Timbuktu is an exhibition of work by Tim Oelman, inspired by the art of Morocco and West Africa. The title is taken from the painted sign on the wall in Zagora, Southern Morocco indicating the time taken to travel by camel to the Malian city of Timbuktu – a journey which war and insurrection has now made impossible for Westerners. The exhibition is therefore a journey of the artistic imagination, travelling imagistically from the woven art of Morocco to the mud cloth and architecture of Mali (and neighbouring Burkina Faso). The works across all the mediums display a common preoccupation with sign, symbol and pre-classical culture.

Our current exhibition finishes soon!

STRUCTURE – Visualising the unseen

There is only one week left until our current exhibition ends and it is definitely worth a visit. As a final event, the exhibition is becoming part of this year’s Cambridge Alumni Festival programme, which is running from Friday 26 September to Sunday 28 September 2014.

Upcoming Exhibitions

We have two exciting shows coming up in October, the exhibition openings will be in the ARB on Saturday 4 October from 3-5 pm, all are welcome!

Tim Oelman – 52 Days to Timbuktu

Mohammed Djazmi – Social Commentary

Mohammed Djazmi’s work represents the effect of corruption on society. Djazmi’s experiences of monarchy, theocracy and democracy in both Iran and the United Kingdom have played an inspirational role in these creations.While growing up in a socially free Iran in the 1960s and ‘70s, he realized that, while we were free to do what we wanted, we could not say what we thought. In his eyes art is an extremely incisive means of social commentary, and only those who are a part of a particular society can accurately reflect it through art.

Festival of Ideas 2014

Art at the ARB are taking part in the Festival of Ideas, this year with exhibition tours by artists Tim Oelman and Mohammed Djazmi.
Meet in the foyer of the Alison Richard Building on Saturday 25 October at 1.00pm for Tim Oelman’s tour and at 2.30pm for Mohammed Djazmi’s tour. These events are free and everyone is welcome to attend.

Art Language Location

Another festival taking place in Cambridge!

Art Language Location (ALL) is a public art festival taking place from 16 October to 2 November 2014 in locations throughout Cambridge, featuring 50 innovative and experimental contemporary artists from across the UK and beyond who use text in their work.

Each artist must find an appropriate venue for their work: the resulting intervention creates a conversation between artist, artwork and location. This extended exhibition aims to punctuate the city with a series of visually exciting and unexpected encounters in which our everyday interactions with text can be explored and challenged.

Visitors are invited to track down the artworks across Cambridge, and in so doing, discover some fascinating and lesser-known corners of the city. A programme of supporting events and activities will critique, investigate and articulate the work being shown.

To find out more visit the Art Language Location website, like them on facebook, or follow them on Twitter.

There are just about two weeks left until our current exhibition Structure – visualising the unseen ends, so if you haven’t seen it yet, it is definitely worth a visit! The exhibition has been a great success and is featured in this month’s ‘Cambridge Edition’ magazine.

As a final event the exhibition is a part of this year’s Cambridge Alumni Festival programme, running from Friday 26 September to Sunday 28 September 2014.

The artists will be giving a tour of the exhibition on Friday 26 September from11.00am to 11.30am, and will be talking about how they develop and create their work. This event is for alumni and guests only and booking is required.

Elizabeth Fraser · Charlotte Morrison · Elizabeth Walker · Jane Pryor

Monday 7 July – Friday 26 September 2014
Open weekdays 9am – 5pm
Private View 2 – 4pm Saturday 5 July in the atrium of the ARB

In this joint exhibition the artists’ explorations of structure touch on who we are and what we do, where we are and how we relate to the world. Highlighting how structures frame our everyday, the exhibition is inspired by music, language, the urban environment and is influenced by our relationship with our surroundings and ourselves.
From prints and drawings to painting, kiln glass and ceramics the four artists examine structures of our daily lives that often remain unseen. The work is presented singularly and in series, on the wall and in cabinets – enclosed and exposed.
The four individual artists have exhibited around the UK, Europe and the US and they are
actively involved in printmaking and glass communities.

About the Artists

Elizabeth Fraser’s current practice & research plays with the interface between our analogue and digital lives. Her work begins with collecting and drawing; common threads being elements of text, language & type as well as a certain obsolescence or transience in use. These works consider structure through the examination of visual language. They are inspired by the invisible connections verbal language makes in our lives, the migration of ideas and technologies associated with the material visualisation of language, and its role in the communication of place, memory and time.
Elizabeth has had works exhibited in the UK & USA. She won the 2012 Rheebridge prize for best contemporary print and was shortlisted for the 2012 Searle Award. Her book Theatre of Varieties’ was acquired by the British Library for their artist books collection in 2011 and in August 2013 had work published in Bloomsbury’s For the Love of Letterpress. www.behance.net/elizabethfraser

Charlotte Morrison explores relationships between body and mind, perception and knowledge. Her work moves between abstracted medical and scientific imagery and descriptions to personal reflections of actual lived experiences. Time impacts on what we see – and the body we see today is not the one we relate to tomorrow. There does not appear to be a fixed point at which we may completely understand the body – or indeed capture who we really are. But it is the changes which fascinate and frustrate scientists and it is change which we struggle with and get excited by on a daily basis in our lives. Kiln formed glass pieces, porcelain, prints and wax mingle to create images of the person.
Over the past 8 years Charlotte has exhibited widely both in Cambridge and London. She won the Lankelly Chase award for glass in 2010 and currently holds the position as chair for a London-based group of glass artists, Lumini. This year her work can be seen in an international glass exhibition BODYTALK in Denmark. www.charlotteartworld.com

Elizabeth Walker’s large scale screen-prints explore the built environment, with the majority of her recent work concentrating on ‘new towns’, in particular Harlow and Stevenage. Built for the purpose of rehousing exiles from London in the 1950’s, she is drawn to the uniform, low tech approach to design that characterises the modernist faith in progress of that time. As the architects of these towns grappled with their vision of the future in a changing post-war Britain, Elizabeth has sought to echo specific, repetitive design decisions made by the town planners by drawing attention to repeated architectural motifs. The impact of the large prints emphasises the monotony of those architectural decisions highlighting the spirit and aesthetic of that era and draws attention to these often overlooked backdrops.
Having studied for a fine art degree in Printmaking and Ceramics at Bradford University, Elizabeth completed her MA in Printmaking at Cambridge School of Art in 2012. Her work has been selected for exhibition nationally, including; Bite: Artists Making Prints at the Mall Galleries in London, Pushing Print in Margate and the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes. www.elizabethwalker.co.uk

Jane Pryor sees the process of painting as similar to walking – it is both means and end, travel and destination. Making series of paintings, Jane’s work is structured by a meditative process.  She makes intuitive decisions regarding colour and form, and the paintings evolve slowly, with a careful attention to the abstract relationships emerging. The geometry and spareness of them allows a freedom of thought and an open process.  Recent work focuses on fields of colour within which geometric shapes sit, sometimes on a ‘horizon’.  These paintings are about the experience of ‘being’ – accumulated sensations of sound and sight, with references to music and to the landscape.  Graphite drawings made over the last two years have focused on repetitive mark making and erasure, making visible reflective time spent in the studio. www.janepryor.co.uk

Exhibition dates: 7 April – 27 June 2014
The Alison Richard Building is open weekdays 9am – 5pm
The Exhibition Private View takes place from 3-5pm on Saturday 5 April 2014

Ruth Oinn – Printmaker

The Hours of Healing

A response to the operas of Benjamin Britten

Ruth Oinn is showing a series of twenty-six prints which have been a year in the making. Celebrating the centenary of Britten’s birth, Oinn created the works based on Britten’s operas, by revisiting several much loved works, poring over librettos and seeing productions at Aldeburgh and Glyndebourne.
Britten’s operas cover sources as diverse as Shakespeare, medieval Bible stories, American folk legends, Henry James, Thomas Mann and George Crabbe. Oinn’s research varied from Japanese Noh theatre to 1930’s barber chairs via the V&A for Tudor fabric design, early American loggers and medieval stained glass.
The words, the visual images and the music have been translated into the twenty-six prints, which are not illustrations but a personal reflection of the operas and Oinn’s understanding of the ideas and characters within them.

Ruth Oinn was born in Wales and grew up in the Midlands and Kent. She wanted to be an art student but was persuaded to study English at university and spent most of her working life enjoying teaching English at secondary level. Five years ago Ruth decided to embark on a printmaking course and her life utterly changed. This is Ruth’s fourth exhibition and she says she finds printmaking just as exciting as she did when she first peeled the paper off the first linocut. Ruth works from her studio in Saffron Walden, using a Rollaco Boxer press.

www.printsbyruth.com

Sue Shepherd

Dirt, Fire & Sky

A collection of works developed from dreams and memories of childhood

Sue Shepherd’s works are created using found objects and ideas that inspired the era of her childhood during the ‘60s and ’70s. Her Father had a hard outdoor life as an arable farmer in Northwest Essex and as a consequence she spent her early days running wild in clay fields with huge skies and sky larks, watching the crops grow and the straw burnt in this bucolic playground. The sculptures being combined with neon make each piece come alive with light, generating an irresistible charm, reminiscent of those innocent days.

Sue Shepherd studied Glass & Ceramics at Stourbridge College of Art, and Printmaking at Curwen Print Studios. In 1991 she established ‘Neon Circus’, a company producing neon for film, stage and television which gained a reputation for building artwork for high profile British artists such as Langlands & Bell, Noble & Webster, and Ceryth Wyn Evans. It also forged close relationships with Galleries such as the Tate and Victoria Miro in the conservation and installation of neon works of art. Sue currently lives and works in Fordham, Cambridgeshire.

www.sueshepherd.com

Both exhibitions run from 15 January – 28 March 2014

Open weekdays from 9am – 5pm

Private View for both exhibitions 2 – 4pm on Saturday 25 January 2014

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Don’t forget! Artist Deanna Tyson will be giving a talk about her exhibition entitled ”Until lions write their own history …” currently showing at the Alison Richard Building.

The talk takes place on Saturday 26 October from 4-5pm in Seminar Room S1, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, and will include a tour around the exhibition.

For the exhibition Deanna Tyson has both selected and created works in response to the study Centres housed within, African, Latin American, South Asian, Politics and Development Studies. Taking the form of kimono, wall hangings, mats, soft sculptures and paintings she tells her political tales and weaves her social comments through stitched and painted textiles.

“Textiles, their application, their colours, their very threads and stitches reveal a great deal about the social history of differing cultures. Exploiting the ubiquitous nature of textiles, I take contemporary political events and portray them through clothing and soft furnishing. I regard my works as three-dimensional political cartoons.”

For a great write-up about the exhibition see this article which featured in the Cambridge University News section: http://www.cam.ac.uk/news/until-lions-write-their-own-history