PROSPER: UNDERGROUND
PEARL SUMMERY FEBRUARY 2014
“ Cast from the
solitude of our studios and fishing boats, we are lured to the beach. Our paint
brushes, canvases and nets have been tossed to the economic storm and swept
under the rocks. The gift of the ebb tide was the discovery of the poetics of
our coastline, Prosper, Canterbury Festival and the UCA MA Fine Art. They have
reeled us out of metaphorical sinking sand and into a fresh changing tide that
turned in February 2013. It shifted our artistic direction, materials and
solitude to a new and unfamiliar ‘CURRENSEA’ (meaning: new perspectives,
roaring opportunities, continual stream of collaborations, a gentle flow of
friendships and oceanic inspiration to equip us to keep moving forward and
negotiate future storms). This is one
way contemporary artists can survive in a town with no contemporary gallery
space. We are in constant flux with projects and fluid with creativity and
curiosity. In this way Underground Pearl is connected to the tides of its
mystical coastal past and is shaping a
new contemporary horizon.
“The answer to how
fishermen can survive in a town with a dying fishing industry is still very
much submerged beneath the surface of the waves. They are a very close-knit community, and they have their own politics
and agendas that dominate what we might see as more important. They have become
the lobsters in a pot that they could walk free from, should they just step
backwards”.
Underground Pearl
The legacy of Prosper is about
deeper relationships with the art industry, diversity and locality.
An initial
experiment was led by Katryn Saqui, an artist based in Deal, and a local
fisherman, Nigel Clements. It explored ways of collaborating with Deal’s
dwindling fishing fleet and making connections between the community, fishermen
and the town’s artists. The partnership worked with the enquiry questions:
Are these the last
fishermen?
Can artists have a presence
in a town with no contemporary gallery?
The questions were used to
shape conversations in events titled “in and out of place”, that explored
polarities between the diminishing fishing industry and the artists of Deal to
explore ideas of belonging. Adventure funding allowed partners to continue to
challenge separations and disconnectedness in their community.
Adventure Partners
In the Adventure phase, artist
Katryn Saqui continued her collaboration with new partner artist Loren Beven with
the initial goal of creating a fish ‘stall’ that would develop the partners’
previous curated conversations with a broader net of partners to explore ideas
of sustainability and change. The Adventure, though smaller in scale than
others, expanded in ambition as it attracted new partners and has had far-reaching impacts,
particularly in relation to a legacy of new commissions for the original Adventure
Partners. Many additional local partners were involved in contributing to
events, including an art salon and beach cinema. Partners did not employ an
additional evaluator but experimented instead with a range of creative
evaluation tools. This adventure also illustrates how an inspirational idea for
an artistic intervention can lead to a new model of consultation and
relationship between a local council and its community.
-
Adventure
partnership collaborators:
Dr. Terry Perk UCA, Art Salon leader; Martine Brown, actor; Tom Rowland
(journalist, local historian and boat owner); Barbara Salter, donor of screen
(in-kind gift); Colin Priest, Architect from Chelsea Arts School; Danny
Burrows, photographer; Matthew Sharpe, Artistic Director Deal Music Festival; Peter
Stange, loan of Orkney Spinner boat for cinema; Andy Burrows, local fisherman
and historian; Carolle Ford, Sea Café chef; Rachel Wolf, artist who documented
events; Nigel Clements, fisherman and Michael Tyburski, film director. Clare
Smith and Joanna Jones of Dover Arts Development; Medway artist, Wendy Daws;
Päivi Seppälä of LV21; Kent Autistic Trust; Deal Parochial School; Castle
Community College; 20 schools in Medway on the INSPRE programme; Strange Cargo; UCA art foundation student, Wendy Bagley;
Greenpeace.
Approximate in-kind
revenue: £6500
Activities
Adventure discussions focused on the potential of the
locality and the beach, in particular, to act as a centre for community
engagement. Activities included:
-
A Beach
Cinema. In September 2013 a Cine-Boat event was created
through an interactive sculpture that created awareness of Deal’s shrimping
heritage, the lure of the sea and new ways to engage with the beach. Further research
was carried out through the use of jars and a series of encounters to ask
questions about art in the area and future possibilities. A two seater
Cine-Boat in a converted Orkney Spinner generated further interest in the
possibilities of the sea with a screening of the film Angelfish, directed by Michael Tyburski, about the overview effect
which sailors get at sea, experiencing euphoria prompted by seemingly limitless
horizons.
-
-
Underground
Pearl’s art intervention ‘Rise of the Renegade’ used 2000 glow sticks to magically illuminate Deal
Festival’s staging of ‘Britten on the Beach’, a storytelling and musical event that
took place in and around beach huts and boats at Walmer. This intervention
commemorated the event in 1784 when William Pit the Younger ordered the burning
of the boats on Walmer beach to suppress the smuggling trade.
-
-
Site
Specific Art Salon. Underground
Pearl hosted its first art salon in June 2013 around a boat on Walmer beach.
Led by Dr. Terry Perk, course leader, M.A. Fine Art at the University for the
Creative Arts at Canterbury, the salon generated new perspectives of enquiry
through an exploration of the poetics of the boat in relation to technology,
geography and site.
- Additional Partnerships As an extra event, the Adventure
partners, Katryn Saqui and Loren visited the École Supérieure d’Art et Design
in Rouen, France where they delivered a presentation on Underground Pearl to
124 students. The opportunity arose through the artists’ MA studies at the
University of Arts, Canterbury. The visit created opportunities to connect with
other local artists and has also led to further exchange visits between the
universities with potential for further collaboration and exchange.
Social
Impacts
As artists,
the Adventure partners experimented with different means of creatively gathering
data. The cine-boat was conceived of as a cultural laboratory that involved both
cinema and conversation as well as ways of recording visitors’ views and
responses to questions. They used, for example, jars with titles on them.
People could place pebbles in them to indicate what they would like to see
happening in Deal. These creative consultation tools provided information that
shaped planning for interventions. Data gathered was used also as part of a
formative assessment process of impacts of activities but the methods chosen
precluded wider analysis of long-term social benefits.
‘I’d have to reflect on it in a year’s time. It’s too soon to know
what the impact has been. It’s still developing and growing. To get the overall
impact, it’s too soon.’ Katryn Saqui, Artist
|
Numbers of Participants and
Audience.
42
Facebook likes
1000
Cheriton Light Festival 2014-03-14
156
Cine-Boat
25
Site-specific Art Salon
200 Rise
of the Renegade
200
INSPIRE workshops LV21
200 Deal
Parochial School participation project on the beach.
400 Dover
Arts Development Nautical Threads procession 29th March.
80
students at Rouen Ecole Superieure D’Art et Design.
HOURS invested: 620
New connections:
Dover
Council
Dover
Habour Board
Astor
College of Art
Walmer
Council
PRESS:
WOW
magazine ‘What’s on Where’ March 2014-03-14
UCA
magazine and press release
Folkestone
Herald
Kent Messenger
“ The
realisation of the power of collaboaration has been very significant, working
on the beach creates lots of curiosity and interest, people want to get
involved when they find out what we are doing – bridging the gap between
council and community, this is what working on the beach gives us ”.
Match-funding
data.
People who
took part in the project: collaborators, informal contributors
|
14
|
Workshop
(art salon) participants
|
25
|
Number of
events (inc. all screenings)
|
80
|
Audience
numbers
(Events:
Cineboat, Beach event)
|
356
|
Online
Audience: Facebook ‘likes’
|
140
|
In-kind
budget support
|
? N/A
|
Collaboration
Underground
Pearl’s vision of collaboration is strongly rooted in their artistic practice
and ways in which this facilitates new connections between place and community.
Situating artwork and events on the beach was identified by the Adventure
Partners as a significant contributor to increasing interest and engagement from
the local community.
Images
‘Connecting
history and contemporary art through casting a light on it... we’re
illuminating the two, merging the two with light...’
Capturing a
sense of place by casting a light on place (sentence next to an image)...
Adventure
Partners also see huge potential in the way the council has responded
imaginatively to the artists’ work as a means to bridge the gap between the
council and the wider community: ‘they like our nutty ideas’.
Photo
‘We felt the need to play with illumiination as a signature...Rise of the Renegade had massive
strength in winning commissions. We never envisaged that this would open up
opportunities to work with LV21, Canterbury Festival, Cheriton Light Festival,
Wheely Groovy and the Arts council and local schools....’
|
Building
Cultural Capacity – Conversations and Commissions
Image
‘initially, we’ve
had small audiences but it has had a massive impact in other ways...’
Katryn Saqui
|
It will be a
slow growing thing... we had to build that up.... ‘we’re used to working in our
studios and suddenly doing something we can’t possibly do on our own. That’s an
adjustment...’
The trajectory of the Adventure has demonstrated how low-key
interventions create opportunities for conversation, exchange of ideas and raising
awareness. The situation of events on the beach provided a point of connection
between the community, its location and its history encouraging new
perspectives on how these connections could be revived. These processes were
also shaped by the innovation of the event delivery. The prominence and
boldness of the Rise of the Renegade event,
for example, was a key catalyst in generating interest in Underground Pearl
which led directly to further commissions, including:
- Dover Arts Development: As part of their
Nautical Threads project, Underground Pearl will illuminate a street
procession. The company has additionally, in collaboration with Dover Council,
asked Underground Pearl to co-ordinate the event and school workshops about the
project.
- Walmer Council: As part of
Conservation Week Underground Pearl worked with 200 children on conserving
endangered fishing language.
- LV21: Working with the new Gillingham-based arts
organisation based on a former lightship, Underground Pearl are running 5 mini-residency days, working with Kent
Autistic Trust and local artist Wendy Dawes.
- Other enquiries are in progress with
LV21 and Trinity House Goodwin Sands project and the Cheriton Light Festival.
- The company is also applying for an
ACE development grant.
