Ackroyd & Harvey, Anne Brodie and Amanda Loomes13 St Martins Walk Shopping Centre, Dorking, Surrey RH41UT Friday 1st October - Sunday 17th October (see below for talks and exhibition times)
‘Artists in Residence’ is a collaborative Arts Council funded project between four Dorking based artists, Mole Valley District Council and Jonathan Parsons from ARC. The artists Ackroyd & Harvey, Anne Brodie and Amanda Loomes have have lived in Dorking for over a hundred years between them, yet have never exhibited together in their hometown.
‘Artists in Residence Project’ will challenge the artists to make a new body of work in response to their hometown whilst considering the implications of a long-term residency with regard to habit and habitat. At a time when our culture is in the process of realising the value of local sustainability, the project questions what local means to these artists.
Mole Valley District Council will be working with the artists to transform a vacant shop unit in St Martins Walk Shopping Centre, Dorking into a temporary gallery to be launched during the Mole Valley Arts Alive Festival (1 - 31 October 2010). A series of talks in conjunction with Jonathan Parsons (ARC) and Mark Segal (Artsway),will be held during the exhibition.
Talks Saturday 2 October, 7.00pm – 8.30pm: talk (Ackroyd & Harvey and guest) Saturday 9 October, 7.00pm – 8.00pm: talk (Jonathan Parsons in conversation with the artists) Thursday 14 October, 7.00pm – 8.00pm: talk (Anne Brodie and Amanda Loomes with Mark Segal, Director of ArtSway)
Anne Brodie’sSloe Chandelier uses laboratory glass, and a medical pump, and could be mistaken as a scientific experiment. Inspired by her experience of living in an isolated community in Antarctica (as part of a British Antarctic Survey and Arts Council Fellowship), Brodie viewed a community of people from within, as if a disconnected cell seen close up on a laboratory slide. Living in Dorking, a busy satellite town, the community has its own identity, connected to the rest of the world, no longer an isolated cell but very much part of the whole organism. Sloe Chandelier suggests the recurrent, relentless cyclical nature common to all living things and all communities - the difficulties, the mistakes, and sometimes the pointlessness. The sloe gin is made from the blackthorn bushes growing on Ranmore. Brodie references a recent report showing Mole Valley to have the 6th highest rate of hazardous drinking in England. Jelly Box, isBrodie’s personal response to a period of ill health where she found respite working on a shared allotment in Coldharbour Lane.