Fermynwoods bulletin: issue 6

Summer 2012

Practice in Place: artiStS + audience + environment

Artist Residency tomoko take

Crafting the Landscape SuSie turner

Artist Residency Venue Spring, Summer, autumn & winter

Sudborough green lodge Sudborough Green Lodge is now available to artists to stay and conduct research, develop new work or new collaborations. Our aim is that the Lodge will become a Laboratory for artistic research and learning through a range of activities on the site.

The Lodge is situated within Fermyn Woods on the brow of Sudborough Green Mead-ow, near Brigstock village. It comprises two cottages, an out-building and temporary marquee. The Lodge sits in the largest and richest biodi-versity grassland in North-amptonshire, with medieval ridge and furrow ploughing. The meadow is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (sssi) due to the diversity

of its flora species. The nearby habitat hosts rare wildlife including: the Red Kite, Hobby and Siskin birds; rare butterflies such as the Purple Emperor and White Admiral; the great-crested and smooth newt; Natterer’s Pipistrelle and Long-eared bats; as well as foxes, badgers and two species of deer. The remote-ness of the Lodge is another of its distinguishing features, since it is only accessible by car along a hardcore surfaced road through Forestry Commission woodland, or via a footpath from Fermyn Woods Country Park.

FacilitieS & coStS There are three bedrooms in cottage one (left side), and two bedrooms in Cottage two (right side), as well as

a bathroom in each side. The cottages are heated by wood burners, and there are well equipped kitchens.

The cost is £30 per room for up to three nights, £60 per room up to a week and £100 for a fortnight. The subsidised rates reflect that fact that there may be other artistic activities taking place at the site. Longer stays can be negotiated at a reduced weekly cost.

booking detailS If you are interested in staying at the Lodge please call 01832 733009 or email us at info@ fermynwoods.co.uk to discuss requirements and availability.

top and above: interior of the lodge and view across the SSSi. photo kenneth James martin

Sophie Cullinan, one of our regular visitors coined this phrase to reflect her experience of volunteering during the Saturday Work Parties and we invite all those interested in working outdoors and the arts to join us for a few hours, as we continue to landscape the area around the Lodge.

Further inFormation Forthcoming dates include Saturday 21 July and Saturday 18 August 2012. Please contact us for further details and future dates.

Wild Networking 21 July & 18 auguSt 2012

Solarplate printmaking Susie Turner’s work focuses on the natural environment and elements connected with life, movement, and change; how the impermanence of natural processes can be expressed through a variety of printmaking methods.

These workshops will intro-duce participants to a new form of printmaking with photopolymer or solar plates. An artwork, made on trans-parent material, is placed in close contact with a light sensitive plate. The plate is then exposed to sunlight or an artificial source of UV light and developed in water. The method is easy to learn and no previous knowledge or experience of printmaking processes is required.

workShop detailS Solarplate Printmaking Workshops, Susie TurnerSaturday 25 and Sunday 26 August, 10am–4pm.

£70 per day, includes lunch, all printmaking materials plus x2 a5 solar plates (extra plates can be purchased if required).

Limited places available. Booking is essential. Please call, email or book through our website.

If you wish to attend both days, accommodation at Sudborough Green Lodge on Saturday evening is available for an additional £30.

Crafting the Landscape: Susie Turner 25 & 26 auguSt 2012

Susie turner, Smoke Bush – photopolymer intaglio/relief, 2012

Susie turner solarplate printmaking

Artist in Residence: Tomoko Take 28 June to 15 July 2012

tomoko take is interested in how we as individuals relate to the world around us through art and culture in their widest sense. as an artist she collaborates with other artists and cultural organisations to set up situations whereby different people, such as those who are often excluded from similar events, can discuss issues important to them during shared creative activities. the workshops touch on our relationship with visual art, performance, music, clothing, food and the natural and urban environment.

purple emperor (Apatura Iris) butterfly. photo matthew oates

‘their wing span is over three inches – you’re talking about an insect that’s the size of a small bat. the males have this magnificent purple iridescence, which can only be seen at certain angles and that purple will change with the angle you’re looking at it. they can fly at great speed and are capable of doing anything. they are highly inquisitive and extremely aggressive. when males establish territories, where they wait for females to come up in need of their attention, i’ve even seen them chase red kite, buzzard and heron. purple emperors are at their best on sunny days from mid-summer through to the end of July when they can be watched by scanning the tree tops with binoculars, from mid to late morning.’matthew oates

Purple Emperor Butterfly Film by tomoko take

Tomoko Take’s documentary films poetically explore the relationship between people and place. During her research visit to Fermyn Woods, the artist was drawn to the connection between the avid lepidopterists who travel for miles to Northamptonshire to catch a sight of the Purple Emperor (Apatura Iris) butterfly, since this county is likely home to the largest population of this very rare butterfly.

During her residency in July, Tomoko Take will make a new film that reveals people’s differing relationships to the Purple Emperor butterfly, through interviews with experts such as the National Trusts’ naturalist Matthew Oates, alongside Fermyn Woods Country Park staff and enthusiasts who come from across the country to photograph the butterflies in Fermyn Woods. The artist is interested in the passion shown by a few people for something that can be completely hidden to others living very close by.

Tomoko Take will also attempt to film the elusive butterfly, which lives above the tree canopy, since it has found a food source that does not require it to feed on pollen at ground level like other butterflies. The Purple Emperor feeds on the sweet, sticky secretions that aphids leave behind on leaves. They also love rotting fruit, which will form the basis of work-shops with schools. Tomoko will film the woods from the viewpoint of the butterfly from gliders at the local Welland Gliding Club.

Film ScreeningS Tomoko Take’s resulting documentary film can be viewed in the Autumn. See our next bulletin for details.

Further inFormation See www.thepurpleempire. com/tips.html for some very useful tips to help you to catch sight of the butterfly.

You can also upload your own photographs and sitings of the butterfly at www.apaturairis. blogspot.co.uk

Grime & Beatbox Fusion Workshop by tomoko take & JaSon Singh

As part of her ongoing Homeless Home project, Tomoko Take has been researching the diverse cultures of homeless people. This has led her to explore the UK Grime scene, which is very different to the better known USA scene, which tends to focus on music. The UK Grime scene is part of the freestyle culture, as MCs speak about their every- day lives and the issues they face through their lyrics.

Tomoko has invited Beatbox-er/Vocal Sculptor Jason Singh, London based MCs and a Grime music Producer to collaborate with young people from Corby to create, sample and record their own live fusion music that draws from these different genres. Tomoko is aiming to use MC’ing (via Grime) and beats production (via Beatboxing) as a catalyst to draw out stories, feelings and emotions of the partici-pants and to document this process visually by creating a documentary film.

workShop detailS

The workshop will take place from 23–25 July 2012. Please contact us if you would like to be involved via twitter @fermynwoods or email [email protected] live perFormance

There will be a live perform-ance and a preview of the film by Tomoko Take, Jason Singh and some of the participants later in the year. See our next bulletin for details.

Tomoko Take’s residency is part of Radar’s AfterGold programme, a series of commissions and interventions at Loughborough University with Japanese artists. AfterGold was conceived by Momus and takes its premise that – whether we’re chasing gold medals or gold coins – there comes a point where we’ve achieved all we can do competitively, and the focus shifts to what we’ll do after sporting or commercial success and why we’ll do it.

This theme links Britain and Japan, societies that have been highly successful as trading nations that are now shifting to post-industrial and service economies. The question is around value – what do we do and who do we become, once we have achieved what we set out to accomplish in life? For Fermynwoods Contem-porary Art, this question is answered through dialogue and interaction and we work with artists to initiate and facilitate this engagement.

this spread: tomoko take, Piece of Home/HOMELESSHOME, het corvershof, amsterdam, nl, 2006. photo gert van poeltje

‘grime is the most significant and controversial musical expression to emerge from the uk since punk. grime was essentially the uk’s own authentic response to hip hop, an angst-ridden, confrontational music conveying the hopes and frustrations of an apolitical generation locked into decaying housing estates.’

Don’t Call Me Urban! The Time of GrimeSimon wheatley, magnum photographer

Artist in Residence: Tomoko Take 28 June to 15 July 2012

Further inFormation

Visit www.arts. lboro.ac.uk/radar for full details of the AfterGold programme.

artiSt biography

Tomoko Take was born in Osaka and lives and works in Amsterdam. During her residency in July, Tomoko will also be continuing research to develop her Homeless Home project with people in Corby.

cover im

age: purple emperor b

utterfly (detail). photo: pia Öberg

design: ten-h

ut print: principal c

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montague houSe, chancery lane

thrapSton, northamptonShire nn14 4ln

call +44 (0)1832 733009

email [email protected]

company regiStered no. 5434735

regiStered charity no. 1122678

Fermynwoods Contemporary Art www.FermynwoodS.co.uk

Fca acknowledges the support of St crispin lodge, through a donation from douglas compton James charitable trust