Routed Through Essex, Essex Network of Artists’ Studios and Gibberd Gallery
The Urban Forest Residency (detail), Cara Jean Flynn and Hannah Stageman, Gibberd Gallery
Routed Through Essex
24 September – 23 October 2015
In early 2015, ENAS awarded eight artists opportunities which included commissions, a residency and a socially engaged project in addition to four experimental display opportunities in collaboration with Firstsite. This exhibition showcases the outcomes of each new project alongside selected works from previous exhibitions and other ENAS funded opportunities.
Artists
Hannah Stageman, Cuckoo Farm Studios and Cara Jean Flynn, ENAS member
Lisa Temple-Cox, Cuckoo Farm Studios and David Watkins, TAP
Jon Lewis, Parndon Mill and Janette Lazell, Cuckoo Farm Studios
Elaine Tribley, The Hive and Amanda Westbury, Gatehouse Arts
Flynn and Stageman have been awarded a residency in Epping Forest, and working with Loughton Arts Centre in Lopping Hall, will be conducting action research into enclosures and the impact of the forest on the spirit of local people and vice versa. Through drawing, installation, public engagement and performance, the artists are highlighting the successes and challenges in conserving the area.
Collaborators RichTea Projects (Tribley and Westbury) are also influenced by place and identity, particularly ‘the visitor versus the native’. They are performing a series of participatory public interventions, performing guided tours and creating ‘souvenirs’ which celebrate towns in Essex.
Temple-Cox and Watkins’ research centres on networks – both on and offline – through immersion, mapping and modelling. A range of media and techniques are employed to record the artists’ dialogues and findings through their own form of sensory ethnography.
Lazell and Lewis bring together their experience in working with light-sensitive and light-responsive materials. Inspired by photography, ‘Cloud’ is a large scale, site responsive and immersive installation made out of glass and forged mild steel.
