Emergence Takeover Tate Exchange 21.03.2020
Hello, welcome to the Emergence Bursary takeover of Tate Exchange. I’m Letty McHugh and - along with Lauren Saunders and Fae Kilburn I was selected for the inaugural Emergence Bursary. For one day only, the three of us have been given the opportunity to take over Tate Exchange and we couldn’t be more excited about it. This book will give you some more information about who we are and what we are doing, but I first I wanted to say something about our response to the theme of power. When we heard the theme of the Tate Exchange this year was power, we had a lot of conversations about the best ways to respond. As three disabled artists we knew we could have focused on power and disability, but that seemed a bit obvious. We were more interested in focusing on the power dynamics present in an event like this. A space like Tate Exchange has power, and we have power as artists given the opportunity to work in it. A big question for us was how to use that power responsibly (we’ve all seen Spiderman). With that in mind, we chose to invite three more emerging artists to share this amazing platform. Read all about them in this book. There’s a convention that artists are going to be rebels, an assumption that we will push the boundaries and, of course, we try to. But we are only going to push them so far as any gallery we work in...we want to be invited back. (With that in mind, please be careful not to mark the floor.) We hope you enjoy the event.
Fae Kilburn My name is Fae Kilburn. I’m a Birmingham-based Fine artist and Printmaker. My work is inspired by History, personal experiences, and disability. Recently, I’ve been combining sculpture and printmaking, as I explore the materials within architecture that cause me the most barriers as a partially sighted person, discovering their strengths and weaknesses and finding ways to combine these materials in my practice in the hopes of creating tactile, inclusive, installation Art. Over the past year, the Emergence bursary enabled me to develop new bodies of work. Fragility was created during my residency in Canada; it’s inspired by the derelict structures in the remote Canadian countryside. Previous work has been about the fragility of my condition and the inner strength I have because of it. This new work continues on the theme of strength and fragility, but from a different perspective, exploring these large constructions intended and perceived as strong, but which on closer inspection are actually incredibly fragile. I’ve also been creating large portraits of disabled people, combining them with words from other disabled individuals describing how they feel about themselves and how they are made to feel by others. Today I’m inviting you to make Monoprints with me on geometric shaped paper, then display them on the wall to create one large mono-print installation. Let’s see how big we can make this print! You can find out more about my work at www.faekilburn.co.uk and @FaeKilburn on Twitter and Instagram.
Letty McHugh I’m an artist and writer based in Haworth, West Yorkshire. I make multidisciplinary projects influenced by Situationism and Object Theory (stick around for my artist talk to hear more about that). For the last year, I’ve been working on two projects funded by the Emergence Bursary. Seaworthy Vessel uses the concept of seaworthiness as a metaphor for emotional resilience. As part of this project I’m building a fleet of 1,000 origami boats and writing a series of essays. The Centre of the Known Universe came out of a ten-month residency studying throwing with Ceramic Artist, Sonje Hibbert. I started the project to help rebuild confidene in my hands after they were affected by an MS relapse. I ended up with a handmade tea set and a 4,000word essay reflecting on the journey. The final project ended with an intimate tea ceremony which has changed the focus of my future work. Today I’m inviting you to write something that you’re proud of onto a piece of paper which I’ll help you fold into an origami boat. This can be added to the growing installation in the room or added to the online fleet by posting a picture with #IAmSeaworthy. You can find out more about my work at www.lettymchugh.co.uk. I’m @Ukuletty on Twitter and Instagram.
Lauren Saunders I am a visual artist living and working in Hull, East Yorkshire. I respond to philosophical questions - currently surrounding relational environmental ethics - by drawing experimentally in the expanded field. I’m interested in how creative interventions can directly support wildlife and challenge audiences to reflect upon the climate crisis. Using my Emergence Bursary, I engaged in an intensive two-week marathon at the Royal Drawing School to develop my technical markmaking abilities and, with additional support from YVAN, produced a solo show of the resulting work. Over this last year, I have exhibited my work regionally and graduated from the Northern School of Arts and Activism. I have also co-produced various collaborative opportunities, including co-founding the inclusive and research-led visual arts journal ‘The Critical Fish.’ At the Tate Exchange event I’m inviting participants to manipulate drawings (mine and yours) to develop an ever-growing collage of marks. I am also facilitating informal workshops to help build confidence in drawing, and giving an artist talk about my work and how the Emergence Bursary helped develop my practice. You can find out more about my practice, or get in touch about collaborations, by visiting www.laurensaundersart.co.uk and by following me on social meda using the handle @LSaundersArt.
“When we were given the opportunity to nominate another artist, my first choice was Fine Artist, Anita Roye. We have exhibited and run community art projects together, so I knew she would creaate an engaging, interesting event. I can’t wait to see what she does on the day.” - Fae Kilburn
Anita Roye I’m an artist and trainee art psychotherapist based in the West Midlands. I am interested in unseen conditions/disabilities and use art to encourage people to express emotions that may be difficult to contain. Art materials have a sensory element and their qualities can help people who have experienced trauma find a way to regulate emotions, by repetition and play. Play is an important element within my work and my research is around D. W. Winnicott and the British object relations theorists. Winnicott observed children at play with their mothers and put forward the notion that, as children, we learn to use an object as a transitional holding item. This object holds our emotions and helps us to separate from the Mother, within a safe facilitating environment. Recently, I have been working with cold wax and oil paint mixing it to use on and off the canvas, creating three-dimensional objects that need the wall for support. The Japanese have a word - “Wabi Sabi.” This is the celebration of the imperfect and the chance happening. Today, I will be combining playing with paint and wax on different surfaces, working on a few pieces at a time. I am particularly interested in the extended field of painting and I am trying to find resolution in creating three-dimensional paintings/scultpure that interacts with light and the natural elements in the landscape. Instagram: @anitaroyeart
“I met Naomi Ronke in 2019 when we were both awarded microcommissions from Art House Wakefield. I was attracted to her woodcuts because they are things of beauty, but I nominated her for this event because I think she has astute and interesting things to say about power and narrative.” - Letty McHugh
Naomi Ronke I’m Naomi Ronke, a Narrative Printmaker and Digital Artist whose work predominantly focuses on Horror and Folklore. I create both sequential and single image narrative based on a mixture of cultural and historical research. Recently, I have been working on a series of prints that tell a story, but all start with the same base print. The more lino print pieces I add to the work, the more the story develops. It’s a way of using the buildup of a picture to tell a story. I have also been focused on developing the initial stages of two separate comics. One of which is a personal conduit for how I’m processing my relationship to my Nigerian heritage and my own sexuality. Today, I have a series of prints styled similar to a medieval tapestry narrative. However, you are invited to move the prints around, changing the way the story can be interpreted. It’s a simple wolf and doe tale whose perspective and power balance can be swapped by the order of the prints. I can be found at www.nronke.com and @n.ronke on Instagram.
“I first nominated the brilliant Sam Metz for a number of reasons; not only do I really like their work, but Sam also draws experimentally, is a fierce advocate for inclusivity, and is a talented artist well deserving of this opportunity to promote their practice.” - Lauren Saunders
Sam Metz I am an interdisciplinary artist inspired by movement. My work researches, creates, and reflects on the concept I refer to as “choreographic objects.” A “choreographic object” is any work I make that has, through the process of making or the way it looks, a relationship to the body and movement. These works have included animation, analogue and digital film, paintings, and crafted objects, such as 3D-printed forms. In this collaborative work, I invite you to join me in repetitive mark making, considering how the form of lines we make together implicate the body. The marks replicate stimming and self-soothing activity (neurodiversity), as well as a wider genre of gestural expressionism. As a neurodivergent artist with sensory processing differences, the objects allow me to work in non-verbal ways, which is a key part of my practice. As an artist with an unpredictable body (due to both Tourette’s and the disability EDS, a connective tissue disorder), embodied practice allows me alternative communication. I studied Architecture and Critical Theory at University of Nottingham, I currently work in a Makerspace in Hull and a temporary studio supported by East Street Arts. I am currently supported by a Jerwood Arts Bursary for research into ‘Outsider Art’ and I am Hull Exchange artist 62 for Artlink. Website: sammetz.com Instagram: @Chippedpale
Attendees at a Private View of a Shape Retrospective event in 2018. Photographer: Rachel Cherry
Shape Arts At Shape we deliver a range of projects supporting disabled and marginalised artists, as well as training cultural venues to be more open and accessible for disabled people and others facing barriers to inclusion. Alongside our project partners who launched the Emergence project last year, we are concerned by the numbers of emerging artists at risk of being left behind as a result of the barriers they face in their practice and professional life. For marginalised artists, “emerging” represents a significant intersection of the barriers they face. Many disabled artists struggle to make it past this point, and there is evidence that artists are giving up at an earlier stage than ever, thereby wasting their talent and career potential, and silencing the vibrancy that creatives bring to society along with so many other benefits. Emergence was set up to tackle the systemic isolation, marginalisation, and widespread lack of confidence experienced by emerging disabled artists. In addition, we wanted to create more accessible opportunities within “mainstream” arts settings. Today’s takeover of Tate Exchange by these six emerging artists of diverse backgrounds gives you a chance to experience their practices for yourself and to connect with them - and find out exactly why such talented artists deserve to be seen, heard, and recognised. And supported, too: disabled artists face financial and attitudinal pressures that makes accessible funding, employment and educational structures all the more necessary. We hope you enjoy the day, and if so, do share your thoughts and images with us using the hashtag #EmergenceTakeover. To find out more about what we do, go to www.shapearts.org.uk or follow us on Twitter or Instagram at @ShapeArts.
Disability Arts Online Disability Arts Online aims to achieve widespread appreciation for arts and culture from a disability perspective. Working across the UK and beyond, we support artists facing barriers to succeed by helping them to navigate the arts world and develop their practice. Through our world-leading web-based magazine, www.disabilityarts.online, we commission opinion, interviews, and reviews, host blogs, and provide a comprehensive listings service. We work extensively across all artforms and with a range of partners. Our regular collaborations with Shape Arts through the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive (NDACA) and as main media partners for the Unlimited commissions programme have led to this pilot Emergence programme along with a-n The Artists’ Information Company. Our intentions with Emergence were to address a widespread need to provide financial and one-to-one support for emerging disabled artists. A lot of people find “emerging artist” a challenging or confusing term in itself. In this case, we simply mean that they are still early in their careers and as disabled people, likely to face barriers in reaching their potential. Over the past four years, Disability Arts Online has been working on a Connected Communities programme research project called D4D, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Electric Bodies is our part in the multi-stranded project and seeks to investigate the notion of community amongst disabled artists. We’re very pleased that today we’re able to support a growing community of new artists and celebrate the culmination of the artist-led research in the publication of Allan Sutherland’s transcription poetry book, ‘Electric Bodies: Travels in Life History.’ Instagram and Twitter: @disabilityarts Facebook: @disabilityarts. online
Event Sponsors