The Power of the Sea – Media Centre

Dr Robert Burroughs lecturer in Victorian Literature at Leeds Metropolitan University reflects on the Power of the Symposium: British Waters and Beyond.

“On Monday 12 May, I, along with Dr. Janette Kerr (President of the Royal West Academy) and Professor Christiana Payne (Oxford Brookes University), convened a symposium titled ‘British Waters and Beyond: The Cultural Significance of the Sea since 1800′ at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol. The event was supported by Leeds Met’s Centre for Culture and the Arts, as well as Oxford Brookes University and Nautilus International.

The symposium marked the wonderful new The Power of the Sea exhibition at the RWA, and we concluded the day with a really informative guided tour of the exhibition with Janette and Christiana. While focused on the visual arts, ‘British Waters and Beyond’ brought together scholars and artists with interests in the sea working in various disciplines and media. Prof. John Mack, author of The Sea: A Cultural History (2013), gave a very wide-ranging and interdisciplinary plenary talk, which was followed by 19 papers. I was struck by the sheer diversity of the topics under discussion. We ranged from the influence of Shakespeare upon John Keats and Herman Melville to the issues faced by contemporary workers at sea, and from ship figurehead carvers of the 18th and 19th century to contemporary artistic responses to ecological collapse—and much more besides. I came away with a sense of the inexhaustible richness of studying human interaction with the waters surrounding the British Isles (let alone ‘beyond’!), and of the vitality of current work in this field in the arts and humanities.

Contingency Research Platform: John Hartley’s (Falmough University) seagoing inuit kayak made from recycled objects including discarded office detritus.

Here is the perspective of Laura Ettenfield, currently writing her PhD thesis on the sea in nineteenth century literature at Leeds Met, who attended the symposium: “Attending a symposium for the first time, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from my day at British Waters and Beyond.

“After some much-needed coffee and an introductory lecture from Professor John Mack, the day promised to hold a myriad of fascinating interpretations of the sea space. The first panel of papers I attended addressed literary themes of the sea; the variety of literature addressed, and the connections made between geographical, intertextual, and littoral sea readings provided a thought-provoking and invigorating morning.

“The afternoon panels proved to be likewise original and informative: a selection of artistic interpretations of the sea’s biological significance and its hypnotic movements, was followed by a panel which highlighted the geographical and historiographical significance of the sea, as well as including a paper which displayed a humorous but carefully theorised insight on how to build a boat from recycled materials.

“The day finished with a glass or two of wine and a tour around The Power of the Sea art exhibition, which showcased a vibrant and enchanting mixture of historical representations of the sea space alongside some contemporary canvases and sculptures. Having met some new faces, listened to some intriguing papers, and viewed some beautiful pieces of art, my symposium experience was a truly fantastic one – I was only sorry that it ended so soon.”

Especial thanks to the staff at the RWA who made the day possible, to our international guests, and our sponsors.

via The Power of the Sea – Media Centre.

Gender, sex, race, class – and the sea: Representing Cornish fishing village women in art

An interesting Blog about today’s Symposium from  Gender, sex, race, class – and the sea: Representing Cornish fishing village women in art.

On Monday May 12th there’s a symposium: British Waters and Beyond: The Cultural Significance of the Sea since 1800, at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol.

But what’s the cultural significance of the sea for women? To me – and I’m not giving a paper on it, as I’ve been too busy – it’s that the sea was:

•  a place inhabited by male seafarers,: the sphere implicitly termed ‘Rugged Masculinity’
•  the site of an industry that women were expected to support but to only join in limited roles e.g. net-mending not fish-catching, stewardessing not engineering
•  the widow-maker, the force that shaped their lives, yet something women were largely encountered from a distance or by proxy
• of course, a force associated with Woman’s/Nature’s unruliness (and stirred up by any women who had the temerity to venture on it, even as passenger).

Of course, this was very different at different times in history. It was absolutely affected by class position, race etc.

It seems that the sea was often rather hypocritically gendered: it was called ‘no place for a lady’, but actually working-class women supported activities on it and lived off it. And ladies actually were owners and the models for muse-type figureheads of ships, but often formally excluded from anything like an equal – or any – place on board.

From the symposium programme, it appears that at least one paper is about women and the sea, and somewhat about gender. Mary O’Neil from Oxford Brookes University) writes this summary of the paper she’ll be presenting:‘A “white-aproned sisterhood”: representing Cornish fisherwomen’

REPRESENTING CORNISH FISHERWOMEN

‘Late nineteenth-century representations of coastal women focused on their healthy beauty and neat, plain attire. Nostalgia for a picturesque rural life …intensified at the turn of the century. [It]was evident in the attitudes to feminine dress that contemporary writers and artists revealed in travel writing, art criticism and personal correspondence.

‘Naturalist artists in Cornwall chose ‘real fisher-folk’ as their models. They placed them in ‘authentic’ coastal settings, at work and at leisure. They constructed an image of West Cornwall that fulfilled metropolitan expectations of a simpler life rooted in traditional values.

‘Artistic selection sustained the Cornish idyll in the face of challenges from an encroaching modernity and from visceral realities of fishing life.

‘Stanhope Forbes [1857-1947] rejected the citified fashions adopted by Newlyn women as inappropriate in their maritime surroundings. Patrons and viewers expected paintings ‘whose society they could enjoy’.

‘Contemporary photographs documented the fisherwoman’s work. But pictorial equivalents are rarer. [Sir George] Clausen had encountered hostility to his naturalist representations of female agricultural labourers for a reason.

‘Artists negotiated such constraints by representing Cornish fisherwomen as:

• fresh-faced young women in interior settings, fulfilling domestic and maternal roles, often working on the nets, the signifiers of their maritime identity

• working women waiting for the boats, at beach auctions or processing the catch

• ‘traditional’ Cornish fishwives (older women wearing distinctive occupational costume), whose image had both regional significance and a tourist value beyond West Cornwall.

‘Finally, I consider Newlyn women’s self-presentation as a contrast to such imagery.

GENERAL PATTERN

It seems that Mary’s paper will illustrate the wider gendered maritime picture that generally applied until the 1970s: women are by the sea, not on it. Wives and daughters are helpful to the chaps who sail but do not actual try to be on board. And Stanhope Forbes was painting WW1 Wrens in a similar – though charming – way.

When they appear in sea imagery it’s not as active on-board workers. Nor as realistically stressed-out impoverished dependent auxiliaries ashamed of their ragged clothing. Nor as women with agency choosing to wear stylish and modern – even outrageous flapper-style – clothing.

Women are presented as being in a very distinct gendered binary of woman on shore versus man at sea. They do do a lot of waving Him off supportively from the headland. Very picturesque.

But actually as many as a thousand women were working as seafarers when these nostalgic (and saleable)representations were created. (Fish-catching, even today, remains a largely male job, though it’s easier for women to succeed if they are boat-owners and from fishing families, as several now are.

Every time I see these Cornish images – they’re on popular postcards there – I wonder if local women said to each other ‘Quick, here come those blinkered London artists. Better get your old pinny out of the rag bag if you want to make some money posing. Cover your marcel wave up with this headscarf, girl! Flashy patent leather boots! Nah! Swap ’em for your gran’s clogs! Now, none of that lesbian stuff here, these types can’t cope with us being anything other than heterosexual, never mind their own proclivities. And scrub that mascara off or you’ll never get the job.’

I guess the key question is ‘what was in it for artists to represent women in this way?’ The answer has to be ‘sales’. Sales to buyers whose preferred version of the non-urban included quiescent outdated figures, definitely not suffrage fighters, definitely not the anticipated women captains.

The symposium is organised in partnership with Leeds Metropolitan University and Oxford Brookes University.

 

The Royal West of England Academicians sea works go on sale at the RWA.

The RWA is currently hosting a selling exhibition of work by their renowned body of Academicians this Summer enabling Bristol residents and visitors to own their own piece of sea-inspired art.

Featuring work by over 20 Academicians, it includes pieces by RWA prize-winner Rebecca Cains, and the internationally renowned Bristol-based print-maker Peter Ford. The art works are on show in the café and public areas in the RWA, and available to take away upon purchase.

    

All proceeds of the sale will go to support the commitment of the RWA to the disciplines of drawing, painting and sculpture. This fundraiser will help the organisation pursue their development of an exciting arts programme, encouraging all who lives in the city to engage with artists of local, national, and historical importance.

Janette Kerr, President of RWA, says, “To compliment the current, and very popular, Power of the Sea exhibition, RWA Academicians have produced an exhibition of small-scale sea-works in support of the Academy. A subject that inspires many of our artists, I hope that visitors will be moved to take a taste of the sea home with them in the form of one of these very reasonably-priced art works”.

This is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to purchase a unique artwork.

Succession: Artist’s Impression of a Coastal Settlement

Delve into the world of Jethro Brice’s Succession. On display as part of #ThePoweroftheSea until 6th July.

FUTUREMUSEUM

photo : jethro brice

This model represents a coastal settlement as it may have looked in the early post-catalystic period, c. 2150-2200 AD. The settlers have squatted the ruins of a city abandoned after it was flooded by rising sea levels in an earlier century. The storm barrier still visible along the sea front was originally part of sea defences constructed by the British government during the early stages of climatic upheaval. Though it eventually proved ineffectual as a barrier to rising sea levels, the structure now acts as a dam to create a semi-tidal lagoon, providing the sheltered semi-aquatic environment which later attracted settlers to the site. Improvements to the waterfront have enabled the inhabitants to regulate water levels in the lagoon, though the settlement would probably still have been subject to flooding during severe storms and exceptional spring tides.

The settlement would most likely have begun as a…

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The RWA as part of the Bristol Art Weekender

On this the Eve of the Bristol Art Weekender we thought we would offer you a reminder about all the wonderful things going on at the RWA over the Bank Holiday Weekend.

RWA: Behind the scenes

Taking place over the bank holiday weekend of 2-5 MAY, the inaugural BRISTOL ART WEEKENDER will showcase Bristol as one of the most vibrant and flourishing centres for art in the UK.The Weekender’s FREE programme of performance, sound, video, film, painting and sculpture, reflects the richness of the visual arts in Bristol.

Here at the RWA we have scheduled an exclusive programme of events for the Bristol Art Weekender. 

The Power of the Sea: Making Waves in British Art – 1790 – 2014 From 5 April – 6 July 2014

Detail from Waves Breaking on Shore, Sunset, Sydney Mortimer Lawrence 1894 • oil on canvas • 137.2 x 274.5 cm Southampton Cit Art Gallery

Open Saturday 3 May, 10am- 6pm, Sunday 4 May, 11am – 5pm  • Normally closed on Mondays but opening on Bank Holiday Monday, 5May, 11am-5pm  • Ticketed: Adult £5, Concessions £3.50 Monday 5 May will be Entry…

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Helen Jones Artist in Residence

All last week Artist Helen Jones has been working on site as part of an Artist Residency for The Power of the Sea exhibtion in The Bristol Drawing School studio.

Here is a selection of her wonderful sea scapes.

Are you an artist that would like to be part of a residency?Here are some tips on how to get the most out of artist residences.

 

 

The Bristol Art Weekender – It’s just around the corner

Bristol Art Weekender is just around the corner
2-5 May 2014

Something extraordinary is about to happen..

For the first time in Bristol art organisations and artists have come together to stage a weekend celebration of art across this city. From 2-5 May you’ll have the chance to discover exhibitions by leading and emerging artists, go behind the scenes at over 70 artists studios, explore new artworks in unexpected locations and attend one-off events. Involving over 130 different artists across 16 different sites there’s a lot to see during the Bristol Art Weekender and our guide has been designed to help you make the most out of the four days.

We hope that the Weekender might open up new and surprising encounters and lead you to explore our home city in unexpected ways.

Download the Programme Here

#BAW2014 

The Power of the Sea Exhibition at the RWA Bristol Until 6 July 2014.

Lovely piece on The Power of the Sea. Thank you to Fiona Robinson

Fiona Robinson Writings on Art

Image: Jo Millet Overflow. Two screen video and sound installation 2014

The The Power of the Sea exhibition at the RWA is quite simply stunning. Moving between artists’ interpretations of the sea spanning more than two hundred years it evokes the sea in all its guises. The only thing it lacks is that distinctive fishy-salty smell of small boat coves at low tide. Otherwise it is all there. Downstairs in the Cube Gallery you can sit and watch Jo Millett’s mesmerizing video and sound installation,Overflow,in which waves run in all directions spilling out onto the floor in front of you – you almost feel as if you could get your feet wet. Upstairs you can watch a small wave machine and depending on your height and viewpoint, if you are not a good sailor, prepare to feel seasick! One of the most moving works in the exhibition is

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The RWA as part of the Bristol Art Weekender

Taking place over the bank holiday weekend of 2-5 MAY, the inaugural BRISTOL ART WEEKENDER will showcase Bristol as one of the most vibrant and flourishing centres for art in the UK.The Weekender’s FREE programme of performance, sound, video, film, painting and sculpture, reflects the richness of the visual arts in Bristol.

Here at the RWA we have scheduled an exclusive programme of events for the Bristol Art Weekender. 

The Power of the Sea: Making Waves in British Art – 1790 – 2014 From 5 April – 6 July 2014

Detail from Waves Breaking on Shore, Sunset, Sydney Mortimer Lawrence 1894 • oil on canvas • 137.2 x 274.5 cm Southampton Cit Art Gallery

Open Saturday 3 May, 10am- 6pm, Sunday 4 May, 11am – 5pm  • Normally closed on Mondays but opening on Bank Holiday Monday, 5May, 11am-5pm  • Ticketed: Adult £5, Concessions £3.50 Monday 5 May will be Entry by Donation

‘From the sublime spectacle of crashing waves to the vast expanse of the oceans, the sea has long fascinated artists in Britain. The Power of the Sea showcases responses to the subject by internationally-renowned contemporary artists alongside key historical works ranging from Constable and Turner to Nash and Wadsworth.’

 

Hatch Experimental Drawing

Saturday 2pm – 5pm, Sunday 11am – 5pm  • Free with Exhibition Entry

‘HATCH seeks an engagement around drawing in its many aspects: process and outcome, traditional and experimental, manual and mechanical, universal and deeply personal. We invite varied approaches – from those that encompass transcriptions of the known world to ephemeral interpretation and invention that endeavour to bridge us into the unknowable.’

HATCH will be leading drop-in activities around the Gallery for all to take part in – no experience necessary

The Greenhouse; A special Scribble and Sketch and Storytime session!

Saturday May 3, 10.30am-1pm (Storytime at 11.30am) • Free with Exhibition Entry

‘Children’s book illustrator and art workshop leader, Sarah Smith, will be reading from her new book – The Butterfly House, released by Tate Publishing on 1 May. To tie in with the story, the theme of this month’s Scribble and Sketch will be The Greenhouse. Copies of Sarah’s new book will be available from the RWA shop.’

 Sea Readings

Saturday May 3 12pm • Free with Exhibition Entry

As part of the Power of the Sea exhibition, the RWA are hosting a series of short readings on the theme of the sea, delivered in the exhibition spaces by a range of writers, lecturers and students from Bristol and Bath. Readers will include Dr Marie Mulvey-Roberts (Associate Professor in English Literature, UWE, Bristol), Dr Anna Farthing (Director, Harvest Heritage, Arts and Media) and Dr Peter Reason (Emeritus Professor, University of Bath). Texts will include Moby Dick and Robinson Crusoe.

 The Power of the Sea Gallery Walk and Talk

Janette Kerr – Holding my Breath II

Janette Kerr and Andrew Hardwick • Saturday 3 May 12pm  • Free with Exhibition Entry

‘Join the exhibition curator and president of the RWA, Janette Kerr, and exhibiting artist Andrew Hardwick for an informal tour and discussion around the Power of the Sea exhibition. This is the perfect opportunity to explore some of the themes of the show, as well gaining an insight into how a large historical and contemporary exhibition is curated.’

 Bodies of Water Film Screening 

Saturday 3 May 2-3.30pm • Free with Exhibition Entry • Bookable event –please contact RWA

 Curated by artist film-maker Kayla Parker in response to The Power of the Sea exhibition, this programme of short films invites viewers to reflect upon their relationship with the waters that surround the British Isles. These films explore the effective and affective ‘power of the sea’, whose rhythms infiltrate our dreams and memories, pacifying our minds, absorbing and smoothing trauma.

Bodies of Water features Hinterland, Esther Johnson’s 16mm study of a South Yorkshire community’s experience of living on the fastest eroding coastline in Europe, and Nathaniel Lane’s The Ferryman, a poetic study of a young boy’s rite of passage, filmed on black and white Super 8mm in North Cornwall.
Running time of film programme: 70 minutes

Introductory talk and Q+A discussion, after the screening: 20 minutes

Other Art Weekender events in Bristol

JEREMY DELLER and JMW TURNER will bevying for top billing at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery wih Deller’s Venice Biennale exhibition English Magic alongside an intimate show of eight exquisite Turner watercolours. Across the city, renowned art space Spike Island builds on the ever popular OPEN STUDIOS WEEKEND, offering the chance to glimpse behind the scenes of over 70 artists’ studios and unveiling three new temporary works commissioned especially for the weekend.

 

Meanwhile in Spike Island’s enviable gallery, ANDY HOLDEN presents film, large-scale sculpture and performance exploring the output and legacy of the MI!MS (Maximum Irony! Maximum Sincerity) artistic movement, which Holden founded with friends before training as an artist in 2003. In addition, Holden’s band THE GRUBBY MITTS will give a rare performance in the Spike gallery to kick off the Friday night celebrations. Just a short ferry ride across the Harbour, Arnolfini present Between Hello and Goodbye: the Secret World of Sarah Records – a fascinating exhibition about the enigmatic 90s Bristol record label, including the preview of Lucy Dawkins’ documentary about the label, My Secret World and performances from selected artists.

 

Encouraging us to venture beyond the gallery and museum, Situations invites us to seek the unexpected with a new work specially commissioned for the Weekender: ANNIKA KAHRS’ Concert for the Birds in the Lord Mayors Chapel – a bold and stirring installation of 100 songbirds in audience to a piano recital of Franz Liszt’s Legende # 1, a solo piece of twitter-like trills.

Bristol’s growing number of critically significant commercial galleries contribute to the programme too: Celebrated British artist, RICHARD WOODS continues to traverse the boundaries between art, architecture and design, transforming WorksIProjects’ space, and nomadic gallery, Antlers Gallery will be programming a tightly selected group show including the work of KARIN KROMMES and GEOFF DIEGO LITHERLAND. The Weekender will also, spotlight several of Bristol’s dynamic range of artist-run initiatives, including Hand in Glove, The Parlour Showrooms, BS Deathdrive, Spike Associates and Bristol Biennial.

 

Director of Visual Arts for Arts Council England, Peter Heslip says: “The Bristol Art Weekender promises to be a new fixture on the UK contemporary art calendar. This uniquely Bristolian take on a biennial is a prime example of artists and visual arts leaders producing something greater together than any organisation could do alone. It responds to a flourishing audience for art, which is increasingly curious and open to encountering the work of artists in new contexts. It demonstrates a shared commitment to the city and desire to reveal the enormous amount of talent, which is there, year round. I think they’re on to something here.”

 

Bristol’s mayor, George Ferguson, says: “The Bristol Art Weekender is an exciting collaboration of Bristol’s visual arts sector. The wealth of visual arts on display in the city at any one time is inspiring and this new, four-day arts festival will further underpin the city’s cultural credentials.”

 

Phil Gibby, Area Director for South West Arts Council England, says: “The Bristol Art Weekender is a very natural development for the city. It offers people from across Bristol the chance to engage with art in new and exciting ways, and also showcase the extraordinary array of talent on offer here. Do get involved!”

 

The Weekender also sees the launch of Bristol’s first ART MAP, a quarterly guide to the best of visual art across the city, alongside a range of self-guided trails that offer the chance to personalise your experience of the festival.

Bristol 2014: The City and Conflict from the First World War to the Present Day | Bristol Festival of Ideas

Bristol 2014: The City and Conflict from the First World War to the Present Day

Bristol 2014 is an extensive programme of activity marking the centenary of the start of the First World War and looking at other conflicts that have had an impact on the city over the last century.

The programme includes: major exhibitions at MShed, Royal West of England Academy and other sites; an online map and free smartphone app; a mass-reading of a free, specially produced book on Bristol and First World War; a wide range of lectures, talks, seminars, debates and guided walks; digital film-making workshops and other arts’ projects; new local history publications; concerts, film screenings and other performances at venues across the city; material to help people research their family connections to those who fought in the First World War.

The programme aims to be diverse, engaging, inspiring, informative. Some elements will be entertaining; some will be poignant; some provocative.

Themes to be explored include: the changes in ideas, opinions and technology that results from war; combatants, refugees, asylum seekers and others who have come to Bristol because of war; the lives of military service personnel, non-combatants and conscientious objectors; the Bristol home front in the First World War; the role of the suffragettes; family stories and urban myths about Bristol and war over the last 100 years; the impact of war and conflict on children; the changing perceptions of the British Empire in the last century; artists’ responses to war including in visual art, literature, film and drama; military hospitals and medical advances; the arms industry; the role of volunteer groups in war time; memorialising the dead; post-war development schemes in Bristol.

You can read a summary of the plans of the programme by clicking on the link HERE.

Festival of Ideas events linked to the programme include:

Ian Morris: War: What is it Good For? – Fri 11 April 2014, 18.00-19.00

Young People’s Festival of Ideas: The Army Wants You, But Do You Want it? – Wed 7 May 2014, 19.00-20.30

Till the Boys Come Home: Screening and Discussion – Sat 10 May 2014 10.30-12.00

The Complete Blackadder Goes Forth Debate: Screening and Discussion – Sat 10 May 2014, 13.00-17.45 (with breaks)

Tim Butcher: The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War – Mon 12 May 2014, 12.30-13.30

Lucienne Boyce: Walk: From Women’s War to World War: Bristol Suffragettes – Sat 17 May 2014, 10.30-12.45

Kamila Shamsie: A God in Every Stone: Fiction and the Chaos of History – Mon 19 May 2014, 18.30-19.30

Richard J Evans: Altered Pasts: Counterfactuals in History – Wed 28 May 2014, 18.30-19.30

The full Bristol 2014 website will be launched in July 2014 at www.bristol2014.com, with a temporary version available from April. It will include What’s On information for all the events, background articles, an historic timeline, digital films, news stories, arts projects, an online map and downloadable map app and much more. In the meantime you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter @Bristol2014.

Bristol 2014 is a partner in the First World War Centenary

It is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

It is coordinated by Bristol Cultural Development Partnership (Arts Council England, Bristol City Council, Business West).

Image © IWM (Art.IWM PST 8129)

via Bristol 2014: The City and Conflict from the First World War to the Present Day | Bristol Festival of Ideas.