Arts

Exhibition remembers British soldiers

The Arts Office has launched a series of events to compliment the new Gallery exhibition, Queen and Country, which opens this week.

Queen and Country, by Turner Prize winning artist Steve McQueen, commemorates British service personnel killed in Iraq. It opens with a private view on 7 October at which relatives of those featured in the exhibition will remember their loved ones alongside representatives from Colchester Garrison, where some of the men and women were based.

 

John Hyde, father of Lance Corporal Benjamin Hyde who is featured in Queen and Country

Associated events include talks, lectures and film screenings at the Colchester Campus and in Colchester town centre. They get underway on 7 October when Jessica Kenny, Arts and Gallery Director, will give a talk about the exhibition in the Gallery (repeated on 7 November).

On 26 October artists Paul Seawright and David Cotterrell will talk at the Headgate Theatre in Colchester about their experiences of working in Afghanistan as representatives of the Imperial War Museum and the Wellcome Trust. This will be followed on 9 November by a talk at the same venue by Ulrike Smalley, Curator of the Imperial War Museum, and artist Roddy Buchanan.

At the Colchester Campus there will be a talk by Professor Michael Roper of the Department of Sociology and Dr Rachel Duffett of History on 4 November. They will talk about how letters from home, food parcels and other packages sent by family boosted the morale of troops serving in World War I. On 12 November Professor John Packer, of the Human Rights Centre, will talk about his experiences as Human Rights Officer to the United Nations from 1991 to 1995 which saw him investigate human rights violations in Iraq.

There will also be a screening of Steve McQueen’s film Hunger, on 1 November at Colchester Arts Centre.

For further details about these events, see: www.essex.ac.uk/artson5.

Artist studies Wivenhoe Park

A postgraduate art student from Colchester Institute has spent several weeks in residence at the Colchester Campus to explore the landscape made famous by nineteenth-century painter John Constable.

Verity Mansfield, a final-year student on the MA Arts in a Social Context, used Constable’s 1816 painting, Wivenhoe Park, as a starting point for her research. The aim of her residency, which formed part of her final project, was to unravel the Park’s origins through drawing, maquettes, photography and map-making.

She explained: ‘Wivenhoe Park presents an eclectic mix of architectural and landscaping styles which have been evolving since the eighteenth century to accommodate the site’s ever-changing social, environmental and more recently, educational requirements. Although strong architectural and man-made landscaping details from its recent history are evident, to understand the real “essence” of the place is more difficult.’

On completing her residency, Verity said: ‘What I learned, most unexpectedly, was that although photography captured the ordered stillness of the Park, the mystery of the original site - lying beneath the artificates of eighteenth and twentieth century landscaping - was perhaps better encapsulated back at the studio, working from memory to create an “imagined place” through my practice.’

A site-specific sculpture at the Park and final exhibition at The Minories is planned for January 2010.

Resident musician performs Sound Journey

Adriano Adewale, the Arts on 5 Musician in Residence, will be performing at the Colchester Campus next month having recently won rave reviews for his Edinburgh show.

The Brazilian percussionist uses music, theatre and dance to evoke the landscapes and communities of African and and South American countries. Following recent performances in Edinburgh, he was referred to as ‘a whole percussion orchestra by himself’ (British Theatre Guide) who ‘moves with stealthy, balletic grace’ (The Scotsman).

As he explains, Sound Journey explores his own origins: ‘I’ve really gone on a personal journey in creating this show. It’s been inspired by learning more about my Nigerian/Angolan roots and by my experience as an Afro-Brazilian artists living and working in the UK.’

In the performance, Adewale plays various instruments including vibratone, Ghanaian cow bells, drain pipes, pandeiro, berimbau, bird whistles and cacici shakers.

Arts on 5, in collaboration with Segue promotions, presents Sound Journey at the Lakeside Theatre on 12 November at 7.30pm. To book tickets telephone: 01206 573948 or book online at: www.mercurytheatre.co.uk/artson5.php.