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I Carry You In My Eyes – Chant of the Whaleswan

Fourthland & Rosalind Fowler’s recent collaboration BREADROCK produced a series of rituals and performances for film that explored the social power of myth. The artists worked in collaboration with fifty residents from eleven cultures on the Wenlock Barn Estate in Hackney. The project was an outstanding success, championing social change through art and enabling diverse participation through performative methods.

BREADROCK at Kestle Barton

BREADROCK was originally exhibited at PEER (Feb-April 2018). Following this the artists came to Cornwall for a residency at Kestle Barton in March, to develop their working methods with migrant and other groups in Cornwall (The Cloth of a Thousand) which continues with this further residency over August 2018.

Fourthland & Rosalind Fowler will explore myth, craft and storytelling in new ways, bringing an exciting thematic to Kestle Barton’s summer programme under the title of I carry you in my eyes – Chant of the Whaleswan. The project will produce new work whilst celebrating collective and diverse creation. Cross-cultural audience participation at Kestle Barton over the course of the summer residency will feed directly into outdoor multi media work, subsequently contributing to
the BREADROCK exhibition (8 September – 3 November).

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Artist Statement

Artist Statement:

I carry you in my eyes – Chant of the Whaleswan

This project will bring to the surface the role of myth and symbolism to expand upon ideas of interconnectedness and what it means to be human, using processes of craft, film and sound to produce a series of blessings that flow through land, water and ethereal worlds. These will be used in the work to create a series of collective encirclings.

The project evolved from a spring residency at Kestle Barton in partnership with local craftspeople and Cornwall Faith Forum, and will incorporate learnings and mythologies from across a range of cultures.

An ‘Encircling Centre’, housed within a spherical form on the land at Kestle Barton, will host a series of summer gatherings and workshops. Through these workshops, people will collectively inhabit and imbue the space, exploring the symbols carried within and between them. Each process will imprint into film and sculptural works for the artists’ autumn exhibition.

The Encircling Centre aligns with the Apollo Athena ley line that links sacred sites across Europe to the Middle East. The artists will continue to work in partnership with Cornwall Faith Forum and Syrian families living in Cornwall as part of this process. Each action within this space will symbolically connect to people and life-forms across other lands. At the end of the public programme, a ceremonial offering will embed energies and intentions from the process into the ground, sending it along the ley line.

The workshop programme will run every weekend throughout August with open studio sessions every Thursday evening.

In addition we are inviting people to join them in two full day workshops to create shared gestures for 16mm film. The workshop will be the opportunity to unravel the themes in the work using props and a mixture of choreographed and improvised gestures that will eventually appear in the autumn exhibition.

A resulting film and sculptural exhibition will be exhibited in BREADROCK (8 September – 3 November) at Kestle Barton alongside the artists’ touring work following their acclaimed show of the same title at PEER, London.

Fourthland

Fourth land (Isik Sayarer and Eva Knutsdotter) is an artist collective that uses objects, ritual, storytelling and enactment to co-create public space and performances. Recent solo works include BearMotherHouse with Xenia,SPACE London 2017 ; The Storm within Jeremy Deller’s Utopia Treasury, Somerset House, London (2016); back to where we have not quite been, Arnolfini, Bristol (2015); The Collective Tongue, Errant Bodies, Berlin; and everything happens on the street, PEER, London (2015). They have had recent residencies at CASS School of Art and Design, London (2016), Cabot Institute of Climate Change, Bristol (2015); Bergen Academy of Art, UCL Urban Lab, London and South London Gallery Local (2015). Fourthland’s socially engaged work on Wenlock Barn Estate, Hackney (FreeSpace 2008-2017) received: Lottery Main Grant, Lottery funding award for impact and participation (2013) and a Local Food Heroes award (2013), presented by Dharmendra Kanani, BIG Lottery Fund England Director.

Rosalind Fowler

Rosalind Fowler is an artist and filmmaker with a background in visual art and anthropology, whose work combines poetic ethnography and experimental film. Working across moving image, sound, performance and installation, often through collaborative and social practices, she weaves together experimental film, poetic ethnography, mythmaking, and fiction. Recent solo works include BREADROCK, PEER (2018) in collaboration with Fourthland,  and NowhereSomewhere (2016) a 2-screen film installation for William Morris Gallery, Barbican Foyer Art commission, and Somerset House’s Utopia season. She was selected as artist in residence at the William Morris gallery in 2016. Others commissions include What Lies Below (2015) supported by Wellcome Trust and BFI, Tamesa (2015) NOW gallery, and Folk In Her Machine (2014) supported by AHRC. Her work has exhibited and screened widely, including at ICA, BFI, Jerwood gallery, Plymouth Arts Centre, Pumphouse gallery, and PLACE: Common Ground, curated by Gareth Evans.

Summer Programme schedule

Summer Programme: Tuesdays, Thursdays and every weekend in August
All events are free and booking is essential. Ring 01326 231811 to book a place.

Saturday 4th August 11am – 1pm (refreshments included)
heart of the Whaleswan
opening encircling
This workshop will use traditional herbal methods to conjure an offering to the heart of the whale swan. This will include the making of a herbal balm to take home and a group circulation of ideas.

Sunday 5th August 2pm – 5pm (refreshments included)
colour of the thread
The alchemy of extracting colour from roots, fermented leaves and berries. The colours will be used to ceremonially dye pieces of fabric whilst conjuring stories about the symbolism of colour.

Tuesday 7th 6.30-9.30pm (including light meal on arrival)
chant of the Whaleswan
Sounding workshop using folk songs, animal calls and vocal improvisation alongside improvising with instruments and objects. This workshop is inspired by shamanic practices of communication with animals. Recordings made during this session will be used to inspire sounds for the artists’ installation. Participants are welcome to bring along their own instruments.

Thursday 9th 3pm – 5pm artists open studio – all welcome to drop-in

Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th 10.30am-5pm lunch included – open to all, participants may attend one or both days
I Carry You in My Eyes – an improvisation workshop and 16mm filming
Working with symbols and embodied gestures inspired by offerings in Arabic, Celtic and Gealic languages to devise choreographed sequences for 16mm film.
The workshop will use improvisation and drama techniques to work in small groups to translate a collection of phrases and symbols into actions. At the end of the workshop these will be collectively performed and filmed on a 16mm camera, for inclusion within the final exhibition. Artist Rosalind Fowler will also demonstrate the mechanics and creative possibilities of working with 16mm cameras during the session. KB 2018_Film making callout

Thursday 16th 3pm – 5pm artists open studios – all welcome

Saturday 18th (11am – 2pm)
colour of time – film tinting workshop, refreshments included
During this hands-on workshop we will use plant roots, berries and fermented leaves to tint 16mm found film footage. After tinting and mark-making into film using bark, thorns and natural materials, the imagery will be spliced and projected together with performance elements to explore the magic and mystical properties of film. Participants are welcome to bring their own film fragments to dye.

Sunday 19th (2pm – 6pm) refreshments included
offering to water
An artist-led off-site performance/workshop, in which objects and materials will be sculpted and offered to water, alongside readings and songs. Meet at Kestle Barton.

Thursday 23rd 3pm – 5pm artists open studio – all welcome to drop in

Saturday 25th 5pm – 8pm
closing encircling
A workshop in which processes from the summer will be gathered together, re-performed and celebrated. This will include embedding intentions, materials and energies into the ground to send a blessing across the Apollo Athena ley line.

Saturday 8 September Opening of BREADROCK exhibition at Kestle Barton with screening – all welcome

October 2018 programme – still to be announced

Open Tuesday - Sunday 10:30am - 5pm. Closed Mondays but open for Bank Holidays