This Land

Julia Giles: ‘Keskerdh An Kammva Dro’

Throughout history, in an effort to influence elemental forces and thereby ensure the safe return of the next season and a good crop, people who work the land have performed rituals and ceremonies. Keskerdh an Kammvra-dro devised by Julia Giles recalls such a ritual.

Keskerdh an Kammvra-dro is a 300 metre walk around a route marked out in the shape of a cross – in this case in the orchard at Kestle Barton. Each of arm of the cross is decorated with coloured bunting to represent a season. The walkers follow the coloured route around the cycle of the seasons.

Paul Chaney and Kenna Hernly: Hypothetical Reterritorialisation

During a Hypothetical Reterritorialisation event the audience is asked to use the interactive artwork FieldMachine (a bespoke computer software application) to design their own system for self-sufficiency in a hypothetical future scenario where there is no access to fossil fuels or overseas imports.

Artist Paul Chaney and researcher Kenna Hernly created FieldMachine to help them establish FIELDCLUB – an experimental four-acre homestead in Cornwall. During the FIELDCLUB experiment Chaney and Hernly created a hay meadow, planted trees for fuel and hedging for controlling livestock, trialled hand cultivated grain, and created vegetable gardens using a system of self provision suggested by the FieldMachine software.

Now, Chaney and Hernly use FieldMachine in a series of events in which the public are asked to choose what kind of foods they would grow to meet the World Health Organisation’s recommended daily nutritional intake. The participants also make choices about the size of living accommodation, and what biofuels they will use to heat it.

The FieldMachine then shows exactly how much land will be needed for each person per year, and calculates how many people could live in the same way within the host country. The FieldMachine prints a small plan (called a Unit) for each participant, who then positions their plan on a large map of the immediate local area, alongside all the plans created by other participants creating a Hypothetical Reterritorialisation.

The participants effectively ‘remap’ the local area, and in doing so explore many questions of land use efficiency, land politics and sustainability. The work is a collaboration with the audience, as the success of the work is dependent on the public’s engagement.

Bios:


Paul Chaney b. 1974, lives and works in Prague. Recent solo shows and projects include:  The Sun is Black, Museum of Art and Design (Benesov, 2012), and Divus (Prague, 2011); The Lonely Now, Goldfish (Penzance, 2008).  Selected Group Shows:  TURBOREALISM – Breaking Ground, IZOLYATSIA Center for Cultural Initiatives (Ukraine 2013); FIELDCLUB and Friends – Late at Tate St Ives (2011); In Abundance, Kestle Barton (Cornwall, 2011); Garden Marathon, Serpentine Gallery (London, 2011), Art and War in the Last Resort, Kettle’s Yard (Cambridge, 2011), and PEER (London). Curatorial work includes the delivery a programme of art events and residencies in Falmouth and London for Urbanomic 2009-2010 and in 2012, the establishment of the London HQ of DIVUS – a Prague based art publishing house.

Kenna Hernly b. 1980, lives in Cornwall and works for Tate St Ives in the role of Learning Curator for Adult Programmes. She has a MA in Contemporary Visual Art from University College Falmouth, and a BA in the History of Art from St Mary’s College of Maryland, USA. In 2007 Hernly co-founded FIELDCLUB with Paul Chaney. She also worked with the independent publishing company and arts organisation, Urbanomic, between 2009 and 2010. Other programming and curatorial work has included: The Story of NPK: Agriculture as Extraction – The Penzance Convention (Cornwall, 2012); FIELDCLUB and Friends – Late at Tate St Ives (2011); Imagine Being Here Now Tour – The Cornwall Workshop (Cornwall, 2011); and The Real Thing – Late at Tate Britain with Urbanomic (London, 2010).