Field | Art Projects

11 | 09 | 2017

Structure and Serendipity: Art and Community

Join us on Wednesday 20 September in a discussion around the joys and pitfalls of public art commissioning for neighbourhoods.  Arts programmes for communities are often initiated through funding streams with limited timeframes and narrow definitions.  In this context, how do curators respond to local needs and embed artist commissions into an area whilst allowing the flexibility to respond to the unexpected opportunities that arise?  The talk will be led by Theresa Bergne and Jo Plimmer from Future Perfect and Kim Wide, Director of Take A Part, a socially engaged arts project for Plymouth communities.  Free at Bristol’s Architecture Centre from 6pm.

03 | 07 | 2017

NILS NORMAN TALK, WEDNESDAY 5 JULY

Artist Nils Norman, will be giving a talk as part of the Architecture Centre’s programme celebrating the drawings of Garth England.  Nils Norman’s work focusses on the intersection between art, architecture and urban planning.  As part of the Future Perfect art programme, Nils was commissioned to create a series of work which knit together the green spaces across Hengrove.  Pieces of Play included a series of play areas, a dynamic footpath, and a new theatre curtain for the Hengrove Community Centre which celebrates local history and includes drawings by Garth England.

The talk starts at 18.30, and to book tickets please go to the Arnolfini website.

23 | 05 | 2017

Exhibition of Drawings by Garth England at the Bristol Architecture Centre

We are delighted to announce that Bristol’s Architecture Centre will be hosting an exhibition of drawings by Garth England from 31 May to 10 September.

Garth England’s remarkable work was discovered during the research process for one of our Future Perfect commissions – a theatre curtain by artist Nils Norman which draws on the local history of Hengrove. 

Garth had spent almost all of his seventy-nine years living in neighbourhoods in south Bristol: Knowle West, Hengrove, Totterdown and Bedminster.  The jobs he held throughout his life - paperboy, telegram boy, milkman and railway man - gave him a deep understanding of the rhythm, architecture and people of this part of Bristol. 

His exquisitely detailed drawings were published in a book produced by Future Perfect, Murdered with Straight Lines, and will on show for the very first time.

03 | 05 | 2017

Janet Cardiff’s 40 Part Motet at Tate Modern

‘Once every decade or so a work of contemporary art captures the imagination of the public, curators, and journalists alike, achieving that elusive trinity of critical acclaim, popular appeal and institutional approval.’  Thus wrote Cristina Ruiz in the Art Newspaper about 40 Part Motet by the Canadian artist Janet Cardiff (edited by her artistic collaborator and partner George Bures Miller).  The sound installation, which was originally commissioned by Field Art Projects in 1999, is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa and we’re delighted to say, goes on display this week in the Tanks at Tate Modern in London.

09 | 03 | 2017

Edith and Hans, a written response

“in an age when so many artworks are conceived to be photographed, when unconscious concessions are made for maximum online popularity, and when the circulation of art is so frequently a function of its representation in digital photographs and on social media, what does it mean for a work to privilege people’s presence, to ask for our time and our touch?”

With the advent of spring and better weather to tempt us outside, we invite Ellen Mara De Wachter to visit Sarah Staton’s commission, a belvedere set in the grounds of the University of Bristol’s residential halls.

Ellen invites us to experience Edith and Hans with her, and considers an artwork which “offers endless possibilities for the theatre of life” against the background of a year of dramatic political change in Europe and the United States and “rewards us for the time spent in its company”.

Ellen is a writer and curator based in London.  She is a regular contributor to Frieze magazine and her writing has appeared in numerous publications. Her book, Co-Art: Artists on Creative Collaboration will be launched by Phaidon in April 2017.

Download Ellen Mara De Wachter’s commissioned response to Edith and Hans here.