Artists in residence and public events
4 November – 31 December 2012

The Forest is the third in Wysing’s series of residencies for 2012, preceded by The Cosmos (April/May) and The Mirror (July/August). Artists have been invited, through a selection process, to come to Wysing to make new work in response to these themes.

For six weeks from 4 November, artists Jonathan Baldock, Edwin Burdis, Emma Hart and Jess Flood-Paddock, and musician Luke Abbott, are in residence at Wysing’s rural site near Cambridge, developing  new art works that explore the future, nature and transformation in response to the metaphor of The Forest.

During each residency distinguished experts, amateur hobbyists and members of the public will contribute to an ongoing talks and events programme.  The three themes, or environments, have emerged from ongoing artistic enquiry at Wysing. The Cosmos, the initial starting points of which were the past, origins and knowledge, The Mirror: the present, reflection and commentary and The Forest: the future and transformation through nature are influenced by literary references to other worlds and the merging of fact and fiction, in particular the writings of JG Ballard, Jorge Luis Borges, Michel Foucault, WG Sebald and Kurt Vonnegut.

 

Reinforcing the literary influences on the residencies, Escalator artist-in-residence Patrick Coyle is documenting the year long programme of residencies through creative writing via his ongoing blog

The Forest events programme includes contributions from scientists, writers and musicians, on themes including the wild wood, infertility, and fashion forecasting. For more information about the programme please click here.

Work created by artists during the residency programme, which is funded by Arts Council England and Paul Hamlyn Foundation, is shown at Wysing Arts Centre before being seen by audiences at venues across the UK and beyond.

 

4 November — 16 December 2012

Jonathan Baldock has a BA from Winchester School of Arts and MA in painting from the Royal College of Art, London (2007). Jonathan Baldock makes theatrical and darkly humorous objects, installations and paintings, which are often influenced by traditions of folklore, craft and ritual. He has recently had solo exhibitions The Blue Epoch, Colloredo-Mansfeldský Palác, AMoYA, Prague (Czech) (2012), Pierrot, PeregrineProgram, Chicago (USA) (2011), The Fool’s Flipside, Cell Projects, London (UK) (2010). His works been included in group exhibitions such as Condensation, Danielle Arnaud Contemporary, London (2011) and Jonathan Baldock / Karla Black / Morag Keil / Jonanthan Monk, MALLORCA Landings (2011).  He has been awarded with an Arts Council England Grant, Sichuan Fine Art Institute, Chongqing (China) (2011) and recently he has been awarded with Abbey Fellowship, British School in Rome (Italy) (2013).

Edwin Burdis’s practice explores a unique fusion between art, music and sub-cultural references for which he has in the past taken on various artistic personas. Recent performances and solo exhibitions include MegaDairyPigFarm, Max Wigram Gallery, London, P.E.A.R., Handlung events, the Hackney Bureau, London, LongMeg, Milton Keynes Gallery, Milton Keynes (2012),  Bruderkriegsoundsystem, ICA, London,  Home Service, Hayward Gallery Project Space, London, (2011), LongMeg, Be Glad For The Song Has No End, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, (2010), No Soul for Sale, Tate Modern, London (2010), LongMeg, Golden Zeiten, Haus De Kunst, Munich, Germany, (2010), LongMeg International Project Space, Bourneville, Birmingham, (2010).

Emma Hart has presented solo exhibitions and performances at galleries including Cell Project Space, Stanley Picker Gallery and Modern Art Oxford. Her practice is a course of imaginative action for domestic technology, manifesting in videos, sculptures and performances. She is currently researching for her PhD at Kingston University. In 2011 Hart presented TO DO, a critically acclaimed solo show at Matt’s Gallery, where she is represented. In 2012 her first in the series of Monuments to the Unsaved was exhibited when she was nominated for the Jerwood Foundation / Film and Video Umbrella awards. Hart's forthcoming projects include a new commission at the Whitstable Biennale 2012 and a solo presentation at Camden Arts Centre, London, in 2013.

Jess Flood-Paddock has a BA from the Slade School of Fine Art and an MA from The Royal College of Art.  Her work is a multi-disciplined sculptural practice that attempts to retain a sense of impermanence and a relationship with history. Recent UK solo exhibitions have included Gangsta’s Paradise at the Hayward Gallery Project Space and Island, A regime, a video commission from Frieze Foundation. Her latest international shows have been Grid System, A Regime, Malta and Recent British Sculpture, Amsterdam, where Jess is represented by Grimm Gallery. She has been awarded funding by the Arts Council, the Henry Moore Foundation, the Elephant Trust, Frieze Foundation and Channel 4.  She has an upcoming solo show in September at Tate Britain in the Art Now series.

Luke Abbott originally studied Fine Art at Norwich University College of the Arts specialising in printmaking and photomedia.  Following graduation he pursued his interest in electronic music completing a MMus in Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Arts at the University of East Anglia.  He came to prominence within the international sonic and electronic music scene in 2010 through his debut album Holkham Drones which received significant media exposure and widespread critical acclaim.  He currently tours extensively throughout world and makes frequent appearances at international music and sonic art festivals.

 

Patrick Coyle has an MFA in Writing from Goldsmiths College, London (2010). He has recently performed at the launch of CONCRETE POETRY at Hayward’s Concrete Café, London and at Spike Island, Bristol. He was the inaugural writer-in-residence for Akerman Daly in 2011.

His blog, www.wysingsongs.tumblr.com documents the 2012 residencies at Wysing (The Cosmos, The Mirror and The Forest) and can be read here.