SEAM
Commission / funded project (residency and exhibition). 2014-15
Burton Art Gallery | Flow Contemporary Arts | National Trust

Seam – a fieldwork

‘Bideford Black’ is a unique pigment found only in Bideford, Devon, UK. It is a carboniferous clay mineral that is associated with a tradition of mining for its deep, rich black qualities, including contemporary use as an artist’s material. This project studies the pigment’s location at Green Cliff, where the weather and mineral paints itself into and out of the cliff face, and geology is presented as a fragmented and ephemeral quality of place.

Summary:
Walking residency staying at a local guesthouse / group exhibition with publication / gallery and public programmes / countryside culture programme (trail walking) / working with museum volunteers and local community

Artists:
ATOI
Tabatha Andrews
Luce Choules
Corinne Felgate
Neville and Joan Gabie, with Ian Cook
Littlewhitehead
Lizzie Ridout
Sam Treadaway

Filmmaker:
Liberty Smith

Project partners:
Carolyn Black, Flow Contemporary Arts | Claire Gulliver, Independent Project Manager | Miranda Clark, Visual Arts Manager, Burton Art Gallery and Museum, Bideford, UK | Warren Collum, Exhibitions and Collections Officer, Burton Art Gallery and Museum, Bideford, UK | Emily Paine, Gallery/Tourist Information Administrator, Burton Art Gallery and Museum, Bideford, and Torridge District Council, UK | Dr Ian Cook, Associate Professor of Geography, Head of Geographies of Creativity and Knowledge Research Group, University of Exeter, UK, and Founder of ‘Followthethings’ | Justin Seedhouse and Nicola Jackson, National Trust | Friends of the Burton Art Gallery and Museum.

Keywords:
Environmental Art, Cultural Tourism, Physical Geography, Geology, Survey, Fieldwork.

Funded by:
Arts Council England, Torridge District Council, Burton Art Gallery and Museum, Friends of the Burton Art Gallery and Museum

       

EXHIBITIONS INFO

Group show Bideford Black – The New Generation | 03.10.15 – 13.11.15
Tabatha Andrews, ATOI, Luce Choules, Corinne Felgate, Neville & Joan Gabie, Littlewhitehead, Lizzie Ridout, Sam Treadaway, and film-maker Liberty Smith.
Burton Art Gallery, Devon, UK, with Carolyn Black of Flow Contemporary Arts and Claire Gulliver.

Group show The Alternative Document | 13.02.16 – 11.03.16
Bartram O’Neill, David Brazier & Kelda Free, Hector Canonge, Rachel Cherry, Luce Choules, Emma Cocker & Clare Thornton, Kate Corder, Tim Etchells, Chris Green & Katheryn Owen, Jordan McKenzie, Andy Pepper, and Louise K Wilson.
Project Space Plus, Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, University of Lincoln, UK.
As part of The Alternative Document symposium and publication.

Group show (touring) Documents, Alternatives 1 | 17.11.17 – 16.12.17
Angela Bartram, Andrew Bracey, Brazier + Free, Luce Choules, Emma Cocker & Clare Thornton, Kate Corder, Steve Dutton, Tim Etchells, Rochelle Haley, Morrad + McArthur, Andy Pepper, and Louise K. Wilson.
Airspace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK
Touring exhibition curated by Angela Bartram

Group show (touring) Documents, Alternatives 2 | 18.01.18 – 24.02.18
Angela Bartram, Andrew Bracey, Brazier + Free, Luce Choules, Emma Cocker & Clare Thornton, Kate Corder, Steve Dutton, Tim Etchells, Rochelle Haley, Morrad + McArthur, Andy Pepper, and Louise K. Wilson.
Verge Gallery, University of Sydney, Australia
Touring exhibition curated by Angela Bartram

Group show (touring) Documents, Alternatives 3 | 20.04.18 – 11.05.18
Angela Bartram, Andrew Bracey, Brazier + Free, Luce Choules, Emma Cocker & Clare Thornton, Kate Corder, Steve Dutton, Tim Etchells, Rochelle Haley, Morrad + McArthur, Andy Pepper, and Louise K. Wilson.
B-Side Gallery, Bath Spa University, UK
Touring exhibition curated by Angela Bartram

Group show (touring) Documents, Alternatives 4 | launched 2020
Angela Bartram, Andrew Bracey, Luce Choules, Steve Dutton, Rochelle Haley, Morrad + McArthur, and Andy Pepper.
Digital and Material Artistic Research Centre, University of Derby, UK
Online exhibition curated by Angela Bartram
Link to ‘Documents, Alternatives’

WORK

SEAM
Installation (384 repositional photographic pieces, acrylic-faced photograph, 3 empty white frames, projected film, printed map). 2015

Seam is an exhibition produced as part of the Bideford Black commissions in Devon, UK. It has since toured as part of The Alternative Document, to Lincoln, Stoke-on-Trent and Bath, UK, also Sydney, Australia. The installation was made up of multifaceted dynamic parts – some fixed, others mobile. Elements included: a large photographic montage reshaped by museum and gallery staff, an atmospheric contextual photograph, archive collection frames and experimental performance documents. The installation explored ideas of excavation, weathering and the unstable behaviour of composite materials.

Each time Seam is exhibited, the fragmented work is ‘mined’. During the exhibition, three empty frames ‘collect’ three fragments from the installation. The three frames containing a fragment each are then gifted to the collection of the host venue. The work originally contained 384 pieces, and over the course of 128 extractive exhibitions it will have disappeared completely.

Image shows Seam installation as part of ‘The Alternative Document’ group show (2016)
Project Space +, Lincoln, UK
Image credit: University of Lincoln

Image shows Bideford Black film by Liberty Smith (2015)
Image credit: Burton Art Gallery, Devon, UK

Image shows Green Cliff map publication (2015)

Image shows Bideford Black field trip (2014)
Image credit: Carolyn Black, Flow Contemporary Arts