Hello All – The GFF is Back!

Have you always wanted to learn how to grow your own food? Know how but have nowhere to garden? Are you 

interested in organic gardening, green issues or working with natural materials in your practice? Are you interested in alternative approaches to creating opportunities for discussion and collaboration ? – Then come and work with the Green Finger Forum at 14-15 Windsor Terrace!

The GFF is a student run forum based on creating opportunities for creative social events through gardening, cooking, eating, foraging and making. We will hold approximately 2-3 events per semester. This often takes the form of a little light gardening (depending on the season) and making and eat a vegan/vegetarian lunch together. This year we are also intending to run workshops in other plant related subjects such as pickling and preserving , natural dyes and using natural materials in making artworks .

This year we are trying out an international recipe theme – so if you have a dish that you would like to take the lead in showing others how to prepare and cook then please get in touch by responding to the emails we will send out. We are also looking for ideas from you for other workshops and projects we can run or help facilitate.

In 2022 the GGF cleared the overgrown gardens at the back of 14-15 Windsor Terrace near the Robinson Library. We also built compost bins, raised beds, and a small greenhouse, and planted a herb bed and a vegetable garden. Everything has bloomed over the last two years and we have been eating salads, micro-greens, courgettes, potatoes and beans for sunny lunchtime snacks over the summer. There are still lots of lovely veggies left to harvest and eat or to pickle, preserve or perhaps use for dying or making inks etc.

We would love to have you come join us .  You do not need to have any experience in gardening or to have been involved last year – just bring an open mind and generous approach to working with others. If you are intending to help in the garden please wear clothes and footwear that you do not mind getting a bit dirty. If we have bad weather we will have indoor activities.

Our first meeting of the new academic year 23-24 on Monday 13th November (see poster attached)and will be a whole day event with pierogi making, talks and workshops. You can pop in when you feel like but it would be great to have some collaboration in making the food in the morning for lunch around 1pm. The food w e prepare is vegan and we also try to have gluten free alternatives when possible. Contributions welcome.

Any questions please contact Irene – irene.brown@ncl.ac.

It is that time of year once more when students and recent graduates can apply for the North East Emerging Artists Award at Seaton Delaval Hall.   There is background and application info here: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/north-east/seaton-delaval-hall/north-east-emerging-artist-award  

Deadline for applications is Weds 8th Dec   

More info: Link

Chilean artist Constanza Mendoza will be visiting the department from Berlin.
Constanza’s work studies games and play as critical tools to examine power structures, ethic-politics and new strategies for collaboration. 
She will be giving a talk as part of the visiting speakers programme, but we will also be running a session to play Game of Kin, a collaborative card game designed by Constanza’s collective, Laboratorio de Pensamiento Lúdico. The game works from a scenario in which the climate crisis has caused the collapse of life on Earth. The objective is to generate relationships between non-human species in order to survive in their habitats. 

This will take place on Thursday 5 October between 14:00 and 17:00 in 14 Windsor Terrace.

We have ten spaces for students to join and play the game. If games are important for you, you would like to explore how they might become part of your practice or you’re interested in creative responses to the climate crisis, I encourage you to sign up here. 

More details about the game are included below.
Also if you would like to meet and speak with Constanza about your work, tutorial slots are available on Friday 6 October. Please add your name and info here to book one.
All the best,
Giles.

GAME OF KIN
Can you imagine what life on Earth will be like in four hundred years when the Anthropocene is over? Game of Kin is a speculative game about the species that survived the global collapse to fabulate a new era of cooperation and relationality. Game of Kin changes the perspectives on what is happening, because by modifying the questions we will be able to propose new answers. As long as we imagine it, we will have already started a new era.
Game of Kin is designed for up to 24 people to participate. It does not require any specific skill or knowledge. Game of Kin consists of a deck of cards with which groups are formed that are defined as ecological niches. That is, each group is determined by a territory with differentiated climatic conditions and inhabited by interdependent organisms adapted to those conditions and territory. The possibilities of each game are infinite and never repeated, but always imply responsibilities.

Game of Kin is a game designed by Laboratorio de Pensamiento Lúdico (LPL) and it will be facilitated by Constanza Mendoza.

LONGING DISCO, a participatory project by Nick Fox is staged as part of Modern Love Festival , EMST Athens 29 Sept – 1 Oct ! The Festival offers a rich programme of talks, panels, screenings, music and performances that look into the relationship between humans and technology, focusing especially love and close human relationships in the age of late capitalism, globalisation, digital connectivity and social media. Check out the entire festival programme at https://www.emst.gr/en/events-en/events-upcoming-en/modern-love-festival#press

Longing Disco at the MODERN LOVE BAR   

@ EMST, Τhe National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens 

Friday 29 Sept 2023, 22:30-1:30 (GR time) 

Free:  Join in person or insta via the festival website. 

Have you ever been left heartbroken, not knowing what to do next, and played a track over and over again? Share your story and dance the pain away!  

As part of IMODERN LOVE  festival 2023, you are invited to participate in LONGING DISCO staged by artist Nick Fox at The Modern Love Bar (EMST Athens) ,  Friday 29th  September 

Longing Disco invites you to come along to share your stories of Modern Love & unspoken personal desires inspired by your favourite ‘lovestruck’ track in an evening of music and dance. Participants request songs beforehand and also anonymously share their personal stories of longing behind song choices that chronicle blissful courtships, tragic romances, displacement, betrayal, unrequited loves, loss hopes and dreams.  By connecting through personal stories of love and loss, Longing Disco creates a counterpoint to the digital disconnect and reminds us that longing and loss can also be a powerful driving force to create fulfilment and joy in our own lives.  

You can request songs and share your story even if you can’t attend the event . 

More info or to Book your place & submit a song here:  https://www.emst.gr/en/articles/longing-disco-nick-fox

Uta Kögelsberger

Uncertain Subjects the body of works by Uta Kögelsberger developed in response to Brexit between 2017 and 202o, included in: 

Leave to Remain: A snapshot of Brexit, by Noni Stacey, Published by Lund Humphries
… a very timely investigation of the role art and photography played in capturing and reflecting on the conditions for the Brexit referendum. Illustrated by a range of work by artists including Cornelia Parker, Wolfgang Tillmans, David Shrigley, Uta Kögelsberger, Tacita Dean and Jeremy Deller as well as the satirists Cold War Steve and Led By Donkeys, who offer fascinating insights into their work

The book is available here:https://www.lundhumphries.com/products/leave-to-remain

The first major retrospective of the work of the British abstract artist and teacher Matt Rugg (1935-2020).

Until 13 January 2024, Hatton Gallery

Congratulations to Guest curated by Dr Harriet Sutcliffe.

More info see here

‘Right Here, Right Now’

Tues 19  September  4.30 – 7pm 
Exhibition Dates: Mon 18 – Sat 30 September

Venue: Fine Art Department XL gallery & Long Gallery, 
NE1 7RU

Please join Fine Art to celebrate the opening of Right Here, Right Now, and to mark the Launch of FINE ART 100, our four-year long celebration of the creation and awarding of the very first BA (Hons) of Fine Art in England, at Newcastle University

Over the next four years and leading up to the 100^th anniversary of the awarding of our first degree, Fine Art 100 will mark this milestone in the history of Art Education by curating and hosting a series of exhibitions, events and creative activities with  alumni , students, staff and partners. Our programme marks the innovation, value, and contribution of the department across pedagogy, research, and creative practice.    

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This inaugural exhibition Right Here, Right Now shines a spotlight on the present, bringing together the work of all the current staff and students in one space, offering a snapshot of the Fine Art department as it exists now, at this significant point in it’s history. The exhibition continues Mon 18 – Sat 30 September, XL gallery. 

An accompanying timeline display in the Long Gallery highlights the historical and current innovations that has kept Fine Art at Newcastle at the forefront of academic and creative practice in the UK. 

Looking to the next 100 years, we want to ensure that Fine Art at Newcastle University remains an inclusive and diverse place for the artists of tomorrow to think, create, experiment, and thrive.  As part of the Fine Art 100 celebrations, we are also launching the FINE ART 100 Fund . This will help support our creative & civic vision for fair and equal access to Fine Art education at Newcastle University for all students. 

Please Join us on Tuesday 19 Sept from 4.30pm as we celebrate the past, look at the present, and question what the next 100 years of Fine Art education and research might be.  

All are Welcome !

From Fine Art 

This opportunity allows up to 5 Fine Art students (UG and PG) to engage in a 12-day intensive stone and wood carving workshop, led by architectural and artistic master carver Paul Lewis. The workshop will take place in Galicia (North-West Spain) during the summer period (28 August- 9 September 2023). The students have the opportunity to join a professional stone carving workshop in a taller / apprenticeship setting developing their skills set by start working on individual projects.

Costs for travel, accommodation, and transport within Spain will be covered.

The place of the workshop is significant: the region has a long tradition of ornamental and prehistoric stone carvings (petroglyphs), going back  4,000 years. Paul Lewis set up his workshop in the Pontevedra region 15 Years ago. Students will experience prehistoric stone art and the opportunity to source local stone  (granite) from a local quarry. Lewis has experiences of working in stone through artistic and architectural carving in cathedrals, historic properties, private houses and public buildings. 

In the first briefing session we had a strong response of over 20 students joining us which indicates a a demand.

Focus of Workshop:

Students would be selected through an open selection process by submitting an expression of interest form (see details below);

The workshop will cover opportunities to:

• Introduce students to the stone carving workshop: tools (including handmade tool making), materials of wood and stone carving practice;
• Familiarise to the carving process from initial ideas, design, choice of materials, discussion/agreement with (potential) clients, execution, the finished piece
• Awareness of the physicality of working – ergonomics of movement/ body and mind in harmony with the materials difference word/stone carving;
• Raise awareness of the long tradition of carved stone in Galicia and prehistoric stone carvings (petroglyphs); source regionally stone in local quarry; 
• Working on site with Master stone and wood carver alongside ‘live’ projects in the workshop;
• Start a practice that could then be continued in Newcastle (e.g. cage working area/ woodworkshop);

Time Plan:

2 Feb 2023                 First briefing session with students;

16 Feb 2023               Deadline of Expression of Interest.

2 March 2023            Interviews of shortlisted students (on Zoom) with Paul Lewis;

Mid-March 2023            successful candidates will be contacted ; 

28 Aug -9 Sept 2023: Workshops Dates: Galicia, Spain.

How to take part in the workshop?

Send an Expression of Interest by answering three questions (max 200 words total):

• Why would you like to take part in the workshop?
• How would the workshop benefit your work?
• Are you available during the weeks during the summer period (28 August – 9 Sept 2023)?
• Add 1-2 images of your related work.

Deadline of Expression of interest: 16 Feb 2023

E-mail: Christian.Mieves@newcastle.ac.uk

Use Subject Heading: Stone Carving

Interviews of shortlisted candidates will take place on 
Thursday 2 March 2023. 

‘Into the Unknown’ is a research seminar taking place on February 17^th at 2pm in the Fine Art Seminar Room aimed at those already doing or thinking about undertaking a practice based PhD in Art by current Leverhulme Early Career Fellow Dr Lyn Hagan.  

Imposter syndrome is common during the PhD process when a shift towards theory and writing can overshadow practice.  Relying heavily on reflections about my own PhD experience, I hope to offer some useful guidance on how to take on and navigate the research, writing and examination process so that it feels authentic to your ethos as an artist.  Unlearning and allowing yourself to get lost in the research is a fundamental part of the journey.  What can you uniquely offer as researchers that those in other disciplines may not be able to?  Should you be creative with the format of your submission or is it more productive to keep the format within set examination guidelines?  There is a debate around whether a thesis is even necessary in practice-based research but how do you balance freedom to experiment, with the requirements of the examination process and the necessary publication of original knowledge?  By showing examples of successful PhD’s that interrogated these seemingly set conventions, this seminar wants to open up the debate so that you can chose the path that is right for you with your research and defend your arguments before a panel.