Uni artist commissioned for Irwell Sculpture Trail’s 25th year

Anneké Pettican is a member of the art collective Brass Art and their exhibition, that-which-is-not, is on display at the Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Centre

THE Irwell Sculpture Trail in Lancashire stretches over 33 miles and has been captivating walkers and art lovers alike for 25 years.  To help celebrate its anniversary, a collection of sculptures and an expanded shadow-play installation, have been brought together in a unique immersive exhibition featuring work by an award-winning artist from the University of Huddersfield.

Anneké Pettican, from the University’s Centre of Sculptural Thinking in the School of Art, Design and Architecture, is one of three members of the art collective Brass Art and their latest exhibition, entitled that-which-is-not, is on display at the Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Centre.

The museum commissioned the trio, Anneké Pettican, Chara Lewis and Dr Kristin Mojsiewicz, to create the exhibition in response to their artwork From the Tower Falls the Shadow, commissioned in 2008, for the Irwell Sculpture Trail.  The artists were thus prompted by the themes of revisiting and returning: revisiting objects and sites of significance in their collaborative practice, from Hogarth’s prints to neon lungs, 3D-printed hands – the artists’ own, blown glass objects and a miniature 19th Century bone and ivory pagoda.

The pagoda, a souvenir replica of a long-destroyed original tower in China, was unearthed by Brass Art in Bury Museum’s stores for their curatorial show Paradise Revisited and is featured at the heart of the new immersive, expanded shadow-play.  3D-printed hands, blown glass and an animated neon gesture, taken from a Hogarth print, were first imagined for their commissioned solo exhibition Gestured, which was on display in Manchester’s Chetham’s Library last year and took inspiration from the library’s collection.

A pair of glass neon lungs which flash blood-red to the rhythm of exhaling and inhaling breath revisit a piece that was destroyed in a fire some years ago.    

The artists use a variety of mediums in their practice: “We work with whatever feels like the right material to realise an artwork,” explained Anneké.  “Sometimes it can be a digital project, for example working with data, or it can be neon, watercolours and even ourselves!”

The group often work with outside companies and university specialists to create unique objects.  Click (after Hogarth) is a commanding handmade in two-part argon and glass, while the 3D resin figures, seen in the shadow-play, are miniature sculptures of the artists’ bodies, captured using white light technologies, performing inside 3D bodyscanners.

The trio’s next exhibition will focus upon the writing of Virginia Woolf as Brass Art have recently initiated a new body of research with a visit to the Godrevy Lighthouse in St Ives and Monks House, the former home of Virginia Woolf in Sussex.  The group is now applying for funding to examine new ways to capture performances using cloud data in response to these locations.

• Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Centre is open from 10am to 5pm (Tuesday to Friday) and 10am to 4.30pm (Saturday).