Cultures of…programme evolves with two new exhibitions on campus
Two exhibitions showcasing work from academic staff and researchers in the School of Arts and Humanities have opened as part of the School’s ongoing Cultures of Film programme.
(Re)Use, in the atrium of the Barbara Hepworth Building, gathers together recent projects by Professor Nic Clear, Dr Yun Gao and PhD researcher Hemen Galal. The works look at how we can reuse, adapt and re-imagine materials and ideas in the built environment through both actual and speculative projects.
Centred around projects that are linked by their adaptation of wooden pallets, one displays links to a community gardens project that brought together the SLRC, Natural Kirklees, local growing groups and Mirfield based manufacturers Actiform, where a shelter at the Peace Pit Lane community garden in Deighton was built using pallets and other recycled building materials. Another display is the WorldStack, a project that uses pallets as a conceptual model for adaptable future housing in the face of mass climate migration.
The exhibition’s other projects also take a speculative position to the (Re)Use agenda. One imagines the redevelopment of Dewsbury Post Office by a group of amateur enthusiasts long after the Post Office itself has been privatised, and is linked to a AHRC India - UK Heritage research project. The second is inspired by the landscape of the Chinese classical gardens, the green wall panel demonstrating the interaction between Nature and Culture, and the pivotal role of built environment as a mediating realm where human actions and natural rhythms coalesce.
A Networking and Celebratory Event will be held on Friday 18 September from 2pm, where external partners will discuss their involvement in the showcased projects and the exhibition can be celebrated with the artists - discover more here.
The Cultures of Film Group Exhibition, open from 10 September in Galleries 2 and 3 and Atrium of the Bath House Gallery in Sovereign Design House, showcases a selection of projects from academic staff within the School of Arts and Humanities, with a focus on film as a means of research, documentation and exploration. Across the exhibition, film captures the rhythm of making, records live encounters with artworks, explores our relationship with technology and shows the world from a childlike point of view.
Gallery 1 celebrates four participatory filmmaking commissions developed with communities in Marsden, Cleckheaton and Dewsbury as part of Cultures of Film. Through workshops, creative activities and ongoing engagement, the filmmakers explored the cultural life of each place with the people who know it best. Rather than illustrating predetermined narratives, the films grew from these encounters, shaped by the priorities, interests and creative contributions of those involved.
Celebrate the exhibition with the artists on Thursday 1 October from 4pm – 7pm at the Bath House Gallery, Sovereign Design House - RSVP.
Cultures Of_ is a place-based public realm programme that runs out of the Centre for Cultural Ecologies in Art Design and Architecture but serves as a School-wide initiative. Each academic year a new theme is introduced, collectively curated into a public programme, with this year’s focus being Cultures of Film.
Find out more about Cultures Of_
Find out more about the Centre for Cultural Ecologies in Art, Design and Architecture