“Weston Park Museum’s new exhibition City of Rivers celebrates Sheffield as a water city, shaped by the rivers that mould and sculpt the surrounding landscape and local industry.
The show features over 300 artworks and found objects brought together to explore the city’s waterways and their impact. The display includes more traditional artworks such as paintings and poems but also found objects pulled from the rivers themselves.”
https://www.creativetourist.com/event/city-of-rivers/
The exhibition runs from November 23 to November 24. I am delighted to have three large paintings and a film clip displayed in the exhibition. I will be running a mindful drawing workshop based on the work on 1 May 24.
https://www.creativetourist.com/event/city-of-rivers/
Exhibition open 12.00-5.00 Sat 22-Thurs 27 July
Performances 7.00-9.00pm Mon 24, Tues 25, Wed 26 July
Artists’ dialogue 7.00-9.00pm Thurs 27 July
SHU Project Space, S1 Artspace, S2 5PN
Mystery Language(s) is a collaboration between Sheffield artists Norman Anderson, Alison Churchill and Ric Stott, and writer Rafael Cruz who is based in Cambridgeshire.
Norman Anderson’s abstract paintings and long rolls of script derive from sound – an inner vibration and a language which suddenly became accessible to him after a stroke 5 years ago. This is a language in which he is fluent, but its provenance and meaning is a mystery to him. However, the felt sense is that it conveys an ancient wisdom which has not only helped in his own recovery but which is relevant today, and may help others in their own recovery.
Alison Churchill’s “water marks” are a language of a kind, arising on the cusp of thought and form, appearing, dissolving and reassembling. These marks have no explicit message, yet seem full of meaning and life-energy. They were first seen and felt in mesmerising dancing patterns on water surfaces and have over time become embodied. They are also informed by her practice of zen and zen calligraphy.
Both artists’ work, displayed on Instagram, caught the attention of Rafael Cruz, who with his interest in the relationship between art and science, in languages and their derivation, in meaning and culture, philosophy and the Tao, became fascinated with Norman’s “mystery language” and his story of recovery and transformation. Rafael’s interpretation and articulation of the work has helped shape it into a collaborative project, an exhibition and event, and will ultimately culminate in a book.
Ric Stott has recently joined the collaboration, bringing with him a different aspect of this source energy – a primal, powerful and embodied expression which “speaks” through elemental paintings stamped with the earth energies of soil, rain, river, tree, sea, mountain and lightning.
The exhibition, performances and dialogue engage and explore these various expressions of this universal and unifying energy and will open up themes of meaning, recovery and transformation.
An artistic response by Alison Churchill and Roanna Wells to the work of Dr Thomas McAuley from the School of East Asian Studies for the University of Sheffield’s Festival of the Mind. — see https://festivalofthemind.sheffield.ac.uk/2022/a-mirror-it-does-seem-article/
Roanna and I were particularly attracted to the poems on the topic of the moon and its reflection on water. The contemplative act of gazing at/into a body of water and something being reflected back to us, is timeless. Whether it is 12C or now.
Ideas we worked with — reflecting light like a mirror — often but not always moonlight — Japanese autumn Moon viewing festivals, capturing the reflection of the moon in a cup of sake etc.
Our chosen poem — the light is reflected back from the surface — what kind of light?
Especially this year
A mirror it does seem;
This pond water -
Clear through the passage of a thousand ages,
How I long for its light!
Our response is a collaboration, not a competition. Each work is uniquely our own, but the two “pieces” come together to make something new.
June 2022
An installation of translucent forms and sound — a collaboration between Alison Churchill and Richard McCormick, sound artist.
“Life Streams”
An installation of paintings and video projections, inspired
by Sheffield's millponds, streams and rivers, celebrating the
mystery, energy and transformative power of water.
A collaborative event with Cathy Speirs, the Sheaf and
Porter Rivers Trust The University of Sheffield School of Music.
15 June
Persistence Works
21 Brown St, Sheffield S1 2BS
An exhibition in Stockton-on-Tees that “brings light and hope in the midst of the pandemic, and brightens up the darkest time of year.
Collaborating with Wellington Square and ARC, Wild Vision Collective has curated an Art Trail that incorporates light, video, and movement.”
Being Water : March 7 - 28 2020
Being Water is an immersive installation featuring large abstract drawings and light projections inspired by the dazzling reflections and patterns on Sheffield's millponds, streams and rivers.
The exhibition and series of related talks and workshops explore the mystery, energy and transformative power of water, and its relationship to emergence and the life force.
Preview : Friday 6th March, 6.00 – 9.00
Artist’s talk : Saturday 7th March 4.00 - 6.00
The following events have been cancelled due to Covid 19 lockdown.
“Zen on Water”: Friday 13th March, 6.30-8.00
Talk and meditation by Zen Master Barbara Jikai Gabrys
Zen Brushwork : Saturday 14, 1.00-5.00
Drawing on the Zen tradition of calligraphy, we will use meditation and energy-raising exercises, to relax body/mind and to let the life energy flow freely.
“The Wonder of Water” : Tuesday 17th March 6.00 - 8.00
Dr Richard Jones takes a light look into the science of water.
Live River Drawing with Roanna Wells and Norman Anderson Tuesday 17th & Wednesday 18th March, 10.00am - 11.30am
“Daylighting Sheffield’s Hidden Rivers” : Wednesday 18th March, 7.00 - 8.30
A talk by Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust on the social and environmental benefits of regenerating City rivers.
Emergent Dialogue : Saturday 21st March, 2.00 – 5.00
“Bluehue” and “Floe State of Mind” : Tuesday 24th March, 7.00 - 8.30
Natasha Brooks and Gilly Macarthur show their beautiful films on wild swimming in cold waters.
A tour around my exhibition “Being water”, an introduction to my recent work and a demo of my process of water mark making.
