Nouvelle Vague: Playing Leeds City Varieties this autumn
FRENCH fancy covers band Nouvelle Vague will play Leeds City Varieties on October 13 on their 15 Years Anniversary Tour, now running into a 16th year.
Nouvelle Vague translates as “bossa nova” in Portuguese and “new wave” in English, explaining Marc Collin and Oliver Libaux’s choice of moniker that encapsulates the Parisian group’s concept of remaking classic New Wave singles with a Brazilian pop twist.
By appropriating the punk and post-punk cannon and running it through the
Bossa Nova filter, they re-invented the cover-band genre, revealing new singing
talents along the way such as Camille, Phoebe Killdeer, Nadeah, Mélanie Pain
and Liset Alea.
Bossa Nova + New Wave = Nouvelle Vague
The group’s first two albums, 2004’s Nouvelle Vague and 2006’s Bande A Part, defined their urbane retro sound , while third album, 2009’s NV3, featured collaborations with Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore, Echo & The Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch, The Specials’ Terry Hall, Barry Adamson, The Saints and Minimal Compact.
Subsequently, they have released the live album Acoustic in 2009; Best Of Nouvelle Vague and Couleurs Sur Paris in 2010; I Could Be Happy in 2016 and Curiosities and Rarities in 2019.
Nouvelle Vague will perform their 23-date autumn tour with a line-up of Collin, Libaux, Pain, Killdeer and Elodie Frégé. Killdeer and Pain will sing at the shows from October 9 to 20, including Leeds; Frégé and Pain from October 22 Tickets for the only Yorkshire date are on sale at cityvarieties.co.uk.
KENTMERE House Gallery always intended to devote much of this year’s exhibition programme to Jack Hellewell, as 2020 would have been his centenary year.
Ann Petherick’s gallery, in Scarcroft Hill, York, is closed under the
Coronavirus lockdown, but the website is being updated regularly, especially
his section.
“You may not be able to go to the Yorkshire Dales over the Easter break,
but you can still enjoy Jack Hellewell’s views of Yorkshire and elsewhere
online until such time as you can see the real thing,” says Ann.
“There will be a rolling exhibition of Jack’s work from the date of the
gallery re-opening, including works on paper and on canvas, with prices ranging
from £500 to £1,500.”
Ebb Tide, Filey, by Jack Hellewell
After his death in 2000, Kentmere House Gallery was appointed to manage
Jack’s artistic estate on behalf of his family, since when exhibitions have
been held in Ilkley, Leeds, Stoke-on-Trent, Bristol, London and Vienna. “There were
several more planned in 2020, although some may now have to be deferred to
2021,” says Ann.
Ever since Ann saw Jack’s work in a gallery in Ilkley 25 years ago, he
has been one of her gallery’s most loved and respected artists and work from
his studio is on show there permanently.
“Jack lived for his painting, describing himself as ‘a fanatical painter’
and spending all day and every day painting, especially after his wife died,” says
Ann. “Towards the end of his life, his daughter said the only way she knew he
was really ill was when he stopped painting
“He loved it when he sold work but hated having to be involved with the
selling and, as a result, most of the work we show will never have been seen
before outside his studio.”
Ilkley Moor, Yorkshire, by Jack Hellewell
Jack’s attic flat overlooking Ilkley Moor was always neatly
stacked with canvasses and work on paper. “Initially he would say ‘I
haven’t done much’, and then the paintings would start to appear: astounding in
their quality and consistency and always singing with colour,” says Ann.
“The gentlest, quietest and most modest of men, there were few who were
privileged to know him, but he had a delightful sense of humour, which also
appears in his paintings.”
Jack Hellewell was a
Yorkshireman through and through. Born in Bradford in 1920, he trained as a
painter at Bradford College of Art – where David Hockney studied too – from 1949
to 1952 and in later life lived in Menston and Ilkley.
He saw war service in
Egypt, North Africa and Italy and he then worked as a graphic designer. His travels with his family took him to Australia,
Austria, New Zealand, the South Seas and, frequently, to Scotland.
Socotra, Indian Ocean, by Jack Hellewell
In 1976, he gave up his design work to become a full-time painter,
returning to West Yorkshire to do so.
“All his work was
executed entirely from memory – he always refused to sketch on site, believing
that ‘it ties you down’ – and everything was derived from personal experiences,”
says Ann.
“Jack’s travels and
encounters had a dramatic impact on his painting and he had an amazing ability
to retain the essence of a place, so that years – or even decades later – he
could produce a painting from it.”
Much of his work used
the visual experience of intense light in warmer climates, as compared with the
more subtle light he found in Britain.
The front door of Kentmere House Gallery: Closed until further notice, but gallery owner Ann Petherick is still operating an online service
“Jack always worked in acrylic, enjoying the contrasts it offers between strong and subtle colours, and the feeling of movement, which is such a feature of his work,” says Ann. “He had the ability both to use the medium neat on canvas or diluted on paper, the latter giving the effect of the most delicate watercolour.”
Jack exhibited at the
Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition on several occasions in the 1990s; his
work was featured on the Tyne Tees Television arts programme North-East Line
and he has an entry in the definitive publication Artists In Britain Since 1945.
“All this leads me to wonder how many other such artists there are:
producing superbly rich and inspired work, yet largely unknown to the public and
even more so to the art world, and never receiving a penny of public funding,
nor any public recognition,” says Ann, who continues to ensure that all’s well
that’s Hellewell by promoting his art assiduously in his centenary year.
Did you know?
WORKS by Jack Hellewell are in the collections of British Rail; National Power
Company; Sheffield Museums; Mercer Gallery, Harrogate; Rochdale Art Gallery; Rutherston
Art Loan Scheme, Manchester City Art Gallery; Barclays Asset Management, Leeds
& Birmingham, and Provident Financial, Bradford.
YORK Open
Studios 2020, the chance to meet 144 artists at 100 locations over two April
weekends, has been cancelled in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However,
with doors sadly shut for the April 17 to 19 and April 25 to 26 event,
CharlesHutchPress wants to champion the creativity of York’s artists and
makers, who would have been showcasing their ceramics, collage, digital,
illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, sculpture
and textiles skills.
Each day,
in brochure order, five artists who now miss out on the exposure of Open
Studios will be given a pen portrait on these pages, because so much art and
craft will have been created for the event and still needs a new home.
Addresses will not be included at this time.
Meanwhile,
York Open Studios artists are finding their own way to respond to the shutdown
by filling their windows with their work instead. Look for #openwindowsyork2020 to locate them.
“If you see one in your area while taking your daily exercise, take a picture
and let us know,” they say.
Wool scarf, by Angela Anning
Angela Anning, textiles
ANGELA
makes one-off wearable art – scarves, shawls and jewellery – using fine silks,
cottons and wools.
She also creates highly textured wall art, applying wet felting
techniques to bond and sculpt natural materials, sometimes overlaid with hand
or machine stitching. She
designs lampshades too, decorated with fabric paint and machine embroidery.
“The
theme is treasures in nature,” says Angela, whose textile art is inspired by
sketches and photographs of landscapes and natural objects she experiences. “My
work is always influenced by the qualities and characteristics of natural
materials as I work with them.”
Angela Anning in her workshop
For Angela, textile art is a second career, after a degree in fine art and English and years as an educator, researcher, academic and writer, working mainly in Manchester and Leeds.
“But
I sustained a passion for and active interest in textiles and fashion alongside
my professional life,” she says. Fifteen years of developing work in fine and decorative arts has
ensued. Take a look at anningtextiles.com.
“My aim is to translate the dynamism and sensitivity of my former career as a musician into a ‘visual music’ in clay,” says Pamela Thorby
Pamela Thorby, ceramics
PAMELA left behind a distinguished career in music as a recorder
virtuoso and academic to pursue a new path in fine art.
Her stoneware-fired porcelain sculptural vessels are “imagined but
reminiscent of a multiplicity of organic forms”: whether interstellar, fossil,
micro-organism or coral.
“I aspire to make work light enough to be hung in the air;
strong enough to be placed piece inside piece, creating new possibilities of form
and meaning,” says Pamela. “My aim is to translate the dynamism and
sensitivity of my former career as a musician into a ‘visual music’ in clay.”
Pamela Thorby: “Making work light enough to be hung in the air”
She was “so excited” to have been selected for her first participation
in York Open Studios. “This was another one of the goals that I set myself and
here we are, in my second year as a ceramicist, and I’m working towards a major
body of work for this fantastic event in April,” she said at the time.
In her esteemed career in music, Pamela was professor of recorder at the Royal Academy of Music in London until 2019; the regular recorder player for Welsh composer Sir Karl Jenkins’s projects and a member of such groups as La Serenissima, New London Consort and Palladian Ensemble with Baroque violinist Rachel Podger.
In May 2007, she performed a radical fusion of jazz and folk
music with Perfect Houseplants at the National Centre for Early Music in York,
an innovative experience she described memorably as: “I’m a bit like a
gherkin on a salad plate: I’m adding piquancy to the mix.”
To discover more, go to pamelathorby.com.
Andrian Melka, sculpture
ANDRIAN began studying art
and sculpture at the age of ten, graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in
Tirana, Albania, in 1994.
He
moved to England in 1997 with a Getty scholarship and spent a year at the
Building Crafts College in London, where he was awarded the City & Guilds
Silver Medal for Excellence and granted the Freedom of
Carpenters’ Company and the Freedom of the City of London.
He headed to York to work as head sculptor with the renowned carver Dick Reid on high-profile commissions such as the Jubilee Fountain on Sandringham Estate to commemorate HM The Queen’s Golden Jubilee and figures of Christ and Madonna for St Mungo’s Church in Glasgow.
Since opening his own studio near York in 2003, he has taken on commissions from Lord Rothschild, HRH The Prince of Wales, Lord Conrad Black and the Earl of Halifax.
His work in bronze, marble and stone ranges
from figurative sculptures and portraits to abstractions based on the human
form.
Attention to detail and the right finish are important to
Andrian, who approaches his work differently from most other studios, working
directly in stone without the need for full-size models in the same way
Michelangelo would have done. See the results at melkasculpture.com.
Teapot, by Isabel K-J Denyer
Isabel K-J Denyer, ceramics
ISABEL loves to know
that her oven-proof stoneware and porcelain pottery will be used on an everyday
basis, for all occasions and celebrations, as she aims to make the presentation
of food “sing”.
“It
gives me great pleasure to think that they are part of people’s daily lives as
they serve and enjoy food in different ways, from a family meal to special
occasions,” she says. “This, for me, makes the process complete and
creates a mutual message between me, the maker, and the user and is the essence
of my working life.”
Isabel’s stoneware and porcelain pots are thrown on an electric wheel and are reduction-fired in a gas kiln. “Form and function are absolutely integral to the work and my objective is to make pots to be used, handled, cherished and cooked in,” she says.
Isabel K-J Denyer at the wheel
The making of pots gives Isabel a sense of peace. “I’m attracted to the forms made by the Etruscans, Koreans and the early Bronze Age Cycladic period and these are the pots I mostly draw in museums,” she says.
“For my own work, I prefer to work shapes out by making them first, helped along by exploratory drawings at a later stage and then allowing them to evolve and change over the years. This makes for a constant voyage of excitement and discovery.”
Isabel
trained in the 1960s on the Harrow Studio Pottery course, later potting in the
United States and Jamaica. Since moving to
Yorkshire in the early 1980s, she has been a member of the Northern Potters
Association, serving on the committee for nine years and as chair, and she is a member
of the Craft Potters Association too. Learn more at isabeldenyer.co.uk.
Pennie Lordan: Art on the Edgelands
Pennie Lordan, painter of landscapes
PENNIE’S oil paintings explore
the stark contrast and parallels that exist between loss and hope, sensitivity
and brutality, isolation and connectedness through the theme of Edgelands.
“My paintings are
developed from studies that come directly from location sketches, often on
pre-prepared grounds that reference a sense of composition and atmosphere,” she
says.
“These studies then
develop into oil paintings, built on varied prepared grounds and developed
through the process of multiple thin layers of oil paint and cold wax, often
applied, wiped back and re-applied.”
Pennie Lordan: painter of landscapes
Her work is both on linen, incorporating subtle stitching, and on disregarded found materials, such as pitched pine, board or aluminium.
Londoner Pennie runs two creative businesses in York with her husband, arriving here with a background in animation, art and education. Recently she completed three years of studying landscape painting at Leith School of Art in Edinburgh. 2020 would have been her first year in York Open Studios. More details: pennielordan.com.
TOMORROW: Ben Arnup; Jo Bagshaw; Francesca King; Simon Palmour and Elena Panina.
BLAME Tim
Brooke-Taylor for the stereotype image of the mithering, miserable, tight but
bragging Yorkshireman.
Well, not
only Tim, as we celebrate the comic genius and geniality of this son of
Derbyshire, Cambridge Footlights president, Goodie and stalwart I’m Sorry I Haven’t
panellist, who passed away yesterday, taken by the Covid-19 blight at 79.
The Four
Yorkshireman sketch is often attributed to Monty Python, but wrongly so. It was
in fact co-written by Brooke-Taylor for At Last The 1948 Show, the ITV series
he made with Marty Feldman and future Pythons John Cleese and Graham Chapman in
1967 and 1968.
Monty Python were subsequently to appropriate it and so too was The Secret Policeman’s Ball charity bash, when performed by Cleese, Terry Jones, South Yorkshireman Michael Palin and a young Rowan Atkinson.
“And you
try telling the young people of today that and they won’t believe you,” you
might say, borrowing the sketch’s pay-off line.
Tim
recalled the sketch’s motivation when interviewed ahead of his An Audience With
Tim Brooke Taylor show at Selby Town Hall in November 2014: the year when the grainy
black-and-white footage of the original recording for At Last The 1948 Show was
re-discovered.
“I come from
Derbyshire, so all Yorkshiremen are a pain in the neck and we have a chip on
the shoulder about them,” said the Buxton-born Brooke-Taylor, not entirely
seriously.
“In the Seventies,
I was asked by five different publishers to write about Yorkshire because I’d
picked on the county, but then Yorkshiremen were not at their best in the
Seventies, were they!”
“Geoffrey Boycott!”
scoffed the cricket enthusiast. “But I’ve since met some very nice Yorkshiremen
and I’ve had to change my attitude, which is rather annoying.”
Tim, the perennial wounded innocent in
The Goodies alongside Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, went on to say why he loved
being a team player, rather than performing solo. “I find that comedy is
funnier in groups; there are great stand-ups but I love seeing people bouncing
words off each other,” he reasoned.
Had Tim ever been tempted to write his
autobiography, came the final question? “I’ve been offered deals, but I think
the interesting ones are written by those with nasty things to say, like Roy
Keane’s book,” he said. “My book would be too happy.”
Too happy? For all four of the grouchy Four Yorkshiremen, maybe, but not for the rest of us. Thank you, Tim Brooke-Taylor, for all the years of happiness and laughter your brought us.
“We’ll lead you to a better life,” you
sang. “Goodies, goody, goody, yum, yum.”
YORK Open
Studios 2020, the chance to meet 144 artists at 100 locations over two April
weekends, has been cancelled in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, with
doors sadly shut for the April 17 to 19 and April 25 to 26 event,
CharlesHutchPress wants to champion the creativity of York’s artists and
makers, who would have been showcasing their ceramics, collage, digital,
illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, sculpture
and textiles skills.
Each day,
in brochure order, five artists who now miss out on the exposure of Open
Studios will be given a pen portrait on these pages, because so much art and
craft will have been created for the event and still needs a new home.
Addresses will not be included at this time.
Meanwhile,
York Open Studios artists are finding their own way to respond to the shutdown
by filling their windows with their work instead. Look for #openwindowsyork2020 to locate them.
“If you see one in your area while taking your daily exercise, take a picture
and let us know,” they say.
“The imperfections tell the story of the making,” says Kate Buckley
Kate Buckley, sculptural porcelain
ORIGINALLY
from North Wales, Kate has lived in York for two decades as a partner, mother,
teacher, artist and designer.
Having taught for more than 20 years, now she has graduated with a first-class contemporary craft degree from York College and is a UK prize winner in the Eleanor Worthington International Art Prize in Tertiary Education (Italy and the UK).
Porcelain meets origami in her thought-provoking sculptural works that favour a stripped-back colour palette focusing on light and shade. She uses slip-cast and press-moulded folded parchment and linen, together with folded surface distortion in concrete and plaster.
Kate Buckley: Demonstrating the delicacy of paper in porcelain
“The product is the sum
of the process and the imperfections tell the story of the making,” says Kate,
who is a member of the British Origami Society and artist-in-residence at York
College.
“My time there is spent
striving to express the delicacy of paper in porcelain and investigating how
geometry, repetition and folding capture the interplay of shadow and light and
embrace the space between.”
Since 2017, Kate has exhibited in York (According To McGee, Village Gallery), Harrogate, Newcastle (Holy Biscuit), London (Art. Number 23) and Urbino, Italy, and last year at Kunsthuis Gallery’s Shades of Clay exhibition at The Dutch House, Crayke, and Art& York, York Racecourse. She will return to Art& York from October 23 to 25 this autumn. Go to katebuckley.co.uk to learn more.
Wet York, by Kay Dower
Kay Dower, painting
KAY is the resident
artist at Corner Gallery, which she first ran in Scarcroft Road for 18 months and
now operates from her home.
“Having more space allows me to showcase more art to more people in the context of a relaxed, contemporary home, and of course there’s the excuse to make more of a party out of it,” she reasons. “I’m all for a casual approach to art with a dollop of fun and fizz thrown in for good measure.”
Kay Dower in her studio
Starting out as an “unserious, serious artist”,
she now paints with lashings of acrylics, using a
palette knife to give her paintings a sense of freedom and texture. Subjects
range from everyday ‘still life’ objects, whether pears or Prosecco, gerberas or
gin bottles, to quirky scenes of York.
Among these are classic
York buildings and corners of York, depicted from fresh angles, such as York Racecourse
and Bishopthorpe Road. “These are artworks that don’t want to hide
behind glass,” she says.
YORK retro book-art photographer Claire likes to encourage people to think about their favourite books in a different way when she brings vintage book covers and iconic characters to life through the lens
“I’ve always
had an interest in photography and creating pop-up books,” says Claire, whose primary influence was American photographer
Thomas Allen, who would cut characters out of pulp-fiction books and then
photograph them.
“I loved this concept so much, I started doing my own versions.
His were a bit sexy and I wanted mine to be cleaner.”
Inspired by
vintage fictional books, Claire uses
paper-cutting techniques to partially free the characters from the book, before
dramatically lighting and staging the shot to give the impression of the figure
coming to life from the pages, creating a 3D, retro-cool image.
Claire Morris pictured when she exhibited at Pocklington Arts Centre
Claire divides her time between working in the health sector and scouring charity shops and second-hand book sales, sourcing images and materials for her next art piece.
“I find inspiration from the characters on the front of the books. There’s something so iconic about book covers from the 1950s,” she says. “I like to highlight the emotions that the characters are showing and telling their story by placing them into a new situation.”
As well as
being a permanently featured artist at Kay Dower’s Corner Gallery, Claire has
exhibited this year at Pig & Pastry, Bishopthorpe Road, The
Gallery, Malton, and Pocklington Arts Centre. Take a look at clairemorris.photography.
Answering Light, by Emma Whitelock
Emma Whitelock, painting
DEPICTING evocative land and
seascapes in an expressive style, Emma’s work often incorporates a lone female
figure as a tiny abstract symbol.
Seeking to portray an emotional
connection to land and sea, how the outer world can reflect the inner, the expansiveness of nature acts as a foil to human concerns with
memory and solitude.
Her inspiration varies from the dramatic Yorkshire moors and coast, to the exceptional light and vibrancy of Cornish summers.
Emma Whitelock: Depicting land and seascapes
“Using acrylic with
mixed media, I build layers that evolve intuitively to create textured,
semi-abstract works, where I aim to transport the viewer to wild places,” says
Emma.
Her use of colour is both dramatic and ethereal, often giving the
works the feeling of being poised on the borderline between day and night. “They
are charged moments, filled with remembrances past and possibilities for
the future,” she says.
One of Emma’s paintings, featuring a seagull, was used by York
Settlement Community Players for artwork for Helen Wilson’s production of Anton
Chekhov’s The Seagull at the York Theatre Royal Studio earlier this year. Head
to emmawhitelock.co.uk for more info.
Peter Donohoe: Exploring the relationship between two people
Peter Donohoe, sculpture
PETER’S sculptures explore
the relationship between two people, friends, lovers, real or imagined.
Having graduated from
Leeds College of Art in 1969 with an honours degree in sculpture, he worked in
mainstream theatre and the museum display industry as a prop maker and
commercial sculptor. This gave him a broad experience of both materials and
technique.
Peter Donohoe has developed an alternative approach to figurative sculpture
In 2005, he left full-time
employment to concentrate on his personal work and to develop an alternative
approach to figurative sculpture.
His sculptures are in
hand worked copper, patinated and mounted on stone. Visit his website at
peterdonohoe.co.uk.
Showgirl memoirs: Katy Owen, left, Etta Murfitt and Gareth Snook in Wise Children. Pictures: Steven Tanner
YORK Theatre Royal’s co-production of Angela Carter’s Wise
Children, made with Emma
Rice’s company Wise Children and The Old Vic, is now available to stream on BBC
iPlayer.
Adapted and directed by Rice, ever-innovative former artistic
director of Cornish company Kneehigh Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe in London,
the show marked the debut of her new Bristol company.
Wise Children was co-produced with The Old Vic, London, where the world premiere opened in 2018, Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, Oxford Playhouse and York Theatre Royal.
In March 2019, a performance of Rice’s exuberantly impish,
musical vision of Carter’s last novel was filmed live at the York theatre with
support from The Space.
The 138-minute play will be streamed for free for two months
on BBC iPlayer as part Culture In Quarantine, the BBC’s arts and culture
service to “keep the arts alive in people’s homes”. A screening on BBC 4 in May
will be confirmed at a later date.
Billed as a big, bawdy tangle
of theatrical joy and pain, Wise Children is a celebration of show business,
family, forgiveness and hope as Nora and Dora Chance, twin chorus girls
born and bred south of the river, celebrate their 70th birthday in Brixton.
Wise Children artistic director Emma Rice
Across the river in Chelsea, their father and greatest actor of his
generation, Melchior Hazard, turns 100, on the same day. As does his twin
brother Peregrine. If, in fact, he is still alive. And if, in truth, Melchior
is their real father after all.
“When I set up Wise Children, I knew I would open with an
adaptation of Wise Children after calling the company that name, presenting Angela
Carter’s open love letter to theatre in all its aspects, its power and glories,”
said Rice.
“I was a great fan of Angela Carter in my 20s. She has had a magical
impact on people’s lives; she’s breath-taking in allowing the unimaginable to
happen, so we fit together well!”
To create her adaptation, Rice read Carter’s novel, then wrote down the story or “what I remember of it”, she said. “I then started working on it with the actors, using their collective imaginations, so that they can pass on their own experiences in theatre.”
Rice has a track record for picking unconventional casts, typically so
for Wise Children. “The actors I’m drawn to over and over again, and the
way I tell stories, reflect how I always like to open up to diversity, expanding
on my own experiences of humanity, especially in these polarised times, by
looking at people who have had different experiences to your own,” she
reasoned.
Against the 2019 backdrop of so much drabness, division, enmity and
lost hope, Rice was determined to champion showbusiness, family, forgiveness
and hope. “They represent a lot of my life,” she said. “When I
talk of family, I mean not only blood family, but how we connect as
humans.”
Emma Rice’s company Wise Children in Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers at York Theatre Royal last September
Now, Rice is delighted that Wise Children is being streamed from this
week on BBC iPlayer amid the Coronavirus lockdown. “I dreamt about adapting
Angela Carter’s Wise Children for years before it became a reality, and, when I
finally did make it, it was the first piece I made for my new company,” she says.
“It’s a show I carry deep in my heart; a love letter to theatre, to
survival, to family and family of choice. When The Space commissioned us to
film it for the BBC, I almost burst with pride!
“I delight in the fact that we now get to share this glorious story
with so many others, and hope that the fun, truth, love and generosity poured
into it will find its way into sitting rooms across the country.”
Reflecting on Wise Children being part of the BBC’s Culture In Quarantine programming, Rice says: “What feels even more perfect is that we’re releasing it now. Today, more than ever, we need joy, resilience, hope and love of life, which runs through the veins of Wise Children. As Nora and Dora Chance tell us: ‘What a joy it is to dance and sing!’. Never has this been more true. We hope you enjoy.”
Last September, Rice and Wise Children returned to York Theatre Royal
for a second co-production, Enid Blyton’s “original post-war Girl Power story, the naughty, nostalgic
and perfect for now” Malory Towers: her “happy Lord Of The Flies”, as Rice called
it.
Wise Children and the Theatre Royal are
to complete a hattrick of collaborations in 2021, this time in tandem with the
National Theatre for Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.
The butterfly effect: Emma Rice’s Wise Children company in Angela Carter’s Wise Children
Charles Hutchinson’s review of Wise Children at York Theatre Royal, March 2019. Copyright of The Press, York.
IMAGINE a Victorian
vaudeville troupe or a circus travelling across Europe picking up performers,
musicians, speciality acts, en route.
It would look not
unlike Emma Rice’s new Wise Children company, set up since she left the
artistic directorship of Shakespeare’s Globe and more in keeping with her 20
years leading Cornish company Kneehigh.
Do not take it the
wrong way when I say Rice’s Wise Children are a modern-day freak show, not in
the overt manner of the Circus of Horrors, but in how Rice celebrates, liberates
and embraces beauty in all forms: a message for this age of Brexit intolerance
for “outsiders” and fashion magazine photo-shopped
“perfection”.
Vicki Mortimer’s design
echoes circus in its lighting, while the set is dominated by a caravan, again
recalling travelling troupes in Rice’s adaptation of Angela Carter’s last
novel: a “celebration of showbusiness, family, forgiveness and hope”
that receives a big, bold, bouncy, exuberant, darkly imaginative, saucy
interpretation.
Opening on the 75th
birthday of The Lucky Chances, Brixton showgirl twins Nora and Dora Chance,
Rice’s hyper-production jumps around in time to tell their life story.
On the way she
employs puppetry; glorious live music; theatrical in-jokes; old Bob Monkhouse
and Max Miller gags; Shakespeare quotes; much mischief making, scabrous scandal
and mistaken identities; men playing women, women playing men, and multiple
versions of the same character at different ages.
YORK Open
Studios 2020, the chance to meet 144 artists at 100 locations over two April
weekends, has been cancelled in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However,
with doors sadly shut for the April 17 to 19 and April 25 to 26 event,
CharlesHutchPress wants to champion the creativity of York’s artists and
makers, who would have been showcasing their ceramics, collage, digital,
illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, sculpture
and textiles skills.
Each day,
in brochure order, five artists who now miss out on the exposure of Open
Studios will be given a pen portrait on these pages, because so much art and
craft will have been created for the event and still needs a new home.
Addresses will not be included at this time.
Meanwhile,
York Open Studios artists are finding their own way to respond to the shutdown
by filling their windows with their work instead. Look for #openwindowsyork2020 to locate them.
“If you see one in your area while taking your daily exercise, take a picture
and let us know,” they say.
Fiona Kemp: Depicting northern cities
Fiona Kemp, painting
FIONA’S paintings and
prints depict northern cities, wherein she finds unusual perspectives and uses reflections
as a device to encourage viewers to reassess their surroundings.
“I’m interested in the
decay and renewal of urban spaces,” says Fiona, who employs diverse media, such
as watercolour, acrylic, lino-print and etching.
“My work records the
changing face of the city environment: the demolition, the re-building, the
restoration and the altered skylines. I’m fascinated by the transient moments
where reflections shimmer and fracture in the windows, puddles and canals.”
York Minster Reflections, by Fiona Kemp
She continues: “The distortions
and blurring created in this way create a mysterious and unusual view of these
everyday scenes. At dusk, the scene transforms into an explosion of lights and
colour.”
Fiona studied fine art in Sheffield, later gaining an MA in printmaking from
Bradford College, and has exhibited at Saltaire Open Houses, Bradford
Industrial Museum, Sheffield University and Tokarska Gallery, London.
Since moving to York, she has started a series of paintings of the city that
would have featured in her York Open Studios debut. Find out more at
fiona2349@gmail.com.
Almond Tree, by Chris Whittaker
Chris Whittaker, painting
CHRIS is a polymath:
artist, poet, writer, cartoonist and former art lecturer, who managed further
education colleges in Cheshire and Yorkshire.
Once the
head of the
School of Design in Scarborough, he started painting in earnest after he
retired. Now he paints in the mountains of southern Spain, where he has a house
in a remote village, and draws in studios in York, where he is a member of
several drawing groups. He spends roughly half his year in each place.
He favours using a wide range of media in his drawings of
rural landscapes, personalised still lives and scenes of York and Spain, his
art marked by a bold and fluid style.
Chris Whittaker: Started painting in earnest once he retired
Chris, who trained at
Manchester School of Art in the 1960s and later attended university in London
and Leeds, says:
“For me, drawing is a focus, a way of looking at the world so as to translate a
confusing array of surfaces into marks on paper.
“Other artists remark that I look as if I am ‘fencing the
canvas’. Working on a large drawing or painting is certainly an intense
experience and quite physical. Even after all my years of experience, an
evening’s drawing will leave me drained, triumphant or disappointed.”
2020 would have been his first year as a York Open Studios
artist. Take a look at goggleme.co.uk instead.
An abstract geometric piece of jewellery by Laura Masheder
Laura Masheder, jewellery
LAURA trained originally as a classical singer, attending Leeds
College of Music, and left to raise a family and work in catering management
for a decade.
On rekindling her creative ambitions, she studied an Access to
Higher Education course in art and design, leading to her degree studies in contemporary
craft at York College, where she is in her final year.
Laura Masheder in her studio
In her hand-crafted hallmarked silver jewellery, she specialises in chasing and repoussé techniques, while
also experimenting with wax casting and silver clay.
Her jewellery is a mix
of figurative nature studies and abstract geometric pieces, as can be seen at
boochica.com.
Henry Steele relies on his eye to give a sense of aesthetic in his ceramics
Henry Steele, ceramics
A DIAGNOSIS of autism gives Henry an unusual vision of the world
around him. From an early age, he refused to conform to numerical concepts.
Instead, he relies on his eye to give a sense of aesthetic.
In his art, he uses
mixed media, focusing primarily on ceramics. “I’m particularly interested in
ancient manufacturing techniques that favour sustainable methods and I often
employ discarded items as tools for decoration,” he says.
Henry Steele: “Often employs discarded items as tools for decoration “
Through his work, Henry questions the traditional boundaries of
historic styles and fashions, with the intention of prompting the viewer to say
to themselves “what if”, “why not” or even “that’s impossible because”.
Like fellow student Laura Masheder, 2020 was to have been his York Open Studios debut. Contact him via henrygeorgesteele@hotmail.co.uk.
Chunky ceramics: The work of Sarah Papps
Sarah Papps, ceramics
SARAH is in the final year of a contemporary craft degree, where
her primary focus has been on experimenting with form and colour.
In her York Open Studios debut, she would have been exhibiting hand-built and wheel-thrown chunky pots and tableware.
Sarah Papps at the wheel
By compressing and manipulating the clay, her work takes on an
identity of its own, producing a contrast of swirling bright colour against the
depth of clay. Visit sarahlpapps@gmail.com.
TOMORROW: Kate Buckley; Kay Dower; Claire Morris; Emma Whitelock and Peter Donohoe.
YORK Open
Studios 2020, the chance to meet 144 artists at 100 locations over two April
weekends, has been cancelled in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However,
with doors sadly shut for the April 17 to 19 and April 25 to 26 event,
CharlesHutchPress wants to champion the creativity of York’s artists and
makers, who would have been showcasing their ceramics, collage, digital,
illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, sculpture
and textiles skills.
Each day,
in brochure order, five artists who now miss out on the exposure of Open
Studios will be given a pen portrait on these pages, because so much art and
craft will have been created for the event and still needs a new home.
Addresses will not be included at this time.
Meanwhile,
York Open Studios artists are finding their own way to respond to the shutdown
by filling their windows with their work instead. Look for #openwindowsyork2020 to locate them.
“If you see one in your area while taking your daily exercise, take a picture
and let us know,” they say.
A textile work by Caroline Utterson
Caroline Utterson, textiles
CAROLINE combines her two great loves, photography and fabric, in creating one-off embroidered, appliquéd and felted artworks influenced as much by her imagination as by the landscape around her.
After graduating from university with a degree in textiles, she
worked for North Yorkshire Police for eight years before travelling to Thailand
to teach English.
On her return, using the tools she had to hand, Caroline taught
herself freehand machine embroidery, a craft she likens to drawing with a
sewing machine.
“The environment is important to me, so I use many recycled fabrics in my work,” says Caroline Utterson
“I’m greatly inspired by animals, nature, my northern roots and my love of travel and photography,” she says. “Forever taking photos of anything that catches my eye, I then convert my pictures into textile artworks, using fabrics, buttons, beads and bits that I have collected over the years. The environment is important to me, so I use many recycled fabrics in my work.”
Caroline launched her It’s Cute textile shop in September 2013. “The name was coined as a result of a happy acronym of my name and what I do: Caroline Utterson Textiles and Embroidery,” she says.
She would have been participating
in York Open Studios for the first time this month. Contact her via itscuteshop@yahoo.com.
Furniture maker Marcus Jacka
Marcus Jacka, wood
MARCUS specialises in
furniture and objects in wood, usually practical, sometimes only for
contemplation.
After many years
studying, teaching and researching in Physics, he has, for the past decade,
been a full-time woodworker.
The common thread is
design and experimentation, in thought, process and materials, as Marcus tries
to achieve a spare lightness in what he creates. For more info, go to
marcusjacka.com.
RUTH’S slab-built pots
explore structure, containment and balance, articulated and enhanced by the
passage of vapours in the final salt-glaze firing.
Trained at Camberwell School of Arts and Craft, she moved to York after four years living and working in London. A leading figure in York’s art world, with books to her name too, she is a member of the York Art Workers Association and a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association.
Ruth KIng in her studio
Unexpected yet hauntingly familiar, Ruth’s distinctive ceramic vessels have been exhibited widely and are represented in the collections of York Art Gallery; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh; Royal Ulster Museum, Belfast; Nottingham Castle Museum and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent.
Her work is available by commission, through exhibitions, at onlineceramics.com and the Contemporary Ceramics Centre, London. More details can be found at ruthkingceramics.com.
Elaine Hughes: Collages occupying the imaginary, whimsical world of Oh Golly Gosh
Elaine Hughes, collage
ELAINE creates stitched collages using vintage papers and ephemera to depict scenes from an imaginary, whimsical world she calls “Oh Golly Gosh”.
The paper is first coloured and manipulated with a variety of techniques to then illustrate an imaginary patchwork scene.
The text and graphics of old printed papers, along with a love of the character of old buildings and boats, provide inspiration.
“I have a love of the quirky vernacular buildings found in market and seaside towns, as well as ancient cities such as York,” Elaine says. “The charms of bygone eras of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s also play an important part in the aesthetic language of the work.
“Creating patina and pattern”: Elaine Hughes’s collage work
“I use text, fonts and graphics from vintage ephemera, such as old tram tickets, maps and dress-making patterns, to create patina and patterns.”
Elaine, a graduate in embroidery from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2001, has exhibited in galleries across Britain and since launching her Oh Golly Gosh label in 2009, her work has made its way to homes around the world, as well as finding a permanent home in The Written Gallery in York. Take a look at ohgollygosh.co.uk.
Mick Leach’s paintings take inspiration from Russian artists El Lissitzky and Maleyich
Mick Leach, painting
AS a self-taught artist and full-time worker, Mick’s side-career in painting has been taking shape steadily since early 2016.
He works mainly with acrylic paint and chalk powder, along with other media, that he applies to MDF board to achieve a layered, industrial aesthetic in his abstract paintings.
He draws inspiration from El Lissitzky, the Russian artist, designer, photographer, typographer, polemicist and architect, and Kazemir Malevich, the pioneering fellow Russian avant-garde artist and art theorist.
MIck Leach: geometric composition
“My work aims to abstract the modern, decaying landscape with textures and geometric composition,” says Mick, who won the 2019 Art& York Best Raw Talent award.
Last May to July, he took part in Pyramid Gallery’s Abstract Paintings exhibition; this month would have seen his York Open Studios debut. Check out mickleach.art.
TOMORROW: Fiona Kemp; Chris Whittaker; Laura Masheder, Sarah Papps and Henry Steele.
The tour poster for Rufus Wainwright’s Unfollow The Rules show at York Barbican
RUFUS Wainwright will follow the summer release of his new album
Unfollow The Rules with an autumn tour booked into York Barbican for October 27.
The American-Canadian baroque, operatic and indie pop singer-songwriter
was the first guest for the Royal Albert Hall’s free special isolation
sessions, #RoyalAlbertHome, last night.
Out on BMG on July 10, the typically fearless,
mischievous and honest Unfollow The Rules will be Wainwright’s ninth studio
album and his first set of new compositions since Out Of The Game in 2012.
“I consider Unfollow The Rules my first fully mature album,”
says Rufus, 46-year-old son of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle. “It
is like a bookend to the beginning of my career.”
“I consider Unfollow The Rules my first fully mature album,” says Rufus Wainwright. Picture: Tony Hauser
Wainwright will be joined on the road by a new band, featuring Los Angeles
guitarist and producer Brian Green, who has worked previously with John Legend,
and Phoenix singer-songwriter and keyboardist Rachel Eckroth,
erstwhile collaborator with KT Tunstall.
Looking forward to performing a setlist of Wainwright old and new post-Lockdown,
Rufus says: “For me, thinking about this tour is like a light at the end of
this dark tunnel that we are all in together. It gives me hope and confidence
that we will rise above this collectively.
“And while it might seem that we are not moving forward swiftly in this
dark long tunnel, I know that we will reach the light again and be able to be
together. I cannot wait to be part of that moment for my fans and share this
music live with them.”
Tickets for Rufus Wainwright: Unfollow The Rules at York Barbican go on sale on April 17 at 10am at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
No Joker: York Barbican’s film screening with an orchestra has been cancelled
MEANWHILE, York Barbican has announced that Joker: Live In Concert on May 17 is off.
“It is with great disappointment that we can confirm our Joker: Live in Concert performance will no longer go ahead due to the COVID-19 outbreak,” the Barbican statement said. “All tickets will be refunded, and please contact your point of purchase if you have any questions.”
The show would have have featured Todd Phillips’s award-laden film being accompanied by an orchestra performing Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score live to build a “vivid, visceral and entirely new Joker viewing experience”.
Stile Antico: Taking steps to play Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival in 2021. Picture: Marco Borggreve
THE 2020 Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival is off…until
next year.
The postponed event will now take place over the Bank Holiday weekend of
May 28 to 30 2021, with many of this year’s artists already re-booked for next
spring.
“The good news is that Stile Antico, La Serenissima, Alva, Matthew
Wadsworth – sadly not Julia Doyle, but I’ll work on a ‘new’ soloist – David
Neave and Vivien Ellis have all been able to work with us to re-create the
festival next year,” says festival director Dr Delma Tomlin.
They will be joined by others yet to be announced. “All will be working to re-create the festival and to open up new opportunities to be involved,” says Delma.
“Our festival team has already begun the huge task of re-booking tickets
for next year and issuing refunds. They are asking for patrons to bear with
them at this difficult time as they work through hundreds of requests,
processing re-bookings and refunds as quickly as possible.”
“Given the current circumstances, postponement will not be a surprise,” says Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival director Dr Delma Tomlin
Explaining the decision, in light of the Coronavirus pandemic, Delma says: “Regretfully, we have had to take the heart-breaking decision to postpone the festival until next year. We would like to thank our audiences for their continued support.
“Given the current circumstances, postponement will not be a surprise, but we know how disappointing it is for our audiences and supporters; for the many school children who would have been involved with our Vivaldi extravaganza, and of course, for the artists themselves.”
Delma continues: “Hopefully, the postponement is better news than ‘just’ a cancellation. So, we look forward to seeing you again as soon as possible: in Beverley in May 2021, if not before.
“I would also like to say a huge thank-you to the East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Arts Council for their continuing support, which has made all the difference to the artists involved and has helped secure next year’s festival.”
La Serenissima: Now Beverley bound in 2021 rather than 2020. Picture: Eric Richmond
Beverley Early Music Festival began in 1988 and takes place every year
in the churches and historical buildings of the East Yorkshire’s market town,
where the festival weekend comprises performances, walks, talks and workshops.
Meanwhile, the National Centre for Early Music, in York, is helping to
keep music alive “at this critical time” by broadcasting concerts from its
archive online. “To enjoy the concerts, visit ncem.co.uk and click on to the link in the news section
marked NCEM Facebook page,” says Dema, the NCEM’s director. “Concerts are free
and a Facebook account is not needed.”
Confirmed concerts at Beverley and East Riding Early Music Festival 2021:
Stile Antico: Friday, May 28 2021, 7.30pm, Beverley Minster. Choral Workshop with members of Stile Antico: Saturday, May 29,
10am, Toll Gavel United Church. Alva: Saturday, May 29, 12.30pm, St Mary’s Church. Ballad Walk: In and around Beverley Minster: Saturday, May 29, 4pm. La Serenissima: Saturday, May 29, 7.30pm, St Mary’s Church. Ballad Walk: It All happened In Beverley: Sunday, May 30, 10am. Ballad Walk: In and around Beverley Minster: Sunday, May 30, 1pm, Matthew Wadsworth: Sunday, May 30, 7pm, St James’s Church, Warter.
