#verity birt

[annafcsmith]

The Bacchae: And In Their Companies Deep Wine-jars Stand, Forever and Anon. 2017

Mixed media sculpture and digital video.

The Bacchae are five singing sculptures, simultaneously ancient wine jars and contemporary disco balls inspired by the specific setting of The Bowling Green pub in Wigan and its regular karaoke nights. Developed with the regular patrons of the night and the pub’s landlady, Nancy Jones, who donated videos they filmed on their phones to the artist. The work posits overlooked spaces of celebration, intoxication and community within our present time as worthy contenders for speculative futures. The videos sit within the open mouths of the character jugs singing karaoke and engaging in jubilant revelry. The jugs are made from bright, glittering fabrics that evoke the costumes of party goers as well as referring to the maenads, female followers of wine cults in Ancient Greece often depicted on pottery, who wore animal skins around their shoulders on the occasion of their ecstatic full-moon ritual gatherings. They are lit by disco lights which cast their light throughout the exhibition and produce an atmosphere synonymous with communal festivity and the Greek concept of kephi - the energy of joy and passion.

These works were developed for the project: Our House of Common Weeds

Res. Enclave 1-3, 50 Resolution Way, London SE8 4AL

Exhibition open 28 October – 25 November 2017, Wed-Sat 12-6pm or by appointment

Friday 27 October 6-9pm preview feat. performance by Alys North + afterparty 9-11pm with DJ set by Bizarro World Friday 24 November 6-11pm closing event feat. performance by Carl Gent + karaoke with live link-up to The Bowling Green pub in Wigan

Verity Birt (London, UK), Fourthland (London, UK), Carl Gent (London, UK), Anna FC Smith (Wigan, UK), Andrea Williamson (Montreal, Canada). Curated by Nathalie Boobis

Our House of Common Weeds is a group exhibition curated by Nathalie Boobis for Res. featuring new work by artists Verity Birt, Fourthland, Carl Gent, Anna FC Smith & Andrea Williamson. It is the result of an eighteen month process of collaborative research into knowledge and ideas ravaged in the path of progress but still latent within stories, rituals, our bodies and the landscape. The artworks within Our House of Common Weeds suggest a constellation of other possible futures built with the disenfranchised wisdom from the realms of female, folk and indigenous cultures, prehistory, the ‘irrational’ and the non-human.

The forms of collaboration through which each artist has developed their ideas are directly reflective of the content of the work. Verity Birt’s sound, video and sculptural pieces exploring feminine mythologies, collectivity and prehistoric rock art have been realised through vocal workshops with Newcastle-based women’s choir, SHE, at Lordenshaw Channel and Roughting Lynn, Neolithic sites in Northumberland. Carl Gent’s folkloric well sculpture is the result of long term research into the fictions and mythologies of the Mercian Queen Cynethryth, the Victorian explorer Kate Marsden and conversations with the storytelling duo, Sheaf+Barley. Fourthland’s installation evoking a domestic scenario of matriarchal reign results from workshops with Xenia, an English language and friendship group for migrant women learning English and English-speaking women in Hackney, London. Anna FC Smith’s festive sculpture, video and sound work on the collective potential of communal intoxication, singing and revelry has been developed in collaboration with regular karaoke-goers at The Bowling Green pub in Wigan and its landlady Nancy Jones. Andrea Williamson’s large scale watercolour and pencil dreamscapes are developed in collaboration with the public archive of Canadian endangered species and the online dream-sharing community, r/Dreams.

The works in the exhibition bear traces of lived experience that the artists have identified as potent ingredients for other possible futures. Our House of Common Weeds proposes the aesthetic experience of the artworks as a set of tools for activating disenfranchised knowledge and interrupting the singular version of the future that is currently unfolding.

A limited edition zine featuring aspects of the research process, an essay by the curator and contributions by each of the exhibiting artists will be available to buy from Res. at the opening and throughout the duration of the exhibition.

www.commonweeds.xyz

[ephillipsresearch]

BLOC PROJETCS HARSH LIGHT- NOTES The concluding webinar of our December installment will welcome artists Verity Birt and Una Hamilton, and researcher Dr Edwin Coomasaru in conversation. Variously working on gender, British identity, folklore and the occult, the speakers will be reflecting on the “E” of ACE—Arts Council England—and that which constitutes “Englishness”. The conversation will self-reflexively think through these English textures and their adoption in sub cultural contexts, including white supremacist narratives of “blood and soil” nativism, as well as feminist and black metal re-inscriptions of a more ecologically entangled landscape.

Question – how the occult has shaped their respective ideas of myth landscape and English identity

Verity Birt - reading ridley walker- inspiration, novel written by russel hoborn, imagining post apocalyptic future in the dark ages, written in phonetic language, returning to an oral history- did a residency in Newcastle with newbridge project, running experimental workshops at prehistoric sites with a community choir – thinking about how features of the landscape impact improvisation – what can happen when you allow for more imaginative and experimental exchange with these sites installation at black tower projects mapped through memory, dream space, tracing the contour lines of the space, exploring the notion of giving/receiving from the landscape - ceramic offerings – recreated the channel in ceramic, vaginal shape references strong feminine energy- workshop not directly documented. – choreographed performances in space in the summer equinox 2019 performance looking at deep time/ fragments of lineages, evolution, how they are continued and transmitted, questioning enlightenment, theory of time as progress – battersea pleasure gardens – live improvised performance to text piece a mash of feminist theory, myth, fiction, archeology uncommon ground – attempt to confront dark side of mythology within the English psyche – white horse stone kent- during research came across white supremacist group that used to guard the site- 2 chanel video – follows icon of the white horse and its relation to alt white narratives and history in mythology – also included fragments of conversions with ethan d white about alt right pagan rituals and beliefs at these sites – anglo saxon mythology Una Hamilton helle - 2009/10 – makes work in landscape, place, nature and how we encode them with our own theories and experiences – the lay archive, ‘after math’ or ‘trauma’ photography- events can linger on in places and can you capture this through camera, looking at political troubles in Ireland. Attempt to explore what could be captured on camera, lay lines connecting places of worship etc, energy lines, ufo sightings, can you capture any of this in images? Short film   the return from Annwn, 2015, inspired by sci-fi and the English landscape. Sacred sites, mound burials, paces of energy, becoming the forest- long term art project interrogating sense of belonging what is heritage, connecting with the landscape - looked to black metal genre that uses landscapes/ Nordic aesthetics – looking at how topography and environments influence people – short stories about black metalists worshipping spruce trees - zine , becoming the forest to explore those ideas more critically, - commissioned essays about the topic from different political, cultural and scientific perspectives commissioned by waltham and epping forest to do installation that looked at epping forest as the peoples forest, and how human narratives have shaped the forest – workshops, performance

Dr Edwin coomasaru Complicated relationship to concept of Englishness 2018 – research driven by questions of ‘why has occult imagery become so importanct for feminist art and activism? What might this renewed interest in the supernatural from across the political spectrum tell us about the current crisis of British identity, shaped by colonial narratives, enlightened Europeans spreading rational modernity while committing oppression murder and theft 18/19 – courtold project on politics of gender and race in brexit visual culture – interested in the way artists responded to issue of irish border in eu negotiations – rita duffy collabed with women of both sides of irish border to create installation that straddled the border – knitted votive figures on the black line bridge – image above from derry 10 exhibition Kerry powell Williams on tarot, held supernatural performance on walker plinth, looked at history of somerset house – building once hq for royal navy and hmrc, all implicated in histories of empire increased interest in supernaturalism a response to corporate wellness culture, welfare state cutbacks and precarious employment – as feminist and anti racist activism surged in 2010, so did far right extremist, brexit articulated and exacerbate crisis of British identity, colonial/rational/modern narratives against those considered supernatural, other or primitive, created conceptual binary between magic and science 1876,eng traveler William h Dixon –‘ if we wish to see order and freedom , science and civilization preserved, we should give first thought to what improves the white mans growth and increase the white man’s strength - gina rippons gendered brain – challenged idea that science was ever neutral or objective, it s all implicated with power and projection feminist and anti racist artists are turning to the occult to reclaim/ challenge the myths that underpin patriarchal white supremacy

How do materials beings and sites become co-opted into story and myth? what stories and myths can artists today extract from the land that will forge a path for post Brexit Britain that is inclusive healing and open and how does this approach include a celebration of Englishness.

VB -Turned to the supernatural and tarot as a way of generating hope in a very hopeless situation- the 2008 recession – allows for mystery, imagination and nuance – using tarot to guide the work, relinquish control – don’t see it as a supernatural things, it’s a way of connecting with natural forces, seeing it in a post modern, materialist light

UH – mysticism as opposition to the narratives the nation tells themselves – also retaining a sense of imagination, not buying into protestant work ethic – productivity is everything – found this is in occult theories – trying to understand what we are actually listening to in occult stories and myths- who’s histories are these? DC- family interested in se Asian forms of spirituality , became interested aspects of activist that used the occult as an insult and those that were interested din magic –  bbc article ‘brexit leads to resurgence in tarot’ intense uncertainty about the future and finding ways to narrate a story to the self – there is nobody NOT engaging in magical thinking – storytelling and the ability of narratives to conceptually present the world to us in different ways Vb storytelling – critical awareness of the falsehood of truths, hierarchy of belief and value we assign to certain myths over other revisiting feminist myth making trajectory – how it has shifted between waves, changing ideas of gender, how gender and myth are intertwined, etc  how myths have sedimented in the body – whiteness embodiment  - how can we excavate that? Romanticism of neo paganism – grey areas between liberal left and alt white spaces  

Englishness, an important part of brexit is the tensions between Englishness and brutishness – England drove the vote but Wales also voted leave

VB- looking for line of flight from Englishness- stuck with facing own white Englishness – (not proud of heritage?) coming from rural working class land based peasantry – most family were brexiteers, ideas of people living in different worlds – respective the world view but navigating conversations of black lives matter. Huge disconnect between rural and urban landscape – trying to reconfigure clashes in own identity rural/urban recent work ‘crossings’ about encountering rural landscape after being urbanized

UH– myth of the nation state – disconnect with place? Disenfranchisement – enclosures, uprooting, urbanization, industries disappears – possibilities for community eroded at every corner for a hundred years – what does place/ local place mean? Nobody has that deep rooted relationship with the land anymore?

DC – anxiety about living off the land – spells about butter,- sense of powerlessness and feeling out of control  -the occult has very specific histories and its consciously appropriated

mass displacement in the industrial revolution -

are myths just replaced with others? Everything is myth – there is no objective reality

VB – counter myth making, everything is myth, these are imaginative worlds, capitalism is a shared belief – counter myths – opens up new potentials

the enlightenment was created to enable imperialism and capitalism - how can we generate new worlds that cater to non-conforming folk –modern myths have been generate to support the cis white able man

[turquoiseunchild]

Crossings, Verity Birt (2020)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ig6FOhbFxA

collaging of space-time opened up by camera as technical object

residual mark - Kuprin rings, asserting longstanding presence across the Northumbrian landscape

[journeytothecenterofmyminduk]

WELL PROJECTS @well_projects Exhibition Series: Energy Systems 18 July – 21 November 2020 Online - visit: www.wellprojects.xyz/es Reflecting on recent ecological shifts at both local and global scales, Well Projects 2020 programme ​Energy Systems examines the systems that dominate global infrastructure and the consequences of connectivism under late capitalism, probing correlations between the worldwide drive for connectivity and the emergence of severe environmental rifts. Energy Systems s​eeks to find ways of replacing ‘networks’ oriented capital accumulation and socio environmental exploitation with ‘metabolisms’ which are oriented towards reciprocal models of coexistence. Through collaborative exchanges ​Energy Systems​ has invited artists to explore a new architecture of values and to begin building some stepping stones toward addressing the systemic alienation of the environment, in the hope of changing our relationship with other humans and other entities in this world, from exploitation to solidarity. Energy Systems exists as a series of exhibitions that include both online and offline content curated by Kris Lock, a series of live online events and workshops and a publication with contributions from 25 artists and academics. Participating Artists (exhibitions & events): Verity Birt, Milo Creese, Joachim Coucke, Kyriaki Costa, Sasha Engelmann, Billy Fraser, Lasse Hieronymous Bo​, Tezz Kamoen​, Lou Lou Sainsbury, Hannah Tilson, Jol Thoms, Sissel Marie Tonn & Rosie Grace Ward #wellprojects #krislock #exhibition #talks #series (en Well Projects) https://www.instagram.com/p/CB-dEd4l_ZV/?igshid=14tfrjjmd4qqr

[mrfollowfollow]

lil interview I edited with Tendency Towards and Verity Birt discussing her new exhibition presented by TT being show in Aberdeen, 42 St. Andrews Street until 27th May. 

[ephillipsresearch]

Bibliography

A short bibliography of selected key books, artists and other media. Links can also be found below the relevant blog entries. Key Books Paul Farley , Roberts Symmonds. (2011) Edgelands: Journeys into England's True Wilderness Mark Fischer , Laura Grace Ford, (2019) Savage Messiah Caroline Perez (2018) Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men Blanchard, F. (2019) The Lie of the Land, Milton Keynes Gallery Afua Hirsch (2018) Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging Jini Reddy. (2020) Wanderland John Grindrod. (2017) Outskirts, Living life on the Edge of the Greenbelt Lola Olufemi (2020) Feminism Interrupted Weird Walk Zine , Issue 4, 2021 Nick Hayes, Book of Tresspass, 2020 Key Artists Juliette Losq - https://href.li/?https://www.losq.co.uk/

Laura Grace Ford - Mark Fischer , Laura Grace Ford, (2019) Savage Messiah Kiki Smith  https://www.apollo-magazine.com/kiki-smith-interview/ Benjamin Deakin- https://href.li/?https://drawingroom.org.uk/drawingbiennial2013/drawing/Ben-Deakin_study-for-blanks-in-a-landscape Lewis Chamberlin - https://href.li/?https://www.lewischamberlain.com/drawings-4/y9568aojdk1rqwn8w5qmynca1ccs7c Michal Ziegler - https://href.li/?https://gamingbolt.com/mundaun-interview-art-style-inspirations-development-and-more Ana Mendieta- https://www.vice.com/en/article/gym79y/ana-mendieta-fought-for-womens-rights-and-paid-with-blood https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mendieta-untitled-rape-scene-t13355 https://www.momentabiennale.com/en/artist/ana-mendieta/ Massinissa Selmani https://href.li/?https://massinissa-selmani.com/bio/ Christo & Jeanne Claude https://christojeanneclaude.net/life-and-work/ Catherine Anyango Grunewald (UAL perspectives lecture) Marjolijn Dijkman  https://www.marjolijndijkman.com/?rd_project=theatrum-orbis-terrarum-panorama&lang=en Fay Ballard https://www.fayballard.com/archive-201015-1 Jock Mcfayden https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019 Alexandra Blum http://www.alexblum.co.uk/dalston_notes.html Films/ Videos New Town Utopia (2017) Directed by C.I Smith Nicola Tyson in Conversation  (2021) https://href.li/?https://drawingroom.org.uk/resources/nicola-tyson-in-conversation-with-rebecca-fortnum 4 Bloc Projects (2020) Harsh Light: Verity Birt, Una Hamilton Helle & Dr Edwin Coomasaru : https://www.blocprojects.co.uk/exhibitionsevents/2020/harsh-light-6

[annafcsmith]

Our House of Common Weeds

NewBridge Project, Gateshead. 2018.

The second showing of Our House of Common Weeds.

Verity Birt, Fourthland, Carl Gent, Anna FC Smith, Andrea Williamson

Curated by Nathalie Boobis

Opened 16th Nov 2018.

Round table discussion 17th Nov 2018.

[tractionmagazine]

In the past, fragments of our culture would be lodged between the earth’s strata and preserved there for hundreds of thousands of years, but our current and future artifacts will be suspended in ‘immaterial’ cyber space. I’m sure many of us don’t really know where that is–what does this mean for history?

Verity Birt