SYMPOSIUM: Climate and Biodiversity Emergency
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR SURREY HILLS SYMPOSIUM ‘21
On the 20 October 2021, I became aware of an opportunity seeking volunteers to assist with the upcoming Surrey Hills Symposium concerned with the climate and biodiversity emergency. Ali Clarke, Programme Manager of Surrey Hills arts, was looking for 5 Fine Art students to decorate the space and to welcome delegates into the building. I decided to apply, hoping for a chance to integrate with the wider community on issues of climate emergency from the grounds of an art practice.
What particularly drew my attention was the request to assist artists, Ackroyd and Harvey, with delegates block printing environmental messages onto fabric, T-shirts and canvas bags. My curiosity with Ackroyd and Harvey’s environmental emergency activist standpoint within the art world was a major factor towards my decision to volunteer for the Surrey Hills Symposium. I had recently seen their work Beuys’ Acorns at the Tate Modern. In response to the climate emergency, Ackroyd and Harvey had installed 100 oak trees on Tate Modern’s South Terrace from acorns collected from Beuys original work 7000 Oaks. I am interested in areas of methodology that connect practice with working in nature on a conceptual level and was intrigued to see the manifestation of this idea within the context of a large institutional setting. My immediate response to the work was that it evoked the appearance of a garden nursery. Laid out in a grid with an irrigation system between the pots it is challenging as an artwork in a conventional sense. But the looming exterior and industrial walls of the Tate Modern play the backdrop to the work and initiate a setting where the objects (oak trees) become associated with the heavily loaded nature of the large art institution.
Ackroyd and Harvey
Beuys’ Acorns (2007), Collection of the artists
Helping with the printmaking workstation with Ackroyd and Harvey at the Surrey Hills Symposium ‘21
The activity of printmaking was also a factor towards my decision to volunteer and fitted in with recent experimentation within my practice. To extend the process into the realms of an event, of mark making in the present and promoting an active attitude was exciting. The event did not disappoint, exceeding my expectations. Situated as a part of the symposium, the printmaking event took the process out of the studio and into the public domain. It felt like a vital component that moved the delegates default position from inertia to a position of momentum. Listening to the artists talk about their experiences of art within the context of the climate emergency was infiltrated by printmaking and contributed to a sense of doing. Making decisions around choice of image or slogan, and the pleasure expressed with outcomes was an opportunity to be in direct dialogue with the delegates.
Artists who spoke were Ackroyd and Harvey, Daro Montag, Anna Dumitriu, Will Nash and our UCA (Farnham) MA tutor, Andrea Gregson.
