Drawn to Witness

16-29 May
Memorial Art Gallery
7 Cambridge Rd, Hastings TN34 1DJ

Felling Hollington Valley_ Emily Johns11062716_616500045116602_604396006355195354_n1913861_721319487967990_6286718992141980999_n

I have been drawing the changes in Hollington Valley nature reserve over the last year, from the end of one winter to the end of the next, as a struggle takes place between Seachange Sussex, Hastings Council and environmental campaigners about the building of another road. Not your idyllic Spring Watch in a Sussex bluebell wood but an observation of the processes that drive out protected species to prepare the land for tarmac. The drawing is a record of place, an act of witness of a heavy footprint, a capturing of spirit; it bears an imprint of conversations with local walkers, security guards, and residents of Emmaus.

See news report in Hastings Observer of how to draw surrounded by security guards

St Leonards Edgelands

st leonards edgelands WP_20160216_16_27_12_Pro

‘St Leonards Edgelands’ is a print installation, part of Point of Decay, made for the launch event of Coastal Currents Arts Festival in Bottle Alley, St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex, curated by Zeroh.

Bottle Alley runs along the southernmost edge of St Leonards and has decayed physically and socially since it was built in the 1930s. The images of caryatids and incident tape tie the coastal edge of the town to its northern edgeland, Hollington Valley nature reserve, which has been until a couple of months ago a home to animal, plant and human populations. Now it has been felled to make way for a road, two roundabouts and industrial estates. Edgelands are full of riches of one sort and another. Biodiversity or ‘development’ potential epnding upon your perspective. A legal challenge to preserve the northern edgeland has been launched. The prints on the southern edgeland decayed, peeled, and have now been removed.

 

Victor Hugo

NEW BOOK

Victor Hugo’s wonderful long poem The Big Story of the Lion was written for his grandchildren. It has been newly translated by Timothy Adès and illustrated by Emily Johns. This thick concertina book published by Hearing Eye is available from Inpress for £6.

Drawing Paradise exhibition in Sussex

Emily Johns travelled to Iran in 2006 and again this February on an international peacemaking delegation. She has created an exhibition of lino prints about the history of British/Iranian relations over the last century – tobacco, tutus, coups and chemical weapons.

Drawing Paradise on the ‘Axis of Evil’  4 – 17 July

Hastings Arts Forum 36 Marina, St Leonards on Sea, TN38 0BU Preview: Friday, July 05 at 6:30 – 8:30pm

www.drawingparadise.org

Accompanying events:

Thursday 4 July 7.30pm: The Cow, Iranian film hosted by St Leonards Film Society

Thursday 11 July 11:00am: Artist’s talk
7.30pm: A Separation, Iranian film hosted by St Leonards Film Society

Saturday 13 July 12:00am – 2:00pm: Printmaking and stories for children age 8-12yrs

Sunday 14 July 2:30pm: Iranian film and discussion hosted by St Leonards Film Society

Tuesday 16 July 7:00pm – 9:00pm: “The Rose and the Nightingale” a Persian Divan with divine refreshments. Bring Persian poetry to share. Donations welcome. Stephen Watts will be reading his translations of Ziba Karbassi, also two very fine  poets Reza Baraheni & Esmail Kh’oi. Krysia Mansfield and Las Pasionaras will be singing her new composition composed for the exhibition. Sufi stories told by Ariane Hadjilias. Rumi performed by Fari Bradley.

 

Geographies of War

The North Lodge at UCL, Gower Street. 18-27 March 2013

An exhibition at University College London. Website link here

This exhibition explores how artists with diverse practices and perspectives experienced the invasion and occupation of Iraq and how they responded to it by engaging with questions of space, place, landscape and territory.

Bringing together artists from Iraq and Britain, it shows six works that give material form to the violence, anxiety and ruin of war but which also raise questions about resistance, resilience and dreams of peace. Opening in the week of the tenth anniversary of the invasion, the exhibition presents alternative perspectives on the conflict and challenges our ways of seeing war.

Review

In Trebuchet Magazine

Event
Beyond the Geographies of War: Exploring Art and Peace

UCL Department of Geography, Pearson Building, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT 11am-4pm,
27th March 2013

Introduction
Questions of geography – of space, place, home, environment, landscape and territory – are a recurring theme in the responses of artists to war. But how do they figure in the relationship between art and peace? How can we understand the role that spatial practices and spatial themes play in creating peace as well as in articulating resistance to war and violence? This workshop will explore these questions with reference to the Iraq war but also branch out to consider the relationship between geography, art and peace more broadly. With talks by artists Rashad Selim and Emily Johns and academic Bernadette Buckley (Goldsmiths, University of London), and touching on issues of oil, water and ecology as well as politics and war, the workshop provides an opportunity to reflect on how art, activism and critical spatial practices can inform one another.

 

Eternal Fires – the play

The Eternal Fires

A play by Ron Meldon– entitled Eternal Fire – inspired by my picture The Eternal Fires from the Conscious OIl series is to be performed at the Grand Theatre, Swansea, as part of the Lunchtime Theatre series. These are premieres of one-act plays by local writers – no more than one hour long. The performance date is Saturday 30th March. Here’s the Grand Theatre link
And the Fluellen Company have also put a teaser for that production on their web-site. Here’s the link….