Wysing Arts Center, Cambridge

    

Wysing Arts Centre

The Wysing Arts Centre situated in the Cambridgeshire countryside is a fascinating visit. It is a charitable trust for artists and the centre's aim is, 'to provide alternative environments and structures for artistic research, experimentation, discovery and production'. The site is set over 11 acres and includes a gallery, educational facilities, artists' studios, a recording studio and ceramics studio, a 17th century farmhouse, outdoor sculpture, and a café.  Lotte Juul Petersen (Artists and Programmes Curator) and John Eng Kiet Bloomfield (Assistant Curator) introduced the MA Fine Art group to the Art Centre's programme of events and provided an informative tour of the site and current exhibition. 

        

'Amphis', 2008
Folke Kobberling
and Martin Kaltwasser

'Amphis'is an artistic amphitheatre constructed by Berlin based artists Folke Kobberling and Martin Kaltwasser working alongside volunteers and using only discarded and reclaimed materials. The playful, ramshackle, ad hoc construction is a sculptural makeshift hideaway, reminiscent of an allotment or woodland dwelling. The combination of a multitude of recycled woods, doors and windows together with the craftsmanship gave this eclectic communal building a sense of shared purpose and artistry. Regularly the building houses  festivals, performances, meetings and exhibitions and its quirky aesthetic is ideal for creative happenings. 

'more of an avalanche', 2018 

'More of an avalanche' is the Wysing's first exhibition of 2018 which presents the work created, researched or discussed at the centre under the theme of Polyphonic (many voices) by the following artists: Helen Cammock, Ilker Cinarel, Jesse Darling, Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, Juliet Jacques, Isaac Julien, Carolyn Lazard, Zinzi Minott, The Newsreel Collective, Harold Offeh, Raju Rage, S1 Portland/Women's Beat League, Syllabus III and Liv Wynter. This engaging exhibition considers "what it takes for people in marginalised positions to speak out and the mechanisms that get used to stop them from doing so."        

http://www.wysingartscentre.org/whats_on/exhibitions/more_of_an_avalanche

The Cornishman Newspaper article
 2015

Adopting A Father (2015-), Ilker Cinarel. 

Adopting A Father (2015-) by Ilker Cinarel is a project conceived by the artist in response to the years of absence and ultimately the death of his own father in 2007. The artist placed an advert in the Cornishman newspaper and on social media platforms to recruit participants to become a substitute father for this project. Volunteers were invited to the Engine Room Gallery in Penzance for a portrait sitting and discussion on family and fatherhood. The project is presented  through a collection of 25 colour photographic portraits plus a poignant,singular shot of an empty chair. The artwork powerfully draws in the viewer to discern and appraise the relational interactions between the father (volunteer participant) and son (Ilker Cinarel). 

The artist describes the lack of intimacy he shared with his own father, together with the lack of documentation of the 'queer son' and father together in family photographic albums. The project was instigated through the artist's desire to build the "best family snaps with adoptive fathers which can fill the empty places in the photograph album." (Cinarel, 2017) 

The accompanying self-published book by the artist describes in more detail the volunteers' memories of their own fathers. For image 'Father no: XX' the participant shockingly reveals the violent actions endured;

"Him teaching me how to set the knife and fork at the dinner table. I got them the wrong way round - and he hit me. I changed them around - and he hit me again (Pavlov's dog springs to mind).... 

I walked in the room with a CND badge on my shirt. He punched me full in the face without warning and I hit the opposite wall (he was a boxing champion in the army!)"

Father no: XX

The staid, conservative pose with the father proprietorially holding the son's shoulders with a besmirched expression hints at the underlying tension between them. The conflicting reticence observed in the son's expression is at odds with his strained pose. One hand grips the armrest, the other is placed casually on one knee, one foot placed behind and the other placed flat for leverage suggesting  a hostage's need to flee. The sitter is metaphorically restrained by his father, creating a palpable oppressive aesthetic. 

http://ilkercinarel.com

'Housefire ' (2018)
Liv Wynter 

Liv Wynter's, Housefire (2018), "considers the absurdity and fatigue of constantly having to speak out." The installation work references  Aesop's fable of the "Boy Who Cried Wolf" and  Marx's quote about "history repeating itself first as tragedy, then as farce".  The large armchair invites the  spectator centre stage and view the powerful footage of a house fire subtitled with a monologic recount from the position of a woman whose house burns down repeatedly. The intensity of Wynter's   artwork is transformed exponentially through a multi screen configuration and the crumpled remnants of a synthetic curtain at the foot of the chair suggest the item's culpability. Surrounded by the multi-screen action makes for an intense and immersive viewing experience. 

http://www.livwynterartist.co.uk