River is the Venue Project
ABOUT
River is the Venue is an exciting partnership project with 44AD artspace, Art at the Heart of the RUH and research academics at the University of Bath. Funded through the University of Bath Public Engagement Unit, the focus of the research and project is on historical flooding events in Bath. As the project evolves audiences will be exposed to fascinating elements of the River’s history in the City.
The RIV project aims to:
• Engage Local Communities
• Establish Collaborative Activities
• Create A Unique Accessible Arts Trail Situated Along The River Avon
• Inform Ongoing Research on the History of Flooding in the City of Bath
• Exhibit The Artworks And Share The Projects Story
Alongside community workshops and activities, the project has commissioned a series of public artworks by local artists, whose proposed artworks were selected through an open call process.
Congratulations to the five selected artists:
Ross Bennett
Edward Bettella
Edwina Bridgeman
Alyson Minkley
Marc Parrett
Their artworks will create a trail of temporary outside installations/sculptures related to key historical flood sites in the past 200 years. Amongst these, we will be marking the 50th anniversary of the Great Flood of 1968.
The artworks will be presented and designed with a view of their accessibility for all. A website will be available soon. This will be used as an interactive guide and to collect research information, including community stories.
EVENTS
The RiV project and commissioned artworks will feature at the following upcoming events:
Bath Festival of Nature: Sat 2nd June 2018
Green Park, Bath, BA1 1JB
Join Festival of Nature for our 15th birthday as we set sail down the river for another huge celebration of the natural world!
Bath Festival of Nature is a free, wild day out for the whole family, featuring the region’s best-loved wildlife organisations and a chance to explore nature in a heritage park with a stunning riverside location. Create, explore and run wild in the heart of the city with performances, talks, walks and a showcase of hands-on fun from local and national environmental organisations.
Meet the Team RiV research academic (and flooding expert!) Chrysoula Papacharalampou, alongside one of the RiV visual artists Ross Bennett, who will be presenting a series of installation maquettes which explore the geological strata of the river bed.
Creative Bath Summer Party: Thurs 14 June 2018
Queens Square, Bath, Open 6pm - 11pm
Tickets £15 on the door / £10 in advance-available online at:
The Creative Bath Summer Party is an epic shin-dig. Come along, get involved with the creative collective and prepare to enjoy their eclectic festival entertainment. Remember to visit the Team RiV gazebo. Expect to see some of the RiV artists discussing their artworks, soundscapes and some performance relating to the project.
European Researchers Night: Fri 28th Sept 2018
University of Bath
The European Researchers' Night aims to increase awareness of research and innovation activities, with a view to supporting the public recognition of researchers, creating an understanding of the impact of researchers' work on citizen’s daily life, and encouraging young people to embark on research careers. As part of this event, a pop up exhibition of the RiV project and artworks will be on display in The Edge Arts Weston Studio.
Forest of Imagination: 29th - 30th Sept 2018
Bath (venue to be announced)
This year, join Forest of Imagination for another exciting programme of artworks, outdoor theatre, sensory installations and participatory creative activities 28th - 30th Sept 2018.
Team Riv will be with Forest of imagination on Sat 29 and Sun 30 Sept 2018. This weekend is intended to be the premiere showcase of the completed commissioned RiV artworks. You are invited to see the art installations created by Ross Bennett and Alyson Minkley. Hear the live performances of the composed soundscapes by Edward Betella, and get involved with interactive puppetry performances from Marc Parrett and participatory workshops with Edwina Bridgeman.
44AD artspace: 5th - 11th Nov 2018
4 Abbey Street, Bath, BA1 1NN
Please join us for a documentation exhibition of the Riv Project. On display will be the RiV artworks, alongside new and developed elements to some of the commissioned pieces, and footage of the project to date. There will be a schedule of events including artists’ talks and workshops relating to the project.
Art at the Heart / RUH: Dec 2018
Royal United Hospital, Bath
Art at the Heart supports the RUH Bath with an award winning art and design programme that stimulates healing and well-being and creates an uplifting environment for patients, visitors and staff. The RiV documentation exhibition will tour to RUH in December 2018.
MEET THE ARTISTS
Here is an intro to the five RiV commissioned artists and their work:
Ross Bennett
Ground/Water - a sculptural installation interpreting historical flood data and geological data through material.
Ground/Water is a sculpture project that aims to interpret data relating to historical flood events and the geology of the city of Bath.
Historic flood levels are recorded on the stonework in several locations in the city; under the Widcombe footbridge, Grove Street, and at the end of Norfolk Buildings by the river. Ross is combining this with data from the British Geological Survey to produce a series of ‘borehole’ sculptures that will present the strata of material and water in the same order and proportion as they are found naturally.
Ross is a designer, a maker and artist. Most of his work is three dimensional; furniture, sculpture and installations.
He works with various materials and uses hand-craft techniques as well as digital technologies in his work. He seeks to produce work that is well crafted and honest, yet has a little bit of magic.
All materials used by Ross have been carefully considered. He is drawn to projects that use their materiality to communicate, either through their origins or through the surfaces, patinas and textures they can present.
You can find out more about his work at:
Edward Bettella
Soundscapes Inspired by Flooding in Bath.
Soundscapes inspired by the history of flooding in Bath, which focus on 4 key themes: Flooding, Destruction, Inaction and Prevention. Each soundscape is constructed from original composed music and sound recordings. The music utilises acoustic and synthesised instruments, while the sound recordings have been recorded at source or researched from sound libraries.
Inspiration was drawn from researching documents and stories of the floods in Bath Record Office. This invaluable resource gave an insight to the thought and emotions of people affected by the flooding at different points in history. These soundscapes are not descriptive, but instead convey sensations and emotions that might be felt in response to the chosen theme.
Edward Bettella is a composer pianist based in Bath. He works in several fields including live performance as a performer, composition for live performance and setting music to film.
You can find out more about his work at:
Edwina Bridgeman
Community Workshops Collaborative Artwork.
For the past 20 years Edwina has been making work for exhibition both nationally and internationally. Her work is playful, using everyday materials to create scenes and whole environments. Her sense of playfulness and accessibility extends to the work that she makes with all ages from babies to Elders living with dementia.
At the heart of Edwina’s work is a sense of optimism, her use of colour and materials reflect this. She sees her own work as a reflection of her work with various groups and settings. Her visual arts practice and her work as artist and facilitator are entwined, each celebrating the other.
The forthcoming series of River is the Venue workshops will see Edwina work widely within the community, alongside local organisations, schools and charities.
This project will be run with an open agenda following the interests of the participants in a welcoming and non judgemental way. It will be exciting to see the resultant artworks from the various collaborations.
You can find out more about her work at:
Alyson Minkley
Flood Flags
The inspiration for Flood Flags is the historic depth markings under Ha’penny Bridge in Bath, visually mapping a sense of the volume of water that collected during major Bath flooding events. The Flood Flags installation will be sited in the new flood conveyance park a little further down the river. The artwork will translate the historic flood depth recordings to demonstrate how the body of water would now be dissipated.
Alyson has studied the archived flood mapping and used the topographical shapes to inspire the patterns of water within the flag fabric design, with the different flood depths represented by subtle changes in colour and identification of each year flooding occurred.
Alyson Minkley is a local artist and art teacher who has created public arts commissions for community events in the south and south-west since 1990. She works with ideas; her materials range from those of the more traditional sculptor to fabric, film or even fire.
Marc Parrett
A Cabaret of flotsam
Marc’s interactive installation will explore the destructive and regenerative properties of water, alongside the emotional trauma which often results from the displacement and destruction caused by urban flooding and linking it to past events in Bath, in particular the ‘great flood’ of 1968.
Created with found objects, handmade puppets, water pumps, mechanical elements and a sound system spilling from a water tank on wheels containing a sunken model of ‘central Bath’, the piece will be a cabaret of flotsam. Object performance will blend with puppetry, mime and silent storytelling.
As artistic director of Puppets4Peas Marc provides professional puppetry direction and puppet making services for theatre and film companies across the world. You can find out more about his work at:
