Following on from my last entry on Cherryburn and the naturalist and engraver Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) here’s a summary of the resident artists programme since 2017, when my own association with the birthplace also began.
Bewick’s work was widely popular in his own day as well as with succeeding generations of artists and crafts people. Numerous woodblocks and preparatory drawings are in museum and private collections worldwide, alongside those of his thirty five apprentices at the Newcastle workshop, like Luke Clennell and Robert Johnson.
In 2017 a project to reflect that artistic association and craft legacy was launched. In association with Northern Print and the Arts Council contemporary arts duo Juneau Projects, AKA Philip Duckworth and Ben Sadler, exhibited Birds Want You To Listen during September & October. The exhibition featured an interactive print kit, viewfinders, prints, sculptures, and print blocks. I had a lot of fun as a new volunteer at Cherryburn, helping out in the print room (below) doing simple hands on work with children and adults using the duo’s templates, designed with the input of local schoolchildren.
From 2018 onwards the contemporary arts engagement project was expanded. The Arts & Heritage charity facilitated along with Mapping Contemporary Art in the Heritage Experience. The latter is a major research project led by Newcastle University with the National Trust, Churches Conservation Trust, Arts Council England and Contemporary Visual Arts Network. Our resident artists work is usually on display within the birthplace itself and/or adjacent museum. These season long events draw extra visitors, stimulating discussion and further involvement.
Conference of the Birds by Marcus Coates (2019) Six bird species engraved by Bewick, given personalities by Coates, articulated by guest contributors with natural history expertise, recorded and played through speakers in an extended conversation covering all aspects of the birds lives and behaviour. Members of the public either stood near or sat beneath the heads – all fabricated by the artist in the style of Bewick – to listen in. Which we all did…enraptured! An original and engaging exercise that many visitors said was the best contemporary art exhibition they’d ever experienced.
Walking, Looking and Telling Tales (2018) by painter Mark Fairnington. (above) The exquisite small paintings reflect the place, the Northumbrian landscape and the work of Bewick. Mark gathered information by walking the county, his work becoming a record of the people and places he visited. The paintings, on display in the birthplace itself, include miniature landscapes that look at the countryside Bewick knew well from a contemporary viewpoint.
Birds, Beasties & Bewick (20/21) Capturing the spirit of Cherryburn through observations and encounters of animals and plants in the landscape, in the Spring and Summer of 2021, arts graduate Phoebe Connolly’s installation of 20 finely detailed engraved glass panels sought to inspire visitors to reconnect with nature. Despite the bedevilment caused by the health emergency Phoebe’s beautiful work drew a great deal of admiration.
This year’s artist in residence is George Shaw. Turner prize nominated George (b.1966) grew up on a council estate in Coventry and his finely detailed work, executed in humbrol oils, have become well known for creating distinct observations of alienation and discord in contemporary urban Britain. The pieces on display here, entitled Home is Unspent take a slightly different course.
George’s show opened at Cherryburn in mid July and runs to the end of October when the property shuts down for the winter. Everyone had a good chatty time of it at the well attended private view which took place both outdoors and indoors on a lovely warm evening.
The wee pictures on easels in the birthplace are of George’s former childhood home after he’d moved all his mother’s possessions out following her death. The paintings in the house chronicle nests and dead birds in the garden of his current home on Dartmoor, done during lockdown. He calls these a ‘History of Dead Birds’.
If you’re in the area please come and visit! Property open on Thursdays and Fridays until end of October. Bookings preferred but you can also rock up, though you may have to wait a short while if numbers are limited. Check out the website www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cherryburn for details and to book a slot.
STEPHEN TOMLIN 