The Show Must Go Online: animating Arts at University of Southampton in the digital sphere

hrm199 (Siobhan Coen and Haroon Mirza), Dreamachine 2.0, 2019. Courtesy hrm199. Photo: Thierry Bal

During these challenging times and faced with the new normal, Arts at University of Southampton is joining our friends at Mayflower Theatre, Southampton, in pledging that The Show Must Go On(line). 

John Hansard Gallery and Turner Sims are both exploring ways to focus their energies within the digital sphere, seeking to animate online spaces to bring you inspiring art and culture. Alongside this, Arts at University of Southampton’s digital channels will be dedicated to sharing with you the best of the arts to be accessed remotely. We’ll also be inviting the talented creatives and artists in our own team to contribute ideas and showcase their practice.

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Kindred: Thoughts on a Work in Progress

by Thea Hartman, Arts Ambassador

A well-known figure in the Southampton arts scene, as well as an Artist Facilitator for the University of Southampton-led project Connecting Culture (focused on understanding the impact of the arts on Southampton-based young people aged 5-25), Anna Carr is a theatre maker who works across different platforms to create autobiographical theatre experiences.

Kindred is one such experience. The self-produced show, exploring the story of Carr’s grandparents and seeking to understand the harrowing experience of abuse undergone by her grandmother, was part of the a celebration of Sotonian theatre, the Make it SO Festival. The festival took place in NST City’s Studio space across most of February and showcased 19 ‘work-in-progress’ productions, proving just how much exciting theatre is being made locally. 

Continue reading Kindred: Thoughts on a Work in Progress

VIDEO: Arts Ambassadors attend John Hansard Gallery Opening

Two of our University of Southampton Arts Ambassadors – Kate Briggs-Price and Thea Hartman – were in attendance at John Hansard Gallery’s bumper opening event on Saturday 25 January 2020. Join them as they explore the exhibitions, mingle with the artists, interview some of the people behind the shows and generally have a good time.

Three exhibitions opened that night, as follows:

Larry Achiampong: When the Sky Falls
25 January–21 March

Many voices, all of them loved
1 February–11 April

Lindsay Seers: Every Thought There Ever Was
8 February–11 April

Video by Kate Briggs-Price for Arts at University of Southampton.

University of Southampton Lecturers Find their Voices in the Gallery: Introducing Many voices, all of them loved and Interruptions/Disruptions at John Hansard Gallery

Willem de Rooij, Ilulissat (2014), installation image, John Hansard Gallery, 2020. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York

by Thea Hartman

Although we have been telling you about how much there is to see at John Hansard Gallery and teased you with a few snippets of what the new exhibitions within the Spring Season have to offer, we thought it’s high time we introduced these exciting events while also answering a question that I know I had been wondering about before this job illuminated me: what is the link between the gallery and University of Southampton?

The internationally renowned John Hansard Gallery (JHG) is part of University of Southampton, aiming to provide a platform for a variety of exciting contemporary artists, events and community-based research projects. Our lecturers themselves collaborate with the gallery to explore and develop ideas they have been interested in for their research in ways that go beyond academic articles – across departments, across disciplines, and across media.

One such example is one of the three current exhibitions at JHG, Many voices, all of them loved (1 February – 11 April), curated by Dr Sarah Hayden, a lecturer in the Department of English whose background is in experimental writing and the relationship between literature and visual art. The link between her research and JHG seems intuitive enough. However, the journey from her research to Many voices is much more intricate than that – so intricate that I spoke to Dr Hayden herself about it to understand it fully.

Many voices is part of the two-year project Voices in the Gallery, developed by Dr Hayden to explore how the voice operates in contemporary art. Her research, so far culminating with the carefully curated exhibition, beautifully encompasses how much more the voice represents than just people talking.

Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Conflicted Phonemes (detail), 2012, installation image, Kunsthaus Hamburg. Courtesy the artist

 â€œIn the works brought into conversation here, the voice is made present as rhythm, as visible pattern, and as carrier of meaning that extends form, and extends speech”, Dr Hayden explains. “The works gathered together in Many voices invite us to reflect on some huge themes: migration, displacement, legacies of colonialism, climate crisis, bio-surveillance, disability, and the role of art in resistance.”

Many Voices came out of a place of curiosity. Dr Hayden’s perception of the meaning of voice was widened by paying attention to it; and with this exhibition, she opens up the idea of voice to the Southampton audience:

“I noticed how often I was listening to voices in exhibitions—particularly in video art and installation. I wanted to understand how the presentation of the artist’s writing as an audio track rather than, say, on a wall, changed how audiences experienced the text. I was also interested in how artists were departing from the traditional format of the voiceover as we know it from documentary film and TV, and in how they were pushing vocality in a range of other directions, for purposes other than description or explanation.”

Artists Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Kader Attia, Willem de Rooij, Laure Prouvost, Liza Sylvestre and Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa all work with voice in different ways to explore a variety of themes; a voice can be a dog’s howl, a name on a screen, a person with auditory difficulties subtitling a film, a voice-over that seems to have little to do with the visual sequence of a short film.

Many voices, all of them loved, installation image, John Hansard Gallery, 2020.
Photo: Steve Shrimpton

As Dr Priti Mishra expertly summarises it, the idea of voice has a lot to say about power dynamics: “Sarah’s exhibition has enabled us to think about the ways in which dominant power is being contested by artists from different subject positions.”

Alongside her Many Voices exhibition, Dr Hayden has also worked in collaboration with Dr Priti Mishra in the Department of History, and Dr Eleanor K. Jones of Modern Languages and Linguistics, on a public programme devised to generate conversation around the themes of colonialism and its representations, as well as how states manage people by managing their voices: whose voices are being heard first, or at all?

The programme of events, entitled Interruptions/Disruptions, consists of two strands of workshops: Interruptions workshops are led by various guests with various perspectives on the aforementioned themes, whilst Disruptions is a set of creative writing workshops led by the writer-in-residence for Many voices Nisha Ramayya.

Liza Sylvestre, Captioned: Twentieth Century, film still, 2018. Courtesy the artist

Dr Mishra and Dr Jones ellaborate on the importance of the public programme experienced alongside the exhibition:

“We’ve recently seen a resurgence of eugenics in mainstream UK politics, an increased glorification of our colonial past and present combined with a denial of its most brutal aspects, and continued inaction on climate, so talking about these things is more important than ever – and it’s also important for us to talk about creative ways to resist them, and learn from people who have been doing so for a long time. We hope our programme can offer the space for this creativity!”

Many voices and Interruptions/Disruptions have a lot to offer to any audience, especially students. Not only do they tackle themes relevant to our political climate, they also help us to think about concepts we are familiar with and which we may have studied in a completely new setting, or, if you are not a frequent gallery-goer, in a completely new place as well.

It’s true, the thought of going to a gallery can be quite daunting for some people, but the colourful sign at the entrance of John Hansard Gallery is more persuasive than I could ever be: “You belong here.”

Asten Holmes-Elliott and Breakout Youth, You Belong Here (2018). Photo: Kate Briggs-Price

As with all exhibitions at John Hansard Gallery, Many voices, all of them loved is free to attend and the accompanying Interruptions/Disruptions events programme is also free of charge.

For a list of events, times, and sign-ups head to the John Hansard Gallery website: www.jhg.art.

Women Leaders South West – CALL FOR APPLICANTS

Are you interested in the arts? Do you enjoy problem solving or making things happen?

Women Leaders South West is a project run by eight arts organisations and Southampton Business School at University of Southampton. The project also involves the WOW foundation. 

Women are under-represented at a leadership level across all art forms in theatres, festivals, galleries, and museums. Racism, ableism, transphobia, homophobia, economic constraints and caring responsibilities also create barriers to career development. We want to understand these barriers and develop tools to tackle them.

Women are invited to apply to take part in a 10 month leadership programme that includes work placements, mentoring and training with Southampton Business School. It will take place between June 2020 and December 2021.

Click here to find out how to start your leadership journey.

Deadline for Applications – Monday 20th April at 9AM