Three young artists will present their personal responses to Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery’s Fine Art Painting collection in a special exhibition entitled ‘Search The Collection’. The exhibition will be open to the public from 28 – 29 March in the Castle’s Long Gallery. The artists, all with links to Nottingham, have been commissioned to produce the work with the aim of engaging a younger audience with the history of Nottingham, the Castle and its Fine Art collection.
The Museum’s collection consists of over 700 oil paintings dating back some five hundred years. A recent redisplay of the Long Gallery proudly showcases 99 of the collection’s finest works. Much consideration and public consultation went into the selection of this new thematic presentation. It aims to challenge yet delight visitors, presenting an assortment of styles over many decades to glean and take inspiration from.
‘Search The Collection’, curated by Colette Griffin, will be staged for a limited time in the galleries amidst the paintings that have inspired them. New work by print-maker Lucy McCall, performance artist Amy Pickles, and video artist Max Limbu respond to the diversity of the collection and rich history of the City. They have created new work exclusively for this exhibition, encouraging others to engage with the works on display in different ways. ‘Measuring A Great’, a performance by Amy Pickles, will take place exclusively on the evening of 27 March from 6-8pm during a special event. ‘Search the Collection’ validates the potential museum collections have to inspire creativity and understanding, demonstrating how they can develop and form artistic practice through contemporary approaches to making. Supported by Arts Council England Museum Development funding awarded to Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery in 2012-15. Part of this funding has been used to commission and programme work by young artists.
Councillor Dave Trimble, Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Culture said: “We are always keen to find ways to engage with new audiences and enable them to access the collection and the castle’s rich history. It’s wonderful to have a project which also supports young artists. ‘Search the Collection’ informs people about the works and demonstrates how a collection that dates back centuries can inform artistic practice through contemporary methods of making.”
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For further information contact:
Sian Hoyle, Marketing & Communications Officer, on 0115 876351, email: sian.hoyle@nottinghamcity.gov.uk
Colette Griffin, Visual Arts & Exhibitions Assistant, Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery on 0115 8761433 or email Colette.griffin@nottinghamcity.gov.uk
Notes for Editors
Amy Pickles (Performance Artist)
For this project Amy has worked with three UK-based dance artists, Seraina Dejaco, Lewys Holt and Laura Savage, Nottingham based performer, actor and writer Olwen Davies, and Colour Hotel, a screen print and design studio located in Glasgow.
‘Measuring A Great’ is a performance about points of view delivered by three characters and a narrator who roam the Long Gallery. The Castle, St. Mary’s Church and the Council House were once the most prominent buildings upon the Nottingham cityscape, but are now surrounded by the growing City. These buildings are each given a body by three performers and given a voice by the narrator, they come together to discuss their own vistas and personal views of the ever changing landscape and of our actions within the city.
The performance will take place at 7pm in the Long Gallery on 27 March
Max Limbu (Video Artist)
For this exhibition Max has collaborated with SustikaMenyangbo, a film-maker based in London, to create digital 3-dimensional scale-models of the Castle’s exhibition galleries, animating them to create a virtual walk-through of these spaces via various vantage points. Entitled ‘Conversation between Eta Carinae and Vulcan’, this video presents a narrative where fact and fiction are interwoven, driven by an urge to link images to real life events, either personal or historical.
The video be exhibited until Sunday 29 March
Lucy McCall (Print-maker)
‘Untitled’ is a limited edition of 200 unique prints using a domestic inkjet scanner and printer. Lucy has taken ‘Portrait of a Lady of the Worthington Family Holding a Holy Bible’ c.1845-1855, by an unknown artist from the Castle’s Fine Art collection and digitally corrupted the image to create something new. Chance happenings bought about by disruption and repetitions are accepted and the image is reworked and recharged into an alternate state.
Untitled is an edition of 200 unique prints, these will be free to take during the special event on 27 March, advocating the accessibility and obtainability of contemporary artwork.