Join us at this special event for Contemporary Art Society members and meet LEO, the current artist-in-residence at VARC, Visual Arts in Rural Communities. It will be an opportunity to see the outcome of his time in Northumberland, to hear him talk about the experience in the context of his broader practice, and also to find out more about the unique offer VARC makes to artists to create work outside of the usual urban setting where contemporary art is typically made and presented.
LEO describes how his art practice “is installation-based and employs a diverse range of media, including; video, photography, text, sculpture, textiles, light and projection; it is often the ideas, situations, locations I am working with that suggest the materials and approaches I take to these, rather than working with a particular media or style.”
Coming from living in Berlin, where grafitti is everywhere, LEO became interested in inserting text in a subtle way into the rural landscape. Sections of dry stone walls that have fallen down seem to invite being rebuilt with the insertion, in stone, of some enigmatic message.
Visual Arts in Rural Communities, based at Highgreen, Tarset, Northumberland, has funded and managed an on-going programme of twelve-month residencies for visual artists since 2000. It also initiates projects and funds small-scale projects in response to applications from local groups and Northumberland-based artists. Through the residencies, funds and projects it aims to offer opportunities to artists to develop new work in response to the remote rural landscape and its community and to offer benefit to the community and visiting groups in engagement with art and artists, through contact and creative activity.
Membership
This event is part of a series of events programmed by the Contemporary Art Society in the North East. Membership costs £50 per year / £25 for students.
If you are not yet a member and would like to join, or to receive further information about the organisation and its activities, please contact Rebecca Morrill at rebecca@contemporaryartsociety.org or call 07815 830 182.