Journeys: Creative Producer
As Artistic Director for SpareParts Festival, I was delighted to conceive, curate and be Creative Producer on Journeys.
SpareParts returned to Crewe in 2021 with Journeys, a 2-day outdoor family art trail on 21 & 22 August, commissioned by Crewe Town Council.
The art trail featured local emerging talent DMPC with their hip-hop dance performance of Pandora’s Boombox, a new regional co-commissioned dance performance, Taking Flight by Movema (commissioners were Dance Consortia North West, SpareParts, and Cheshire Dance), plus a range of national and international artists.
Curated into three districts within the town; each offered a creative, interactive and immersive journey, exploring in some way the environment and our relationship with it. For a little more background on why I chose the theme and its relevance to Crewe, why not check-out my blog post here.
Despite the wet weather across much of the weekend, we attracted over 2000 visitor engagements on the trail, with audiences, partners and funders announcing it a great success.
District highlights included…
District One featuring The Great Story of the Infinite Drawing by Elly Oldman.
Following an accident in 2017, the French Illustrator embarked on the creation of an endless drawing on Instagram. The result is a 15m outdoor artwork for families, telling a magical fable, with an ecological and environmental focus. Embedded in the artwork are nine augmented reality panels, that animate the illustration when scanned with an accompanying QR code.
District Two featuring Breathing Room by Anna Berry
Image by Peter Robinson
Step inside and let the magic of Breathing Room enfold you with its soft light and the creaking and whirring sound of 28,000 cones slowly breathing in … and out … and in … and out …
Breathing Room by UK artist Anna Berry is a walk-in, kinetic light installation that beautifully combines organic and machine elements into a unique sensory experience. Its mechanical exterior skeleton contrasts sharply with the organic interior, which creates a sense of the uncanny. Every element of the structure is bespoke and hand-made.
Whether you prefer immersing yourself in its otherworldly interior, or enjoy exploring the construction mechanics, the transformative power of Breathing Room will keep you transfixed
District Three featuring Sit, Stop by Sally Hogarth
Sit, Stop encourages visitors to mindfully reconnect with nature through simple observation. The piece invites visitors to contemplate how engaging and promoting this small act can have wider ramifications for how we function as a society and the influence on all spheres of our lives from lifestyles and resources use, to buildings and business.
Connecting with local environmental activism, plastic collected by community beach combing groups was recycled to create sheet material used in the construction of undulating roofs that echo the form of a bird in flight.
