A talk by Harriet Loffler, Curator of the Women’s Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge

Event date: 4 April 2023
Review by Danusia Wurm

 

Hebe and Her Serpent, Maggi Hambling CBE

 
 
 

Harriet Loffler, Curator of the Women’s Art Collection based at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, delighted a discerning audience with an insight into her work as Curator, including the history, nature and significance of the Collection - and its future. 

The superlative Collection, the largest of contemporary art by women in Europe, is a celebration of women’s agency and creativity, an art historical record and a living, evolving body of work. At the heart of its founding mission is the principle of collaboration and community in which women take centre stage.  

 

Today the Collection includes over 600 works by leading international artists, including Barbara Hepworth, Dame Paula Rego, Maggi Hambling CBE, Lubaina Himid CBE, Judy Chicago, Tracey Emin CBE and Cindy Sherman. 

Housed, not in a traditional gallery, but in the working college environment, Harriet explored the challenges this brings to maintaining the Collection, including those of deterioration, vulnerability and storage but also its advantages as an integral part of student life. She also raised issues of adding to the Collection, what criteria to adopt to reflect the collaborative nature of its origins, and whether to change from receiving donated work, to purchasing works. 

 

Built as a “manifesto for the education of women”, the Murray Edwards (formerly New Hall) College is a fitting recipient for the Collection. The iconic brutalist building was designed by architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon , who went on design the Barbican Centre in London.

 

The Collection is open to members of the public and is free to visit, 7 days a week. 

The ncas talk, held at the Blake Studio, was one of a series of ncas talks kindly hosted by the Norwich School.

 

 
 

Review by ncas trustee Danusia Wurm

 

A talk by Carl Rowe, Artist and former Head of Fine Art, Norwich University of the Arts

Event date: 21 March 2023
Review by Danusia Wurm

 
 
“The objects that I deploy in my artwork remain constant and have appeared repeatedly over the years, each time in a new guise, sometimes as metaphor and sometimes as themselves”
— Carl Rowe

Exceeding Limits of the Box, Carl Rowe

 
 

What influences an artist's work? The audience at The Blake Studio were treated to a fascinating insight by Norwich-based artist and academic Carl Rowe whose work, over the years, has consistently featured cans, sticks, pipes, food, dust and traps "like the most reliable actors in a repertory theatre group". 

Graduating with a MA in Fine Art from Manchester Polytechnic in 1985, and a former Associate Professor and Course Leader in Fine Art at Norwich University of the Arts, Rowe creates paintings, prints, drawings and objects. He describes his art as switching back and forth between an engagement with socio political issues and subconscious renderings. "Despite this seemingly disparate approach, the objects that I deploy in my artwork remain constant and have appeared repeatedly over the years, each time in a new guise, sometimes as metaphor and sometimes as themselves". As such, they might be described as "hero" objects. 

Rowe often uses a surface layer of humour, absurdity and the arcane to mask a strong undercurrent of concern for humanity. A memorable example is Banquet for Ultra Bankruptcy, (2013) based on the Marinetti manifesto and, Synaesthesia /3 developed in collaboration with Simon Davenport for Art Laboratory Berlin, where the two artists combined the performative with artistic research on a cultural history of the senses.

 

Rowe explained that more recent works wrangle subjects such as gases, particulates, pollen, eels, traps, calibrations, marker points, fonts, logos and domestic objects within seemingly nonsensical and vexing associations. At times, geometric forms, lines, and shapes intersect or abut exactly. Elsewhere, they misalign, glance or overlap. Real space coexists with imaginary space in an implausible graphic paradigm. There is a strong sense of duality and unseen forces at play. Colour is notable, in some works naturalistic and low key, but in others it is ramped-up to a feverish vibrancy. 

Rowe has an international profile as both an artist and an academic. He is an artist member and studio holder at OUTPOST in Norwich and member of the Printmakers Council. His work has been exhibited widely in the UK as well as in Germany, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Canada, US, Estonia, Japan, Malaysia and Egypt. In addition to studio production he has also worked on public art including billboards, print portfolios and hospital art including work for Woodlands Mental Health Unit at Ipswich Hospital and  Northside House Forensic Mental Health Unit. 

 
 

Carl Rowe

 
 

Review by ncas trustee Danusia Wurm

 

Maggi Hambling CBE in conversation with Francesca Vanke

Event date: 20 February 2023
Review by Danusia Wurm

 

Polar Bear, Maggi Hambling 2019

 
“Drawing is the basis of everything I’ve ever done”
— Maggi Hambling
 

"It’s all about feeling. The eye, the heart, and the hand", declared internationally acclaimed artist Maggi Hambling during a wide-ranging conversation with the Norwich Castle Museum’s Senior Curator, Francesca Vanke, at a packed Norwich School Blake Studio. 

The Brigadier, a portrait of her lifelong friend Penny Allen, nee Colman, and The Laugh, two examples of her exceptional series of portraits, perfectly exemplify Hambling’s maxim "every portrait is like a love affair".  

 
 

No stranger to controversy, Hambling also touched on the arguments that have surrounded her sculptures, A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft, A conversation with Oscar Wilde and Scallop.  Featuring, amongst other works, Hambling’s haunting Heron in the Shallows, Polar Bear and part of The Edge series, Hambling shared her life-long love of nature and passion for the wider environment.  "My work is directed by life – the climate crisis, melting ice caps, pollution in the rivers, the sea devouring our coast." 

 

She has no fear of death. The Happy Dead series shows a flip side to death with souls looking to the stars. Hambling’s more recent abstract seascapes owed more to Constable than Turner she explained. 

 
 

Happily, Hambling continues to teach art "to hand on, to give back". 

She left an enthralled audience, with her mantra "to draw every day. Drawing is the basis of everything I’ve ever done". 

 

Maggi Hambling with The Laugh. Image PA

 
 

Review by ncas trustee Danusia Wurm

 

Sainsbury Centre new director has ambitious plans to make it a destination for everyone

Jago Cooper, the recently appointed director of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, burst onto the stage at the Blake Studio last night with a flash of lightning. A dramatic photo of the iconic Norman Foster building illuminated by freak weather left us in no doubt that this bright spark - fresh from the British Museum - intends to take Norwich by storm.

NCAS members and non-members were first sworn to secrecy and then given a sneak preview of how Jago plans to shake up this world-class and internationally famous art gallery and museum. The first thing he intends to do (I don’t think this bit is a secret) is to make sure that everyone - literally everyone - in Norwich loves and visits his museum. There will be no more gown and town separation or campus-fear! Instead there will be a clear and enjoyable route, better signage and improved transport facilities between the city and SCVA. When you get there, he intends for everyone to feel welcome and involved in the artworks.

“A vibrant and very engaging talk”, said ncas member and trustee, Diana Heuvel, “…a new approach with energy and fast creative thinking that gives us real hope for future events”.

Unfortunately we’ve promised not to disclose more, so if you missed it, you’ll have to wait a bit longer for his vision to go public. Suffice it to say, Professor Jago Cooper is definitely high energy and electrifying.

The Singh Twins in conversation: Slaves of Fashion, Hidden Histories

Event date: 11 January 2023
Review by Danusia Wurm

 
 

Singh Twins in conversation with Dr Rosy Gray

“Theirs is an art that is impossible to pigeonhole.”
— Sue Herdman, Editor The Arts Society Magazine
 

The Singh Twins enthralled a packed Norwich University of the Arts Theatre as they explored the creative process behind their latest hard-hitting political artwork, Slaves of Fashion, Hidden Histories.  Cohosted by Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery and Norwich University of the Arts, The Singh Twins were interviewed by Dr Rosy Gray, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Norwich Castle. 

A surprise encounter with the ‘Indienne’ textiles at the Slavery Museum in Nantes, provided the inspirational spark for Slaves of Fashion, Hidden Histories - an exploration of hidden narratives of empire, colonialism, conflict and slavery through the lens of India’s historical textile trade. 

Featuring original digital mixed medium light-box artworks, drawings and paintings by The Singh Twins, as well as objects from the artists’ personal archive and participating museums and galleries, the artwork also explores modern day legacies and debates around ethical consumerism, racism, and the politics of trade. 

In their own words “If you care about the environment and you care about human rights, then you should really care about what you put in your shopping basket too, and that’s partly what the message of Slaves of Fashion is about. But it’s equally about redressing neglected and hidden histories, showing how we are all connected through a shared colonial heritage and how our understanding of global narratives around Empire can help us to view ourselves and the world around us in a new light.” 

Describing their creative practice as ‘Past-Modern’ as opposed to ‘Post Modern’, their highly decorative, narrative and symbolic work, is essentially a modern revival of Indian miniature painting within contemporary art practice. But their distinctive style is much more eclectic. In addition to the Indian miniature tradition of painting, they also draw on the artistic language and conventions of other traditions, east and west, old and new - including ancient Greek and Roman, Persian and Medieval European manuscripts, European Renaissance art, 18th Century British Satirists, the Victorian illustrators, Pre-Raphaelites, Art Nouveau, and pop culture, as well as symbolism, pattern and photography. There is seriousness, wit and mischief in their art. 

 
 

The Singh Twins have always collaborated in their art practice. Often working in tandem on the same image, they use a range of tools, materials and modern digital and traditional techniques to create their artwork. Meticulously researched and exquisitely detailed, their highly decorative and intricate ‘miniatures’ are painted by hand, whereas their large-scale fabric light box pieces are produced digitally incorporating details from digitally scanned hand-painted and historical material. This helps them achieve rich, detailed and multilayered work with precision. Their large-scale digital fabric artworks are then stretched over light-boxes to add intensity and luminosity, further enhancing the bold colours. 

The Arts Society's Magazine Editor, Sue Herdman observes  "Theirs is an art that is impossible to pigeonhole. It is about craftsmanship and beauty, global politics and wider issues, human connections, hidden histories, shared heritage and identity". 

As part of the Slaves of Fashion project, The Singh Twins were commissioned to create a companion work in response to selected objects from the Norfolk Museum Service's collection.

This resulted the mixed-media image Alternative A-Z of Empire using an 18th century jigsaw puzzle, titled Inhabitants of The World Alphabetically Arrang’d, as its starting point. The work was made possible with generous support from Art Fund, The Friends of Norwich Museums and Norfolk Contemporary Arts Society and is now on permanent display in the Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery. 

 

 
 
 

Review by ncas trustee Danusia Wurm

 

Laurence Edwards In Conversation with Derek Morris and Andy Campbell

Event date: 19 November 2022
Review by Derek Morris

 

The Yoxman, Laurence Edwards

 
 

A reflection on the evening by Derek Morris.

On the evening of Saturday 12th November, a sizeable audience of ncas members, students, staff and sixth formers from the Norwich School gathered in the school’s Blake Theatre to watch a film about the making and installation of a new work by Laurence Edwards, the Suffolk based sculptor. After the film, 3D Design and Creative Projects Co-ordinator Andy Campbell and I asked Laurence questions about his practice and his journey to arrive at the point of being one of the most significant figurative artists of our time.

 
 

The film gave us clear insights into the creative development and manufacture of the work, The Yoxman, the eight-meter high bronze figure which is permanently based by the A12 road at Yoxford in Suffolk. The extraordinary vision and intense energy required to achieve such a successful work continued to be evident as Laurence’s answers to the questions asked by Andy and me revealed Laurence’s intellectual and imaginative energy, not to mention his physical energy, in creating such a truly monumental and heroic figure.

The possibilities for Laurence himself in making such a large sculpture in bronze lie in the many years of experience he achieved as a jobbing bronze foundry man, and the accumulation of equipment and appropriate spaces that allow him to be completely in control of the conception and construction of his sculptures. This makes for an element of spontaneity in the working process (which is unusual in bronze casting) and that the special qualities of bronze as primarily a fluid material go a long way towards achieving the unique qualities of his sculptures.

 

Laurence Edwards in his studio

Review by sculptor Derek Morris

 
 
 

Brenda Ferris RIP

We are very sad to report the death on 23 August 2022 of a dear friend, Brenda Ferris, former Chair and long term Trustee of ncas. We convey our condolences and thanks to her family & friends. Our thoughts and memories of Brenda are expressed perfectly by Robert Short, fellow former Chair and ncas Trustee for many years.

"Like the rest of you, I was bowled over to learn of Brenda's sudden death last Tuesday.  She had seemed so self-sufficient, and only a week or so ago was still enjoying one of her favourite pursuits: 'birding' at the Cley saltmarshes reserve.

Brenda was a pillar of the NCAS as a Trustee for decades. In 2013, she succeeded Keith Roberts as Chair. We counted on her passionately engaged presence to such a degree that we all felt the palpable loss when she resigned from the committee in 2021. That she was also a Norwich City Councillor for much of this time - not to mention Sheriff, Mayor and Deputy Lieutenant of the County! - enhanced the profile of the Society. That our biennial fund-raising auctions could be  held in the Council Chamber of City Hall was owed to that too. Among numerous local arts causes, Brenda was particularly a champion of public sculpture in Norwich: think Bernard Reynolds, Ros Newman, Jonathan Clark, the Poiriers.... 

My family and I have been fortunate enough to have Brenda and her children as friends for the last fifty-five years, taking in plenty of holidays at home and abroad. We've had so much fun together. And no one should forget the fun that Brenda helped bring to the everyday life of the NCAS over all these years. When you're next in City Hall, go and take a look in a corridor on the first floor at David Chedgey's 1990s group portrait titled 'The Alibi Crowd' which prominently features Brenda in the joyful company of some twenty fellow art lovers at their revels!”

The funeral arrangements for Brenda are:

Thursday 15 September, 11.00am at Norwich Crematorium, 2.30pm at St Peter Mancroft Church.

Photo of Brenda, taken in January 2012 at an artist’s preview evening. Credit: Archant.

Cate Allwood, NCAS Treasurer

We are very sorry to share the sad news that our dear friend and Treasurer, Cate Allwood, passed away peacefully on 3rd August.

Cate had been a valuable member of the ncas committee for a number of years. As Treasurer she kept the affairs of the society quietly, calmly, and efficiently in control, and as a trustee she offered very sound advice to the ncas committee.

A good friend, she will be sadly missed by us all. 

Chris Mardell - Chair ncas'

2022 NCAS AGM review

The Annual General Meeting and Lunch, held on Sunday 24th July, was pronounced a resounding success - and a delightful day to remember! To read more about the afternoon and enjoy a few photographs, please click here. For the financial reports and other documents, please see under Events - AGM.