https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site Laura Robertson: writer Sun, 22 Jan 2023 15:18:51 +0000 https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site en https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/Index Wed, 05 Aug 2020 10:57:23 +0000 Laura Robertson: writer https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/Index Laura Robertson Art critic, writer, editor. Award-winning lecturer.&nbsp; Contact: laura[at]thedoublenegative.co.uk. +44(0)7854697434.Located: Liverpool, UK. Truth &amp; Fiction (Selected Writings)Alive~Asleep: my new creative non-fiction book (Broken Sleep Books) What’s Next For England’s Cultural Institutions After Major Funding Changes? (frieze) Turner Prize 2022 (TDN)&nbsp; A Mole Catcher’s Story (Sheffield DocFest) &nbsp;Celestial Bodies (First Light Zine)Letter from Helsinki: Dream Archipelago (Art Monthly) On Bodies: Cézanne’s Crouching Venus (The Fourdrinier)The Grid (Attention) Giving Yourself Away (NOIT) Monodonmonoceros&nbsp;Keyword: ‘Amateur’a woman’s work&nbsp;I Just Want to Lie Down (Ren Hang, Open Eye Gallery) &nbsp;Aleksandra Mir (frieze)&nbsp;Teresa Eng's Self/Portrait (Open Eye Gallery) IRL/News&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Creature, Stranger, Monster, Other 2026 NIGHT: my new book with Tate Publishing&nbsp; In Cupped Hands: live reading at Factory International Criticism as a love letter: BANG ON Podcast (Short Supply)&nbsp; BBC Radio 4 Front Row appearances&nbsp; First Light Spotlight TV (Open Eye Gallery) Tell It Like It Is Programme (Open Eye Gallery)&nbsp; Creature, Stranger, Monster, Other. panel discussion with Dame Marina Warner (RCA)&nbsp; https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/Publishing Thu, 09 Jul 2020 15:26:44 +0000 Laura Robertson: writer https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/Publishing Publishing Widely published across print and web, international glossy magazines to independent publishers. Broadcasting, too. Scroll down for a selection of examples. <img width="940" height="627" width_o="940" height_o="627" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f361bac8bbad45d4f930e434e9e75401f780e88c6e08cb09a5fe4962f8025147/thedesignist-map.png" data-mid="77368819" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/940/i/f361bac8bbad45d4f930e434e9e75401f780e88c6e08cb09a5fe4962f8025147/thedesignist-map.png" /> <img width="460" height="627" width_o="460" height_o="627" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/339edce9aaaf94ce979586bed1bc02571e327d6633fd215d9732bbe2db12d30e/thedesignist1.jpg" data-mid="77368821" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/460/i/339edce9aaaf94ce979586bed1bc02571e327d6633fd215d9732bbe2db12d30e/thedesignist1.jpg" /> <img width="460" height="627" width_o="460" height_o="627" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/debb4ccff63e84f68fdfd76589a227d5e0ed7d9c028b20717ebecd7527c185b0/thedesignist2.jpg" data-mid="77368823" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/460/i/debb4ccff63e84f68fdfd76589a227d5e0ed7d9c028b20717ebecd7527c185b0/thedesignist2.jpg" /> <img width="940" height="627" width_o="940" height_o="627" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c6c8db9a9c31880dbb70a4c5b4d83676afc6d8294215b854f6a22108724d9f31/thedesignist3.jpg" data-mid="77368825" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/940/i/c6c8db9a9c31880dbb70a4c5b4d83676afc6d8294215b854f6a22108724d9f31/thedesignist3.jpg" /> <img width="979" height="654" width_o="979" height_o="654" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/621b9b69a520479e0ed72c8049606aaa26dc6697ff76a7e1678464927af1bc4e/On-Being-Curious-cover-crop-2-1600x1169-e1462896162434.jpg" data-mid="77367826" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/979/i/621b9b69a520479e0ed72c8049606aaa26dc6697ff76a7e1678464927af1bc4e/On-Being-Curious-cover-crop-2-1600x1169-e1462896162434.jpg" /> <img width="640" height="376" width_o="640" height_o="376" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9e1f0ad9a18ea863a310f15ebd7653e54ee062660ee57f3bde7f36d522bf3167/DBLNEG-CVAN-spread-5-1600x940-640x376.jpg" data-mid="77367825" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/640/i/9e1f0ad9a18ea863a310f15ebd7653e54ee062660ee57f3bde7f36d522bf3167/DBLNEG-CVAN-spread-5-1600x940-640x376.jpg" /> <img width="640" height="376" width_o="640" height_o="376" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ad7ca6e303a57d0b2d202abf49933644d429c9e40331f9c7e84a16e44af21491/DBLNEG-CVAN-spread-4-1600x940-640x376.jpg" data-mid="77369591" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/640/i/ad7ca6e303a57d0b2d202abf49933644d429c9e40331f9c7e84a16e44af21491/DBLNEG-CVAN-spread-4-1600x940-640x376.jpg" /> <img width="980" height="652" width_o="980" height_o="652" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ff4073bd7888df2ca3a39a6979bdbe0fd745bb4c5f662be73492e5076aff565c/present-tense-shop-image-slider.jpg" data-mid="77367828" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/980/i/ff4073bd7888df2ca3a39a6979bdbe0fd745bb4c5f662be73492e5076aff565c/present-tense-shop-image-slider.jpg" /> <img width="1494" height="1041" width_o="1494" height_o="1041" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1085e4c97392eac4e3d24b6f3d7ff55b2146aff6bb523a0133af328d50f95dc6/Screen-Shot-2019-09-05-at-17.11.40.png" data-mid="77367843" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1085e4c97392eac4e3d24b6f3d7ff55b2146aff6bb523a0133af328d50f95dc6/Screen-Shot-2019-09-05-at-17.11.40.png" /> <img width="644" height="899" width_o="644" height_o="899" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b6f322fce1139e22a93ad6e7b967b45c9a578e2107d7b913803b72527d65f771/Screen-Shot-2020-07-15-at-14.20.33.png" data-mid="79168583" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/644/i/b6f322fce1139e22a93ad6e7b967b45c9a578e2107d7b913803b72527d65f771/Screen-Shot-2020-07-15-at-14.20.33.png" /> <img width="909" height="1275" width_o="909" height_o="1275" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1a456017341eed12afba1fb1226a7b20387006b4743ef9746b835f2958d517f4/TILT--First-Light---COVER.jpeg" data-mid="117933110" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/909/i/1a456017341eed12afba1fb1226a7b20387006b4743ef9746b835f2958d517f4/TILT--First-Light---COVER.jpeg" /> Books: 2027: NIGHT, Tate Publishing&nbsp; 2026: Alive~Asleep, Broken Sleep Books 2021:&nbsp;First Light: Photography Writing Now (paperback, 64 pages), Open Eye Gallery/Waterside Trafford (editor, producer, contributor) 2019: Attention Anthology (paperback, 95 pages), Royal College of Art, ISBN 9781910642450 (co-editor, contributor) &nbsp; 2019: NOIT – 5: bodies as in buildings (paperback, 324 pages), Royal College of Art/Flat Time House (co-editor, contributor)&nbsp; 2019: Present Tense: A decade since Liverpool EU Capital of Culture… What now? (paperback, 96 pages), The Double Negative, ISBN 9781527242814 (commissioner, co-editor, contributor) For a city famous for punching above its weight, a book with a reach far beyond its 100 pages: Present Tense is a purposeful collection of voices that care... about Liverpool, about art, and about cities of culture everywhere. – Mark Sheerin, freelance arts writer (Hyperallergic, The Arts Desk) 2016: On Being Curious: New Critical Writing on Contemporary Art From the North-West of England (paperback, 68 pages), The Double Negative, ISBN 9781526202376 (co-commissioner, editor) This book provides ten smacks in the face to the idea that art criticism is dead. – Oliver Basciano, International Editor, ArtReview 2016: Conscious Coupling, The Double Negative/The Royal Standard Writing Residency Zine (co-commissioner, editor) 2012: The Designist: Liverpool's Must-see for the Design Obsessed (paperback, 64 pages with fold-out map), Smiling Wolf Press, ISBN 9780956099921 (co-editor, co-author) <img width="644" height="899" width_o="644" height_o="899" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b6f322fce1139e22a93ad6e7b967b45c9a578e2107d7b913803b72527d65f771/Screen-Shot-2020-07-15-at-14.20.33.png" data-mid="79168583" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/644/i/b6f322fce1139e22a93ad6e7b967b45c9a578e2107d7b913803b72527d65f771/Screen-Shot-2020-07-15-at-14.20.33.png" /> Selected Reviews, Features, Interviews, Essays, Stories, Broadcast: Sep 2025: Letter from Malta, Art Monthly (PRINT)&nbsp; Jul 2025:&nbsp;Carreg Ateb: Vision or Dream? Reviewed, The Double Negative (ONLINE) May 2025:&nbsp;Stone Circles, Wailing Women and Respecting The Dead: URNA at London Design Biennale 2025,&nbsp;The Double Negative (ONLINE) May 2025:&nbsp;The Big Interview: James Coupe, Head of Programme for Photography MA at the Royal College of Art,&nbsp;The Double Negative (ONLINE) Apr 2025:&nbsp;The Big Interview: Neil Griffiths, CEO &amp; Co-Founder of Arts Emergency,&nbsp;The Double Negative (ONLINE) Oct 2024:&nbsp;The Vegetal Turn? Contemporary Art, Nature and The TreeStory Approach,&nbsp;The Double Negative (ONLINE)Jun 2024:&nbsp;The Big Interview: Jonathan Boyd, Head of Programme for Jewellery &amp; Metal MA (JaM) at the Royal College of Art,&nbsp;The Double Negative (ONLINE) Jan 2024:&nbsp;The Big Interview: Portrait of Britain Winner Roxana Allison,&nbsp;The Double Negative (ONLINE)&nbsp; Nov 2022: Signal Film &amp; Media (presented segment), BBC Radio 4 Front Row (BROADCAST)&nbsp;Nov 2022: What’s Next For England’s Cultural Institutions After Major Funding Changes?&nbsp;(opinion), frieze, London (ONLINE)Oct 2022: Exhibition at the end of the World: Turner Prize Reviewed, The Double Negative (ONLINE) Oct 2022: Turner Prize (review), BBC Radio 4 Front Row (BROADCAST) May 2022: Radical Landscapes (review), BBC Radio 4 Front Row (BROADCAST)Apr 2022: Turner Prize shortlist (review), BBC Radio 4 Front Row (BROADCAST)Oct 2021: A Mole Catcher’s Story, DocFest Exchange commission, Sheffield DocFest 2021 (PRINT/ONLINE) May 2021: Celestial Bodies (short story), First Light: photography writing now, Open Eye Gallery/Waterside Trafford&nbsp;(PRINT/ONLINE) Dec 2020:&nbsp;“I am in love with colour”: In Physical Reality With Liz West (feature), Hyvinkää Art Museum/The Double Negative (PRINT/ONLINE) Jul-Aug 2020: Letter From Helsinki: Dream Archipelago (feature), Art Monthly, London (PRINT)&nbsp; Jan 2020: On Bodies: Cézanne’s Crouching Venus (feature), The Fourdrinier, Manchester (ONLINE) Jan&nbsp;2020: daring greatly/Let’s Get Stuck In Traffic! (catalogue essay), for artist Marie Jones/Kochi Kochi (PRINT) Nov 2019: _you feel me , FACT (review), Art Monthly, London (PRINT) Nov 2019: Art B&amp;B Blackpool (review), BBC Radio 4 Front Row (BROADCAST) Oct 2019: Real Work , FACT (review), Art Monthly, London (PRINT) Sep 2019: British Ceramics Biennial (review), BBC Radio 4 Front Row (BROADCAST) Aug 2019: Binding Social Fibres: Public – You &amp; Me (feature), AirSpace Gallery/The Double Negative (ONLINE) Feb 2019: “An artwork’s a key that could unlock you-don’t-know-what.” The Big Interview: Tim Etchells, The Double Negative (ONLINE) Feb 2019: A Desire To Be Seen and To Be Loved: Ren Hang, The Double Negative (ONLINE)<img width="980" height="653" width_o="980" height_o="653" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dbec8cc34d5314cbf2157d576ce4e6da73c57a443d0015f30566b02e19a76c37/Untitled-RenHang-2016S-tieglitz19_slider.jpg" data-mid="94494119" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/980/i/dbec8cc34d5314cbf2157d576ce4e6da73c57a443d0015f30566b02e19a76c37/Untitled-RenHang-2016S-tieglitz19_slider.jpg" />Untitled, Ren Hang, 2016. Courtesy of Stieglitz19, Belgium Dec 2018: Ren Hang (review), BBC Radio 4 Front Row (BROADCAST) Nov 2018: Fernand Léger (review), BBC Radio 4 Front Row (BROADCAST) Nov 2018: I Just Want to Lie Down (feature), Open Eye Gallery/TILT (PRINT/ONLINE) Aug&nbsp;2018: Shouldn't Throw Stones - The View of a Night Watchman (catalogue essay and interview), for photographer Kevin Casey, ISBN 9781789260823 (PRINT) Aug 2018: Field Trip: “Sweetness overlaying toxicity” — Istanbul, Turkey, The Double Negative (ONLINE) Aug 2018:&nbsp;Grundy curator Paulette Terry Brien: “The gallery has to be an advocate for resources and opportunities in Blackpool” (interview), a-n (ONLINE) Jul 2018: The Big Interview: Agnès Varda // Liverpool Biennial 2018, The Double Negative (ONLINE) Jul 2018: Homecoming: Paulette Constable aka DJ Paulette (interview/front cover),&nbsp;A New Revolution with Ace &amp; Tate x intern magazine (PRINT/ONLINE)Jun 2018:&nbsp;In Cupped Hands: A Response To Susan Gunn’s Ground Evolution, HOME MCR/The Double Negative (PRINT/ONLINE) Apr 2018: Teresa Eng's Instagram (feature), Open Eye Gallery/TILT (PRINT/ONLINE) Apr 2018: Volkan Aslan Charts Istanbul’s Political Turmoil (feature), Elephant, London (ONLINE) Nov 2017: At Glasgow’s sonic-art biennial, gameplay becomes theatrical (opinion), frieze, London (ONLINE) Sep 2017: Otherworldly Sound Art that Repels and Attracts, Turin (review), Hyperallergic, New York (ONLINE) Aug 2017: Aleksandra Mir, Modern Art Oxford and Tate Liverpool, UK (review), frieze, London (PRINT/ONLINE) Jul 2017: Adrián Villar Rojas Excavates Greece’s National Identity, Athens (review), Hyperallergic, New York (ONLINE) Apr 2017: The Black Charismatic: Theaster Gates &amp; The Black Monks of Mississippi’s latest project for IHME Festival, Helsinki (profile), frieze, London (ONLINE) Apr 2017: Letter From Hull (feature), Art Monthly, London (PRINT) Dec 2016-Jan 2017: Letter From Warsaw (feature), Art Monthly, London (PRINT) Oct 2016: Shapes of Water – Sounds of Hope: A report from the culmination of Suzanne Lacy’s 18-month project at Brierfield Mill, Lancashire, frieze, London (ONLINE) Aug 2016: Liverpool Biennial Fringe (review), ArtReview, London (ONLINE) Jul 2016: New Contemporaries 2016: muted and curiously polite (review), a-n (ONLINE) Jul 2016: A Q&amp;A with… Liv Wynter (interview), a-n (ONLINE) Jul 2016: Tromarama (review), ArtReview Asia, London (PRINT) Jun 2016: Should We Stay or Should We Go? A range of artists, writers, directors and curators present their opinions on the impending EU referendum, frieze, London (ONLINE) May 2016: Liverpool Round Up: Fruits of the Lûm/Double Act: Art and Comedy (review), Art Monthly, London (PRINT) Mar 2016: AL and AL: Incidents of Travel in the Multiverse (review), Art Monthly, London (PRINT) Feb 2016: Black Artists and Modernism: “There are some remarkable stories to be discovered” (feature), a-n (ONLINE) Feb 2016: Works to Know by Heart: An Imagined Museum / Follow (review), Art Monthly, London (PRINT). <img width="886" height="1342" width_o="886" height_o="1342" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d50259367d6ad7637f052538389464d326f3a82d7670557d3aa406b14d5f38ea/Kekeletso-Khena-Green-Market-Square-Cape-Town-2012.jpg" data-mid="87493957" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/886/i/d50259367d6ad7637f052538389464d326f3a82d7670557d3aa406b14d5f38ea/Kekeletso-Khena-Green-Market-Square-Cape-Town-2012.jpg" /> Kekeletso Khena Green Market Square Cape Town 2012 © Zanele Muholi.Courtesy of Stevenson, Cape Town/Johannesburg and Yancey Richardson, New York Oct 2015: Glow in the dark art: new skatepark sheds light on Everton (feature, a-n (ONLINE) Sep 2015:&nbsp;A Q&amp;A with… Zanele Muholi, LGBT photographer (interview),&nbsp;a-n (ONLINE) Sep 2015: Northern art and soul: Warrington festival addresses north-south divide (feature, a-n (ONLINE)Apr 2015:&nbsp;“I was grappling with something that was truly horrifying” — The Big Interview: Jon Ronson (Part One) and&nbsp;“Public punishment is too brutal” — The Big Interview: Jon Ronson (Part Two),&nbsp;The Double Negative (ONLINE)Sep 2014:&nbsp;MODEL Liverpool: “We’re trying to get people used to constant change” (feature), a-n (ONLINE)&nbsp; https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/CV Thu, 09 Jul 2020 12:38:57 +0000 Laura Robertson: writer https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/CV CV Laura Robertson: art critic, writer, editor, lecturer.B. 1983, Liverpool, UK. Contact: Email: laura[at]thedoublenegative.co.ukTelephone: +44(0)7854697434 Website: laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site Summary: I am an experienced art critic, with specific interest in blending experimental and subjective writing with contemporary art, storytelling and journalism. For the past twelve years, I’ve developed an ambitious portfolio career, concurrently writing, editing, publishing, and teaching. I am a guest tutor at a wide range of Higher Education Institutions (including at Central Saint Martins, Liverpool John Moores University), and I mentor young people and adults across industry (including for Arts Emergency, Finnish Art Agency, Paper Gallery). I am a widely published writer with bylines in major international publications (including frieze, ArtReview, Art Monthly), as well as independent press. I have been a regular guest critic on the popular British culture show BBC Radio 4 Front Row since 2018. As a result, I have an astute understanding of international art practices, histories, theories and contexts, and excellent professional networks. I am a highly organised, reliable and personable colleague; I listen to, collaborate with and support my peers and students. My teaching methods are led by research into widening participation, compassion-focused pedagogy, and unconditional positive regard. An important part of my current role as Lecturer in BA Photography at the University of Greater Manchester is to challenge the canon, through criticism and contemporary debate. It is, indisputably, a socially inclusive university: 98% of our full-time students are from state schools; 90% identify as BAME; 86% have a registered disability. I am preparing my cohort for sustainable careers across arts and commercial practice; encouraging confidence and aspiration in the face of seemingly insurmountable barriers.&nbsp; Awards Apr 2025: Jenkinson Award Winner (2026): recognising and celebrating exceptional achievement in four areas of research in the context of TIRI – publication, teamwork, early career development and research support. University of Greater Manchester. Funding early career academic conference entitled Creature, Stranger, Monster, Other (July 2026)May 2024:&nbsp;Outstanding Lecturer Award, School of the Arts (2023-24), awarded by and for the students of University of Greater Manchester Student Union Education/Qualifications:2026: Fellowship Certificate:&nbsp;Professional recognition for teaching excellence in higher education, Advance HE2025-2026:&nbsp;Postgraduate Certificate of Higher Education Teaching and Learning in Higher and Professional Education, University of Greater Manchester 2018-2020: Masters of Arts, MA Writing (240 credits), School of Arts &amp; Humanities, Royal College of Art, London 2005-2008: BA (Hons) Visual Arts (1:1), School of Arts &amp; Media, University of Salford, Greater Manchester 2004-2005: Foundation Diploma, School of Arts &amp; Media, University of Salford, Greater Manchester &nbsp; Selected Employment:2024-2025: Lecturer in Contextual Studies, BA (Hons) Fashion &amp; Communications, Liverpool John Moores University2021-Present: Lecturer in Photography Theory,&nbsp; BA (Hons) Photography, BA (Hons) Photojournalism &amp; Documentary Photography, Foundation, School of the Arts, University of Greater Manchester2016-2021: Lecturer, BA (Hons) Fine Art, School of Arts &amp; Media, University of Salford, Greater Manchester2011-Present: Co-founder, Co-editor, The Double Negative arts and culture magazine, Liverpool Selected Freelance: Jun 2025: Guest Critic (review of Liverpool Biennial), Front Row, BBC Radio 4May 2025: Guest Critic (review of National Portrait Gallery’s Stories Brought To Life), Front Row, BBC Radio 4Sep 2024: Live reading, Susan Gunn: Ground Evolution launch, Factory International, ManchesterJun 2024: Guest Speaker, MA Writing/MA Painting, School of Arts &amp; Humanities, Royal College of Art, London May 2024: Judge, Liverpool Sculpture Prize, Liverpool Bid Company and Liverpool Parish ChurchMar 2024: Guest, Criticism as a love letter, BANG ON Podcast, Short Supply, ManchesterApr 2023: Tutor, Growing the story of your art practice&nbsp;writing workshop, Finnish Painters Society, FinlandDec 2023: Consultant Critic, for artist Kreetta Järvenpää, Finnish Art Agency,&nbsp;Kouvola, Lahti and Helsinki Sep 2023-Present: Mentor, Professional Art Writing Development Scheme For Underrepresented Writers With PAPER Gallery/The Fourdrinier, Manchester Aug 2023: Guest, Confidants Podcast, Finnish Art Agency, HelsinkiAug 2023: Artist Mentor, Finnish Art Agency, HelsinkiJun 2023: Guest Tutor, MA Fine Art Digital, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London Jun 2023: Guest Critic (review of Liverpool Biennial), Front Row, BBC Radio 4 Feb 2023: Guest Tutor, BA Fine Art, University of Central Lancashire Jan 2023: Guest Tutor, MA Writing, School of Arts &amp; Humanities, Royal College of Art, London Nov 2022: Writer (feature, What’s Next For England’s Cultural Institutions After Major Funding Changes?), frieze Nov 2022: Presenter (report on Signal Film &amp; Media), Front Row, BBC Radio 4 Nov 2022: Guest Tutor, BA History of Art, Liverpool John Moores University Oct 2022: Guest Critic (review of Turner Prize), Front Row, BBC Radio 4 May 2022: Guest Critic (review of Tate’s Radical Landscapes), Front Row, BBC Radio 4 Apr 2022: Guest Critic (review of Turner Prize shortlist), Front Row, BBC Radio 4 Oct 2021: Writer (essay, A Mole Catcher’s Story), DocFest Exchange, Sheffield DocFest 2021 Aug 2021-Present: Commissioning Editor (Online), IOU Theatre, Halifax Jan-Dec 2021: Mentor, Arts Emergency, Registered Charity Number 1152377 Sep 2020-July 2021: Editor, Producer and Mentor, First Light Graduate Photography Programme, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, and Waterside Trafford, Greater Manchester Books (see Publishing page for more):2027: NIGHT, Tate Publishing2026: Alive~Asleep, Broken Sleep Books 2021: First Light: Photography Writing Now (paperback, 64 pages), Open Eye Gallery/Waterside Trafford 2019: Attention Anthology (paperback, 95 pages), Royal College of Art, ISBN 9781910642450 2019: NOIT – 5: bodies as in buildings (paperback, 324 pages), Royal College of Art/Flat Time House 2019: Present Tense: A decade since Liverpool EU Capital of Culture… What now? (paperback, 96 pages), The Double Negative, ISBN 9781527242814 2016: On Being Curious: New Critical Writing on Contemporary Art From the North-West of England (paperback, 68 pages), The Double Negative, ISBN 9781526202376 2016: Conscious Coupling, The Double Negative/The Royal Standard Writing Residency Zine 2012: The Designist: Liverpool's Must-see for the Design Obsessed (paperback, 64 pages with fold-out map), Smiling Wolf Press, ISBN 9780956099921 Residencies: 2019-20: Writer-in-Residence, Flat Time House (John Latham’s home and studio), London 2018-20: Critical Writer-in-Residence, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool 2014: Writer-in-Residence, FACT Liverpool Selected Exhibitions: Aug 2024: Exhibitor, Co-curator, Excess Baggage, Festival Voies Off, Arles/Les Rencontres d'Arles, France&nbsp; Dec 2020-Mar 2021: Exhibitor, Tell It Like It Is (Gallery 3), part of L— A City Through Its People, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool Jul 2018-Feb 2019: Exhibitor, Six Memos, Sala Municipal de Exposiciones del Museo de la Pasión, Valladolid, Spain, Galeria Labyrint, Lublin, Poland, and St Georges Hall, Liverpool Jun-Jul 2015: Curator, LIV-BCN Festival, Bau University, Barcelona, Spain, and the Exhibition Research Centre, Liverpool John Moores University Jun-Aug 2012: Curator, The Spectacle of the Lost, Victoria Gallery &amp; Museum, Liverpool Sept-Oct 2010: Co-curator, Hierarchies of Allegiance, The Royal Standard, Liverpool May 2010: Co-curator, No Soul For Sale – a Festival of Independents (The Royal Standard), Tate Modern, London Apr-May 2010: Co-curator, Bad Igloo Lust, Co-Curator, The Royal Standard, Liverpool https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/Testimonials-teaching Thu, 23 Jun 2022 08:44:22 +0000 Laura Robertson: writer https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/Testimonials-teaching Testimonials: teaching <img width="640" height="427" width_o="640" height_o="427" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/311d3c6531b3e2c910d6de4eb5cef99912a9d97048237baec605b97f681aeb90/laura-robertson-lightbox-workshop-courtesy-redeye-network-2019.jpeg" data-mid="146189003" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/640/i/311d3c6531b3e2c910d6de4eb5cef99912a9d97048237baec605b97f681aeb90/laura-robertson-lightbox-workshop-courtesy-redeye-network-2019.jpeg" /> I’ve been teaching in different capacities since 2008: with young people and adults, at galleries, studios, charities, universities, festivals, schools and colleges. It is my pleasure to teach people from all backgrounds with a kindness-first approach. Creative play is very important.&nbsp;My teaching methods are led by research into widening participation, compassion-focused pedagogy, and unconditional positive regard.I started my career at the world’s leading university for widening particpation research and practice, the University of Liverpool, working closely with secondary school pupils in the care system, and their support networks, Aim Higher, social workers, teachers and guardians. These A-grade young people were the first generation in their families to be on track to study at university. I was a recipent of similar programmes at school and know first-hand the barriers (financial, emotional, systematic, practical, the list is enormous) facing kids to get to uni, and stay there. The struggle for success doesn’t end when you get through the door; success is hard-won on a daily basis. Quite often I work with people who have been told that they ‘can’t write’; those who struggle with Dyslexia, Autism, ADHD; and those who are traumatised from poor school experiences. It is my aim to break down some of these real barriers and crippling fears with practical tools, and to re-introduce my students to writing in ways that boost lasting confidence, satisfaction, and delight in the form. I see every day, in every class, how writing can give voice to the things that matter most, and in what ways writing can evolve/energise an arts practice. Please do get in touch if you’d like to discuss a class.&nbsp;See my CV (click here) for a taste of where I’ve taught. Student testimonials For her passion, knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject, Laura is a winner of the Outstanding Lecturer Award, School of the Arts (2023-24), awarded by and for the students of University of Greater Manchester Student Union. She currently teaches criticism, theory, history and writing for BA (Hons) Photography. Laura goes above and beyond. She embraces those with additional needs. She is inspirational and has a natural passion for the role. First year BA Photography students, Pre, Present, Post Photography module (99% overall satisfaction score): Out of all the modules this semester I feel like this is the one I got the most out of, it brought me out of my shell, made me feel more comfortable speaking in front of the class. The tutor gave me excellent guidance and was always there whenever I was putting too much pressure on myself. She helped me believe in myself again and fall back in love with writing.&nbsp;This was my favourite part of semester one. I was able to get academically challenged with the writing. I enjoyed the research and learning how to reference properly.&nbsp; I really enjoy Laura’s teaching methods. She brings a lot of energy to the course - especially when the topic is heavy and harder to digest. I particularly like Laura's energy - even with the most difficult lectures she made it fun and interesting, and without her it would just not be the same. I have learned a lot and it's been surprising how, without realising it, how we can use what we've learned in other modules. She is a credit to the university. A workshop on writing artist statements (StudioBook, Mark Devereux Projects): Excellent session, Laura was brilliant, warm and energetic. Really well-paced session that included practical exercises. I came away feeling enthused about writing rather than seeing it as a necessary evil. Great examples really helped. Infectious, full of enthusiasm and hugely encouraging. Approachable and made the information accessible. Delivered with humour and personality. Super charismatic speaker. She had so much energy and left the group so excited and energised. It was great to gear so many tips and techniques from an expert. A workshop devised for artists: playing with the written ‘voice’ (SHIFT Programme, Finnish Art Agency): The way you approach writing and storytelling felt like breath of fresh air to me. It really encouraged me to use words and writing more creatively and to do it with my own personal but honest way. I'm rejuvenated. It was superb! I think you gave us more space to hear our own voice... Today your words convinced me once again that I have to write down my thoughts and work with these insecurities. I love to write but there is a challenge still. A workshop for photographers: using writing to shape your practice (Lightbox Programme, Redeye Network)I always love listening to you and last night was wonderful – thank you so much! You somehow make things seem possible and the world a bit brighter. Very inspiring. I just wanted to say thank you for your talk last night, it was super helpful, especially the breakout room and you calling me out towards the end. Although I’m thoroughly enjoying Lightbox I’m very much an introvert, and I’ve sat on the edge of the main group for most of the sessions, but your task has given me loads of confidence.You were bloody great tonight and I reckon I’m not the only one thinking that. <img width="1163" height="664" width_o="1163" height_o="664" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7389879c72aa9465b37c8ce7d4bd1ef377d44e2c78b0e2a1cefdc94c00c9acaa/Screen-Shot-2022-07-07-at-12.13.45.png" data-mid="217454897" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7389879c72aa9465b37c8ce7d4bd1ef377d44e2c78b0e2a1cefdc94c00c9acaa/Screen-Shot-2022-07-07-at-12.13.45.png" /> A review of my workshop: ‘Every time I write, I create myself’By Alex Markwith In June I had the pleasure of being a Zoom participant in a creative writing workshop with Laura Robertson of The Double Negative, hosted by the Finnish Art Agency in Helsinki. It was a highly engaging two hours during which we explored different approaches to creative writing and reconsidered the ways we write about our artistic work. The workshop is structured around several five-minute writing exercises, which Robertson says are “deliberately fast-paced in order to outrun anxiety and self-doubt while opening up a space to write instinctively”. Sounds like exactly what I need, and I think I am not alone in that sentiment. The first, and for many, most difficult, hurdle of the creative process is to give yourself permission to start, without prejudging your own thoughts. Robertson begins by emphasizing that our time together is about “creative play” rather than perfection or editing. She encourages us to “banish our inner critics” and allow our writing to “have an infancy”. Our focus today is generating text without over-analyzing, allowing ourselves the freedom to produce. Our first writing exercise is to look out the window and describe what we see. Five minutes goes by quickly, after which we are given the option to share our writing with our Zoom group and discuss the experience. It is amazing how much the simple exercise has warmed up our mental muscles, gotten our juices flowing. Laura Robertson strikes a remarkable balance between giving us time as participants to engage in the active practice of writing, and contextualizing the methodology of her workshop with a slide presentation displaying relevant images and quotes, often but not always from familiar names. “Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself.” That quote from Octavia E. Butler is one of many gems. A later exercise focuses on the subjective voice, using the first-person pronouns: I, me and my. Looking back, this seems quite logical. If “I” am writing, then of course I have to talk about me! Yet, this exercise felt oddly subversive because as I recall now, writing in the first person was something that, at least for some time during my public school years in the United States, I was explicitly taught not to do. As a teenager, I was taught that one must aspire to objectivity in one’s tone, and thus write in the third person. Remove yourself as an author; talk about the facts. No doubt that approach is well suited for certain types of writing, such as a scientific journal or academic research paper, but for an artist it’s just another rule to throw out the window if you wish. Maybe writing about your work in the first person is exactly what you need to open up. As evidence, Robertson presents a 1961 text titled “I am for an Art”, an artist statement written by Claes Oldenburg in which every sentence begins with the words “I am for”. It is inspiring to read, and becomes the basis of our next exercise. Many artists struggle to write about their own work, a curious reality we set out to untangle in our discussion. As a painter, I confirm that it is often difficult to translate my visual art practice into words. Writing about my work presents a challenge as per the truism that artists tend to be the worst people to explain their own creations. Plus, it’s important to note that when we write about our work as artists, it is often done alongside grant or exhibition applications which demand their blocky fields be filled according to specific criteria. The reward is in the distance, and I am about to submit my material into a pool of untold numbers. I need to present myself as the most qualified professional, check all the boxes, get the facts straight. No room for error! Writing under pressure, it tends not to occur that maybe I should try to access the same creative mindset that I find when painting. It again feels subversive in some way, as though creativity belongs in the studio whereas when I am writing about my work I am reporting for business, presenting a different side of myself to the public. Instead, Robertson asks: Would a more creative writing approach reflect your work better? Why are we taught in art school to keep our writing separate from our studio practice? Can your artist statement be more experimental? Robertson proposes that art writing as a whole would benefit from being less academic, and suggests several methods for us to generate more creative text. For example, you could try writing in the voice of your own favorite artist or author. You could write from the perspective of an animal. You can write from the perspective of a non-living object, including but not limited to one of your own artworks. How about writing from the perspective of a color? If that type of thing is too “out there” for your taste, no problem. Take a few deep breaths and describe the sounds of your surroundings, without using metaphor or simile. You could also try to create an inventory of items in your home: look around and list every item you see, then categorize. Of course, these are only a few of the endless ways to overcome the dreaded “writer’s block”. It must be said, but it should go without saying that you can always invent your own exercises. As Laura Robertson says, “We can write any way we want.” Alex Markwith, 2023.Image courtesy Redeye Network, 2019. https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/Bedside-Table Mon, 13 Jul 2020 11:04:15 +0000 Laura Robertson: writer https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/Bedside-Table Bedside table: currently reading&nbsp; <img width="4032" height="1936" width_o="4032" height_o="1936" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c5df02c766f96d2420653012e096819bab8f8078ed6be13bd7a6b57a680f7205/PXL_20250717_105701932.jpg" data-mid="235987729" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c5df02c766f96d2420653012e096819bab8f8078ed6be13bd7a6b57a680f7205/PXL_20250717_105701932.jpg" /> July 2025 Re/reading for/around Creature, Stranger, Monster, Other. conference in 2026. On intersectional feminism, animism, horror and folklore. <img width="3809" height="2142" width_o="3809" height_o="2142" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4127a9120c4627e4e803022d7c5c70c6424c8802b17d2f631950e0e232891703/45d84a74-f06d-484e-a9cf-748b2094d0d41.jpg" data-mid="225894246" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4127a9120c4627e4e803022d7c5c70c6424c8802b17d2f631950e0e232891703/45d84a74-f06d-484e-a9cf-748b2094d0d41.jpg" />January 2025 &nbsp; June 2024&nbsp; Gormenghast Trilogy, Mervyn Peake (1992) The Source : The Secrets of the Universe, the Science of the Brain, Dr Tara Swart (2020) The Platform Edge: Uncanny Tales of the Railways,&nbsp;ed. Mike Ashley (British Library, 2019) The White Book, Han Kang (2018)... again Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative, Melissa Febos (2022) The Watchers, AM Shine (2022) <img width="4000" height="3000" width_o="4000" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eddade748991c2429cd4140a9c9b69b50627d61792d5001e498a02036ccc98b7/20220110_161021.jpg" data-mid="129653473" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/eddade748991c2429cd4140a9c9b69b50627d61792d5001e498a02036ccc98b7/20220110_161021.jpg" /> January 2022&nbsp; <img width="2016" height="1512" width_o="2016" height_o="1512" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e1caf8f9099314cc7b2466ad37eaa5aa53eb9309f68039961a132068db1ed9ef/IMG_6001.JPG" data-mid="77233267" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e1caf8f9099314cc7b2466ad37eaa5aa53eb9309f68039961a132068db1ed9ef/IMG_6001.JPG" /> July 2020 Doorway to Dilema: Bewildering Tales of Dark Fantasy, ed. Mike Ashley (British Library, 2019) An American Story,&nbsp;Christopher Priest (Gollancz, 2019) The Happy Reader with Owen Wilson, Issue 13 (Summer 2019) On Kindle:&nbsp; Once Upon a Time: A short history of fairy tale, Marina Warner (Oxford University Press, 2014) The Archive of Alternate Endings, Lindsey Drager (Dzanc Books, 2019)Minerva the Miscarriage of the Brain, Johanna Hedva (Sming Sming Books, 2020) Contact Laura Robertson Based in Liverpool, UK, with easy access to airport and train services. Free to travel. To discuss hiring me (commissions, guest lectures/workshops, mentoring, visiting studios, etc.), do get in touch. I’m happy to discuss approaches, rates and availability: ︎︎︎ laura[at]thedoublenegative[dot]co[dot]uk︎ +44(0)7854697434 Read my indie arts and culture magazine, co-founded with arts writer Mike Pinnington in 2011:︎︎︎ www.thedoublenegative.co.uk Tweet tweet:︎︎︎ @doublenegativeL TikTok:︎︎︎ @art_critic_laura Buy me a coffee ☕️️ :︎︎︎ www.buymeacoffee.com/laurarobbo https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/A-Mole-Catcher-s-Story Mon, 01 Nov 2021 12:43:24 +0000 Laura Robertson: writer https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/A-Mole-Catcher-s-Story A Mole Catcher’s Story: Sheffield DocFest <img width="2600" height="1465" width_o="2600" height_o="1465" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7c0addaa57582156af884825ce795c99347fd9fd0c2f1abf8a9bb6a0191bd3c7/earth-swimmers1.jpg" data-mid="123270979" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7c0addaa57582156af884825ce795c99347fd9fd0c2f1abf8a9bb6a0191bd3c7/earth-swimmers1.jpg" /> Reading time: 4 minutesA SHORT RESPONSE TO HERMIONE SPRIGGS’ SHORT FILM, EARTH SWIMMERS COMMISSIONED BY SHEFFIELD DOCFEST, FOR DOCFEST EXCHANGE: BEYOND OUR OWN EYES (OCTOBER 2021) I have only ever seen dead moles, crammed into a large Victorian glass jar like some grotesque confectionery. They’re still there, floating in formaldehyde on a dusty museum shelf, faces creased in sweet smiles. I tell you this because it seems relevant to Hermione Spriggs’ Earth Swimmers: a short film in communion with a mole catcher. Those museum moles come back to haunt me, now, and I imagine them tumbling out to freedom. Moles are as much part of the British countryside as rabbits or foxes, yet you, too, are unlikely to have ever seen a live one. Perhaps you’ve tripped over a molehill or fortress – characterised by the RSPB nature conservation charity as being ‘especially conspicuous on the lawn’. The creature that spends its time in darkness beneath the damp underbelly of the North York Moors is all paws: four pale, almost translucent clawed feet, surrounding a fat little bat-like body. It has a second thumb, a wriggly wrist bone extending front paws into excellent scooping tools. Far from useless, minuscule mole eyes have advanced retinas that detect light and inform its body clock. It sculpts tunnels morning and evening to the exact width of its tiny bulk, feeling its way forward with highly sensitive whiskers and a wet snout. The mole is capable of shifting thirteen pounds of soil in twenty minutes, which is astonishing for such a small thing; it weighs less than a Heinz baby can of spaghetti and the earthworms it slurps, much like strings of pasta, are often longer than the beast itself. Earth Swimmers provides a mole-eyed-view of sorts, through the expertise of mole catcher Nigel Stock. Partly the film listens in on Nigel and Hermione on one of their walks, contemplating a pool of water – what’s in it, under it, how deep, how far a dog would sink into the mud – and partly it tracks Nigel walking across nearby fields, over unseen burrows. We push into collapsing soil via a telescopic camera, probe-like, and become an extension of Nigel’s body; his boot carefully tests the summer earth to see where it gives way to tunnels and a stick is inserted, a gap created, for the snare. Traditionally, trap pegs, or ‘mumble pins’, were made of wood and held supple with saliva in the catcher’s mouth until needed, causing the mumble of the name. Now, he uses a metal contraption that can be bought online for as little as £4. Hermione’s tread is soft around these customs. Any arguments of whether the mole is a ‘pest’ or not and what should be done about it – of which there are many – are never discussed. What is keenly felt is an uncomfortable paradox: hunters are often those who love animals the most. Nigel loves moles. I love animals, eat meat, and occasionally visit zoos. I am a hypocrite. The auditory and visual experience of Earth Swimmers upends our human perspective and takes us, literally, into the earth, and into a type of thinking that is uncomfortable. I quietly urge the mole to escape. At no point do we learn why Nigel hunts. He is highly skilled, able to access signs and sensations that are invisible to the rest of us.Nigel himself is more of a mysterious and endangered species than the mole. At a time when people are calling large companies, like Rentokil, to fumigate the land with chemicals, he trains apprentices in the old ways. His primary goal is to think like a mole, anticipate its movements, and make a mole trap fit so perfectly into its tunnel that it never suspects that certain death awaits. Let’s speak plainly of that death: the last thing the mole will hear is the twang of the spring-loaded wire and the crack of its breastbone. The film walks a tense line between these contradictions: of carefully studying animals and systematically killing them; of concern for – and pride in – a job well done, even if that job is extermination. It’s winter now and Nigel will find the earth harder to excavate. His breath will plume in the cold air, but his moles will be warm, nesting deep underground. I re-watch the scene of his dirty boots in slow-motion, the distorted sound of a shotgun exploding in the distance, and fancy a tenacious mole picking up on these vibrations and becoming suspicious of the tunnel ahead; stopping, sniffing, and alert, whiskers twitching, before digging a new path entirely. © Laura Robertson, 2021. Full text Image credits: courtesy Hermione SpriggsEarth Swimmers attends to the tricks and techniques that mole catchers use to access the underground world of the mole. Using tools as portals into the mole's vibratory world, probes, feet, noses and worm-charming instruments lead the viewer into alternative ways of sensing and knowing the earth.by Hermione Spriggsin collaboration with Nigel StockSound Artist (field recordings, sound design): Jez riley FrenchDocFest Exchange is a year-long curated programme, exploring themes of climate justice and the health of the planet through screenings, discussions, talks, workshops, collaborations and micro-commissions.&nbsp;Curated by Jamie Allan and supported by Wellcome Trust. More here.︎︎︎ https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/What-s-Next-For-England-s-Cultural-Institutions-After-Major-Funding Sun, 22 Jan 2023 15:18:51 +0000 Laura Robertson: writer https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/What-s-Next-For-England-s-Cultural-Institutions-After-Major-Funding What’s Next For England’s Cultural Institutions After Major Funding Changes? <img width="1352" height="732" width_o="1352" height_o="732" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eb33c22675cc839a510182e3a636e8be6a65e3f5fd79d3341bd4692298a25494/Screen-Shot-2023-01-22-at-15.22.37.png" data-mid="165565733" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/eb33c22675cc839a510182e3a636e8be6a65e3f5fd79d3341bd4692298a25494/Screen-Shot-2023-01-22-at-15.22.37.png" /> Reading time: 5 minutesRESPONDING TO ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND’S NPO WINNERS AND LOSERS COMMISSIONED BY FRIEZE ‘The decision is unfathomable. Our productions reflect who we are […] and how we relate to each other.’ With 25 years’ experience, Annette Burghes, Executive Director of Liverpool’s Collective Encounters theatre, understands how to run a successful charity. As of last week, however, Burghes and her team were devastated to hear that they will lose 25 percent of their annual income, following Arts Council England’s (ACE) decision to drop them as a National Portfolio Organization (NPO) after 14 years of regular investment. The loss will undoubtedly impact their outreach projects, including their poetry, drama and music classes for dementia carers, which one participant described as ‘the future’ of arts training. Collective Encounters is just one of the numerous English organizations and associated freelancers left reeling by the recent NPO announcement, in what has become a high-stakes scrap for government funds. The news – already delayed by a week, owing to another government reshuffle in late October – comes during what the housing charity Shelter has termed ‘the worst cost-of-living crisis in the UK since the 1950s’. For this article, I contacted 22 NPOs – a broad range of combined arts, dance, literature, museums, music, theatre and visual arts providers – that have been impacted both positively and negatively by ACE’s decisions. Museum training and consultancy agency Arts&amp;Heritage, founded in Northumberland in 2009, lost 75 percent of their annual funding in one fell swoop. Executive Director Stephanie Allen tells me that being removed from the portfolio was a ‘shock’, especially considering that her team has ‘over-performed’ through the COVID-19 crisis. ‘We’re getting our heads around it. What else can you do?’ she says. ‘To be honest, we’ve done brilliantly: we’re financially stable, we’ve had projects all over the country, good reserves … We didn’t expect this outcome.’ So, why has ACE terminated specialists like this? Put simply: there isn’t enough money to go round. While the UK Government’s Department of Digital, Culture, Media &amp; Sport (DCMS) estimated the value of the industry at GB£115.9 billion in 2019, this year ACE have received just GB£446 million per year to re-invest. The arts are an oft-lauded but underfunded national export. <img height="600" src="https://static.frieze.com/files/inline-images/2022-08-02_ChisatoMinamimura-17-1200x800.jpg" width="900" style="width: 900px; height: 600px;"> Chisato Minamimura preparing to shoot 'Hesychia', a project supported by Arts&amp;Heritage, 2022. Courtesy: Arts&amp;Heritage and the Ure Museum of Archaeology, University of Reading As part of an excruciating live conversation with ACE Chair Sir Nicholas Serota, on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row on 7 November, Stuart Murphy, Chief Executive Officer of the English National Opera (ENO), said he was ‘bemused, baffled’ to hear they’d been axed, and expected to relocate from London to Manchester in just five months’ time, despite glowing ACE reports on diversity, young audiences and modernization. Baritone Sir Bryn Terfel Jones, CBE, has launched a petition demanding that ENO be reinstated as an NPO with immediate effect, or risk ‘the careers of singers, musicians, technical staff, creatives and other skilled workers both permanent and freelance’. ENO is one of 24 London-based organizations – including Clore Leadership Programme, Improbable theatre and Orchestras for All – who will relocate, in an unprecedented shift of culture out of the capital to other parts of the country. As a knock-on effect of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s 2019 election promise to ‘level-up’ regions in economic decline, ACE and the DCMS have spent GB£43.5 million across 78 ‘Levelling Up for Culture Places’, spending GB£43.5 million on a list of areas from Portsmouth to County Durham. Serota defended the ‘very difficult’ decision, saying ACE had ‘decided we should not spread the misery across every company in the country, we should actually identify those companies that we felt could survive a withdrawal of their funding, and on which we had faith that they had the ability to respond’. On how they’d been ‘under instruction’ from an unspecified Secretary of State to move money out of London – when they are meant to be, according to their own charter, ‘at arm’s length’ from government – Serota responded: ‘In broad terms, it’s taxpayers’ money [...] But it’s up to ACE to take the decisions about the detail.’ Such faith is unlikely to bring comfort to those who must now consider downsizing or closing altogether. In their press release, ACE declared this the ‘most competitive-ever NPO round’, and ‘unable to invest in all of the organizations who made strong applications’, selected just 990 from 1,730 applicants. The good news is that the number of NPOs has increased, from 831 in 2018-22, and 670 in 2015-18. In all, 276 new NPOs were revealed, including multi-arts centre Arts at the Mill in Wigan’s Old Courts, Future Yard music venue in Birkenhead, Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot, parkland-set Whitaker Museum and Gallery in Rossendale, and artist-led Turf Projects in Croydon. <img height="505" src="https://static.frieze.com/files/inline-images/1024px-London_Coliseum_Auditorium_2018-09-23_2.jpg" width="900" style="width: 900px; height: 505px;"> The London Coliseum, current home of the English National Opera, 2018. Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons My sources – many of whom asked to be quoted anonymously, due to a perceived fear of stigma that may influence other potential funders – slammed ACE for their ‘inaccessible’ NPO application design, which takes years to plan, research and edit, and is ‘wholly inadequate’ as a way to assess quality. Several experienced bid writers described a ‘formidable’ process: months of training sessions and videos for staff to disseminate; multiple, complex and ‘contradictory’ guidelines; the ‘confusing’ addition of Investment Principles Support Organization as an alternative option to NPO; ‘broken’ spreadsheets; and a ‘terrible’ online interface. One anonymous source called the NPO rejection ‘demoralizing’, adding that it ‘nearly broke’ her small team outside of London, who have been the ‘epitome of resilience’. Her mainly part-time colleagues have been ‘brought to their knees’ with the amount of work needed to apply for, and then lose, NPO funds. ‘Despite all the guidance, you still find yourself second-guessing what they’re asking for,’ she says. ‘It’s been the most explicit framework to date: everything has to be re-written through this rigid structure. What you lose is the ability to talk about a project through your passion for it, what the actual experience is.’ Another source, however, believed ACE’s new ‘outcome rather than output’ focus made a positive change from ‘bean-counting and continual growth’. She also commented that ACE are swamped with paperwork, leaving very little time to ‘work on the ground’. Another had not seen her local ACE Relationship Manager – a key mediator and advisor – for the entire two years it took her organization to apply. Chrysalis Arts Development in Yorkshire – which specializes in supporting communities in rural locations that face internet black-spots, unaffordable housing, unreliable public transport and loneliness – is also feeling the ‘spread’ of ‘misery’ aforementioned by Serota. Executive Director Christine Keogh reveals that Chrysalis lost NPO status, despite being ‘in a very strong position to deliver the aims of Let’s Create’, ACE’s ten-year strategy. ‘The appraisal of our work and proposed programme seems scant and the decision not to fund us focuses almost entirely on insufficient data,’ she tells me. Their professional development opportunities for artists at all career stages will take the brunt, says Keogh, as will new lodging: ‘without core funding, we are unsure whether we can continue to operate the building, let alone offer artists free accommodation and a residency fee’. Reading between the lines, it seems that many companies are simply not fitting the NPO mould as ACE have recast it: those who take slow or long-term approaches; those who are unable to evidence ‘legacy’ data; those who spread out their work across a large geographic area, nationally or virtually (rather than in a defined locale); or those who lie within ‘cold spots’ (wealthy regions with pockets of poverty). Questions remain over how ACE will manage former NPOs who may face reverting back to short-term, intense turnaround, project-by-project grants – a depressing stagnation for evolving arts spaces at a time when everyone is feeling acute financial and emotional strain. Will institutions continue to employ their staff? Will they repeat popular programmes with proven records of success? What are the ramifications for people crying out for ‘levelling-up’, who now live in an area without a secure NPO? As Burghes reminds me, arts and culture workers bring skills, confidence and hope to some of the lowest-paid and most vulnerable people in our society. Her theatre, she tells me, is ‘drawing attention to the vast social, political and economic inequality that exists in the country, and I can only surmise these are uncomfortable messages for those in power right now’. © Laura Robertson, 2022. Full textMain image credits: Donna Huanca, 'CUEVA DE COPAL', 2022, installation view. Courtesy: Arnolfini; photograph: Lisa Whiting Photography More here.︎︎︎ https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/Turner-Prize-2022-review Thu, 27 Oct 2022 15:50:37 +0000 Laura Robertson: writer https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/Turner-Prize-2022-review “Exhibition at the end of the world”:&nbsp;Turner Prize 2022 (review) <img width="980" height="653" width_o="980" height_o="653" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1c5fe5ea2165b846a6fcc8dc54efff06b8a18bf921f9f45d5141d7467b1c7d4e/ingrid-pollard-turner--InstallationViewSonalBakrania_slider.jpg" data-mid="157170954" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/980/i/1c5fe5ea2165b846a6fcc8dc54efff06b8a18bf921f9f45d5141d7467b1c7d4e/ingrid-pollard-turner--InstallationViewSonalBakrania_slider.jpg" /> Reading time: 4 minutesA REVIEW OF THE ANNUAL PRIZE FOR BRITISH CONTEMPORARY ART WRITTEN FOR THE DOUBLE NEGATIVE (OCTOBER 2022) Welcome back, Turner Prize! The conversation-starting exhibition rarely leaves London, yet here it is again in Liverpool for the second time in fifteen years, and with free tickets to-boot. A cause for celebration in itself, if you are to think about the city’s transformative title as European Capital of Culture in 2008. In 2007, I was at Tate Liverpool for a Turner Prize which saw Mark Wallinger (wearing a bear suit) win. The city’s taxi drivers were trained as art critics that year, and a Black Cab was parked in the gallery, screening (on the back seat) critical debate with passengers. It was a bizarre, thrilling experience, as is Turner Prize 2022. It is a show so dynamic, so full of deep readings, mood swings and fluctuations of energy, I need a beer afterwards to decompress. It’s a wild ride: one that feels apt and right for the UK we are living in today. I’m surrounded by people in the gallery, of all ages: pensioners and kids alike, staring, rapt, at fake breasts and images of protest, examining tiny sculptures and listening to booming sound art. Generous and clear in its messaging of current ideas, issues and politics, this Turner Prize will reward multiple visits. I’ll start with the artist who I think should win: Ingrid Pollard. All four shortlisted artists – Pollard, Heather Phillipson, Veronica Ryan and Sin Wai Kin – have very strong points of view, are relevant and contemporary, and provocative in their own ways: traits we’ve come to demand from the annual award. So how to choose a winner out of four worthy ones? Well, Pollard feels like an artist at the top of her game: the show here (based on Carbon Slowly Turning at MK Gallery, which was her first full retrospective of a practice spanning 40 years) is multi-layered, expertly researched, and plays with techniques and processes beyond the photography she is so well-known for. Crucially, for me, Pollard’s selected work packs a gut-punch, lingering in the mind long after you’ve voted for your favourite (there are tokens provided at the exit, and slotted perspex boxes, one for each artist)&nbsp;and left the gallery. <img width="980" height="653" width_o="980" height_o="653" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a6975831437eda0020a706deda5f6f98c6397cea0445086d3922d7071b09e6a3/heather-phillipson-turner-Installation--Matt-Greenwood_slider.jpg" data-mid="157170984" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/980/i/a6975831437eda0020a706deda5f6f98c6397cea0445086d3922d7071b09e6a3/heather-phillipson-turner-Installation--Matt-Greenwood_slider.jpg" /> But back to Pollard later, who closes the show. Opening the Turner Prize with a howl, quite literally, is Heather Phillipson’s RUPTURE NO.1: blowtorching the bitten peach (first exhibited at Tate Britain in 2021). Apocalyptic and bonkers, it feels like an exhibition at the end of the world: we are watching species soon to be extinct, from a planet in death throes, that we are destroying. Like robots, we stand in rows, put on headphones that dangle from the ceiling, and plug ourselves into a soundtrack of ominous weather forecasts (“I thought the world was everything… Your life depends on it… The temperatures are beginning to rise…”). There’s always a silliness, an absurdity, undercut by the unsettling or uncanny in Phillipson’s work that I love (think the ‘eggsyrub’ installation in London Underground, or her fly-in-cream Fourth Plinth sculpture, or the smear test film). The ludicrousness and irrationality of destroying your own habitat is quite plain –our world, as Phillipson suggests, is on fire. At the door, sands around something resembling a bomb shelter are illuminated by the peach of the title, masquerading as the setting sun.Veronica Ryan’s room abruptly forces you to slow down. You step from chaos into a space full of ‘do not touch’ fragile objects on plinths (with some lingering aural bleed-through from the previous room): a sickly yellow display of tiny sculptures, intricately and expertly cast from plaster, crocheted, stitched and wrapped in twine. This work was made on residency at Spike Island and exhibited as Along a Spectrum in 2021. Initially, I wondered why Ryan’s room hadn’t been soundproofed, designed into the final spaces of the exhibition; perhaps even providing us with spaces to sit, lie down or touch quilted and padded materials. <img width="980" height="653" width_o="980" height_o="653" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/548ea00ca4eda32af2acc2308262ffca63732543332831c874811394bb0fed07/veronica-ryan-turner--InstallationTatePhotography_slider.jpg" data-mid="157171067" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/980/i/548ea00ca4eda32af2acc2308262ffca63732543332831c874811394bb0fed07/veronica-ryan-turner--InstallationTatePhotography_slider.jpg" /> But this is not a calming space. Do not get too comfortable. It put me in mind of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, about a convalescing woman who sees patterns on the walls in the bedroom of her new house, and is driven mad. As soon as you read what these fragile things are called, the room suddenly becomes incredibly disconcerting. A neck pillow made from plaster and netting is transformed from harmless to gross, with the title Infection III (2020). Suddenly, you’re taken back in time, into lockdown, and this pleasurable sensation of tactility you receive from looking at the handmade turns into a fear of touch, and what that may lead to: illness or death. In these intelligent acts, Ryan reminds us of what we’ve lost and what we’ve gone through.&nbsp; Sin Wai Kin’s world is existential and life-affirming: one of pop culture, Chinese philosophy, and poems about the universe and what it means to live in it. A dreamy boyband performs on screen in the first room, gently singing “It’s always you” – much like a love song sang to the mirror. Boyband-branded wallpaper and posters of each member – The One, Wai King, The Universe, The Storyteller – makes for a teenage giddiness which is joyful and reflective in tone. Shortlisted after being featured in the touring British Art Show 9 exhibition in 2021 (a similar celebration of British contemporary art now, which often influences the Turner nominees), Sin plays multiple characters. You might have seen their work as Victoria Sin, represented here in framed, Turin Shroud-like make-up wipes bearing flamboyant imprints of lipstick and eyeshadow (Taking of the Construct day1, 2 &amp;3, 2021).&nbsp;They, we, ask: who am I? I thought about the manifestation of our different selves, distinctive ‘constructs’, that can emerge at any given time in our lives. What do we say to others in our actions? What do we say inwardly, to ourselves, as a way of understanding who we are, as self-awareness, as self-criticism? <img width="980" height="653" width_o="980" height_o="653" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f77d149f165636ce045636768621d7fbe89c5562797780b57d37fe419d5034e9/sin-wai-kin--turner--InstallationViewSonalBakrania_slider.jpg.jpg" data-mid="157171034" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/980/i/f77d149f165636ce045636768621d7fbe89c5562797780b57d37fe419d5034e9/sin-wai-kin--turner--InstallationViewSonalBakrania_slider.jpg.jpg" /> Coming full circle, Pollard’s show is horrifying in comparison. The artist gives us space to think about the image of Africa as seen through British eyes, as believed through the fiction, caricatures and cartoons lingering post-Empire (Seventeen of Sixty-Eight, 2019). Pollard’s landscape and documentary photographs of real pub and street signs from around the UK – Black Boy, Black Boy Inn, Black Boy Wood – are collected here alongside extracts from books, a film of a dancing Black marionette, and the wooden signs themselves, as well as embossed prints stark in their whiteness; as raised white letters on thick white paper, illustrating the bare outlines of Black men and boys depicted at stereotypical labour, at work in fields, in turbans, in the foreground of palm trees. It is an archive of racism. Literature is utilised to deepen communication, as with the quote from Maya Angelou stuck high up on the wall (‘Now you understand. Just why my head’s not bowed’). In Pollard’s work, these patterns of pain keep repeating themselves. Her kinetic sculptures bow down and very low, as their title suggests, again and again. It’s agonising for them to do so, and awful to watch. They shriek, scratch and scrape, fall and stumble forward. One sculpture, made of thick ropes, has a horrible, flopping body language; in another, two rusty saws rub together like locust legs; the upright one with a baseball bat (imbedded with glass and apparently found in the woods by Pollard) shakes its head from side to side, in a ‘no’ gesture, wheels squeaking. Other works are evidence of subjugation and dissent: the holographic prints of an endlessly curtseying Black child dressed in Sunday best (Bow Down and Very Low-123, 2021); of demonstrations, printed on voile and hung like banners on the wall (called No Cover Up, 2021, showing banners of ‘Hands off Grenada’, ‘Ban Racist Reporting’; ‘Total Eclipse of The Sun’), of verbal abuse and rejection (DENY: IMAGINE: ATTACK: SILENCE, 1991/2019). Bring the Turner Prize back to Liverpool every year, please, and in-case you couldn’t guess at my vote: Ingrid Pollard to win. © Laura Robertson, 2021. Full text More here.︎︎︎ See the Turner Prize 2022 at Tate Liverpool until 19 March 2023 – FREE entry Image credits, from top: Turner Prize 2022: Heather Phillipson: Rupture No 6: biting theblowtorched peach. Installation View at Tate Liverpool 2022. Photo: © Tate Photography (Matt Greenwood) Turner Prize 2022: Veronica Ryan. Installation View at Tate Liverpool 2022. Photo: © Tate Photography (Matt Greenwood) Turner Prize 2022: Sin Wai Kin: It’s Always You. Installation View at Tate Liverpool 2022. Photo: © Tate Photography (Sonal Bakrania) Turner Prize 2022: Ingrid Pollard: Bow Down and Very Low–123, DENY: IMAGINE: ATTACK: SILENCE, No Cover Up. Installation View at Tate Liverpool 2022. Photo: © Tate Photography (Sonal Bakrania) https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/Celestial-Bodies-and-First-Light-Zine Wed, 15 Jul 2020 13:29:51 +0000 Laura Robertson: writer https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/Celestial-Bodies-and-First-Light-Zine Celestial Bodies (and First Light Zine) <img width="900" height="720" width_o="900" height_o="720" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7e366604e091ba122d12b6bd074ac29e195fff22b70b771baa37b68677caa56e/Celestial_Bodies_13.jpeg" data-mid="108445709" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/900/i/7e366604e091ba122d12b6bd074ac29e195fff22b70b771baa37b68677caa56e/Celestial_Bodies_13.jpeg" /> Reading time: 5 minutesA SHORT FICTION RESPONSE TO DAVID KETLEY’S CAMERALESS PHOTOGRAPHYWRITTEN FOR FIRST LIGHT: PHOTOGRAPHY WRITING NOW: ZINE PRODUCED AND EDITED BY THE AUTHOR FOR OPEN EYE GALLERY/WATERSIDE ARTS, MAY 2021 (BUY HERE) It’s a star-crèche, The Traveller thought.&nbsp; He drifted through it: a dazzling cloud of gas and dust almost unbearable in its scale. He could see protostars, hot baby stars in the first stages of their development. Like diamonds, each one needed a tremendous amount of pressure. The cloud’s own gravitational collapse would push and press them into existence over a long, long time. It was a drunk perspective: a blue and red mist that dispersed confusingly away from him against layer upon layer of filmy deposits – which, he realised, were other galaxies behind it, hundreds of millions of light-years away. And behind these lay a bottomless blackness, a black-black material that the stars ate away at, burning hydrogen into helium, hungrily, burning helium, then, into carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. Stars sculpt the shape of their cluster. They sculpt the world around them. Every star had a different brilliance, something to do with the magnetic field interacting with the gas. His ship tracked and logged every budding sun: its dimensions, velocity, and all dust devils left in their wake – a trail of celestial crumbs. Waste dust becomes planets. He lingered on that for a moment. He had time. He clenched and unclenched his fist to let the tension out. The insistence of life was too much – the cloud just went on and on and on. Oh, to live for 10 billion years! And what a death: a supernova to rattle the gods. His would barely make the news. <img width="550" height="688" width_o="550" height_o="688" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1f819bf95608dc59f14728f5d8e66e53dfd1990ee819a56cf729b2937cbcbde6/Celestial_Bodies_1.jpeg" data-mid="108445673" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/550/i/1f819bf95608dc59f14728f5d8e66e53dfd1990ee819a56cf729b2937cbcbde6/Celestial_Bodies_1.jpeg" /> What’s it like to know, to be certain, that your light will never be extinguished? Confident in immortality? When these stars croaked, their death-explosion would be seen years after the event; imprinted on strange eyes, separated by vast distances, and themselves condemned to the lifespan of a flickering candle. The Traveller keenly felt – not knew, felt – the possibility of worlds within worlds. Did that make him divine matter, whether he lasted 100 years or 100 million? He blinked, exaggeratedly, to wash away the imaginary supernova. Every blink left an inverted afterimage in black and white. Drained of its colour, the universe before him flattened into an ancient, 2D surface, eroded, battered and scratched with repeating tiny patterns. He gripped the panel in front of him. Nauseous, he leant forward, suddenly feeling very, very small. The view distorted from star cloud to petri dish, from nebula to primordial soup. He was part of a dizzying string of micro and macro events. The Traveller swallowed, hard, licked his lips. Prehistoric parasites occupied his warm, wet mouth. He could sense them wriggling about, manipulating his immune system, his gut, his teeth, his bad breath. Anticipating a retch, he spat, and the saliva dribbled down his chin, so he did it again with more conviction, and this time a satisfying gob slapped against the cold floor. It was corrupted by mouth flora that he couldn’t see, but he knew they were there. A bacterial community, previously on tongue and tooth, were digesting the starch from his lunch into energy. Like stars, they had an insatiable need to consume. What was the difference, he thought, between in here and out there? He swallowed again, took a breath, and accelerated forward. © Laura Robertson, 2021. Full text Image credits: courtesy David Ketleydavidketley.com / IG @davidketley.art First Light: photography writing now, edited by Laura Robertson,&nbsp;features new interdisciplinary texts by twelve 2020 graduates, who have been nominated by writing programmes and undergraduate degrees from across the North-West of England. Commissioned to respond to graduate photography, these short, ambitious texts destabilise traditional photography criticism: fluctuating in form, style and tone, from theoretical reflection to the magazine-style feature, to poetry to flash fiction. The publication accompanies the First Light exhibition (22 May – 4 July 2021) at Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces in Warrington, and First Light Spotlight: a season of talks connecting new photography with new writing (16 March – 8 June 2021). Buy here for £5&nbsp;︎︎︎ <img width="655" height="805" width_o="655" height_o="805" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/07eaddd96c512266c6bfa8a5a2bd7130e5a672da403c641b27611b71c6b81915/Screen-Shot-2022-04-07-at-10.51.19.png" data-mid="138955991" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/655/i/07eaddd96c512266c6bfa8a5a2bd7130e5a672da403c641b27611b71c6b81915/Screen-Shot-2022-04-07-at-10.51.19.png" /><img width="1472" height="1046" width_o="1472" height_o="1046" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0718e6b7917fd1ee2d4f57de9fc5fb06259a5439014408a88616a681351f34ea/Screen-Shot-2022-04-07-at-10.38.24.png" data-mid="138955997" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0718e6b7917fd1ee2d4f57de9fc5fb06259a5439014408a88616a681351f34ea/Screen-Shot-2022-04-07-at-10.38.24.png" /> <img width="1472" height="1046" width_o="1472" height_o="1046" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/95c655cd88efed4d990f93cce9c2bd37823e2d53bb2fa65a6ee38d4da7b1ffb6/Screen-Shot-2022-04-07-at-10.37.42.png" data-mid="138955995" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/95c655cd88efed4d990f93cce9c2bd37823e2d53bb2fa65a6ee38d4da7b1ffb6/Screen-Shot-2022-04-07-at-10.37.42.png" /><img width="1473" height="1045" width_o="1473" height_o="1045" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/238515f566b0ae6a9871819db3bfcfc03909ce7d170f5b7ea3f78f3c5d888d00/Screen-Shot-2022-04-07-at-10.38.00.png" data-mid="138955996" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/238515f566b0ae6a9871819db3bfcfc03909ce7d170f5b7ea3f78f3c5d888d00/Screen-Shot-2022-04-07-at-10.38.00.png" /><img width="1472" height="1044" width_o="1472" height_o="1044" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d8e4dbdd03fe43e0999aca51d8a1091e7e2cc1aac692daaf2ece68257d3a6e75/Screen-Shot-2022-04-07-at-10.38.51.png" data-mid="138955998" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d8e4dbdd03fe43e0999aca51d8a1091e7e2cc1aac692daaf2ece68257d3a6e75/Screen-Shot-2022-04-07-at-10.38.51.png" /> https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/Letter-from-Helsinki-Dream-Archipelago Fri, 14 May 2021 12:06:00 +0000 Laura Robertson: writer https://laurarobertsoniswriting.cargo.site/Letter-from-Helsinki-Dream-Archipelago Letter from Helsinki: Dream Archipelago <img width="2362" height="1575" width_o="2362" height_o="1575" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a50298ed65d2161235c9072e84c4cae1229fb85216e258b8cda5d8e5ab4b3eca/Helsinki-Biennial--Vallisaari.-Photo-Matti-Pyykko-3.jpg" data-mid="108445415" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a50298ed65d2161235c9072e84c4cae1229fb85216e258b8cda5d8e5ab4b3eca/Helsinki-Biennial--Vallisaari.-Photo-Matti-Pyykko-3.jpg" /> Reading time: 13 minutes FIRST PUBLISHED IN ART MONTHLY, ISSUE 438, JULY-AUGUST 2020 They start to squeak after 9pm, small winged bodies, upside down, inching out from roosts in outbuildings and tree hollows. Their thick fur is yellow-tipped, giving them a tousled, golden appearance. The forest is an ideal hunting ground to catch insects in mid-flight. In the long days of the short Finnish summer, they give birth; their babies hunt independently in just three weeks. The Northern Bat (Eptesicus nilssonii) is found across Central and Eastern Europe, the Artic Circle and here, in Finland, on Vallisaari Island of the southern Helsinki archipelago. The capital pokes out into the clean, cold waters of the Gulf of Finland, fed by the Baltic Sea, and is surrounded by 330 rocky islands. Due to host the inaugural Helsinki Biennial at the time of press, Covid-19 has forced this big event, like many others, to be pushed back twelve months, and production has ceased. The island itself can still be accessed by boat in around 15 to 20 minutes from Market Square. Hidden from view behind the more famous island of Suomenlinna, and separated only by a narrow channel, Vallisaari has been open to the public since May 2016; visitors can hop across &lt;deleted&gt; with a €12 JT-Line water-bus ticket. Since the Middle Ages, Vallisaari (‘Embankment Island’) has provided drinking water and sanctuary for fishermen, pilots and smugglers alike. In the early 19th century, the Russians used the unguarded island to bombard Sweden’s sprawling sea fortress on Suomenlinna, eventually taking Finland from Swedish to Russian rule; it continued as a military base through both world wars, and its grounds are veined with underground bunkers to this day. More than 300 people lived here in the mid 20th century, farming small plots, until they dwindled in number. The last person left in 1996. The Finnish Defence Forces relinquished control in 2008, and it is now managed by Metsähallitus, Parks &amp; Wildlife Finland. <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/566bf9d321ab74eeff2408f29cac143b1fcc76e9663298cf50d21336a13a6059/Helsinki-Biennial--Vallisaari.-Photo-Matti-Pyykko-12.jpg" data-mid="108445417" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/566bf9d321ab74eeff2408f29cac143b1fcc76e9663298cf50d21336a13a6059/Helsinki-Biennial--Vallisaari.-Photo-Matti-Pyykko-12.jpg" /> What makes Vallisaari so special is its biodiversity. It is just a stone’s throw from the Finnish capital yet nature has been allowed to flourish for more than 20 years. It now boasts the richest environment of the 200 surveyed islands. Rich woodlands of aspen and bird cherry trees provide a habitat for around a thousand species of butterfly and moth, including the Plumed Prominent (Ptilophora plumigera), a tawny moth with extraordinary feathered antennae; the large, tufty-eared Eagle-owl (Bubo bubo) nests in fortifications along with around 60 other bird types; as well as several protected bat species, like our Northern friend, plus the Whiskered (Myotis mystacinus) and Grey Long-Eared bats (Plecotus auritus). It’s a ‘highly sensitive’ setting, say Finland’s National Parks, especially when put into wider context; the Ministry of the Environment has recently reported a ‘decline and deterioration of natural habitat’ that threatens every ninth species across the country. And so 80% of Vallisaari is protected; it is a key part of the City of Helsinki’s Maritime Strategy, say Helsinki Biennial curators Pirkko Siitari and Taru Tappola. ‘Everybody has a right to use these locations,’ says Siitari – with a respect for its delicate ecosystem. The Biennial’s title, ‘The Same Sea’, draws inspiration from biologist and activist Barry Commoner’s first law of ecology, that ‘everything is connected to everything else’: oceans, seas, rivers, plants, animals, insects, humans, bacteria – viruses – all are, say Siitari and Tappola, part of ‘intertwined ecosystems that form actual and symbolic networks’. ‘I think that being in physical contact with nature has become more and more important during lockdown, and when all the connections have been virtual,’ says Tappola. ‘People are very hungry for tangible things. This Biennial connects nature and art, and the experience on the island will enforce these feelings, not only as an idea, but as a concrete thing.’ ‘It’s interesting how coronavirus is making us aware of our human relations to other species,’ Siitari adds. ‘I’m happy if it will increase their awareness of how important nature is for wellbeing, and the urgency to protect our nature from issues of climate change.’ <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2fda390a54725561ca713768178db49ed444021392b61ab80783424ce1a3e0a9/Helsinki-Biennial--Vallisaari.-Photo-Matti-Pyykko-11.jpg" data-mid="108445416" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2fda390a54725561ca713768178db49ed444021392b61ab80783424ce1a3e0a9/Helsinki-Biennial--Vallisaari.-Photo-Matti-Pyykko-11.jpg" /> Helsinki Biennial will take place on the 20% of the island that is already open to the public. Even so, the practical aspects of operating on a site of historical and natural importance are varied and complicated, says Tappola. ‘Every move we make, plan, cable, everything, indoors or outdoors, has to be approved’ – by biologists and the forestry commission, who make sure that flora and fauna are not disturbed, and by the City, to make it safe and navigable for humans, who will be encouraged to use one route, entering Vallisaari at one harbour and leaving from another. Siitari and Tappola are permanent curators at Helsinki Art Museum (HAM), which has been tasked by the city to run this first festival of contemporary art. Production was due to start one week before lockdown. The good news is that all the artworks and artists remain confirmed, and labour should start up again exactly as planned in time for a 12 June 2021 launch. Aside from the expected loss of visitor admission fees, HAM is totally funded by the city, so hasn’t yet felt the financial impact of the lockdown that other cultural organisations have (the €4m needed for the Biennial’s first two years has already been raised, through the city and the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation). Instead of being furloughed, HAM director Maija Tanninen-Mattila says, staff have been making condition reports on 500 outdoor sculptures in parks and neighbourhoods, assisting the Helsinki Aid helpline and food delivery service for the elderly, and otherwise working from home. HAM, Kiasma and other national and municipal museums reopened at the beginning of June, as did commercial galleries, and have been coping in different ways; Galleria Heino has spent the extended break renovating, while Helsinki Contemporary has been trialling exhibitions viewed virtually in 360°. HAM’s new exhibition is a preparation of sorts for the biennial; a three-part video installation by visual artist Terike Haapoja and playwright Laura Gustafsson, Gustafsson&amp;Haapoja: Museum of Becoming imagines society from a – fittingly – non-anthropocentric position. <img width="2000" height="1283" width_o="2000" height_o="1283" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d3367cbbdf9fca83e6591c6efb58d6433d537386618c3a2fbcd83c6cdff82a92/Maatuu_insta_01.jpg" data-mid="108445418" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d3367cbbdf9fca83e6591c6efb58d6433d537386618c3a2fbcd83c6cdff82a92/Maatuu_insta_01.jpg" /> Waiting for restrictions to ease, Tanninen-Mattila has been walking HAM’s empty galleries, contemplating how the visitor experience will physically change now and during the Biennial; with extended exhibition times, more hand washing and alternative formats. ‘It’s really hard to make any scenarios’, she says, ‘because we really don’t know whether there will be another wave of coronavirus – will we have to shut down again? It’s like reading tea leaves. But there are things we can do.’ Taking a ‘digital leap’ during the past two months, HAM took advantage of the city’s TV studios to document artists’ talks, streamed guided tours of the collections, and created video tutorials for home-schoolers. ‘We were already thinking of this,’ says Tanninen-Mattila, ‘but coronavirus just gave us a big kick up the behind. It’s been a good thing that we have been forced to think about it. The most important thing now is not to stop, rather continue and build up.’ One of a stipulated 50% Finnish line-up, Helsinki Biennial exhibitor Teemu Lehmusruusu believes that artists can never expect certainty in advance; that said, he is pleased that the delay of the festival, and the lockdown more generally, has afforded him time to test out ideas in the field – literally. Lehmusruusu’s work blends sculpture, gardening, electronics and biology, and recently he has been renovating a ‘land art farm’, as he calls it, with research colleagues and his young family; a sort of outdoor studio-cum-‘mental space’ two hours outside of Helsinki. He plans a site-specific proposal for Vallisaari called House of Polypores: a deconstructed, solar-powered organ, whose pipes will be made from ‘mycotecture’, a method of using polypores, or fungus, to create architectural forms. Emerging from the island’s military ruins, the organ will convert noises from the decomposing forest floor into music that will play into the open air, as if the island itself has composed a fantasy score. ‘It will last the summer season,’ says Lehmusruusu, ‘but is still organic matter; a bird can destroy a mushroom brick, or something unexpected can happen with extreme weather.’ By celebrating the diversity and decay of wild forests, the artwork circuitously critiques the way Finland uses ‘clearfelling-based’ woodlands management methods. The artist estimates that 5-10% of Finnish forests are left truly wild, and the rest are maintained for toilet paper and timber. ‘It’s not all bad; you are doing it in such a way that there is still habitat and a value for people. But we worry about losing the rest of these landscapes, and it’s a rising topic in Finland. When you go to an old forest, you feel in your body this diversity, a bodily, weird feeling. The economic forests are quite boring – not like this fairy-tale here on Vallisaari.’ The Finnish government is concerned, too; the aforementioned report acknowledges that conservation alone cannot ensure the protection of species, and biodiversity must be restored in ‘all use of natural resources and areas.’ Visitors will have to wait to hear Lehmusruusu’s interpretation of the archipelago’s whispers. But the island offers its own ancient, exceptional and, let’s not forget, incredibly fragile charms. ‘My first impressions were, “OK, there haven’t been people here for a while!”’, he remembers. ‘There is a nostalgic mood to it, but at the same time it’s very science fiction, as people are no more entering this nature-state. And there, you can see the city on the horizon; it feels like you are entering another realm.’ <img width="644" height="899" width_o="644" height_o="899" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b6f322fce1139e22a93ad6e7b967b45c9a578e2107d7b913803b72527d65f771/Screen-Shot-2020-07-15-at-14.20.33.png" data-mid="108445419" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/644/i/b6f322fce1139e22a93ad6e7b967b45c9a578e2107d7b913803b72527d65f771/Screen-Shot-2020-07-15-at-14.20.33.png" /> <img width="642" height="898" width_o="642" height_o="898" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/13923e5583332192170597a0196c7e8fc3d0b9f67ac70e396251fe808865b6f4/Screen-Shot-2020-07-15-at-14.20.52.png" data-mid="108445420" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/642/i/13923e5583332192170597a0196c7e8fc3d0b9f67ac70e396251fe808865b6f4/Screen-Shot-2020-07-15-at-14.20.52.png" /> © Laura Robertson, 2020. Full text Image credits from top: Valisaari Island, Helsinki Biennial 2021: The Same Sea, 12 June – 26 September 2021, helsinkibiennial.fi Teemu Lehmusruusu, installation view from Maatuu uinuu henkii (Respiration Field), Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden, Helsinki, 2019. Photo: Telling Tree art+rsrch ART MONTHLY, ISSUE 438, JULY-AUGUST 2020