Photographer William Morgan has recently joined our Fabrica team this spring. He took some close-up pictures of the installation and artworks from our current exhibition “Journeys from an Absent Present to a Lost Past” by Syrian artist Mohamad Hafez. The exhibition is still running until the 29th of May.

Morgan graduated from University of South Wales with First Class Honours working in both commercial and fine art photography. His focus on architecture and environment building complements Hafez’s street scenes of his home city of Damascus as well as the gallery’s church architectural interior.

A retrospective on our last volunteer trip visiting some of Brighton’s latest exhibitions.

On the 17th February, we took a day trip out with our wonderful volunteers to visit some of the latest exhibitions around Brighton. Donning our warmest hats and coats we braved the harsh elements, eager to see what the city had to offer. Here are a few highlights of the trip, featuring some of our volunteers.

Our first stop was to Brighton’s CCA (Centre for Contemporary Arts) at the Grand Parade. Their latest body of work on display entitled; ‘Today’s gift is tomorrow’s commodity. Yesterday’s commodity is tomorrow’s found art object. Today’s art object is tomorrow’s junk. And yesterday’s junk is tomorrow’s heirloom’ has been curated by Lloyd Corporation following a sustained period of research over the last 18 months. Drawing on the history of the barrel as a unit of measurement and symbol of trade – as an initial starting point – the exhibition brings together two installations.

The first, as you walk into the gallery space, is a darkened room illuminated by photographic slides from three projectors. Each collection shows looping series of various signs, adverts and notices from the streets, all photographed by the artists across multiple cities around Europe. Together they act to serve as a reference to both the site of the exhibition and the locations in which the artists found themselves separated during lockdown. As we continued through the exhibition, we stepped into the North Gallery space where we found five shipping crates; each filled with various goods collected by the artists from auctions, abandoned storage units, internet sites, junk shops and street finds.

After some quick lunch, we moved on to our next exhibition at ONCA Gallery. Coinciding with LGBTQ+ History month, their latest exhibition by Brighton-based photographer and researcher Olga Saavedra Montes de Oca (AKA Olisam) documents and explores the experiences of the Cuban Trans-community. Entitled ‘The Family as a Space for Gender Transition‘, the body of work centers on transgender individuals in relation to their families and invites the audience to re-examine and bear witness to a particular way of experiencing gender within a hetero-normative family setting. 

As we stepped into the gallery we were warmly greeted at the front desk by Peanut the Pug, ONCA’s very own ‘guard’ dog. Looking around the gallery space we were immediately drawn in by the striking imagery on display. Through the combination of powerful portrait photography and video installations, the exhibition creatively constructs an intimate domestic setting, reminiscent to that of the subjects. All of which is emphasised through the use of small interior details such as a hanging washing line, emerald green velvet curtains and even an toilet with a built in sound installation.

Following on from ONCA, our next stop was to Phoenix Art Space where we grabbed a quick coffee before checking out their latest exhibit, ‘Undercurrents‘. Curated by Louise McCurdy and Steve Geliot the show investigates the wild secrets of Brighton’s starling murmurations, all of which is explored through the use of visceral experiences, physical evidence and multi-channel sound capture of both starlings and peregrines. Alongside this the exhibition featured an installation of starling nest boxes that were made from locally sourced wood in East Sussex and will be located around the city to create a starling colony once the exhibition finishes.

Rounding off the day, we decided to make our way back to the Brighton University and check out the latest collection of works at Edward Street campus. We visited Dorset Place, a tiny project space that hosts exciting projects by emerging artists. On show was ‘Action without Action‘ by artist, Joshua Le Galliene. Utilizing the limited space they had, Le Galliene explores the relationships between sound, space and invisible natural forces by filling the room with a number of bespoke glass bells, each suspended in mid-air by a helium-filled balloon. We were even lucky enough to have a one on one discussion with the artist themselves which really helped give us further insight into the piece. Overall the exhibit was a mesmerizing body of work that left us intrigued for far longer than we would of expected.

It was a really wonderful day and it was great to catch up with one another whilst discovering some great art. One of our volunteers shared their experience:

“We really enjoyed the Volunteer walk around Brighton Art Galleries yesterday – Informative and enlightening!”

Till then, we’ll be looking forward to our next volunteer trip!

Workshop Date: Tuesday 15th March 22

Jake is well known to our society, having demonstrated horse-racing recently. For further
visual encounters of Jake’s art, please go to http://www.winkleart.com .

The watercolour workshop will be held in St. Andrews Church Centre, Church Lane, Ferring, BN12 5HN from 10 am – 4 pm, on street parking is available. Light refreshments will be served, a
packed lunch is advisable.

We usually take photographs during the workshop of work and artists which are uploaded
onto the A.A.S Face Book page. In order to do this, we require your written permission.
Please email myself or Mark with your permission or not, thank you.

Charges for the workshop are £35.00 for A.A.S members or £40.00 for non-members. We
will contact you nearer the workshop date with the payment details.

Jake has asked that you bring the following equipment: Your usual water colour
paints/pencils, a minimum of 2 watercolour sheets of paper (min size 15 x 11 inches)
stretched or taped to a board (Jake uses the make ‘Arches 140 lbs rough board’), a 2B and 2H
pencil, rubber, sharpener, white base colour (e.g. white gouache) and a brush for gouache
application.

Please do contact Yvonne if you are interested: y.roberts447@btinternet.com

A retrospective on our last volunteer trip to Folkestone

On the 26th October, we took a day trip out with some of our wonderful volunteers to visit the 2021 Creative Folkestone Triennial. Considering this time of year, the weather was lovely.

This year’s theme was The Plot – an exploration of the urban myths scattered around Folkestone’s centre. There were three routes, all based on the circulation of blood around the body. Here are few highlights of the trip, featuring our wonderful volunteers.

One of the first piece’s we saw was the large pop-up platform set in the city’s former gasworks site. This was such a great spark of colour to be greeted by in a late October day, as was the other pieces on site – including a large platform to dance on and a maze of poles to weave through.

As we walked around we saw a great number of Gilbert & George’s punchy prints and Patrick Corillon’s relic boxes, as well as an virtual reality art piece. We were invited to place some VR goggles on and step into a sci-fi dystopia game. Set 300 years in the future, you play a hybrid creature exploring an underwater planet Earth and are offered an ethical dilemma ending.

After some well needed fish and chips, we visited Siren not initially knowing it to be apart of the previous year’s triennial. The large horn caught our eye in the distance and we took a lovely detour stroll up a costal cliff to it. We had fun talking into in, and producing an echo that could be heard from anyone standing in front.

On our way back on route, we visited the Janus head, which had created a bit of local myth-making. This piece is based on the Ancient Roman god that guards the Roman underworld. Representing transitions between past and future, the piece is intentional facing out towards mainland Europe and England, and Folkestone’s role as a historic fort and port. However, this is not the only link to the past. The chalk Janus head intentionally, slowly disintegrated over the course of the exhibition, like the coastline cliff themselves, to reveal a smaller Janus head made of precious metals underneath. With its small reveal, it only took a few days before the chalk head was smashed open and its metal core was stolen – feeding into the town’s past reputation as a smuggler’s home. Although it was luckily recovered, this interaction between local residents just added even more layers into the piece through this enacting of modern mythmaking.

My personal highlight of the trip was genuinefake’s FORTUNE HERE. Set on Folkestone’s beach, the piece was set as a pop-up tent imitating old school funfairs, with fortune-tellers and rigged arcades. It’s educational message that documented the gentrification issues faced in Folkestone was incredibly informative and interactive. Even the mini-golf landscapes showed the local areas and told of the history of there pushing out of locals.

We rounded off the trip we a beachside walk to On the Circulation of Blood, an audio-sculptural piece by Sam Belinfante in an amphitheatre, before walking up Zig Zag Path – where I’d just previously been trying to put a mini-ball up an impossibly steep mini-goal game!

It was a really wonderful day, and we were blessed with a lovely spot of sun in an otherwise dreary October. Our volunteers also had a few great comments on the trip:

“It was a really enjoyable and stimulating day and all my lovely fellow volunteers made it even more special. I appreciated it all the more for having had a pretty quiet time of it lately.”

“Thank you so much for all the effort you put into making the volunteer day trip to the Folkestone Triennial. Such a great shared experience”

Till then, we’ll be looking forward to our next volunteer trip!

This August artist and Fabrica volunteer Lucy Mitchell has been raising funds for our exhibitions and community programme through the sale of these stunning lightboxes, taking some inspiration from the beautiful stained glass windows at Fabrica. 5% of all sales go to Fabrica. You can support Lucy (and Fabrica!) here: etsy.com/uk/shop/Punkernalia

Lucy says: “I am delighted to be involved in the volunteer community fundraising for Fabrica. My connection with Fabrica and it’s genuine inclusive ethos has enabled me to be involved in all sorts of projects. I have enjoyed the diverse range of exhibitions, activities and events shown at Fabrica and met amazing volunteers and staff who share a sense of community and love of creativity” 

If you would like to get involved and fundraise in aid of Fabrica this Summer, email elena.italia@fabrica.org.uk or find out more here: https://bit.ly/communityfundraising

‘Kiosk’ is a sculptural work by German artist Wolfgang Weileder. Exhibited at Fabrica  gallery between 11 July – 29 August 2021. The piece integrates the materials of the  Christian community with the iconography of the Islamic community. 

‘ACTIVATE’ is a project that enables Fabrica volunteers to discuss, design and develop  activities and interactions with the public during Fabrica exhibitions. 

For this exhibition ‘ACTIVATE’ created a sound piece to further explore how these diverse  cultures can interweave. These recordings, within architectural spaces and nature, result  in a combined audio experience that aims to enable a greater understanding and  appreciation of our differing views on spirituality. 

The ‘ACTIVATE’ participants were Colette Mc Dowell, Jenny Rogers, Savita Burke and  Vicky Waters. With thanks to Jane Fordham.  

Details of recordings: 

Savita enjoys traditional Sanskrit chanting and Bhajans, Gospel and Hebrew singing, Latin  chants and instrumental music. Learning to sing and listening to sound has been her  savior throughout Covid -19. She joined several online choirs and is now a recording artist  of fundraising events in choirs. (Great British Home choir by Gareth Malone and Stay at  Home Choir). 

For the Kiosk project she selected chants and relaxation music from her collection of Yoga  and Wellbeing CDs which she recorded a few years ago for Yoga, Relaxation and  Meditation practitioners.  

Jenny recorded outside an Anglican church in West Sussex using a Zoom H5 and an  iPhone. She assembled and edited it into the finished piece after a discussion between the  ‘ACTIVATE’ participants.  

During a visit to Hatchlands Park, Vicky recorded a volunteer playing the organ in the  music room. 

Colette interviewed visitors to the exhibition starting with the question: “What does  spirituality mean to you?” 

Two recordings were downloaded from freesound; links below: 

https://freesound.org/s/131923/ by Felix Blume 

https://freesound.org/s/115613/ by Xavier Serra

As part of our volunteers week (June 1st – 7th) celebrations we hosted a PechaKucha event! All our volunteers are a brilliant, interesting and creative group of people and we wanted a dynamic way to share individual passion and creative projects.

PechaKucha is a Japanese storytelling format where each presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds of commentary each (6 minutes and 40 seconds total). Presenters share creative work or speak about passion topics such as travels, research projects, student projects, hobbies, collections, or other interests.

Here is a taster of some of the creative projects shown:

“Craft in the fast Lane” by Savita, who spoke about her practice of healing arts, Craft MA, self care in lock down, building a business over the past year.

Lucy presented to us the development of her practice and craft from punk collage and badges, to cards, to light box images and detailed illustrations. See more of Lucy’s products on her Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Punkernalia

Karen shared with us three new works which were developed during lock down, and presented in an outdoor exhibition. Exploring themes of migration and displacement.

As our 25th Postcard Campaign continues through the year, some of our brilliant volunteers reflect on their memories of Fabrica over the 25 years….

Activate Project Spring 2021

The Forked Forest Path is a work by artist Olafur Eliasson, exhibited at Fabrica between  18 May and 20th June 2021. 

ACTIVATE is a project that enables Fabrica volunteers to discuss, design and develop  activities and interactions with the public during Fabrica exhibitions. ACTIVATE for this  exhibition took place remotely. The project considered how to translate how the  exhibition feels to those who cannot attend the show physically.  

The ACTIVATE participants were Colette, Jenny, Savita and Vicky. With thanks to Jane Fordham.  

Colette began her interviews with visitors with the question: “Can you share a few  sentences in response to your recent journey?”  

She drew on the Olafur Eliasson philosophy –  

“Suddenly as a viewer you are not a passive reviewer but a proactive producer of art… I  find this very interesting and it’s always been a very central force for me”  

Colette worked with the questions of participation and interaction, walking and whether  the journey will be taken.  

Thank you to Jessica, Catherine, Peter, Scarlet, Throne, Alice, Helen, Wiktor, Kiera.  

Jenny made a series of six recordings using a contact microphone fixed to the surface  of an object to record minute sounds; these sounds can be from within an object or the  vibrations surrounding it.  

The recordings were made in two locations: Fabrica gallery and outside in a local forest.  

For the Fabrica Gallery recordings the microphone was placed on a wooden floor hatch,  on the dried branches of the installation and on the heating system and its water pipes.  The water network moving around the building has similarities to the natural system of  water movement through a tree. Minute sounds can be heard from sources internal and  external to the building, particularly the heating and cooling cycles.  

Two recordings were made in the woods. The first by attaching the microphone to  leaves on a tree. On a windy day, this captured the vibrations of the leaves fluttering. The  second recording was of the thinner branches of a tree, catching the sounds of them  rubbing together and swaying in the breeze.  

Savita made recordings in the natural environment, tracing a path back to the source of  the coppiced trees.  Vicky assembled and edited INSIDE/OUT into the finished piece—its content and  structure flowing from discussion between the ACTIVATE participants.

25 years of volunteering

Can you tell us about yourself and your background? 

I studied psychology at Varndean College and went on to study criminology at Brighton University where I obtained an MA in Criminology and Criminal Justice. I am currently working on various courses in business skills, graphic design and other computer programs including photoshop and InDesign to build up my skillset. This is so I can move towards getting a job in a field more relevant to my personal hobbies and interests. 

I have experience working with the police as well as office work through using various computer software and personal data management. My main interests are playing video games, reading, listening to music as well as watching TV/anime and movies. I also like going swimming and driving on top of using an exercise bike as well as participating in various activities with my friend group at Assert. 

What brought you to Fabrica? 

I first heard about opportunities to volunteer at Fabrica from an employment support organisation I was working with. Fabrica itself I first discovered when I went there on a school trip years ago. I joined Fabrica in 2015 when I was still at university because I was beginning to look for any kind of employment/volunteer experience at the time to increase my confidence in those kinds of settings. 

How would you describe Fabrica? 

To me, 3 words that describe Fabrica would be inclusive, friendly and diverse. I personally see Fabrica as a comfortable place where I am able to work with other people in a way where I am able to feel confident interacting with members of the public. I also see Fabrica as an ever-changing place with each exhibition offering something different, my personal favourite being the one by David Shrigley where members of the public could make drawings of a model and have them displayed around the gallery. 

Highlights of the volunteer role? 

I have volunteered on several exhibitions where I have greeted members of the public, provided them with information and filled in various surveys. I also volunteered on a couple of film nights. To me, the most rewarding and enjoyable parts of volunteering have been getting to meet new people, getting to observe many different exhibitions and feeling my own self-confidence improve because of my experiences here. 

What is your take away from volunteering with Fabrica? 

Volunteering at Fabrica has helped increase my personal social interaction skills and confidence as well as making me feel part of a community with other volunteers and the staff. When I think of Fabrica, I feel a sense of friendliness, inclusivity and a feeling that I can push myself forward towards future opportunities.