Art From The Ground Up: Not Letting Culture Lose!
Promised Land Stowaway (Collage: 2020) Nicholas Vaughan
So, 2023 is still a thing; by which I mean Leeds2023. Despite the fact that Brexit put paid to any opportunity for UK cities to present their wares on a European stage, Leeds has committed itself to ensuring that 2023 remains an important year for the city in terms of culture; despite the funding and exposure being cut off by political dispute.
Homeless encampment on the land where we are currently carving Jacob’s Ladder, a sculpture by Keith Ackerman
On a larger scale 2023 is also still a thing; by which I mean the year 2023. Despite the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic has laid waste to many aspects of life as we knew it, the world in some way, shape or form will also still be going ahead. The big question we have to ask ourselves in relation to both of these statements is “how do we want to try and shape that world?”
Work in progress dealing with aspects of peripatetic living ahead of YSI 2019 exhibition ‘Pitched’ by Jadene Imbusch
Survival is, for many, a tough negotiation with circumstance, much of which is beyond our control. Cultural activity seems far removed from daily life when the need to keep a roof over ones head and food on the table is paramount. But, at the same time as we do this, we must keep one eye on the future and the idea that it needs to be better than the present. Surviving is one thing but thriving is another.
A House Within A Home. (Installation 2019) Phill Hopkins Part of YSI 2019. photo: Tim Balls
‘Letting Culture Loose’ is the strap line for Leeds2023, launched into the public consciousness recently as a lead in to this cultural jamboree happening two years down the line, hence my further rejoinder that we must ‘Not Let Culture Lose!’
Sculptor Keith Ackerman and technician John Barber working on Jacob’s Ladder (May 2021)
The majority of us are reliant on selling our time to those with money, power and influence in order to make ends meet. Whether it is through private companies or services through the public purse it all has to come from somewhere else. Something that we must remember as the pandemic stretches out behind and ahead of us, is that when the world returns to some semblance of normality, whatever that might be, there must be a future for everyone, and we must strive to make it a happy one. ‘What good is a used up world and how can it be worth having” as Sting sung in ‘All This Time’.
Work by Lou Hazelwood and Chris Graham ‘Trade Routes and Trauma Sites’ (2021)
As we have come out of lockdown it seems to have been impossible to avoid the politics. Our first exhibition indoors at BasementArtsProject since March 2020 centered on two artists work about slavery, colonialism, racism and capitalism. ‘Trade Routes and Trauma Sites’ addressed issues that have been in the consciousness of our society for a long time, but during lockdown, due initially to the murder of George Floyd, tipped over into full-scale protests and rallies with opposing factions turning them into riots. As we became prisoners in our own homes the world went up in flames. For the last five years since the referendum, the subject of B****t has been the only conversation on the lips of many, singularly the most defining and divisive moment of this generation. I say conversation but what I really mean is argument, and a highly fraught one at that, which has literally split families asunder. During the Covid-19 pandemic the issue of B****t hit the skids and went over a cliff, but, like every great movie villain it has recently emerged from the pit and is now clawing its way back up the hill to wreak vengeance on those who sent it there in the first place.
Hound Dog Whistler (Collage 2021) Nicholas Vaughan
Having recently had to lock ourselves in the house to fend off an attack from the other great movie villain of our time, Covid-19, delaying a project by ArtCouple for a third time, we are now back in the ‘Real-World’ in the company of Nicholas Vaughan.
A new sculpture by Nicholas Vaughan for ‘My Kingdom For A Croissant’
Vaughan is an artist whose oeuvre addresses social and political issues from recent British history. Recent exhibitions have revolved around the decimation of the mining communities in the late seventies and early eighties by Margaret Thatcher. This exhibition will be no exception as he resurrects the monster that is B****t. Like Michael Myers in Halloween it is the nightmare that refuses to die.
Nicholas Vaughan | My Kingdom For A Croissant | Thursday 25th November 2021 5:30-7:30pm
My Kingdom For A Croissant (Collage 2020) Nicholas Vaughan
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