Have You Left Yet? Notes from the outside
It has been, thanks to C***d, quite some time since we have worked with students or recent graduates at BasementArtsProject. ‘Have You Left Yet?’ has been a reminder if it were needed to not be cynical. As was pointed out by an attendee on the opening night “I had a lovely evening, we went to Basement Arts to be reminded that there are always brave young people willing to write and make art and put it out there”.
I have always considered a mix of experience and enthusiasm in the programme to be a healthy thing, as experience riffs off enthusiasm and vice versa.
It has been a heartening experience to leave the numerous lockdowns behind and start the process of bringing people back together again. Despite this, I would also say that it has not been easy on a personal level. To lurch from a pandemic to a cost of living crisis, to the current economic turmoil and war in the Ukraine, is to be left wide open to potential bouts of heavy cynicism.
Opening night audience
A number of our exhibitions since reopening have addressed issues of the world leading up to and during lockdown. ‘Have You Left Yet?’ is the first exhibition that we have accepted outside the raft of projects delayed since 2019. As a result, the enthusiasm for a world of freedom, post-locked down education experience, of those involved is palpable.
The shackles are off, they want to collaborate, not just with each other but with you. The offer is there: sit down at the typewriter, grab a scrap of paper, type a thought, a poem, a haiku, a short piece of prose, and pin it up with their work.
Sometimes we have to leave the news behind and create news of our own. It is important to know what is happening out there, but it is even more important to keep control of our own senses, acknowledging our sphere of concern and our sphere of influence, and the point at which they part company. Changing our own circumstances to reflect what we can and cannot do is essential to keeping a sense of perspective and ensuring the delay of early onset cynicism. I believe it is this that will lead us all to a more productive and positive future.
Slit will be having a closing event on
Sunday 30th October | 5pm
Featuring, poetry and music, and the last chance to see their exhibition between 2 & 4pm
If you would like to attend this or any other future events at BasementArtsProject sign up to our mailing list to receive full details. We hope to see you there.
Bruce Davies | October 2022