George Morl: Electrum Spektrum

‘Electrum Spektrum’ is an installation at Chelmsford Museum by Basildon born artist George Morl. The installation has grown from a series of projects and evolving conversations with students in Cornwall and Essex. It features artworks by Morl and the students, and work from their collaborative collection of art. The works trace the evolution of social and technological networks and reflect on conversations about their experiences of online spaces.

Since 2020 Morl has been working in partnership with students from Elm Class, Nancealverne School in Penzance as well as support centres in Essex: two regions linked by the development of wireless radio. This ongoing collaboration has also explored fiction in gaming and art, the development of communication history, as well as creating artwork and their own workshops.

In 2022 they began to build an art collection together centred on the needs of disabled people and encompassing a broad range of sensory engagements. They have acquired artworks by artists such as Grayson Perry with the selection based on their own interests and accessibility needs.

Earlier this year at St Andrew's Wickford Morl spoke about their experience as collector and in an exhibition called New Town, New Collection showed work by Grayson Perry, Elsa James, Madge Gill, Rosie Hastings & Hannah Quinlan, Uma Breakdown, as well as a selection of their own work. Through founding a collection which reflects on the communal legacies of New Towns, Plotlands, and the possibility of human connections across the virtual world, Morl visions a future art collection centring support. In their talk Morl shared the joy of acquiring art, and motivations for building a collection to share for others.

Morl identifies with Perry’s use of imagination and construction of identity in his art, and sees parallels with using virtual spaces as a young person. It was Perry’s work that inspired Morl to study art at South Essex College in 2013.

A selection of works by Perry can be seen in the Ceramics Gallery at Chelmsford Museum. These include the 'Chelmsford Sissies' pot, the 'Julie Tile', the limited-edition print ‘England as seen from Lockdown in Islington’, which was created in 2021 during the Channel 4 series ‘Grayson’s Art Club’, and an 'Untitled' drawing depicting a hybrid of rural and urban Essex – a unique portrait of Perry’s hometown of Chelmsford.

Also to be seen at Chelmsford Museum is Behind the Rainbow, a collection of personal stories and experiences from the LGBTQ+ community, showing the creativity, complexity, and humanity of its members. This exhibition recognises the relationship between self-expression and identity and invites visitors to connect and empathise with the people behind the stories. 

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Joy Oladokun - Keeping The Light On.

New Town, New Collection: Tales from George Morl’s private art collection

12 – 14 May 2023St Andrew’s Church, 11 London Road, Wickford SS12 0AN

This exhibition brings together works acquired by artist and curator George Morl. Through founding a collection which reflects on the communal legacies of New Towns, Plotlands, and the possibility of human connections across the virtual world, it visions a future art collection centring support. New Town, New Collection features works by contemporary artists such as Grayson Perry, Elsa James, Madge Gill, Rosie Hastings & Hannah Quinlan, Uma Breakdown, as well as by Morl.

Friday 12 May 7.00 pm, St Andrew’s Church - Talk: New Town, New Collection

Join George Morl for a talk about their collection as displayed in the exhibition New Town, New Collection. Reflecting on experiences as an artist and through their role as Programme Assistant at Firstsite in Colchester, Morl shares their joy of acquiring art, and motivations for building a collection to share for others.

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Bruce Cockburn - Us All.

Start of the One Beautiful World Arts Festival

 

There is a feast of The Arts beginning this Friday in Wickford and Runwell with the One Beautiful World' Arts Festival, which has churches in Wickford and Runwell as its venues. Art, collections, dance, music, photography, poetry. Art trails, concerts, exhibitions, performance, readings, talks.

The One Beautiful World Arts Festival includes the following: Art Trail - 20 May; Concerts - Six Hands Together (12 May), Emma-Marie Kabanova (14 May), Yardarm Folk Orchestra (19 May), Festival Music Event (21 May), Simon Law (26 May); Dance - Steven Turner (13 May); Exhibitions - Tim Harrold (12-26 May), George Morl collection (12-14 May), Jackie Burns (16-26 May), Compass Photography (19-20 May), Wickford Christian Centre (25 & 26 May); and a Poetry Reading (20 May).

The Festival begins with the following events:

Friday 12 May, 2.00 – 4.00 pm, St Andrew’s Church - Six Hands Together
An afternoon tea with entertainment from Six Hands Together at St Andrew’s Church and Centre. A retiring collection will be taken.

Friday 12 May 7.00 pm, St Andrew’s Church - Talk: New Town, New Collection
Join British artist and curator George Morl for a talk about their collection as displayed in the exhibition New Town, New Collection. Reflecting on experiences as an artist and through their role as Programme Assistant at Firstsite in Colchester, Morl shares their joy of acquiring art, and motivations for building a collection to share for others. New Town, New Collection features works by contemporary artists such as Grayson Perry, Michael Landy, Elsa James, Madge Gill, Rosie Hastings & Hannah Quinlan, Uma Breakdown, as well as work by Morl.

Saturday 13 May, 4.00 pm, Miracle House: One Beautiful World performance by Steven Turner (Next Step Creative)
The premiere of a new dance, exploring the creation of the world and the science that holds it together. Steven Turner has trained in a variety of dance styles, including contemporary, street, mime and moving with props. He founded Next Step Creative to promote collaboration between dance and other creative arts. Choreographing and teaching for Dance 21 (a dance company for children/young adults with Down’s syndrome), he has taught in Rotterdam and performed in UK and Europe.

Sunday 14 May, 3.00 pm – 5.00 pm, St Mary’s Runwell (Runwell Road, Runwell, Essex SS11 7HS)
A unique event combining performances of new sacred music with discussion. Performed by acclaimed violinist Emma-Marie Kabanova, this interactive event features new psalm-inspired works written by an international collection of Jewish and Christian composers. Curated and produced by Deus Ex Musica.

One Beautiful World is an Arts Festival exploring aspects of our one beautiful world from the creativity of human beings to the beauty of the natural world, while remembering the challenges that human activity poses to the planet. The Festival is a mix of art, dance, music, photography, poetry and spoken word. Churches are providing venues for the Festival events and the Festival has received funding from Essex County Council’s Locality Fund. For more information about the Festival see https://onebeautifulworldfestival.blogspot.com/.

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Emma-Maria Kabonova - Divine Light.

George Morl: Pop-up exhibition and talk

 

Friday 12 – Sunday 14 May, St Andrew’s Church (11 London Road, Wickford SS12 0AN):
New Town, New Collection: Tales from George Morl’s private art collection

This exhibition brings together works acquired by artist and curator George Morl. Through founding a collection which reflects on the communal legacies of New Towns, Plotlands, and the possibility of human connections across the virtual world, it visions a future art collection centring support. 'New Town, New Collection' features works by contemporary artists such as Grayson Perry, Michael Landy, Elsa James, Madge Gill, Rosie Hastings & Hannah Quinlan, Uma Breakdown, as well as work by Morl.

Friday 12 May 7.00 pm, St Andrew’s Church - Talk: New Town, New Collection

Join British artist and curator George Morl for a talk about their collection as displayed in the exhibition New Town, New Collection. Reflecting on experiences as an artist and through their role as Programme Assistant at Firstsite in Colchester, Morl shares their joy of acquiring art, and motivations for building a collection to share for others.

These events of part of the One Beautiful Work Arts Festival - see https://onebeautifulworldfestival.blogspot.com/.

George Morl is an artist and facilitator based in Basildon. They currently are Programme Assistant at Firstsite in Colchester, and were appointed the Jerwood Newlyn Residency (2021-22) at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange in Penzance. Morl's multidisciplinary practice comprises of paintings, sculptures, photography and video, exploring human connection under technology and networks, communication, gender, often through affecting integrative and collaborative approaches between organisations, collections, and communities. Work has been shown at Focal Point Gallery, Southend (2022), Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Penzance (2021), Tate Exchange, London (2019), Southend Museums (2018), UCA, Canterbury (2016), Turner Contemporary, Margate (2016). Recipient of Arts Council England Practice Grant (2022), New Histories, Cambridge (2022), Firstsite Award, Colchester (2019), TOW Residency, Southend (2020), and awarded the UCA Darren Henley Scholarship, Canterbury (2016- 2018). ‘Essex @way from keyboard?’ marked their first public artwork for Focal Point Gallery’s Railway Bridge commission 2022. 

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Lizz Wright - Presence Of The Lord.

One Beautiful World Arts Festival

 

One Beautiful World is an Arts Festival exploring aspects of our one beautiful world from the creativity of human beings to the beauty of the natural world, while remembering the challenges that human activity poses to the planet. The Festival is a mix of art, dance, music, photography, poetry and spoken word. Churches are providing venues for the Festival events and the Festival has received funding from Essex County Council’s Locality Fund. For more information about the Festival see https://onebeautifulworldfestival.blogspot.com/:

• Friday 12 – Friday 26 May, St Catherine’s Church: The Art of the Diorama exhibition by Tim Harrold and Way to the Coronation display by Wickford & Runwell Mothers Union - Tim Harrold is an artist who works with bric à brac, flotsam and jetsam, the discarded or misplaced along the journey of life. He finds lost objects and gives them new meaning through his three-dimensional assemblage style which brings together found and sourced elements into visual parables. The Mothers Union for Wickford and Runwell will show a display on the Way to the Coronation.
• Friday 12 – Sunday 14 May, St Andrew’s Church: New Town, New Collection: Tales from George Morl’s private art collection - This exhibition brings together works acquired by artist and curator George Morl. Through founding a collection which reflects on the communal legacies of New Towns, Plotlands, and the possibility of human connections across the virtual world, it visions a future art collection centring support. 'New Town, New Collection' features works by contemporary artists such as Grayson Perry, Michael Landy, Elsa James, Madge Gill, Rosie Hastings & Hannah Quinlan, Uma Breakdown, as well as work by Morl.
• Friday 12 May, 2.00 – 4.00 pm, St Andrew’s Church - Six Hands Together - An afternoon tea with entertainment from Six Hands Together at St Andrew’s Church and Centre. A retiring collection will be taken.
• Friday 12 May 7.00 pm, St Andrew’s Church - Talk: New Town, New Collection - Join British artist and curator George Morl for a talk about their collection as displayed in the exhibition New Town, New Collection. Reflecting on experiences as an artist and through their role as Programme Assistant at Firstsite in Colchester, Morl shares their joy of acquiring art, and motivations for building a collection to share for others.
• Saturday 13 May, 4.00 pm, Miracle House: One Beautiful World performance by Steven Turner (Next Step Creative) - Steven Turner has trained in a variety of dance styles, including contemporary, street, mime and moving with props. He has founded Next Step Creative to promote collaboration between dance and other creative arts. Choreographing and teaching for Dance 21 (a dance company for children and young adults with Down’s syndrome), he has taught in Rotterdam and performed across the UK and Europe including at Project Dance Paris.
• Sunday 14 May, 3.00–5.00 pm, St Mary’s Runwell: In the Shadow of Your Wings - A unique event combining performances of new sacred music with discussion. Performed by acclaimed violinist Emma-Marie Kabanova, this interactive event features new psalm-inspired works written by an international collection of Jewish and Christian composers. Curated and produced by Deus Ex Musica.
• Tuesday 16 - Friday 26 May, St Andrew’s Church - One Beautiful World Exhibition - An exhibition of Space Art by Jackie E. Burns, Fellow of the International Association of Astronomical Artists, fostering the inquisitive joy of art and astronomy and inspiring people to the awe and beauty of space and astronomy.
• Friday 19 and Saturday 20 May, Salvation Army: One Beautiful World photographic exhibition by Compass Photography - Photographs by Mike Fogg and Terry Joyce of the Essex based Compass Photography Group whose approach is summed up as: “Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing beauty is what separates a snapshot from a photograph.” Mike will give a free talk on ‘Composition in Photography’ on Saturday at 11.00 am.
• Friday 19 May, 7.30 pm, Christ Church: One Beautiful World concert with Yardarm Folk Orchestra - The Yardarm Folk Orchestra plays British and international folk music throughout the region and celebrates Folk from around the world through its lively and spirited appearances appealing to audiences both young and old. They have played at over 650 community, charity and fundraising events including the Leigh Folk Festival and Tenterden Folk Festival. They have also performed at well-known venues including the London Palladium and Cliffs Pavilion.
• Saturday 20 May: 9.30 am – 4.00 pm, Wickford and Runwell Art Trail - See artworks by Val Anthony, William Butterfield, Enid Chadwick, Antony Corbin, Christine Daniels, David Folley, David Garrard and Julia Glover at St Andrew’s, St Catherine’s and St Mary’s churches, plus the photographic exhibition at the Salvation Army, Jackie Burns’ Space Art at St Andrew’s, Tim Harrold’s assemblages at St Catherine’s and paintings by Pam Jones at St Mary’s. Art talks/tours at St Andrew’s (10.00 am), St Catherine’s (11.30 am), and St Mary’s (2.00 pm).
• Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 May, St Mary’s Runwell: One Beautiful World exhibition by Pam Jones - An exhibition of paintings by Pam Jones at St Mary’s Runwell – 9.30 am – 4.00 pm Saturday 20 May and 9.00 – 10.30 am Sunday 21 May.
• Saturday 20 May: 4.00 pm, St Catherine’s Church: One Beautiful World poetry reading with Tim Harrold and Jonathan Evens - Tim Harrold is a poet who creates images of profound challenge and change, of pause and process, of chrysalis and catalyst. His most recent publication is ‘Verses versus Viruses’. Jonathan Evens is a creative writer whose poems and stories have been published by Amethyst Review, InternationalTimes and Stride Magazine.
• Sunday 21 May, 3.00 – 5.00 pm, RCCG Spring of Hope Church at the Nevendon Centre, Nevendon Rd, Wickford SS12 0QG: One Beautiful World music event - A music event featuring local musicians and RCCG Spring of Hope Church choir.
• Thursday 25 and Friday 26 May, 11.00 am – 3.00 pm, Wickford Christian Centre: Art exhibition - A selection of art works by various artists within our church community. Feel free to pop by to take a look and enjoy complimentary refreshments during your visit.
• Friday 26 May, 7.00 pm, St Andrew’s Church: Simon Law in concert - Singer-songwriter Simon Law has fronted the rock bands Fresh Claim, Sea Stone and Intransit. He is a founder of Plankton Records and an Anglican Vicar.

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Simon Law - The Haven.

God's Collections case study

In September I led a tour of artworks at St Martin-in-the-Fields as part of a seminar in the Gods' Collections programme.

Places of worship of all traditions have always accumulated collections. Today some have generated great art museums, while others just keep a few old things in a sacristy cupboard. The Gods' Collections project looks at why and how these collections have developed, how they have been looked after, and how understanding of them has changed over the millennia.

My tour (which was originally developed for the Friends of St Martin-in-the-Fields) has now been turned into a case study for the God's Collections website. The case study sets the commissions programme at St Martin-in-the-Fields in the wider context of the renewal of sacred art within the twentieth century. The case study also develops further articles originally written for Artlyst and Art+Christianity.

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Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields - Morning Song.

Sandra Bowden and Bowden Collections

One of many joys in attending 'The Artist as Truth-Teller and the Legacy of French Artist Georges Rouault' last week was that of meeting the artist Sandra Bowden.

Sandra Bowden has been interpreting Scripture and her own spiritual walk through mixed media for more than forty years. She has been acclaimed as one of the most unique, impressive and inspiring Christian artists in America. Bowden’s work has been featured in books, magazines and gallery shows across the United States, Canada, Italy and Jerusalem.

Her work fuses the vivid yet traditional imagery of the Old Testament – stone tablets and artifacts, Hebrew inscriptions, architectural depictions – with images of Christ’s passion, important music scores, and God’s natural creations. She has issued several series of artworks over the years: crucifixion scenes, artistic use of text and color, new interpretations of classic religious artwork, even altered books with applied textures and hues. God’s grandeur and creativity shine through in each piece of her art.

“My Christian faith has been the driving force behind my art,” Bowden says. “I look at the making of a piece of art as a kind of doxology, a prayer or conversation with God. I don’t mean this in any mystical way, but my ideas come out of my theology and thoughts about God. I am somewhat of a theologian, but one who translates those interpretations into visual form.”

In addition to being an exceptional artist, Sandra is also a collector who, through Bowden Collections, offers a variety of traveling exhibitions available for rental to museums, churches, colleges, seminaries and similar institutions.

Bowden says:

'I have always wanted to own art by other artists. My first pieces were pottery or works that I could swap with other artists. Then I began to make a greater commitment to strategically collecting. However, the most important reason is that it is enjoyable. What a thrill to “find” a piece, recognize its value and have it become part of my collection.

I feel like a caretaker, so to speak, of each piece in our collection, preserving it for the future. With every new acquisition comes a world of knowledge, a reservoir of information surrounding the piece that adds to the fascination and enjoyment.

The Bowden Collections focuses on religious art for several reasons: first, it is the subject I am most passionately interested in; second, it is a wonderful time to be collecting work with biblical themes because the art market in general is not particularly interested in art with religious content. I also feel that religious art needs exposure within the Christian community, and it is my intent to make these pieces available whenever possible for that purpose. I see my collector's role as a calling—something that is critically important to do at this particular time.'

Click here to see the range of collections available which include work by Marc Chagall, Otto Dix, Alfred Manessier, and Georges Rouault, among others. 

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Morten Lauridsen - Lux Æterna.

Collecting modern & contemporary art

Fascinating contrasts in collecting were on show tonight during the Artist's evening held at the Wallspace Gallery.

The current gallery exhibition shows highlights from the Methodist Collection of modern and cotemporary art. This collection was established in the early 1960s by John Gibbs, an art collector and Methodist layman, who found the artistic quality of much 'religious art' and church furnishings very poor. He created a touring collection of work by contemporary artists exploring themes from the life of Christ to encourage a more imaginative approach to the commissioning and buying of paintings, sculpture and church furnishings. Gibbs invited the Rev. Douglas Wollen to create the Collection and gave him a largely free hand to decide the nature of the Collection and the artists and works to be included.

Similar freedom was given to Stuart Evans, who spoke during the evening on 'Obsessive Collecting', by the law firm Simmons & Simmons, of which he was a partner, in building up their collection of contemporary art primarily focussed on the YBA's. At the time, for a company to collect art by seeking out work early in the careers of contemporary artists was to break new ground and led to Evans building friendships with many of the artists whose work he collected, both corporately and privately. Simmons & Simmons differentiated themselves in their market by collecting contemporary art and their collection brought potential clients to the company. Evans emphasised that, although art collecting is not necessarily a great investment strategy, he is not embarrassed by the commercial side of the collections including his most recent work, together with a club of 12 members each investing in the venture, the Lodeveans Collection which is focussed on modern and contemporary Latin American art.

Although the Methodist Collection has returned in more recent years to a practice of buying and commissioning new work, it has remained primarily within the parameters of figurative work relating to the life of Christ. Therefore, there is little connection between the artists and the styles of work in the Methodist Collection and the collections which Stuart Evans has built. While there is undoubtedly room for and value in both, the contrast raises the question as to whether Church commissions of artworks are genuinely contemporary or actually reflect the tastes and styles of earlier generations.

This question may be answered by the autumn exhibition at Wallspace which will examine contemporary Church commissions.

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Television - Guiding Light.