ReWilding and Symbiosis projects at the ArtBomb Festival
YVAN have been working in partnership with Doncaster Creates to provide opportunities for local, regional and national artists to explore how their creative practice can embed research, informed by ecologists and scientists, to respond to the climate crisis by asking these questions:
How resilient their community may be to the impacts of climate change?
How emissions could be reduced locally?
How do we recognise ourselves as being part of the ecology?
How can people take action to promote biodiversity such as less car usage, less household waste, saving natural habitats and further restoration of our peatlands?
Doncaster has an extraordinary range of natural habitats, including fenland and numerous significant water courses that results in regular flooding, causing challenges to all inhabitants. While the scientific data is essential for designing and planning engineering, economical and political responses, this does not engage with the public. Art and culture can offer another method of engagement and raise awareness of the different, emergent and alternative ecologies being developed to redress the current imbalance.
ReWilding offered four artist residencies for practitioners working with the natural world, science or data manipulation. They were invited to consider the Doncaster region sitting in an area of lowland bog with a history of land exploitation through the extraction of peat and which was affected by flooding in both 2019 and 2021. Water plays a central role in global sustainability agendas, requiring a more effective approach to management and a more holistic approach to water use and management and to explore themes such as:
The relationship between water, the environment, technology and art
The role of water in well-being and aiding mental health
Sustainability at a time of climate crisis through arts practice
Of the four residencies, one was for Doncaster based artists, and was awarded to Brigitte Pereyni and Angela Robson, who produced a film that showcased the challenges in West Africa and Doncaster to present a global perspective. This was part of the film forum programme in the festival.
The other recipients of the bursaries are: Caroline Sinders, David Bramwell and Rebecca Smith.
Symbiosis - the Art of Living With Water project was managed by ROAR, and provided nine artists in our region the opportunity to work alongside experts during a variety of site visits. The bursaries, participatory workshops and field trips served as an engine of inspiration, enabling the cross-fertilisation of the ideas from artists, environmentalists, scientists and citizen scientists to activate future collaborations, for example foragers, tech tinkers, urban explorers will brush shoulders with painters, empiricists and naturalists.
The artists are: Adrian Barron, Ted Webley, Zoyander Street, Annie Carpenter, Janet Wallace, Jennifer Rozenfelds, Sarah Villeneau, Molly Shaw and Teresa Sayner.
The collaborators included the Don Catchment Rivers Trust (DCRT), Environment Agency, North East Yorkshire Environment Data Centre (NEYEDC), and ecologist Dr Ian Rotherham to research different aspects of living with the Don and associated tributaries. Subjects included pollution, manmade controls, invasive species, industrial heritage, transport, micro organisms etc.
The artists were able to present their research in an exhibition during the ArtBomb festival.
Symbiosis was funded by the Additional Restrictions Grant distributed to Doncaster Culture and Leisure Trust through the South Yorkshire Combined Mayoral Authority.
The ArtBomb Festival took place over three days 12-14 August 2022, and included pop up on the street interventions, a collaboration with Hexthorpe Rowing Club and the questions regarding the Future of Transport with the Aeroscene flight. Further information can be discovered on the website.
YVAN will continue to champion and support the work of the regions artists to provoke debate on the Climate Crisis.
ArtWorks at ArtBomb Festival Aug 2022 Doncaster, photo by Rhenz Lorenzo