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This week's Art Fix contains a flurry of festive events, including Jersey's first ever Christmas Tree Maze... But there are also projects touching on more serious issues, such as a photography exhibition encouraging dialogue around mental health and an artistic collaboration with Mind Jersey...
Every weekend, Express presents a selection of exhibitions, performances, workshops, events and other historic, creative and delicious content to help islanders get their weekly dose of culture.
Here's this week's offering...
'Oceans & Emotions' is a pop-up exhibition by photographer James Thompson. In 2020, James had a skiing accident which left him paralysed from the shoulders down. This project then became a tool he used to help him cope with PTSD as well as anxiety and depression.
The images that James is presenting in this exhibition are designed to examine different mental states as well as aiming to encourage dialogue around mental health. Photography is used to reveal how James has felt at various points in his journey, both positive and negative. The ocean as a source of relaxation has been one of the biggest pieces of inspiration for this project.
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James hopes that his work will resonate with viewers or help them to understand how someone else feels. However, he acknowledges that art, like mental health, is individual and what one person experiences may be completely opposite to another.
Join us at #Hamptonne this Sun (4th) from 4pm-7pm for 'Tress Dressing Day'! There will be decoration-making, a candlelit walk down to the orchard to decorate the tree and music with folk band Sonneux.https://t.co/bHkZHj6bSN#WhatsOn #HeritageChristmas #Christmas @VistiJerseyCI pic.twitter.com/KZEBP07CcG
— Jersey Heritage (@loveheritage) December 1, 2022
Tree Dressing at Hamptonne will take place on Sunday 4 December from 16:00-19:00, so wrap up warm and join artist Kerry-Jane Warner for decoration-making and tree dressing.
Music and merriment will follow in the Cider Barn with folk band 'Sonneux'.
No booking required. Usual entry fees apply. FREE to Jersey Heritage Members and children under the age of six.
Exploding Cinema will present two jam-packed nights of underground short films; experimental, documentary and fiction, with both events featuring live music and their immoderately mind-bending visuals.
For over 30 years, Exploding Cinema have platformed short film in all its stellar hybrid forms. They have tirelessly championed rough and ready outsiders, the outrageously below radar, the quirkishly beautiful and sometimes downright ugly. Showcasing work from all over the world in squats, basements, car parks, swimming pools... anywhere they can project an image.
They explode cinema beyond the screen across walls and ceilings wherever they go. And in their own words, it's "high time they lit a torch for underground film in the Channel Islands".
Screenings will take place on Saturday 3 December and Sunday 4 December from 18:00-21:30 each evening at ArtHouse Jersey's Capital House in town.
Tickets are available via Eventbrite.
Jersey's first-ever 'Christmas Tree Maze' will be at Weighbridge Place from 1 December.
Walk through hundreds of real Christmas trees with twinkling fairy lights in the enchanted 'Christmas Tree Maze' and find your way to Santa's workshop. Some naughty elves have escaped from the workshop and Mr & Mrs Santa Claus would love some help finding them! The fun doesn't stop when you finish the maze as the naughty elf has hidden some trees around the town centre with only a map and some festive clues to help you find them.
Once you've finished the hunt and maze, you'll be invited into Santa's workshop for a photo and a meet and greet with some of his little helpers. Santa might be very busy at this time of year, but he hasn't forgotten to drop off some presents, so all the children can expect a gift. And Santa hasn't neglected the adults either – you can enter a free prize draw to win some festive prizes, handpicked by the big man in red himself!
Refreshments will be available. Tickets can be booked via Eventbrite.
LOOKING FOR A FESTIVE NIGHT OUT WITH FRIENDS?
— Jersey Arts Centre (@JsyArtsCentre) December 1, 2022
Come along to ALICE IN WONDERLAND AND THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS! Perfect for theatre fans of all ages, this musical adventure is full of nostalgia + characters to make you smile. Running at JAC from 9 - 22 Dec!https://t.co/VJBVfoxxK0
Jersey Arts Centre presents its seventh Community Christmas Production, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, from 9-22 December.
Lewis Carroll’s classic stories of Alice’s adventures through the fantastical world of Wonderland will be brought to life through music, song and larger-than-life characters. Watch as the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat and lots of other much-loved characters appear before your very eyes.
This curious adventure is suitable for the whole family. Tickets can be purchased on the Jersey Arts Centre website.
Kickstart your Christmas festivities at Master Farms where you'll be able to pick your perfect Christmas tree, meet Santa and his reindeer in their grotto, grab a photo opportunity at one of the Christmas-themed face board, and enjoy some toasted marshmallows or chestnuts or in front of the roaring fire. Other refreshments will be available too.
You can also meet the haybale Christmas Characters, jump onboard a festive John Deere tractor, and grab some of freshly harvested, locally grown, vegetables; perfect to accompany your Christmas dinner!
When purchasing your tree, entry to Santa's grotto and Christmas display is included in the price. For those not purchasing a tree, entry is £5 per car. Limited tickets available.
Ticket prices are payable on the door on the day, but can be pre-booked via Eventbrite.
‘Into the Flow’ is an upcoming art exhibition that will present artwork created over a twelve month collaboration period between ArtHouse Jersey and Mind Jersey.
In September 2021, Mind Jersey and ArtHouse Jersey launched a series of workshops as part of the art’s charity’s Artists In Residence programme, led by local artist Anna Shipley. The programme offers partner charities the opportunity to work with an artist.
Mind Jersey's workshops were based on the ‘Six Ways to Wellbeing’. Each participant was given a sketchbook which acted as a safe space to record ideas, memories, and observations as well as a place for creative experiments. The workshops encouraged participants to try new art materials and techniques in a relaxed and friendly space.
Executive Director of Mind Jersey, Patricia Tumelty, said: “I’d like to express our thanks to ArtHouse Jersey for connecting with Mind Jersey for this programme and in doing so helping more people access the arts. We have been delighted with this partnership, not least because whilst talent and creativity is spread equally across our Island, access to the arts is not.“
All the artwork created by clients of Mind Jersey will be on display at the Greve de Lecq Barracks Studios between 11:00-17:00 on Saturday 10 December and 10:00-17:00 on Sunday 11 December.
Kairos Arts are hosting a special evening on Saturday 3 December, where they will be joined by the Amity Singers and a local musical group called ‘Bououns Bassoon’.
The charity’s Creative Director, actress Cathy Sara will be performing a range of readings both traditional and modern, poignant and comedic, from Betjeman to the local poet Rev C W H Fell, who was in Jersey during the Occupation.
The Amity Singers will perform a range of music for Advent from serious, grand pieces to light-hearted and 'tinselly' ones … because that’s what Christmas is all about!
Kairos Arts is a Jersey charity which offers therapeutic creative workshops for people recovering from trauma, domestic violence, trafficking and abuse, and those living with dementia and young people with mental health concerns. The Advent Concert has become an important part of the Kairos year.
Christmas shoppers can enjoy homemade mulled wine and mince pies at the Georgian House Christmas Shop at 16 New Street every Thursday and Saturday until Christmas.
National Trust members can also visit Father Christmas at the Georgian House this weekend. The cost is £10 per child which includes a gift. One adult is admitted free of charge with every paying child. Tickets can be booked via Eventbrite.
Friday 2 December is your final opportunity to watch JCG Youth Theatre's production of 'The Terrible Infants' by Oliver Lansley.
The Terrible Infants is a series of morality tales about naughty children with puppets as its main characters. These include Terrible Infants like Tumb, a boy so greedy that he eats his own mum; or Finbar, who wishes himself into a very tricky situation by turning into a fish; and even Mingus, who never washes and ends up getting thrown out with the rubbish!
The puppets were created with the help of Alice Bravery, an ex-student who now lives and works in London as a puppet-maker and workshop facilitator. Alice not only worked with the JCG Tech Club students to help make the puppets, but also led a workshop with the 33 cast members to teach them how to operate a puppet character so that they live and breathe.
The final performance is on Friday 2 December at 19:30. Tickets can be purchased via Eventbrite.
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