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Every month on Express, Arthouse Jersey presents their 'Pick of the Arts' - put together by local artists - to help you choose exactly what you would like to go and see.
A graduate from the University of York with a BA (Hons) in Writing, Directing and Performance, Alice has been a Producer for locally based arts production company ArtHouse Jersey since 2013. Having more than one string at her bow, she is also a Performer and Theatre Maker.
For Express, she has picked four creative ventures that have recently tickled her interest and that she would recommend to others...
I absolutely love puppets, and so am very eager to see the special ‘scratch’ performance of ‘Jackie the Baboon’ next month as part of the 2018 Jersey Festival
of Words, which is always a highlight of Jersey’s cultural calendar in of itself.
This year ArtHouse Jersey has commissioned a puppetry director and an associate director of the global hit War Horse that thrilled West End and Broadway audiences, to produce the new play that will premiere at the JFOW. The play focuses on the incredible true story of a baboon who served in the trenches of WWI as a mascot, and is told using innovative puppetry.
Pictured: The theatre company behind the unique play will be in residency in the island as they prepare.
Over the coming weeks the theatre company will be in residency in the island as they prepare to show Jersey audiences the first full informal work-in-progress of the play (or as we like to call it, a scratch show!), at the Jersey Arts Centre on the Saturday 29 September followed by a Q&A with the Director and Writer.
Sharing works-in-progress is such an important step in an artist’s creative process and Jersey is an incredible test bed to try out new ideas upon audiences. Having seen the puppet prototype and working script, I can promise that people are in for a real treat so remember to buy your tickets before they sell out!
Our island boasts an impressive programme of visual arts programmes and exhibitions, and I am very excited to attend the upcoming exhibition Entre Nous:
Clare Rae and Claude Cahun by acclaimed Australian photographer Clare Rae at CCA Galleries International.
The photographic series Entre Nous pairs together the photographic works of Claude Cahun (1894–1954) and Clare Rae, presenting a conversation between two performative practices some 70 years apart. Claude Cahun was a very subversive Queer artist associated with the surrealist movement of Paris in the 1920s.
Pictured: A snapshot of Alice's second creative pick.
Since her rediscovery in the 1980s, Cahun’s subversive self- portrait photographs and texts have become highly influential for artists dealing with questions of gender identity and representation of the female body.
Having lived in Jersey from the 1930s and during the Occupation, Cahun is undoubtedly one of the most important artists to have ever encountered our island and her work is just as relevant and revolutionary today as it ever was, despite the wider Jersey public remaining relatively unawares of its significance.
Video: Behind the scenes of 'Entre Nous'.
Clare’s self portraits too subvert the dominance of the male gaze in photographic depictions of the female body in the landscape. Her feminist photographic practice utilises gesture and the performing body to contrast and unsettle traditional representations of the female figure in the landscape.
Clare’s interaction with Claude’s collection, as part of her 2017 artist residency with Archisle: the Jersey Contemporary Photography Programme feels incredibly important, and will undoubtedly spark a fascinating dialogue around both artists’ works. Entre Nous: Claude Cahun and Clare Rae opens on 7 September and the exhibition continues until 28 September.
As part of the Skipton Art Series, ArtHouse Jersey created a central commissioning pot for visual arts projects in 2017 that anchored around creating new work and
engaging the community. Through this, we were able to run the Mural Project, which saw talented local artists taking to the streets to create amazing new murals in St
Helier, curated by well-known local artist Ben Robertson.
Ben continued to develop the project as part of this year’s Skipton Open Studios, and now ten new murals are ready for you to discover around town. The latest addition, a jaunty line-drawing of drinking figures painted by Glen Fox on Hill Street, has only just been completed and it is possible to seek out all ten on a self-guided walk by downloading our online map.
Pictured: There's now an online map of all the murals around town.
I love the variety of styles across the murals, and their ability to enliven the overlooked surroundings for which they are created. Every time that I pass the murals, I see people stopping to look and take them in which brings me such joy as a Producer! It’s not about whether the viewer likes the works or not, but the fact that it disrupts the normal order of things and has the power to challenge or inspire or brighten someone’s day is not to be underestimated. Download the map here to find them for yourself: A new map of the Jersey’s street art is be available to download to help you to seek out these artworks on a self-guided walk."
I have been fortunate enough to view some incredibly powerful artistic works that have bravely attempted to capture the scale, complexity and humanity of the refugee crisis but if I had to choose one piece had inspired and moved me above all others, it would be Flight, by Vox Motus.
I had the privilege of seeing the premiere at the 2017 Edinburgh International Festival and I found it incredibly disquieting, whilst entertaining in equal measure. Without spoiling it for others, the work is an intimate theatrical experience that combines unsettling themes with exquisitely crafted miniature sets (diorama) to tell the story of two orphaned child refugees from war-torn Afghanistan embarking on a desperate epic journey across Europe in the hope of finding freedom and safety.
Pictured: This pick is one that "bends all kinds of artistic conventions", according to Alice.
I found it equally artistically exciting as it it bends all kinds of artistic conventions and blurs the boundaries between theatre, cinema, graphic novel and installation, to
create it’s own genre of story-telling that is immersive, strange and beautiful and intensely affective. It motivates me to make work of my own that is ambitious and
relevant, and not to be afraid to tackle those immense issues that can seem daunting to the humble artist.
The show is now touring, and is something that I would recommend without hesitation to others if you’re lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.
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