Associated Event Programme Announcement for Holding Space by Anna Bunting-Branch
Posted: 24/06/2024
We’re pleased to announce a compelling new event programme for Summer 2024, as part of Anna Bunting-Branch’s contemporary commission Holding Space which explores the role of reproductive refusal in climate activism and considers how environmental factors affect decisions about bringing children into the world.
Through a series of thought-provoking exhibitions and community projects, ‘a space’ arts has developed an exciting programme of activities created in response to their ongoing commitment to raising awareness of the climate emergency. Acknowledging the need for collective and collaborative approaches to climate action, audiences will be invited to contribute to the dialogue on how we address these important issues.
Holding Space is an exhibition by Anna Bunting-Branch (@annabuntingbranch), commissioned by ‘a space’ arts. Holding Space explores the role of reproductive refusal in climate activism and considers how environmental factors affect decisions about bringing children into the world. The exhibition is informed by the artist’s ongoing research into childlessness and different ways of conceiving the future in the face of climate emergency.
Associated Events:
Holding Space Small Group Workshops: Saturday 6th July, 20th July, 3rd August and 17th August, 2pm – 4pm
Participants will be invited to unpack some of the key ideas that inform Holding Space; sharing food and ideas as they talk and create together. Outcomes from the workshops are incorporated into the exhibition, forming a generative archive that will inspire the next chapter of Holding Space.
FLARB (Free, Lazy, Arty, Radical Bookclub): Saturday 13th July, 2pm – 4pm
FLARB is a ZEST Arts Collective initiative run by ZEST co-director and artist Ellen Gillett. For this special series of FLARB events at GHT, Ellen will facilitate an informal conversation in response to the exhibition, referencing a newly commissioned text by Patricia MacCormack which takes a philosophical look at Holding Space, along with some coffee and cake.
Find out more about the FLARB workshop HERE.
GHT Creative Writing Group: Saturday 27th July, 2pm – 4pm
Led by Susmita Battacharya, the GHT Creative Writing Group offers a series of free writing workshops using our contemporary art programme as the stimulus for creativity. For this workshop, Susmita will be exploring different forms of flash fiction. Beginners welcome!
Find out more about the GHT Creative Writing Group HERE.
Artist Voices In-Conversation (Online): Thursday 1st August, 6pm – 8pm
Artist Voices is a series of panel discussions and conversations that aim to support artist development by unpacking and demystifying key topics and issues of the visual arts ecology through discussion with artists and cultural workers. Join Anna Bunting-Branch, Helen Starr and Rosie Carr to discuss socially-engaged practice and how artists can work with communities as a form of activism.
Find out more about the Artist Voices: In-Conversation (online) event HERE.
More information about Holding Space:
An animation is exhibited in the Barker-Mill Project Space. Taking breath as a metaphor for the intimate relationship between body and environment, this work touches on the personal and political stakes of reproductive refusal. In response to what the animation’s protagonist calls the “violent comforts” of late capitalism, refusal is here reclaimed as a generative and loving act. Digital effects bring hand-painted imagery to life along with new music by Rosie Carr.
In the Main Gallery Space, a series of paintings draw out themes and imagery from the animation. Here, allusions to burnout, depression, and “navel gazing” reflect the impact of negative climate emotions. Responding directly to the architecture and history of God’s House Tower, Anna explores ways of entwining the narrative threads of her work into the rich fabric of the building.
During the course of the exhibition, Anna will host gatherings in the gallery. Participants from the local area who respond to her open call will be invited to unpack some of the key ideas that inform Holding Space; sharing food and ideas as they talk and create together. These workshops aim to build a sense of collective enquiry and establish the roots of a community that can continue to meet and support each other in the future. Outcomes from the workshops are incorporated into the exhibition, forming a generative archive that will inspire the next chapter of Holding Space.
At God’s House Tower, bespoke exhibition furniture creates space for these gatherings, and for viewers to spend time with an evolving display of artwork and research material. This furniture was made by the artist in collaboration with her partner using surplus from Weber Industries, the “family business” where they both work. Elsewhere, shredded financial documents produced by Anna’s administrative labour for the business provides material for new objects crafted by the artist and workshop participants.
The works on display in Holding Space explore the potential for what the artist calls “fertile counter-narratives” of childlessness. The use of the term “childless” rather than the more positively-glossed “childfree” expresses a commitment to thinking through the negative and embracing difficult feelings. This is an exhibition shaped by self-reflection, which invites us to consider our own conceptions of reproduction and futurity.
Holding Space will be exhibited at ‘a space’ arts flagship arts and heritage venue, the award-winning God’s House Tower, in summer 2024. As part of this exciting upcoming programme, Anna will create an immersive animation and installation The work is informed by the artist’s ongoing research into childlessness, which engages feminist practice and science fiction as a methodology to re-vision how the future is conceived.
On the commission, artist Anna Bunting-Branch said: “A special thanks to Rosie Carr, Weber Industries, Patricia MacCormack and Helen Starr”