Yellowfields
Overburden
Eleanor Duffin, Olivia Jones, Abigail Reynolds, Libita Sibungu, with Suzanne Lacy and Sharon Allen
Libita Sibungu, Moon Landscape Swakopmund Namibia, 2019. Courtesy of the artist.
Obsidian Coast is delighted to host Overburden, an online presentation of work by artists Eleanor Duffin, Olivia Jones, Suzanne Lacy & Sharon Allen, Abigail Reynolds and Libita Sibungu, with curators Georgia Hall and Elisa Kay.
Overburden celebrates the launch of the eponymous publication produced as part of yellowfields, an independent project curated by Georgia Hall. The publication is one volume in a series of three, featuring artist texts by Eleanor Duffin, Olivia Jones, Abigail Reynolds and Libita Sibungu, and an essay by Elisa Kay.
Overburden centres on the materiality of the earth and contemporary art practices that examine our connection to and (over)consumption of the landscapes within which we live. Considering the material archives embedded to our natural environments, these artists enquire into geography, migration, geology, extractivism and visual perceptions of the earth.
This online presentation hosted by Obsidian Coast features sound and moving image work linked to the publication. Olivia Jones, Elisa Kay, Abigail Reynolds and Libita Sibungu will gather with the yellowfields project curator Georgia Hall for an online discussion on Saturday 7 November, 4-5pm.
If you would like to join the discussion, please RSVP by email to hello.yellowfields[a]gmail.com to receive the event link on the day.
ELEANOR DUFFIN (lives and works in Bristol) is a visual artist whose works are predominantly sculptural in nature. She employs a process of speculative questioning that draws influence from varied disparate ideas and anecdotes within anthropology, literature, metaphysics and scientific history. She is interested in things that have a sense of self conscious autonomy and the potential to be generative agents. Eleanor has exhibited both in her home country of Ireland and internationally, including; 2116:Forecast for the Future, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University (2016), Foaming at the Mouth, Dublin (2016), The Wild, Project Arts Centre, Dublin (2016) Forms of Duality curated by Mary Cremin for Solstice Gallery, Navan (2016).
GEORGIA HALL is a contemporary art curator who builds instructional community-based projects to support and enable the production of new works. Georgia developed and produced yellowfields to explore critical development and peer networking as a curatorial method to commission work. Georgia has previously worked for programming in galleries and museums including Spike Island and Arnolfini.
OLIVIA JONES is a visual artist based at Spike Island and a member of Spike Print Studios. Working predominantly between sculptural and drawn processes she creates works that explore the behavioural characteristics and structural potential of materials, objects and phenomena within landscapes. Jones graduated with BA (Hons) Fine Art at Falmouth University (2013). She has shown her work in galleries across the UK and internationally. Projects include: Artist in Residence, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol (2018-19); Tephra: Order in the Dust, Test Space, Bristol (2018); Artist in Residence, Ashlantic, Fur Island, Denmark (2017); You Move Me, Antlers Gallery, Bristol (2015).
ELISA KAY is a curator living in Bristol. Until recently she was Curator at Spike Island in Bristol, where she worked on exhibitions with artists including Andrea Luka Zimmerman, Roman Štětina and Sriwhana Spong, as well as Spike Island’s public and artists’ programmes. From 2008-2012 she was Director/Curator of Flat Time House Institute, the former home and studio of the artist John Latham. Over the years, she has contributed texts to catalogues by artists including John Latham and Laure Prouvost and she has curated exhibitions at Lisson Gallery, Chelsea Space and Nottingham Castle Museum. She is a member of the Bristol collective BEEF (Bristol Experimental and Expanded Film) and is currently expanding her ways of being a curator by writing more.
ABIGAIL REYNOLDS lives in Cornwall and has a studio at Porthmeor in St Ives. She studied English Literature at St Catherine's College, Oxford University. Her interest in books and libraries prompts her collages and sculpture which are often composed of found photographs spliced to create fresh narratives. In 2016 she was awarded the BMW Art Journey prize at Art Basel to travel to lost libraries along the Silk Road. A book documenting this journey has been published by Hatje Cantz. She has been selected for The British Art Show 9 and will be exhibiting fresh work in Manchester, Wolverhampton, Aberdeen and Plymouth (2020 - 2022).
LIBITA SIBUNGU'S solo and collaborative projects explore the politics of the body and landscape in relation to migration, blackness, and colonialism. The work seeks to unearth lost, buried and hidden testimonies, to reimagine containers of memory and states of liberation emerging out of fugitive experiences. Performance, print, text and sound are often collaged together to express ways of mapping time - manifesting into staged; poetic, immersive and disruptive environments.
CONWAY AND YOUNG are graphic designers and lecturers interested in people, environment and learning. They are motivated by designs critical, social and political potential. They have been working on commissioned and self-initiated projects together since 2006. Currently Based in Bristol, where they have a studio at Spike Island and lecture at the University of the West of England.
The discussion will be hosted and recorded on Zoom.
All levels of participation are warmly welcomed. You can join the conversation by speaking or typing, or simply observe in the background – whatever you feel most comfortable with.
Your camera will be turned off upon joining, but we welcome everyone to turn their camera on if they feel comfortable doing so. Your microphone will be muted upon joining and we request that everyone only turns their microphone on if they choose to speak.
A transcript of the discussion can be provided afterwards upon request.
For any further access enquiries, please contact Obsidian Coast via info[a]obsidiancoast.art.
