Announcing: A Renewed Collaboration with University of Warwick
Helen Wheatley in conversation with Paul Lemmon and Graeme Mcdonald at Coventry Cathedral, 2023. Photo: Tegen Kimbley
We’re delighted to announce that following successful partnerships in 2019 and 2021, we have renewed our relationship with the University of Warwick ahead of Coventry Biennial 2023.
Our previous work together included academic researchers working closely with contemporary artists to create new projects, incorporating university research, for inclusion in our exhibitions. We have revisited this model and are excited to be scaling-up and building-on this approach to support a longer term collaboration leading to a significant presentation as a part of Coventry Biennial 2023: … like a short cut through the brambles.
Ryan Hughes, Artistic Director & CEO of Coventry Biennial commented:
“Our work with the University of Warwick on past Biennials has been really significant for artists, researchers, the communities that they work with and for our audiences. We’re delighted to be building on that past work through a new collaboration that explores what is possible when HEIs and cultural organisations combine their expertise.”
Jackie Hodgson, Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Helen Wheatley, Warwick Institute of Engagement – Partnerships Lead added:
“The University of Warwick is delighted to be working once again with the Coventry Biennial, further strengthening our relationship through this flagship researcher-artist co-created exhibit. Coventry Biennial is a key cultural partner in the region and this is a particularly exciting opportunity to explore and share what can be achieved when researchers and artists work together, exchanging their knowledge and expertise and developing their research and practice.”
During our recent programme announcement event at Coventry Cathedral we introduced Professor Graeme Macdonald as the researcher and Paul Lemmon as the contemporary artist who will be working together in the build up to Coventry Biennial 2023.
Graeme’s research and work are situated in the relatively nascent field of “petrocultures“, an interdisciplinary research field which produces academic and cultural/creative work assessing and registering the social and cultural expressions and lifeworlds of oil and fossil fuels at various sites across the world. Petrocultures is adjacent to the larger research concern known as “Energy Humanities“.
Paul’s colourful, seemingly abstract paintings exploit the possibilities of video disruption by applying it to all manner of film footage found online, from films to TV, to news and influencer clips in order to explore the shape-shifting qualities of the digital world, foregrounding its illusory qualities and their effect on our idea of truth and what lies beyond the screen. Paul’s interests in the digital world, the screen and his interests in science fiction makes him well placed to respond to Graeme’s speculative, critical and forward-gazing work that is focused around what might be possible “after oil”.
Jackie Hodgson, Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Helen Wheatley, Warwick Institute of Engagement – Partnerships Lead commented:
“Supporting the local creative sector and cultivating strong relationships between researchers and creatives has been a key part of the University’s strategy in recent years and this is further cemented in our new Cultural Strategy. Such relationships engage new audiences with our research, but also help to inspire and develop our research in new and innovative ways, whilst connecting with others locally around issues of global importance. Arts, culture, innovation and sustainability are Warwick priorities reflecting the aims of our collaboration with Coventry Biennial 2023: … like a shortcut through the brambles.”
Ryan continues:
“The collaboration between Graeme and Paul offers impactful opportunities for both of them to understand their own practices through new lenses, but also to produce something entirely new that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. At Coventry Biennial we’re particularly pleased to have offered this opportunity to an artist based in Coventry, ensuring that local artists are receiving high profile commissions that support creative and professional development.”
Speaking of his collaboration with the Biennial, Graeme said:
“I am thrilled to be able to engage in this kind of collaboration with a ‘real life’ artist. The process has already been instructive for me, testing the significance and capacity of the speculative mode that my research often turns upon. ‘Open Futuring’ has become an influential set of techniques in an Environmental Humanities oriented towards the world to come. I’m curious about the ways in which Paul’s work, in form and approach, provides a novel means to think about transition and to get publics to engage with it in ways different to the speculative projections in scientific reports or environmental papers. The challenge that the climate crisis and the energy transition lays before us all—whether physicist or engineer, teacher or artist– is to think harder about how our way of apprehending its nature and possible outcomes might shape our practice—and how that practice in turn might offer something to shape those outcomes for the better. I’m excited to see what future this collaboration affords!”
Further news around this project and its development, including ways to get involved will be released soon.
This project is generously funded and co-commissioned by the University of Warwick Higher Innovation Education Fund (HEIF) award and further support from Warwick Institute of Engagement and the Sustainable Cities Global Research Priority (GRP).
by Ryan Hughes