Now Then! artists Helen Brook and Mandy Keaton are coming to the end of their Selby-based residency Emergence, focusing on environment, sustainability and our impact on the natural world, with an exhibition at Selby Abbey.
The Emergence exhibition features large-scale artworks from Helen Brook and Mandy Keating in Selby Abbey. Helen’s work will be on show from 24 April to 2 May, and Mandy’s from 3 to 13 May. The Abbey is open every day from 10am to 4pm.
Helen is creating a sculptural installation created with discarded book pages from Selby Library, which will offer a large-scale interpretation of nature’s intricate forms, magnifying the hidden qualities of the natural world, drawing on natural materials from the Abbey grounds.
Mandy’s work is inspired by the stained glass windows of the Abbey, with all of the materials sourced from within and around the Abbey building, including discarded plastics and fabrics and waste aluminium candle holders. The natural inks are made from the Abbey’s used coffee grounds and other natural or waste materials.
Helen Brook is a Yorkshire based artist and maker, creative producer, and sustainability professional. Her artistic practice is adaptive and experimental, centring on themes of nature connection, interactivity, and play. Her priority is always to tell the stories of people, places, and ideas in the most impactful, interesting and meaningful way possible. Her experience spans a wide range of artistic production methods, including metalwork, woodwork, ceramics, textiles, and technology – including biosonification processes, electronics, VR, sound design, digital media, and photography. Her work has included large scale sculptures as part of outdoor sculpture trails, community engagement activities on an ex-colliery site, VR exploration of country parks and exhibitions at galleries and festivals in the UK.
Mandy Keating is a visual artist based in south Yorkshire who works in a variety of media, primarily paper and textiles-based materials, often reusing and reimagining discarded materials. She has worked extensively in public places and spaces, creating installations, exhibitions and participative projects. Through her socially engaged practice she collaborates with people to find new ways to tell a story visually, whether heritage, social history, activism or pure fiction. She has over thirty years combined experience of working as a Visual Artist, Arts Educator and Graphic Designer. Projects have included installations at historic houses, art galleries, sculpture trails, castles and workshops with a huge variety of communities and locations.
Background text about the project
Over the past three months, the artists have spent time at Selby Abbey and Selby Library, working with partners Our Zero Selby and Selby College. Their project aimed to work with materials they found in and around the buildings they were based in, resulting in some brilliant research and development: inks made of old coffee grounds from the Abbey, intricate papercuts from old magazines destined for recycling, and artworks made of lichen twigs from the Abbey grounds.
Members of the public joined in a series of workshops, creating artworks for display and also to take home, all of which can ultimately be recycled or composted. Sessions included papercutting, flower pressing, fabric painting, and cardboard construction, with some of the participants’ creations being temporarily installed as part of displays and exhibitions along with the artists’ works.
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