Film Screening and In Conversation: Space & Freedom

Made for a solo exhibition and installation alongside Schwitters Merzbarn Wall at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle. Helen Petts followed Kurt Schwitters’ route of exile from Nazi Germany to the uninhabited Norwegian island of Hjertøya and the nearby mountains and glaciers, then Elterwater in the Lake District where he created the Merzbarn. The film explores abstract rhythms, textures and sounds along the journey, often referencing Schwitters own art work.  Featuring free improvisation musicians Sylvia Hallett, Adam Bohman, Phil Minton and Roger Turner, performing ‘Merz’ inspired music.

Made with financial assistance from Tyne & Wear Museums and the Arts Council England London 2012 Festival.

Helen Petts is an artist film-maker who explores rhythm, texture, sound and chance events, both in the rural landscape and in her long standing relationship with the free improvisation music community. A former television director of arts programmes, she now regularly shows her artist films in festivals and gallery installations, both in the UK and internationally. She studied Fine Art at Goldsmith’s College and Film at Westminster University. Her work is distributed by Lux Artists Moving Image and is in the British Film Institute Artists Film Archive.

Making New Worlds: Li Yuan-chia & Friends retraces Li’s commitment to fostering creativity, his interest in play and his investment in new ways of being in the world. Through the LYC, Li showcased Roman artefacts, works by major figures of British modernism, local artists and contemporary practices including kineticism, land art and video. The LYC’s children’s room provided a place for young people to experiment with art making, while craft workshops played host to communities of making. Much like Kettle’s Yard, the LYC also had a library, a garden, and spaces to socialise, transforming how we encounter art.

The exhibition puts the LYC into conversation with Kettle’s Yard. Both projects evolved over time, with collections (in the case of Kettle’s Yard) and exhibitions (in the case of the LYC) being shaped through friendships and personal affiliations, including with the artist Winifred Nicholson, who was an important presence at both the LYC and Kettle’s Yard.

Li’s practice – as both artist and organiser – is at the centre of the exhibition, along with those artists he exhibited at the LYC and those who were part of the cosmopolitan networks he enabled and enriched. Making New Worlds will also include works by contemporary artists reflecting on the afterlives of Li’s work in the present.

Making New Worlds: Li Yuan-chia and Friends has developed in partnership between Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art as part of its ‘London, Asia’ project, and is accompanied by a new publication produced by Kettle’s Yard and supported by Paul Mellon Centre.

It is co-curated by Hammad Nasar (Curator, Strategic advisor and Senior Research Fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre), Sarah Victoria Turner (Director of the Paul Mellon Centre) and Amy Tobin (Curator, contemporary programmes, Kettle’s Yard).

Find out more about Making New Worlds: Li Yuan-chia and Friends