Two Artist Commissions Announced
Published November 19, 2024
As part of our 25th Anniversary celebrations we are pleased to announce the recipient of the two Green Phoenix commissions. Both artists will create a new work to be launched to coincide with our Green Phoenix festival in June 2025.
The Visual Arts commission has been awarded to Exeter-based artist Adam Garratt.
Working mainly in sculpture and print, Adam is a queer working class artist whose practice has evolved around constraints of space, the use of material and repetitious making processes. Much of his work is made on reclaimed materials from building sites and is specifically made to expand into an installation when it is not neatly folded, stacked and rolled for storage in the garden shed. Conscious not to make extra waste, Adam chooses carefully which materials to make work with. They come with their own history of use and bare the marks of an embodied labour, often with holes, creases, tears, dirt and stains.
Find out more about Adam's practice here >>
The Performance commission has been awarded to the Hedgesong Collective, a new project founded by Maz McNamara and Emily Unsworth-White, who gather and share songs and folk wisdom about trees. In performances and singing workshops, the duo interweave traditional and contemporary songs, alongside folklore, story and ecological knowledge.
For the Green Phoenix commission, Maz McNamara and Emily Unsworth-White will create an interdisciplinary performance exploring our folkloric relationship with trees and plants of the British Isles. They will bring together rich harmony singing and instrumental music, poetic storytelling, and the use of a crankie theatre - a traditional form of visual storytelling using a scroll wound between two spools. The show will be a captivating 30-minute mythic journey through the seasons, providing a gentle opportunity for an audience of all ages to connect with the more-than-human world.
Find out more about the Hedgesong Collective here >>
These commissions have been made with the support of the Fenton Arts Trust.