Unbounded was an exhibition of contemporary art exploring some of the many layers of Cornwall’s social and environmental landscapes. It took place at the Eden Project from 2nd November 2019 - 27th January 2020 and showcased work by fifteen artists, each working in or deeply connected to Cornwall. The show reflected on the Cornish landscape from social, agricultural, post-industrial and geological perspectives, prompting questions on subjects from land-ownership and mineral rights to our individual relationships and responsibilities to nature. It was curated by Field Notes in collaboration with Eden Project curators Céline Holman and Misha Curson.
CONTEXT
Showcasing work by fifteen artists, each working in or deeply connected to Cornwall. Unbounded was an exhibition of contemporary art exploring the many layers of Cornwall’s social and environmental landscapes.
Signs of human activity and industry are evident in even the most natural environments. The Eden Project, itself the transformation of a barren landscape into a haven for plant life and community, provides the perfect setting for an exhibition of works exploring our connection to Cornish landscapes; our human relationship with and impact on it.
The artists in Unbounded each take a different approach to uncovering and investigating aspects of this rich and diverse county, with some inevitably drawn to the least accessible locations. These range from the unreal landscape of a neighbouring disused clay pit, the setting for a journey by a solitary figure encased in a plastic bubble in Laura Hopes’s Lacuna, to a game of chess played precariously perched on the cliffs for James Hankey’s In search of the ‘Immortal Game’.
Many of the artists collaborate with experts from other fields including scientists, geologists, social geographers, historians, folklorists and musicians to expand their understanding and in some cases to create their works. It is an approach championed by recent artist-led project Goonhilly Village Green, a gathering of people and knowledge connected to a site with extraordinary layers of history and scientific interest. Conversations about that project provided one of the starting points for Unbounded and some of the artworks commissioned for it will be on show. These include Beth Emily Richards’s Welcome (Sent Forever) – a choral performance of a piece drawn together, with the help of local singers, from texts about Helston Flora Day and fragments of personal messages transmitted into space by satellites at Goonhilly Earth Station.
Signs of human activity and industry are evident in even the most natural environments. The Eden Project, itself the transformation of a barren landscape into a haven for plant life and community, provides the perfect setting for an exhibition of works exploring our connection to Cornish landscapes; our human relationship with and impact on it.
The artists in Unbounded each take a different approach to uncovering and investigating aspects of this rich and diverse county, with some inevitably drawn to the least accessible locations. These range from the unreal landscape of a neighbouring disused clay pit, the setting for a journey by a solitary figure encased in a plastic bubble in Laura Hopes’s Lacuna, to a game of chess played precariously perched on the cliffs for James Hankey’s In search of the ‘Immortal Game’.
Many of the artists collaborate with experts from other fields including scientists, geologists, social geographers, historians, folklorists and musicians to expand their understanding and in some cases to create their works. It is an approach championed by recent artist-led project Goonhilly Village Green, a gathering of people and knowledge connected to a site with extraordinary layers of history and scientific interest. Conversations about that project provided one of the starting points for Unbounded and some of the artworks commissioned for it will be on show. These include Beth Emily Richards’s Welcome (Sent Forever) – a choral performance of a piece drawn together, with the help of local singers, from texts about Helston Flora Day and fragments of personal messages transmitted into space by satellites at Goonhilly Earth Station.
Residencies have played an important role in connecting some of the artists to different fields of knowledge and place. Ben Sanderson’s paintings have been influenced by a year spent observing the change of seasons in the sub-tropical gardens of Trebah on the Helford River. Dr Bram Thomas Arnold’s Transect for Trelowarren draws together ideas about re/wilding, land ownership and the non-human explored with researchers at Exeter University’s Environment and Sustainability Institute in Penryn. The historic Porthmeor Studios in St Ives also provided two of the artists in the exhibition with formative opportunities to explore different aspects of Cornish heritage, with the history of Cresta (or Crysede) Silk providing the subject matter for Katie Schwab’s Quilts, and Cornish stone in the forms of menhirs, quoits, way markers and memorials, taking centre stage in works by Jonathan Michael Ray.
Unbounded reflects on the landscape of Cornwall from social, agricultural, post-industrial and geological perspectives, prompting questions on subjects from land-ownership and mineral rights to our individual relationships and responsibilities to nature.
Unbounded reflects on the landscape of Cornwall from social, agricultural, post-industrial and geological perspectives, prompting questions on subjects from land-ownership and mineral rights to our individual relationships and responsibilities to nature.
ART WORKS
ENGAGEMENT
The Eden Project team encouraged a range of engagement with the exhibition including tours for local college students resulting in project work.
FUNDERS AND PARTNERS
Unbounded was delivered in partnership with the Eden Project and curated by Field Notes in collaboration with Eden Project curators Céline Holman and Misha Curson.
GET IN TOUCH:
info@fieldnotes.org.ukThe development of this website was supported by Cultivator Cornwall
