Verity Birt, Kelvin Brown, Sabina Sallis, Anthony Shapland, Cecilia Stenbom and Gary Zhexi Zhang are the first artist-filmmakers confirmed for the sought after exchange, research and networking residencies offered around the UK through the Northern Film + Media led initiative, Connect/Exchange.
Connect/Exchange will be led by Northern Film + Media and takes place nationwide, run in partnership with leading galleries Chapter (Cardiff), Metal (Liverpool), BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead), The NewBridge Project (Gateshead), and Stills (Edinburgh). The artists chosen will be given support with the initial research and development of a new work or project through a two-stage residency, with the benefit of associated professional networking and events. Artists are paid for their time, and also provided with travel, accommodation and materials budgets.
Gary Zhexi Zhang and Verity Birt will be hosted by BALTIC and The NewBridge Project in NewcastleGateshead.
Zhang will be exploring human interconnection by looking at primitive biological systems. His project will develop his recent work growing and observing Physarum Polycephalum (literally, “many-headed slime”) – a slime mould which is relatively common in the wild in England. These single celled creatures are profoundly primitive in evolutionary terms, being quite literally brainless, yet exhibit complex social intelligence by forming distributed networks.
Birt will work with local women’s groups to develop a sound piece, video work and live incantation responding both to the tradition of Canntaireachd – a melodic oral tradition of women’s chant – and also to sites of unmarked histories in North East England.
Metal will support Sabina Sallis to create a partly factual partly fictional video work about a secretive poetic eco-terrorist society based in Liverpool. Their political actions include activities such as guerilla gardening, seed bombing, ephemeral land-art and also surreal, Dadaist activities that will be invented collaboratively as the project unfolds.
Meanwhile, Kelvin Brown intends to explore the possibilities of using speech within a musical framework, and the collective social and emotional responses to current geo-political events. He is interested in engaging with both the opinions of individuals, and the challenges the community in Liverpool faces in navigating its place within the current social and political climate.
Wales-based artist Anthony Shapland and North East based artist Cecilia Stenbom will develop their projects with Chapter in Cardiff. Stenbom will use her time in Wales to research and develop experimental approaches to observational documentary,exploring the idea of the institution in its widest sense – as a civic organisation, an architectural structure and a space where human interaction occurs. Shapland will work with an orchestra to film a performance. His piece will focus on musicians when they’re not playing but instead are counting bars, absolutely focused on time and timing in the silence before they start to play, anticipating making a sound at exactly the right moment.
A programme of events associated with Connect/Exchange will be advertised in due course. Details will be posted on the Connect/Exchange project website as well as on the websites of NFM and the other partner organisations.
John Tulip, Managing Director, Northern Film + Media, said: “We are thrilled to be able to work with partners across the county to support talented artists with screen-based practices. This is an exciting area, and one we are delighted to be involved with”.
Exchanges take place throughout 2017. Connect/Exchange is supported by Arts Council England, Creative Scotland, Arts Council of Wales and The European Regional Development Fund.
Image (artists, top left to bottom right): Cecilia Stenbom, Kelvin Brown, Sabina Sallis, Gary Zhexi Zhang, Verity Birt and Anthony Shapland
