3.00pm Saturday 26 November 2022
Artist Talk: Freddie Robins
A talk by We Are Commoners artist and Colchester’s Blackwater Polytechnic collective member, Freddie Robins. The talk is free but please book using link below. A BSL interpreter will be available.
Book here

We are the Minories Pop-Up Gallery, 18 Long Wyre Street, Colchester CO1 1LJ

The talk is part of a day of commoning through craft, which accompanies the current exhibition, We are Commoners: Creative Acts of Commoning. Share resources, ideas and learning; find creative ways to build local meaningful connections through art and crafts, and explore the reclaiming of local spaces to help our community thrive. A mix of online and in person activities including workshops, exhibition tours and talks.

Full details of all bookable events are here

The exhibition, We are Commoners: Creative Acts of Commoning, shows how shared processes, skills and values associated with creative making contribute to thriving commons neighbourhoods. This thought-provoking Craftspace national touring exhibition which highlights ‘acts of commoning’ comes to the We are the Minories’ pop-up gallery in Colchester on the final leg of its UK tour. Featuring both UK based and international artists, the exhibition reflects a commons-based shift in thinking from ‘you’re on your own’ to ‘we’re in this together.’

We are Commoners: Creative Acts of Commoning
Open Monday – Saturday 10.00am – 4.00pm
Free exhibition
Exhibition runs 10 October – 3 December 2022

wearetheminories.org
craftspace.co.uk

The conversation celebrated the launch of Celia’s new book On Mending: Stories of Damage and Repair (Quickthorn, 2022), which features the repair of Freddie’s Family Rug.

Watch the film of Freddie and Celia in conversation, held at Loop, 15 Camden Passage, Islington, London N1 8EA on Saturday 29 October 2022.

Video by filmmaker Richard Jung.

JGM Gallery presents Creature Comforts, a group show of 14 artists working with a variety of textile mediums.

“Textile art struggles to shake off its associations with sentimentality, domesticity and femininity. These cosy connotations, however, allow artists to direct their audience toward unexpected conceptual territory. Creature Comforts presents works by artists who subvert the assumptions about textiles, imbuing their work with strangeness, energy and intensity. The works are made using a variety of techniques, from tapestry weaving to knitting and soft sculpture, amongst others. They touch on themes of the domestic and reinterpret the traditionof this time-consuming craft. What results from this subversive approach is surreal imagery. luscious landscapes and decidedly strange creatures”.

Creature Comforts includes work by Alice Kettle, Andia Newton, Elina Flyrin, Freddie Robins, Hamish Halley, Heidi Pearce, Karolina Dworska, Lara Salous, Liza Dickson, Lola Pedersen, Martin Maloney, Molly Kent, Sebastian Sochan and Woo Jin Joo.

JGM Gallery
24 Howie Street, Battersea, London SW11 4AY
Open Wednesday – Saturday 11-6pm

JGM Gallery | Discourse: Freddie Robins – watch JGM Gallery’s Karolina Dworska in conversation with Freddie Robins
(Film + photography credit: Julius Killerby/JGM Gallery)

jgmgallery

The Blackwater Polytechnic (Ben Coode-Adams, Freddie Robins, Sara Impey, Justin Knopp and Simon Emery – The Paintbox) are exhibiting the collaborative work, Tree, in the Craftspace national touring exhibition We are Commoners: Creative Acts of Commoning.

We are the Minories
18 Long Wyre Street
Colchester, CO1 1LJ
Open Monday – Saturday 10.00am – 4.00pm
Free exhibition
Exhibition runs 10 October – 3 December 2022

We are Commoners is an exhibition which shows how shared processes, skills and values associated with creative making contribute to thriving commons neighbourhoods.

“The commons means: Things we share/ Places we share/ Systems we share/ Ideas we share/ Culture we share” Peter Barnes, On the Commons co-founder

This thought-provoking exhibition which highlights ‘acts of commoning’ is coming to We are the Minories in Colchester on the final leg of its UK tour. These actions are shaping the way communities work together to share and steward commonly owned assets and resources. Through sixteen loans and new commissions artists will bring attention to the issues, contribute their thought leadership and participate in a call to action.

These artists provide a powerful commentary on what society stands to gain from acting to protect and reclaim our global commons. Featuring both UK based and international artists, the exhibition reflects a commons-based shift in thinking from ‘you’re on your own’ to ‘we’re in this together.’ It will investigate how creativity, making and materials can highlight how acts of commoning are creating thriving communities.

For more information about We are the Minories
For more information about Craftspace and We are Commoners

The Jumper Chair (2022) was made in collaboration with designer Carl Clerkin as part of his Beasley Brothers Repair Shop installation in the Eternally Yours – Care, Repair and Healing exhibition at Somerset House, London. Clerkin was commissioned to build a functioning repair shop in the galleries of Somerset House. SCP along with Very Good and Proper,_ Ercol_, Pearson Lloyd, Jasper Morrison Studio and John Tree Studio all donated components to the shop. Broken parts, excess stock, and waste material were sent to be repurposed. Clerkin and a host of designer-makers set to work, breathing life into unwanted materials.

Robins used an old hand knitted sweater to dress an Ercol steam bent bow that was connected to a Very Good and Proper chair base and plywood seat shell to make the chair. The Jumper Chair was exhibited during Eternally Yours – Care, Repair and Healing, Somerset House, London (13 July – 20 September 2022), Material Matters design fair, that took place during the London Design Festival (22 – 25 September 2022) and SCP, London (4 – 12 October 2022), culminating in a live auction of all the Beasley Brothers Repair Shop products.