27th July - 31st August 2024
Kings Square in Gloucester
All part of the NG200 Art Road Trip with Create Gloucestershire and The National Gallery, London.
What was GAWP and NG200?
We collaborated with The National Gallery to bring more contemporary arts to Gloucester.
As part of this, we co-curated the exhibition "Representation" with our Young Creatives in our Pop-Up GAWP! Gallery on King’s Square.
The National Gallery Art Road Trip Bus parked on Kings Square with reproductions of artworks from the National Gallery, and NG facilitators hosted engaging art workshops in the GAWP! gallery.
"NG 200 celebrates the past and look forward to the future with a year-long festival of art, creativity and imagination, to set the tone for the third century of the National Gallery. " Create Glos is one of the host organisations for the travelling art studio programme, ‘Art Road Trip’, which brought 200 workshops and learning activities to different communities who otherwise would not have ready access. Find out more about NG200.
GAWP 2024 Highlights
ART INSTALLATIONS
As a response to the National Gallery, and reflecting on Gloucester's city centre we invited some key artists to explore the idea of 'monuments' in Kings Square.
CATRIONA ROBERTSON
Catriona Robertson is a Scottish/British artist living in London.
Catriona was commissioned by the Saatchi Gallery to create an immersive garden at the Chelsea Flower Show, 2023 in collaboration with David Green Gardens, exploring the re-wilding of future urban landscapes and re-imagining post -human ecologies. Following this ambitious work she was nominated for Women of the Year 2023 and was invited to exhibit ‘Gigantic Pile’ at the Art House in Wakefield.
Catriona installed 'Columnated Ruins Domino' on Kings Square - Paper-concrete, (re-cycled Newspaper pulp, Evening standard and London Metro), cement, pigment, welded steel.
JOKE AMUSAN
Joke Amusan is a German-Nigerian textile artist based in London, England.
Her art practice highlights the experiences and complex beauty of what it means to be a Black woman – through the exploration of identity and heritage. Joke’s art pieces are conversational, encouraging women to come together to share their stories and to embrace who they are unapologetically.
Joke exhibited these pieces at GAWP 24:
a. There Is No Limit To What We As Women Can Accomplish
b. This Is Our Story, This Is Our Tale
c. My Story Cannot Be Fit Into A Box
d. You Are Grounded And Your Roots Are Deep, You Will Not Fall Over
e. Connect Off-line
f. There Is Power In Being Vulnerable
DANIEL TRIVEDY
Daniel Trivedy is a multi-disciplinary artist of Indian descent based on the outskirts of Swansea.
"I use art as a method of enquiry and investigation. My working method involves a process of research, reflection and material play that rarely produces a definitive end or outcome. Instead I like to think of my work as small manifestations; something akin to hiatuses on a long journey. The influences in my work are varied and include critical theory, migration and colonialism underpinned by thoughts relating to personal identity and family history."
We loved bringing 'Welsh Emergency Blankets' to Gloucester - an ongoing series of work that responds to the proposal for Wales to become the first Nation of Sanctuary.
Welsh Emergency Blanket brings two visual elements and their associations together. The first element draws on the distinctive pattern of Welsh blankets. These blankets and their patterns have multiple associations, commonly; nostalgia, warmth, childhood, tradition, memory, comfort and heritage.
The second element is the gold emergency blanket. In contrast to the first element, the emergency blanket is mass-produced, cheap and utilitarian, commonly seen in documentary photography relating to refugee camps or migrants arriving on the shores of Europe; the association therefore is perhaps one of pain and suffering, but also of elsewhere and ‘others’.
A clip can be seen here:
BBC Two - The Story of Welsh Art, Series 1, Episode 3, Welsh Foil Blankets
COMMUNITY INSTALLATION
The installation is a collection of work created with our community groups around the theme of landscape and colour, in response to the post-impressionist painting in the National Gallery. Matson Makers have depicted Robinswood Hill and the River Severn. GAS Projects Art School Matson (11-16 year olds) have created a colourful flower garden, landscape rocks, drip paintings and a video of Matson. The tiled house was created with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children aged 16-18 at Bridge Training, around the theme of ‘home’.
Scroll through the gallery below to see details of the installations.