A substack by Joanna Jowett profiling a recent project with the East Leeds Project
As Spring arrived, so did a flurry of new work and making for me. It’s been a wonderful but busy few months, but has meant my letters from the studio have been neglected! On the plus side, it does mean that rather than coming gifted with new little buds of ideas, this one is full to the brim with work and new projects.
Throughout April-May I took up my first residency of the year at East Leeds Project. I’ve been connected with them for sometime now, having interviewed them for Corridor 8 and since worked with them on Kiosk and as a Moon Palace host.
East Leeds Project are currently based in a squash court in Fernville Leisure Centre, but they are hoping to move soon to a more fitting home in Gipton. I’ve been working from the current site during my residency and above are images of some of the prints and one of the workshops. To the far right is a huge cyanotype print of my body, made visiting a fellow artist Emily Ryalls, on her own residency at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. As the sun has been shining brightly, it has called us all to get sun printing in a serious way again! Playing with hands, shadows and performance as part of the printing process is something I am definitely inspired to carry on exploring, after making this huge print on fabric with Emily.
As part of the residency, I also took part in the very first ‘Fearnville Fest’, hosting a workshop taking family portraits on film and contributing to a new publication, beautifully brought together by KP Culver. I’ve also visited Leeds Discovery Centre and the incredible Herbarium, a collection of over 200,000 specimens. The one on the header of this newsletter is from 1925, collected by John Wilkinson. The collection has really inspired me and I can’t wait to work with it further, alongside all the different plants and weeds I’ve been collecting from the fields surrounding Gipton, and closer to home at Temple Newsam.
My zine and photography workshop for local m/others also continued my work and research asking ‘who takes the photos?’ and what do we document (and more importantly leave out) of family albums and archives? Offering up space for mothers to meet, get creative and learn a new skill, alongside their children.
The residency has also opened up connections with other local groups including the life and loss group in Seacroft at LS14 Trust. I was invited to run two workshops, using both poetry and photography as tools to open up tender conversations around bereavement, loss and memory. I’m excited to see how these workshops can be developed in future. It made me realise the importance of my workshops to hold space for people who are going through a transitional moment in their lives, whether that is becomming a parent, or losing a loved one.
In other news, I currently have works in two exhibitions, which has been a real delight. Firstly in Nurture: an exhibition about motherhood and caregiving at Woodend Gallery, Crescent Arts Scarborough, which runs until 24 May. ‘Part of Me’ a selection of cyanotype prints mounted together sit against some wonderful work from artists across the UK, from painting to sculpture and video works. ‘Home’ a new community exhibition of over 60 works at Left Bank Leeds, also has both ‘Paddle’ and ‘Line’ – two photographs of mine included, running until 28 May. If you’re in Leeds or Scarborough, then please do visit if you get chance.
Wherever you are in the world, I hope May is bringing in a warm breeze through a slightly cracked open window, wildlife is beginning to buzz, and something you were hoping for, can begin.
Read the original substack at https://joannajowett.substack.com/p/flurries-festivals-and-fields
