Sorcha Noble. Alice Pool. Charlotte Hayes
Title: The Lands of the Free?
The Notice Board shines a light on current work and international artists. It aims to offer you, the audience, a provocation with its ongoing The Lands of the Free? theme. This show does that with three graduating Fine Art students from across the UK. During Covid their colleges have cancelled their final shows. A significant moment for any art student, it’s a culmination of 3+ years effort to unlearn, relearn, refine and ready yourself for the next stage. This exhibition does not pretend to replace this important point of focus, instead it offers an opportunity for these early career artists to look forward during a unique and strange time. In response to the theme they proposed:
Since Covid 19 our normal everyday lives are being put on hold but somethings have become more noticeable. We hear less cars go past our houses, less traffic, shops, and people that made up noise pollution. The birds tweets become louder to us because they are no longer being drowned out, they’re sound has a new presence in the background of our current lockdown lives. Birds, a lot of the time represent or can be a symbol for being ‘free’ or ‘freedom’. But are they really free in the urban life that humans create (pre-lockdown)? Have birds acclimatised, speaking louder because of noise pollution?
This collaborative response of flag, drawings and film asks us to reflect on our actions to deter birds and their response. The Notice Board also suggests Alice, Charlotte and Sorcha want us to consider not just the assumed freedom of wild creatures but ours too. An imagined thing maybe as we respond to current government restrictions which may or may not alter our behaviours well into the future