Exhibition 33 – Kate Genever

For Exhibition 33 at the Notice Board I will be showing 2 prints from the set With bliss I imagine this…..

For the last six months I have been artist in residence in Shinning Cliff Woods in Ambergate, Derbyshire. Shining Cliff has a long industrial history, which includes quarrying, charcoal burning and wire making. They now comprise of managed Pines, veteran Oaks, Yew, Beech and Sycamore and are a tourist destination.

With bliss I imagine this, engages with an alternative history of the woo. That of the nature-loving-utopian group Grith Fryd Pioneers. [Grith Fryd means Peace Army in old English]. Originally a radical educational movement formed in the 1930s. It created two work camps, one at Godshill in Hampshire and the other at Shinning Cliff. Both took in unemployed men and tried to create a land-based self-sufficient community that exchanged goods and services with one another. The movement’s outlook was a mix of socialism, co-operation, anti-urbanism and internationalism. Present day Pioneers still provide camping in Shinning Cliff giving people scope for self-realisation and the development of personal, wider educational opportunities, and a sense of responsibility towards the protection of the natural environment.

Kates says: I took the original photos as I walked in Shinning Cliff. The collages reimagine the original Pioneer peace huts for our time. And if we too lived freely in the woods and acted responsibly towards the natural environment. The flag with an olive branch extends this ambition while also declaring The Notice Board as a gathering point of a new Peace Army.

More of Kate’s work will be on show in Shining Cliff from May 7 until May 28