artists

1996 James Turrell

In 1996 during a campaign to site James Turrell's Skyspace on Black Hill - bordering Cumbria, County Durham and Northumberland - ACA hosted an exhibition of photograph's, drawings and a model of the proposed Sculpture. A bitter fight was fought to gain permission for the Skyspace but sadly the DOE deemed that it was 'aesthetically inappropriate for the area' and turned it down. It has since been built at Kielder Water in Northumberland.

1997 John Askew

5X4ft photographic prints of a house interior with a difference. These are images from the inside of a doll's house, which he played with as a child and recently rediscovered in his parent's house.

1997 Run Rabbit Run

Liz Beech - Cath Campbell - Rupert Clamp - George French - David Hair - Steve Hines - Bridget Kennedy - Alan Smith - Ally Wallace.

Run Rabbit Run was a rural urban collaboration between ACA and Waygood gallery Newcastle.

1997 Julian Germain

"No Mundo Maravilhoso do Futebol"

Julian Germain, Murilo Godoy and Patricia Azevedo

An exhibition of photographs and paintings made by young members of the community of Cascalho, a favela in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

The photographs, paintings and poems make up the content of the book "No Mundo Maravilhoso do Futebol".

The proceeds from this project have enabled the people of Cascalho to build a library.

Books are still available from ACA Brazil contact Julian Germain for more information.

1997 Lorry Eason + Duncan Bullen

"Lumen"

The exhibition "Lumen" was born out of periods of time that Lorry and Duncan spent at the Eremo di Santa Caterina, a small hermitage on the Italian Island of Elba. "Lumen II" was brought to Allenheads, a very different area but one that holds many similarities with the island, from a sense of remoteness to a long tradition with the mining industry.

2001 Marcus Coates, Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson

"Mid Summer Dreaming"

In March 2001 as the first outbreak of the foot and mouth epidemic brought the countryside to a grinding halt, Marcus Coates, Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson were travelling to Allenheads to participate in a Year of the Artist residency.

None of us could have realised the impact that the virus would have on our work in Allenheads. Within days most public events in rural Britain were cancelled and the freedom to walk into the green hills was curtailed.

Mid Summer Dreaming marked the post foot and mouth re-launch of activities at the Old Schoolhouse Allenheads.

Marcus worked with local people exploring parallels between the song of native birds and human communication. Literally enabling members of the community to sing like a bird.

The process;
Pre recorded birdsong was digitally manipulated so that its pitch corresponded with that of the human voice. The altered (slowed down) birdsong recordings were then mimicked (sung) by performers and filmed. The video recording of the human version was speeded up to the original bird pitch creating accurate replicas of a birdsong by human voice.

2002 Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson

With the help of the local community Bruce and Jo examined the impact of light in the natural environment on human experience.

They used the residency to further develop the 'Polaria' project, devising a series of field / studio-based experiments involving recording light and physiological data in the landscape, working with the idea that the body itself is a mobile laboratory, a set of instruments (Francisco Varela).

Visit the website

2002 Helen Smith

In year 2000 'The Old School House' in Allenheads hosted the annual village show. Normally it would have been held in the village hall but due to the buildings poor state of repair it looked like the show would have to leave Allenheads. We offered the old Allenheads Schoolhouse as an alternative venue, which coincided with a millennium photograph of the population of Allenheads organised by a small group of villagers.

During the event Helen Smith photographically documented the day, and prior to the event she had made a number of visits to the village gradually getting to know some of the villagers.

These photographs became the starting place for a series of paintings that fuelled a body of research into the role of the village hall in its community.

2002 Phil Ogg

Phil worked at Allenheads for three weeks recording sounds from the Allenheads environment. During that time he went on to the fells with local gamekeepers recording the sounds of their activities, which were used along with his sound documentation of the Allenheads environment.

The final result is a set of three CD's:

Allenheads Soundscape - a composition of indigenous Allenheads sounds.

Shed - a collection of short acoustic guitar pieces made in the classroom/studio of the Old Allenheads Schoolhouse

The Schoolhouse Performance - a live recording of Phil's' performance. The performance coincided with the opening of Helen Smith's exhibition.

Copies of the cd's are for sale at headalan@aol.com

2003 Wendy Kirkup

The event took place at 1.30pm on Saturday 3rd August

(1) the view as seen by a parachutist as he descends into Allenheads, transmitted live via video camera to a large screen at the Old School House.

(2) the descent of the parachutist as seen from the ground, transmitted to a second screen.

(3) through the window or garden of The Old School House, the view of the parachutist falling into a field on the opposite side of the valley.

2004 Tod Hanson

'Tectonic Dish' made in collaboration with the Allenheads Trust

A 3 dimensional painting 'allegorical map' of Allenheads referencing events and structures past and present, spliced together as a composite fantastical place. " I have used the format of the blue plate because they are cherished and displayed with pride

2004 Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson

"…I believe that we will gradually come to appreciate that the things that cannot be known, that cannot be done, and cannot be seen, define our universe more clearly, more completely, and more sharply than those that can".

John D. Barrow, "Impossibility"
Professor of Astronomy

Allenheads Contemporary Arts