New exhibitions at The Ropewalk this autumn

A Little Country Living

An exhibition of photographs by Twink Addison.

Twink was born and brought up in South Somercotes in Lincolnshire. She went back to live there with her late husband John, when she was in her twenties. They settled into a small draughty cottage at the end of a farm track.

Life is solitary without being lonely.

The landscape is generally agricultural and the sea is not far away. The seasons are experienced at full strength. She has a close acquaintance with the local fauna and flora, whether dead or alive.

Transcending the Figure

Paul Digby’s ongoing project to explore and celebrate the front-line heroes of the public sector seems ever more pertinent today.

“This representation of the emergency services as statuesque, massively sculptural figures in splendid isolation. They are isolated pictorially, and this actually reminds us that these crucial and often very separate roles that our emergency services play in our lives can be isolating and at times, traumatic. They are ordinary people who perform extraordinary roles and in my experience possess extraordinary abilities and determination.”

Professor Neil Powell, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Norwich University of the Arts.

In the Box Gallery this month we are celebrating all things nautical. Dive into ceramics by Pru Green and explore the Cornish coast with ceramics by Rebecca Harvey. There will also be the opportunity to browse our selection of quirky wooden figures, mobiles and boats by artists Susan Evan and Tony Bellar.

Landscapes have always inspired Lucy. She has a passion and pull toward remote or isolated places, nature and our place within our environment; of how we choose to live carefully within it so that we leave as little damage as we can. Lucy endeavours to capture the feeling of isolation and the wildness of a place so that the viewer can imagine that they hear the breeze blowing through the grasses, the wind scouring across the beach or the call of a wading bird in the dunes. These places arouse different feelings: comforting, unsettling, eerie, lonely, peaceful, they can bring solace and rest, inspiration or a decision to be made. Lucy has woven these feelings into her landscapes and will continue to capture the moment each time she visits a new place. Each landscape is worked from personal photographs taken during travels around Britain.

“It is like I am revisiting the place again. I wish to convey this through each unique landscape”.

The Ropewalk’s annual Gardening Day returns on Sunday, May 23, after a break   last summer because of Covid restrictions.

“This year we have had to be mindful of all government restrictions in place at the time of the Gardening Day but at the same time we want to make the experience as near as possible to previous Gardening Days for our visitors,” said Liz Bennet of The Ropewalk. (more…)

Sidelong: With video and sound installation by Paul Ratcliff

A series of photographic studies of the people and landscapes seen ‘in passing’ on the train journey from Barton and while exploring the popular Wakes Week destination town of Cleethorpes.

this is the world seen from the edge of our vision, the sidelong glance, a world absorbed almost sub-consciously in passing, capturing aspects of urban and rural landscapes as the viewer moves through them

“As a photographer I have tried many times to capture this experience but all too often I capture only the place, not the journey, not the travelling. The processive images I am working on now are the closest I have come yet. The motion of the camera facing sideways produces repetitive, fragmented and distorted pictures that convey a dynamic sense of movement: a series of moments compressed and dragged into a single still image: the vague and fragmented memory of a journey, repetitive yet barely observed. A smear of sensation.

Experiencing the journey from Barton and the discovery of Cleethorpes as a destination has allowed me to develop the processive technique and the photographic ‘sidelong glance’ in a relevant direction, following the Wakes Week holidaymakers. Sadly the pandemic has prevented me from completely fulfilling the idea but this exhibition has provided the chance to show my early images taken during winter 2019 /2020.”

Brian Larkman

More of Brian’s images are combined into a video and sound installation created by Yorkshire sound recordist, Paul Ratcliff, who sonically responds to these photographs and the places depicted in these images with field recordings. These location-specific sound recordings are of; trains, coastal seascapes, bustling towns, the Humber bridge, level crossings, and spring birdsong and calls, from the Cetti’s warbler, Reed warbler, Black cap, Greenfinch and White throat.

Other examples of Paul’s work can be found at: https://www.sound-art-photography.com

Watch a video