Cathryn Kemp - Pure Artist in Residence Saint Ronans School, Hawkhurst

# 11 www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking  [28 November 2011]

To-Do List

Finish Book (v urgent - only 8000 more words to go)

Call publisher - extend deadline to Dec 6 as been ill

Take off writing head and put back art head

Printmaking - remember to swap Saint Ronans day to Thursday this week to teach some of the extra art pupils monoprinting

Finish Telling Stories: Margate catalogue by end of week - held up due to nasty chest infection

Send off details of exhibition in January to gallery

Write & design info for gallery

Meet with new committee members for Telling Stories: Hastings - fundraising ie me and Xav off to meet the friendly chaps at The Foreshore Trust

Prepare for FT meeting - go to Xav's by end of week with budget/figures/ACE documents to be absolutely clear what we still need to raise

Alex weekend - think up xmas things to make with stepson this weekend

Buy tree

Cathryn Kemp - Pure Artist in Residence Saint Ronans School, Hawkhurst

# 10 www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking [11 November 2011]

Working collaboratively - journeys through current projects..

It has been a busy time - reflected in how little I have been able to blog recently. Several substantial projects appeared, started and developed within a few short weeks of each other and it has been a challenge to keep grounded within my own work while meeting each project as whole-heartedly as I wanted. I have been trying very hard to keep a clear sense of identity as an artist, and as a collaborator as well.

First up there was SALT which was a collaborative residency with five other artists in Hastings at the end of the summer. I've written a little about our process of creating a single work from six very different artists, and it was one of those projects that flows smoothly from start to finish. Everyone gave of themselves, everyone committed completely to the project and we created something stupendous as a result, in the form of a working, hand built, industrial zone including a six-metre-long conveyor belt, a tea station, protective clothing and a tonne of de-icing salt. Then as that was finishing, I started a year-long residency at Saint Ronans School in Kent in September; a private school in which I am the first artist-in-residence. I feelall eyes are on me as I carefully negotiate the complex rituals, energies and behaviours of a school such as this one. It is the first time I have ever seen inside a private school and, in all honesty, I wished I'd gone there as a child the minute I stepped through the doors. It seemed to me to be a gentle bastion of old-fashioned good sense and decency. The pupils hold doors open for teachers while the teachers themselves are engaged, clearly pleased to be there.

I'm an outsider though, and not so much on the grounds that I was Grammar school educated. I am a member of staff but I'm not. I slip in and out of the walls and grounds like I'm on the hunt for something. I know all eyes are on me as I'm the first artist-in-residence at the school and that makes me feel, in turn, nervous and proud to be there and be the first. I am aware that each day I spend in the classrooms I am making tentative inroads into the collective emotional and psychological make-up of the school and its pupils and that is a privilege and a pressure too. I have moved a few things into my space but I'm still finding my way, learning who to run things past, feeling through my way as part of the intricate hierarchies of such an historic place.

And just as I started the residency, I literally had to drop the artist hat and put on my new project manager and curator hats to install the first of my Telling Stories exhibitions, in Margate. This was the hardest part of the journey for several reasons, not least because there was just so much work to do organising an exhibition of seven artists and their work.

I've dug out one of my to-do lists - dated Monday, October 3 - four days before the opening night - I had 27 things on my urgent list for that day with an extra 'mother-list' which ran for three full pages! But the biggest challenge was not the immense nature of the workload - it was shifting between being artist and one of the group showing work and going through process and into dialogue together, to then being project-manager and responsible for organising it and evaluating effectively for ACE.My relationship with the other artists changed minute-by-minute at some points which was at times difficult. The opening night was amazing though. As a group we attracted the warmth and good will of Margate with its many interesting practitioners and locals. Performance artist Yumino Seki brought her powerful and strange chemistry to the space, creating a series of movements as a dance piece which drew tears from some of the onlookers (for the right reasons). Margate has ended now, but it is time to start the long and intense process of drawing together the next group of artists, 14 in total to develop the concept into Telling Stories: Hastings for 2012. I haven't a clue how it will come together right now - I just know what work moves me and makes me want to dig deeper and learn more. All the time learning more, embedding down into a process to draw from it its treasure.

Amanda Hughes - K College article.

Monday, 24 October 2011

Fine Art Graduate makes her mark at Port Lympne

Congratulations to Amanda Hughes, a recent graduate from the College’s BA Fine Art who has won a prestigious residency at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park. Amanda has created a stunning sculpture of one of the parks residents, Rukwa, a beautiful Black Rhino. The sculpture has been created utilising manipulated steel and natural material such as hazel, scavenged wood and flora sourced from the park itself.

Amanda created the piece on site at the park, welding the piece in the Rhino shed itself over a two month period. The piece is designed to highlight the plight of the Black Rhino and the work of the park. Rukwa, Amanda’s subject, is a female Rhino who has been part of the parks breeding programme and whose offspring have been reintroduced into the wild. Amanda spent time studying the Rhino’s and even met one of them whilst developing the sculpture.

Amanda has used unusual materials to creative some of the Rhino’s most notable features. The horn has been sculpted from an oak tree, blown down in the 1987 hurricane; the animals ears have been sculpted from rolled steel and the tail is made from chain which mimics the movement of the Rukwa’s tail. The frame is covered in hazel, an essential part of the Rhino’s diet in the park as it helps to prevent liver failure.

Amanda is represented by Pure Arts, an organisation that supports the work of promising artists. Amanda first became involved with the organisation through a visit they made to the College. Following a very successful end of year exhibition, where Amanda shows other work inspired by the animal kingdom Amanda was named as one of the organisations selected artists. Pure Arts are supporting Amanda’s professional development and are currently exploring a range of further exciting opportunities to promote her work. 

Amanda was joined at the unveiling of the sculpture by friends and family, including a number of students who studied on the BA Fine Art with her. We wish Amanda and her fellow graduates all the best in their future endeavours and are positive that this talented group of graduates will have many inspiring achievements ahead of them.

The Sculpture is now on semi- permanent display in the front of the Restaurant at Basecamp and the working drawings can be seen at Carnivore Territory until 31st October and online at www.puregallery.org.

For more information about Pure Arts Group visit: www.pureartsgroup.co.uk