Going Out: Underwater Edge at Herstmonceux Castle

GOING OUT: A visit to UNDERWATER EDGE, a developing project by Clare Whistler and Charlotte Still during their residency at Herstmonceux Castle.
THURSDAY 23rd October, 6:45pm – 8:30pm (doors open at 6:30pm)*
At Herstmonceux Castle, Herstmonceux BN27 1RN**
Artists - all welcome
FREE to Blue Monkey Network members; £5 non-members

* Please get in touch if you need transport or can offer a lift. E-mail bluemonkeynet@btinternet.com
** Entry to the castle estate is via the east gate on Wartling Road. NB Entering the postcode above will not necessarily take you to the correct gate so please consult your map! Once inside the estate please park in the car park to the west of the Castle. Entry to the building is via the side door.

You may remember we made a New Year resolution to find out more about what our members are getting up to, so for our October event we’re going to visit Blue Monkey members Clare Whistler and Charlotte Still, who are currently Scholars in Residence at the Bader International Study Centre, Queens University based at Herstmonceux Castle.

Following on from Clare and Charlotte’s successful Waterweek project in Hailsham earlier this year, their new project, Underwater Edge is an exploration of the historical shoreline around the Pevensey Levels. The project will incorporate walking the contours of the land which mark the old water level, investigating water sources, local history, archeology, geology, myth and story while meeting with local people and experts. Clare and Charlotte will be collecting photographs, films, writing and specimens. Working with students from the college, they will use the theme of water to research and understand environmental issues both locally and on a wider scale. Image above: Charlotte Still

As well as telling us about Underwater Edge, Clare and Charlotte have invited special guests Fern Smith and Simon Read along to talk to us. Fern is a performance artist researching links between creativity, health and utopian ideas. She is co-founder of Volcano Theatre Company http://www.volcanotheatre.co.uk and Emergence http://www.emergence-uk.org/#coming-up. Since 2010, she has organized gatherings including the ‘land journey’, first imagined as part of the 2012 Emergence Summit, ‘Creating the Future’ at the Centre for Alternative Technology. The journey took 40 walkers on a 5 day, 60 mile walk through the mountains of Snowdonia curated as a walking work of art. The 2014 Emergence Land Journey was an experiment in creating a journey that enabled walkers to experience author and activist Joanne Macy’s change and empowerment process the ‘Work That Reconnects’ whilst walking the 56 kilometres of The Gower Way in South Wales. Fern will share some of the ideas behind the planning and the execution of The Walk That Reconnects and talk about its impact.

Simon Read is a visual artist who lives and works on the Suffolk Coast. He is committed to promoting a deeper understanding of environmental change at a community level through his studio practice and a direct engagement with coastal and estuarine systems, developing projects to promote the sustainability of salt marsh, and extending the scope of this work through wider interdisciplinary research networks. He is an Associate Professor of Fine Art at Middlesex University, an associate of the Arts and Environment Network of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environment Management (CIWEM) and works directly with local and regional authorities and government agencies to develop an estuary management plan for the Deben Estuary in Suffolk. http://www.simonread.info/