Village Green: Artist Village

Metal is pleased to host the Artist Village at Village Green again this year. This new sculptural exhibition in Chalkwell Park is the work of four artists who spent time exploring Southend, drawing inspiration from their visits around the town. The participating artists are Chloe Brooks, Ali Eisa, Brian Griffiths and Milly Peck. These artists will be in conversation at Metal’s Future Park in June.

After spending one week in residence at Chalkwell Hall familiarising themselves with the culture and histories of Southend, each artist is developing individual sculptural responses to the town and the park based on their own artistic interests. Experimenting with alternative formats for displaying and experiencing contemporary art, the project asks the artists to step away from the traditional white cube setting and create artwork for the more challenging and less formal setting of an outdoor public park and the community festival. 

Johnny spoke to Jon Kipps about the Artist Village:

Through a combination of bold and subtle gestures Chloe Brooks’ sculptures have an apparent simplicity, examining the architectural histories of a site and suggesting a re-evaluation of the place they inhabit. Ali Eisa has 10 years of collaborative and participatory work utilising sculpture, installation, performance, video and photography. He explores how complex and challenging issues such as globalisation, migration and urban development are experienced in our everyday lives. Brian Griffiths thinks with things; for him, self and stuff is always mixed up. He has made exhibitions with Bill Murray, invisible entities and wood.  Primarily using routing as a means of drawing, Milly Peck explores the area between a flat image and a three-dimensional object. 

Artist Village has been organised by Jon Kipps, an artist/curator from Southend. The project has been made possible through kind support from Arts Council England and Metal.As part of the project, the four Artist Village artists plus representatives from Bold Tendencies, Green Man festival and Supernormal festival will give talks and a panel discussion on the display and production of artwork in outdoor and festival contexts in a FUTURE PARK Village Green Special on Thursday 13 June. This event is free to attend and open to all and bookable through Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/artist-village-a-future-park-special-tickets-62473288287:

Please visit Artistvillage.co.uk for visitor information and, during the coming weeks, extra background research and new digital artworks from the artists.

Village Green is the first phase of the Artist Village project and a chance to discover the finished artworks amongst the exciting festival environment. After Village Green the artworks will then remain in Chalkwell Park until 4th August allowing visitors to experience the artworks at their leisure in a peaceful setting.

Tickets for Village Green are on sale now. As in previous years, 500 free tickets are available to holders of Southend Council’s Advantage Card C. These can be picked up from the Southend Borough Council reception – just have your Advantage Card ready to show.