An Engagement commission by Rachal Bradley, developed over the past year in collaboration with emerging West of England-based artists and Creative Youth Network alumni Carlo Hornilla, Tommy Howlett, Lauren Jeffery and Calum McCutcheon. This new body of work is the result of a year-long residency in Spike Island studios exhibited at Spike Island, Bristol January-March 2023.
Reflecting upon the underlying functions of the psyche, the body and where these meet the reality around us, FORECAST comprises a video work exploring the collective consciousness of crows and a mirrored pavilion sculpture suspended from the gallery ceiling. The pavilion is connected to a motor that receives data from two seemingly disconnected sources: The Met Office tidal forecasting station at Avonmouth and the bond marketstock exchanges of London, New York and Tokyo of the London Stock Exchange. While traders can issue, buy or sell debt stocks and shares on these international markets at the bond market, economies reliant on the circulation of goods have always been impacted by weather forecasting. When the data reaches the motor, the pavilion gently sways, a movement that is both soothing and destabilising.
Image: Dan Weill Courtesy of Spike Island and the artists.
Project details
Research team
Rachal Bradley - (PI), London Met
Team members
Project partners
Funders
Arts Council England, 2022
Project duration
January 2022 – February 2023
More about the project
- To engage young artists from the Creative Youth Network, Bristol in a significant institutional commission.
- To provide mentoring to a group of young artists, who are post-education and trying to establish their own careers in the field in the Southwest of England, helping to develop the next generation of contemporary artists based in this area.
- To develop artistic, fabrication and exhibition skills for the group of selected young artists, to enrich and develop their existing professional experience through this institutional commission.
- To create an innovative and engaging residency experience for the young artists.
- To create a collaborative and ambitious new body of work that introduced the young artists and the audience to new artistic techniques and methodologies.
Artefact
Public-facing Outcome
FORECAST: Artist in Conversation. Rachal Bradley, Carlo Hornilla, Calum McCutcheon, panel discussion, Bristol: Spike Island, 20 April 2024.
Public Outreach
- Mentoring sessions with the participating artists, monthly between January 2022-February 2023,
- Series of professional workshops designed and led by Rachal Bradley, along with Sam Buchan Watts, Jessica Wiesner and Andrew Kerton, February 2022-September 2022.