Denzil Forrester
Windrush Scandal: "The people who have worked the hardest for this country were given no official papers on their arrival. They are now faced with a new set of rules invented by young administrators who have no understanding of that time..."
Interview by writer Brooke Hailey Hoffert
Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background? Where did you study?
I arrived in London from Grenada in 1967. I began by helping my mum make bags in a basement in Stoke Newington. After school and FE college I joined an art studio in Dalston - Colvestone Youth Centre, which led to a BA at Central School of Art & Design and an MA at the Royal College of art. I received the Rome Fellowship in 1983-85 and the Harkness Fellowship New York 1986- 88.
In 2015 I was contacted by Peter Doig who gave me an exhibition at his Gallery Tramps London, 2016. This led to an exhibition at White Columns, directed by Mathew Higgs, New York. In 2016 I moved to Cornwall with my partner, artist Phillippa Clayden. Since then I have had an exhibition curated by Peter and Mathew at the Jackson Foundation Gallery St Just Cornwall (arguably the best exhibition space in Cornwall).
“From Trench Town to Porthtowan” at Jackson Foundation Gallery 2018
How did Peter Doig and Matthew Higgs become fans of your work?
Peter saw my Royal College MA show in 1983 and was impressed with it. In 2015 he found my contact details from Anne Walmsley, Britain's foremost authority on Caribbean artists. He set up a meeting with me in Dalston and soon after introduced me to Mathew Higgs and the White columns Gallery. They visited my Studio in Cornwall and have been guiding and supporting me since then.
What do you think about the current Windrush scandal?
Appalling. The people who have worked the hardest for this country were given no official papers on their arrival. They are now faced with a new set of rules invented by young administrators who have no understanding of that time and that expect them to produce paperwork 50 years later after the fact.
Has moving to Cornwall influenced your art in any way?
Cornwall and Ireland are considered the most spiritual places in the UK. Cornwall has given me the mental and physical space to focus on my childhood in Grenada and London.
“From Trench Town to Porthtowan” at Jackson Foundation Gallery 2018
"Stitch Up" 2017
"Blues" 1978
Denzil Forrester
How do you go about naming your work?
Titles always come when the painting is finished. Some are taken from dub reggae record titles, some are made up by me and have a close connection to music and dance.
Tell us a bit about how you spend your day / studio routine? What is your studio like?
I paint 5 days a week, 8am - 7pm. My studio is based in my back garden. It has a cliff face at the back. It is light and airy. In the summer months I have the constant sound of seagulls, as well as my vinyl dub music.
What artwork have you seen recently that has resonated with you?
A sculpture by Wayne Snagg a Grenadian sculptor.
Apart from your solo exhibition “From Trench Town to Porthtowan”, Is there anything new and exciting in the pipeline you would like to tell us about?
An exhibition in Berlin at the Tanya Leighton Gallery.
https://www.jacksonfoundationgallery.com/
Published: 10/07/2018
All images courtesy of the artist and the Jackson Foundation Gallery
Lucy & Jorge Orta
"the visual power of art is a potent tool for change."
Could you tell us a bit about yourselves and your background? Where did you guys study?
Jorge studied simultaneously at the faculty of fine arts (1972–79) and the faculty of architecture (1973–80) of the Universidad Nacional de Rosario in Argentina. He was a lecturer in the faculty of fine arts and a member of CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Research Council Argentina). He moved to France in 1984 receiving a scholarship from the Ministry of Foreign and European affairs to pursue a D.E.A. (Diplôme d'études approfondies) at the Sorbonne in Paris.
Lucy studied Fashion Knitwear Design at Nottingham Trent University in the UK (1985-89), she moved to Paris in 1991 to work as a designer and transitioned gradually into contemporary art.
In acknowledgement of her innovative socially driven work, she was nominated as Head of Man & Humanity, a pioneering master program that stimulates socially driven and sustainable design, which she cofounded with Li Edelkoort at the Design Academy in Eindhoven (2002). She has been a Professor at London College of Fashion since 2002 and is currently the Chair of Art and the Environment at the University of the Arts London. In recognition of her academic contribution to the visual arts, she has received an honorary Master of Arts from Nottingham Trent University and an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Brighton.
Lucy and Jorge Orta co-founded the Studio Orta in 1992. They have worked in partnership since 2005 under the co-authorship Lucy + Jorge Orta.
Fountain Sloten - © Het Hoge Noorden 2018
You were recently commissioned to create a fountain for the project named: 11 FOUNTAINS: CONNECTED BY WATER, as part of Leeuwarden-Friesland European Capital of Culture 2018, along with 11 international artists who have designed Fountains for the 11 cities of Friesland, with fellow British artist Cornelia Parker being one of them. Could you tell us a bit about this project and the fountain you created?
Visiting Sloten was a very intimate experience, the proximity to the residents is reflected in the familiarity of the domestic space often surrounds the houses. Wide open windows, washing drying in the wind, home-cooked products on the door steps, benches under the window sill, familiar domestic utensils in the gardens. I immediately felt at home in this familiarity and personal proximity to the everyday.
The water containers piled up high as the base of the fountain could easily have been placed in the square, while residents were stopping off at the corner shop to buy some groceries. Yet, the water brims endlessly over, filling up the vessels and spilling out again into the next, it seems the water will never dry-up. The children of Sloten have scrambled up on top of the mountain of water containers to release the peewit. As many of you may remember, collecting Peewit eggs in the Spring is an ancient tradition. This has now been banned because of the decline in species due to intensive farming, which has destroyed their natural grassland habitat.
The Peewit fountain talks about the familiarity of the everyday, and traditions that are specific to Friesland, yet there is a universal message - what yet we take for granted in our communities, is not always so abundant elsewhere.
Fountain Sloten - © Het Hoge Noorden 2018
Tell us a bit about how you spend your day/studio routine? What is your studio like?
We have a studio in central Paris where all the conceptualisation of projects, drawing, models and fine couture work takes place. Our larger-scale works are made and assembled at Studio Orta Les Moulins, in Seine-et-Marne. Studio Orta Les Moulins was founded by Lucy + Jorge Orta in 2000 in the historical birth place of the French paper industry, the former Papeteries du Marais. Located along an 8-km stretch of the Grand Morin river valley the complex of industrial buildings that make up Les Moulins include, the Moulin Sainte-Marie, Moulin de Boissy, Moulin La Vacherie and La Laiterie.
The artists imagined Les Moulins as collective environment dedicated to the creation of new forms of contemporary art and over the years of careful restoration the complex has become a veritable cultural laboratory. Comprised of artist studios, workshops, residencies, exhibition galleries, performance venues and a sculpture park, Studio Orta Les Moulins has hosted artists and researchers from around the world, to create artworks that resonate with the history of the place and re-imagine the future.
"Symphony For Absent Wildlife" (still) 2015
"Ortawater - Fluvial Intervention Unit" 2005
"Refugee Wear - Habitent" 1992-93
How do you feel being a duo affects the way you work?
Our motto is 1 + 1 = millions we are more than the sum of our parts.
Your work focuses on social and ecological issues, do you feel art can be a useful tool for social/political change?
Yes, the visual power of art is a potent tool for change.
Apart from the 11 Fountains project, Is there anything new and exciting in the pipeline you would like to tell us about?
Another public sculpture is currently on exhibition at the World Heritage site Fountains Abbey Studley Royal in England England, and will travel to Cass Sculpture Foundation in the autumn.
http://www.studio-orta.com/en/artwork/688/Potential-Architecture-Gazing-Bal
11 Fountains: Connected By Water - Leeuwarden-Friesland European Capital of Culture 2018
Published: 10/07/2018
All images courtesy of the artists and the 11 Fountains: Connected by Water, Friesland