BEAST

Sue Todd, Charlotte Crooks, Natalie Burns, Nanette Madan, Rachel Metcalfe, Bob Dixon, Clare Parker, Ursula Troche
Florence Arts Centre

October 27 – December 22, 2024

BEAST is an exhibition by eight local artists who responded to a call out from Florence Arts Centre for an Autumn exhibition with a difference. Through discussion, the artists chose the title and began to take inspiration from one another, their surroundings, and environment which dominated discussion - we love nature but we are destroying it.

Supported by their funders, Florence Arts Centre was able to offer a small commission to each artist - for their gallery commision.

What an amazing array of interpretations and talent! Each artist is also delivering a free workshop - see our events page for more info!

The BEAST The Dragon

By Sue Todd and Charlotte Crooks

The BEAST The Dragon is a collaboration between Sue Todd and Charlotte Crooks. Charlotte is currently studying fine art at Lakes College, Lillyhall, and Sue studied there ten years ago.

The dragon is inspired by the issue of recycling and sustaining our environment. It celebrates nature, it may appear threatening and destructive, but on closer inspection it has a dual purpose: to protect nature by collecting recyclable detritus. The dragon is made from reclaimed materials and visitors can ‘feed’ it cans and bottles. At the end of the exhibition all the elements will be recycled, and the site will be reclaimed by nature.

1. Firenza (The chicken wire dragon, Firenza is the Italian name of Florence)

2. Eye - Charlotte
3. Dragon - Charlotte

4. Dragon II - Charlotte

5. Watching - Sue

6. Waiting - Sue

The Coast of Earthly Delights

A collaborative piece led by artist Natalie Burns

7. The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch is a puzzling and mesmerising painting from the early 16th century. It is a triptych full of fantastical beasts in a surreal landscape and they become more bizarre as they move through declining morality of the time.

Our collaborative piece is a collage entirely made up from art magazine cuttings giving participants the opportunity to be creative and original in designing their own beasts as well as looking at the work of great artists. The finished piece will also be an opportunity for art buffs to spot the work of the great artists repurposed! Will our beasts become more bizarre as they move through the declining environment of our time?

River Ehen

A collaborative piece led by artist Nanette Madan

8. Nanette Madan is one of the new artists in residence at Florence Arts Centre and she has used the studio space to create large installation work, including a Chinese dragon, representing the biodiversity of the River Ehen.

2024 is the year of the dragon in the Chinese calendar - in eastern culture dragons are synonymous with rivers, weather, flooding, and drought. The installation has been co-created by Beckermet C of E Primary School, KIND Social Club, Gosforth Women’s Institute, Prism Arts and Make Space. ‘Beast’ artists Ursula Troche and Clare Parker have created the eyes and head stand, respectively.

The Beast of Cumbria

A collaborative piece led by artist Rachel Metcalfe

9. The panoramic mountain scene represents the view towards Ennerdale from the top of Grike.

The inspiration for Rachel, a Cumbrian artist who explores a place through the experience of walking, came through first in 1988, where The Independent ran an April Fool’s report about The Cumbrian Bogart (a half badger - half fox beast) roaming the fells and more recently, the various big cat sightings around Cumbria reported by the BBC. So, Rachel asked herself…

“Who or what is the Beast of Cumbria?”

… and decided there might be a strange beast roaming the Cumbrian mountains or is it just us; are we ‘The Beast’ trampling over the landscape without a care?

Look into the mirror and find out…

Thank you to all who have helped collaborate by doodling on ‘The Beast of Cumbria’.

Four pieces exploring the duality of the beast

By Bob Dixon

Originally defined along the lines of the ‘the beast in the field,’ the term ‘beastly’ has come to mean different things to different people. For instance Pan is see as a deity in Greek mythology, demonised in other cultures, and is physically beastly, with a goat’s body and cloven hoof.

The octopus is often portrayed as the villain in fiction, eg. H. P. Lovecraft’s character, Cthulhu. Yet the octopus is also an intelligent creature that is revered in Hawaiian culture. Certainly ‘beastly,’ has taken on a different aspect with regards to humanity, our treatment of nature and each other.

Are we truly separate from nature or is it the ‘beast’ the perceived disconnection when really we are one?

10. Cumbrian Beasts (A study of cats)

11. Beast In the Mist (A portrait of Pan)

12. Octopus in Aquamarine (Rusty)

13. Woman Tree (We are one)

Lord of the Beasts

By Clare Parker (Low Mill Studio) and Flo’s network of young people

14. These heads, adorned and elevated, reflect our admiration for the environment, yet underscore the stark reality of our ecological footprint.

Amidst the backdrop pf beasts harmoniously integrated within the landscape, prompting introspection about the true disruptors of nature’s balance.

The installation invites the collaboration, movement, and conversation, urging a collective awakening to the consequences of our actions and inspiring a transformative shift in our stewardship of the planet.

Inspired by the profound literary work “Lord of the Flies” by British author William Golding. The novel explores the dark side of human nature with the themes feeling as relevant in 2024 as when first published in 1954!

Who is the Beast

By Clare Parker

15. Tell us who or what you think the beast is.

Beauty and the Beast?

By Ursula Troche

16. Ursula aims to provoke, using the “Beauty and the Beast” fairytale to make us think about ourselves in relation to climate chaos. “Memory is carried in the water” and so a scroll runs in the River of Consciousness, where it battles plastic - and sewage pollution. At the river mouth is a morphed Beast, part ghost, part fish. Made of found ghost-fishing gear - a remminder too of the latest whale victim of pollution found stranded near Sellafield in August of this year.

Viewers are encouraged to think about their own stories in relation to this. Our need for new stories was found by the Dark Mountain Project, who have published the ‘Uncivilisation’ manifesto. What could a beast manifesto look like?

Florence Arts Centre, 2024