Whilst Jade was with us, she worked with Mafwa who make theatre with sanctuary seekers (people who have refugee status or are seeking asylum) in Burmantofts, Lincoln Green, and Mabgate.

Jade’s research topics on ownership, body, and land were explored through workshops and exchange of materials that find commonalities, identify urgent needs, create a connection to the earth, whilst finding ways to voice aspirations for and histories of ‘movement’ and methods for ‘grounding’, rooting and re-routing. The project was developed with film-makers Webb-Ellis working as artist consultants. 

Helen Moore, Engagement Lead at East Street Arts took on the role of project manager during Jade’s residency. Helen has featured in a recent blog from Counterpoints Arts about her experience working with Jade. View Helen’s blog for more details.

Jade’s residency started with initial discussions with Helen on the themes and ideas that she was interested in exploring, and how these might connect with our neighbourhood. Jade discussed how she is inspired by the world around her, and in the current climate, she wanted to examine topics of ownership, land, our connection to the earth, and growth.

Jade and MAFWA

"The packs contained materials for growth and drawing, and were delivered to the community as an act of creativity, care and love."

Jade created some lovely art and seed packs for sanctuary seekers, in partnership with MAFWA. Each pack contained something to draw with, and herb seeds for growing, cooking, and eating!

The packs were an invitation to an online drawing workshop which Jade held on 13 August 2020. This workshop was the final element of Jade’s residency, which informed her performance to camera. The film will be available online soon.

7 people attended the workshop in total, with participants taking part from Eritrea, India, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and the UK. The participants enjoyed planting their seeds and were excited to see them grow and each of them took part in a drawing activity.

“It was good when everyone else was doing activities in the boxes and I could see what everyone was drawing. I found planting the seeds relaxing.” MAFWA participant

Whilst working with us, Jade has also been working with Web Ellis and Scarborough Museums Trust, check out the film they made here: https://www.scarboroughmuseumstrust.com/new-digital-commissions/

Re-seeding, in correspondence

Re-seeding, in correspondence is a new performance to camera suggesting that there is a connection between ourselves and the earth.

Re-seeding, in correspondence is a new performance to camera by Jade suggesting that there is a connection between ourselves and the earth and that this line, or connection, like our communications with one another, is drawing.

Helen Moore, Engagement Lead at East Street Arts and Project Manager during Jade’s residency having followed Jade’s residency closely, and having seen the performance to camera commented:

“I think it’s a fantastic piece! Jade has a very distinctive style to her work and I found it a meditative experience to watch. I see the process of the residency reflected in the final performance and the themes of growth and connectivity explored in quite thought-provoking ways. I really enjoyed working with Jade and I’m looking forward to the launch event!”

Jade Montseratt

Jade Montseratt at work.

Developed with film-makers Webb-Ellis, Jade seeks to visualise these exchanges of energy, the lines, the communications, and with that, consider, maybe on a global scale, stewarding of our spaces.

Re-seeding, in correspondence documents processes of making virtual connections with a local community of people who have refugee status or are seeking asylum. Jade’s research topics on ownership, body, and land, explored through a workshop with participants from MAFWA Theatre – an organisation in Leeds who make theatre with sanctuary seekers in Burmantofts, Lincoln Green, and Mabgate – included an exchange of materials: charcoal, a sketchbook, herb seeds, and materials to grow them in with the intention of locating commonality through a shared connection to the earth, soil, and growth.

A development of ‘Drawing as Contagion’, a text and workshop devised in response to exhibition Instituting Care (Bluecoat; Humber Street Gallery) RE:seeding, in correspondence extends Jade’s central idea that drawing is a mode of being or a mode of operating, allowing further exploration of the question: What does it mean to survey and reclaim ‘environments’, our relationship to space, and where are potentials for reclamation or belongings?

The film was launched at an event on October 23rd 2020 as part of the Unbordering Festival.

Watch Jade’s conversation with Chandra Frank below. Jade’s final performance will be available to watch soon.

 

Biography

Jade Montserrat is the recipient of the Stuart Hall Foundation Scholarship which supports her PhD (via MPhil) at IBAR, UCLan,  (Race and Representation in Northern Britain in the context of the Black Atlantic: A Creative Practice Project) and the development of her work from her black diasporic perspective in the North of England. She was also awarded one of two Jerwood Student Drawing Prizes in 2017 for No Need for Clothing, a documentary photograph of a drawing installation at Cooper Gallery DJCAD by Jacquetta Clark. Jade’s Rainbow Tribe project – a combination of historical and contemporary manifestations of Black Culture from the perspective of the Black Diaspora is central to the ways she is producing a body of work, including No Need For Clothing and its iterations, as well as her performance work Revue. Jade was commissioned to present Revue as a 24 hour live performance at SPILL Festival of Performance, October 2018, a solo exhibition at The Bluecoat, Liverpool, (Nov – 10 Mar 2019) which toured to Humber Street Gallery (July-sept 2019) and was commissioned by Art on the Underground to create the 2018 Winter Night Tube cover. Iniva and Manchester Art Gallery have commissioned Jade as the first artist for the Future Collect project (2020). 

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