That's a wrap!
This September, Collectiva brought together 14 artists and makers at All Saints’ Church in Laughton for The Art of Rural Life, an exhibition exploring the landscape and life in this part of Sussex, and the ways in which rural places continue to shape creative practice.
At its heart, the exhibition began with a much older and more elemental idea: that the human need to create, make meaning and tell stories has always existed alongside our need to feed and sustain ourselves.
Long before farming, early humans hunted and gathered for survival, while also decorating their tools and creating images on cave walls - acts which served no obvious practical purpose, but reveal an innate need to express ourselves creatively. Together, these acts form part of our earliest instinct for storytelling. Over time, these two fundamental aspects of human life have become increasingly separated. Today, agriculture and art can appear to occupy entirely different worlds, rather than being understood as interconnected parts of our human experience.
The natural world offers a bridge between the two. Our deep-rooted need to be in nature connects us to the landscape that has always provided food and shelter, while also feeding our imagination, curiosity and desire to create. Time spent in natural surroundings is increasingly recognised as important to our wellbeing. We humans often forget that we are animals, yet our instinctive attraction to nature may be more than a preference - it may be a fundamental part of what keeps us connected to ourselves and the world around us. It was this relationship between land, making and human experience that shaped the exhibition.
The 14 artists and makers brought together very different practices, but shared an attentiveness to the rural landscape, flora and fauna of Sussex. Their work offered different ways of looking at familiar surroundings - from the cultivated landscape to the wild, the seasonal and the overlooked.
The collection came together particularly well, with the natural light, serene atmosphere and cohesive nature of the work allowing each artist's practice to speak for itself. Although the artists brought very different approaches and materials, there was a strong sense of connection between the works, a shared sensitivity to the landscape and the wildlife, plants and places within it.
At its heart, The Art of Rural Life asked whether art and farming, each rooted in observation, patience, weather, labour and a deep relationship with the land, should really be considered separate at all. Perhaps the land itself provides the connection, a meeting place for the elemental need to sustain ourselves and, at the same time to create, communicate and tell stories.
The response to the exhibition was wonderfully encouraging. More than 150 people attended the Preview evening, and throughout the exhibition we heard generous feedback from visitors, many of whom commented on the high standard of the work, the atmosphere of the show and the beauty of the setting.
The exhibition was generously sponsored by NFU Mutual, with funds raised in support of the Farming Community Network (FCN). Supporting FCN felt particularly appropriate to the exhibition, connecting the creative work on the walls with an organisation that provides practical and pastoral support to farming people and their families.
Alongside the exhibition, Collectiva held its first talk, a satellite event featuring bestselling author Horatio Clare in conversation with Antony Penrose, Sussex farmer and director of the Lee Miller
Archive and Penrose Collection based locally at Farley Farmhouse & Gallery. the evening was a resounding success which sparking debate and the opportunity to hear from two fascinating people and their perspective on rural life, migration and geopolitics.
For Helen, Founder of Collectiva, The Art of Rural Life was ultimately about creating a space in which these different worlds could meet - art and agriculture, making and storytelling, landscape and livelihood and inviting people to consider the connections between them.
The Art of Rural Life has now come to a close, but the ideas behind it and the connections it explored will continue to inform Collectiva's work.
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