By Marion Sander, artsNK
Altered Festival 2015 – Altered comes to Gedney
Altered is a partnership project between artsNK, the University of Lincoln and the Diocese of Lincoln. It was founded not only to bring contemporary art into ancient churches, but to inspire more people to visit churches and look at these historic buildings afresh. Over the past four years Altered has shown that churches can drive contemporary artists to create beautiful, thought-provoking work; work that does indeed cast a new light on ancient stones. We are now delighted to present our final event: the Altered Festival 2015. This festival is both a celebration of the project’s achievements and a challenge to artists and church communities to build upon the foundations Altered has laid (alteredartsproject.weebly.com).
We are delighted that Martin Smith’s work ‘Machines in the Trees’ (2013) will be shown at Gedney, St Mary. This work was originally commissioned by artsNK for the Zygote festival (2013), which celebrated the history of the seed industry in Sleaford. Each carefully-crafted kinetic tree has its own form and sound.
“I wanted a piece that could be set, as with an alarm clock, and would allow you to start the day gently. I am interested in producing mechanical bird sounds and seeing the cause and effect through a mechanism. For me, the making is very important and I wanted to craft every part of the machine, to understand how the bellows are constructed and operate and to get the bird whistle sounding just right.” – Martin Smith
Martin Smith’s work is housed in collections across the world. (www.smithautomata.co.uk)
This is a very special and rare opportunity for our local community to get involved into a countywide Festival. Are you interested in art, architecture and history and are able to give a few hours during the exhibition opening time? If so, please get in touch with the church wardens of St Mary Magdalene, Gedney: William Webb – jwebb@d-lweb.net – 01406-363673 or Jill Duffey – jillduffey@argonet.co.uk
St Mary Magdalene’s exhibition opening times:
Saturday 2 May 10am – 7pm
Sunday 3 May 11am – 7pm
Monday 4 May 11am – 7pm
