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Contextually sited contemporary practice in rural areas
In a response to a request to consider issues around ’rural arts practice’, Veronica Vickery writes in the light of the events, performances, installations and seminar that made up BOS-08 and a BOSarts research trip, funded by ALIAS to Grizedale and Allenheads Arts in August 2008.
'Rural arts' has a long provenance in Cornwall, with artist-led activity, often in remote locations, that goes back several years including the work of PALP and then More Cornwall in 2007. What follows, very much offered as my gentle musings on practice, is a work in progress and one that is definitely up for debate. This essay explores an understanding of an approach to arts practice in rural areas that is defined more by using the strategies of contextually sited contemporary practice than by rurality of location. Rural arts: the debate Over the last few years a debate has started to emerge over contemporary arts practice in rural areas, particularly as contemporary practice has become increasingly decentred. Much of it has stemmed from a sense of 'prolonged frustration' that the experience of artists "living outside of a major city was simply not represented in the mainstream of art production, discussion and exhibition"1. This debate challenges perceived notions of the rustic, the back and beyond, the picturesque whilst laying claim to a practice that is cutting edge and critically engaged. The backdrop to this debate is made up of long standing initiatives in remote rural...
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