Initiated from a grass-roots community movement felt through the Making an Honest living, generating on from a lifetime dream to exhibit artwork within a vinery. I with help from Guernsey Art network and some wonderful artists, created and curated this wholesome and topically gripping series of shows.
This September, three historic greenhouses became temporary exhibition spaces, each hosting a weekend of contemporary art inspired by Guernsey’s rich agricultural and cultural heritage.
As housing pressures grow and the island continues to change, it is important to recognise the value and character of Guernsey’s greenhouses. Once central to island life, many now stand abandoned and slowly disappearing from the landscape and from our collective memory.
Through art, we invited artists to look more closely at the lives, labour and stories that once filled these spaces, and the people now striving to make use of the once vital agricultural hubs.
With modernity forever bringing new fears and questions over our sustainability and reliance on corporate control, we are aiming to revitalise through collaboration and creativity, community spirit and our love and care for the land. With this we can become more conscious of not only our food production but our wider environmental standpoint, and help people feel more connected to the land and to those around them who share the same ambitions.
Artists have been asked to spread their wings and create what feels right to them in relation to the project, from personal connection to a distant appreciation. We have over 20 local artists involved, each with a unique story to tell. Artworks were allocated across the three vinery sites, in relation to site and harmony with other works, with a few artworks repeated across the weekends.
The exhibition kicked off at the Gèle vinery on the 11th September, with a magical opening night, inviting a wide variety of people: from growers and artists to friends. This carried on with all types of activities and workshops over the weekend, including the Guernsey Garden sketch club to printing with indigo pigment grown within the vinery itself.
We then, throughout the week, moved our boards and artworks up to Cornucopia, a Channel Island Permaculture project at Belmont Vinery. This ran over the weekend of the 19th and 20th, where once again we provided an array of activities and engagements for people to get involved with. These included discussions around permaculture with Stu Ogier, watercolour workshop with Emma Griffin, and a goat life drawing session hosted by Alisha Flouquet.
Finally, we hit the road up to Edible Guernsey, Sandpiper vinery for a phenomenal final show. Weeks of hard work culminated in a successful display. Showing art from all contributing artists in a wholesome retrospective. Exhibited across the 26th and 27th of September, Sarah Breton’s organic food tasting and flower display set up the weekend for an array of activities. Photography using smartphones with Lucie Stribrska, foraging for inspiration with Athene Sholl and indigo printing with James Kail. Bringing this momentus project to a close, with a celebratory BBQ to thank the growers, artists, family and friends for helping build this vision to create lasting memories!
