Village Hall

Taking the festival theme Thinking in Circles as a starting point this exhibition brings together ceramic creations from over 30 of the extended community clay family. Pupils from East Coker, West Coker and Perrott Hill Schools are joined by Community Clay’s regular Thursday Night Potters, showing work that explores ideas of growth, production and consumption.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Community Clay (originally Lockdown Pottery) was established in 2020,  by Chantelle Henocq and Simon Lee Dicker, exploring ceramics, and the multitude of ways that working with clay in a shared social space can improve the life of those that take part. From alleviating isolation and creating lasting friendships that develop in the studio, to learning new skills, increasing confidence they have worked with participants from 5 to 80 years old, learning about life through making with clay.

ARTIST WEBSITE

Robinson in Space finds Patrick Keiller pushing the limits of British cinema to fascinating degrees with a rewarding and unparalleled pay-off. Robinson and his unseen companion, a narrator voiced by Paul Scofield, have been commissioned to investigate the ‘problem’ of England. The journey takes them all over the country, from Manchester to Liverpool and Yeovil to Birmingham, as they deconstruct English anachronism, culture, dilapidation, and the industrial economy. Keiller’s immaculately framed images and sly deadpan narration take the viewer on an unpredictable exploration of the cultural and economic landscape of England.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Patrick Keiller was born in 1950, in Blackpool and studied at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. In 1979 he joined the Royal College of Art’s Department of Environmental Media as a postgraduate student. For a time he taught architecture at the University of East London and fine art at Middlesex University.

ARTIST WEBSITE

We have a very special guest sending over some incredible tunes from Uganda!

⁠Ugandan born and raised Darlyne Komukama @darlkom aka DJ Decay aka Cardi Monáe has been commissioned to create a special playlist for the Od Arts Festival silent disco!⁠

With her sonic explorations that share the joy of the power of the femme – whether she’s playing trap, dancehall, ballroom or the stankiest twerking music, it celebrates freedom for the femme body and spirit.

As a producer, Cardi Monáe is interested in translating her artistic pursuits, which include photography, videography and installation art, into music. ⁠

Her music will be released soon on the Hakuna Kulala label.⁠

Support Decay’s queer community in Uganda by donating to the rescue fund here

🎧 Grab some headphones, choose your sounds and make some shapes. Join us for an evening of awesome beats and sonic treats! ⁠

⁠Photo credits: Martin Kharumwa.⁠

A short film about the absences within rural pastoral environments, often framed by romanticism and picturesque conventions, constructed as tourist sites and refuges in rural landscapes across Britain.

Credit: Pastoral Malaise (2022), dir Ufuoma Essi

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Ufuoma Essi is a filmmaker and artist whose work spans film, moving image, photography and sound. Using the archive as an essential medium, her work revolves around Black feminist epistemology and the configuration of displaced histories, with the aim of interrogating and disrupting the silences and gaps of political and historical narratives.

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Reflecting on the history of outdoor free parties in the English countryside, Arjuna Neuma uses rave music, past and present, to help forget the ‘official’ portrayal of England as picturesque, nostalgic, white, and rural. Somewhere between a music video, a memoir and an essay, Syncopated Green turns imperial history inside out and asks: how might our future be different if we had other histories to lean on – and dance with?

Credit: Syncopated Green (2022), dir. Arjuna Neuman

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Arjuna Neuman was born on an aeroplane: that’s why he has two passports. He is an artist, filmmaker and writer.

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This film follows the artist through the woods in search of ‘Daniel’, who was buried in a Gloucestershire village in 1719 and described, in a transcript found in Gloucester Archives, as ‘a black stranger’. Whilst walking, Dan talks directly to Daniel, speculating about the parallels between him and his namesake, and about how he’s been made to feel like a ‘black stranger’ in his home town of Stroud.

Credit: black strangers (2022), dir. Dan Guthrie

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Dan Guthrie is an artist, researcher and writer whose practice often explores representations of Black Britishness, with an interest in examining how they manifest themselves in rural areas.

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