Artist and activist James Fox uses craft as a form of protest in this new exhibition, Something in Common, at Blackwell – the Arts & Crafts house in Bowness-on-Windermere.
Opens Friday 17 June and runs until Sunday 9 October.
Something in Common sees textile artist James Fox exploring public land rights and how craft can be used as a force for change. Fox’s new commissioned work investigates society’s relationship with the countryside. Displayed alongside key landscape paintings from the Lakeland Arts collection including artists such as Ben Nicholson, Sheila Fell and L S Lowry, the exhibition examines the history of public land rights and highlights how the subtle use of craft can be used to subvert power in society.
James Fox is a textile artist from Glasgow currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Lancaster and exploring craft as a form of protest. He has exhibited internationally at solo and group shows including the British Textiles Biennial and Contextile in Portugal. His recent work delves into the history of land rights and land ownership, posing the question, ‘Who owns England?’
Naomi Garriff, Programme Curator at Lakeland Arts, the organisation that operates Blackwell, saw Fox’s work and immediately knew it was a good fit for the historic Arts & Crafts house.
‘Something in Common explores a subject that is deeply intrinsic to the philosophy of the Arts & Crafts Movement – our relationship with nature and the land. Using traditional hand stitching techniques, James Fox’s work highlights key moments in the history of that relationship, from the enclosure of Common Land to the Mass Trespasses on Kinder Scout,’ explains Gariff.
Gariff goes on to say, ‘The concept for the exhibition grew naturally throughout the commissioning process, as Fox and I began to realise the many cross overs between his contemporary work and the philosophies of John Ruskin and William Morris, two of the key figures within the British Arts & Crafts Movement. Ruskin and Morris believed passionately in the power of nature to enrich people’s lives, and Ruskin was a keen proponent of protecting the English countryside against development for profit. In his 1860 publication, Unto this Last, Ruskin proclaimed: “the poor have no right to the property of the rich, I wish it also to be declared that the rich have no right to the property of the poor.” The work that Fox has created for the exhibition is very much an ode to that statement, and a celebration of the protection of England’s public footpaths and Common Land.”
Artist James Fox comments on the ideas behind the exhibition saying, ‘For the works being shown at Blackwell, I looked at our relationship with land, and in particular one small area of land near my home in Lancashire. During Covid restrictions on movement and exercise, I decided to walk all the paths in and around this area of outstanding beauty (AONB). What I found was a distinctive rural landscape with a history that has transformed it from natural woodland to royal forest, to common land, to industrial use profiting from slavery, to an enclosed area, and ultimately to a manufactured land that is drained, burned, and eradicated of some species for the preservation of others, which are then also destroyed in the name of sport.’
For this Lakeland Arts commission, Fox has collaborated with actress Maxine Peake, banner maker Ed Hall, print manufacturer Alexander Maverick and jewellery maker Steve Martindale. The commission forms part of Blackwell’s ‘Year of Protest’ programme which features exhibitions by artists who use their craft to create positive social change. The year features a series of three commissions, including Maddy Humberstone’s Lost in Cumbria, James Fox’s Something in Common and a display of work by internationally renowned Cumbrian ceramicist, Paul Scott, scheduled for later in the year.
Find out more about the artists and book your ticket online blackwell.org.uk/events
