Information reposted from Arts and Heritage newsletter.
Marcus Coates presents a new audio version of his original commissioned work for National Trust Cherryburn, Conference for the Birds, from 25 May - 3 November 2023.
Seven birds discuss their lives and habitats, their concerns for the future and their relationships within the intimate Cherryburn museum; former home and birthplace of artist engraver and natural history author Thomas Bewick (1753-1828).
You can find out more about the original project via A&H's website, or visit the Cherryburn website to find opening days and times.
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Marcus Coates was commissioned as part of a programme called Mapping Contemporary Art in the Heritage Experience (MCAHE), to make a work in response to Cherryburn, birthplace of the Northumberland engraver Thomas Bewick, born in 1753.
MCAHE was an interdisciplinary research project from 2018-19 led by staff at Newcastle University in collaboration with the University of Leeds; as well as the following project partners: National Trust, The Churches Conservation Trust, English Heritage, Arts&Heritage, Contemporary Visual Arts Network, Arts Council England. For MCAHE 2019, Marcus Coates took inspiration from the birds Bewick immortalised in his engravings and recorded in his ground breaking book ‘A History of British Birds’.
Conference for the Birds brings to life Bewick’s work for visitors in a new and contemporary way; shining a spotlight on the historical significance of Cherryburn and challenges facing wildlife and nature today.
The birds, each researched and played by wildlife experts, discussed topics from migration to predation, with each species recounted their day-to-day experiences.
The birds and their players were:
Cuckoo – Helen Macdonald
Great bla
ck-backed gull – Sally Reay
Roseate tern – Tom Cadwallender
Tree sparrow – Muriel Cadwallender
Blackbird – Geoff Sample
Dotterel – Marcus Coates
Heron – Ceri Levy
Visitors were invited to take a seat among the birds for a unique insight into a bird’s perspective of the world.
By exploring the lives of the birds that Bewick studied and recorded, Conference of the Birds revealed how many of the experiences and challenges faced by wildlife relate to our own, and how relevant they are today as when Bewick’s book was first published over 200 years ago.
“I think there is value in this attempted shift in outlook as it creates unexpected lines of questioning and enquiry. This ‘play’ can also reveal just as much about us to ourselves than it does about the birds.” – Marcus Coates
"The discussion in the ‘conference’ are not so much a human enactment of bird concerns, as a set of reflections back to ourselves, which we may assimilate more readily when they emerge from these ‘othered’ voices.” – Dave Pritchard, Corridor8
Conference for the Birds was on public display at Cherryburn from 2 June – 4 November 2018.
The Artist Marcus Coates was born in 1968 in London where he lives and works. At the core of Marcus’ work is a relationship to the unknowable. From his attempts to become animal to his vicarious experiences on behalf of terminally ill patients he seeks to uncover degrees of understanding and knowing, testing our definitions and boundaries of autonomy.
He devises processes to explore the pragmatism and insight that empathetic perspectives and imagined realities can offer. He explicitly addresses a need to create functional and inclusive languages where conventional strategies of understanding and rationalisation prove inadequate.
The form and purpose of his work continues to develop in consideration to society’s needs which he responds to by working with individuals, communities, institutions, organisations and the general public. In this way he sees aspects of his art practice as a necessary and pragmatic service.
Marcus has collaborated with people from a wide range of disciplines including anthropologists, ornithologists, wildlife sound recordists, choreographers, politicians, gallerists, curators, psychiatrists, palliative care consultants, musicians, primatologists amongst others.
Partners
MCAHE
National Trust
Contemporary Visual Arts Network
Arts Council England
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