For the second year of re:place we are delighted to have selected Philippa Lawrence for the Main Commission, and Flore Gardner and Charles Monkhouse for Intermediate Commissions.

Philippa Lawrence - Main Commission

Philippa Lawrence was born in Louth, Lincolnshire in 1968. She studied at Norwich School of Art (1987-1990) and the Royal College of Art, London (1991-1993). She is currently Senior Lecturer responsible for the Mixed-Media Art Textiles pathway on Contemporary Textile Practice at University of Wales Institute, Cardiff.

Lawrence has exhibited widely both in the UK and internationally, including Japan, Canada, Iceland, Czech Republic and Australia. Her work has been selected for numerous group exhibitions, as an invited artist for the recent RWA Celebrating Paper (2010) and Through the Lens exhibition (2008), Sense in Place, Reykjavik, Iceland (2006); Reiko Aoyagi and Philippa Lawrence, House of Arts, Ceské Budejovice, Czech Republic (2005); Anima, B312, Montreal, Canada (2005); Explorations, National Botanic Gardens of Wales (2003); Like Gold Dust, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham (2002); Glow, Artspace, Sydney, Australia (2001); and ArtTextiles, Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery (1996). Her touring solo exhibition Philippa Lawrence, Oriel Davies, Tunbridge Wells and Glynn Vivian Art Gallery (2006-7):

Awards made include Welsh Artist of the Year (2008); Production Grant, Arts Council of Wales (2006); a Creative Wales Award, Arts Council of Wales (2003); an Oppenheim John-Downes Award (1998); and a Henry Moore Foundation Scholarship (1992).

Philippa says, "I wish to engage with Re:place as the vehicle through which to explore boundaries, both natural and man made, and how man affects and changes the environment.  And how ‘we’ respond and relate to landscape, to ‘site’ and to how we orientate ourselves. I have a deep interest in ‘place’ - what it is and how the individual may experience it, actually or psychologically."

"I am interested in the value we place on commodities and goods from a particular place, that place and its natural resources once shaped settlements and ‘work’. Ways of being within a location, which are no longer viable. My initial research has involved ‘a getting to know’ through spending time in Derbyshire – in local museums, with artifacts, maps, books, words, paintings, images, through materials, poetry or stories as a way of orienteering myself."

From this initial research Philippa has decided to focus her work on Swadlincote in South Derbyshire.

Flore Gardner - Intermediate Commission - One M(obe)ile Mile

"Taking one mile as the basic unit of distance while travelling, my project consits of the installation of a soft sculpture, a one-mile long red knitted cord, in different places in Derbyshire. Several different installations of this cord could be envisaged; in urban and rural contexts, inside and out, and connections in between."

Flore's use of knitting makes reference to the history of the cotton and silk industry in Derbyshire, and at least one installation will be around a mill at Cromford, with others at Wirksworth, where the encircling of St Mary's Church refers both to the Clypping of the Church (whilst a hymn is sung the congregation completely surrounds the church building, holding hands.  ‘Clyppan’, an Old English word, means to embrace, honour, cherish and was a popular and traditional way of celebrating a Patronal festival), and to the historic manufacture of red tape to bind government and legal documents at Haarlem Mill in Wirksworth. Other installations will take place in and around the Derwent Valley World Heritage Site during the Discovery Days, 23 - 31 October, and at Melbourne Festival.

Flore also shows photographic work at Ilkeston Festival from 29 June - 3 July alongside a wall drawing residency by Chloe Steele and Tom Hackett's 'Silicone Boys'.

Charles Monkhouse - Intermediate Commission - Meander

Charles is an artist living and working in the Peak District. Recent projects include the award winning Sites of Meaning, marking the boundary of Middleton and Smerrill; Companion Stones, compeers for the Derbyshire Guide Stoops run for Arts in the Peak in partnership with the Peak District National Park Authority; Simultaneous Contrast, a project on colour for the Derbyshire Festivals; and Night Stations, a series of residencies and light installations in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cumbria. He is a founder member and current chair of Arts in the Peak. 

Charles proposes an installation, Meander, for re:place.  Meander will be a massive light installation, sited in the Hope Valley, and viewed from Surprise View above Hathersage.  It will be shown for one or two evenings in the autumn of 2010 or spring of 2011. The installation will recreate an earlier form of the River Derwent, still trapped within its valley sides but floating high above the current valley bottom. The installation will be at night with up to 200 individual lights.