Heather & Ivan Morison, I am so sorry. Goodbye., 2008, Timber, acrylic, stove, guardian, other media
Synopsis
Bishop Road Primary School is part of Bristol City Council’s Primary/Bristol series of artist commissions for primary schools commissioned as part of the Primary Capital Education Programme. As part of the development artists Heather & Ivan Morison have been commissioned by Foreground to develop a new artwork for this new school.
Heather & Ivan Morison have established an ambitious collaborative practice over the past decade that transcends the divisions between art, architecture and theatre.
Their practice ranges across a diverse set of media and approaches which sees their work manifest itself both within gallery but also within the wider physical and social arenas, from a nomadic theatre company to the creation of large-scale public spaces, often using references to apocalyptic fiction and the philosophies and aesthetics of alternative communities to create their distinctive interventions and narratives.
Commissioned by Foreground as part of Bristol City Council’s Primary Capital Programme of artist commissions for Primary schools, Heather & Ivan Morison will be making a series of new works for Bishop Road Primary School in 2016.
Bishop Road distinguishes itself in its approach to Primary years education through a deep commitment to the place of narrative and storytelling within all aspects of the school curriculum. Using the concept of object theatre as a starting point, the artists will work intensely with groups of children from the school to use their imagination to transform unremarkable objects, like a bell, or a jug, or a stick of chalk, into other objects, places, events, people or emotions and formulate new narratives between them. The artists will then make a series of sculptures and narrative films for the school that will weave a beguiling new story into the physical and social fabric of the school.
This commitment closely mirrors the central position of narrative in generating Heather & Ivan Morison’s work. Through extended engagement with the school the Morisons will make a new fiction for Bishop Road. This will play out not through the written word but through a series of new sculptural works and a series of permanent interventions into the fabric of the school that will provide key markers in a beguiling new story that will be passed on orally to the school community.
This project has been commissioned and funded by Bristol City Council. The works will be permanently housed at Bishop Road Primary School, Bristol.
The work is due to be completed in Summer 2016.
This project has been made possible through funding from Bristol City Council as part of the Primary Capital Education Programme.
Heather & Ivan Morison (born UK, 1973 and Turkey, 1974 respectively) have exhibited widely across UK, Europe, Australia, Canada and the USA. Key past projects include Knives are Mothers, WORKS|PROJECTS, Bristol, 2014; Nuclear Family, National Theatre of Wales, 2013; Skirt of the Black Mouth, 2013; Black Pleasure, Eastside Projects, Birmingham 2013; Anna, The Hepworth, Wakefield, 2012; Cave, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, 2012; Black Pig Lodge, Southbank Centre, London, 2011; Mr. Clevver, Contemporary Art Spaces Tasmania, Australia, 2011; Plaza, Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada, 2010; The Black Line Void, Derry, Northern Ireland, 2009; Black Cloud, Situations, Bristol, 2009; Journée des Barricades, One Day Sculpture, Wellington, New Zealand, 2008; And so it goes, representing Wales at the 52nd Venice Biennial, 2007. They have work in private and public collections in Canada, the Caribbean, USA and the United Kingdom including Vancouver Art Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, Royal Caribbean Art Collection, Arts Alliance, David Roberts Collection, Lismore Castle and Tate Britain.
Based in Frome, Somerset, Foreground brings new art to new audiences across the South West of England. We deliver an ambitious program that spans commissioning new temporary and permanent artworks in the diverse social and physical structures of communities, consultancy and development projects that explore the connectivity between the critical, social and economic aspects of contemporary art.
