HEARTLANDS: EARTH & BONES
What grows in the dug up, broken parts of our cities and our selves?
Inspired by the post-industrial landscapes of l'Estrie/the Eastern Townships in south-eastern Québec and her hometown of Stoke-on-Trent, Clare Reynolds (Restoke) created this solo in collaboration with dancer Patsy Browne-Hope
Heartlands: Earth & Bones explores the excavation of the land beneath our feet, how this might relate to women's bodies, and whether we can feel the weight of industry in our bones.
Committed to film by filmmakers Darren and Suzanne James-Teale (Junction15) the solo is staged within the overgrown remains of Chatterley Whitfield Colliery, Stoke-on-Trent, it features original composition and sound design by Paul Rogerson (Restoke) and a poem ‘Wrinkled Skin’ by Ceri Morgan.
As descendants of families and communities whose lives centred round the mining industry, the Heartlands: Earth & Bones creative team made this work with a profound sense of privilege - to have been offered a bedrock on which to create art that reflects on the challenges and sacrifices of two deindustrial/post industrial landscapes.
The film, solo, poem, and music are contributions to the research project, ‘Heartlands/Pays du cœur: Geohumanities and Québec’s “regional” fiction' led by Ceri Morgan (Keele University). The project was supported by an Arts and Humanities Research Council Leadership Fellowship, grant number [AH/T006250/1].
A French-language version of the film is also available.
ABANDON (2019)
From 2018 Clare worked with Terrestrial to develop a new project in Weston-Super-Mare. This resulted in Abandon, created with an inspiring collective of people, who each have experience of addiction.
Over 12-months Clare Reynolds (Restoke), Ania Varez (independent dance artist) and Tom Spencer (Terrestrial) hosted workshops exploring dance, music, personal storytelling and different performance forms. We also saw shows together as a group and responded to these outings. From these drop-in sessions, the group grew into a strong, ambitious team of collaborators who led creative decisions for the project.
In November 2019 we took over an empty unit in the shopping centre - the group covered the walls with their original writing and filled the space with bold and emotive dance.
This project began with a partnership with Addaction, North Somerset’s primary charity for addiction support services and was part of Terrestrials year of bold projects in Weston-super-Mare. This film tells the story of these collaborative artworks - each created through a partnership between visiting national artists and local community groups.
Learn more: https://www.terrestrial.org.uk/
Film by Black Cat Films http://blackcatfilms.org.uk/
Abandon photographs by Paul Blakemore
SEAMS (2018) - KEELE UNIVERSITY
A performance, developed and performed in Keele Chapel in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire, as part of The Social History Society’s Annual Conference held at Keele University in June 2018.
It was made collaboratively by Restoke and The Dawdlers - a geopoetics research group at Keele University led by Ceri Morgan, and was performed by a cast of professional & non- professional performers.
In 2016, The Dawdlers wrote and exhibited poetry in response the former colliery site at Silverdale, to explore the legacies of North Staffordshire’s coal mining industry and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster in South Wales. Readings of these poems, plus a recording of a former Silverdale miner and some additional writing, became the foundation of the performance, around which music and movement were developed by Restoke to create SEAMS.
In under a week of rehearsals, Restoke, The Dawdlers and the cast created and performed SEAMS to an audience of 150 people, made up of conference delegates and the general public.
Learn more: https://seams-geopoetics.co.uk
The project was funded by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Keele University, Keele Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Keele Institute for Social Inclusion and the Impact Case Study Development Fund, Keele University. Film by Joseph Binks.
Seams photographs by Jenny Harper
