Estuary 2016: Metal Presents: Southend Charabanc

September 7, 2016 by Estuary 2016

Metal presents:

Southend Charabanc

Part of Estuary 2016

24 / 25 September

Venues: Southend High Street, SS1 1DG

Big Screen Southend, Elmer Square, SS1 1NS

NetPark, Chalkwell Park, Chalkwell Avnenue, SS0 8NB

Metal, Chalkwell Hall, Chalkwell Park, Chalkwell Avnenue, SS0 8NB

The White Bus, The Old Waterworks, North Road, SS0 7AB

The Old Waterworks, North Road, SS0 7AB

Focal Point Gallery, Elmer Square, SS1 1NS

Beecroft Art Gallery, Victoria Avenue, SS2 6EX

Francesca Maffeo Gallery, 284 Leigh Road, Leigh-on-Sea SS9 1BW

Miss Annabel Dee* Gallery and Studios, 153 Leigh Road, Leigh-on-Sea SS9 1JF

Time:  11am - 8pm (Sat) / 12noon - 5pm (Sun)

FREE  (some activities require booking)

Southend Charabanc promises a weekend pleasure trip packed with culture. Southend’s arts venues, artists and performers have got together with Southend BID (Business Improvement District) and Southend Borough Council to create a weekend – Sat 24 and Sun 25 September - full of specially commissioned events, public art, exhibitions, music, performance and spectacle alongside artist’s BBQs, talks, film screenings and more.

A charabanc is a type of horse drawn vehicle from the 1920s that was typically used for day trip excursions or sight-seeing. Later, it was adopted to describe the buses that took industrial factory workers from large cities for a ‘works day out’ – usually to the nearest seaside. Such trips were a regular sight in Southend up until the mid-twentieth century, as day-trippers flocked to witness the illuminations and seaside attractions of the Estuary town.

Our charabanc weekend includes all the ingredients of the traditional weekend pleasure trip to the beach, with an added, packed itinerary of art and culture.

Special Events - Saturday 24 September

11am - 5pm - Street performance, art, theatre and music on Southend High Street

11am - 5pm - Big Screen Southend hosts a series of newly commissioned video performances by Jefford Horrigan

12 – 2pm – Launch of Everyday Fiction by Alison Ballard:  Metal / NetPark SS0 8NB

12 – 2pm – Play Southend: Now or Never.  Meet the artists: Metal / NetPark SS0 8NB

12 – 2pm – Launch of From the Shore and Beyond, photography by Simon Fowler:  Metal / Chalkwell Hall SS0 8NB

1 - 2pm: Archive Film Screenings.  The White Bus at The Old Waterworks, SS0 7AB

1– 4pm – Exhibition The FTPs and Friends and lunchtime BBQ:  The Old Waterworks, SS0 7AB

4pm:  Disco Turtle Party & Parade:  Southend High Street

6 - 8pm: Sculpture and performance by Jefford Horrigan to accompany Blue Gloves and Tigers in Elmer Square, outside Focal Point Gallery, SS1 1NS.  Drinks served.

Special Events - Sunday 25 September

11am - 4pm - Street performance, art, theatre and music on Southend High Street

11am - 4pm - Big Screen Southend hosts a series of newly commissioned video performances by Jefford Horrigan

12 – 4pm:  Radical Craft and other exhibitions,  Beecroft Art Gallery, SS2 6EX

12noon: Artist’s Talk – Frank Watson: Francesca Maffeo Gallery

12.30pm:  Artist’ s Talk and Tour by Frances Scott of her solo show CANWEYE {   }:  Focal Point Gallery, SS1 1NS (followed by screening at Beecroft Gallery at 2pm)

1pm:  Artist’s Talk and Walk: Public Record: Leigh on Sea, Justin Hopper. Meeting place – Leigh Community Centre, SS9 1SP

2pm: Screening of The Devils (1971) by Ken Russell at Beecroft Art Gallery, SS2 6EX

3pm – Artist’s Talk and Walk – Wrecked on the Intertidal Zone, Graham Harwood. Meeting place - Leigh-on-Sea Train Station

3pm – Disco Turtle Party & Parade:  Southend High Street

On both days, vintage buses from the Canvey Island Transport Museum will make hop-on / hop-off stops to all the venues, making sure you don’t have to miss out on anything.

Programme

Disco Turtle

The well loved Greenwich based outdoor arts company Emergency Exit Arts make their own weekend excursion out to Southend, bringing with them the perfect mobile party machine and festival favourite Disco Turtle, accompanied by a troupe of mermaids, an octopus, prawns and fish.

All day workshops all weekend to create your own accessories for a mass parade (at 4pm Sat / 3pm Sun) led by Disco Turtle at the end of each day - as he heads down to the sea in search of his lost love waiting patiently in Adventure Island.

Where:  Victoria Circus, Southend High Street

When:  11am - 5pm (Party and Parade at 4pm)

Performance on Southend High Street

As part of a legacy project with Southend BID and the Town Centre management, specially designed busking sites will host musicians, cabaret artists, street theatre troupes and live art performances all weekend on Southend’s pedestrianised High Street and nearby seafront and Pier.  Full listings will be posted on www.estuaryfestival.com

Where:  Various locations -  Southend High Street

When:  11am - 5pm

Focal Point Gallery presents:

The Table

To accompany his Focal Point Gallery commission ‘Blue Gloves and Tigers', Jefford Horrigan creates a large sculptural stage for Elmer Square. Around this structure, which resembles an enlarged dining room table, a series of performances by different artists will take place over this two hour period. To open, Horrigan will perform a dance on top of the table, in which he animates household furniture.

For full programme see www.estuaryfestival.com

Where:  Elmer Square, SS1 1NB

When: Sat 24 - 6pm - 8pm.  Drinks served.

Big Screen Programme

The Big Screen in Elmer Square will be hosting a series of newly commissioned video-performances by Jefford Horrigan that form part of his Focal Point Gallery commission. Horrigan manipulates and animates domestic objects within interior and exterior space at the suggestion that they become something other. Programme accompanies the live performances at 6pm.

Where:  Elmer Square, SS1 1NB

When: Sat 24 10am - 8pm / Sun 25 11am - 5pm

CANWEYE {   }

The first solo exhibition by British artist Frances Scott. This ambitious commission develops the artist’s interest in the apparatus of film within a three-part construction in Gallery 1. Here, different vantage points are offered on a new moving image work, filmed on 16mm in Essex and Venice. Developed out of Scott’s research around Derek Jarman’s Plague Street (1972), a drawing she speculates to be one of his set designs for Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971).

Where:  Focal Point Gallery, SS1 1NB

When: Sat 24 10am - 6pm / Sun 25 11am - 5pm

Frances Scott

‘CANWEYE {   }’

Frances Scott leads a tour of her Focal Point Gallery exhibition with Director Joe Hill.  Followed by screening of Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971) at Beecroft Gallery (see listing below)

Where:  Focal Point Gallery, SS1 1NB

When:  Sun 25 12.30pm

www.focalpointgallery.org.uk

Beecroft Art Gallery presents

Part of the Southend Museums Service, Beecroft Art Gallery holds an eclectic collection of paintings and brings together the best of local and historic talent, spanning fine art, film, installation and costume. Opening on Sunday (especially for Southend Charabanc) this is your opportunity to catch a special film screening (in partnership with Focal Point Gallery) and two fantastic curated exhibitions:-

The Devils (1971)

To follow the gallery tour at Focal Point Gallery, a special screening of Ken Russell’s controversial 1971 film The Devils, will take place in the Beecroft Art Gallery lecture theatre, a space which was used in the making of Frances Scott's 'CANWEYE {   }'.

Where: Beecroft Art Gallery, SS2 6EX

When: Sun 25 - 2.00pm

Radical Craft: Alternative Ways of Making:  touring exhibition showcasing artworks by historically renowned artists associated with Outsider Art.

A Present from Southend: Memories of a Seaside Holiday: paintings, posters, photographs and souvenirs from the art and social history collections representing seaside holidays in Southend.

Where: Beecroft Art Gallery, SS2 6EX

When: Sat 24 - 10am - 5pm /  Sun 25 - 12noon - 4pm

www.southendmuseums.co.uk

NetPark presents

Everyday Fiction by Alison Ballard.   

Launch of a new app for NetPark.  An experimental meta-fiction of short stories created during time in residence at Metal, Chalkwell Hall in 2016. Designed to be listened to in any order, segments of interconnected narrative intersect in a combination of heart-breaking stories of loss, anecdotal retellings of real and imagined encounters, and observations that illustrate the imperfect details of everyday life.

Play Southend Now or Never by Idit Nathan and Helen Stratford

Following its popular launch at Village Green in July, a second opportunity to meet the artists who created this playful app that asks you to take a fresh look at the urban furniture we all take for granted.

www.playthecitynowornever.com

Where: Chalkwell Park, SS0 8NB

When: Sat 24 -  12noon - 2pm /  NetPark open 24 hours

NetPark is the World’s first Digital Art Park, created by Metal, in association with curator Simon Poulter.  Engaging and playful artworks and stories – experienced through an iPad - take you on different journeys around Chalkwell Park.

www.netpark.zone

?Metal presents

Wish You Were Here

Ten artist-designed Beach Huts on Southend Pier take audiences on an artist-led, journey through the heyday of the classic Estuary seaside experience to the present day.

Where: Southend Pier, SS1 1EE

When: Sat 24 / Sun 25 - 8.15am - 8pm

Museum of the Thames Estuary – Pop Up

A brand new collection of shipwreck finds from the Estuary bed, recently accessioned into Southend Museum, exhibited alongside a stunning new Shipwreck Drawing by Adam Dant that reveals the secrets still hidden beneath the waters.

Where: Cliff Gardens, Southend Seafront, SS1 1EE

When: Sat 24 / Sun 25 - 11am - 4pm

From the Shore and Beyond:  the photographs of Simon Fowler

Views of the estuary photographed at discrete moments over the past decade which capture the varying mood and transient atmosphere of the river from the shore.

Where: Metal, Chalkwell Hall, SS0 8NB

When: Sat 24 -  12noon - 2pm /  Exhibition open:  Sat 24 / Sun 25 - 11am - 4pm

Public Record Estuary:  Justin Hopper

An audio poetry project that explores the land- and seascape of Leigh-on-Sea by creating poetry from 19th-century newspaper reports of minor shipwrecks in the estuary. Join Justin on a walk to experience the poetry audio in the sites that inspired the work, with live readings, recordings and new work based on the piece's methods performed on location.

Where:  Meeting Place:  Leigh Community Centre

When: Sun 25 - 1pm

Booking required - www.estuaryfestival.com

www.metalculture.com

??The Old Waterworks presents

The FTPs and Friends

12noon – 5pm

A diverse group showcasing of artists linked through friendship, shenanigans and a healthy Do It Yourself work ethic.  From local bedroom doodlers to international art thugs.  From the furthest reaches of Europe and Africa, the show promises a lot to look at!

Where: The Old Waterworks, SS0 7AB

When: Sat 24 -  12noon - 5pm

Artist’s and Audiences BBQ

Where: The Old Waterworks, SS0 7AB

When: Sat 24 -  1pm - 4pm

The White Bus

An archive film show, looking at life in the seaside town from 1920’s onwards.  Alongside films by local artists responding to the estuary and surrounding area.

Where: The Old Waterworks, SS0 7AB

When: Sat 24 -  1pm - 2pm

www.theoldwaterworks.com

www.thewhitebus.org.uk

Francesca Maffeo Gallery presents

Sophie Harris-Taylor MTWTFSS Chapter 1. 2010-2015

A solo exhibition by Sophie Harris-Taylor, a vulnerable, honest and intimate body of work from the private moments of her photographic diary. A book of the same name, designed by Joseph Carter in the form of a discrete, classic, leather-bound diary with handwritten notes bring to life some of the reminiscences and context surrounding the images.

Soundings from the Estuary: Frank Watson ?A collection of photographs taken during a series of walks over a seven year period examining the Thames Estuary.  The images reflect both the maritime and industrial past as well as future effects of global warming on the estuary's topography.  The artist will give a talk about his work at 12noon on Sun 25.

Where: Francesca Maffeo Gallery, SS9 1BW

When: Sat 24 - 10am - 5pm / Sun 25 - 12noon - artists talk.

www.francescamaffeogallery.com

Miss Annabel Dee* Gallery & Studios

Exploring The Estuary

Pop Up Exhibition and Open Studio in the popular, artist-run Leigh-on-Sea gallery and studios, featuring artists interpretations of the Estuary. Open all weekend. Music and drinks throughout the day on Saturday.

Where: Miss Annabel Dee, SS9 1JF

When: Sat 24 -  11am - 6pm / Sun 25 11am - 4pm

www.missannabeldee.co.uk

YoHa presents

Wrecked on the Intertidal Zone:  YoHa

An ongoing enquiry into the genealogical, ecological and political complexity of the Thames estuary by YoHa, with Critical Arts Ensemble and Arts Catalyst.  Take a walk with the artists on Sun 25 Sept to find out more and visit Graveyard of Lost Species.  Depending on the weather you may need wellies!

Graveyard of Lost Species:  YoHa -

One part of YoHa’s Wrecked project has been to create this ambitious collaborative project and public monument.  Recorded 'species' from: wildlife, marine creatures, livelihoods, fishing methods, landmarks and local dialect, that once comprised of the Estuary and which are now disappearing have been carved into a local boat wreck, a 40ft 12 ton Thames bawley, reclaimed from the estuary. The final phase of the project saw the Souvenir refloated back to the marsh in July this year.  

Where:  Meeting place: Leigh-on-Sea Railway Station

When: Sun 25 - 3pm.  

www.yoha.co.uk/graveyard