On Friday 2 April 2021 BasementArtsProject turned 10 years old. Our first ever project was ‘This Is Our House‘ by artist Kimbal Bumstead. As we threw open our kitchen door on that warm April evening 10 years ago, little did we know that we would be creating a project in experimental art and living that would endure for the next decade. This decade has seen us regularly present new work by artists from Leeds and far beyond here at our family home in South Leeds. It has also seen us stage exhibitions in gallery spaces in Liverpool, Huddersfield, Manchester, London, Sweden and the USA.
For this, our tenth anniversary project, we have invited Kimbal back to work with us on a covid-safe celebration of our decade of activity. It is also an opportunity to revisit this artist’s work and see where the intervening years have taken him. After moving from Leeds to London Kimbal has become established as a painter yet as an artist his work takes him in many different directions. He has been a regular presence in many group shows with Basement across the years and always takes the opportunity to do something new based around performance or audio/visual installations. For this project, we have moved online and recreated the Basement in 3d as a virtual environment. This is where you come in . . . .
‘We Are Still Here‘ is a project that will allow you the opportunity to get involved and exhibit at BasementArtsProject as part of our 10 year celebration. You do not have to be an artist, this project is open to everyone to take part.
To do so, here are your instructions;
Go For A Walk, take some materials to draw with
Choose a place to sit and close your eyes
Focus on the sounds around you and make a drawing in response to what you hear
Set your phone to record sound whilst you make your drawing, keep your eyes closed!
When you are done, upload a photograph of your drawing and your sound file HERE
Your work will then be taken by Kimbal and placed into the virtual environment and the drawings used as a graphic score to create a sonic landscape from the sounds that you send. You can log in at any time over the next month and watch as new works are added and manipulated by the artist to create a whole new exhibition containing your contributions.
You can access the Virtual BasementArtsProject at any time from HERE
On Friday 16 April at 6:30pm I will be In Conversation with Kimbal on Instagram about his work, this exhibition, life as an artist and how the pandemic led to the development of this project. We will be answering peoples questions and comments in the scrolling chat bar on Instagram.
Above: Zoom conversations discussing the 10th Anniversary Project
Below: Kimbal Bumstead in his London studio with work
We hope that you will join us in this online celebration by taking part, and if you do not want to then please feel free to drop in on the Virtual Gallery any time and see how the work is progressing
Bruce Davies | April 2021
