Spring Celebration, Saturday 23 March
Wysing Arts Centre, 1.30-4.30pm
In-person
Click here to book your ticket.

On Saturday 23rd March - 1.30-4.30pm, Wysing Arts Centre presents: Spring Celebration featuring the chance to view new works by Wysing’s residency artists Elize Charcosset, Rudy Loewe, Feral Practice and Rafał Zajko, brought together for one day only.

The event begins with an exclusive preview in our project space of Feral Practice’s new surround sound, two-screen video installation COMMUNE (comeuntothenest). This work carries us on an intimate journey of human becoming with wood ants, embracing the insects as teachers and spirit guides.

There will then be an opportunity to explore Wysing’s buildings and grounds to see work made by Elize Charcosset, Rudy Loewe and Rafał Zajko’s New Block Commission, Corns and Calluses. This event also celebrates the launch of Zajko’s exclusive new edition, which will be available in our shop.

The day concludes with a conversation from 3-4pm with Feral Practice and Rudy Loewe, chaired by artist and writer El Morgan. This will explore their work at Wysing, and shared research interests, including our entanglement with other species. Please note, this conversation will include references to spiders.

Event Timings 

1.30-1.45 - Arrivals at Wysing 

2.00 - Viewing work by Feral Practice, Rudy Loewe, Elize Charcosset and Rafał Zajko 

3.00 - In-conversation with Feral Practice and Rudy Loewe, chaired by El Morgan  

4.00 - Drinks and light refreshments in reception  

4.30 - Event ends

Access Information 

The in-conversation will be recorded. This will be captioned and available to watch on Wysing Broadcasts at a later date. Please note that this event will not be livestreamed. Please get in touch with us to let us know if there is something you need to participate in this event, by emailing Ruth Dorber on ruth.dorber@wysingartscentre.org.

The venue for the open studio and in-conversation will be wheelchair accessible.
A calm decompression space is available onsite.
Accessible parking and toilets are available.

Free Companion Tickets are available for anyone who needs them.

Please note, works by Elize Charcosset will be on display in Wysing’s Amphis building. To reach this requires moving over uneven ground with varying surface textures which may cause some difficulties for unaccompanied wheelchair users.

Travel recommendations 

If you are coming from London, we recommend travelling on the 12.12 service from Kings Cross. We will organise transport from Cambridge Station to and from Wysing, which is in the countryside 10 miles from Cambridge. 

Taxis from Cambridge Station will depart at 1.15pm.

Taxis returning from Wysing Arts Centre to Cambridge Station will depart at 4.30pm.  

There is free parking available on site for those who are driving; you can find us on Google maps here.

Biographies 

Elize Charcosset grew up in Tours (FR), alongside the Loire River. Her drawings, textual pieces and beverages entangle art history, philosophical concepts, and literature to question the modes of appearance and existence of bodies, living or non-living. Her work has been shown in Brussels (Friche, Ateliers Mommen), Sofia (SAW), Bordeaux (CAPC – Musée d'art contemporain), Nyon (Eeeh!), and Périgueux (Dordogne Périgord Cultural Agency).  

Rudy Loewe visualises Black histories and social politics through painting, drawing and text. They began a Techne funded practice-based PhD at the University of the Arts London in 2021, critiquing Britain’s role in suppressing Black Power organising in the English-speaking Caribbean, during the 60s and 70s. Loewe is creating paintings and drawings that unravel this history included in recently declassified Foreign & Commonwealth Office records.

Their approach to painting speaks to their background in comics and illustration — combining text, image and sequential narrative. 

Fiona MacDonald works with human and nonhuman beings as Feral Practice to expand relationality and cultural connection across species boundaries. Their interdisciplinary work draws on artistic, scientific and subjective knowledge practices and uses augmenting digital technologies together with painting, sculpture, scent, text, ritual and participatory performance to explore diverse aesthetics and foreground distinctive creaturely subjectivities.

El Morgan is an artist and writer who explores our relationship with other animals. This has included serenading a spider, making a diamond from the dead creatures of the River Thames and embracing a giant green sea anemone.

Her book Gossamer Days: Spiders, Humans and Their Threads (Strange Attractor/MIT press, 2016) examines the history of the human uses of spider silk, from gun sights to sticky tunics via acoustic lures and royal underwear. It was chosen by The Guardian as one of their favourite books of the year. Her recent work has been shown with Raven Row, the Serpentine Gallery and Castlefield gallery.

Rafał Zajko is a polish artist based in London, UK. His work deals with issues around the industrial past exploring its environmental impact in relation to working class heritage and queer identities. His sculptural practice incorporates many different materials and processes, including ceramics, ventilation systems, prosthetics, and performance to examine folklore, science fiction and queer technoscience.

His work places an emphasis on industrial materials and the body’s relationship to technology, drawing from his own family history of working in fields and factories in Poland.