AUTUMN ALCHEMY EXHIBITION
ANGELICA VANASSE & SQUASH CREATIVES
11AM – 3PM SATURDAY 28TH & SUNDAY 29TH OCTOBER
& 12-4 PM WEDNESDAY 1ST NOVEMBER (SAMHAIN)
Squash, 112-114 Windsor Street, Liverpool L8 8EQ
For more information visit their website – squashliverpool.co.uk
Free pop-up exhibition for all ages
A pop-up exhibition sharing what has grown & been gathered throughout this 8-fold year*, celebrating local land-based rituals, artworks, produce and creativity. Coming together, we will make time and space to nourish ourselves through connecting to our creativity, the natural world and seasonal change in a welcoming and contemplative space. We will activate our space through making, sharing, cooking, engaging our senses and intention setting. Participate and celebrate with us by cooking on the fire, exploring the L8 apothecary, mark making with autumnal inks, and concocting natural balms and salves.
*The 8-fold year is a celebration of the Earth’s yearly cycle of change – life, death, growth and transformation. At Squash we have celebrated the 8-fold year for over 10 years through marking the Quarter points – Winter and Summer Solstices & Spring and Autumn Equinoxes and the Cross Quarter Points that fall at seasonal peaks (the Four Great Fire Festivals) of Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas/Lughnasadh and Samhain. These 8 chapters create the Wheel of the Year that connects us to the continuous cycles and changes in nature and ourselves. To us at Squash and our Windsor Street community this has become the ‘L8-Fold Year.’
This exhibition weaves together marking the ongoing L8-Fold Year with the creative processes and practices rooted in the Grapes Garden through the work of the Grapes Gardeners and artists rooted in this space. In 2022, artist Angelica Vanasse created and facilitated a series of land-based sessions working with nature and community in the garden that have become a part of our seasonal cycle. Autumn Alchemy is a collaboration with artist Angelica Vanasse to share what has grown and been gathered throughout this 8-fold year, celebrating land-based rituals, artworks, produce and creativity through activations, rituals and conversation. It brings together ritual, intention, land-based processes that are aligned with the 8-fold year in a contemplative space to be experienced.
This exhibition builds on her playful series of art-making sessions with community gardeners last year, exploring human identity and place in urban nature. In the front room at Squash you will be able to explore and experience the learning and outputs from a year of land-based, featuring activations and creative contributions from gardeners and artists Hellen Songa, Jackie Swanson & Jason Hughes and the Grapes Community Gardeners.
Designed & produced in collaboration with Clare Owens and Becky Vipond, social artists & Squash Co-directors.