Cumbrian alchemy

To coincide with the Cumbrian Alchemy exhibition (Rheged Centre, Penrith, UK from February to April 2014), a lavishly illustrated book is launched. Designed by the artist James Brook, it brings together material from the Cumbrian Alchemy project with essays by eminent professionals in the field in an enquiry into the place, the spaces, the people and the monuments of the region. Essayists include the archaeologist David Barrowclough from the University of Cambridge, an expert on the prehistory of Lancashire and Cumbria who considers the concept of deep-time in Cumbria and the future archaeology of long term storage of nuclear waste. Nuclear specialist Paul Abraitis investigates the natural history of radiation in the region, whilst Cumbrian journalist Alan Cleaver provides insights into the folklore of ‘places of power’ in Cumbria

Cumbrian alchemy (2012-2014)

The Cumbrian Alchemy project explores issues emerging from an enquiry into convergent relationships among the nuclear and other energy industries, archaeological monuments and oral traditions of the North Lancashire and Cumbrian region in the north-west of England. Topically, it focuses on ideas of “places of power”, issues and discourse associated with hazardous industrial sites, long-term nuclear repositories, matters of “deep-time” with respect to the recording and remembering of these repositories, language preservation and stewardship of the land. The project was supported by Arts Council England and the University of Cumbria

Perpetual Uncertainty: Contemporary Art in the Nuclear Anthropocene

Perpetual Uncertainty, curated by Ele Carpenter of the Arts Catalyst, brings together artists from Europe, Japan and the USA and Australia to investigate experiences of nuclear power, radioactive waste and the complex relationship between knowledge and the deep time of radiation. Included in this exhibition is Cumbrian Alchemy by Robert Williams & Bryan McGovern Wilson. Other exhibitors include: James Acord; Shuji Akagi; Lise Autogena & Joshua Portway; Erich Berger & Mari Keto; Ele Carpenter; Nick Crowe & Ian Rawlinson; Don't Follow the Wind; Dave Griffiths; Isao Hashimoto; Erika Kobayashi; David Mabb; Cécile Massart; Eva & Franco Mattes; Yelena Popova; Susan Schuppli; Shimpei Takeda; Kota Takeuchi; Jon Thompson & Alison Craighead; Andrew Weir; Robert Williams & Bryan McGovern Wilson; Suzanne Triester, Ken & Julia Yonetani

Manual / Issue 7 / Alchemy

Manual, a journal about art and its making. Alchemy. The seventh issue. Manual 7 (Alchemy) prompts the unexpected and emergent to manifest. To engage as an alchemist/artist is to be the perpetual student of the present moment, to synthesize culture, so-called science, and the implications of existential borders into a discipline that is repeatable, a practice. Art and alchemy are not singular, unified pursuits. Their practitioners are trans-disciplinary, disjointed, and solitary in their practice, and their labor and the ordering of their lives become porous, overlaid in the pursuit of other-than or beyond-dominant modes of understanding. Alchemy and art are not about finding resolution, but building the capacity for curiosity, formulating questions that invest fields of knowledge with possibility, prompting the unexpected and emergent to manifest. —Bryan McGovern Wilson, from the introduction to Issue 7: Alchemy Softcover, 76 pages. Published 2016 by the RISD Museum. Manual 7 (Alchemy) contributors include Markus Berger, Rachel Berwick, Stephen S. Bush, CA Conrad, Florence Friedman, Doreen Garner, Michael Grugl, Kate Irvin, Mimi Leveque, Dominic Molon, Douglas R. Nickel, Emily J. Peters, Elizabeth A. Williams, Bryan McGovern Wilson, and Diming Stella Zhong.https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/risdmuseum_journals/1033/thumbnail.jp

Cumbrian alchemy: certum quia impossibile est

Cumbrian Alchemy is an ambitious contemporary art project by the University of Cumbria and supported by Arts Council England. The exhibition of drawings, photographs and artefacts is the result of a research project by American artist Brian McGovern Wilson and British artist and university professor Robert Williams. The project, which unfolded over a number of years, looks at Cumbria and Lancashire's Energy Coast, a string of industrial facilities including nuclear power plants, renewable energy facilities and mines. The artists explore the connection between these industrial elements and the archaeology, monuments and oral traditions of the region

Cumbrian alchemy

The 'Nuclear culture source book' is a resource and introduction to nuclear culture, one of the most urgent themes within contemporary art and society, charting the ways in which art and philosophy contribute to a cultural understanding of the nuclear. The book brings together contemporary art and ideas investigating the nuclear Anthropocene, nuclear sites and materiality, along with important questions of radiological inheritance, nuclear modernity and he philosophical concept of radiation as a hyperobject. See pp.070, 074-5, 188, 198. Robert Williams & Bryan McGovern Wilson, Cumbrian Alchemy (2013-2016)

Communication Measures to Bridge 4.543 billion years: Bullroar

The film produced by Bryan McGovern Wilson (USA) and Robert Williams (UK) for the Geoweek Symposium and Film-screenings, Communication Measures to Bridge 5.453 Billion Years: Bullroar, emerged from discussions about how fatigued the two artists were by screen-based communication between continents during the pandemic, as a consequence, both wondered if there might be another way to link up through the planet, rather than taking the long way around the Earth? The means to navigate the chthonic was suggested by the realisation that the problem had already been solved by humans across all times and all cultures , by the use of infrasound generated by what is considered to be a ‘primitive’ sound-generating object - the Bull-roarer , an instrument rich in magic power – in this way, we might send signals, some of which might be using natural process, others supernatural in character, through the fissures, voids, geodes and resonant materials of the planet. To do this, we both had to venture beneath the skin of the Earth – Wilson into the Observation Pit at the La Brea Tar Pits, and Williams to the Bull-pot of the Witches Cave, at the right time, to communicate through the entire geological time span of the Earth. We made a silent film all about sound. The GeoWeek 2022 Symposium, Communication Measures to Bridge 4.543 Billion Years, and its exhibitions present a range of responses to the geologic imaginary, considered through the lens of contemporary cultural interventions and the critical reflections of artists and writers. One might argue that the cultural relationship between humans and geology has been entwined since our very beginning. I am here thinking of the defining lithic technologies that provide evidence of and argument for magnitudes of human-ness amongst primates and hominins (Shea 2017:1-9). There is a range of dating techniques available to archaeologists and geologists that can explore mineral material that is very old – even those older than can be identified using the Carbon14 method usually associated with organic material. Here I am thinking of radiation dating such as Potassium-Argon (K-Ar), Uranium-series, Fission Track and Thermoluminescence (Bahn & Renfrew 2012:145-147). Each require the predictable decay cycles of radioactive isotopes used to measure distances of time, moreover the techniques are often combined to cross reference the identified dates for greater accuracy. This approach was successfully used in the dating of the fossil of Homo habilis found by Richard Leakey (1978: 84-89) beneath a layer of volcanic tuff at Lake Turkana in Kenya, to around 2.3 million years – the earliest that a hominin bearing the Genus Homo can be found in association with stone artefacts. Homo habilis, known as ‘handy man’ is therefore identified with the Oldowan tool culture which makes and utilises biface pebble tools and flakes. Leakey, in considering the relationship between these tools and the fossils, makes clear that there is a difference between a technology and a culture (1978:105). That difference being considered to be indicative of abstract, reflective thought, a theory of mind (Mithin 2008:98-121) for non-human hominins

Cumbrian alchemy: certum quia impossibile est

“Cumbrian Alchemy” is the latest exhibition to go on display in The Beacon Museum’s Harbour Gallery. This contemporary exhibition, which includes drawings, photographs and artefacts, takes a unique view of the county with its ancient landscapes and contrasting iconic energy sites. Focussing on the Energy Coast, “Cumbrian Alchemy” explores the connection between the county’s industrial heritage and the archaeology, monuments and folklore of the area. As well as looking at older industries, such as mining, the exhibition also looks at the modern nuclear industry. More of this can be explored on the second floor of the museum which is now home to “The Sellafield Story” – a new exhibition opened at The Beacon Museum by Professor Brian Cox in May 2014. The exhibition has been produced by the University of Cumbria and supported by Arts Council England. It brings together the work of Robert Williams, Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cumbria and Bryan McGovern Wilson, an artist from the USA. As we all know the landscape of Cumbria is steeped in history; some of it natural while other aspects are manmade. Millions flock to the county to explore this beautiful landscape. However, the calmness of the fells and the stillness of the lakes have fascinating stories to tell; from legends of wild boars roaming Kirkby Stephen to Boggles drifting through the streets of Whitehaven. Using a range of contemporary artwork, visitors to the exhibition will be able to explore these fascinating subjects and their origins and look at how, before the birth of modern science, our ancestors used their knowledge of the landscape in the ancient craft of alchemy