ADAM JAMES: KEMENETH
27 November 2021 - 6 February 2022
Tate St Ives, Cornwall
4 March - 7 May 2022
Hertfordshire University, Hatfield
KEMENETH – the Cornish word for community – is an artist’s project developed by Adam James in collaboration with St Ives communities and Tate St Ives. One group of local collaborators, PlayClub, have been meeting in a series of online sessions to playfully explore their experiences of the past two years. Together, the group have created two fictional community collectives which embody solutions to individual, local and national needs. One collective, The Fiery Foraging Warriors, is based around ideals of ‘living off the land’ as equals, and centres on a green space on the upper outskirts of St Ives. The other, The Inclusive Isolationists Society, proposes a creative community on a fictional ‘island of strange events’ off the West Penwith coast. Both share an interest in moving away from the social isolation and reliance on technology they had experienced since March 2020, in favour of more cooperative and fair modes of living. PlayClub members have imagined characters and inspired costumes and banners associated with each fictional collective, which have been produced by Adam James and the Kemeneth Makers Collective, made up of local people with an interest in textiles. These elements are brought together in an immersive installation, The Improbable Meeting of Two Fictive Solutions to a Shared Problem, created by James at Tate St Ives.
(Text courtesy of Tate St Ives)
