News
Liz Wells speaker at 2020 Annual Conference for Society for Photographic Education, Houston, USA
Yan Wang Preston, Ten By Ten: New Discoveries Exhibition at FotoFest Houston, USA
Jem Southam: 'Birds, Rocks, River and Islands', The Levinsky Gallery, University of Plymouth, Jan–Mar 2019
Land/Water consists of artists, writers and curators who embrace a diversity of creative and critical practices. It operates as a forum for the interrogation of nature and culture, aesthetics and representation and questioning imagery and practices relating to land, landscape and place is central to our ethos.
As artists, writers, curators we work individually exploring space and place as a point of departure for experimenting in new modes of communication through picturing. We generate work that addresses a range of issues. These include environmental change, sustainability, journey, site and regional specificity. In addition, a forum for theoretical and methodological debate is constructed through research events, exchange exhibitions (with other HE Institutions), conferences, symposia and publications.
Discover more about the history of Land/Water and The Visual Arts
Featuring Dornith Doherty, Sant Khalsa, Chrystel Lebas, Heidi Morstang and Liz Orton.
In a world shaped by Covid-19, it seems more important than ever to consider nature, biodiversity, and the environment. Seedscapes brings together five contemporary artists exploring global efforts to safeguard vital plant species from extinction. Plant diversity is rapidly declining and faces threats from global warming, pollution and war. Yet without seeds and their potential for food and medicine, we cannot sustain ourselves. Featuring photography, moving images and sculpture, Seedscapes reveals how international artists, biologists and ecologists are responding to these challenges.
The exhibition is curated by Liz Wells, professor in photographic culture, University of Plymouth.Virtual event – 25 November 2020 – Book a place
Artistic research practice has a unique capacity to offer crucial insights informing our understanding of environmental issues in the Anthropocene. This symposium brings our researchers and postgraduate students together to share common research interests.
Speakers:
Laura Hopes (University of Plymouth),
Johanna Mechen (Massey University, Wellington, NZ), Kevin Miles (Massey University, Wellington, NZ)
Virtual event
–
21 November 2020
Dr Kayla Parker & Dr Simon Standing
Virtual event
– 24 February 2021,
14:00–15:30
Jessica Lennan & Robert Darch, Dartmoor
Virtual event
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26 May 2021, 14:00–15:30
Liz Wells speaker at 2020 Annual Conference for Society for Photographic Education, Houston, USA
Yan Wang Preston, Ten By Ten: New Discoveries Exhibition at FotoFest Houston, USA
The aim of this conference was to expand on and question how art can contribute to understanding contemporary environmental issues and challenges.
Artistic research practice has a unique capacity to offer crucial insights informing our understanding of environmental issues in the era of the Anthropocene. The reflexivity inherent in arts research along with an emphasis on expressive communication as outcome offers significant scope for bringing crucial yet complex relationships between vulnerable species, human action and climate change to wider appreciation amongst general audiences and key stakeholders.
Placing artistic interpretive methods alongside scientific interpretive methods carries some risks and challenges, particularly as artistic approaches may invite an open-ended, contemplative engagement with the scientific, sensorial and political layering of the environment, that is not typical of mainstream science communication. Ways in which arts practice complements and extends scientific insight will be centrally addressed. This conference was the first of a series of research events planned by the international research network linking University of Plymouth, Massey University, New Zealand and Valand Academy, Gothenburg University, Sweden.
Sensing Nature: Photography and Environmental Arts
Liz Wells spoke at The Rooms Museum and Art Gallery in St
John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, to coincide with the opening of a major survey of
work by Canadian environmental artist, Marlene Creates. October 16th 2019
The talk was the final stop in a trip that also included public talks at Ryerson University, Toronto, and Concordia University, Montreal, along with visits to Ryerson Image Archive and to the National Collection of Photography at the National Gallery of Art, Ottawa.
Exhibition explores beneath the surface of culture in Cyprus
Artists from the University of Plymouth are taking part in an international exhibition which aims to offer a different perspective on life in Cyprus.
Professor Jem Southam returns from a stay in New Zealand, initiated by our long-standing relationship with the College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington.
During the visit, he gave the annual Peter Turner Memorial Lecture at Te Papa, Wellington; participated in the second New Zealand PhotoBook festival; taught on a photography publishing workshop; led a session on planning for a national photography archive with museums from around the country; met with post-graduate students from Massey University; and began a photographic project in New Zealand; a start of a residency with the Photography department at Massey.
His was the third artist-in-residency by staff from 'Land/Water and the Visual Arts Research Group' to visit Massey University, after Liz Wells in 2010 and Heidi Morstang in 2012. Anne Noble, Wayne Barrar and Caroline McQuarrie from Massey University, have each made work as a result of artist-in-residencies at University of Plymouth.
Discussions also took place about extending the links between the two art schools through collaborative research, events and exchanges, which has been given potentially greater emphasis since Professor Chris Bennewith became Head of the School of Art, Design and Architecture at University of Plymouth. Chris was previously Associate Pro Vice Chancellor Enterprise for the College of Creative Arts.
The honorary doctoral conferment took place at their annual University doctoral degree ceremony on October 20 2017.
Liz Wells returned to Gothenburg to participate in a Valand Academy research day on 4 December 2017.
Design lecturer invited to judge prestigious national craft initiative
Polly Macpherson, Associate Professor in 3D Design at the University of Plymouth, has been selected as one of the expert judges for the Woman's Hour Craft Prize 2017.
University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA