Archives: Projects

Rolodex Propaganda

Polygon Palm presents Rolodex Propaganda, developed by KARST studio holder Tom Milnes. Exploring recent developments of NetArt and the ethics of digital/virtual image production, Rolodex Propaganda is a confrontation of propaganda, corruption, deep fakes, and deception.

As part of The Wrong Biennale, the project existed as an online, mobile-only embassy. Now at KARST, the digital works have been developed by the featured artists in a series of physical manifestations, installations, and screenings.

Featured artists include: Clareese Hill, Clement Valla, Helene Kazan, Katie Zazenski, Marc Blazel, Max Colson, MicheÃ¡l O’Connell (Mocksim), Raphael Fabre, Shane Sutherland, Theo Ellison, and Tom Milnes.

Rolodex Propaganda opens at KARST on 18 April (6-8pm) and is on view until 27 April.

The Joyous Thing #5

In partnership with Outlands, KARST presents a weekend of experimental music and performance in Plymouth. The Joyous Thing #5 is an opportunity to experience talking, dancing, singing and socialising. Together, we will explore the connected themes of collaboration, mutual support, and equality of access — centred around the vital question: how do we continue to keep things Joyous?

Boundary-breaking musicians NikNak and I AM FYA kick off proceedings on Thursday with live performances at Leadworks. On Friday, KARST hosts Penumbra – a new interdisciplinary piece bringing together acclaimed musicians Dali de St Paul & Maxwell Sterling with filmmaker Rebecca Salvadori and light artist Charlie Hope. To conclude the weekend, on Saturday morning artist Rhys Morgan leads a performance by LGBTQIA+ sea shanty choir Seaweed in the Fruit Locker at The Lions Den, followed by a sea swim.

Throughout the weekend KARST and Leadworks will also host a range of talks and workshops focused around producing and presenting experimental and interdisciplinary performance.

Turntabalism Workshop with NikNak
Thursday 4 April, 5-6pm
Leadworks
Free

NikNak presents a relaxed Turntablism workshop at Leadworks specifically for LGBTQIA+ People of Colour who also identify as female, trans and non-binary designed to give participants the confidence to play the music they want without fear or anxiety.

NikNak says: “there continues to be a lack of authentic diversity and representation in line-ups in electronic music, especially where DJ-ing is concerned”.

This workshop is specifically for LGBTQIA+ People of Colour who also identify as female, trans and non-binary. To book your place, email info@karst.org.uk.

First Thursdays: NikNak live with support from I AM FYA
Thursday 4 April, 7-11pm
Leadworks
Tickets £9 / £6 (concession) – book here

NikNak is an artist known for her creative and boundary-breaking work, who has gained worldwide recognition with her unusual albums, remixes, and engaging performances. In 2020, she made history as the first Black turntablist to receive the prestigious Oram Award. Not limited to any one genre or role, NikNak is an experimental composer, sound designer, DJ, and electronic artist. With multiple releases, collaborations, and live shows, NikNak stands out for her unique style. Featured in various publications as a rising star, NikNak continues to advance the boundaries of sound innovation with her complex and singular approach to turntables and spatial music production.

I AM FYA has been mesmerising audiences across the UK and beyond with her distinctive collision of live sample manipulation, experimental yet soulful vocals, and full spectrum sonic arrangements. Her performance has recently been described as “Barbadian bass science and undefinable grandeur”.

This is a First Thursdays event in collaboration with Queer District Collective and Minerva.

The Joyous Thing: Outlands Network member-led event
Friday 5 April, 12-4pm
KARST
Free, all welcome

An afternoon of presentations and panel talks from Outlands Network members, featuring a keynote performance from The Cornwall Youth Noise Orchestra and presentations from Jessica Beechey (London / Cornwall), Moogie Wonderland (Penryn), Full of Noises (Barrow), Another Sky (London).

A panel and audience Q&A session will follow, with Karen Sutton (The Oram Awards), Anthea Clarke (I AM FYA), Nicole Raymond (NikNak) and Rhys Morgan (Seaweed in the Fruit Locker), chaired by Caleb Madden (Outlands Network / Spirit of Gravity).

Vocal Improvisation Workshop with Dali de Saint Paul
Friday 5 April, 4-5pm
KARST
Free – book here

In this introductory workshop with Dali de Saint Paul, you will play with exercises and improvisation techniques, and listen to examples from the history of experimental sound and music, exploring the voice as a musical, communal, and political instrument, and how multiple voices can interact in the context of improvisation.

Dali De Saint Paul is a prolific collaborator and a prominent figure in Bristol’s improvised music scene who likes to explore musical dialogues with musicians across different genres. Over 6 years, her improvised project EP/64 involved more than 40 musicians and visual artists across 64 concerts. Described as having a ‘raw vocal style’, Dali is completely self-taught as a vocalist and a musician.

The workshop lasts for 1 hour approx. No experience or musical training is required. Tickets are free but booking is recommended to reserve a space.

Penumbra (Dali de St Paul, Maxwell Stirling, Rebecca Salvadori and Charlie Hope) with support from Jessica Beechey and DJ Bealzedub
Friday 5 April, 7:30 PM – 12:00 AM
KARST
Tickets £9 / £6 (concession) – book here

Penumbra is an experimental performance devised by vocalist Dali de Saint Paul, electronic composer and double bassist Maxwell Sterling, and visual artists Charlie Hope and Rebecca Salvadori. Emerging from a series of collaborative sessions, this new interdisciplinary commission from Outlands comprises a dynamic sonic improvisation structured by a video and lighting score. The project has developed and evolved over a series of live shows touring England in spring 2024 culminating in Plymouth. The tour was produced by Outlands Network member Al Cameron, commissioned by Outlands Network and supported by Arts Council England.

Seaweed in the Fruit Locker and sea swim
Saturday 6 April, 11am-12pm
The Lion’s Den
Free

To conclude The Joyous Thing #5, on Saturday morning artist Rhys Morgan leads a performance by LGBTQIA+ sea shanty choir Seaweed in the Fruit Locker at The Lions Den, followed by a sea swim.

Seaweed in the Fruit Locker are an LGBTQIA+ sea shanty choir formed by artist Rhys Morgan to explore collective performance in marginalised communities through the tradition of shanty singing. The choir will be performing a selection of new and traditional shanties which have been rewritten by the choir to reflect their own queer lived experience, often inspired by existing queer narratives within sea faring heritage and using the gay slang language Polari.

Bacon or veggie butties and tea/coffee will be provided for the swimmers by Minerva cafe.

SCHEDULE

Thursday at Leadworks
7PM – DJs
8PM – I AM FYA
9.05PM – NikNak (live)
10-11 PM – DJs

Friday afternoon at KARST
12-4PM – The Joyous Thing member-led event. (details to follow)
4-5PM – Dali de St Paul vocal improvisation workshop

Friday evening at KARST
7.30PM – DJs
8.15PM – Jessica Beechey (live)
9PM – Penumbra (live)
10PM – Beelzedub (DJ)

Saturday morning on The Lions Den
11AM – Seaweed in the Fruit Locker sea shanties (live) and sea swimming
11.30AM – Bacon or veggie butties and tea/coffee for the swimmers

The Joyous Thing 5 is presented by Outlands and KARST with support from Leadworks, Queer District Collective and Minerva.

Outlands has existed since 2017 to support and unite audiences; artists; and producers of experimental and interdisciplinary arts. KARST has been a fundamental part of building this network from its genesis. This event is funded by the Arts Council thanks to the National Lottery.

Test Space: Beth Evans & Sophie Lines

Multidisciplinary artists and graduates Beth Evans (Arts University Plymouth) and Sophie Lines (Bath Spa University) present work they have developed during their residency at KARST.

Beth Evans is a multidisciplinary artist, illustrator and writer whose practice is informed by both lived experiences and imagined realities. Centred around change, the themes of their work constantly shifts – an integral element of the fast paced, intuitive nature of their making. However, common threads include mundanity, value and identity. Inevitably, Evans’ works become portraits – conversations – between the artist and their friends. As an individual whose life is fused to their practice, this body of work analyses interpersonal connections, the concept of ‘work’ and the poetics of mundanity whilst simultaneously learning to reduce the risk of emotional burnout by instilling positive habits, like daily walks, into their practice and utilising found materials and stories not only fabrics from their own life.

Sophie Lines is influenced by nature, materiality, the human form and explores these through multidisciplinary works that evoke an emotional response. She is curious about material properties, what can be considered fabric or medium and believes anything can be used to create. Her use of new innovative materials stems from her individual investigation into sustainable resources and producing her own fabrics. Through her practice she intends to blur the boundaries between art, science and design, exploring how they can collaborate to create sustainable alternatives to environmental issues.

The opening event for this test space will be on Friday 23 February (6-8pm) with an in conversation with the artists and KARST’s Head of Programme Ben Borthwick at 6pm. The work will be on view until Saturday 24 February (11am – 5pm).

Murmansk / Kirkenes

KARST presents Murmansk / Kirkenes by Norwegian artist and filmmaker Knut Åsdam. The three channel film presentation will open on 7 September with an introductory conversation between Åsdam and KARST’s Head of Programme, Ben Borthwick. Åsdam’s film is the first phase of an ongoing project that explores the evolving, intensifying landscape of the Norwegian-Russian border and a Europe undergoing dramatic change.

Murmansk / Kirkenes was made in response to the rapidly changing relationship between Russia and the rest of Europe, following Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea and before the war in Ukraine.

As a documentary-fiction hybrid, Murmansk / Kirkenes engages with the contemporary situation of Europe in crisis from a political, economic and material perspective. Capturing moments from either side of Europe’s northernmost border with Russia, Murmansk / Kirkenes presents two parallel narratives, separated both geographically and politically.

Elements of the film shot in Norway follow two Norwegian female soldiers patrolling the border outside Kirkenes. This part of the film rests solely on physical movement and observation of the border and the terrain without dialogue. The soldiers search a landscape devoid of events, looked at through a necessary paranoid gaze as they scan for abnormalities. Though their closeness with the landscape grows throughout the film, the soldiers’ immersion in political division assimilates their bodies into state apparatus.

The Russian element is actor-driven, focusing on the work tasks and floating relationship between two female cafe workers in Titovka. Best known for being a frontline during the Second World War, Titovka is a stopping-place situated in a sparsely populated military zone between Murmansk and Kirkenes. Dialogue revolves around personal, everyday subjects; work life and working conditions, media and representations of reality, and non-normative desire. Conversations between the women also reflect the state’s ideological control over representation and its insistence on an edited version of history.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the themes addressed in the film and installation have intensified, leading Asdam to further explore them in a second chapter of the project to be shown at KARST in 2025. Responding to the initial film, Murmansk / Kirkenes 2 will explore how the fabric and dynamic of Europe has continued to be rewoven through military, social, economic, and demographic factors. The film will be structured around the idea of exile as a response to social and political necessity and desire.

Murmansk / Kirkenes is supported by Arts Council England, the Royal Norwegian Embassy in London and Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA).

The opening event will be on Thursday 7 September (5.30pm – 8pm). This event is hosted in collaboration with First Thursdays by Queer District Collective and Minerva Cafe. There will be an introductory conversation between Knut Åsdam and KARST’s Head of Programme, Ben Borthwick at 6pm. To book for this free introductory conversation, click here.

About Knut Åsdam

One of Norway’s foremost artists, Knut Åsdam produces films and video installations with an acute sense of subjectivity and language, exploring the politics and poetics of architecture, place and community. Åsdam ́s work has been shown internationally, including presentations at MOMA, Tate Modern, Bergen Kunsthall, Tate Britain, Boijmans van Beuningen Museum (Rotterdam), Venice Biennial, Kunsthalle Bern, Istanbul Biennial, FRAC Bourgogne, MACRO (Rome), Museum of Contemporary Art (Oslo), Manifesta7, Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Åsdam’s articles on cinema and the politics of space and gender have been published widely.

Test Space: Anna Boland – SPY-nul

Building on her recent solo show at Studio KIND, Anna Boland presents a new configuration of “SPY – nul” at KARST.

Anna is an interdisciplinary artist and KARST studio holder. Influenced by dystopian fiction, notions of invisible environments and worlds, and post-pandemic existence, her current work explores the potential of everyday air packaging to create sculptural works.

Anna’s work at KARST focuses on the internal body with a specific focus on the vagus, one of the most important nerves in the human body, which communicates via unseen electrical impulses. The work explores the spine and muscle knots – pockets of trapped air that can compress the nerve and affect function. Anna combines large-scale sculptures with light to create an immersive environment exploring the internal world.

The private view will be on Friday 19 May (6pm – 8pm) and the exhibition will be on view on Saturday 20 May (11am-5pm).

Test Space: Ashanti Hare & Mitzi Dabrowski

Multidisciplinary artists and graduates Ashanti Hare (Arts University Plymouth) and Mitzi Dabrowski (Bath Spa University) present work they have developed during their residency at KARST in this open event.

Ashanti is a Devon-based multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores the duality of existing as both human being and spiritual entity. Combining digital manipulation, folk craftsmanship and writing, Hare often explores the boundaries between cultural identity and spiritual entity through sensory experiences that include tactility, scent and moving image. Through the use of traditional craft practices such as textiles and ceramics, Hare creates tapestries and sculpture that retell Caribbean and African folklore, spellwork and history while reflecting popular culture specific to Black Britishness.

Mitzi practice uses a multi-disciplinary approach to expand fleeting moments from live music gigs into tangible works, as well as using existing imagery within youth culture as inspiration. The intention behind Mitzi’s work is to explore the ephemeral nature of particular nights in music venues, to give these moments more attention and time to potentially dissect the energy and change in behaviour people experience. Her practice during her residency at KARST has had a new focus on the correlation between particle movement and human movement in mosh pits, while her continuation of exploring painting music venues, musician performances and spirituality act as records of events and lyric.

Their work will be on public view in the gallery on 25 February between 11am-5pm.

Sonic Faction

The Sonic Faction sound installation features three diverse audio essays: Kode9’s ‘Astro-Darien’ (2022), Justin Barton and Mark Fisher’s ‘On Vanishing Land’ (2006), and Robin Mackay’s ‘By the North Sea’ (2021).

Come and experience the ways in which sound and voice can produce new sensory terrains and provoke speculative thought. The exhibition will also feature archive materials and ephemera that provide context for the audio essays, together with reading resources and a listening station featuring a collection of additional unreleased audio artefacts.

LOCI X KARST mural

A new mural created by art collective LOCI alongside local skaters, and overseen by Ben Borthwick – Head of Creative Programme at KARST – transforms the hoardings around Plymouth’s Civic Centre.

LOCI are a Plymouth based artist collective specialising in exterior and interior murals. With a focus on community and collaboration, they develop mural projects with organisations, artists, individuals, community groups and companies across the south west of England.

The designs – created by LOCI in collaboration with the city’s skating community – are covering the hoardings on Civic Square and Royal Parade.

The project, led by sector support organisation Plymouth Culture, is part of the preparations for the launch of the Mayflower 400 programme on 16 September 2020 – the date four centuries ago when the ship sailed from Plymouth.

This initiative has been made possible with the support of Urban Splash, City Centre Company, Mayflower 400, Plymouth Culture and Take a Part.

No Soap Radio

No Soap Radio (NSR) is a street photography collective created by a group of friends to share analogue photos of the oddities they encounter daily. The images have no consistent theme, planning, or any order at all: they are purely opportunistic. The thread that draws the group together is skateboarding in Plymouth but NSR looks beyond that to places and characters encountered along the way.

The display of NSR work in KARST gallery follows the completion of a 150-metre mural on the hoardings of Plymouth’s empty Civic Building by the Youth Committee of Prime Skatepark, Cattedown, which was curated by KARST’s Head of Creative Programme, Ben Borthwick.

A live event on Saturday 26 Sept features a skate jam and DJ set.

Test Space: Annie Shrosbree

Multimedia artist, sculptor and Bath Spa graduate Annie Shrosbree presents work she has developed during her 2021 residency with KARST studios in this two-day open event.

Annie’s sculptural practice challenges classically accepted notions of ‘sophisticated art’ in it’s ‘silly’ and ‘child-like’ hand built aesthetic. Her residency at KARST has seen her inspiration become more language based, with a growing focus on memes and other popular forms of online communication as well as word-play and regional dialect. Annie will present a multitude of spatial, size and material juxtapositions at the end of her residency, allowing her collection of ‘jokes’ to hold the physical space in ways that are unavailable to their online equivalents.