ABOVE BELOW BEYOND
2019 - 2020
A collaborative project from artist Jamie Holman, young people across East Durham and local community organisations, exploring heritage and hope for the future of shared spaces.
Above Below Beyond asks the question,
"How do young people in East Durham want to be remembered?"
A commission by Jamie Holman for No More Nowt (formerly East Durham Creates) responding to 'This Place We Call Home’ a commission strand, which programmed collaborative, relevant, exciting and inspiring art from 2018 - 2020.
Initially evolving as workshops and research, Jamie Holman, working in partnership with creative producer and curator Alex Zawadzki devised a series of creative workshops across the area, including digital music making, particularly focussing on the Roland 808 and 303 synth and sequencer machines synonymous with Acid House as well as traditional 'band' recording, song writing, poetry, performance, DJ'ing, collage and banner-making. The research conducted by Jamie Holman into mining heritage and cultures, combined with the input from the youth panel formed the proposition for 'Above, Below, Beyond.’
Above represents the current landscape, geography and communities and cultures that currently exist post mining.
Below representing the heritage and traditions that manifested as a consequence of mining and its associated industries.
Beyond as the articulation for the youth panels desires for their future.
The artists had orginally planned to deliver a large scale public event that would have included a banner parade with new banner works from Jamie Holman created by Durham Banner Makers, choreographed physical theatre developed in collaboration with the Lubetkin Youth Theatre, food for audiences that referenced 'snaps' - the food taken down the mines and a musical performance that referenced street parties, block parties and the rave phenomena of the late 1980's.
The programme was revised in response lockdown and the work instead, became a digital output Above, Below, Beyond; an experiment with music making exploring their mining heritage through samples of the sounds heard in coal pits, and the installation of a large scale public 'banner mural' that would remain after the commission was finished - see below.
“A project that will bring pride to the community and help maintain the industrial heritage of the area.”
These tracks have beencreated through workshops with young people in East Durham. The workshops ran alongside numerous visits to arts events including the British Textiles Biennial, Lancaster Jazz festival and a street art exhibition to both inspire and inform the work.
The project was largely inspired by music and sought to make visible who we have been, are now and may yet become through poetry, performance, music and art.
“It is clear that young people want to see art that makes them proud of the places they are from.”
Project partners:
— NMN Young Producers; Steph Thornton, Chloe Watson, Francesca Rademann, Vanessa Rademann, Imogen Anderson, Lydia Anderson and Summer Douthwaite
— NMN Youth Panel; Paige Butler, Scott Dugdale, Rebecca Shiel, Katie Large, Emily North, Zoe Horseman, Thomas Vardy, Neave Cummins, Tom Marshall, Kelsey Watson, Sydney Vardy, Lauren Jefferson, Chelsea McGuire, Sydney Vardy, Sherri Taylor
— And all the other young people particularly from Dawdon YCC Youth Hub, East Durham College and Trimdon Station Community Centre
— Jamie Holman Studios with contributors; Alan Outram, Ash Murphy, Chris Mason, Cosmo Sarson, Emma Shankland, Lighten, Daniel Nelson and produced by Uncultured Creatives
— Produced and curated by Alex Zawadzki
— The Volunteer Arms, Seaham
— Councillor Leanne Kennedy
— Commissioned by No More Nowt and funded by funded by Arts Council England, as part of the ‘This Place We Call Home’ three-cycle commissioning process 2018-2020
