- January 10, 2021
- - July 17, 2022
Hand Earth Gesture Return
As the production and origins of goods become increasingly complex and remote, this programme addressed a wish to return to our roots and participate in the making of things. Hand Earth Gesture Return was made from earth, straw and water – natural, locally grown, sourced and sustainable materials. It was designed, and made for, and with, communities in Coventry and Warwickshire.
The materials were brought to different community groups to be handled, modelled and manipulated. They worked alongside collaborating artists – Rachael Champion, Dolon Kundu, Amy & Oliver Thomas-Irvine and Jim Woodall – based in the UK and India to create this project. The design reconnects us to our physical world and, through shared material understanding, explores existing connections between cultures.
Exposition / Prologue
- Research
- 11/09/2021
Rachael Champion, Amy & Oliver Thomas-Irvine & Jim Woodall along with the Pangaea team and their young children spent the day learning how to make cob to produce a structure...
- Research
- 10/11/2021
Using digital technologies to support a craft skills exchange between collaborating artists in Coventry, UK and Kolkata, India....
- Research
- 01/01/2021
- - 30/09/2021
Research, community consultation, design development and planting for the Hand Earth Gesture Return public art programme for Coventry ad Warwickshire....
Chapter 1: The Seed
- Event
- 05/03/2022
The Hand Earth Gesture Return drummers were invited to close the Made in Coventry: Sacred Space event at Warwick Art Centre....
- Event
- 28/08/2021
- - 28/11/2021
Premier of new short film Chapter 1: The Seed and a live drumming performance, exploring life cycle and its connection with the hand, earth and gesture....
- Event
- 31/07/2021
The recording of a live jamming session at our Hatton wheat field between drummers Parmjeet Bamrah, Annabel Febles, Mahandra Patel, Abraham Paddy Tetteh and Luke Weaver, Coventry-based world-music rhythm specialists....
- Event
- 14/08/2021
Community harvest of a field of Atle Spring wheat at Hatton Farm, Warwickshire, using traditional techniques....
Chapter 2: The Rick
- Exhibition
- 01/10/2021
- - 23/03/2022
Synonymous with the English landscape until the middle of the last century, stacks and ricks are still used to store and dry straw and grain in many parts of the...
Chapter 3: The Hairy Barge
- Workshop
- 26/03/2022
Hand drumming workshop with Kadence Music....
- Workshop
- 26/03/2022
Clay and straw craft workshop with Zoe Petrie....
- Workshop
- 26/03/2022
Art Historian, Researcher and Straw Artist Sylvia Martin demonstrates craft ‘POSSIBILITIES’ with straw, including spiral work, straw marquetry and split and spun straw....
- Talk
- 26/03/2022
What are heritage grains? How can reintroducing genetic diversity into our grain populations produce more climate resilient crops? Talk by John Letts from the Heritage Grain Trust....
- Event
- 26/03/2022
An opportunity to taste the flavours of our 1936 Atle Spring Wheat flour, traditionally harvested, winnowed and stone round....
- Research
- 01/10/2021
Cultivating our own thatching straw for the Hand Earth Gesture Return public art programme, we teamed up with John Letts and the Heritage Grain Trust to learn how to traditionally...
- Exhibition
- 01/03/2022
- - 31/03/2022
Processioning the materials to the communities that will use them from Hatton Locks to Coventry Canal Basin, Warwickshire . A sculptural intervention, made from straw, atop heritage working boat Scorpio...
Chapter 4: The Build
- Workshop
- 06/06/2022
- - 27/06/2022
Workshops at the Daimler Powerhouse every Monday throughout June to create clay flowers inspired by the designs of Dolon Kundu....
- Workshop
- 04/06/2022
Clay flower workshops with Zoe Petrie as part of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations at Broad Street Community Centre....
- Workshop
- 02/07/2022
Clay flower making workshop at Art in the Orchard, Coventry Peace Orchard....
- Workshop
- 14/05/2022
Clay flower making workshop at the GNP Gurdwara with Zoe Petrie....
- Workshop
- 29/04/2022
Intensive workshop opportunities for Coventry University students to work alongside, and learn from, the Hand Earth Gesture Return artists Rachael Champion and Jim Woodall....
- Workshop
- 22/06/2022
- - 24/06/2022
Pangaea spent two days with students across Fine Art, Architecture, Design and Fashion at Coventry College teaching clay craft skills and making hundred of clay flowers for the Hand Earth...
Chapter 5: Gesture
- Event
- 17/07/2022
The finale of Hand Earth Gesture Return beginning the erosion of the art work and its return to the earth....
- Exhibition
- 12/07/2022
- - 17/07/2022
This fifth chapter saw the last year’s growing, sourcing and creation activity brought together in this site-specific public art installation, designed for Coventry Canal Basin and inspired by the surrounding...
Chapter 6: The Return
- Exhibition
- 18/07/2022
- - 01/09/2022
Completing the lifecycle, the recycle and return of the materials used for sustainable public artwork Hand Earth Gesture Return....
- Talk
- 06/07/2023
Talk by Nandita Palchoudhuri, Kolkata-based Consultant-Curator within Indian Folk Practices in the Visual Arts, Crafts and Performance....
