TRADING POST
Residency / Allenheads Contemporary Arts / 2011
An eleven month residency with ACA (Allenheads Contemporary Arts) with the idea to regenerate the former village post office, closed since 2007, back into a place for exchange.
Developed through regular conversations and encounters with residents and visitors to the region, Andrew created a social hub, a Trading Post, in the heart of Allenheads, in rural Northumberland.
The Project brought together a diverse collection of histories and narratives which were archived and exhibited as they grew. This assemblage became co-created instalation which presented a broad portrait of the local and passing village community.
“The collection at ACA offers a tableau of its locality – through the objects, songs and sounds of the place, and it’s people”
Allenheads Contemporary Arts: Established in 1995 by Alan Smith and Helen Ratcliffe, ACA is based in an old Victorian Schoolhouse overlooking the ex-mining village of Allenheads in Northumberland (UK).
Below: browse The Allenheads Collection, and events -
Trading Post: Installation in the former village post office
THE ALLENHEADS COLLECTION
The Allenheads Collection was an assemblage of items that were donated from homes in Allenheads, the High Forest area and its regular visiting community.
Residents and visitors were asked to contribute both loved and unloved items to assembled and exhibited within the old village post office.
No items were turned away from the collection.
01. Astronauts Soap
02. Chewbacca Toy
03. Beach Hut (Swansea)
04. Penguin
05. The best boots i’ve ever had
06. Poems
07. The Evening Chronicle (1959)
08. Graceland
09. ACA Lightbulb
14. Sign (from St. Nicholas’ Hospital)
16. Gun powder flask
15. Barn Owl
16. Pretty gems
19. Emergency telephone
20. Photograph (Clowns)
21. Cartoon drawing
22. 1st Brithday Cards
24. Wedding veil (1960’s)
25. Optimus Prime (mask)
27. Sunglasses (Ibiza 1997)
28. Ballet Shoes
29. Premature babies nappy
34. 24 seconds of my time
36. Postcard (Mona Lisa)
37. Cassette tapes
38. Christ (with sacred heart)
40. Aprons
41. Marble Heart and Brain
42. Gavel & paperclip
43. Grandfather’s Ship
44. Hammer
45. Garden
47. Fishing Reel
48. Hunky Dory (Record)
49. Sphygmomanometer
50. Uniform (Girl Guides)
51. Jelly (Rosehip and Apple)
52. Bottle opener
53. Stained Glass
54. Stethoscope
57. Bottle
58. Field Glasses
Trading Post: Activities & Events (selected)
Collecting - Lab Event / March 2011
Lab Event: COLLECTING
Artists Ben Jeans Haughton and Mathew Giraudeau lead a round table discussion on the theme of Collecting.
Invited participants (included representatives from Newcastle University, Carlisle University and Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art) were asked to bring any object they have collected as starting points for discussion.
March, 2011.
Susie and Minnie Dinner / August 2011
Dinner: SUSIE & MINNIE
Beginning as a request from artist Sharon Bailey to record the eldest residents in Allenheads, the suggestion developed into an evening meal with Minnie and Susie within ACAshop.
The event later merged as a component for Kyros Kyprianou and Simon Hollington’s ACA Future residency research.
August, 2011.
Exhibition Opening (Wellington Boot) / Allenheads / June 2011
Exhibition Opening: THE ALLENHEADS COLLECTION
To mark the completed exhibition of collected items in ACAshop many buskers bands were plucked from the streets of Hexham and Newcastle. A 1970’s caravan, converted into a mobile cinema screened movies for children and visiting artist Linda Rodenheber captured family portraits in floral beauty.
The evening climaxed with an evening of music Newcastle based Wellington Boot and a DJ set from artist Toby Lloyd.
June, 2011
Exhibition Opening (buskers in the village) / Allenheads / June 2011