‘COMMENSALIS’
‘Commensalis’ is a group of artists and performers from England, Sweden and Wales who have joined together to present a programme of visual art, music, poetry and storytelling at the historic Walcot Chapel in Bath.
The word ‘Commensalis’ comes from Medieval Latin and it reflects a commensal relationship, that can involve one organism using another for housing, or utilising something created after its death. We, the artists, are inhabiting a chapel created for the departed. We are using this house of the dead to house our work. Our relationship towards each other is symbiotic. The spirit of ‘Commensalis’ is reflected in the work we choose to place and perform in this chapel that once housed the dead.
The word ‘Commensalis’ comes from Medieval Latin and it reflects a commensal relationship, that can involve one organism using another for housing, or utilising something created after its death. We, the artists, are inhabiting a chapel created for the departed. We are using this house of the dead to house our work. Our relationship towards each other is symbiotic. The spirit of ‘Commensalis’ is reflected in the work we choose to place and perform in this chapel that once housed the dead.
THE VISUAL ARTISTS
Kara Seaman
Kara is a printmaker and illustrator, primarily interested in animals and their interactions with their environments, the humans that surround them and one another. “I love how animals seem to have great characters, and seem very telling in their actions and looks. I am interested in myths and histories that surround many creatures.”
Kara works mainly with collagraphs or watercolour and ink, each piece the result of painstaking and meticulous process, producing atmospheric, sometimes whimsical, pieces that explore the stories animals might tell of their interactions with the human world.
Melanie Ezra
Artist / mathematician Melanie is presenting ‘Self [other’]from a series that seeks to challenge the photograph as a still image through an exploration of the ‘Self’. According to Melanie, “The self is not the face or the body but is an abstraction of the mind. The self is an unknown; a constantly evolving abstract based on a collection of shared experiences and flawed memories.” Recreating her own previously unpublished and personal pinhole photographs as enormous collages using plywood and paper, Melanie often takes a month to rebuild each image, which emphasise that “The flawed mind does not help in fixing the stillness of a photographic moment in order to represent the self.”
Owen Martin
Owen is a Swansea-based artist, interested in photographing various political, cultural and environmental issues, “I try to take photographs that don't obviously show what they are about.” Owen uses a lot of digital technology to make his work; digital cameras, scanners and printers, computer software along with online sharing and editing tools are pushed to their limits in order to exploit the effects of digital technology, such as digital noise when using high ISOs. “I am interested in using digital technology to create images that look different rather than trying to emulate photographs on film.”
Rhys Jones
Rhys’ current work involves research examining the connections between art and neuroscience, offering some non-scientific accounts of the mysteries of conditions on the autism spectrum. Rhys says, “It is like a journey through a labyrinth both of art and of the mind. On any journey of significance, one needs to make notes of activities and record where one has been.”
Like the Victorians, Rhys often uses the medium of postcards. Although addressed to someone, one never knows exactly who has read it and even if the recipient has received it. “I have an interest in gaining an insight and to understand further what may be happening in our minds and bodies when we engage in an artistic activity when performing other daily routines.” Rhys experiments with different types of photographic devices from different periods of time, each bringing its own quality to the resulting image.
Rose Davies
Welsh artist Rose is presenting ‘Bodies / Ghosts’, a series of unique monotypes in the long European tradition of the figurative nude. “My work unashamedly centres on drawing from life, exploring the exquisite diversity of the human body, interpreted through intense personal and cultural influences of the past three decades. In an age where many seek to alter their looks artificially, wiping the hard-won marks of their lifelong endeavours from their faces and bodies, I revel in scrutinising the human figure and reflecting the experiences written all over it.”
With a modern take on a traditional printmaking technique beloved by Degas and Monet, the process produces two images, one a ghostly version of the other, full-bodied, original, reflecting in their way the history and purpose of Walcot Chapel.
Zara Bird-Wood
A graduate in Latin, currently a Masters student at the University of West of England’s Department of Creative Industries, Zara concentrates her attention on photographic practice using a methodical approach to explore and highlight what tends to pass unnoticed. Unexpected combinations and correlations of recurring visual or ‘grammatical’ elements that hint at transience, emerge and make sense of a chaotic world. Celebrating happenstance and a lack of artifice, the viewer is thus offered the chance to re-interpret what seems mundane and unimportant and engage in contemplating the selected images that resonate with the space of Walcot Chapel and with the notions implied by ‘Commensalis’.
THE PERFORMERS
Amanda Rackstraw
Originally from The West Country, poet and storyteller Amanda trained at RADA and worked as an actor, appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing leading roles in regional theatres and London fringe shows. After moving to Wales to bring up her family, she returned to study at Cardiff University, gaining an MA in Cultural Politics. She now spreads her time between her work as a creative writing tutor and writing and performing her own work, which encompasses poetry and short stories, along with performances as a storyteller and spoken word artist.
Anna Eriksson & Andreas Noren
Singer / guitarist Anna and keyboardist Andreas are a songwriting duo based in Stockholm, Sweden. They have been collaborating for more than 10 years and will be playing The Walcot Chapel during their UK tour in July. Anna and Andreas will bring to the Chapel their own original music, mixing Swedish Folk, Jazz and Latin to provide listeners with a sense of beautiful melancholy and solitude, emphasising longing but always with a strong hope and evoking the atmosphere of the chapel and its history.
Phillip Mellor
Born and based in Leeds, Phillip has been writing poetry since 1998. After a series of privately published collections, Phillip released his first fully realised collection of poetry, ‘Still Growing’ in 2007. He has since released three more collections and been published widely through fanzines and regional press. Phillip develops his work with a number of visual artists, harking back to earlier traditions of illustrated literature, including a highly successful collaborative exhibition with Kara Seaman in 2011. He has performed his poetry in many and varied venues, including the influential Framework Collective.
For more information please contact us.
Kara Seaman
Kara is a printmaker and illustrator, primarily interested in animals and their interactions with their environments, the humans that surround them and one another. “I love how animals seem to have great characters, and seem very telling in their actions and looks. I am interested in myths and histories that surround many creatures.”
Kara works mainly with collagraphs or watercolour and ink, each piece the result of painstaking and meticulous process, producing atmospheric, sometimes whimsical, pieces that explore the stories animals might tell of their interactions with the human world.
Melanie Ezra
Artist / mathematician Melanie is presenting ‘Self [other’]from a series that seeks to challenge the photograph as a still image through an exploration of the ‘Self’. According to Melanie, “The self is not the face or the body but is an abstraction of the mind. The self is an unknown; a constantly evolving abstract based on a collection of shared experiences and flawed memories.” Recreating her own previously unpublished and personal pinhole photographs as enormous collages using plywood and paper, Melanie often takes a month to rebuild each image, which emphasise that “The flawed mind does not help in fixing the stillness of a photographic moment in order to represent the self.”
Owen Martin
Owen is a Swansea-based artist, interested in photographing various political, cultural and environmental issues, “I try to take photographs that don't obviously show what they are about.” Owen uses a lot of digital technology to make his work; digital cameras, scanners and printers, computer software along with online sharing and editing tools are pushed to their limits in order to exploit the effects of digital technology, such as digital noise when using high ISOs. “I am interested in using digital technology to create images that look different rather than trying to emulate photographs on film.”
Rhys Jones
Rhys’ current work involves research examining the connections between art and neuroscience, offering some non-scientific accounts of the mysteries of conditions on the autism spectrum. Rhys says, “It is like a journey through a labyrinth both of art and of the mind. On any journey of significance, one needs to make notes of activities and record where one has been.”
Like the Victorians, Rhys often uses the medium of postcards. Although addressed to someone, one never knows exactly who has read it and even if the recipient has received it. “I have an interest in gaining an insight and to understand further what may be happening in our minds and bodies when we engage in an artistic activity when performing other daily routines.” Rhys experiments with different types of photographic devices from different periods of time, each bringing its own quality to the resulting image.
Rose Davies
Welsh artist Rose is presenting ‘Bodies / Ghosts’, a series of unique monotypes in the long European tradition of the figurative nude. “My work unashamedly centres on drawing from life, exploring the exquisite diversity of the human body, interpreted through intense personal and cultural influences of the past three decades. In an age where many seek to alter their looks artificially, wiping the hard-won marks of their lifelong endeavours from their faces and bodies, I revel in scrutinising the human figure and reflecting the experiences written all over it.”
With a modern take on a traditional printmaking technique beloved by Degas and Monet, the process produces two images, one a ghostly version of the other, full-bodied, original, reflecting in their way the history and purpose of Walcot Chapel.
Zara Bird-Wood
A graduate in Latin, currently a Masters student at the University of West of England’s Department of Creative Industries, Zara concentrates her attention on photographic practice using a methodical approach to explore and highlight what tends to pass unnoticed. Unexpected combinations and correlations of recurring visual or ‘grammatical’ elements that hint at transience, emerge and make sense of a chaotic world. Celebrating happenstance and a lack of artifice, the viewer is thus offered the chance to re-interpret what seems mundane and unimportant and engage in contemplating the selected images that resonate with the space of Walcot Chapel and with the notions implied by ‘Commensalis’.
THE PERFORMERS
Amanda Rackstraw
Originally from The West Country, poet and storyteller Amanda trained at RADA and worked as an actor, appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing leading roles in regional theatres and London fringe shows. After moving to Wales to bring up her family, she returned to study at Cardiff University, gaining an MA in Cultural Politics. She now spreads her time between her work as a creative writing tutor and writing and performing her own work, which encompasses poetry and short stories, along with performances as a storyteller and spoken word artist.
Anna Eriksson & Andreas Noren
Singer / guitarist Anna and keyboardist Andreas are a songwriting duo based in Stockholm, Sweden. They have been collaborating for more than 10 years and will be playing The Walcot Chapel during their UK tour in July. Anna and Andreas will bring to the Chapel their own original music, mixing Swedish Folk, Jazz and Latin to provide listeners with a sense of beautiful melancholy and solitude, emphasising longing but always with a strong hope and evoking the atmosphere of the chapel and its history.
Phillip Mellor
Born and based in Leeds, Phillip has been writing poetry since 1998. After a series of privately published collections, Phillip released his first fully realised collection of poetry, ‘Still Growing’ in 2007. He has since released three more collections and been published widely through fanzines and regional press. Phillip develops his work with a number of visual artists, harking back to earlier traditions of illustrated literature, including a highly successful collaborative exhibition with Kara Seaman in 2011. He has performed his poetry in many and varied venues, including the influential Framework Collective.
For more information please contact us.