The Ghost Tide

THE GHOST TIDE
curated by Monika Bobinska and Sarah Sparkes


Thames-Side Studios Gallery, Thames-Side Studios, Harrington Way, Warspite Road, Woolwich, SE18 5NR. www.thames-sidestudios.co.uk

EXHIBITION DATES 20 October – 3 November
GALLERY OPENING HOURS Thurs-Sun 12pm – 5pm

OPENING PARTY Friday 19 October 6pm - 8.30pm
Gen Doy performance 7.30pm

The Ghost Tide - coinciding with the festivals of Hallowe'en, All Souls and the Day of the Dead - takes as its starting point the perspective that ghosts exist as an idea, or as part of a belief system, across cultures, across national borders and throughout recorded history. Most languages contain words to describe the ghost, spirit or immaterial part of a deceased person. Often, these words - like the type of ghost they describe - have traversed borders and been assimilated across cultures.

The exhibition, situated next to the Thames Barrier in South-East London, evokes ghosts as a migratory tide, washed up along the shore of the Thames their historical baggage in tow. It also explores the presence of artists in this part of London, as a migratory tide of creative flotsam and jetsam which ebbs and flows as the city gentrifies and develops.

Featured works include sculpture, installation, film, sound, performance and wall based works. The exhibition will include installations and outdoor interventions, as well as public events.
The Ghost Tide features works by over 30 UK and international artists.

Artists featured: Andrea G Artz, Chris Boyd, Davies, Monaghan & Klein, Gen Doy, Sarah Doyle, Graham Dunning, Diane Eagles, Andrew Ekins, Charlie Fox, Katie Goodwin, Kio Griffith, Miyuki Kasahara, Calum F Kerr, Rob La Frenais, David Leapman, Liane Lang, Toby MacLennan, Laura Marker, Joanna McCormick, Josie McCoy, Jane Millar, Output Arts, Miroslav Pomichal, Brothers Quay, Anne Robinson, Edwin Rostron, Matt Rowe, Sarah Sparkes, Charlotte Squire, Sara Trillo, Yun Ting Tsai, Kate Walters, Patrick White, Heidi Wigmore, Neale Willis, Mary Yacoob, Neda Zarfsaz.

About the Curators: Monika Bobinska is the director of CANAL, which organizes exhibitions and art projects in a variety of settings. She is the founder of the North Devon Artist Residency.
Sarah Sparkes is an artist and curator. She leads the visual arts and creative research project GHost (initiated in 2008), curating an on-going programme of exhibitions, performances and inter-disciplinary seminars interrogating the idea of the ghost.

CURATORS' TALK Saturday 20 October 3pm – 4pm

DAY OF THE DEAD CLOSING PARTY Saturday 3 November 2pm – 7.30pm

Papel Picado Workshop 2pm – 5pm   Make your own Day of the Dead 'cut - outs' with artist Sarah Doyle. Suitable for all ages, materials provided
Performances and Artist Led Walk 2pm – 5pm  Charlie Fox, Calum F Kerr, Joanna Mccormick, in and around the gallery
Day Of The Dead Feast  5pm – 6pm   Refreshments served
International Film Screening 6pm  Screening of short films in the gallery: Chris Boyd, Liane Lang, Brothers Quay, Yun Ting Tsai and Neda Zarfsaz

For more information, contact us on l 0786 606 3663 | 07900 208 711 |
theghosttide@gmail.com
www.ghosthostings.co.uk | www.canalprojects.info

Harry Pye Award for Art 2018

My painting 'The Way Home 6' will be shown at the Harry Pye Award for Art  2018, A-Side B-Side Gallery.

The Way Home 6, watercolour and gouache on wallpaper, Sarah Sparkes, 2015

You can see more paintings from 'The Way Home' series here

Harry Pye Award For Art

Friday - Tuesday: 10am - 5pm

A-Side B-Side gallery

352 Mare Street

London

E8 1HR

Opening night and award ceremony, 31st August 6 - 9pm

  Artists: Geraldine Swayne Rachael Robb, Mikey B Georgeson, Lee Maelzer, Gordon Beswick, Sandra Turnball, Raphael Pepper, Raksha Patel, Sarah Sparkes, James Lawson, Sohrab Crews, Martin Brown and Harry Adams.

Read more about The Harry Pye Award for Art here.

BEYOND Residency - The Cosmic Pond

Sparkes & Thompson have been selected for a residency at Allenheads Contemporary Arts in Northumberland, UK as part of the BEYOND project.

'Terraqueous II', hydrophone rig, The Cosmic Pond, Sparkes & Thompson, BEYOND Residency, 2018

The Cosmic Pond

In May and July 2018, Sparkes & Thompson will be artists in residence at Allenheads Contemporary Arts.  Our mission, to create sonifications of the invisible interacting forces that connect space and time in and around the North Pennines Observatory. The adjacent reservoir will be transformed into the Cosmic Pond, where aquatic lifeforms can be heard responding to the celestial rhythm of the dark skies above.

We will invite visitors to join us collecting data, sounds, images and narratives from various locations around Allenheads, recording night-time activity at the Cosmic Pond with portable sound recorders and hydrophones. Visitors can also take part in nocturnal sound walking and nature recording.
Check the Sparkes & Thompson news page  for project updates.

BEYOND is an ambitious project involving an eclectic mix of artists, curators, scientists and audiences to take advantage of its new on-site astronomical observatory and to consider the word BEYOND as an open ended starting point for discussion, research and the creation of new work.
Find out more here: BEYOND

Links
Sparkes & Thompson’s ACA residency page
https://www.acart.org.uk/sparkesthompson
BEYOND at Allenheads Contemporary Arts
https://www.acart.org.uk/beyond

Inspiral London Festival 2018

I was delighted to be one of the commissioned artists invited to develop new work in response to the Inspiral London Project.

There are two parts to my commission:

Still from the film, Inspiral Ghost Dance, Sarah Sparkes, an Inspiral London Commission, 2018

I have made a new film, Inspiral Ghost Dance which celebrates the Inspiral London collective. Please contact me if you would like to view it.

GHost Hostings 19, curated by Sarah Sparkes (GHost), an Inspiral London Commission, 2018

I curated GHost Hostings 19, an evening exploring night walking ghosts, for the opening night of the Inspiral London Festival. You can read more about it on the GHost website.


Inspiral London
Inspiral London is an artist devised walking trail, which anyone can follow. It leads from the centre of London and spirals outwards to Gravesend. It took three years for us to walk it. The 2018 Inspiral London Night Walking Festival is in part a celebration of the conclusion of this first phase of the project.

The Inspiral London festival of nocturnal walking, offers 4 days of curated walks, art, talks and exploration across North Kent starting at the end /beginning of the Inspiral Trail. By reimagining the long-distance night walks of Dickens – from central London to Gads Hill – Inspiral takes you on a journey of wild, ludic and untrammelled adventure..

Read more about Inspiral London Night Walking Festival.

Inspiral London was supported using public funding by Arts Council England

GHost at Camberwell Free Film Festival 2018

GHost is back to host two nights of cult ghost and horror films for Camberwell Free Film Festival 2018.  
We return to our favourite venue, Jazz Live at the Crypt, located in the crypt of the Victorian gothic St Giles in Camberwell.  The bar is open throughout the screening.  This is a free screening, but seats are limited so arrive early to avoid disappointment.  

21 March, 8pm (doors open 7pm arrive early to be sure of a seat)
 The Woman in Black (1989), Cert 15, Dir: Herbert Wise, UK, 100 mins
JazzLive in the Crypt, St Giles Church Crypt, Camberwell Church Street, SE5 8RB

"The most terrifying programme I’ve ever seen" Reece Shearsmith

When a friendless old widow dies in the seaside town of Crythin, a young solicitor is sent by his firm to settle the estate. The lawyer finds the townspeople reluctant to talk about or go near the woman's dreary home and no one will explain or even acknowledge the menacing woman in black he keeps seeing.

Ignoring the towns-people's cryptic warnings, he goes to the house where he discovers its horrible history and becomes ensnared in its even more horrible legacy.

This Central Television production of The Woman In Black, adapted for TV by Nigel Neale from Susan Hill's classic horror novella was broadcast on Christmas Eve in 1989 and repeated only once in 1994. However, the film is often held up as one of the most potent, paralysingly spooky screen adaptations of a ghost story ever made.The film has been described by Reece Shearsmith (League of Gentleman) as “the most terrifying programme I’ve ever seen”. Without giving away any spoilers, there are some shocking moments in this TV adaptation which will linger in the memory of anyone who sees it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwtFRXWIGK8

22 March 9pm (doors open 8pm arrive early to be sure of a seat)
Hausu (House) - Cert 15 - Dir: Nobuhiko Obayashi, Japan (1977) 88 mins

'One of the Weirdest Horror Films ever Made' - Taryn McCabe Little White Lies.

An unforgettable mixture of bubblegum teen melodrama and grisly phantasmagoria, Obayashi’s deranged fairy tale Hausu (House) is one of Japanese cinema’s wildest supernatural ventures and a truly startling debut feature. Adapted from an idea from Obayashi's young daughter, the film looks like a psychedelic, nightmare version of a children's ghost hunting adventure, but there are sophisticated undercurrents that hint at the dislocation in Japanese culture pre and post second world war.

Distressed by her widowed father’s plans to remarry, Angel sets off with six of her schoolgirl friends in tow for a summer getaway in her aunt’s isolated mansion. But all is not well – in this house of dormant secrets and cobwebbed interiors long-held emotional traumas have terrifyingly physical embodiment and the girls will have to use all their individual talents if any are to survive.
A roller-coaster ride without brakes, House is by turns sinister, hilarious and curiously touching, with ceaseless cinematic invention and a satirical, full-blooded approach to the horror genre
(from Eureka Masters of Cinema Series)

Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6BMehj59co