Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Alan Dunn
Reader in Art & Design
My three main current long-term research projects are Where the Arts Belong, FOUR WORDS, and the AHRC-funded Network project I have just launched, Hear Us O Lord From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place with Dr Helen Tookey, Reader in Creative Writing at Liverpool John Moores University and a Lowry expert as Co-Investigator.
We received the AHRC Network Grant to bring together a group of academics, students, musicians, environmentalists and members of the public to reconsider some of the short stories of Wirral-born writer Malcolm Lowry (1909-57) in relation to increased care of our seas. In the 1950s, Lowry was living off the coast of Canada in a self-sustaining manner and writing about the detrimental impact industrialisation was having on the oceans. In many of his short stories, gathered together in the collection Hear Us O Lord From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place (named after a Manx fishermen’s hymn), he used the Isle of Man which he visited as a child as a model for hope and natural beauty. Our network met at sea between Wirral/Liverpool and Isle of Man between 2021-22 and gathered content for a series of podcasts available at: www.malcolmlowry.com.
Our aim was to develop a new sonic language for thinking about ocean pollution, and particular plastics, using Lowry’s texts as markers. During the crossings for example, The Art Doctors (featuring our own Liz Stirling) engaged ferry passengers in using Lowry’s texts to make collages around ocean-related themes. On one crossing they even worked with a group of comedians, including Paul Merton, who were crossing for a gig. One of our network members is Chris Watson, known for his award-winning sound recording work with David Attenborough and on the island Chris made some astounding underwater recordings of limpets and shrimp. There are other snippets of conversation within the abstract podcasts as well as soundtracks from Isle of Man musicians, young people playing with Lego and excerpts from ‘Luminescence’ from our own Sam Mitchel (LSA).
The Isle of Man is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, with a population of 83,000 and it faces some important environmental challenges, including cataloguing Blue Carbon resources through Manx Blue Carbon Project and maintaining UNESCO Biosphere status (awarded 2016) and threats from unsustainable fishing, windfarms, gas mining, pollution and single-use plastics.
One of the most pleasing aspects of our network phase was the range of people who generously gave their time to chat, including beach cleaners, grassroots recycling agencies, local bands and members from the Isle of Man Government. Other network members from Leeds Beckett included Matt Green and Olga Munroe as well as current Fine Art students Frankie Mazzotta and Kristina Nenova, the Band of Holy Joy/BAD PUNK and academics from Bath Spa University, University of Leeds, University of Chester and University of Hertfordshire.
The Where the Arts Belong research began in 2019 exploring the impact of contemporary art (and in particular for me the use of sound) within dementia care home settings. Given that our partners, Belong, not only persevered with this project all through Covid but specifically invited us to adapt and deliver award-winning online activities was incredibly humbling. Having developed more of a facilitating role within large community projects over the past few years, often supporting emerging artists in doing the face-to-face work, Covid forced me to become frontal again (there is no hiding on the screen!) and to find completely new ways of working. The input of the care staff through the most challenging of times has been the most rewarding.
There’s been a few recent highlights including the Loose Articles gig at Futureyard in Birkenhead featuring one of our Fine Art alumni Erin Caine, the Tailor’s Tale exhibition at Ty Pawb in Wrexham, British Culture Archive at Bury Art Museum, (Un)Defining Queer at the Whitworth in Manchester, Turner Prize at Tate Liverpool, Sam Ainsley’s Out of Redness Comes Kindness at Leeds Arts University (Sam was the most influential tutor for me at Glasgow School of Art in the late 80s), Craig Easton’s photographs at Open Eye in Liverpool and The Leeds Artists Show with work by some of our students.
I’m meeting with Professor Claire Surr soon to chat about collaborations between myself, Fine Art students and our Centre for Dementia Research here at Leeds Beckett University. I’m continuing with the FOUR WORDS project (https://alandunn67.co.uk/fourwordsportfolio.html) that has involved a huge range of people from Turner Prize winners through members of Kraftwerk, former Liverpool FC footballers, priests, young people, gardeners, University ancillary staff and journalists. One of the recent iterations was at Ty Pawb in Wrexham which is an exciting set-up of contemporary art within a modern market setting. We’re in discussion about extending the collaboration towards a major exhibition in 2025 and for that we’re hoping to extend our collaboration out to work with Wrexham FC, owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
The three named projects cover most of the forward plans although there’s also a series of zines of which TOP TEN is the latest, with the first issue just created with our own Tom Rodgers: https://alandunn67.co.uk/topten.html
Dr Alan Dunn
Dr Alan Dunn is a Reader in Art & Design and Research Student Co-ordinator and has been with Leeds Beckett University since 2008. He currently teaches on undergrad Fine Art and supervises practice-based PhDs.