MESKLA People
MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh has conversation at its core. So many people have been involved in the project so far, sharing their thoughts and experiences through audio recordings, conversation and rubbish-sculpture making, and giving help and support to the project production.
Below are photographs and biographies of podcast and symposium guests, names of those who’ve taken part in rubbish-sculpture-making & conversation workshops and were happy to be listed, and the evaluation and production support teams.
Rubbish Sculpture & Conversation Contributors
Emma & Ben Wood, Susy Ward, Vicki Aimers, Brenda Aimers, Vanessa Penrose, Mike Hindle,
Hannah Andrews, Josh Brown, Kerry Louise Tomlins, Adrian & Hirona, Rachel Jakeman, Roger Towndrow, Julia Rowlands, Ross Williams, Catherine Cullen, Alice Mahoney, Auburn Indiana Stone, Jess Polglase, Helen Trevaskis, Drashta Sarvaiya, Frankie Nichols, Mati Ringrose, David Earl, John Thorne, Yvonne Warner, Caroline Pedler, Christian Berriman, Lotte Norgaard, Sarah Marie, Kate Milan, Emma Jenkin, Robin Dowell, Iris Dowell, Kat Elks, Claire Tripp, Fran Rowse, Faye Dobinson, Robin Knights, Pat Parry, Maria Christoforidou, Garry Tregida, Shelley Trower.
Below are photographs and biographies of podcast and symposium guests, names of those who’ve taken part in rubbish-sculpture-making & conversation workshops and were happy to be listed, and the evaluation and production support teams.
Rubbish Sculpture & Conversation Contributors
Emma & Ben Wood, Susy Ward, Vicki Aimers, Brenda Aimers, Vanessa Penrose, Mike Hindle,
Hannah Andrews, Josh Brown, Kerry Louise Tomlins, Adrian & Hirona, Rachel Jakeman, Roger Towndrow, Julia Rowlands, Ross Williams, Catherine Cullen, Alice Mahoney, Auburn Indiana Stone, Jess Polglase, Helen Trevaskis, Drashta Sarvaiya, Frankie Nichols, Mati Ringrose, David Earl, John Thorne, Yvonne Warner, Caroline Pedler, Christian Berriman, Lotte Norgaard, Sarah Marie, Kate Milan, Emma Jenkin, Robin Dowell, Iris Dowell, Kat Elks, Claire Tripp, Fran Rowse, Faye Dobinson, Robin Knights, Pat Parry, Maria Christoforidou, Garry Tregida, Shelley Trower.
Production, Podcast & Symposium Contributor Biographies
Ellie Allen
Ellie Allen has spent the majority of her life in Cornwall, having lived in Bolingey, Truro, Newquay and latterly Redruth. Of duel heritage descent, throughout her life she’s seen the make up of Cornish communities change quite dramatically. A marketer for a London-based financial services company by day, in her spare time Ellie is active on the Cornish folk scene as a member of Cornish dance group Kemysk and taking the mic as caller for ceilidh band Splann. You’ll usually find Ellie in one of her spiritual homes in Redruth, Ringroses or St Rumons Club.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Ellie participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Passman & Becky.
Ellie Allen has spent the majority of her life in Cornwall, having lived in Bolingey, Truro, Newquay and latterly Redruth. Of duel heritage descent, throughout her life she’s seen the make up of Cornish communities change quite dramatically. A marketer for a London-based financial services company by day, in her spare time Ellie is active on the Cornish folk scene as a member of Cornish dance group Kemysk and taking the mic as caller for ceilidh band Splann. You’ll usually find Ellie in one of her spiritual homes in Redruth, Ringroses or St Rumons Club.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Ellie participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Passman & Becky.
Dave Beech
Dave Beech is an artist and writer from a working class background. He is Reader in Art and Marxism at CCW, the University of the Arts, London. He is the author of Art and Labour (Brill 2020), Art and Postcapitalism (Pluto 2019) and Art and Value (Brill 2015). Beech worked in the collective Freee (with Andy Hewitt and Mel Jordan) between 2004 and 2018. He has recently had exhibitions as a solo artist in UNO gallery, New Orleans, Loft 8 gallery, Vienna and Exeter Phoenix.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Dave participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Sovay. Dave also helped Sovay with some of her research prior to launching the project.
Dave Beech is an artist and writer from a working class background. He is Reader in Art and Marxism at CCW, the University of the Arts, London. He is the author of Art and Labour (Brill 2020), Art and Postcapitalism (Pluto 2019) and Art and Value (Brill 2015). Beech worked in the collective Freee (with Andy Hewitt and Mel Jordan) between 2004 and 2018. He has recently had exhibitions as a solo artist in UNO gallery, New Orleans, Loft 8 gallery, Vienna and Exeter Phoenix.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Dave participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Sovay. Dave also helped Sovay with some of her research prior to launching the project.
Agnieszka Blonska
Agnieszka has worked in Britain, Poland and across Europe for the last nineteen years both as an independent artist and in collaboration with theatre companies and venues such as Wildworks, Powszechny Theatre, Theatre Institute in Warsaw, Desperate Men, DotComedy, Mercurial Wrestler, National Theatre Studio, Soho Theatre, Circomedia, Hall For Cornwall, Theatre Bristol and imPOSSIBLE.
Recent productions include: We’ve Been Here (online), Devils (Teatr Powszechny), Mefisto (Teatr Powszechny), Polish Vermin (Bristol Old Vic Ferment and Newlyn Art Gallery).
Agnieszka also works as a senior lecturer at Falmouth University. In her practice Agnieszka is particularly interested in subjects of identity, social change and personal stories in relation to society. She uses a variety of forms including participatory and performative theatre exploring the boundaries of traditional drama and play.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Agnieszka participated as an in-conversation guest with Fran Rowse & Sovay as part of The Last Weekend, Tate St Ives, April 2023.
Agnieszka has worked in Britain, Poland and across Europe for the last nineteen years both as an independent artist and in collaboration with theatre companies and venues such as Wildworks, Powszechny Theatre, Theatre Institute in Warsaw, Desperate Men, DotComedy, Mercurial Wrestler, National Theatre Studio, Soho Theatre, Circomedia, Hall For Cornwall, Theatre Bristol and imPOSSIBLE.
Recent productions include: We’ve Been Here (online), Devils (Teatr Powszechny), Mefisto (Teatr Powszechny), Polish Vermin (Bristol Old Vic Ferment and Newlyn Art Gallery).
Agnieszka also works as a senior lecturer at Falmouth University. In her practice Agnieszka is particularly interested in subjects of identity, social change and personal stories in relation to society. She uses a variety of forms including participatory and performative theatre exploring the boundaries of traditional drama and play.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Agnieszka participated as an in-conversation guest with Fran Rowse & Sovay as part of The Last Weekend, Tate St Ives, April 2023.
Becky Bordeaux
Becky is a performer and production assistant for Rogue Otherworld, and has been working for them for the past 13 years since graduating from Dartington College of Arts in 2009 with a BA in Theatre.
Whilst working with Rogue, Becky has toured nationally in theatres including Battersea Arts Centre and The Lowry. Performed at festivals including Wilderness, Glastonbury and Leopalooza. She has also performed in over a 1000 shows in Tehidy woods in the past decade.
Becky also runs her own holistic therapy business and works part time in The Cornish Store in Falmouth.
Becky is born and bred Cornish, growing up in clay county near St Austell and has now been living in Camborne for the past 8 years.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Becky participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Passman & Ellie.
Becky is a performer and production assistant for Rogue Otherworld, and has been working for them for the past 13 years since graduating from Dartington College of Arts in 2009 with a BA in Theatre.
Whilst working with Rogue, Becky has toured nationally in theatres including Battersea Arts Centre and The Lowry. Performed at festivals including Wilderness, Glastonbury and Leopalooza. She has also performed in over a 1000 shows in Tehidy woods in the past decade.
Becky also runs her own holistic therapy business and works part time in The Cornish Store in Falmouth.
Becky is born and bred Cornish, growing up in clay county near St Austell and has now been living in Camborne for the past 8 years.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Becky participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Passman & Ellie.
ButCH
ButCH (Bureau for the Contemporary and Historic) is an independent queer consultancy committed to undertaking arts and heritage projects that respond to the diverse needs of the present. ButCH (Sefryn Penrose and Angela Piccini) offers interdisciplinary, theoretically informed, practically grounded approaches to arts and heritage work, undertaking policy, planning, and evaluation work. Sefryn has a twenty-year background in heritage consultancy - across matters of policy and planning, archaeology, architecture and museology - and academia. Angela is Associate Professor in Fine Art at the School of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Plymouth. She brings a background in film and art with a critical approach that grounds and guides our work. Since forming in 2019, ButCH has undertaken commissions for the Pitt Rivers Museum's Beyond the Binary project, for Historic England, the Environment Agency, and Plymouth City Council.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, ButCH is providing evaluation support, participating in workshops, undertaking surveys and interviews, and feeding-forward as the project develops.
ButCH (Bureau for the Contemporary and Historic) is an independent queer consultancy committed to undertaking arts and heritage projects that respond to the diverse needs of the present. ButCH (Sefryn Penrose and Angela Piccini) offers interdisciplinary, theoretically informed, practically grounded approaches to arts and heritage work, undertaking policy, planning, and evaluation work. Sefryn has a twenty-year background in heritage consultancy - across matters of policy and planning, archaeology, architecture and museology - and academia. Angela is Associate Professor in Fine Art at the School of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Plymouth. She brings a background in film and art with a critical approach that grounds and guides our work. Since forming in 2019, ButCH has undertaken commissions for the Pitt Rivers Museum's Beyond the Binary project, for Historic England, the Environment Agency, and Plymouth City Council.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, ButCH is providing evaluation support, participating in workshops, undertaking surveys and interviews, and feeding-forward as the project develops.
Natasha Carthew
Natasha Carthew is working-class writer from Cornwall. She is the author of eight books, including those published by Bloomsbury, Quercus and the National Trust. Her new book Undercurrent: A Cornish Memoir of Poverty, Nature and Resilience, is a powerful exploration of rural poverty and a story of hope, beauty, and fierce resilience. Undercurrent publishes with Coronet/Hodder & Stoughton April 2023.
Natasha is well known for writing on Socioeconomic issues and has written extensively on the subject of how authentic working-class voices are represented in literature for several publications and programmes; including ITV, Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, The Royal Society of Authors Journal, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, The Guardian, Mslexia, The Dark Mountain Project, The Bookseller, Book Brunch The Big Issue and The Economist.
Natasha is Founder and Artistic Director of The Working Class Writers Festival and The Nature Writing Prize for Working Class Writers in association with Octopus/Hachette.
She is a recipient of The Bookseller Rising Star Award 2022 and is represented by Juliet Pickering at Blake Friedman Literary Agency.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Natasha participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Joanie.
Natasha Carthew is working-class writer from Cornwall. She is the author of eight books, including those published by Bloomsbury, Quercus and the National Trust. Her new book Undercurrent: A Cornish Memoir of Poverty, Nature and Resilience, is a powerful exploration of rural poverty and a story of hope, beauty, and fierce resilience. Undercurrent publishes with Coronet/Hodder & Stoughton April 2023.
Natasha is well known for writing on Socioeconomic issues and has written extensively on the subject of how authentic working-class voices are represented in literature for several publications and programmes; including ITV, Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, The Royal Society of Authors Journal, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, The Guardian, Mslexia, The Dark Mountain Project, The Bookseller, Book Brunch The Big Issue and The Economist.
Natasha is Founder and Artistic Director of The Working Class Writers Festival and The Nature Writing Prize for Working Class Writers in association with Octopus/Hachette.
She is a recipient of The Bookseller Rising Star Award 2022 and is represented by Juliet Pickering at Blake Friedman Literary Agency.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Natasha participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Joanie.
Jowdy Davey
Jowdy has worked in cultural sector development for over 15 years, beginning at the National Gallery, RADA, Tate and Hall for Cornwall, before moving on to a freelance career supporting various smaller organisations, mainly in Cornwall, to become sustainable and promote positive social change in their communities.
Raised in Bodmin and now living in Redruth, Jowdy was fortunate to be born into the famously musical Davey family and immersed in Cornish culture from a young age. She has a passion for traditional dance, particularly percussive and community dance, and is usually found stuck into music sessions and ceilidhs playing flute and whistles. She is a Director of Lowender Peran, a charity celebrating Cornish culture and its Celtic connections, and recently led the commission of an exercise mapping Cornwall’s intangible cultural heritage, identifying where support is needed for traditions, and most importantly the communities that bear them, to thrive. Jowdy has a young family dominated by powerful females growing up to understand and celebrate their own dual Breton/Cornish heritage.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Jowdy participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Stephanie.
Jowdy has worked in cultural sector development for over 15 years, beginning at the National Gallery, RADA, Tate and Hall for Cornwall, before moving on to a freelance career supporting various smaller organisations, mainly in Cornwall, to become sustainable and promote positive social change in their communities.
Raised in Bodmin and now living in Redruth, Jowdy was fortunate to be born into the famously musical Davey family and immersed in Cornish culture from a young age. She has a passion for traditional dance, particularly percussive and community dance, and is usually found stuck into music sessions and ceilidhs playing flute and whistles. She is a Director of Lowender Peran, a charity celebrating Cornish culture and its Celtic connections, and recently led the commission of an exercise mapping Cornwall’s intangible cultural heritage, identifying where support is needed for traditions, and most importantly the communities that bear them, to thrive. Jowdy has a young family dominated by powerful females growing up to understand and celebrate their own dual Breton/Cornish heritage.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Jowdy participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Stephanie.
Georgia Gendall
Georgia is an artist, facilitator, gardener, baker, musician and seasonal shepherd working from Helston, Cornwall. She makes ludicrously impractical human powered contraptions and snappy ‘epic fail’ videos to curious ceramic sculptures, animal collaborations, cyclical sculptures, enduring sound works and public events. Georgia also runs The Allotment Club; a project space on an allotment in Penryn, Cornwall and is in the third year of running Residency in a Shed; a residency in the shed on the allotment.
She is also the instigator of Forced Collaboration; a collaborative platform that aims to forge relationships between artists from different disciplines and locations; it has been running for five years and has facilitated over 200 collaboration between artists world wide.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Georgia participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Liam.
Georgia is an artist, facilitator, gardener, baker, musician and seasonal shepherd working from Helston, Cornwall. She makes ludicrously impractical human powered contraptions and snappy ‘epic fail’ videos to curious ceramic sculptures, animal collaborations, cyclical sculptures, enduring sound works and public events. Georgia also runs The Allotment Club; a project space on an allotment in Penryn, Cornwall and is in the third year of running Residency in a Shed; a residency in the shed on the allotment.
She is also the instigator of Forced Collaboration; a collaborative platform that aims to forge relationships between artists from different disciplines and locations; it has been running for five years and has facilitated over 200 collaboration between artists world wide.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Georgia participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Liam.
Emma Gilberthorpe
Emma Gilberthorpe is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of East Anglia, UK. Her research is concerned with the social and cultural aspects of development. Her main area of research examines the parameters of social organisation, kinship and exchange in contexts of large-scale resource extraction (mining and oil/gas extraction). She is particularly interested in the implications of the cultural incompatibilities that exist between large-scale, capitalist corporations and small-scale societies. The majority of her work has focused on the social, economic, political and environmental impacts of mining (Ok Tedi) and oil extraction (Kutubu) in Papua New Guinea. She has also conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Guinea, West Africa and managed projects in Zambia.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Emma participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Hilary. Emma also helped Sovay with some of her research prior to launching the project.
Emma Gilberthorpe is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of East Anglia, UK. Her research is concerned with the social and cultural aspects of development. Her main area of research examines the parameters of social organisation, kinship and exchange in contexts of large-scale resource extraction (mining and oil/gas extraction). She is particularly interested in the implications of the cultural incompatibilities that exist between large-scale, capitalist corporations and small-scale societies. The majority of her work has focused on the social, economic, political and environmental impacts of mining (Ok Tedi) and oil extraction (Kutubu) in Papua New Guinea. She has also conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Guinea, West Africa and managed projects in Zambia.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Emma participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Hilary. Emma also helped Sovay with some of her research prior to launching the project.
Pol Hodge
Pol Hodge B.Eng, PGCE, was born in Redruth in 1965. He obtained distinction at the highest level of Cornish language exam and was barded in 1991, taking the bardic name Mab Stenek Veur.
He has been a community educator for over 35 years and worked for Kowethas, Kesva as well as the Cornish Language Office. At Goldentree Productions he has been Tebel Santa, Kap’n Pol and a chef who can’t speak English as well as doing all things Kernewek.
Pol Hodge has performed at nearly 450 poetry gigs, written three poetry volumes and helped with over 20 Cornish language films. In 2021 at Bude-Stratton he became Bardh Meur of Gorsedh Kernow.
He lives with his Cornish speaking wife, Jane, the bard Kesklywores, at Lambriggan in West Pydarshire.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Pol participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Mark & Jenefer.
Pol Hodge B.Eng, PGCE, was born in Redruth in 1965. He obtained distinction at the highest level of Cornish language exam and was barded in 1991, taking the bardic name Mab Stenek Veur.
He has been a community educator for over 35 years and worked for Kowethas, Kesva as well as the Cornish Language Office. At Goldentree Productions he has been Tebel Santa, Kap’n Pol and a chef who can’t speak English as well as doing all things Kernewek.
Pol Hodge has performed at nearly 450 poetry gigs, written three poetry volumes and helped with over 20 Cornish language films. In 2021 at Bude-Stratton he became Bardh Meur of Gorsedh Kernow.
He lives with his Cornish speaking wife, Jane, the bard Kesklywores, at Lambriggan in West Pydarshire.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Pol participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Mark & Jenefer.
Liam Jolly
Liam Jolly is an artist and musician based in Redruth, Cornwall. He is interested in when something is considered to be an artwork and when it is not, where the audience experience of it starts and ends, and how by blurring these boundaries can affect meaning. His works in paint, film, sound, performance and public intervention attempt to balance in this space where one thing, becomes another. He also runs Auction House, a project space and studio provider in the town.
Recent exhibitions, awards and residencies include Pa-ra-did-dle (with Krystle Patel), TURF Projects, Croydon; Antibodies, Make Tank, Exeter; Your Foot in my Face and other Tectonic Strategies, Kingsgate Project Space, London. 2021; Where is the Way to Arcadia? in So the Red Rose, Tyman & Webster, Arkadien festival, Ebersberg Kunstverein, Germany. 2021; Synethesia, Online Project 2020, Amen Brother, Exeter Phoenix Artists Moving Image Commission 2018; Structures, Newlyn Art Gallery; between us, Back Lane West, Redruth 2017; The Cornwall Workshop led by Christina Mackie, 2017.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Liam participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Georgia.
Liam Jolly is an artist and musician based in Redruth, Cornwall. He is interested in when something is considered to be an artwork and when it is not, where the audience experience of it starts and ends, and how by blurring these boundaries can affect meaning. His works in paint, film, sound, performance and public intervention attempt to balance in this space where one thing, becomes another. He also runs Auction House, a project space and studio provider in the town.
Recent exhibitions, awards and residencies include Pa-ra-did-dle (with Krystle Patel), TURF Projects, Croydon; Antibodies, Make Tank, Exeter; Your Foot in my Face and other Tectonic Strategies, Kingsgate Project Space, London. 2021; Where is the Way to Arcadia? in So the Red Rose, Tyman & Webster, Arkadien festival, Ebersberg Kunstverein, Germany. 2021; Synethesia, Online Project 2020, Amen Brother, Exeter Phoenix Artists Moving Image Commission 2018; Structures, Newlyn Art Gallery; between us, Back Lane West, Redruth 2017; The Cornwall Workshop led by Christina Mackie, 2017.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Liam participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Georgia.
Rachael Jones
Rachael Jones is an artist-filmmaker and postgraduate researcher based in Cornwall. Her work aims at challenging traditional methods of documenting and recording for a socially engaged and embodied practice. Often working with archive images, she blends old photographs with newly created visuals, incorporating both analogue and digital formats to create a playful tension in her films.
Rachael’s current work involves workshops using experimental filmmaking and sustainable arts-based techniques such as collage and alternative photography to engage participants with the Cornish landscape.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Rachael was second editor for Sovay’s film Gwyrdh Glas made for Flamm.
Rachael Jones is an artist-filmmaker and postgraduate researcher based in Cornwall. Her work aims at challenging traditional methods of documenting and recording for a socially engaged and embodied practice. Often working with archive images, she blends old photographs with newly created visuals, incorporating both analogue and digital formats to create a playful tension in her films.
Rachael’s current work involves workshops using experimental filmmaking and sustainable arts-based techniques such as collage and alternative photography to engage participants with the Cornish landscape.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Rachael was second editor for Sovay’s film Gwyrdh Glas made for Flamm.
Alice Mahoney
Alice Mahoney is a multidisciplinary artist based in Redruth, Cornwall. She uses film, sound, sculpture, painting, and print, to explore forms, colour, texture, material, and surface, interrogating the relationships between things, and exploring space both architecturally and topographically. Additionally, Alice has curated and run artist-led spaces, talks, screenings, and workshops, including an artist residency programme at CMR Project Space in Redruth, 2018 - ongoing; and Project Space, Berlin, 2003-2005.
She also founded and co-organized the Inland Art Festival, Redruth, 2014 and 2016. Alice plays keyboards in the band Disco Rococo, having recently played at the Late at Tate, St Ives in September 2022.
Recent exhibitions and residencies include The Only Thing More Slippery Than the Elbow, a group exhibition at Auction House, Redruth, 2022; Borderlands, at Plymouth Art Weekender, 2020; Scenes, in the Picture Room at the Newlyn Art Gallery & the Exchange, 2019; The Cornwall Workshop led by Andy Holden, 2019.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Alice worked on the production team with Sovay.
Alice Mahoney is a multidisciplinary artist based in Redruth, Cornwall. She uses film, sound, sculpture, painting, and print, to explore forms, colour, texture, material, and surface, interrogating the relationships between things, and exploring space both architecturally and topographically. Additionally, Alice has curated and run artist-led spaces, talks, screenings, and workshops, including an artist residency programme at CMR Project Space in Redruth, 2018 - ongoing; and Project Space, Berlin, 2003-2005.
She also founded and co-organized the Inland Art Festival, Redruth, 2014 and 2016. Alice plays keyboards in the band Disco Rococo, having recently played at the Late at Tate, St Ives in September 2022.
Recent exhibitions and residencies include The Only Thing More Slippery Than the Elbow, a group exhibition at Auction House, Redruth, 2022; Borderlands, at Plymouth Art Weekender, 2020; Scenes, in the Picture Room at the Newlyn Art Gallery & the Exchange, 2019; The Cornwall Workshop led by Andy Holden, 2019.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Alice worked on the production team with Sovay.
Angeline Morrison
Angeline Morrison is a Cornwall-based songwriter, vocalist, choir leader, researcher and writer who loves finding hidden histories. Angeline is actively concerned with raising awareness about the hidden, historic Black presence in the UK.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Angeline participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Sovay. Angeline also is a speaker at the symposium.
Angeline Morrison is a Cornwall-based songwriter, vocalist, choir leader, researcher and writer who loves finding hidden histories. Angeline is actively concerned with raising awareness about the hidden, historic Black presence in the UK.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Angeline participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Sovay. Angeline also is a speaker at the symposium.
Angeline Morrison
@angelcakepie (Twitter, Instagram)
Angeline Morrison Music (Facebook, Bandcamp) The Sorrow Songs - Topic Records
@angelcakepie (Twitter, Instagram)
Angeline Morrison Music (Facebook, Bandcamp) The Sorrow Songs - Topic Records
Hilary Orange
Hilary Orange is Senior Lecturer in Industrial Heritage at Swansea University. She is also the Chair of the ‘CHAT’ group (Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory). Her doctorate (UCL Institute of Archaeology) considered public perceptions of Cornish mining landscape and she has published on industrial heritage, public archaeology, Cornish identity and the heritage of popular music. Hilary’s most recent publications include a chapter on Cornish landscape in the volume ‘Transcending the Nostalgic: Landscapes of Postindustrial Europe beyond Representation’ (2021) and a chapter on Rock music memorial roots and routes in London (2021).
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Hilary participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Emma Gilberthorpe.
Hilary Orange is Senior Lecturer in Industrial Heritage at Swansea University. She is also the Chair of the ‘CHAT’ group (Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory). Her doctorate (UCL Institute of Archaeology) considered public perceptions of Cornish mining landscape and she has published on industrial heritage, public archaeology, Cornish identity and the heritage of popular music. Hilary’s most recent publications include a chapter on Cornish landscape in the volume ‘Transcending the Nostalgic: Landscapes of Postindustrial Europe beyond Representation’ (2021) and a chapter on Rock music memorial roots and routes in London (2021).
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Hilary participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Emma Gilberthorpe.
Steven Paige
Artist Steven Paige takes a playful approach to the performing body using re-enactment strategies to experiment with archival authority, exploring preoccupations with instruction, betterment, humour, and identity.
Realising the potential agency between personal accounts, found archival film, video, texts and ephemera; the work is actively realised, part memoir and part newly enlivened contexts.
He is a Senior Lecturer and Course Leader Postgraduate Studies at Arts University Plymouth. He completed his practice-based PhD Meeting the Archive at University of Plymouth, 2019.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Steven hosted a conversation with Sovay for the exhibition closing event.
Artist Steven Paige takes a playful approach to the performing body using re-enactment strategies to experiment with archival authority, exploring preoccupations with instruction, betterment, humour, and identity.
Realising the potential agency between personal accounts, found archival film, video, texts and ephemera; the work is actively realised, part memoir and part newly enlivened contexts.
He is a Senior Lecturer and Course Leader Postgraduate Studies at Arts University Plymouth. He completed his practice-based PhD Meeting the Archive at University of Plymouth, 2019.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Steven hosted a conversation with Sovay for the exhibition closing event.
Luke Passey/Passman
Luke Passey is a musician/entertainer based in Cornwall. Since 2007 he has performed and recorded as forty-nine percent of the light-hearted, Casio rap duo Hedluv + Passman. Together they have performed on five continents; this has included them taking their show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the New Zealand International and Sydney International comedy festivals plus countless appearances at a host of UK music festivals including Glastonbury, Green Man, End of the Road, Shambala, Leopallooza, Boardmasters, Beautiful Days, Farm Fest and the Great Estate.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Passman participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Ellie & Becky.
Luke Passey is a musician/entertainer based in Cornwall. Since 2007 he has performed and recorded as forty-nine percent of the light-hearted, Casio rap duo Hedluv + Passman. Together they have performed on five continents; this has included them taking their show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the New Zealand International and Sydney International comedy festivals plus countless appearances at a host of UK music festivals including Glastonbury, Green Man, End of the Road, Shambala, Leopallooza, Boardmasters, Beautiful Days, Farm Fest and the Great Estate.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Passman participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Ellie & Becky.
Angela Piccini
Angela Piccini's story begins in Vancouver, Canada – the unceded, shared territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tseil-Waututh) nations. She is the child of Italian and Anglo-Chilean immigrants and the only person in her immediate family to complete either secondary or tertiary education. With her own 'landless' status, she became fascinated with nationalist projects and the ways in which the traces of distant pasts came to be activated across art and media by both emancipatory and far right movements. She spent the late 1990s doing a PhD about cultural constructions and performances of contemporary Celtic cultures (with a focus on Wales and Cornwall), looking at how film, television, art, museums, and the tourism industry draw on archaeological narratives and materials. She then worked for Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments designing and publishing guidebooks before a long stint in what was Drama: Theatre, Film, Television at University of Bristol and, latterly, in Fine Art at University of Plymouth. She continues to work with the ways in which the moving image, performance, and expanded sculpture co-create place, land, belonging, exclusion and the potential of these practices to produce new, imagined, and real places. At the heart of this work is collaboration.
Angela and her partner, Sefryn Penrose, are co-directors of ButCH (Bureau for the Contemporary and Historic) and they run the 37 Looe Street gallery and studio. Angela is also completing work with collaborator Kayle Brandon on Association of Unknown Shores, which is a group of artists and organisations in Bristol, Plymouth and Iqaluit (Nunavut, Canada) responding to the legacies of Martin Frobisher's attempt in 1576-78 to colonise the far north of what is now known as Canada. Angela is also a co-director of CAMP (Contemporary Art Membership), which is a member-led arts organisation serving Devon and Cornwall. And she's on the Board of Plymouth Arts Cinema.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Angela participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Kayle Brandon as Association of Unknown Shores, and also chairs the symposium.
Angela Piccini's story begins in Vancouver, Canada – the unceded, shared territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tseil-Waututh) nations. She is the child of Italian and Anglo-Chilean immigrants and the only person in her immediate family to complete either secondary or tertiary education. With her own 'landless' status, she became fascinated with nationalist projects and the ways in which the traces of distant pasts came to be activated across art and media by both emancipatory and far right movements. She spent the late 1990s doing a PhD about cultural constructions and performances of contemporary Celtic cultures (with a focus on Wales and Cornwall), looking at how film, television, art, museums, and the tourism industry draw on archaeological narratives and materials. She then worked for Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments designing and publishing guidebooks before a long stint in what was Drama: Theatre, Film, Television at University of Bristol and, latterly, in Fine Art at University of Plymouth. She continues to work with the ways in which the moving image, performance, and expanded sculpture co-create place, land, belonging, exclusion and the potential of these practices to produce new, imagined, and real places. At the heart of this work is collaboration.
Angela and her partner, Sefryn Penrose, are co-directors of ButCH (Bureau for the Contemporary and Historic) and they run the 37 Looe Street gallery and studio. Angela is also completing work with collaborator Kayle Brandon on Association of Unknown Shores, which is a group of artists and organisations in Bristol, Plymouth and Iqaluit (Nunavut, Canada) responding to the legacies of Martin Frobisher's attempt in 1576-78 to colonise the far north of what is now known as Canada. Angela is also a co-director of CAMP (Contemporary Art Membership), which is a member-led arts organisation serving Devon and Cornwall. And she's on the Board of Plymouth Arts Cinema.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Angela participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Kayle Brandon as Association of Unknown Shores, and also chairs the symposium.
Dr Stephanie Pratt (Dakota and Anglo-American Art Historian)
Formerly Associate Professor (Reader) of Art History at Plymouth University, UK and now an independent scholar and curator, Dr Pratt, a member of the Dakota Nation, became the first Cultural Ambassador for her Tribal Council at the Crow Creek Dakota Reservation in South Dakota, USA in 2015. Recently she has been a consultant on projects for the National Portrait Gallery, London; Southwark City Council; Exeter City Council; and Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery. She was Indigenous advisor to Border Crossings’ ORIGINS festival 2019 and the Native Spirit Festival 2020.
She is a member of the Grandmother’s Society (Kunsi/Unci) based at Fort Thompson, South Dakota which promotes the understanding and preservation of Dakota and Lakota culture and language. Her book, American Indians in British Art, 1700-1840 (Oklahoma University Press, 2005) was the first study of its kind. Currently, she is at work on a second book which will examine how Native North Americans made images of those who came to their lands and how those newcomers imaged Native North Americans in turn.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Stephanie participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Jowdy Davey. Stephanie also helped Sovay with some of her research prior to launching the project.
Formerly Associate Professor (Reader) of Art History at Plymouth University, UK and now an independent scholar and curator, Dr Pratt, a member of the Dakota Nation, became the first Cultural Ambassador for her Tribal Council at the Crow Creek Dakota Reservation in South Dakota, USA in 2015. Recently she has been a consultant on projects for the National Portrait Gallery, London; Southwark City Council; Exeter City Council; and Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery. She was Indigenous advisor to Border Crossings’ ORIGINS festival 2019 and the Native Spirit Festival 2020.
She is a member of the Grandmother’s Society (Kunsi/Unci) based at Fort Thompson, South Dakota which promotes the understanding and preservation of Dakota and Lakota culture and language. Her book, American Indians in British Art, 1700-1840 (Oklahoma University Press, 2005) was the first study of its kind. Currently, she is at work on a second book which will examine how Native North Americans made images of those who came to their lands and how those newcomers imaged Native North Americans in turn.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Stephanie participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Jowdy Davey. Stephanie also helped Sovay with some of her research prior to launching the project.
Francesca Rowse
Fran Rowse has been coined as ‘one to watch’ by Newlyn Exchange Art Gallery, she explores female identities and community through creative processes. Fran is passionate about creating spaces for marginalised communities, gender identities, empowerment, and the heritage of her home. Her work offers a window into the lives and dreams of women in Cornwall, capturing moments of surreal magic refashioned in the homes, streets, and the rich landscapes of the Southwest. Fran uses photography, mixed media and installations to create spaces where location, clothes, identity and representations are reworked to form fresh emancipated portrayals of Cornish girls and women.
After winning the southwest graduate photography prize in 2021 for her debut project ‘Maids’, she continued the project in conjunction with Foto-Now working in communities and archival spaces such as Hypatia trust and more recently Jupiter, Newlyn, and Morrab Gallery, Penzance. Maids the book brings Fran’s photography together with archival imagery to build a narrative that lives and breathes Cornish Life.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Fran is a speaker at the 29th October symposium. Fran also took part in the Last Weekend in-conversation at Tate St Ives, April 2023 with Agnieszka Blonska.
Fran Rowse has been coined as ‘one to watch’ by Newlyn Exchange Art Gallery, she explores female identities and community through creative processes. Fran is passionate about creating spaces for marginalised communities, gender identities, empowerment, and the heritage of her home. Her work offers a window into the lives and dreams of women in Cornwall, capturing moments of surreal magic refashioned in the homes, streets, and the rich landscapes of the Southwest. Fran uses photography, mixed media and installations to create spaces where location, clothes, identity and representations are reworked to form fresh emancipated portrayals of Cornish girls and women.
After winning the southwest graduate photography prize in 2021 for her debut project ‘Maids’, she continued the project in conjunction with Foto-Now working in communities and archival spaces such as Hypatia trust and more recently Jupiter, Newlyn, and Morrab Gallery, Penzance. Maids the book brings Fran’s photography together with archival imagery to build a narrative that lives and breathes Cornish Life.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Fran is a speaker at the 29th October symposium. Fran also took part in the Last Weekend in-conversation at Tate St Ives, April 2023 with Agnieszka Blonska.
Ioana Sabau
Ioana is an emerging illustrator, a recent graduate of the BA in Illustration course at Falmouth University. She is interested in how to use creativity mindfully, through community engagement and problem solving, to explore the positive effect creative work can have on the people and the planet.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Ioano works as part of the front of house team with Sovay.
Ioana is an emerging illustrator, a recent graduate of the BA in Illustration course at Falmouth University. She is interested in how to use creativity mindfully, through community engagement and problem solving, to explore the positive effect creative work can have on the people and the planet.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Ioano works as part of the front of house team with Sovay.
Libita Sibungu
Libita Sibungu currently lives and works in West Cornwall, where she grew up - a daughter to Namibian and English parents, born in the late 1980’s just after the first sight of a birth of a galaxy, and a few years before Namibia's independence. As an interdisciplinary artist, Sibungu works with writing, drawing, performance, photography, print, and sound to build environments that weave decolonial narratives into immersive installations and poetic arrangements. Through collaboration - research is expanded towards a collective experience, inspired by living archives, sonic cartographies and speculative fiction.
Sibungu is the recipient of the 2022 Arts Foundation Future Award, and has presented work with Temple Bar Gallery, Ireland, and Sonsbeek, Netherlands (2021); Somerset House, UK, and Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich (2020). Sibungu’s solo exhibition and ongoing body of work ‘Quantum Ghost’ was presented with Gasworks, and Spike Island, (UK) in 2019.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Libita participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Sovay, and responding to Georgia and Liam’s conversation. Libita also is a symposium speaker.
Libita Sibungu currently lives and works in West Cornwall, where she grew up - a daughter to Namibian and English parents, born in the late 1980’s just after the first sight of a birth of a galaxy, and a few years before Namibia's independence. As an interdisciplinary artist, Sibungu works with writing, drawing, performance, photography, print, and sound to build environments that weave decolonial narratives into immersive installations and poetic arrangements. Through collaboration - research is expanded towards a collective experience, inspired by living archives, sonic cartographies and speculative fiction.
Sibungu is the recipient of the 2022 Arts Foundation Future Award, and has presented work with Temple Bar Gallery, Ireland, and Sonsbeek, Netherlands (2021); Somerset House, UK, and Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich (2020). Sibungu’s solo exhibition and ongoing body of work ‘Quantum Ghost’ was presented with Gasworks, and Spike Island, (UK) in 2019.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Libita participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Sovay, and responding to Georgia and Liam’s conversation. Libita also is a symposium speaker.
Amanprit Sandhu
Amanprit Sandhu is a London based curator and educator with a focus on expanded exhibition practices, pedagogy and widening participation in the arts and arts education,
and collaborative approaches to working.
Recent work includes co-curating the 2021 Borås Art Biennial in Borås, Sweden and organising the inaugural Brent Biennial in Brent, London in 2020. She was the co-founde of the curatorial collective DAM Projects (2014-20), whose work supported underexposed artists, art scenes, discourses, and socio-political debates in the UK and internationally. Other previous roles include: Interim Curator at Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire, Public Programme and Residencies Curator at Camden Art Centre, Projects Curator with Art on the Underground, Project Manager for the 2014 Folkestone Triennial and 2012 Frieze Foundation projects, and Assistant Curator at the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art. Between 2017-20 she was a trustee at Arts Catalyst.
She is currently working as a Senior Lecturer on the Fine Art programme at Chelsea College of Arts, London.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Amanprit participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Sovay.
Amanprit Sandhu is a London based curator and educator with a focus on expanded exhibition practices, pedagogy and widening participation in the arts and arts education,
and collaborative approaches to working.
Recent work includes co-curating the 2021 Borås Art Biennial in Borås, Sweden and organising the inaugural Brent Biennial in Brent, London in 2020. She was the co-founde of the curatorial collective DAM Projects (2014-20), whose work supported underexposed artists, art scenes, discourses, and socio-political debates in the UK and internationally. Other previous roles include: Interim Curator at Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire, Public Programme and Residencies Curator at Camden Art Centre, Projects Curator with Art on the Underground, Project Manager for the 2014 Folkestone Triennial and 2012 Frieze Foundation projects, and Assistant Curator at the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art. Between 2017-20 she was a trustee at Arts Catalyst.
She is currently working as a Senior Lecturer on the Fine Art programme at Chelsea College of Arts, London.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Amanprit participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Sovay.
Joanne Tatham
Joanne Tatham is an artist. Joanne makes artworks as a way to engage with the questions and conversations around the status of contemporary art activities, and the roles that artists and their artworks can be expected to perform. She works primarily within a collaborative partnership with Tom O’Sullivan, after meeting at Glasgow School of Art in 1995. In 2021 they completed their first permanent commission, The Institute For The Magical Effect Of Actually Giving A Shit (a note to our future self). Sited within Studio Voltaire’s public toilets, the work both fostered a critique of the aesthetic conventions of gallery architecture and, by creating spaces that facilitate both thought and pleasure, helped their redeveloped building better reflect Studio Voltaire’s ethos and history. Taking a different approach, The Bitter Cup (Book Works, 2019) used fictive writing to scrutinise the constructed narratives of artists and art scenes, in this case reflecting upon Scotland in the 1990s. A Proposal To Ask Where Does A Threshold Begin & End (MIMA, Middlesbrough, 2018) and Does the Iterative Stick (Kunsthall Oslo, 2019) both addressed public art commissioning, using brightly coloured silly looking constructions alongside larger configurations of text and photographs. Joanne and Tom are represented by The Modern Institute in Glasgow.
Joanne’s undergraduate degree was in Fine Art (Drawing and Painting) at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee (1993). She then completed an MFA at Glasgow School of Art (1995) and a PhD at the University of Leeds (2004). She has worked in Higher Education since then, and has been a Reader in Contemporary Art (0.6) at the Royal College of Art since 2017, where she teaches into MA programmes and supervises PhDs. Before this, Joanne was an Associate Professor at Northumbria University and has previously worked at Gray’s School of Art (RGU, Aberdeen) as a Research Fellow. She has also held posts at Valand Academy (University of Gothenburg) and Cumbria Institute of the Arts, and has been a Visiting Lecturer at the Ruskin School of Art (Oxford), Rotterdam’s Piet Zwart Institute, Goldsmiths College and Teesside University, amongst others.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Joanne acts as a critical friend for Sovay’s studio work, providing ongoing conversations and opportunities for reflection. Joanne also helped Sovay with some of her research prior to launching the project.
Joanne Tatham is an artist. Joanne makes artworks as a way to engage with the questions and conversations around the status of contemporary art activities, and the roles that artists and their artworks can be expected to perform. She works primarily within a collaborative partnership with Tom O’Sullivan, after meeting at Glasgow School of Art in 1995. In 2021 they completed their first permanent commission, The Institute For The Magical Effect Of Actually Giving A Shit (a note to our future self). Sited within Studio Voltaire’s public toilets, the work both fostered a critique of the aesthetic conventions of gallery architecture and, by creating spaces that facilitate both thought and pleasure, helped their redeveloped building better reflect Studio Voltaire’s ethos and history. Taking a different approach, The Bitter Cup (Book Works, 2019) used fictive writing to scrutinise the constructed narratives of artists and art scenes, in this case reflecting upon Scotland in the 1990s. A Proposal To Ask Where Does A Threshold Begin & End (MIMA, Middlesbrough, 2018) and Does the Iterative Stick (Kunsthall Oslo, 2019) both addressed public art commissioning, using brightly coloured silly looking constructions alongside larger configurations of text and photographs. Joanne and Tom are represented by The Modern Institute in Glasgow.
Joanne’s undergraduate degree was in Fine Art (Drawing and Painting) at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee (1993). She then completed an MFA at Glasgow School of Art (1995) and a PhD at the University of Leeds (2004). She has worked in Higher Education since then, and has been a Reader in Contemporary Art (0.6) at the Royal College of Art since 2017, where she teaches into MA programmes and supervises PhDs. Before this, Joanne was an Associate Professor at Northumbria University and has previously worked at Gray’s School of Art (RGU, Aberdeen) as a Research Fellow. She has also held posts at Valand Academy (University of Gothenburg) and Cumbria Institute of the Arts, and has been a Visiting Lecturer at the Ruskin School of Art (Oxford), Rotterdam’s Piet Zwart Institute, Goldsmiths College and Teesside University, amongst others.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Joanne acts as a critical friend for Sovay’s studio work, providing ongoing conversations and opportunities for reflection. Joanne also helped Sovay with some of her research prior to launching the project.
Shelley Trower
Shelley Trower is Professor of English Literature at the University of Roehampton. Books include Place, Writing, and Voice in Oral History (2011), Senses of Vibration (2012), Rocks of Nation: The Imagination of Celtic Cornwall (2015) and Sound Writing: Voices, Authors, and Readers of Oral History (forthcoming 2022). She has recently led two Arts & Humanities Research Council Projects, ‘Memories of Fiction’ and ‘ Living Libraries ’ (2014-2020). She grew up in Cornwall, leaving at the age of 21 to go to university in Bath, and has since lived alternately in London and Cornwall.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Shelley is a speaker at the 29th October symposium.
Shelley Trower is Professor of English Literature at the University of Roehampton. Books include Place, Writing, and Voice in Oral History (2011), Senses of Vibration (2012), Rocks of Nation: The Imagination of Celtic Cornwall (2015) and Sound Writing: Voices, Authors, and Readers of Oral History (forthcoming 2022). She has recently led two Arts & Humanities Research Council Projects, ‘Memories of Fiction’ and ‘ Living Libraries ’ (2014-2020). She grew up in Cornwall, leaving at the age of 21 to go to university in Bath, and has since lived alternately in London and Cornwall.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Shelley is a speaker at the 29th October symposium.
Mark Trevethan
Mark Trevethan is the Principle Culture Lead for Cornwall Council. His role oversees a range of projects to increase use of Cornish including supporting teaching in schools with Golden Tree, developing new film in Kernewek with Screen Cornwall and providing more online resources with the Akademi Kernewek. He is a fluent Cornish speaker, teaches Cornish and has translated two Tintin books into Kernewek.
Mark is an Illogan boy but spent most of his career as a town planner in London.He specialised in sustainable transport and has carried on this interest by campaigning for green travel provision in Cornwall.He relaxes by body-boarding in and around St. Agnes.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Mark participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Pol Hodge & Jenefer Lowe.
Mark Trevethan is the Principle Culture Lead for Cornwall Council. His role oversees a range of projects to increase use of Cornish including supporting teaching in schools with Golden Tree, developing new film in Kernewek with Screen Cornwall and providing more online resources with the Akademi Kernewek. He is a fluent Cornish speaker, teaches Cornish and has translated two Tintin books into Kernewek.
Mark is an Illogan boy but spent most of his career as a town planner in London.He specialised in sustainable transport and has carried on this interest by campaigning for green travel provision in Cornwall.He relaxes by body-boarding in and around St. Agnes.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Mark participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Pol Hodge & Jenefer Lowe.
Emma Underhill
Emma Underhill is Founder and Director of UP Projects with over 20 years’ experience in curating and leading large scale, ambitious projects in the public realm, often delivered through complex partnership working. Under Emma’s leadership, UP Projects has gained an expansive reputation for progressive public art commissioning, robust and genuine community engagement methodologies and a commitment to artist development, often providing artists with career changing opportunities.
Recent projects that Emma has directed include a highly ambitious commission on the behalf of Crossrail in Newham working with Sonia Boyce OBE (2016-20), Gut Feelings Meri Jaan, by Jasleen Kaur in Rochdale, a series of wall-based commissions by Jessie Brennan in the Royal Docks (2019/20) and a series of integrated artworks for the Nine Elms Development, Vauxhall, London (launched 2018). Emma also leads the artistic direction of UP Projects’ core programme which includes the Constellations learning & development programme for public art practitioners and the digital commission programme This is Public Space.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Emma acts as a critical friend, providing ongoing conversations and opportunities for reflection for Sovay.
Emma Underhill is Founder and Director of UP Projects with over 20 years’ experience in curating and leading large scale, ambitious projects in the public realm, often delivered through complex partnership working. Under Emma’s leadership, UP Projects has gained an expansive reputation for progressive public art commissioning, robust and genuine community engagement methodologies and a commitment to artist development, often providing artists with career changing opportunities.
Recent projects that Emma has directed include a highly ambitious commission on the behalf of Crossrail in Newham working with Sonia Boyce OBE (2016-20), Gut Feelings Meri Jaan, by Jasleen Kaur in Rochdale, a series of wall-based commissions by Jessie Brennan in the Royal Docks (2019/20) and a series of integrated artworks for the Nine Elms Development, Vauxhall, London (launched 2018). Emma also leads the artistic direction of UP Projects’ core programme which includes the Constellations learning & development programme for public art practitioners and the digital commission programme This is Public Space.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Emma acts as a critical friend, providing ongoing conversations and opportunities for reflection for Sovay.
Ollie Wiggins
Ollie is an artist living in Lanner. He studied Fine Art Photography at University of the Arts London and moved to Cornwall 2 years ago. He is an expressionist painter and set designer that specialises in floral set design. He has a collaborative project with his best friend Kay called Ok.studios, which explores the use of food and flowers as sculptures, set designs and dining experiences - often inspired by the Cornish landscape. He’s interested in collaborative art and the longevity of projects. Ollie is an also a music lover and plays multiple instruments.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Ollie works as part of the front of house team with Sovay.
Ollie is an artist living in Lanner. He studied Fine Art Photography at University of the Arts London and moved to Cornwall 2 years ago. He is an expressionist painter and set designer that specialises in floral set design. He has a collaborative project with his best friend Kay called Ok.studios, which explores the use of food and flowers as sculptures, set designs and dining experiences - often inspired by the Cornish landscape. He’s interested in collaborative art and the longevity of projects. Ollie is an also a music lover and plays multiple instruments.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Ollie works as part of the front of house team with Sovay.
Joanie Willett
Joanie is a senior lecturer in Politics with the University of Exeter, and Co-Director of the Institute of Cornish Studies. Starting with her PhD, Joanie’s research has been about social and economic development in Cornwall. This is a deeply personal topic for her, beginning with an awareness that many of her contemporaries felt that there was little future in Cornwall for their children, and feeling that this was a real problem for
our families and our communities.
Outside of academia, Joanie will mostly be found on or in the sea.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Joanie participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Natasha Carthew. Joanie proposed Natasha as a podcast guest.
Joanie is a senior lecturer in Politics with the University of Exeter, and Co-Director of the Institute of Cornish Studies. Starting with her PhD, Joanie’s research has been about social and economic development in Cornwall. This is a deeply personal topic for her, beginning with an awareness that many of her contemporaries felt that there was little future in Cornwall for their children, and feeling that this was a real problem for
our families and our communities.
Outside of academia, Joanie will mostly be found on or in the sea.
For MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh, Joanie participated as a podcast guest in conversation with Natasha Carthew. Joanie proposed Natasha as a podcast guest.
2022 Supporters
MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh was able to take place in 2022 due to the kind supporters of a Crowdfunder campaign, that provided match funding for Arts Council England and Redruth Unlimited. Below is a message sent to those who pledged for a Kernewek MESKLA postcard.
Meur ras ow skoodhya MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh. MESKLA yw le may hwovynnir ynno govynnow kepar ha, pyth yw an keskolmow ynter tir, ertach, renkas ha honanieth wonisogethel? Pyth yw gonisogeth antavadow Kernow? Pyth yw an effeythyow a dhiwysyansow estennans war omglewans longya? Yma MESKLA ow kuntel darnow drudh a honanieth wonisogethel kevos Kernow hag ow tispletya keskows kudh. Hwans a’gan beus ty dhe vos omma, Sovay.
Thank you so much for your support of MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh. MESKLA is a space for asking questions such as, what are the relationships between land, heritage, class and cultural identity? What is intangible Cornish culture? What are the impacts of extraction industries on a sense of belonging? MESKLA is gathering precious fragments of contemporary Cornish cultural identity and drawing attention to a hidden conversation. Wish you were here, Sovay
In 2022 MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh was supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Funding also gratefully received from Redruth Unlimited, further generous support to help realise the project is given by Liam Jolly of Auction House, Ellie Allen of Splann, Jowdy Davey & Lowender Peran, Falmouth University Falmouth Campus, Kresen Kernow, Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek, Gorsedh Kernow, Cornwall Neigbourhoods for Change, Kath Buckler, Alice Mahoney & CMR, ButCH/*, and Cornwall Council Cornish Language Office.