Nottingham Castle live brief 2025: initial ideas
I have been given another opportunity to create work to be exhibited at Nottingham Castle.
A part of the brief includes the opportunity for audience to wear VR headsets and view AI generated digital art that can be projected within the space to any scale. This feels like a really exciting opportunity that allows me to make large scale pieces but sidestep the logistics and financial barriers usually imposed when you do. I've tried to do this justice while developing my initial ideas, most of which I mocked up using collage and acetate.
As usual, I want to explore paradox. And I've had a tough coupe of months personally, so feel drawn to making work that is playful and fun; the latter really comes through in most of my ideas.
Idea 1: Submerging the castle in jelly
I would love to submerge the castle in a sleek glistening jelly, simultaneously playing with scale and identity. Even though this idea is largely playful, it is also subversive and poignant. Turning something built to be robust, defensive and permanent into a wobbly temporary transparent version of itself, examines and challenges preconception. There are multiple iterations of the castle within the grounds, be it painting or model, and it would be great to have them all covered in jelly too. Like a kind of echo, because more is more. I will try to create a screen print of a jelly that, suspended in a wooden frame, would appear superimposed on the castle when viewed from a certain point. Testing the right paint to generate the translucent glossy texture of jelly feels appealing in a challenging way. It would be great to make some prints of this to sell in the gift shop.
Idea 2: Ducks in the ceiling
The main gallery has a huge rectangular glass skylight and I feel very drawn to filling it with large scale paddling ducks; creating the illusion of the audience being underwater. The work would be a playful metaphor for perspective, as well as a subtle reference to climate change. It also has subversive tones that undermine what belongs in gallery space. It's also got a local ring to it, because it's impossible to visualise it without thinking 'ey up me duck'. This would be a VR piece, and I need to collaborate with one of the tutors for this to be realised. I will try to set up a meeting asap.
Ideas 3 and 4:
Both these ideas are also VR pieces, but address weightier themes connected to climate change. While I do feel a responsibility to generate conversations about this and other topics, I also feel like being daft and playful right now. I think I'd be more drawn to realising them if I could have a physical bucket catching the virtual water that would overflow from both frames. I have often watched audience in gallery space confuse everyday objects that are there for functional purposes, like buckets, be mistaken for art installation work. By intentionally including a found object like this I am asking my audience the questions "what is art?" and "what belongs in gallery space?"
Idea 5: Translation sculptures
Running with the jelly theme, I would like to explore translating castle and jelly forms into glass and jelly, inviting reflection on our collective understanding and expectations of different materials. People expect jelly to be soft, yielding and safe. And people expect castles to be robust, permanent and defensive. Creating a jelly or glass castle invites us to reflect on these assumptions in a coded visceral way. The intended setting for this brief houses natural history specimens as well as valuables, many of which are displayed traditionally; for example in cloches. What immediately came to my mind when further developing this idea, was housing a glass castle inside a glass jelly cloche. It's a playful idea that both relates to and subverts the other pieces in the collection.
I honestly adore the plunger bust. And I like the idea of having multiple options of bust bastardization so the audience could interact with the piece and choose what they prefer.
I will refine my ideas when I connect with the AI tutor Kate and the curator at the castle next week.
