Harbour House event to showcase local community artwork

Harbour House is excited to announce The Bird and the Rhino exhibition showcasing artworks created by local community members. The exhibition features collaborations between community groups from Kingsbridge Community Primary School, Kingsbridge Community College, and participants of the Kingsbridge Love Your Park event in 2024 as part of Harbour House’s community engagement programme, alongside works by the Devon-based artists who facilitated those projects; Ellie Robinson-Carter, Sam Machell and Jodie Saunders.

As part of Harbour House’s ongoing community engagement programme, the exhibition highlights the impact of free workshops and events offered throughout the year. These initiatives are aimed at making art and movement practices accessible to all, reaching underserved community groups across Devon. Some workshops are open to the public, while others are tailored for specific community groups, fostering creativity and collaboration in the local setting.

The title of the exhibition is inspired by the mutually beneficial relationship between Oxpecker birds and rhinos. Oxpeckers' main source of food are insects and bugs, and are often seen sitting on rhinos’ backs, eating the insects that live on the rhino, helping them keep clean; the rhino offers a constant supply of food. As rhinos have bad eyesight, the birds also work to help protect them from predators like lions or hyenas. When the Oxpeckers see the predators they make lots of noise which alerts the rhinos to the danger.

The Bird and the Rhino highlights the collaborative nature of the socially engaged projects programmed by Harbour House, where artists and participants inspire and learn from each other. Like the Oxpecker and the rhino, these projects demonstrate the power of mutual support, fostering creativity and connections within communities.

Sam Machell, an artist known for exploring political and ecological themes through storytelling, led a series of workshops at Kingsbridge Community Primary School. Working with a group of students in years 5 & 6, Sam guided them through an improvisational, collective approach to storytelling, resulting in the creation of the film The Creative Common: The Fateful Feast at Castle Froglington. The exhibition also includes Machell’s film Dinner Machine: Depictions of an Altered Beast. The project showcases the boundless creativity and imagination of the students.

Ellie Robinson-Carter specialises in using creative practices to support individuals with dementia and intergenerational groups. Her Photobook Project invites participants to document their experiences through photography, fostering empathy and connection. At the Love Your Park event, participants created images based on themes such as flowers, animals and nature. The exhibition displays photobooks with images by participants from this event alongside etchings by Robinson-Carter, offering a moving visual record of the participants’ connection to the natural world.

Jodie Saunders explores ‘Tentacular Listening’- listening as an attentive, embodied and essential way of being. Working with year 12 students from Kingsbridge Community College, Jodie guided them through the creation of the film Crepuscular Creatures, which explores the diversity of local nature at dawn and dusk. They used these, and recordings from the BBC Natural History Collection Unit sound archive to create a soundtrack for the moving image piece. The exhibition features the students’ film, created over a ten-month period, alongside Jodie’s audio piece Foggintor.

Dr Beth Richards, Harbour House’s Education and Engagement Curator, will lead two guided tours of the exhibition, offering insights to the different works and the community engagement programme.

• Wed Feb 5, 12pm-1pm

• Fri Feb 14. 4pm-5pm

• Title: Community Programme Exhibition: The Bird and the Rhino

• Location: Harbour House Ground Floor Gallery

• Dates: Sat Jan 25 - Sat Feb 22 2025

• Curator tours: Wed Feb 5, 12pm-1pm & Fri Feb 14 4pm-5pm

• Closing event: Sat Feb 22 2025