Orchard Exhibition

Friday 9 December – Thursday 22 December 2010

at Surface Gallery, Southwell Road, adj. Sneinton Market

The exhibition at the Surface Gallery, which is situated a stone’s throw away from the Market itself, featured an installation of  the soon-to-be adopted apple trees.  This exhibition also featured artists invited to respond to the Orchard project and wider themes of sustainable food in an urban context.

Orchard, by Neville Gabie is a commission for Nottingham’s recently reopened Sneinton Market. The award-winning artist planted a series of apple trees in the new square, intended for communal use and enjoyment. The artist also donated apple trees of over 100 different varieties, through his Apple Tree Adoption Network local residents, schools and community organisations of Sneinton and St Ann’s in order to create a diverse urban orchard spanning the east side of the city. Orchard was commissioned by Nottingham City Council to mark the launch of the new square, designed by Patel Taylor architects. The ground-breaking initiative was managed by longstanding commissioners of art in the public realm, the Contemporary Art Society and Nottingham based curator, Jennie Syson.

Neville Gabie was selected to create a programme of events and a piece of art in the public realm for Sneinton Market’s relaunch. Working in a range of media from sculpture to film and photography, Neville’s practice is focused on responding to locations that are in the process of change. His practice has developed over a sustained period of involvement not just with the site, but also with other creative professionals in Nottingham, making this project the result of intensive collaboration. Other partners include Stonebridge City Farm, Ecoworks, Sneinton Market Traders, Sowing Sneinton, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust plus many community groups, schools and local families who adopted apple trees.

Over 100 varieties of Apple Tree in Surface Gallery await collection

Gabie worked together with Nottingham based media agency Trampoline and arts cinema Broadway to create a series of moving projections of orchards in the new Sneinton Market at night. This work was co-produced by Barret Hodgson and Mat Trivett with kind support from Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and Norman at the Discount Furniture Unit.

Orchard Projections in the new Sneinton Market

Oliver Dalby is a photographer and research scientist. For Orchard, he has undertaken a documentary photography project investigating unfamiliar and unusual aspects of apples in the UK. From cryogenic graft wood banks and root observation tunnels to family apple trees with 250 varieties on one root stock and the owner of the mother Bramley tree (from which all the Bramley trees on earth are descended).

Mathew Trivett is an artist and producer investigating the development of a number of tools that can be used to harvest and process fruit or edible urban foods. The largest of these tools is heavy-duty mobile fruit press. The press produces up to 20 gallons of fresh juice at a time; and the artist catalogues and maps edible urban food and its relationship to locale.

Artist and educator Rebecca Beinart has explored the social ecology of Sneinton Market: focusing on the people, relationships and stories that are the life of the marketplace. She has developed a series of shared meals and conversations hosted at Stonebridge City Farm, which form the basis of her installation. These conversations reflect on the history and future of Sneinton Market and themes arising in the Orchard project: use of public space, urban development and urban growing, ideas of the commons, and folklore and recipes from the local area. People who participated in these events include residents, growers, market traders, and market users.

Wayne Burrows is a Sneinton based writer and poet, who was been involved in the Orchard project since 2009, engaging directly with the history of the site and working closely with Neville Gabie. The collection of texts he has produced for Orchard, entitled The Apple Sequence explore the territory of genetics, delving into the migrations, symbolism, politics, folklore and history of the apple. Burrows performed a series of readings for the project at the gallery, in the market and at Stonebridge City Farm. Copies of The Apple Sequence are still available at Stonebridge City Farm.

Orchard also produced 5 bespoke artists’ programmes for the project which contain writings and limited edition artworks which are available as part of this exhibition. Downloads coming soon.

For further information on individual artists projects and further documentation visit the Artists’ Projects section.

All photographs on this page courtesy Jonathan Casciani and Neville Gabie.