ArtHouse Jersey awards grants to three artists
ArtHouse Jersey is delighted to announce its latest round of successful artists who applied to the quarterly funding initiative, which offers financial assistance to help support an artist’s development or to deliver a specific body of work. The funding committee awarded Joshua Shea for his short film ‘Before the Tide Comes In’, freelance photographer, filmmaker and graphic designer Lucy Le Lievre for her short documentary ‘The Old Buggers Club’ and Jersey born London based artist Alexander Mourant who is busy creating his latest solo exhibition ‘I Could Not Tell Glass from Air' for a renowned London gallery.
JOSHUA SHEA: BEFORE THE TIDE COMES IN
Joshua Shea is an 18 year old aspiring actor & filmmaker best known for playing Young Newt in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. As an eighteen year old filmmaker and actor pursuing a career in the arts industry, Joshua strives to write and create work that changes people's perception of themselves and others, opening a dialogue about culturally relevant topics in an off-beat, experimental form. ‘Before The Tide Comes In’ is a short dark comedy exploring the themes of mortality, acceptance, and how we judge people from their outward appearance. Set on a desolate beach, buried up to their neck in sand are two people. ‘Undeserving’, is in her late 40s. She has chosen to be there and is at peace with her fate. Two metres to her left, facing the concrete wall is ‘Deserving’, a criminal who has been punished with the same sentence. Unable to move, this is their final twenty minutes before the tide comes in. Despite their differences, they become grateful for each other's company and realise that the approaching tide is less intimidating when someone else is there with you. With everything else stripped away they find peace in simple human connection.
LUCY LE LIEVRE: THE OLD BUGGERS CLUB
Lucy Le Lievre is a freelance photographer, filmmaker and graphic designer. Where words fail, Lucy makes photographs to capture a depth of feeling. She communicates the emotions we find hardest to articulate - the way we feel about the communities that care for us, the businesses we build, how we express ourselves, and wherever we choose to channel our passions.The Old Buggers Club is the title of Lucy’s short documentary style film, looking at the inner conversations between members of the social club of the same name. The Old Buggers Club is a group of senior gentlemen who meet once bi-weekly and catch up with each other's lives whilst speaking Jersey French. All the gentlemen were growers or farmers before their retirement. Some speak Jerriais fluently, while some are still perfecting their mother tongue. Born during the war the gentlemen have stories to tell of the history of Jersey and the Jersey French Language.
ALEXANDER MOURANT: I COULD NOT TELL GLASS FROM AIR
Alexander Mourant is an artist based in London. His work has been included in publications such as FT Weekend Magazine, British Journal of Photography, Photograph, Unseen Magazine and The Greatest Magazine. Solo shows include Aomori at The Old Truman Brewery and Unseen Amsterdam, alongside group shows at Edel Assanti, Saatchi Gallery and Peckham 24. I Could Not Tell Glass From Air finds its roots in the surrealist novel, Nadja, by André Breton; a story, where we meet a rather bemused and infatuated protagonist, who desires to live, entirely, in a glass house, for all the clarity and cohesion it would bring to the character which was himself. In a similar vein, Alexander Mourant, employs the subject of derelict greenhouses, artefacts from Jersey's 1960s agricultural era, to muse on history and culture; moreover, the artist renders the site as an anthropomorphised sculpture; an apparatus, where the photographic medium and his research practice, becomes interrogated and disseminated. The following themes reverberate within his work: reflexivity, temporality and metamorphosis. There will be more exciting news to come on this project in the new year.