The light goes out on FRED
Last updated 09:14, Friday, 10 October 2008
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Fred director Steve Messam says: “The biggest success has been the profile of FRED itself, from a project that no-one wanted to fund in 2004, to something which is recognised the world over.”
The annual art invasion has not only brought contemporary art to Cumbria, but as Europe’s largest annual festival of site-specific art, it has attracted high-calibre artists from around the world. Over four years it has brought in 350 artists and run 164 projects in 250 locations.
Each year FRED works are seen by more people than visit Gateshead’s Baltic Centre.
Over the years the festival has changed how the county views contemporary art.
“One of the problems with contemporary art is that most Cumbrians think it is rubbish,” says Jeremy Latimer. He should know: he grew up in rural Cumbria and has made his own name as a nationally-renowned artist on first-name terms with the likes of Damien Hirst.
Jeremy says FRED allowed Cumbrians to see contemporary art in a light-hearted way. It took art out of the white spaces of galleries and put it where it could be seen by everyone.
FRED art is nothing if not unusual. Irish artist Gareth Kennedy’s 2007 work Weather Cube was proof of this. The Weather Cube was a transparent floating sauna, originally displayed in the republic of Ireland then relocated to Ullswater for eight days for FRED. Says Gareth: “The work was intended to explore how we interface with our immediate environment and the climate.”
Like so many FRED art works it was odd, unexpected and beautiful and only possible because the local community embraced the project. Gareth was particularly grateful to St Patrick’s Boat Yard, located on Ullswater: “The entire success of the project swung on their generosity and acceptance.”
He explains the mutual benefit: “Instead just using their mooring space and their electricity it became a draw and a talking point which drew people from near and far.”
The piece was also enjoyed by the boat yard workers, as they watched the Irish artist and his floating sauna cross the lake to moor on their jetty.
While on Ullswater, Weather Cube earned a spot on the evening news and the work went on to win a national award. For Gareth, the work’s success and both legitimatised his sponsorship and gave him confidence to pursue even more ambitious public art works.
FRED has created an opportunity for many Cumbrian artists.
Gallery owner Jeremy Latimer says FRED did something no gallery could – it let Cumbria-based artists have their work seen here.
Kate Brundrett is the director of the Cumbria Network, an organisation created to support artists living and working in Cumbria. She says: “It has given me personally a chance on my doorstep to do things I might not otherwise have done .”
Kate’s FRED pieces have included View, an open sided shed at the top of a mountain, and also the Ministry of Creative Parking a light-hearted jab at Penrith parking rules.
FRED projects were never accepted purely because an artist was famous and never rejected purely because an artist was unknown. In Kate’s opinion FRED let the world know “that Cumbria isn’t an artistic backwater”.
For artist Charles Monkhouse the opportunities of FRED were unique. In 2005 his piece Evening Glory encircled the peak of Old Man of Coniston with a string of lights, then in 2007 he created Double Negative putting lights below the surface of Coniston water, illuminating the bottom of the lake.
FRED showed there is an audience for contemporary art in Cumbria – its viewing figures are impressive. Charles is optimistic: “Hopefully this sort of work will become a permanent activity in the tourism agenda.”
But FRED is almost dead – one final year coming to a close this weekend.
According to its director, Steve Messam, it has had almost no ongoing support. “This has meant that six months of every year are spent finding the money for the next one, when we could have been planning and developing more considered projects.”
Kate Brundrett agrees: As far as permanently changing the way Cumbrian’s see art, she says: “I think five years is the only the beginning of starting to do that.”
Kate feels that organisations such as the county council will only realise what they have lost once FRED is gone.
Will something new fill the gap left behind by FRED?
“I think it will,” says Gareth Kennedy.
Jeremy Latimer’s optimism is tempered. “It depends on the right person coming forward. But there is always a need for artistic creativity – we need mirrors to see ourselves in.”
n FRED runs until Sunday. Today, at 6pm, sees the tidal illumination work Full Circle 2, at Blackstone Point, near Arnside, with an introduction by the artists. Super Nature, a FRED farewell party, is tomorrow, at 8pm. The CNN artists’ collective event is billed as ‘Beatrix Potter meets Saturday Night Fever and carbon-neutral too’.
For a map of ‘invasion sites’ and information about projects visit www.fredsblog.co.uk.
