How does art change the landscape?
Friday, 23 April 2010
The map that came to life book cover. OUP
Spend an afternoon discovering how the British landscape has been represented in the past, from varying perspectives. Experts from across the University and beyond will explore common threads in contrasting approaches that have been used to represent the landscape, on 18 May at the Museum of English Rural Life.
Speakers will discuss how the true character of the British landscape contrasts with the way in which it is expressed in art. Neil Cocks, Researcher at the University's Centre for International Research in Childhood Literature, Culture and Media, will discuss the iconic representation of the British countryside in the Ladybird book What to Look for in Autumn. He will analyse the potential for conflicting readings of the text and the artwork that illustrates it.
Coming away from traditional art forms, Kate Corder, from the Department of Fine Art, will show how an allotment can be presented as an artwork installation, a type of human activity that has shaped the landscape and a performance space.
The landscape iconography of Peter Greenaway's film, The Draughtsman's Contract (1982), will be analysed by Mark Broughton, Lecturer in Film, Theatre and Television.
The afternoon will conclude with Oliver Green, from the London Transport Museum, showing advertising posters from the end of the nineteenth century, that were used as a new way to publicise London transport services, and to encourage trips from town to country. This gave commissioned artists opportunities to visualise the English landscape in new ways which suddenly brought a wide range of artistic styles to a huge popular audience.
The full programme can be viewed on the MERL website http://www.reading.ac.uk/merl/whatson/merl-seminars.aspx#symposium.
'Art and Landscape: interdisciplinary perspectives', MERL Symposium, will be held on 18 May, 14.00-18.30.
Admission to the MERL Symposium is free and open to all. However, places will be limited. Please confirm with the Museum in advance if you wish to attend by emailing merlevents@reading.ac.uk or calling +44 (0) 118 378 8660.
The symposium is part of the programme of events relating to the 'Looking at landscapes:colours and contours' exhibition. http://www.reading.ac.uk/merl/whatson/exhibitions/merl-lookingatlandscape.aspx