actions

Actions are projects and happenings that form a key part my socially engaged creative practice, together with exhibited works and bookish forms, two other well established ways in which I work.

PROJECTS (A-Z)
▪ archiving the little things
▪ dementia & imagination
▪ demolition | emotion
▪ dining out on george
   ▪ exploring halton's collections
   ▪ exploring the distaff effect
   ▪ fort walney uncovered
   ▪ from cordwainers & curriers
   ▪ how will this end

▪ in residence in-situ in-pendle
▪ inspired responses
▪ looking at the gates of paradise
▪ not in my place
▪ scratch the surface
▪ stonepaperwater, and us
▪ stories of chat moss
▪ tell it to the water
▪ the owl and the pussy-cat

▪ thirty instruments loaned by ladies
  ▪ the homeless library
   ▪ wandering the green ways
▪ working lives

WORKS
   ▪ bookish forms
   ▪ exhibited works

PROJECTS (by year completed)
most recent first

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exploring the distaff effect

how | will | this | end

the owl and the pussy-cat

A led walk with a difference around Blackburn for National Festival of Making & Fabrications 2017

from cordwainers & curriers

Traditional food served on board this Leeds-Liverpool canal wide boat, capturing memories through audio and image for exhibition and archive

dining out on george

Research Artist in North East England with Newcastle University & Equal Arts, exploring the impact of creative actions and reactions for people with dementia

dementia & imagination

Working with arthur+martha and homeless people in centres around Greater Manchester to capture personal stories of homelessness in book form, using poetic and other creative written responses. The books and their travelling cases were launched as The Homeless Library in May 2016 at the Houses of Parliament

the homeless library

2-year residency working with 4 public and 7 community collections in Halton to create intriguing responses to the whole, on the theme of working lives

working lives

Canal & River Trust residency along the Leeds-Liverpool canal for its Bicentenary. Engaging over 400 people along the 127¼ miles of waterway

tell it to the water

Summer term project with local primary school children exploring their own environment, finding the greenest ways to explore their place

wandering the green ways

Residency with Art Gene for a community archaeological dig and explorations into WWI practice trenches and firing range on Walney Island. School walks, book making, playful interventions and exhibited works

fort walney uncovered

Workshop sessions with Halton's secondary and college students to spark their creative ideas through sharing my own creative practice and ways of looking at the world. Work exhibited at the Brindley Gallery

inspired responses

Performance and public engagement with Kerry Morrison for Not a Drop. Thames River stones gathered and trundled through the streets of London to a place where the public wrote their personal messages to the river onto dissolving paper, and attached them to river stones, which were then returned to the water.

stonepaperwater, and us

archiving the little things

Exploring the function and processes of libraries and their books, particularly at the end of life through creative interventions in the town of Brierfield

in-residence in-pendle

Thirty objects loaned by ladies redresses the balance of the 1894 opening of the Harris Museum in Preston where 30 instruments were loaned for display by gentlemen of the town. The objects, publicly announced as if guests at a formal dinner, carried on a red cushion, up the Harris Flights and handed to a gloved museum attendant to place in a display case

thirty instruments loaned by ladies

a Collaborative Space project with Hannah Elizabeth Allan to research and respond to cast copies of the Gates of Paradise through performance

looking at the gates of paradise

Exploring place through all our senses, taking primary school children out and about around Chat Moss, looking at the different ways to explore place. Creating a museum in a box as a legacy for the school.

stories of chat moss

Two-year residency bringing together Halton's four public collections, providing unique and curious interventions and experiences for the public to engage and explore these fascinating things which tell the rich story of Halton's past

exploring halton's collections

Two-week residency with nine other socially engaged artists, all working in housing market renewal areas of Pennine Lancashire. Public engagement, interventions, creative responses and much shared deliberation and debate with the resident group. This inspiring and though provoking project culminated in a public symposium.

scratch the surface, dig a little deeper

demolition | emo tion

Playful explorations into places experiencing change to distract and disrupt the public outcry

not in my place

EXHIBITED WORKS

Deeply embedded into my practice is a desire to express my personal responses and thoughts to situations in a solid form, using materials and objects that are often imbued with their own rich history. Furniture and materials are re-appropriated conceptually to prick and tease, to encourage engagement in a new ways,

For more information click HERE

BOOKISH FORMS

I savour the experience of feeling a book and the individual pages in my hand, the weight, the textured surface overlaid with marks; words, text, images used to pass on knowledge to others , . , it took me a long while to pluck up the courage to deconstruct them to create new forms. About the same time I was also developing my book making skills, creating new forms using folds, cuts, surfaces impressed with new form, images and words to convey my deep interest in the richness of places and response to names and titles.

For more information click HERE

actions

EXHIBITED WORKS

BOOKISH FORMS

jeni mcconnell