This month, The Auxiliary in Middlesbrough will exhibit the work of Liz Collier, a local artist that has been making art for three decades. Lee Allcock caught up with Liz to speak about the new exhibition as well as the workshops she will be running for budding artists.
You’ve been making art for some 30 years now. How did you initially get into it?
It’s all developed from the way I used my time when I was little: I was always drawing, making things, asking questions, listening and noticing details. I gravitated towards other artists, read a lot of books and went to as many exhibitions as I could. I began small scale, making cards and little pictures, selling them when I was out and about and one thing seemed to lead to another. My life has flowed in a peculiar and unexpected way.
Your work has been used as a backdrop to music festivals such as Musicport in Whitby. That’s some achievement. How did that come about?
I’d been making large pieces for events around York as part of a collective called Cloudbase. Working alongside Mick Beausang, Sally Beausang, Mike Knight and Slim Verhoef, we transformed venues for dance nights and invited DJs – they were good nights! The decor was a mix of 16mm projections and slides, massive paintings, huge textile hangings and inflatable sculptures. I offered the organisers of Musicport the use of some of my large paintings in exchange for a couple of tickets for their first festival and they said yes. Cloudbase became more involved as the festival grew. Over the years, we’ve worked individually and as a collective, adding visuals to events here and there, including Love Machine at The Trades Club in Hebden Bridge, Off the Tracks Festival and Beverley Folk Festival, to name a few.
You’ll be bringing a new exhibition to The Auxiliary in Middlesbrough this month. Can you tell me a bit about that?
I’m taking over the majority of the gallery showing work from the last 21 years – and I’ll also be including some new pieces too. There will be a mixture of paintings, collage, drawings, a bit of film and some other stuff. I’m looking back on my creative life as I approach 50, noticing what I’ve been preoccupied with and seeing how the inspiration of those things endures. I’m hoping to celebrate persistence, the power of collaboration and the strength of the human spirit within this show.
You’ll also be running painting/dance workshops and the ‘soul kitchen’ night too…
That’s right. With the Make workshop, you’re invited to come and help continue painting some new backdrops for the main hall at Whitby Musicport 2020. I’ve got a design laid out on a very long piece of fabric and we’ll be adding colours and detail using acrylic paints and printing techniques. Because the piece is so large, we can have many people working together. Anyone can come along and add something. No experience is necessary.
At the Move workshop, I’ll be introducing 5 rhythms into the gallery space. It’s a moving meditation practice and is suitable for all ages and abilities. I’ll be guiding the group to move to a specially-selected soundtrack of diverse music with the art in the space as inspiration too.
And Soul Kitchen is a celebration to complete the exhibition, acknowledging that in the company of others we have got a lot to share, learn and have a laugh about.
To find out more about Liz Collier and her new exhibition and workshops at The Auxiliary in Middlesbrough, please head to facebook.com/lizcollierartworks.
