A Fine Balance opens at Houghton Hall

​A FINE BALANCE
AN EXHIBITION OF ART AND HANDMADE OBJECTS BY FORTY ARTISTS AND MAKERS FROM EAST ANGLIA AT THE STABLES, HOUGHTON HALL, NORFOLK
12 JULY – 1 NOVEMBER 2020
 
A Fine Balance will be the fourth pop-up exhibition of art and handmade objects by artists and makers from East Anglia held in The Stables at Houghton Hall and curated  by Paul Vater and Paul Barratt of Country and Contemporary. The exhibition will feature recent work by more than 40 artists and makers who explore narratives that reference our landscape, the creatures that share it, natural materials and processes, and how mankind’s activities affect and influence it. The fine balance these artists seek is often a moment, or a tipping point that brings attention to an aspect of our surroundings that has been overlooked or undervalued.
 
The situation we now find ourselves in collectively, as the Covid-19 epidemic runs its devastating course means that our relationship with ‘the great outdoors’ has probably changed forever. The artists and makers we have included in the exhibition are ahead of the curve, creating memorable images that will chime with the public, post lockdown. During the last four months we have all had to become aware of our vulnerability to forces we mistakenly assumed we had mastered. We respond viscerally to a favourite view or landscape, much as we would if our home or family were under threat. The exhibition holds up a mirror to what we perceive, or have hidden, in the complex confluence between the sustainable and natural, the artificial and man-made.
 
Some of the artists and makers have chosen to look at a highly maintained version of the countryside and our place within it. Others employ sustainable materials to create pleasing pieces intended to be handled and used every day. Others look into the natural phenomena and practical activities that are frequently personal to us in terms of our physical impact on the planet whether through recycling and re-assigning waste to new purposes. While others explore areas that are not quite urban or rural, but like much of modern Britain, somewhere in-between.
 
The exhibition is open from Sunday 12 July to 1 November, to coincide with the same opening times as the Anish Kapoor sculpture exhibition held throughout the gardens and park at Houghton Hall. Check the Houghton Hall website to see opening times and to book tickets for entry onto the estate. https://www.houghtonhall.com/book-tickets/

Makers are: ARTISTS
Zarya Austin-Fell
Debby Besford
Lorraine Bewick
Katarzyna Coleman
Polly Cruse
Ferenc Cseh
Will Cutts
Amanda Edgcombe
Judith Ellis
Kate Giles
Gareth Hacon
Ruth Howes
Linda Jamieson
Suzi Joel
Liz McGowan
Pandora Mond
Verity Newman
Natalie Odile Lang
Maria Pavledis
Tracey Ross
Colin Self
Tim Simmons
Liz Taunt
Molly Thomson
Maryrose Watson
Paul Wolterink
Peter Wylie
 
SCULPTORS
Keron Beattie
Jonathan Clarke
Roger Hardy
Bridget Heriz
Andrew Jones
Rachael Long
Dan Meek
Ben Pusey
Telfer Stokes
 
HOMEWARE
Carolyn Brookes-Davies
Heather Connor
Steve Gore Rowe
Laura Huston
Suzi Joel
Blott Kerr-Wilson
Sue Kirk
Tim Plunkett
Amanda Sutton
Toby Winteringham
Full artist profiles are available on https://contemporaryandcountry.com/
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DATES AND OPENING TIMES
Check the Houghton Hall website for opening times and to book tickets for entry to the estate. Social distancing in compliance with UK government guidelines are expected to be observed by visitors, please make yourself aware of what these are before your visit. If you are travelling by car follow the brown signs off the A148 Fakenham to King’s Lynn Road PE31 6EY.
https://www.houghtonhall.com/art-and-exhibitions/anish-kapoor-at-houghton-hall/
 
The venue has been provided by kind permission of the Marquess and Marchioness of Cholmondeley. Houghton Hall is one of Norfolk’s finest houses, it encourages recreation and relaxation throughout the grounds and has created suitable spaces for displaying large-scale installations by leading contemporary artists within a formal garden setting as well as the park. Our exhibition will be held in the Stables at Houghton Hall to coincide with a solo exhibition by the renowned sculptor Anish Kapoor.
 
For more details of previous exhibitions please go to https://contemporaryandcountry.com/

MORE ABOUT CONTEMPORARY & COUNTRY
Contemporary and Country (C&C) present contemporary art and the handmade by established artists and makers based in the East of England in pop-up exhibitions at non-gallery spaces that celebrate our rural surroundings. The artists and makers we display live and work in rural locations, or include the natural world in their subject matter or production process. Together they bring about a closer understanding of the countryside, its people and landscape. They look creatively beyond the passing trend and encourage greater consideration for nature, as its appreciation and preservation becomes ever more prescient to our time.
 
 
MORE INFORMATION
Please contact Paul Vater or Paul Barratt on 07943 291834
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
TWITTER https://twitter.com/cc_art_handmade
INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/contemporary_and_country/
FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/contemporaryandcountry/


An interesting fact: The exhibition title comes from Rohinton Mistry’s novel A Fine Balance, published in 1996. The book was set in 1975 and traces the lives of four main characters whose interconnected lives are heavily impacted by their circumstances in a fictional Indian city, as they slip between a succession of karmic banana skins during the course of the narrative. Mistry’s powerful story exposes familiar fault lines within the values of a society where the characters lives are in jeopardy, brought about by familial conventions, institutional injustice and political expedience.