We are delighted to bring together some of the bamboo artworks and installations created by artist-designer-makers in response to inspiration offered by international bamboo specialists and working with bamboo that has been grown in the UK and kindly donated by Sir Harold Hillier Gardens,Romsey; Trebah Gardens, Cornwall; Ness Botanic Gardens, The Wirral; and Birmingham Botanical Gardens.
Imagine Bamboo in Nuneaton & Bedworth 2024
Four artists from Nuneaton & Bedworth have been exploring what they can create with bamboo grown at Birmingham Botanical Gardens and Sir Harold Hillier Gardens.
They have taken inspiration from the work of bamboo specialists in India, Ghana and Bali.
Here are statements in their own words about their bamboo structures, first shown in Riversley Park, Nuneaton on Saturday 14 September 2024.
Bamboo Phoenix by Tim Franklin
Photo: Andrew Moore
The image of a bird instils in all of us the idea of freedom from restraints or worries. It seems to be engrained
into our psyche. Who hasn’t seen birds flying as a child and not wished that they had wings? I bet we all like that idea.
Our dysfunctional society puts pressures on us all (some more than others). It makes us feel rushed, stressed and constrained.
We would all feel better if the pace was a bit slower, the restraints were a bit looser, and the worries less intense. But birds gliding on a breeze don’t seem to have a care in the world.
It will take a team of at least two people to make this bamboo bird’s wings flap in unison. Teams can achieve more than individuals can. Teams can achieve pretty much anything.
This could probably have only been made from bamboo. Most other materials wouldn’t be able to support their own weight. Bamboo is amazing, it is strong and light and grows by itself, without factories or chemicals or by digging up the earth for raw materials. And it has created some of the most beautiful buildings in the world. We should definitely use it more often.
Breaking Point by Alisha Miller
Photo: Andrew Moore
As a visual artist, I don’t often have the opportunity I make sculpture. To work with bamboo seemed too good to miss, so I challenged myself to continue with a narrative I would usually explore through
drawing, painting and hand cut vinyl.
This curvaceous top-heavy sculpture embodies the feeling and physicality of being a mid-life female.
Voluptuous, flowing lines of fluid, intertwining, super long lengths of split bamboo, form a pulsating, organic form that precariously sits elevated above us, cradled within a strong and secure contrasting structure.
Bamboo is a grass known for its strength, length, straightness and has an amazing ability to capture carbon. I wanted to explore, exploit and disrupt some of these material properties whilst making this sculpture.
Using themes explored through my ‘Women’s Work’, this sculpture expresses how our internal bodies affect our external body.
By splitting the bamboo apart to created finer strands I was able to bend, curve, hold, fix and shape, to form movements of layers within layers.
Working with extreme lengths of bamboo joined together, I used my whole body, my physical strength and metal ingenuity to create a form with an aesthetic beauty that is bound tentatively together which at any point could naturally unravel to become straight again.
The Community Art Mill by Anthony Greentree
Photo: Andrew Moore
A Journey... One filled with learning, creativity, development and sometimes personal experiences. All of this is reflected through the medium of bamboo.
The windmill concept tells a story in its many forms, from discovering a lost history of 22+ windmills and Watermills throughout Nuneaton and Bedworth in Warwickshire, bringing pockets of the community together to create artwork to display on the windmill and the use of bamboo and how it integrates with other materials.
I want to facilitate a way of re-evaluation on how we see everything in our lives from consumerism and real focus on our communities, collaboration and realigning a real sense of what value really means to us in a creatively intrinsic form. Creating is a language and a way of life and is for everyone!
So let us all blow wind into our creative sails, weave new stories and form new relationships between our diverse communities!
INVERTED by Spencer Jenkins
Photo: Andrew Moore
Using sustainable materials creatively, my sculptures are individually designed and crafted, evolving from ideas I receive from the landscape around me and the site specific location of the intended work.
Utilising the natural properties of the materials I work with ancient, traditional and contemporary techniques to make modern pieces that blur the boundaries between sculpture and function.
Pound for pound, bamboo is stronger and lighter than steel and is the fastest growing plant in the world.
The global research and knowledge that was shared in our online, creative labs, during this project really struck a cord for me.
Learning about monster hybrid work and considering true sustainability - I wanted to create a sculpture where all the components and materials can be used again.
All the elements in this sculpture have been fixed together in such a way that they can be taken apart without any spoil or damage.
This towering sculpture visualizes the impressive nature of bamboo’s height and straight lines. Fixed and balanced within circular steel rings at opposing angles, the form synchronizes a juxtaposition of these materials.
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Outside Delia Derbyshire Building, you will see a fragment of the Harmony Project, a collaboration between Imagineer, Cave Urban, Nuneaton Men & Women's Shed and The Hub at Hill Top. Part of the assembly process took place in The Gallery earlier this month, before being installed in Riversley Park Nuneaton. We are delighted that these elements have returned to remind us of the making process.
We are also delighted to host artworks created through Imagine Bamboo projects in other parts of the UK:
Bodacious the Bamboo Woman
Designed and made by Rhianna Yates as part of Gŵyl Parc Fest Bamboo in Cardiff 2024
This puppet embodies the strength and unity of women in our community. Through art and performance, it celebrates women's voices, empowering us to express, connect, and find our place within the broader society by honouring our shared womanhood.
The design of Bocacious, or Bo, was inspired by conversation with Safer Wales Youth project and facilitated by Rowan Whitehead, Bridging the Gap.
Artworks originally commissioned as part of Imagine Bamboo is Everywhere in Liverpool City Region 2023
Imagine Bamboo Under the Microscope
Faith Bebbington
Photo: Andrew Moore
The Pod is inspired by the cell structure of bamboo under the microscope. Faith Bebbington developed an experimental way to join the bamboo lengths using melted waste plastic milk bottles. Each hexagon shape was then joined to another using willow to wrap the joints, creating a 3D structure.
Framing Nature
Becky Bryson
Photos: Andrew Moore
An invitation to view things differently, originally inspired by the incredible views of Wirral Country Park, Liverpool City Region and now, by the beautiful landscapes of Riversley Park, Nuneaton.
Photograph yourself in the frame and share #imaginebamboo so the all the other Imagine Bamboo collaborators can see what’s happening in Nuneaton
The Curve in the Line
Hannah Bold
Taking a long straight line of bamboo, then splitting, curving and weaving it. Creating beautiful curves from a straight line.
Bamboo Trike Parade
Artist-made trike-based bamboo artworks by: Faith Bebbington, Jo Pocock, Fadi Bobi, Becky Bryson, Maeve Corke-Butters
