Are the Stones Standing Still

Staffordshire St.

29 Aug - 1 Sept 2024

Curated by Dinosaur Kilby

As England crumbles, arts funding is cut and Starmer’s Labour gain power – are there new ways of doing? Or are the stones standing still? From the regions to the capital, no one’s watching. Do something. 

Are the Stones Standing Still is a symposium, a gathering of collectives from around the UK to come together and protest. Curator Dinosaur Kilby has invited five collaborative artist groups to come together: Prayer Room in Birmingham, Test Space from Bristol, PINK in Stockport, Studio Cybi from North Wales and The Field in Derbyshire to participate. Each collective is asked to produce a banner; a statement of intent about who they are, what they are doing and where they want to be in five years. During the four day event the banners will be raised as a makeshift tent for collective practice to shelter under, and the project space will activate the project space with screenings, performances and conversation below, between and around the waving f lags. The symposium will seek to examine questions such as: what does rurality mean? How do artist-led ecologies talk to each other? What’s important for artists now? 

Are the Stones Standing Still is a  follow up to the collaborative exhibition  ‘If It Thunders on All Fool’s Day’, which took place at Eastside Projects in 2023.

Installation images by George Baggaley.

The Public Programme for Are the Stones Standing Still consisted of 4 events. 

OPENING/PERFORMING was an opening night of performances, including works by Campbell Mcconnell, Chanel Vegas, Bijan Moosavi, Ross Hammond, Lolly Adams, Louise Ashcroft and Chloe Langlois. 

SCREENINGS 

Works by Dan Guthrie, Alex Billingham and Modern Painters, New Decorators.

READING/TALKING 

Alexander Stubbs as YAK! led an open and communal reading group exploring radical histories through conversation and text.

WORKSHOPPING 

Timna Krenn led a workshop called Beyond Possibilities. When was the last time you thought something was truly impossible?