A Night with John Wedgwood Clarke

A lively talk about John’s documentary on Cornwall’s Red River, and reading from John’s new work of poetry. Hosted by Corinna Wagner

John Wedgwood Clarke is a poet, prose nonfiction writer, editor, researcher, presenter and Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Exeter. He is part of a number of large funded projects on the environment, sustainability and climate change.

Above and Below  

As part of Devon Open Studios 2022, we are delighted to host castings and other artefacts from the Time and Tide Bell initiative and to host a programme of performances, readings, and workshops, in partnership with Prof Corinna Wagner (University of Exeter) on a project supported by the UK Climate Resilience Programme and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

Alongside this, we're hosting a curated show of new works that respond to the themes celebrated by the bells, as well as their warning about rising sea levels, flooding and coastal erosion. Exhibiting artists have created works responding to themes of:

• Interconnectedness
• Our relationship with the sea
• Coastal communities
• A fragile world
• Floods, ruins, erosion,
• Disappearing infrastructure and communities

The Time and Tide Bell Project 

The Time and Bell Project was first conceived in 2008 by Marcus Vergette (artist, sculptor, bell-maker) and now includes 7 completed and 6 in progress bells along the UK coastline. The bells are public artworks, gifted to reinforce connections in local communities, between different parts of the country, between the land and the sea, between ourselves and our environment.

The bells, which toll at high tides, remind us of the material and intangible relationships we have with each other and the world around us, and in doing so draw our attention to the fragility of our environment and the impact we inevitably have through our irrevocable connection to it.