Catalogue relating to an individual, 2013
Published by: Visual Arts in Rural Communities (VARC)
Year published: 2013
Number of pages: 28
Unpaginated.

Regarding the Frame is a 28 page unpaginated catalogue that documents and marks Ingrid Pollard’s 2012-2013 residency hosted by VARC, Visual Arts in Rural Communities. Pollard’s was one of VARC’s twelve-month artist residencies, held since 2000. The catalogue states that “Through [VARC’s] residencies and projects it aims to offer artists opportunities to develop new work, and benefit to the community and visiting groups through creative activity and engagement with art and artists.” Pollard’s residency took place in Tarset, a civil parish in Northumberland, England, located 4 miles (6 km) west-north-west of Bellingham, a village in the same county, to the north-west of Newcastle upon Tyne and is situated on the Hareshaw Burn at its confluence with the River North Tyne. Tarset is partly located within the Northumberland National Park, and also mostly within the international dark skies park.

The background of Pollard’s VARC residency was laid out in the catalogue’s introduction.

“Ingrid arrived at Highgreen (the location of VARC), from London in October 2012. trained in photography and film with a background in drawing and printing. Ingrid pollard has exhibited widely in this country and abroad. Because of her international reputation Ingrid spent the first couple of weeks of her residency on a lecture tour of San francisco, including Stanford and university of California, Irvine. once back, Ingrid settled in and hardly left Highgreen all the rest of the year. she found, and still finds, the dark nights and moors somewhat scary. however she has fuully embraced the life of the Tarset community and she has quickly become an ethusiastic member of both the Tarset Song Reivers group and the new Tarset Ceilidh Band where she made a tentative start with her ukelele, not having played much before (like several other band members who were trying new instruments) but is now very much part of things.

The artist brought with her to Tarset a dark room kit and enlarger as well as her photographic skills and knowledge she has willingly and generously shared these with anyone interested.  She has led workshops with the range of people of all ages to both residents in the area and from further afield.  The activities have included making self-portrait shadow puppets with pupils of Greenhaugh First School, leading workshops in pin-hole camera photography and black/white photography, and making personal camera camera obscuras and photograms  with students with autistic spectrum disorder and community leaders from Newcastle.

Ingrid came to Highgreen with the hope that she might create a large-scale camera obscura.  This has come to fruition with advice from local people, funding from Northumberland National Park’s Sustainable Development Fund, with skills of a specialist company and the local craftsman plus Ingrid’s enthusiasm and tenacity. We now have a large but portable camera obscura which was first tried out by children from Otterburn First School, was experienced by many visitors to Highgreen for Art-Walking weekend in July and which we are now planning to take to Falstone and Bellingham shows.”

This introduction was written by Janet Ross

The main text in the catalogue was written by Carol McKay, and extends across four pages. McKay’s essay opens as follows:

“For some four decades, Ingrid Pollard has been exploring the romanticism of the English landscape and its hidden histories in a practice that has any encompassed printmaking and drawing as well as photography.  Hers is a measured creativity, one in which she recognises the attraction of pastoral tradition whilst alluding to its exclusions contradictions and hidden histories.  A British-Guyanese artist, she has continually explored relations of the urban and rural, questioning the nature of belonging and the practices through which identities are constituted.  For some time now she has tested and extended this creative practice whilst artist-in-residence at VARC (Visual Arts in Rural Communities), based for a year in the remote Northumberland hills of Highgreen estate in Tarset.  Her approach to artistic research is well suited to such a context, enabling a sustained period of creative fieldwork in which she has observed, walked and talked in and around the locale, often in the company of those who live and work there.”

Contents as follows:

Introduction, Janet Ross

“In and around the Frame”, essay by Carol McKay

14 pages of images, the majority of which are in colour, and all relating in a range of ways to Pollard’s residency. One pair of photographs of Pollard in the camera obscura were taken by Mark Pinder.

Acknowledgements/details of VARC