Once Upon A Time
Ivan Morison has just put down his chainsaw. The British artist had, up until a moment ago, been out in his studio’s yard in Herefordshire, chopping up some chestnut logs – fresh in from Snowdonia in Wales.
Later, he and his partner – in life and in art – Heather Peak will put the wood on a lathe to create an early version of a new work of theirs, before it gets sent off to be digitised and manufactured.
“We try to keep the computer out of the studio,” says Morison. “We first need to look at our work, to turn it around and examine it.”
Together, Ivan and Heather have built pavilions and kites, created huge, light-filled balloons, made odd bits of pottery, as well as furniture, sculptures and performance spaces. They represented Wales at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007, but you’re just as likely to come across their enthralling, sometimes spooky artworks in public settings.
When Ivan isn’t setting a chainsaw to a chestnut log, he and Heather are straining other materials to their physical limits. “We always like to push outwards in terms of materials and techniques,” he says. “We take materials and push them in ways that they’ve not been used before.”
“We take materials and push them in ways that they’ve not been used before – Ivan Morison”
In a sense, Studio Morison try to do the same things with their audience. Though their artworks are lovely to look at and touch, the artists are also very interested in how art can help a group of people shift their outlook or perspective.
“At the very centre of our practice is the idea of change,” says Ivan. “That’s both personal change and wider, societal change. We’re very interested in how you enable communities to move through change, how to identify areas of change, and how to find strategies to address those changes.” For Greenwich Peninsula’s NOW Gallery, Studio Morison have created an exhibition that lets both children and adults key into those knotty problems. The show is called The Mouse and His Child, and it is named after a 1967 book by the US-born, British-based author Russell Hoban. It’s a dark toy fantasy, about a clockwork mouse and his son, who go on a quest to find a home of their own and become, as the book puts it, “self-winding”.
“It’s about those dark, fundamental themes that are in children’s fiction. The primary audience is children, but it also works across all audiences – Ivan Morison”
Studio Morison love Hoban’s books. “I’ve read them to myself and with my children,” says Heather. “I adore The Mouse and His Child, even though it also deals with some of my worst fears as a parent.”
The artists have worked with the author’s fiction before, when they made some works relating to Hoban’s post-apocalyptic novel, Riddley Walker. “And I nearly called our son Riddley,” admits Heather.
However, Ivan and Heather went with The Mouse and His Child for this show, as they wanted their new show to be a place for kids that also worked well for adults. “It’s about those dark, fundamental themes that are in children’s fiction,” says Ivan. “The primary audience is children, but it also works across all audiences.”
The artists have created a huge circular rug for the exhibition – “raspberry ripple-coloured” says Ivan – as well as a three and a half metre-wide, light-filled helium balloon. The balloon will be tied by a cord to a dark-green, sea cucumber-like marble sculpture that rests in the rug’s centre.
Studio Morison are also making stools, tables and other things, and assembling a library of works of children’s fiction written by authors better known for addressing an adult audience, such as Virginia Woolf, Margaret Atwood and Spike Milligan, as well as the aforementioned Hoban.
“It’s really exciting for me to put a library in there. I like that it provides a civic role. I love art that can be part of your everyday life – Heather Peak on producing a library for the Peninsula's NOW Gallery.”
Heather is a great reader, and is excited by the idea of making a space centred on the enjoyment of literature. “It’s really exciting for me to put a library in there,” she says. “I like that it provides a civic role. I love art that can be part of your everyday life.”
During the course of the show, there will be talks, discussions and other events, but the artists don’t want the show to be reduced to a simple kids’ reading room. Both the show and the book that inspired it are, says Ivan, about a cultural search, but also “a search for meaning and making a home”.
Heather revels in the strange tensions that arise when a parent reads challenging kids’ books to their child. “I’ve read Margaret Atwood’s kids’ stories with my kids, and I can’t get The Handmaid’s Tale out of my head,” she says. Nevertheless, she feels difficult subjects can and should be addressed by children via books. “They can talk about how hard life really is,” she says. “Literature can be a conduit to discuss this.”
The artists believe the NOW Gallery’s site is just perfect, because Greenwich Peninsula is also a place where London’s pioneers have struck out to create a place for themselves.
“It ties in really nicely,” Ivan says, “because Greenwich Peninsula is about people coming to work and live somewhere new, creating a place for culture and thinking.” Heather and Ivan went on their own home-making quest about four years ago, when they struck out into the Herefordshire countryside. Their studio and accompanying yard might seem like an odd place for contemporary artists, but the pair have thrived there, working with local craftsmen and women and light-fabrication concerns in a region that was once known as the Workshop of the World.
“There are some incredible joiners and stonemasons around here, mould-makers and metalwork manufacturers,” says Ivan. “It’s the home of manufacturing.”
“Art is important is a way of talking about stuff you don’t want to talk about – Heather Peak”
With a little help from these local artisans and a little childlike inspiration, Studio Morison hope to create a show that will entertain both the young and the old, but also raise some challenging questions.
When Ivan tries to sum up his ambitions for the show, he reaches for a line from The Mouse and His Child, describing the dwelling the clockwork creatures end up making for themselves. “‘The house assumed a look of wild confidence or reckless bravado’,” Ivan quotes. “That’s what we want the show to be like. “We want people to think about how to bring darker truths to a younger generation, how we talk about those things, I hope they would leave with a thoughtfulness.”
“After all,” says Heather, “Art is important is a way of talking about stuff you don’t want to talk about.”
Feel like getting involved? Then come to NOW Gallery at The Gateway Pavilion on Peninsula Square on these dates in March and April to take in The Mouse and His Child’s special events. There’s music, readings, discussions and Q&A sessions from some great authors, poets, musicians and other performers.
27 February, 6-10pm. A private view of Studio Morison’s The Mouse and His Child with music from Kit Wilmans Fegradoe and a reading from Samantha Spiro.
2 March, 12-3pm. An afternoon of readings, with music by Kit Wilmans Fegradoe, as well as other special guests.
7 March, from 7pm. A spoken-word evening, with Cecilia Knapp, Mina West, Alex Daykin and Kareem Parkins Brown.
12 March, from 7pm. An authors’ evening, with readings from Catherine O’Flynn and Horatio Clare, as part of the London Book Fair.
23 March, 12-3pm. An afternoon of readings, with music by Kit Wilmans Fegradoe, as well as other special guests.
11 April, from 7pm. A Bloomsbury evening with The Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain and author Maggie Humm.
18 April, from 7pm. A Poetry Society reading and Q&A session with Kate Wakeling.
The Mouse and His Child by Studio Morison is at NOW Gallery, The Gateway Pavilion Peninsula Square, 28 February-28 April. nowgallery.co.uk
