Once Upon A Time...
Storytelling is at the very heart of all our exhibitions this month, from the magical chimes to announce your entrance (at Box Office), to the swarm of fluttering books enticing you into other worlds and experiences. And of course our elephant providing you with the perfect opportunity to create your own story! All in anticipation of our Write Now Festival and the Huddersfield Literature Festival.
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Claudio Kron do Brazil The Foyer vibrates with the very rhythm of storytelling with a dynamic range of percussive instruments showcased by Claudio Kron do Brazil (from Batley). Claudio explains his exhibition of Afro Brazilian Indigenous instruments made from wood, seeds, gourd, rope, plastic and metal: “Instruments which talk as well as making music!! In my early years when I started to play or even thinking about it! I use to watch many musicians creating and imitating reality. As a percussionist in my beloved Brazil I used to think how can we bring the sound out this?! I used to play on my legs, on tables, body percussion, bottle tops instruments and be very imaginative so we can create music... Before the instruments the birds have been singing music away!!! Instruments: Pandeiro, Congas, Kpanlogo, Berimbau, Caxixi, Atabaque, Alfaia, Aduf, Timbau, Djembe, Xequeres, Talking drum, Cuica, Gongs, Tambor D'agua, to name a few..."
Claudio kron do Brazil is a percussionist, songwriter, dancer and poet born in Bahia, Brazil. He has devoted himself to music since the age of 9 when his mother Nanucia Lima Santos presented him with his very own "Berimbau" Capoeira musical instrument.
Based in Batley, Claudio has been collecting the instrument for more then 20 years.
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Karima Ellis Karima Ellis, the Slaithwaite artist who created the beautiful Elephant Lantern, drew her inspiration from a tale told by Andy and Jill Burton of Satellite Arts in their Tale Traders’ collection.
The story tells of a grumpy elephant who terrorises the countryside by eating unsuspecting children who get in his way. He meets his match with Unanana, a courageous Mum, who has no choice but to sort him out when he makes the mistake of eating her two beautiful children. Unanana is told by all the creatures that she will find the elephant by the tall trees and the white stones.
The elephant is trying to sleep when she finds him; she annoys him so much by demanding to have her children back that he eats her too-just as she had planned! Down she slides, into the elephant’s tummy and discovers not only her own children, but all the other girls and boys who got in the elephant’s way.
Everyone is starving, so Unanana offers them her delicious chocolate porridge. As the children clamber towards Unanana in their haste to eat, the elephant is immobilised with a bad case of indigestion. Groaning, the elephant tells all the children and Unanana to get out- he doesn’t mind how, just leave him in peace! So the resourceful Unanana cuts a door into the elephant’s side and hey presto! Out crawl all the children! Karima Ellis is a designer. She makes baskets, lanterns and sculptures with willow and has worked both nationally and internationally, creating structures with people in the community and for events such as Manchester’s Commonwealth games.
This lantern was commissioned as part of 'Stories from the Tree of Life' a celebration of storytelling, literature and arts in Kirklees Library and Information Centres. The project was created and supported by Kirklees Council and funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
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Michael Stewart
The Upper Bar plays host to Bradford based Michael Stewart’s striking work Head Spam. Michael Stewart is a multi-award winning writer, born and brought up in Salford, who moved to Yorkshire in 1995 and is now based in Bradford. These drawings, which are made with pen and ink and then finished off as monoprints, started off as idle doodles.
"Head Spam is stuff in my head: dream images, nightmare visions, with a blackly comic tone, derived from ink spillages and happy accidents. The work has a sort of narrative and reflects on the writing process. For example, the series of images start middle end began as my attempt to develop a character called Cooper who sees everyone as birds. In attempting to understand Cooper I planned out these sketches. Another picture, scenes from The Road, was influenced by Cormac McCarthy’s novel and is a narrative I am in the process of adapting as a black comedy for the stage." Most work is for sale priced from £190 to £390 Images on this site are in detail view
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Fluttering Books Fluttering books brought to you by Kirklees Libraries and the LBT is a whirlwind of ideas, worlds and opportunities… and may be the only time you have seen books perched on the wall like moths and butterflies!!
Taking storytelling from all angles, from the technicalities of stage lighting to a poem about chicken pox, the “greatest story ever told” in a beautiful old bible to the idealism of Princess Smartypants, the breathtaking splendour of Le Fenice Theatre to the intricacies of pruning an olive tree, this is a great opportunity to tempt yourself into another story... or another world... enjoy!!
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