Curating Cambridge: Kettle's Yard autumn season

Past, Present, Somewhere: Films and Projects by Karen Guthrie & Nina Pope (13 September – 23 November 2014) is a rare opportunity to enjoy the collected films and projects by the artist duo, in their first gallery show since their winning installation for the Northern Art Prize in 2008.

Founding their collaborative entity Somewhere in the mid-nineties, Guthrie and Pope have long challenged the proscribed boundaries of the art world, creating idiosyncratic films and diverse participatory projects that range from interactive online worlds to a vast community-built ‘model village’ made from cob (an ancient earth building technique). This last piece was the result of their most recent commission Tomorrow, Today for the University’s North West Cambridge Development.

What runs through Guthrie and Pope’s fifteen years of work is a fascination with history and with place, and with how we make ourselves at home in the world by making both our own. Perhaps inevitably for a working partnership, their work is full of dichotomies skilfully and wittily explored - an early devotion to the Internet coupled with a love of craft; insightful self-portaiture and autobiography interwoven with grand communal histories; a delight in the domestic and the super- local balanced with a fascination for other cultures and countries.

Their acclaimed documentary films shine a light on often marginalised or unknown communities. A dedicated cinema room focuses on a presentation of three of their most important feature-length films, including Jaywick Escapes, the portrait of a deprived and long-forgotten Essex seaside town and its prospectless inhabitants.

As part of an extended programme of talks and events relating to Guthrie and Pope's wide-ranging and significant practice there will be a special screening of their newest film The Closer We Get.

This exhibition and associated events are part of Curating Cambridge, the University of Cambridge Museums city-wide festival.

Gwen Raverat: Wood Engravings
13 September - 23 November 2014, in the House at Kettle’s Yard

In Helen Ede’s bedroom a series of wood engravings by Gwen Raverat (1885-1957) will be on display. Most famous as the author of ‘Period Piece – a Cambridge Childhood’  Raverat also played a significant part in the wood engraving revival in Britain at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Thanks to the Raverat Archive and the Fitzwilliam Museum for their assistance with this exhibition.

Issam Kourbaj: New Installation
13 September - 26 October 2014, in St Peter’s Church

Born in Syria, Kourbaj has lived in Cambridge since 1989 and has been artist in residence at Christ’s College for many years. This recent work is informed by current events in his native Syria. In ‘Unearthed (In Memoriam)’ old hardback book covers are placed side by side covering much of the church floor, some covers are painted with white or coloured paint others have a black line painted across them, a representation of the ribbons placed over the photographs of the recently deceased in Syria.

Supported by the Churches Conservation Trust.

I Come from a Place: Katherine Green and North Cambridge Girls Group
18 October - 26 October 2014

Social documentary photographer Katherine Green and the ‘Club United’ group of teenage girls from North Cambridge have been photographing their community and experiences. At the same time, Katherine Green has been interviewing and taking portraits of some of the long term residents and community leaders from the area. The resulting exhibition celebrates this vibrant and welcoming part of the city.

Supported by Cambridge City Council.