BRINK Present TEMPORANEA at Kenilworth Castle

For the first time ever, Kenilworth Castle will become the stage of an exciting and eclectic contemporary art exhibition, with surprises around every corner.

BRINK, a ‘not for profit’ contemporary art organisation, based in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, is proud to present TEMPORANEA, a nine-day contemporary art exhibition that will be held at Kenilworth Castle from 7th-15th May, transforming the historic site into a unique open-air contemporary art gallery.


The name of the exhibition comes from the Italian word for ‘temporary’ and ‘tempo’, which literally translated means ‘time’, reflecting the transient nature of the shows and works presented by the organisation.


In collaboration with English Heritage, BRINK will be showcasing an eclectic and exciting series of works by regional, national and international artists, including sculpture, installation, painting, photography and video installation.

Cascade by Tim Robottom/medium: found objects

In the Elizabethan Garden, Stephen Charlton, Bronze winner at the 2008 Chelsea Flower Show sculpture award, will be presenting a series of mischievous resin mice. As well as the artist’s desire to entertain and bring a smile to the  face of the audience, the works are inspired by childhood and nature. The mice are frozen in a moment in time, encapsulating the wonder of imagination in a child’s eyes, when encountering something dreamlike and magical.

Martin Johnson from Coventry, artist, lecturer and Senior Concept Visualiser for Blitz Games, will be presenting a series of imaginative paintings that intertwine graphic novel-style with traditional techniques and a playful use of composition, colour and shadow. Johnson’s works have an almost timeless quality, where the historical landmarks, costumes and settings are familiar, but at the same time sinister, creating the sensation of a window into an alternate past or a possible future.  During the exhibition the artist will also be creating a work onsite.

Bryn Lloyd-Evans, a Kenilworth resident and one of the youngest artists in the show, will be presenting an interesting, site-specific work. The piece takes a processed building material and re-presents it in a form that is similar to its original natural state. In doing so, the work highlights the techniques used to make the hand carved blocks in the construction of the castle walls. The use of plaster, whose main compound is gypsum, a mineral extracted from ‘New Red Sandstone’, directly refers to the castle, emphasising the laborious and colossal task that was undertaken to create the castles distinctive walls.

Concetta Modica from Milan, Italy, will be presenting a piece that relates to her own personal history and that of her homeland. What initially might appear to be merely an embroidered flower and a pile of sea salt has a wealth of meanings: the flower is made of the wool that came from the artists wedding trousseau, embroidered by her grandmother. A Finnish woman from the town of Rauma, then embroidered a flower using some of the same yarn. In this manner, material from Southern Europe was given a form in the North. In turn, the salt represents the salt planes of Trapani, where her grandmother was born, and the snowy lands of the Northern hemisphere. In a juxtaposition of opposites, the work references tradition, heritage, and the merging of different cultures, where boundaries become confused and local traditions are exchanged.

Luke Perry, Chief Artist and Director of Industrial Heritage Stronghold and co-presenter of the prime time Channel 4 television series Titanic: The Mission, will be presenting a video piece, which contains historical footage of shipyard workers, one of whom was the artist’s own grandfather. Black Country born and bred, this talented artist, who is also an engineer, an Industrial Historian, consultant and visiting lecturer, has fabricated a variety of large scale public artworks and, in the early part of his career, also worked as a documentary film maker, winning the Bronze medal for short film at the London International Short Film Festival.

Grampa by Tim Robottom

BRINK Co Founder, Tim Robottom, will be presenting an interesting series of clever works. The first Grampa and Nanny, is a poignant and touching kinetic piece consisting of walking sticks (the legs) and shoes (the feet) that are seen walking gangly in mid-air, intimating that even though their lives are over their journey continues within the minds and hearts of those who knew them, and possibly even in the hereafter.

In Napoleon’s Plan, an unlikely host of animals are engaged in a game of chess, but not any game of chess, for they are positioned in the ‘Napoleon’s Opening’, a strategy often employed to trick inexperienced chess players. The work itself, is an allegory of the bellicose nature of mankind and the animal kingdom’s struggle in the face of man’s actions.. “It is also a nod to Duchamp’s retreat away from making art, preferring chess for twenty years, playing in the parks of New York. This impressive piece has been kindly sponsored by two Kenilworth-based companies: A World of Ceramic Tiles  and Build Base.

Constructed entirely from discarded, coloured plastic objects, Cascade is an installational assemblage that takes the form of a spiral. The symbolism and the materials used, both relate to the passing of time, our everyday lives and the value of resources; the spiral, whilst alluding to genetics and the helix, also mirrors the many spiral stairways in the castle.

Suminder Virk, who was born in India and currently lives and works in Leamington, will be presenting Downward Spiral,  an impressive and fascinating piece, which consists of a double bed with a transparent mattress, mirror and coils. But this is no ordinary bed: you can’t lie on it, it’s far too fragile, the inner structure is exposed and the mattress coils have been meticulously wrapped in angry scarlet thread, possibly alluding to time, pain, sacrifice and reflection. The artist, whose work is strongly influenced by her domestic life and fascination for fabrics and textile that stems from her Indian background, has exhibited on both a national and international scale.

Throughout the nine-day event, there will be surprise performances, installations, live painting and sculpting.

The exhibition is open during normal castle opening times from 10.00am-5.00pm.

Castle admission fee applies, please see the English heritage website for further information:

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/kenilworth-castle/visitor-information

Entrance to the art exhibition is free to pass and ticket holders.