Deep Time Online Talk: Hunting Scene with a Ray Cat

Hunting Scene with a Ray Cat: Yelena Popova and the lost textile history of West Cumbria with Aldo Rinaldi and Samuel Woodford

6.00 – 7.30pm, Tuesday 12 September 2023, Online (Zoom) Hosted with Cumbria Arts and Culture Network. FREE

Hunting Scene with a Ray Cat is a giant textile artwork created by artist Yelena Popova for the Whitehaven’s Solway Hall. A celebration of the history and heritage of Cumbria’s West Coast, the textile takes the form of the hall’s stage curtain and measures some 10 x 4 metres. Commissioned as part of Deep Time: Commissions for the Lake District Coast, Yelena’s artwork was inspired by West Cumberland’s lost textile industry, notably Sekers Fabrics, which was created by the Rosehill Theatre founder and silk merchant Sir Nicholas Sekers, and Kangol which was founded by Jacques Spreiregen in Cleator and made its name creating uniforms during the Second World War. Popova’s curtain is a jacquard textile, and was woven on a computerised loom in Tilburg in the Netherlands before being completed by Gerriets in London, who have been making theatre curtains for over 75 years.

For this talk Yelena will discuss the genesis of her artwork, and her major influences. She will be in conversation with Aldo Rinaldi, Deep Time curator, and with Samuel Woodford, Conservation and Design Officer from Cumberland Council who advised Yelena on Whitehaven’s heritage and history. The talk will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience.

Yelena Popova

Yelena Popova is a visual artist born in Ozyorsk (Soviet Union) and has lived in the UK since 2003. She studied at Moscow Art Theatre School (MXAT) before graduating from MA Painting at the Royal College of Art (2011). Yelena’s work often reflects her upbringing in the Urals, and is strongly also influenced by Russian Constructivism, trying to capture the continuous industrial development and the landscape of contemporary capitalism. Growing up in a secret Soviet nuclear settlement, she often turns her attention to nuclear history and heritage. In 2019 Popova conducted a series of research trips around decommissioned nuclear power plants in the UK to produce The Scholar Stones Project commissioned by Holden Gallery, Manchester in 2020.  Yelena has exhibited widely including Matter as Actor at Lisson Gallery, London (2023); Made Ground, Cample Line, Scotland (2022); Showing Now, Touring Later. The Art House, Worcester University, UK, 2021. Her work is in the collection of the Arts Council Collection (London), Government Art Collection (London), RCA Collection (London), Saatchi Collection (London), Zabludowicz Collection (London), In4Art Collection (Netherlands), Jalima Collection (Dusseldorf), Nottingham Castle Collection, New Hall Art Collection (Cambridge), LWL Museum (Munster), CCA Andrax Collection (Mallorca, Spain), Sea Foundation (Netherlands) and various private collections. www.yelenapopova.co.uk

Aldo Rinaldi 

Aldo Rinaldi is a curator and producer based in London with a focus on commissioning artworks for the public realm. He has over 20-years of experience and has produced over 50 projects for a diverse range of settings. Since 2017 he has worked independently, developing and delivering project UK wide. Aldo is known for his experimental approach to commissioning works outside of the gallery and museum space and is particularly interested in the intersection of art, architecture and collaborative or multidisciplinary practices that foster collaboration between disparate disciplines. His projects include Free Tank by Roger Hiorns, the Turner Prize nominated artists’ first permanent UK artwork, and ‘Seeds of Change: A Floating Ballast Seed Garden’ by Brazilian artist Maria Thereza Alves, a five-year project which culminated in the artist winning the Vera List Prize for Art and Social Change from New York’s New School, 65,000 Photographs, a large-scale sculpture by Idris Khan OBE for One Blackfriars on London’s south bank, a new altar for St John’s Peckham with renowned British designer Max Lamb, The Modernist Glade (Milton Keynes) developed with architect Takeshi Hayatsu and Danish artist Tue Greenfort, the multi award winning Peveril Gardens, a collaboration between Mexican artist Gabriel Kuri, horticulturalist Nigel Dunnett and architects Sanchez Benton, and Deep Time: Commissions for the Lake District Coast.

This talk is part of the Arts Council of England funded engagement programme for Deep Time: Commissions for the Lake District Coast. Find out more about Deep Time at https://deeptime.uk/ and sign up to our newsletter for details of upcoming events.

Deep Time: Commissions for the Lake District Coast was commissioned by Copeland Borough Council and is funded by HM Government’s Coastal Communities Fund, Sellafield Ltd’s Social Impact Fund and Arts Council of England.