Our Fallow Fields exhibition brought together work by five artists in ‘a space’ arts 2022 ‘Turning Point’ Bursary programme: Jennifer Anyan, Tracy Dovey, Elizabeth Hammond & Maija Liepins, and Linn O’Carroll.

‘Fallow’ is a farming technique in which arable land is left unsown for a period to regenerate and become replenished with vital nutrients needed to grow future crops.

Over the previous 6 months, these artists have undertook a fallow period of self-led artistic experimentation, development and risk-taking to push beyond existing boundaries within their practices and yield new ways of working. The Turning Point Programme embraces ‘open ends’, creating valuable time space for the development artistic practice without the pressure to produce specific outcomes or ‘finished’ artwork.

The four multi-media installations encountered throughout the galleries in God’s House Tower used a broad range of approaches including socially informed and engaged practice, collaboration and dialogic exchange, and psycho-geographic mapping.

In the tradition of process-related exhibitions that ask questions about the role of the artist, the curator and the exhibition space itself, Fallow Fields kicked off ‘a space’ arts 2023 programme which intermittently used our galleries as active spaces or labs in which to make work, experiment and test ideas, embracing the role of the arts organisation in making visible the processes and development of the practitioners it works with.