James Brunt and ‘Responsible Fishing’
James Brunt is an artist who lives in Yorkshire and co-runs ‘Responsible Fishing UK’ with Timm Cleasby. RF are a small arts organisation who work collaboratively with communities, schools and festivals. They use natural, recycled and up-cycled materials to create temporary art installations in outdoor locations. James studied Fine Art at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London.
In this article James shares some of these artworks made in places along the Humber estuary and the East Yorkshire coast. These pieces combine art, ecology and play and sit in the space between high and low tide. They disappear, reappear and finally disappear altogether – to travel and settle elsewhere – perhaps washed up further down the coast, destined to be part of a new installation elsewhere.
They remind us of childhood and family pleasures; searching, collecting, building, arranging and rearranging. Beaches provide great opportunities for what Simon Nicholson called ‘Loose Parts Play’, with ‘variables’ and endless possibilities. James describes his connection to the East Yorkshire coast:
‘My love for the East Riding coastline has blossomed out of childhood memories and more recently, a growing relationship with the Active Coast team, after leading beach art workshops for several years now. It is the most atmospheric coastline I have ever witnessed and exploring new places along that stretch of coast never fails to reveal new surprises and delights. Working in these locations is a deeply grounding experience that creates a therapeutic response to the environment’.
Above: ‘Aldborough’
‘My work consists of temporary interventions to an outdoor location, using the resource within a given space to re-arrange. Mostly this takes place in natural / public locations and last for only a short time after I have left the location’.
‘ I’m very aware of the impact the process of making work could have on the environment, so I generally work in public parks, on well-trodden paths and seaside resort beaches where families play every day’.
‘There were a number of chance happenings that transpired to lead me down this path. Firstly, a friend introduced me to a stone balancer on the south coast, which for some reason the connection between art and physics just clicked with me. At the same time, myself and a photographer were beginning to explore some work together, so combining the two we made some very basic pictures. From there my creative journey quickly developed to be a more immersive connection to location, weather, seasons and natural resources’.
Above: ‘Hessle’
Above: ‘Spurn Point’
‘I just try to look for opportunity. Whether the opportunity is happening across an interesting composition or landscape, or whether it’s a very specific natural resource that presents itself’.
‘It’s a very immersive process, but also a quite simple one. Once the idea is formulated, I can allow my thoughts / awareness to both wander off or really enjoy what’s going on around me. Having this relationship with the plants, insects and birds around me is a really key part of why I do what I do’.
‘If I can pass on one thing to both adults and children, it would be to never stop playing’.
‘RF builds on this, its simple beginnings was to come up with ideas to get people, adults and children, to play. Play on a big scale like we used to when we were kids’.
Above: ‘Easington’
Thank you to James, ‘Responsible Fishing’ and to Creative Collective – the quotes which accompany the images above were first published in ‘Nature’s canvas; discussions with James Brunt’ (30 June 2019) see: https://creative-collective.cc/james-brunt/