A wildflower meadow installation and audio experience by artists Sylvia Rimat and Charli Clark

Step into the lost nature of Broadmead.

Imagine a colourful, tranquil wildflower meadow amidst the hustle and bustle of Bristol’s built-up shopping centre, Broadmead. With their new project Broad Meadow, artists Sylvia Rimat and Charli Clark are growing that very place.

Smell the sweet scent of flowers, hear the buzz of wings and submerge yourself in the lost nature of our city centre. You’re invited to take a seat and relax in a wildflower meadow installation that gives you a taste of what life used to be like in Broadmead.

Immerse yourself in the wildflower meadow installation and audio experience, addressing our intertwined relationship with the plant world and connecting us to Bristol prior to the 1500s, when Broadmead was a meadow, regularly flooded by the river Frome. The wildflower installation’s soil structure and plant species have been carefully chosen to mirror the meadow that once may have grown there.

The installation is made up of 55 wildflower boxes that have been planted in workshops with secondary school students across Bristol and with community groups. After the project ends, the boxes will be distributed to Bristol schools and communities to continue to thrive as mini meadows.

Fri 24 May 2024 until Thursday 20 June 24

Open daily 11am – 6pm (Fri 24 May 3pm – 6pm)

Free event 

Booking info via Headfirst to reserve a free place or just show up

Location: Broadmead West, Bristol City Centre, BS1 3EA (outside Boots)

Age advice: 11+

Please note you will need to bring your smartphone and headphones to listen to the audio piece. We will hold a few headsets and audio devices for people that don’t have access to a smartphone or who may find it difficult to download the audio work on their phone.

There will be 3 days of free family fun activities for ages 3-10 with creative, nature inspired arts and crafts activities, playful storytelling and wildflower seed bomb making.
Saturday 25 May 2024
Wednesday 5 June 2024 (World Environment Day)
Sunday 9 June 2024
Everyone is welcome.
Drop-in between 11am – 3pm

Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, The National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to National Lottery Players and Broadmead BID. Further support from Frances and Matthew Lindsey-Clark, Pervasive Media Studio, MAYK, Ashton Scaffolding Services Ltd, Bristol WORKS and Residence.

#Mayfest / https://twitter.com/mayfestbristol
@mayfestbristol / https://www.instagram.com/mayfestbristol/

#BristolBroadMeadow / https://twitter.com/sylviarimat
@sylviarimat @charliclarkart

BROAD MEADOW IS HIRING

Are you interested in being involved in a public art installation? Are you interested in ecology? Are you confident talking to a diverse range of people? Then this could be the job for you!

Broad Meadow will be a wildflower meadow installation and audio experience by artists Sylvia Rimat and Charli Clark. The installation will be set up amidst the hustle and bustle of Bristol’s built-up shopping centre, Broadmead. Audiences will be invited to take a seat, get comfortable in the wildflower meadow and listen to an audio experience via their smartphone. The audio experience addresses our intertwined relationship with the plant world, connecting us to Bristol prior to the 1500s, when Broadmead was a meadow, regularly flooded by the river Frome. More info can be found here.

Short-term position as part of the Broad Meadow stewarding team:

Broad Meadow is open for 27.5 days, stewards are needed to cover day shifts (2 stewards needed per shift) from 24th May- 20th June 10.30am – 6.30pm

Event is open 7 days a week 11am – 6pm

Pay: £120 per day (8 hours @ £15 per/h including breaks totaling 50mins)

Minimum number of days required 12

Job Specification:

Overview:

We are looking for friendly, helpful, proactive people to steward the month-long outdoor public art installation Broad Meadow. We need engaging individuals who are confident to invite the public (both passersby, and those who have pre-booked) into our Meadow. You will be responsible for ensuring the comfort and safety of participants whilst they take part in the installation. This will involve managing bookings/ crowds, responding to enquiries/ questions about the work, assisting people to access the audio work, being aware/ attuned to the differing needs of participants and providing extra assistance where necessary, keeping on top of the lending/ return of devices/ stools used by the public whilst experiencing the work, and generally ensuring that the event runs as smoothly as possible. You will also be responsible for watering the installation, making sure it looks good (removing litter/ wiping down benches after rain), and ensuring the pathway through the installation remains free from obstacles/ is kept clear.

Detailed Breakdown:

10.30-11 – Setting up

• Removing heras fencing to secure location
• Checking installation for damage/ removing any litter
• Set up stewarding table/ stools
• Collecting security radio from Broadmead BID

11am – 6pm

• Welcoming the general public to experience Broad Meadow 
• Being proactive, talking to passersby about the project and inviting them in.
• Help members of the public that have booked a slot in the meadow to access the audio (via their phone or lending them an audio handset provided by the Broad Meadow Project)
• Making sure the installation is looked after/ kept safe and preventing vandalism (will have access to security radio provided by Broadmead BID to connect with local security guards if necessary)
• Look after the public whilst they are experiencing the meadow

• Count and record the number of people visiting the installation 
• Encourage the audience to fill in feedback form. 
• Distribute Broad Meadow cards
• Look after spare audio devices and headphones
• Recharge spare audio devices and power banks
• Watering the installation when needed

6pm – 6.30pm

• Packing up tables/ stools
• Re-securing installation with heras fencing
• Returning security radio to Broadmead BID

Essential

• Excellent communication skills
• Confident in talking to the general public
• Polite/ friendly/ approachable personality
• Reliable with good time management
• Physical stamina for long hours on your feet
• Happy to work outside (all shifts will take place outside, whatever the weather)
• Self employed
• Available for work during the weekend (you may be expected to work 2 of the 4 weekends/ 4 weekend days in total during the month long installation) 
• Understanding of basic IT technology, ability to help the public access the audio work from a website on their phones.
• Ability to work independently, show initiative and attention to detail 
• Good teamworking skills

Desirable 

• Previous experience as a steward/ a public facing role is preferred
• Basic first aid (preferred but not essential)
• Ability to assess risk/ improvise/ respond to problems that may arise from the public engaging with the installation

A full briefing will be provided to the successful candidates, including information on the installation and audio experience.

To Apply:

If you’d like to apply for this role please send an email detailing why you are interested in the job, any relevant previous experience and your availability between 24th May – 20 June 2024 to [email protected]

Deadline: Fri 26th April at 6pm

Interviews will take place on 2nd and 3rd May 2024, please let us know in your application if you’re not available on these dates. Successful candidates will be notified by 7th May 2024.

If you prefer to apply via video or audio note instead, you can provide a recording of up to 3min. If you have any questions or would like a call to chat through the call out, or if you require this call out in an alternative format please email Charli at [email protected].

A brand new App offering a captivating and playful audio-walk through Leigh Woods, exploring our connectivity with the woodland around us.

 

After the popular sell-out audio walk Some People Climb Up which engaged live audiences in autumn 2019, I am now immensely proud and also a bit apprehensive as I look forward to the launch of the App Some People Climb Up. Equipped with smartphone and headphones, audiences will be able to download the geo-located walk and be guided through Leigh Woods, Bristol. Listening to my voice and an evocative soundscape, they will experience the woodland through all the senses. The work taps into climate emergency, grief and notions of care beyond the human species.

Based on an original concept created with Cat Jones.

Dates: 06 Nov 2021 – 06 Nov 2022

Where: Leigh Woods Forestry England car park off the Abbots Leigh Road, North Somerset, Sat Nav Postcode: BS83QB 

Prices: Pay What You Can from £2.50

Duration: approx. 1 hour

Booking: please click HERE 

Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Further support by In Between Time and their Artist Seed Fund, Forestry England and Residence.

A wilderness of tranquility, the lungs of the city, a home, a refuge, a playground. Woodlands evoke senses, memories and emotions for all of us.

Sylvia Rimat takes us on a playful, thought-provoking and deeply human audio-walk through Leigh Woods, exploring our connectivity with the woodland around us. Equipped with audio devices and headphones, you will be guided through Leigh Woods to experience the woodland through all your senses.

Some People Climb Up is also an encounter with the metaphorical forest in our brain. It draws on neuroscience, the intricate fungal networks between trees, plant signaling, symbology and our own personal stories related to the woods to create an original performance with a pinch of the surreal.

Based on an original concept created with Cat Jones.

Watch a short VIDEO TRAILER about the audio-walk.

DATES: 28 & 29 Sep and 4, 5 & 6 Oct 2019 

TIMES: 10am, 11.30am, 1pm, 2.30pm & 4pm 

Starting point is the Leigh Woods Forestry England Car Park. 

BOOKING: please click HERE

Tickets £5/£3

Ages 15+

Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Further support by Forestry England, We The Curious and Residence.

Map to Leigh Woods car park:

In September/ October 2018 I embarked on a 2-week residency at the buzzing We The Curious science centre in Bristol. My mission was to explore the metaphorical forests in our brains, made up of pyramidal neurons that look like tree structures. I also wanted to find out more about the forests in our minds, the ones we remember and imagine, the personal stories. The process was informed by research on visual imagination in Neuroscience, on plant signaling as well as the symbology of forests.

I offered workshops for families/ children of various ages and for grown-ups. During these workshops, participants were approached to share the unique images in their minds to do with trees and forests. Through visualisation exercises, a great wealth of personal drawings and notes were collected that turned out to be poetic, captivating and sometimes quite unexpected… one participant came up with a giant snow drop as a tree!

As part of the residency I was also exhibiting objects that are of significance for the project. A board on the wall encouraged visitors to engage in the project through a brief and simple exercise: to imagine a tree and to draw and describe it on cards. Here an example of an endearing one that a child must have drawn:

I liked this visitor card so much that it inspired me to change the title for the project, that started out under the name ‘Tree’ (based on an original concept created with Cat Jones) and had continued as ‘Dendrites’. So the new title now reads ‘Some People Climb Up’. The next stage will see me develop an audio walk through a forest. I’m not sure if people will actually climb up the trees but let’s see.

The project Tree has just had a second development phase at Internationales Waldkunst Zentrum (International Forest Art Centre), as part of KunstTREFFpunkt, a programme presenting performance projects in public space in Darmstadt, Germany. For this residency in Darmstadt, I worked with Sydney based artist and collaborator Cat Jones remotely, through electrical signaling processes via e-mail, skype and dropbox.

Apart from carrying out site-specific research in the local forest ‘An der Ludwigshöhe’, including tree species, mycelium and local stories related to the woodland, Cat and I gave a talk about our respective artistic practice and our collaboration on Tree. We facilitated a workshop with local participants who use the forest ‘An der Ludwigshöhe’ recreationally, to collect their personal stories related to the forest and to explore the unique (visual) imagery in our minds.

We also tested a 20min long work-in-progress version of the audio walk Tree, still in its very early stages. It was exciting to see how the actual forest around us, perceived with all the senses, could be matched with research on visual imagination in Neuroscience, explored through entering the metaphorical ‘forest in our brain’ made up of pyramidal neurons that resemble tree structures. During the test walk, participants also found out about plant signaling processes amongst tree species and personal stories related to the forest, whilst encountering mysterious sounds from a forest in a very different, far away geographic location.

 

 

A few weeks ago in March, Sydney-based artist Cat Jones and I embarked on a 2-week residency at Big Ci in Bilpin, New South Wales, Australia to explore our working collaboration and make a start on our brand new project Tree. I’m really excited about Tree! The project delves into the depths of our imagination, drawing on Neuroscience, plant signaling, the symbology of forests and on our very personal imagined stories, related to the woods. Once finished, it will take the form of a site-specific audio walk through a forest and lead to a book project published alongside.

Big Ci was a perfect location for making a start on this work, tucked away in the scenic Blue Mountains, surrounded by bushland. We were taken on an introductory walk, to get to know the local landscape and tree species and worked alongside other (inter)national artists in a spacious studio.

Before and after the residency, I travelled to Sydney, to Melbourne and to Launceston and Hobart in Tasmania, to meet up with festival and venue producers and peer artists.  Cat and I have already been invited for the next 2 -weeks residency in March 2018, to develop Tree further. This residency will take place at Arts House in Melbourne and is funded through a Culture Lab commission. I can’t wait to return to Australia!

The trip was kindly supported through the Arts Council’s and British Council’s Artist International Development Fund.

Over January and February 2017 I’ll tour my performance This Moment Now to a few places in Britain.
We’ll start off with a run of five shows as part of The Yard Theatre’s NOW17 Festival in London. The festival will also feature Greg Wohead and Rachel Mars, Deborah Pearson, Mamoru Iriguchi and Rachael Young amongst other. I’ll be double billing with emerging artist Richard Dodwell and his evocative performance PLANES.
Later in February we’ll travel to Colchester Arts Centre and to Theatre Fest West at Salisbury Playhouse.

This Moment Now is a playful exploration of how we perceive time, as individuals, as audiences in a performance and on a wider scale, considering various concepts of time. Inspired by conversations with specialists from mathematics/ physics, philosophy and people of different ages.

‘PLAYFUL, PHILOSOPHICAL, POETIC’  Exeunt magazine

DATES:

31 Jan – 4 Feb 2017 
The Yard Theatre London/ NOW17

8 Feb 2017
Colchester Arts Centre

16 Feb 2017
Theatre Fest West/ Salisbury Playhouse

Watch a trailer on vimeo

The tour will be accompanied by a number of workshops for elderly and young people, with a focus on time and ageing.

So far we’ve been on tour to ICIA Bath, Chelsea Theatre London, Chichester Showroom and Cambridge Junction.

Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Commissioned by ICIA University of Bath. Further support by Joe Allard Commission, Institute of Physics, Cambridge Junction, Chelsea Theatre, Bristol Old Vic Ferment, Arnolfini and Residence.

I am very happy to announce that my brand new performance This Moment Now will premiere on Thurs, 30 April 2015, at the Institute of Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts at University of Bath.

In this show I set out to playfully explore how we perceive time, as individuals, as audiences in a performance and on a wider scale, considering various concepts on time. A drummer, a stage manager and a secret guest become the protagonists of the show, which focuses on rhythm, movement, video interviews and the liveness of facetime. A woman in her nineties dances to the camera, a young girl of eight talks about being fast at doing the splits and cups of teas help the audience to overcome a pause.

This Moment Now is inspired by conversations with specialists from mathematics/ physics, philosophy and people of different ages.

Thu 30 APR, 7:30pm

To find out more and to book tickets please click HERE

 

Concept and performance: Sylvia Rimat

Drummer: Chris Langton

Stage manager: Luke Emery

Video- and sound design: Sam Halmarack

Choreography: Laura Dannequin

Dramaturgy: Tanya Steinhauser

 

Commissioned by ICIA University of Bath. Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Further support by Cambridge Junction, Chelsea Theatre, Bristol Old Vic Ferment, Arnolfini and Residence.

I am very delighted to take part in Proximity Festival in Perth, Australia in autumn this year. Taking place at Fremantle Arts Centre from Wednesday 22 October – Saturday 1 November, the 2014 program will present twelve unique intimate experiences for one audience member at a time, created by artists from the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. I will develop the one on one performance Dance With Me, working with voices via headphones and drawing on Fremantle’s history as a ‘Lunatic Asylum’ in the late 19th/ early 20th century. More info about the festival can be found here. Tickets and program details will be released in August.

(Photo: Emily Parsons-Lord, WA Australia)