Poppy Jackson – Tower

Time and Date: 25 Sep 2024
Location: Wattisfield, Diss, Suffolk
Price: 0/£10/£20

We are delighted to invite you to Poppy Jackson’s Tower, a performance taking place in Wattisfield, Suffolk, as the culmination of the year-long programme Pathways Home.

Tower activates the inherent political potency of the maternal body within a rural setting. The work explores the interconnected dynamic of mothering and artistic practice, within the open landscape that has become an integral part of the artist’s life and her children’s upbringing.

The performance crosses through agricultural buildings and land set in the meadows and farmland of a home in rural Suffolk: a mile-long footpath through the fields connects the location with the artist and her two young daughters’ house. This idyllic setting, near to where Poppy grew up herself, belies a reality of gender-specific challenges and barriers. The global children’s charity Plan International UK recently uncovered that this is one of the UK’s toughest places to be a girl, due to ingrained patriarchal tradition, rural isolation, gender-based violence, and economic, health and educational disadvantages.

Poppy has developed this work using materials, objects and architecture integral to the site. She is grateful for the involvement of neighbours and key people in her family’s lives in the performance process.

The performance will last around 50’. Refreshments provided by Lavender Lattes will be available upon arrival and post-performance.

LADA and the artist would like to thank the site owners for their collaboration in making this event happen.

Please note that the work may include nudity, bodily fluids and themes of motherhood.

Tower has been supported by LADA as part of the Live Art in Rural UK year-long programme, conceived by LADA’s former Director Vivian Chinasa Ezugha. Live Art in Rural UK focused on amplifying the embodied practices of artists living and working in rural locations across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

'Jackson’s work has the potential to radically alter conservative conceptions of the female body'
Dazed Magazine

Bio

Poppy Jackson makes work that explores the female body as an autonomous zone. Her practice spans performance, painting, sculpture and printmaking. Public space and architecture in relation to the body are key themes for the artist. Motherhood has activated a focus on the politics of the pregnant/maternal body within the rural landscape in which she lives with her two young daughters.

Poppy gained a BA (Hons) from Dartington College of Arts and MA from Goldsmiths, University of London, and has received Arts Council England and British Council awards. Presented across the UK, Europe and America, her work has excited discussion worldwide about the body in art, and has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Independent, ArtReview, BBC 2 and Radio 4. She has delivered lectures at The Royal College of Art, School of the Arts Institute of Chicago, NHS Hospitals Bristol and The Royal College of Psychiatrists. She is an Associate Artist of ]performance s p a c e [, London.

Fenia Kost_00124Poppy Jackson, In Search of the Miraculous, Walsingham 2023. Curated and convened by Anne Bean for The Norfolk and Norwich Festival; produced by Future Ritual. Image Fenia Kotsopoulou.

Location

The performance will take place in a private location less than 0.8 miles (2 min drive / 16 min walking distance) from the centre of Wattisfield, Diss in Suffolk.

If using public transport, you can take the Bus 70 (Diss-Bury St Edmunds) from the Diss train station (approximately 20 min) and then walk for 20min.

If travelling by car, there is free parking space you can use in the adjacent field, which will be clearly signposted when you arrive.

There are also taxi companies in Diss. We recommend DISStrict Cabs and we encourage you to book in advance.

If transportation to and from Diss train station might be a challenge, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We can arrange transport to pick you up from the 16.28 London train arriving Diss and return travel to Diss station for the train departing at 20.17 to London.

Access

Please note that the performance will take place outside on rough terrain and in the proximity of farm animals. Please do not bring dogs or other pets and make sure to wear suitable clothing for the weather and walking on farmland.

There will be a disabled portable toilet unit available on-site.

No smoking is allowed on site.

Should you have any particular access requirements, please email [email protected] and we will be happy to offer further information and support.