Break Out Culture With Ed Vaizey by Country and Town House

This week we’re talking to two artists inspired by the nature.   

Emily Young, hailed as Britain’s greatest living female stone sculptor, specialises in using materials from abandoned quarries and Francis Hamel is known for his portraiture and landscape paintings. 

Emily lives and works mostly in an isolated part of Tuscany, where she free carves in reclaimed uncut natural stone, often found in abandoned quarries. She evokes beautiful ancient figures from an unknown mythology.   Her main objective is to explore the relationship of humankind and the planet through her interaction with stone.  Her 25 new works in stone are being exhibited at Richard Green on Bond Street, in association with Willoughby Gerrish Ltd.   

Francis has lived and worked for over 25 years at Rousham, one of England’s most prized historic house and gardens. He explains how the garden at Rousham became the starting point for his exhibition when he was seeing it afresh during lockdown.  From there he went on to paint some of Britain’s best-known gardens including Sissinghurst, Great Dixter, Sezincote, and Stourhead, as well as some private ones designed by renowned gardeners like Sarah Raven, Arthur Parkinson and Tom Stuart-Smith. His exhibition of garden paintings launches at his Oxfordshire home of Rousham before moving to John Martin on London’s Albemarle Street.  

Together they talk about how they work, what inspires them and what they set out to achieve. It’s a fascinating conversation about the artistic process and highlights their similar and different approaches to stone and to paint.

Emily Young: Pareidolia in Stone from 25th October to 10th November

Richard Green https://www.richardgreen.com

Francis Hamel: Thirty Gardens from 12th to 27th October

John Martin https://www.jmlondon.com

This episode is brought to you with the kind support of support of Lomi, makers of ‘smart waste appliances’ that transform food waste into plant food.  Go to Lomi’s website at uk.lomi.com and use promo code breakout at the checkout for a £50 discount.

Acclaimed pianists, Charles Owen and Moscow-born Katya Apekisheva, started the London Piano Festival at Kings Place in 2016 as a way of bringing together pianists from around the world.  Pianists tend to practice and play in isolation so it can be a lonely profession and this is a much-loved opportunity for them to come together and share their passion for their instrument and its music.

Between 5th and 8th October this year’s festival is celebrating the 150th birth of Rachmaninov and the centenary of the less well-known but hugely significant and ground-breaking Hungarian musician, Gryorgy Ligeti.  

We hear about Rachmaninov’s lasting legacy - Katya and Charles will perform his major two piano works - and Charles and Katya will be joined by dazzling British musicians Danny Hammond and Clare Driver for ‘Ligeti 100: The Devil’s Staircase’. 

Charles and Katya tell us about other performances in store, including jazz with Polish phenomenon Leszek Motżdżer and a portrait of Rachmaninov in exile by Lucy Parham, narrated by Tim McInnerny. The master pianist and extraordinary, original showman from Ukraine, Vadym Kholodenko, will perform work by Liszt, Beetoven, Adès and the Ukrainian composer Silvestrov.

What comes through our conversation is the palpable joy and exuberance that Katya and Charles feel when playing the piano and we have a fascinating conversation about how strong their hands have to be and much more.  For all music lovers this is a festival not be missed.

We also round up what’s happening in the art world – Marina Abramović’s astonishing show at the Royal Academy, cementing her reputation as the greatest and most courageous performance artist alive today, Sarah Lucas’s new show ‘Happy Gas’ at Tate Britain and ‘Celebrating Picasso Today: Infinite Modernism’, a show of new and modern works at London’s Almine Rech Gallery to honour Picasso 50 years after his death.

The London Piano Festival:  Kings Place from 5th to 8th October

https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/london-piano-festival/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwpc-oBhCGARIsAH6ote_SpwZbkOqCM2s7QO4fhXoL2ggg1UzdDQcd_-U5Ro-A-VP2VFC6bA4aAolkEALw_wcB

This episode is brought to you thanks to our sponsor, Lomi, the compact, countertop ‘smart waste’ appliance that can process food waste into plant food.  Go to uk.lomi.com to receive a discount of £50 by entering the code breakout at the check-out. 

We talk to Sir John Leighton, Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland, about Edinburgh’s superb new Scottish Galleries at the National, which will open on September 30th after £38.62 million worth of investment.

The ten, light-filled rooms, offering majestic views over Edinburgh, will showcase 130 works of historic Scottish art by artists ranging from the Glasgow Boys, William McTaggart and Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Anne Redpath to lesser-known artists like Phoebe Anna Traquair. 

Sir John describes how many of these major beautiful works of art have been given new life by being moved out of a dingy, uninspiring basement into these contemporary galleries. We have a fascinating conversation about what it means to be a Scottish artist and how the new hang will redefine Scottish art and underline the importance of Scottish painters’ contribution to British art overall.

Today’s episode is brought to you thanks to our sponsor, Lomi, the compact, countertop ‘smart waste’ appliance that can process food waste into plant food.  Go to uk.lomi.com to receive a discount of £50 by entering the code breakout at the check-out. 

We talk to Sarah Sands, the journalist and former editor of The Evening Standard and BBC Radio Four’s Today programme. She’s just released her new book ‘The Hedgehog Diaries, A Story of Faith Hope and Bristle’.  

The humble hedgehog turns out to be a symbol of the doughty survivor in politics and in battle – particularly in Ukraine’s war with Russia.  It’s also the symbol of NATO.  Not just that, but numerous famous people from Rory Stewart to Samuel Beckett, have understood the significance and spiritual appeal of the hedgehog as an intriguing, Tolkein-like, mystical little figure. 

The hedgehog gave Sarah great emotional comfort as she faced the death of her father and then afterwards her beloved brother, the cabaret artist Kit Hesketh-Harvey and her ex-husband Julian Sands, who died on a remote mountainside.

This is a charming book, full of wisdom, anecdotes and stories about this ancient, small but surprising creature which has inspired Sarah to take on a conservation project her brother Kit started before he died.  

Today’s episode is brought to you thanks to our sponsor, Lomi, the compact, countertop ‘smart waste’ appliance that can process food waste into plant food.  Go to uk.lomi.com to receive a discount of £50 by entering the code breakout at the check-out. 

As he steps down after serving two full terms as Chair of the V&A, Nicholas Coleridge looks back on ten years of prodigious expansion under his watch and looks ahead to tell us all about the hugely anticipated Chanel show which opens on 16th September. 

He recounts how V&A Dundee is bringing new life to the city and explains how the transformation of the former Museum of Childhood into Young V&A has given thousands of young people and children an exciting new destination in East London.  We hear about securing David Bowie’s priceless archive, what to expect from V&A East and the vast reserve collection that will be on display to all in the stunning new V&A Storehouse.  

This is Nicholas at his most knowledgeable and amusing as he regales us not just with a fascinating outline of the V&A’s glittering success but also with a delightful sprinkling of personal anecdotes and  stories.

On our last podcast of the summer, we’re talking to Pippa Shirley, Director of Waddeson Manor and to Lorraine Lecourtois, Head of Public Exhibitions at Wakehurst, about two of Britain’s most beautiful outdoor spaces, both showcasing some wonderful art.

 Waddesdon Manor is the Renaissance-style chateau built in Buckinghamshire by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in 1874, with extensive Victorian-style gardens, a parterre and a Rococo-style aviary and woodland. The two major artists exhibiting there are the British artist Catherine Goodman, who also co-founded the Royal Drawing School with King Charles III, and the celebrated Portuguese artist, Joanna Vasconcelos.  

Joanna has installed a 12-metre-high sculptural pavilion called ‘Wedding Cake’ next to the 19th century dairy, clad entirely in colourful ceramic tiles.  Joanna describes this beautiful architectural folly and sculpture, her most ambitious commission to date, as ‘a temple to love’. It’s fully immersive and you can walk around it – and even get married in it.  Meanwhile, Catherine Goodman is showing her paintings inspired by the beautiful olive trees in the Rothschild estate in Corfu and by Ovid’s ‘Metmorphoses’.

The wild botanic garden of Wakehurst, which is part of Kew, has over 500 acres in Sussex of diverse landscape and is home to the Millennium Seed Bank.  There’s the epic ‘Planet Wakehurst’, the UK’s largest art installation, by Catherine Nelson and a new exhibition ‘Rooted’, showing Chila Kumari Burman’s largest neon work to date (ten metres high) and works by Joseph Hillier, Little Lost Robot and Geraldine Pilgrim. There’s also an audio work from Hidden Orchestra and Tim Southern that promises to bathe people in calming sounds. 

We’ll be back in September. Have a great summer.

 ‘Dear Earth’ is the show at the Hayward Gallery on London’s south Bank that represents a coming together of 15 global artists who are responding to the crisis our planet is facing.  

We talk to Rachel Thomas, the chief curator and two of the artists exhibiting there, Ackroyd & Harvey.  Ackroyd & Harvey have contributed a series of portraits of environmental activists made from seedling grass.

Rachel tells us about the other exhibits there, including the moving and enchanting film ‘The Future: Sixes and Sevens’ by Cornelia Parker, depicting small children talking about their fears and hopes.  Other works include photographs and film of the devastated Kichwa Territory in Peru by Richard Mosse, John Gerrard’s ‘Surrender’, a digital installation of a flag which heralds visitors into the show, Jenny Kendler’s large scale sculpture of birds’ eyes – many of the birds are in danger of extinction or already extinct -  and the five-metre-high ‘Living Pyramid’ at the show’s heart by 93-year-old Agnes Denes.

We also hear about the Hayward’s beautiful roof garden created by Grounded Ecotherapy, set up to help recovering addicts, alcoholics and people with mental health problems.  The garden was commissioned 11 years ago and now contains 250 species of wild indigenous plant – more than any other roof terrace in the world. 

It's a devastating but beautiful exhibition, conceived to convey hope, start conversations and explore solutions via the artists’ lens.

We’re chatting about the Royal Shakespeare Company’s summer programme with Erica Whyman, who was Acting Artistic Director of the RSC till June, the director of the smash hit play ‘Hamnet’ and the Lead Judge of the specially commissioned 37 plays.  We also talk to Tanya Katyal, playing Rani, in the new production at the Swan of Tanika Gupta’s ‘The Empress’.  

We also hear about the new production of ‘As You Like It’ starring Geraldine James as Rosalind along with a cast of older actors – mostly over 70.  Erica also tells us about working with Lolita Chakrabarti to adapt Maggie O’Farrell’s novel ‘Hamnet’, which transfers to the Garrick Theatre in the West End in the autumn.

The RSC has celebrated 400 years since the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio by commissioning 37 new plays from all over the UK.  The competition was open to all and Erica, as the Lead Judge, tells us about the winning entries – some came from writers as young as six. We also hear about the RSC’s valuable work with schools across the UK.

We pick out the best of the summer’s festivals, including Byline  Festival, Charleston’s Festival of the Garden, Cheltenham Music Festival, Henley Festival and The Idler Festival.

Jo Bausor, who’s been at the helm of Henley Festival for over a decade, tells us about the impressive line-up at Britain’s only boutique black tie festival. Acts performing include Boney M, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Rag n’Bone Man and Westlife.  There’s a fabulous line-up of comedians too, like Jo Brand, Marcus Brigstocke, Jack Dee and Adam Kay.  Expect floating stages, fine riverside dining and fireworks and much more besides.

Political journalist, Otto English, tells us about the Byline Festival in collaboration with Dartington Trust. Taking place at Dartington Hall in Devon, the festival aims to change the world with its big, challenging ideas and is guaranteed to spark controversy and robust debate.   Speakers include Lord Victor Adebowale, Dawn Butler MP, Bonnie Greer, Rosie Holt, George Monbiot and Peter Oborne.

Finally, Harry Hoblyn, head gardener gives us the lowdown on the Festival of the Garden at Charleston, rural retreat of the Bloomsbury set and famously home to Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell.  Celebrating communities who care about plants and the land, the festival will include butterfly walks and garden tours.  Speakers include Isabel Bannerman, Edmund de Waal, Jake Fiennes and the Antiguan-American novelist, Jamaica Kincaid.

Byline Festival, 14th to 16th July, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon

Charleston Festival of the Garden, 13th to 16th July, Charleston, East Sussex

Cheltenham Music Festival:  8th to 15th July, around Cheltenham

Henley Festival:  5th to 9th July, around Henley

The Idler Festival : 7th to 9th July, Fenton House, Hampstead, London

We’re talking about the first ever stage adaptation of Ken Loach’s and Paul Laverty’s multi-award winning 2016  film  I, Daniel Blake. The production, which is touring the UK, opened at Northern Stage Newcastle to rave critical reviews and passionate audience reactions.  

Dave Johns, who adapted it for the stage, played Daniel in the original film, winning Best Actor at the British Independent Awards and Best Newcomer at the Empire Awards for his performance. Davey Nellist, who plays Daniel in this new stage version, is best known for his roles as Mike Stamford in Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch and more recently in the TV series Stonehouse with Matthew McFadden.  

Dave and Davey tell us how the play is deliberately being hailed as non-fiction and a very real story about poverty and homelessness in Newcastle today.  The city had one foodbank in 2016 but now has seven. Dave also tells us how he landed the part in the movie, having been a comedian and formerly a bricklayer.

I, Daniel Blake tours  till mid-November to Birmingham, Manchester, Exeter, Liverpool, Durham, Leeds, Oxford, Edinburgh, Stratford, Northampton, Coventry and Guildford, before returning to Northern Stage in September. For dates and full details see here.

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