grove expanded this year, with a new exhibition that took to the streets of Bury St Edmunds. groving will be an annual summer exhibition that explores aspects of the town through new works of art placed in public. Writers will be commissioned to write about some of the works, and the project will be documented on the grove blog and at http://collectconnect.blogspot.com/. groving is an extension of and inspired by CollectConnect, conceived by Alban Low and Dean Reddick, and I am grateful for their support.
The first theme was Acts of Resistance and works were placed around Bury St Edmunds from 20 August to 5 September.
We live in febrile times and it is easy to list urgent issues that demand resistance and rebellion. In recent years public actions have included Occupy, protests against Trump’s misogyny, the drive to repeal the eighth amendment of the Irish constitution, campaigns and marches on both sides of the Brexit divide, and recently Extinction Rebellion. The comfortable Suffolk town of Bury St Edmunds might seem an unlikely place to site an exhibition on resistance but it has a noble history of dissent, a determination not to be put on either by the over-wealthy and over-weaning Abbey, or by civic and national governments.
On at least two occasions in the fourteenth century the population rose up against the Abbey. It had grown under royal patronage to be one of the biggest and wealthiest in the country but the locals thought such wealth was obscene. They attached the buildings, confiscated the treasures and molested the monks. Bury played its part in the nationwide Poll Tax riots and violence of 1381. In the sixteenth century Queen Mary’s religious policy indicted severe opposition and more than a dozen people were put to death as martyrs. In 1583 Elias Thacker and John Copping were hanged for defacing the royal coat of arms.
Where has this spirit of defiance gone? Is this – hastily painted over – graffiti on hoardings to a new housing development on Tayfen Road the first sign of renewed resistance in the town?
Artists and writers are adept at investigating social and political issues and have often been at the forefront of dissent. In 2021 there are so many global problems to consider, along with more local and even personal irritants to fight against.
The first theme was Acts of Resistance and works were placed around Bury St Edmunds from 20 August to 5 September.
We live in febrile times and it is easy to list urgent issues that demand resistance and rebellion. In recent years public actions have included Occupy, protests against Trump’s misogyny, the drive to repeal the eighth amendment of the Irish constitution, campaigns and marches on both sides of the Brexit divide, and recently Extinction Rebellion. The comfortable Suffolk town of Bury St Edmunds might seem an unlikely place to site an exhibition on resistance but it has a noble history of dissent, a determination not to be put on either by the over-wealthy and over-weaning Abbey, or by civic and national governments.
On at least two occasions in the fourteenth century the population rose up against the Abbey. It had grown under royal patronage to be one of the biggest and wealthiest in the country but the locals thought such wealth was obscene. They attached the buildings, confiscated the treasures and molested the monks. Bury played its part in the nationwide Poll Tax riots and violence of 1381. In the sixteenth century Queen Mary’s religious policy indicted severe opposition and more than a dozen people were put to death as martyrs. In 1583 Elias Thacker and John Copping were hanged for defacing the royal coat of arms.
Where has this spirit of defiance gone? Is this – hastily painted over – graffiti on hoardings to a new housing development on Tayfen Road the first sign of renewed resistance in the town?
Artists and writers are adept at investigating social and political issues and have often been at the forefront of dissent. In 2021 there are so many global problems to consider, along with more local and even personal irritants to fight against.