#WeAreRydeArts -Rachel Shore
My name is Rachel Shore, I was the visual artist commissioned to produce the artwork to accompany Ryde Arts’ production Spirit of the Place, working with writer and director Joe Plumb. The project is an audio performance designed to accompany a walk down Union Street in Ryde, depicting the narrative of a couple and their lives together, inspired by the personal stories of the Ryde community.
My role was to produce ten pieces of artwork to accompany the audio. To do this, I created a scale model box depicting ten different scenes, all based on real-life Union Street locations, along with figures representing the characters as they grew. I also produced an interactive ‘pop up’ map that audience members can download and print out to accompany their walk.
Originally Spirit of the Place was designed to be a performance however due to the Covid pandemic we had to rethink how we could present the work - this was a challenge! Spirit of the Place was reborn as an audio trail using stories collected from the Ryde community. I took a lot of inspiration from these recollections when developing the artwork, they really gave me a feel for Ryde and why the places within the narrative were important to the town. It was a great opportunity to experiment with my work, combining both 2D and 3D techniques, thinking about how to incorporate a theatre-esque, live performance into a 2D image with accompanying pre-recorded audio. It was a wonderful opportunity to think outside the box and a fantastic opportunity to collaborate with other artists to develop something quite different and exciting.
““The Spirit of the Place lets the audience really indulge in nostalgia and think about their own memories of the town and what they appreciate about it. The project gave a stage to the everyday and gave the spotlight to ordinary people, showing the community that they, their stories and their voices are important and deserve to be celebrated.””
Due to lockdown, I had been out of work for a while, so I really enjoyed the creative discussions with Ryde Arts Creative Director Abi Wheeler and director Joe Plumb - it felt great being part of the Spirit of the Place team.
See Rachel’s scenes come to life by downloading the Spirit of the Place audio and accompanying map here. (link to the Spirit of the Place page)
About: Rachel trained in Design for Theatre, Performance and Events and has a theatrical approach to design. Storytelling is at the heart of her creative process and she uses design to illustrate narrative. Since graduating in 2017 Rachel has been a freelance working on a variety of projects including installing immersive learning environments in several North West primary schools and working with Wild Rumpus, Powder Keg, the Emily O’Shea Company and Ryde Arts.
Contact: Email: rachel-shore@outlook.com instagram: @rachelshoredesigns
facebook: @rachelshoredesigns Website: www.rachelshoredesigns.com
