Introducing: An Inquest Concerning Teeth
As part of this year's Independents Biennial, we have been commissioned to deliver a series of events. Our proposed project was a series of creative workshops called ‘An Inquest Concerning Teeth’, where the meal is the muse. We created a framework for the series that we could inject with our interests and expertise. Using food as a starting point, we produced workshops that align with the meal we will be sharing.
For the first iteration, the artist Sara Wolff has been invited to facilitate a sound walk on Crosby Beach, which will be enjoyed with a coastal-inspired dish of samphire salad and cockles. Participants will listen and gather ambient and human-made sounds. They will analyze and translate sound into visual “sound maps,” draw sketches, and make listening notes, drawing on food analogies to capture timbre and texture along the way.
In conjunction with this, TRS will host a film screening at our gallery space. Award-winning director Helen Kilbride and artist-filmmaker Anti-cool will present a curated selection of short films that explore our seas’ stories—ecology, culture, and climate narratives. After the films, Helen and Anti-cool join participants for a moderated Q&A. This gathering extends the workshop’s Blue Economy inquiry by celebrating audiovisual storytelling as both nourishment and investigation.
Next month, we will be joined by self-taught painter Mic for a still-life drawing class where the subject of our studies will be Scouse. Participants will be served a bowl of homemade Scouse using ingredients procured from local and independently owned businesses in Toxteth to celebrate the local economy and to honor the diversity of the local community. Sharing a bowl of Scouse with our participants will allow us to discuss our maritime connection, leftovers, class, and the different iterations of the dish, family to family, as well as the various iterations of ‘stew’, culture to culture.
In August, the writer Chandana Das will facilitate a creative writing workshop that uses crisp butties as a storytelling device. We will use crisp butties to begin conversations around accessibility and affordability of food, class, how disability affects our eating habits, and the traditions and memories food holds for us. We will source the ingredients from local businesses to promote shopping small, local, and slow.
It was important to us that we extend our commission to other artists whose expertise are essential to the workshops we have produced. We wanted to provide the highest quality creative workshop whilst also championing local artists by providing them with paid artistic opportunities, and to share the platform of The Royal Standard and the Independents Biennial that we have been fortunate to have access to.
In September, we will host a showcase of the work created by the participants of each workshop. This culmination of our project seeks to celebrate the work of our attendees whilst creating a space for everyone involved to debrief and discover the breadth of creativity that is always bubbling in Merseyside.
As the months unfold, we will bring you more details about each workshop and the artists facilitating them. For now, we will link each event below, and for updates, follow us on Instagram at @theroyalstandard_
Event Listings:
AICT: Sound and Cockles: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1394466359419?aff=oddtdtcreator
Film Night at TRS: Sea and Currents: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1394497031159?aff=oddtdtcreator
AICT: Scouse and Still-life drawing: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1394705354259?aff=oddtdtcreator
AICT: Crisp Buttys and Storytelling: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1394734962819?aff=oddtdtcreator
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